Ramli Ibrahim questions Islamic centre over censorship of arts education after event cancelled

KUALA LUMPUR – A day prior to a scheduled “Perkongsian Seni Tarian Merentas Bangsa” talk, to which Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) students invited him, Sutra Dance Theatre artistic director Datuk Ramli Ibrahim was all eager to participate in the programme as it will have been an opportunity to invite his audience into a broader space of performing arts.

That excitement, however, was cut short when his office received a formal notification that the event was cancelled, with a statement that read: “…the organisers have been instructed by the UTM Islamic Centre to cancel the programme over undisclosed reasons”.

Ramli took to Facebook to express his frustrations.

He said the cancellation reminded him of a separate occasion in the past, where a similar co-curricular activity at a different university had to be stopped without any clarification.

“Nothing has changed in the system, and that is why we are where we are.

“The Pusat Islam (Islamic Centre) is the moral policing body for many government and quasi-government institutions.

“They represent the effective arm of Jakim (Malaysian Islamic Development Department) to control or define what is permitted to be ‘fed’ to the populist, students and staff.

“By the time they realise what has happened, they are completely indoctrinated, stifled and ensconced in (a) deep state, and now received a reality check in the form of a raging pandemic.”

In a call with The Vibes to further clarify his claim, Ramli said it is not the cancellation of the event that irritated him, but the censorship that has been going on for decades without clear reasoning.

“Occurrences such as this are not new for me. They may hope that I will just keep quiet and let it go, but I could not – not this time.

“It is as if we are another kind of casualty in the pursuit of freedom in the arts.

“I mean, even if it is not a performance, but a talk, my team did prepare for the sharing and have equipped themselves for the session with video materials of previous performances so that students can be better engaged.

“I was very excited to be able to reach out to the Malays to encourage them to explore the art form outside of what they already know.”

Ramli also stressed that he was participating voluntarily without payment, as he wanted to take the opportunity to educate students.

“Pusat Islam has always been a subterranean vigilante of many government organisations, including public education bodies where a lot of activities have to be kind of vetted by them.

“(It is) about time we start to question what exactly is ‘sebab-sebab tertentu’.

“It is already bad enough that Mak Yong is banned, and Kelantan lost its identity as ‘gedung seni’.”

While Ramli did appreciate the student body for organising the event, he said “we should have advised you to not bother trying”.

“I think the organisers are innocent enough that they thought with an overarching topic – which calls for performing arts that transcend race, which I feel is very important for Malaysians today – it may just take off without any pushback.

“I insist we get Pusat Islam’s explanation as it could well be reflecting an underappreciation towards the multicultural background in which we live.

“This ad hoc manner of approach fosters a culture that stops people from being creative, not just in this situation, but (also) performing arts as a whole.”

The Indian classical dancer highlighted that if this continues, “we are just allowing for the education system to be manipulated, and people are already starting to be concerned about the deep state of it”.

The Vibes tried to reach out to the UTM Islamic Centre to get its side of the story, but could not get a response at press time. – The Vibes, June 5, 2021