Professional personnel
I had a talk with a friend recently. We talked about a variety of things, but at one point our conversation focused on a common friend we both knew. The friend I was talking to told me that he had two relationship with that common friend; a personal and a professional one. He said that while professionally he totally did not agree on the way the common friend does things while working, personally, he and the common friend was very close and he would never forget how much the common friend had helped him.
Which got me thinking; how many of us are able to appreciate this fine distinction? The difference between professional and personal, I mean. I say this because out of my observation, most of the time Malaysians do not really know how to separate the two. Far too often we blur the line between the two, and professional disagreements get in the way of personal relationship.
For example; A works with B in a company. The basically have to work to gather on a project. A has very strong opinions about the project, but B does not agree with A’s point of view. Now if A and B is able to maintain their professionalism, they would be able to enjoy a cup of teh tarik together after work, even if both of them had a heated argument before that about the project. But how often does this happen?
Example 2; C and D attends a meeting with a few other people. Recently C has not been doing his work properly. D critcises C for this, and the criticism is fair. If C is professional, he would not bear a grudge against D for doing so, he would take it as constructive criticism. But what will most often happen is that C will get all emotional and angry and thinks that D is trying to put him down.
We need to understand that work is work, it should not get in the way of any relationship we have with the other person. I genuinely believe that Westerners are better than us in this respect; for example in my group sessions which I attend for my course, it is often the case that the group members disagree with each other, but despite that, we all remain friends. I was a bit disturbed early on in the course when one of my group members said that I was mistaken as to a certain point of law in front of the tutor, but as I got on, I realised that it was not a personal criticism, but one done in the context of our work.
Perhaps our ‘problem’ stems from the fact that we are passionate people. We are passionate in everything we do and this includes our work. And because we are passionate, it is difficult for us to accept that someone else disagrees with us, or of a different opinion. How many times have I seen a person so blinded by their belief that their opinion is the correct one that they fail to even consider the other side’s arguments. We often could not agree to disagree, so to speak.
That’s the problem with Malaysians, in my opinion. We let our emotions get in the way of our work. We do not take criticism well, we easily ambil hati with what other people say when we do our work. In the end, such behavior will only compromise the effectiveness of our work. If C takes D’s criticism the wrong way, it is very likely that if they both have to work together in the future, the quality of their work will be affected.
Thus, I think it all boils down to emotions. If we are able to separate our emotions from our professional work then I believe the quality of our work work increase significantly. We need to appreciate that fine line I was talking about earlier, the distinction between personal and professional. Ambil yang jernih, buang yang keruh goes the Malay saying. We would do well to bear this in mind always when we are acting professionally.
Where’s the script?
Recently I watched the movie Elizabethtown in the cinema. It’s not the best movie I’ve watched recently, but I did enjoy it. And while I was watching it, I got to thinking, this movie could easily have been made in Malaysia. It’s a simple story about life, yet somehow it works.
How about we make a movie about the life story of a poor simple son of a farmer, whose determination led him to university and later a successful businessman, for example. A simple plot, a simple premise, but with the right script, it could be a compelling story. We could even throw in a romance if we want, he could perhaps fall in love with the girl of his dreams or something.
We’ve got to accept that our movie industry is simply not strong enough for us to make a big budget epic movie, ala Lord of the Rings. So why not make movies which do not cost much, but tell a good, compelling story nonetheless. Our industry is saturated with romantic comedies and meaningless ghost stories which pales in comparison with our Asian neighbours. How come a country like Iran, whose government whose government is supposedly ultra-conservative, is able to make movies which win awards left, right and centre. And have you seen an Iranian movie? Most of the time the stories are not overtly complex, and are made with a shoestring budget. But that did not stop them from making good movies.
The script is vital in any movie, and the fact of the matter is, our scripts are not good enough. When was the last time you remember any line from a Malaysian movie? You don’t, do you? And why is this so? Because none of the conversations are all the memorable. Look to movies like Snatch or Pulp Fiction, the lines in those movies stick to you like glue, because they are so compelling. You want to know how to make a conversation leading up to a couple breaking up? Watch Closer. These movies have in them believable, memorable dialogue. Not the nonsense we see in movies like Gila Gila Pengantin Popular.
If we start from this basic premise of making a good script, we could make good, enjoyable movies with the simplest of storylines. There are thousands, millions of movies like Gerak Khas in the world, where the premise is a bunch of cops busting crime. But how come all 3 Gerak Khas movies are crap? I believe it’s simple, because the script is crap. The characters are boring and the dialogue is stiff and forgettable. What about the dozens of Malaysian romantic comedies out there? How come so few of them are enjoyable? Romantic comedies will only work if the romance is believable and the comedy is funny. And how to make these two elements work? With a good script.
We have a lot of talented actors out there. I do not believe that acting is a problem in the sense that it’s not as if we have no talented actors in Malaysia. The problem with the acting in our movies can be easily rectified; just replace the people who can’t act (singers especially, I think Linda AF has a great voice, but for the love of all things good, she cannot act for peanuts!). No, the problem with Malaysian movies I believe is more fundamental, it’s the script-writing. If we start penning good scripts, I believe everything else will fall in place.
