Intelligence ban

I didn't expect Masli Arman would still savor his victory (of not having me and a lot of other people watch Schindler's List) with Marlon Brando as his new ally (The Jakarta Post, April 15, 1996).

I was one of those who opposed his stance regarding the banning of Schindler's List, and after two years I still very much regret that I haven't had a chance to see the movie. I still can't accept that this art work was banned for being about Jews, and made and financed by Jews. This whole highly artistic creation was judged with bias, unfairly condemned, and was guilty by association. Why can't we just enjoy a work of art as art without political, religious, and racial bias and prejudice? Especially one which has done nothing wrong by simply depicting the truth that happened and was recorded in the history of mankind; the truth which sadly is now being repeated in many parts of the world.

Those who don't believe in tyranny, either of a minority or a majority, don't believe in a ban of expression. The banning of a film, as well as a seminar, a book and other art works, on purely idealistic or, worse still, biased grounds is merely an attitude of selfish, arrogant and paranoid human beings and an insult to other people's intelligence.

I have no doubts there was some truth in what Marlon Brando said, and that Zionist Israel has caused unbearable sufferings to thousands of civilians in some Middle Eastern countries both in the past and in the present, for which I am deeply concerned. But let's not allow these issues to blur our vision and make us fail to separate those who are responsible and those who are simply guilty of association.

One would have hoped that the censor board would have recognized this highly acclaimed film's ability to provoke thought about universal humanitarian issues rather than shelving it as a product of an unacceptable ideology. Wide-reaching issues like those addressed by Schindler's List should be made available to the people of this country rather than suppressed in the erroneous belief that the people are not shrewd and intelligent enough to protect themselves from mental corruption or to distinguish good from evil; truth from falseness. The paradox of this issue is that I believe this movie has been a victim of overextended stereotyping, the very act Masli Arman preached against in his letter.

RAHAYU RATNANINGSIH

Jakarta