KUALA LUMPUR – Digital Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has ceased to be a member of cultural and theatre collective Five Arts Centre, the group said today.
It congratulated Fahmi on his cabinet appointment but said the move was to avoid any conflict of interest.
“Given his new role, as well as for the purposes of accountability, transparency, and to avoid any conflict of interest, Five Arts Centre and Fahmi have come to a mutual agreement that he will officially withdraw from the collective, with immediate effect.
“This is a rare and unique situation for an arts organisation in Malaysia,” Five Arts said in a congratulatory message posted on its website today.
The collective said it was ecstatic about the Lembah Pantai MP’s new role, but also said that it was a “bittersweet” moment for the group because of his departure.
Five Arts expressed its appreciation of Fahmi’s passion for the arts, having been a member of the collective since 2001 and even leading many of its projects.
“Throughout his involvement with the collective, Fahmi had played many hats as a performer, a director, a workshop facilitator, an emcee, a graphic designer, and a front-of-house crew, among other roles.”
The collective also praised Fahmi’s artistic talent, calling him “a young artist who was able to combine poetry, performativity, and politics deftly in his work”.
“Fahmi was an electric presence on the Malaysian stage.”
Five Arts said Fahmi had already been taking a backseat or a non-active role in the collective since becoming an MP in 2018.
“We would like to register our heartfelt gratitude to Fahmi for his work and contribution to the collective over the past two decades (and) for being part of the change within Five Arts Centre.
“We know from direct experience that he will bring empathy, commitment, cosmopolitanism, intelligence, imagination, idealism, humour, stamina, and an appetite for hard work to his responsibilities as a minister at a most critical juncture in Malaysian history,” said Five Arts.
The statement today was all co-signed by all 15 members of the collective. – The Vibes, December 10, 2022
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