Masjid Tua di Lorong Harmoni

This video/montage was shown at Archiday 2008 - Luas during August 29, representing my batch, Part 03 architectural students of UiTM Seri Iskandar, Perak (the organisers of the event).

The video was captured during our last architectural trip down to Malacca last August, and was made specially for our batch's Archiday montage. I'm supposed to post this video up one month ago, in which I obviously didn't due to technical (and time) reasons.

First off this is my first (full) film-making attempt, so I forewarned the viewers that this really is an 'experimental' documentary. I intended the video to be thought-provoking, instead of the usual entertaining ones. The editing is quite raw, so sorry, because I only did the editing less than twelve hours before the Archiday starts (yikes) because I encountered so much problems converting the pain-in-the-ass HD (High Definition) format into the usual formats earlier (thus, having problems to find the right software to edit HD videos). I really wanted to add some subtitles here and there, and to 'tidy' some things up a bit but with things being last minute, well...

So I was strolling around the streets of Malacca with Adi and Mat Jek at around 10pm, until we bumped into this mosque which dramatically rose in the midst of Peranakan shophouses. It's quite a unique sight. I was really attracted with the ambiance of the mosque so I immediately planned for a documentary to be made based on this mosque without abandoning Malacca's astounding cultural variety.

We started shooting the next day, from Maghrib until Isyak. I rose very early the day after that, -- at five in the morning -- just to get the scenes of a Malaccan morning, in which I was very glad I did.

But don't complain that the message is not there. There is a message. That's exactly what we (or specifically, I) wanted you to do. To at least think. I mean, this is not AF, so yeah. Think!

Why, and how would a mosque would be so befittingly alive in the midst of a community it seems not belonged to? How does people around there relate themselves to the mosque, even though they're not Muslims? Does the mosque poses a hierarchy to its surroundings, or does it simply brings harmony to the surroundings? How does a man relate himself to a building? Does the mosque's presence poses a threat to other cultures dwelling around it? Is it killing the other cultures? Or is it adding to the unity and balance of the lives of the people there?

The video actually questions the very problem we Malaysians are facing today. We're trying so hard to impose our culture upon others', yet even though we're doing so we're dividing ourselves even more further from each other instead of uniting ourselves. What have gone wrong? If assimilation and amalgamation didn't take place, then what did? Intolerance? Discrimination? Ignorance?

The message is this: Stop killing our culture. 'Our' here means Malaysian, and by Malaysian there are more than three narrowly-defined races. There are incredibly more, and they've existed for hundreds of years living in harmony right here in this beloved land of ours, peacefully uninterrupted.

So what are we doing today? Why the xenophobia? Why the racism? Why the hatred? Have we all gone mad? Which culture are we trying to defend? We build very weird buildings, for example, to impress others but in the end is it a building for us? Our culture is raped, the architecture poisoned and the rich heritage killed, leaving only a shredded piece of a puzzled identity, a cultural attempt built of selected definitions and erasing the ones unparalleled to it. Saddening.

Race-based politics must stop. Our ethnicity is not something to be championed, but to be preserved. Embrace the diversity, learn from the differences. More and more of our culture are going to be suffocated if we continue to be arrogant and ignorant towards others'. We may think that we're already winning the game of nation-building, but in reality, sadly, we're losing it hard. It's the time to open up our eyes, hearts and minds in order to save things before it's getting really late to do so.

Sometimes, the more we're trying to differentiate ourselves from others, the more we see the similarities in between ourselves.

So it's back to the question: kita, seluas mana? Luaskah pemikiran kita? Atau kita hanya menciplak (sekali lagi!) frasa 'berfikiran luas' itu untuk nampak moden, global dan advanced padahal kita sebenarnya berjiwa sempit dan berpandangan cetek? Are we going to be advanced anyway, if issues like racism and cultural discrimination still exists in a society aspiring to be liberal and united?

It's just a pakcik and a mosque, anyway. Why would it bring a definition so large? Large, you say. Spacious, we think. Luas, nampaknya, benar-benar luas. Terpulanglah kepada keluasan fikiran kita untuk menilainya.

Cinematography Syukri Shairi Interviewers Ijat Zunaidi, Syith Mukhtar Crew Peteh Yunus, Comet Jaafar, Adi Zakaria, Mat Jek Abd Majid, Mat Chah Md Nawi, Kepang Zainabdin Editing & Publishing Syukri Shairi With many thanks to Haji Muhammad Hasan, bilal of Masjid Kampung Kling, Malacca. Music At the Funeral Pyre -- Hardesh Singh (2004); Faith, Hope & Chaos Malaysian Contemporary Music Volume 1, Tentang Tentang -- Butterfingers; Selamat Tinggal Dunia (2004) Published August 29, 2008 Seri Iskandar. PHOTOS Uppermost Haji Muhammad Hasan Middle Street Scene, Jonker St Lowest A man passes by Masjid Kg Kling near Jonker St www.archiday2008.blogspot.com