You cannot say “Bomb” on a plane!

In the film “meet the parents” by Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, Ben Stiller at the last section of the show boarded a plane, and when he tried to put his bag up at the overhead storage area, a straight faced air attendant asked him to check in his bag. Ben stiller didn’t want to, since he has lost his bag in another flight by the same airline.

This is the conversation between him and the air stewardess and her supervisor:

Ben: “It’s not like I have a bomb in here. It’s not like I want to blow up the plane.”………………

The air stewardess called in another more senior supervisor.

Supervisor: “I’ve got a plane full of people saying you threatened that stewardess.”

 Ben: “I was not threatening her. I was trying to get my bag into the overhead storage thing.”

 Supervisor: “You were acting like a maniac, and you threatened her with a bomb!”

 Ben: ” I said I didn’t have a bomb! “

Supervisor: “You said “bomb. You said “bomb” on an airplane.”

 Ben: “What’s wrong with saying “bomb” on an airplane?”

Supervisor: “You can’t say “bomb.” “

Ben: “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb! You gonna arrest me?”

For that he was arrested.

Apparently, even if you say you don’t have a bomb is sensitive enough to make the airport security arrest you..

Of course, this is a comedy, a box office comedy. Those who saw the show laughed and laughed at the stupidity and absurdity of the stewardess and the airport security ( there was no Homeland security yet since the show was produced prior to 911, in year 1999).

Those who see the show may wonder why people can become so sensitive, when obviously there was no such threat.

We may think that such stupid and absurd things happen only in novels and movies.

But in real life, we Malaysians can be that sensitive; so sensitive that we sometimes overstep the line of sanity.

For example, any movies produced in Malaysia that mention communism will be viewed with suspicion. The latest, the “New Village’, was almost banned apparently because a girl depicted in the movie married a leftist. Such is our sensitivity that In a Malaysian movie, no one can supposedly marry or even get associated with a leftist. To do so would be ‘glorifying’ certain ideology.

Nevermind that such shows are supposed to show what happened during that time, and during that time,  such things actually happened.

Nevermind that communism is now dead. Nevermind that the people now view communism as a dead and failed ideology. Nevermind that even the 2 biggest Communist countries, Russia and CHina, are now adopting market economy and tacitly admitting that communism does not work.

Nevermnd that. You just cannot show people marrying communists or get assocaited with communists AT THAT TIME,  just like you cannot say the word ‘bomb’ on a plane.

Just think about those who  make movies about the NAZis. There are many shows showing how Hitler being adored by hundreds of thousands of people on the street.  But that does not mean that the producer is trying to glorify Facism. In fact, most of the movies  which showed Hitler being adored by millions of people are anti-Hitler and most in the end, showed the collapse of the Third Reich, and the West triumphed over NAZI Germany.

These movies merely reflected the true fact that Hitler indeed mesmerised so many of his countrymen INITIALLY.

You just cannot produce a Hitler movie showing that Hitler in the 1930s had no support at all from his people; if you do so, people will wonder how the hack did he ascend to the top of Germany??  How the hack did he conquer most of Europe initially?

I think I have made the point that we Malaysians should be matured enough to differentiate what is in a movie or a video  and what is real life.

I think we Malaysians should not be too overtly sensitive, be it towards ideology or even religious practice.

We are supposed to be a first world country by 2020, a mere 6 plus years away. How are we going to be first world when our mentality is still that of the third world? How are we going to be first world when most time we are still chasing the shadows of our past? How are we going to be First world when we are so sensitive and insecure about certain things and  practices?

We need the government leaders to take the lead to discard these sensitivities in order for us to move forward. But the saddest thing is that the opposite is happening!!