Of Aesthetic, Cosmetic and That Thing Called Inner Beauty

The same thing hits me whenever I go out on weekends since I started working and living in this capitalistic city of Malaysia. Regardless whatever that irks me, be it the stupid drivers on wheels who started a leftmost lane on the reserve side of the road, or the selfishness of riders of the trains who never learn of queuing and letting people exit first before boarding, or..oh well the list is endless.

Then I went to Gamat the Musical at the Istana Budaya last week with my cousin and it hit me. Every single thing that I've experienced could be summarized into one: it goes back to our obsession with aesthetic and cosmetic aspect of things, to the extent that we turn our back on the inner beauty.

So let me tell you what happened at Gamat. As usual, there was the usual shenanigans when it comes to anything staged at said venue. The publicity, the sponsors, the glittering list of casts, etc. But when it came to the show itself, I was unimpressed.

The musical was meant for kids, and it was supposed to endorse morale but everything was done in a very cheap and tasteless way. Again, the youngsters in the audience was ridicule when it came to intellects. Is it hard to understand that kids are smart thus in order to cultivate and stimulate their thinking process, entertainment meant for them should be subtlety educating? God I was embarrassed, not to mention disappointed when the kids were lectured by the actors. Gosh, they have had enough of that elsewhere!

This is what I mean about aesthetic and cosmetic. The production invested so much on props, which were impressive in execution. They were colorful and in 3D form, but apart from providing a pretty background, they were functionless. The costumes were also custom-designed, and some of them I am sure, was hand-sewed.

However, all those were of the outer shell that made up the whole production - estetika bentuk. They had conveniently forgot about the essence of the production itself - the content. Or in Malay it is called estetika makna. Beauty after all is only skin deep. In the end what matters is what lies inside. But again, I guess when don't really care about it after all. Look at how we would dress up when going out, but would not even move further inside the car of the train to give space for other riders.

Cerpen JUS SOLI JUS SANGUINIS dalam Tunas Cipta Okt 2009

“Terus-terang, aku tak nampak keganjilan pada prinsip itu. Jus sanguinis, istilah Latin yang bermaksud hak kerakyatan berdasarkan keturunan digunapakai sekian banyak negara termasuklah Itali, Greece, Bulgaria, Jerman dan tentunya Israel. Negara-negara ini dikenali sebagai negara bangsa dan pembentukannya telah memuncak popular pasca Perang Dunia Pertama. Meski pun begitu, masih ada peruntukan untuk permohonan menjadi warganegara bagi mereka yang tidak sebangsa dan sebudaya. Malah Perisytiharan Kemerdekaan Israel telus menggariskan pembentukannya sebagai sebuah negara Yahudi yang mengamalkan kesamarataan hak politik dan sosial, tak kiralah apa pun agama dan galur keturunan seseorang warganegara itu. "

“Secara teori itu mungkin benar, tetapi bagaimana pula dengan praktisnya? Argh, sedangkan prinsip jus sanguinis itu sendiri melanggar ketetapan jus soli!” Juliana membangkang dan Tawfik tercabar.

“Kewarganeraan hak lahir?” Dia mengulang.

Jus Soli Jus Sanguinis

Oleh Rebecca Ilham
Tunas Cipta Okt 2009

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