DEAR Board of the National Art Gallery of Malaysia, (un)enlightened bureaucrats, fellow practitioners in the creative industries, to all art lovers, I want to tell you that we have failed. As a Malaysian writer and artist who has been active in the creative industries for almost three decades, the recent débâcle of the National Art Gallery removing – and subsequently reinstating – works from an exhibition by artist Ahmad Fuad Osman has left me not only with a foul taste in my mouth but a seething kind of anger.

Malaysia is one of the most culturally diverse countries in Asia – with our rich history and heritage, with layer upon layer of cultural skins, we are truly global citizens of the world. But for decades, artists and writers in Malaysia have been penalised, persecuted, shamed and vilified for their work. It is a cyclical reality many of us have had to bear, time and time again. The public institutions that are supposed to protect and safeguard our interests and our work have failed us. And in this Malaysia Baharu, it is also indicative that the veritable sh*t is the same, but on a different pile.

In 2020, we find ourselves asking the same questions again and again. Are we not allowed to think and flex our intellectual muscles? Is the Malaysian audience so ignorant that artworks questioning the semantics, politics and purpose of art can be deemed so obscene and offensive that they have to be removed? What is obscene? What is offensive? And while we are on the same tangential argument, can I then say that I am offended by stupidity, mediocrity and the lack of imagination? That I find this, too, obscene?

It is glaringly apparent that censorship will continue to rein over all artistic merit – that Malaysian artists cannot trust the institutions that are supposed to showcase, highlight and feature our work. If there is no pride in this, then why do what we do? Art, film, literature – all art forms have to transcend bureaucratic barriers, for the very function of art is to question society, question the times and the world we live in, question ourselves, and if state institutions want to sanction this, then we are no longer living in a democracy.

Perhaps we never have been, perhaps this is why we are relegated to four local horror films, all showing now in the cinemas, because we are so afraid of anything that is intelligent and provocative, of anything that questions the fabric of Malaysia and what it means to be Malaysian, to accept histories that do not exist in our text books, to question the erasure and polemic of systemic amnesia, to ask ourselves Who are we? What are we? And if the answer is yes, we are this – yes, we are a people who do not respect art and artists, we are self-appointed moral and ethical custodians of what Malaysians should and should not see, we have the right to censor ideas, thoughts, freedoms, we take away the right for art to exist (but wait, it’s OK for some kinds of art to exist) – then you have failed us.

The fact that hundreds of artists, tens of collectors, and the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture demanded that the works be reinstated and that a public apology be issued to Ahmad Fuad – is this what it takes for a public institution to buckle, under this kind of pressure?

Who made the board of the NAG the gatekeepers of art? So many Malaysian artists struggle to make art, to show our work to local audiences and to the world, so many of us go unrecognised, unsupported – no, we do not support our artists, we have no infrastructure that allows us to thrive and create, we still do not have an arts council, we do not have visionaries and patrons who are willing to create ecosystems for writers, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, poets, artists, so that Malaysian culture is cultivated and celebrated. Instead, we have public institutions that instil doubt, mistrust and hostility in artists, who condemn work when it is good, and celebrate it when it is mediocre.

And this is why Malaysians ride on the coattails of those who have “made it” abroad, we do not celebrate what is in front of us, we do not allow the telling of real stories as it is, we want to shield and mask flaws and ugly truths, we want sanctioned, boring, puerile propaganda that does not question or challenge perception, that renders us complacent and docile, because public institutions have embraced cowardice.

And the fact that we, the rakyat, have condemned your actions shows us the truth, that you are really and truly incapable of being the institutions that represent us. You have failed us. You have failed our vibrant, diverse stories, you want to silence us, you want to censor us yet again.

I wish for a Malaysia that will accept our work, our stories, our truths, our ways of seeing the world. I wish for intelligent, articulate, educated visionaries who believe in us and support the work that we do. I do so wish for our very own Miky Lee (executive producer of Oscar-winning Korean movie Parasite) – maybe, perhaps so, perhaps when pigs fly.

BERNICE CHAULY , Kuala Lumpur