Victor Chin

This  month brings back the memories of the vote of dissent by 49% of  Malaysians in the last General Election against the ruling political party. In  West Malaysia there was a 51% opposition vote. For the first time  the Barisan National was denied its 2/3 majority in Parliament.

Many Malaysians had hoped to see a fairer, freer and  friendlier country since then. We wanted a clearer separation of powers between political party and government, religion and government,  race and government and law and government. This is our country and it does not belong to any political party (ruling or otherwise). Has there been much change?

We would like to see the government uphold the rule of law, to look after the welfare of its peoples and not use its system to just protect the ruling political party’s elite members and their abuse of powers. Has there been much change?

Our legitimate political dissent and opposition to the ruling party is our constitutional right. It  also plays a vital role of check and balance and must not  be misconstrued as our being enemies of the state which is what the ruling party has been doing in the last fifty years. Has there been much change?

Most of us do not cherish the idea of living under these extreme conditions  any longer. Do you?

There are more then 4.5 million Malaysians eligible to vote but they have not registered yet. Let’s get as many as possible to do so for the next election. Let’s vote our way to a fairer, freer and friendlier country. Can we make the changes ourselves and for our children?

Listen and watch Malaysians speak, sing and dance their hopes and aspirations for the future…

Distinctive and mineral rich limestone outcrops surround Ipoh city.

Limestone outcrops  dot the Kinta Valley in Perak. The capital city, Ipoh, is surrounded by these geological features. These natural structures, formed over millions of years,  greet you as you enter or exit. The geology of this area was and still is  its natural assets. Tin was like its gold. Ipoh was a place tin and its peoples built.

The history of Ipoh was a continuing  fight over tin and other natural resources.  Today,  the battle is over the governing of the state and what’s left of its natural heritage and its peoples – for those in power to exploit. This week’s  news, from the Federal Court, that the people of Ipoh will not be given a second chance to decide their own government but instead have been forced to accept one they didn’t elect, is another dark chapter of its history.

How can the people of Perak deal with the present situation in Perak?  Over the last weekend, Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia brought some useful ideas to more than 120 participants in Ipoh.  At that forum, they got to know about the history of the struggle of all Malaysians  against their rulers and those in power, then and now.

Here is my video of some of the highlights of the event.

Syed Ahmad Jamal, Langit & Bumi 1, 1982-1986, acrylics on canvas, 203×224cm

NOV 22 — The 3rd international art market or Artexpo Malaysia is on this week in Kuala Lumpur. This will be a good opportunity for anyone interested in the sport of collecting artworks. The organiser has also got the National Art Gallery Malaysia in as co-organiser.

Artexpo promises art objects “Old and new, East and West. Whatever forms, whatever styles, whatever media. Paintings, sculptures, prints, assemblages, installations, new media (digital art). Astonishing artworks from all over the world — Asia, Europe — Eastern and Western, the United States, Central America. A true united nations of art people from all over the world every November since 2007.”

This art marketing event like all trading networks has an anthropological history. Man has always had this compulsive motivation to succeed or to win and will turn any human activity into a sport or a game (sometimes ruthlessly bloody). They argue that it could be both productive and also an amusement — a great pastime in the dark caves (perhaps in Mulu, Sarawak).

Over the thousands of years of human evolution this act of gamesmanship has become an art — the art of winning by cunning practices without actually cheating. Just think of the recent so called world financial crisis and see how some of the multi-national players got away with it and were rewarded as well. Some say it was not greed that got us there but envy.

Read more in The Malaysian Insider here…

Syed Ahmad Jamal, Endau Rompin, 1985, Acrylics on canvas, 173×223cm

Nature has always been an inspiration for artists throughout the ages. Mountains, in particular, have inspired many regional landscape painters.

From China there has been a long history of artists who painted the many outstanding geological features of their physical geography. Some of these artworks besides depicting the shapes and designs of mountain formations in great detail also conveyed clear information of the various geological compositions of their landscapes.

One of the most well-known Japanese artists, Hokusai, from the Edo period, made colour wood block prints of a series of 36 views of Mount Fuji. The Great Wave of Kenagawa done in 1831 is one of Hukusai’s signature compositions of this collection of early postcards of Japan.

Cezanne paid homage to his boyhood home in Provence by painting the Mont Sainte-Victoire in Aix at least 60 times from 1885 to 1906. His devotion to a single hillock slightly over 1,000m in his backyard set the modern standard of painting and looking at European landscapes since the Renaissance.

He began to dismantle previous ideas of perspective and started to flatten out and break up his subject by using fragmented shapes, colours and brush marks. His paintings led the way for Matisse and Picasso and to Abstraction.

Syed Ahmad Jamal, Gunung Ledang Visited, 1992, Acrylics on canvas, 173×239cm

The mountains of Malaysia have attracted a few artists. Fung Yow Chork and Razak Abdullah are among the few landscape painters who got inspiration form the mountain backdrop of Kuala Lumpur, the Ulu Klang quartz ridge and Genting Highlands. Mount Kinabalu (4,101m), our highest mountain between the Himalayas and the Snow Mountains of New Guinea, has a devoted Sabahan painter — Benedict Chong.

Syed Ahmad Jamal, whose retrospective exhibition is currently at the National Art Gallery, has been moved by Gunung Ledang, near Muar, his home town, in Johor. Jamal has painted three artworks with that name. The first Gunung Ledang was in 1978 (this painting is not in the show), then Gunong Ledang Visited in 1992 and the last one Semangat Ledang in 1999.

Read more in The Malaysian Insider here…

A documentary of the ‘Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia’s (SABM) “Believe Instead” public forum on Saturday 23 January 2010, at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. There were more then 230 participants from all walks of life from in and around the city. It was the first of a series of forums.The SABM plans a roadshow through the country in the course of the year.