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>From Our Correspondent: That's Showbiz - Malaysian Style
Two Muslim women, two different stories
By SANTHA OORJITHAM
Wednesday, February 14, 2001
Web posted at 06:15 p.m. Hong Kong time, 06:15 a.m. GMT
What's it like being a Muslim woman in show business in Malaysia today?
I spoke to club singer Azlina Aziz and to Vernon Kedit, managing partner
of elusive R&B vocalist Ning Baizura - and heard two radically different
views. "Ridiculous!" That's how Azlina describes some of the
restrictions affecting Muslims in the performing arts. But Kedit says
things have actually improved over the past five years.
On June 10 last year, Helmi and the Gimmick, in which Azlina performs,
were appearing at the Ship restaurant in Selangor state. Petite
30-year-old Azlina and her two band-mates were taking a break before
their third set, around 11:30 p.m., when over 30 policemen, Selangor
Islamic Department (JAIS) officials and members of a Muslim volunteer
group burst in. They rounded up all the Muslim males who were drinking
alcohol - an act forbidden under Islamic shariah law. Since she had not
been drinking, says Azlina, "I thought I would be all right." But the
team also picked up all the women, telling them they would be charged
under Section 10 of the state shariah laws for acts insulting or
lowering the dignity of Islam - a section she had never heard of.
Azlina says the men and women were taken by van to a police station and
kept in separate rooms. The men were released first. She was not
released until 5 a.m., after being told to report to JAIS the following
week. She was told her case would be tried in the shariah court on Sept.
21, but after a couple weeks, on June 28, the charges against her were
dropped. She reckons the officials "misinterpreted" the legislation and
applied it to Muslims being in a place where alcohol was served "for the
first and last time." Her conclusion: "Now they'll be careful." She was
saddened to read that the fiasco was listed as one of the possible
reasons for the resignation of Selangor chief minister Abu Hassan Omar
on August 10.
Many places serve alcohol, says Azlina. If Muslims cannot be in such
locations, "nobody could enter a hotel, an airport or a plane.." Azlina
says Helmi and his band members prepare for all their shows by studying
the crowd and deciding what kind of songs to perform and what to wear.
They have performed for Selangor state officials before. "I was totally
covered and we performed traditional Malay songs," she says. But since
the arrest, "I have been even more cautious in dressing. I feel that
people are watching me and that they think I was wrong." She had always
worn ankle-length evening gowns, but some of them were short-sleeved,
sleeveless or spaghetti-strapped, with low necklines. Now she covers her
arms and shoulders with a selendang (shawl).
Despite the arrest, she believes that, overall, the ruling Barisan
Nasional coalition is trying to protect women's rights, not only the
Muslims. But she says PAS [the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia]
doesn't want women to work at all, especially singing in a club. "How
can we progress if we can't do our jobs?" she asks. (PAS chief minister
of Kelantan, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, has said priority should be given to
hiring women who are not beautiful, since beautiful women can easily get
married.) A divorcee, Azlina has to work to support herself and her
three-year-old daughter.
For 24-year-old singer Ning Baizura, however, the mood now is more
relaxed. She had sparked a controversy when she performed in a
navel-baring outfit at the Hard Rock Café in Singapore in 1995. "The
Malaysian press were there from Johor and they created a big fuss,"
recalls her managing partner Kedit. Ning had to apologize publicly to
the minister of information (then Mohamed Rahmat) and the
editor-in-chief of the Malay daily Utusan Malaysia, who had demanded an
apology.
But at a concert organized by Her World magazine last year, another
navel-exposing outfit created "no flak whatsoever," says Kedit. Neither
did a similar costume she wore in a cover shot for FHM (For Him
Magazine) in July. The Ministry of Information (now headed by Khalil
Yaakob) did not comment on either occasion, Kedit notes.
Utusan Malaysia did try to stir up a controversy over Ning's FHM
interview -in which she said she wore G-strings, preferred sex in the
morning and was into whipped cream, candle wax and role-playing. She
also said her unfulfilled fantasy was to have sex with five men at the
same time. The Malay daily published attacking articles "by different
writers each day of the week," Kedit recalls, "but the other papers did
not comment on the interview. They just reported."
At public concerts, Ning and her entourage dress more conservatively.
But during a recent performance at a private function, Kedit reports,
Ning performed the Jennifer Lopez number "Let's Get Loud" - accompanied
by five topless, gyrating male dancers. "We had fun," he says. "And
there were no comments from anyone."
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