Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM - Malaysian People’s Party) is gravely concerned over a new movie very recently released by Paramount Pictures, called the Zoolander. I have had no chance of seeing the film yet, but I have read its review by Roger Ebert.

According to Ebert, Zoolander is “a comedy about a plot to assassinate the prime minister of Malaysia because of his opposition to child labour”. Ebert considers the film to be “a satirical jab on the fashion industry”, whose economic health is asserted to depend on child labour.

In Zoolander, the Malaysian prime minister is depicted as an elderly Asian man who is targeted for assassination at a fashion show in New York, where for one reason or another they were able to bring him to. The assassination was planned because he was supposedly opposed to child labour.

I agree with Ebert that it is “bad taste to name a real country with a real prime minister’, although the film does not give the name of the prime minister nor the name of the actor who plays his part. According to Ebert, Zoolander is but a “silly comedy”. I cannot understand the reason why Paramount does not use a fictitious country and prime minister.

Of course it goes without saying that in real life, the Prime Minister of Malaysia is never known either as a fan of fashion shows or as an opponent of child labour. This form of exploited labour is still found quite widely in Malaysia, and the Prime Minister has really done nothing about it.

Further, the real Prime Minister of Malaysia practices authoritarian rule, perpetrates concentration of wealth among a few cronies, and tolerates squandering of public money and widespread corruption, besides undermining democracy, violating basic human rights and neglecting general welfare of the common people.

Admittedly, there are many people in Malaysia who want to see the Prime Minister and the government he leads removed from power, but through peaceful electoral means. The reasons are many, and they go way beyond the issue of child labour. Unfortunately, Zoolander provides ammunition to the Malaysian PM to buttress his political standing by alleging that there are “neo-colonial forces” that want to eliminate him by an act of terror.

Dr Syed Husin Ali
PRM President

2nd October 2001