Powerless Awhile back there was a heated discussion on Edward Winkleman's blog* about caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) published in Danish newspapers. I posted a somewhat self-righteous and defensive comment along the lines of 'you westerners couldn't possibly fathom our eastern sensitivities'.

At the time I didn't wish to approach the issue solely as a 'Battle for Free Speech' debate. I felt that what was also central here (but being pushed to the side) was ownership of images or cultural symbols and their re-appropriation. The debate was being polarized into Us and Them, e.g. Eastern Tolerance versus Western Free Speech. I wondered if looking at things from an 'ownership' perspective could allow us to think of 'respect' and 'tolerance' in a different way. If y' wanna get theory-boogie I guess it was an essentially post-colonial argument.

Now however, with the recent NST debacle, our Malaysian government threatening for the upteenth time to shut down a newspaper, things have hit immensely close to home and I believe in this case has indeed become a battle for free speech in Malaysia.

I want to make clear that personally I find those initial caricatures of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) to be disrespectful, irresponsible, unnecessary and y'know, just plain tacky. However, with the Non-Sequitur cartoon which landed NST in hot water, it is a different matter entirely. The cartoon did not in any way appropriate cultural symbols in a disregarding manner, it was not a caricature of any religious icon, all it did was caricature the situation. And like the best of caricatures, behind the humor lies devastating truth.

If artists are not able to make statements about a situation or event, then what else is there for us? If the public regards the mere ALLUSION to a situation as inflammatory and 'dangerous', how will we ever be able to communicate with each other openly? In the name of national security and racial harmony we have forgotten how to voice out, forgotten that we HAVE a voice, kept back by fear that we sweeten with labels like 'respect' and 'Asian values'.

I will still uphold the belief that all artists have a responsibility for their creations. You can't depict naked elves romping in a photograph of a Nazi concentration camp just because you feel like it, for example. It is too easy to look at these issues from the perspective of free speech - as a basic right belonging to each and every human person. Of course when you set up the pinata of free speech, you're inviting people to come hit at it with sticks of 'damn you MTV, SUV, CAPITALIST WESTERN PIGS'. Things explode and what falls to the floor are not sweets but bombs.

We have to remember that we take this post-modern notion of a free-for-all bazaar of images as naturalized and dominant. It is not necessarily the case. This thread of argument is one that I have not heard enough of in the debate about the initial caricatures of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.). The usage, appropriation and often disfigurement of cultural symbols is a way of exercising power. Ever since the west began to 'discover' the east in the 16th century, this particular exercise of power has been constant. And it is quite invisible. Like 'whiteness'. Yet it acts and causes others to feel acted upon. Because of the invisibility we do not have the language to give it more shape, and so we become locked in a battle as savages who don't have a sense of humor fighting against civilized people who are 'advanced' enough to be able to say whatever the hell they feel, whenever the hell they feel. This seems to be the natural way of being, for we have been this way for the past 400 years.

On a personal level, I haven't felt this strongly about censorship and free speech for a long time. What happened at NST, how they got their wrists soundly slapped, how Dr. M just said 'suspend the editor for 2 or 3 months' - casual as anything - and my own recent confessed self-censorship - all this has combined to make me feel angry, utterly depressed and powerless. The public reaction to the Non-sequitur cartoons is also extremely disheartening. It is obvious that there is a great section of society that cannot tell the difference between a caricature OF the Prophet and a caricature of a current event. Will it come to the point that the mere mention of the Prophet's name in a non-religious context will incite riots, violence and shutting down of newspapers?

The fear, the fear is the thing. It is so very subtle. It infiltrates your mind and changes what you were thinking. 'Yours is to do like a good citizen, or to go to prison.' I was speaking to some older people at a party the other night, friends of my parents. I told them that I feel I cannot say what I want, and they told me: then you might as well not say anything at all. You're an artist, and if you don't express yourself the way you believe then it's all finished. You may as well crawl, you may as well die. You may as well work in I.T.
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*I highly recommend Edward's blog. Edward is owner-director of Plus Ultra Gallery in New York. His blog is always polemic, engrossing and highly accessible. And he is possibly the most graceful moderator I have ever come across in a comments' board. Please find the link to his site on the right.  ¶ 11:36 AM