Censorship?
Jun 25th, 2007 by Alvin Chong
I could still remember, yonks ago, I used to love watching Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Yea, I was still a silly kid back then, so things like these amuse me. OK, I admit, it does entertain me at times, even every now and then, because sometimes being a grown up is not easy. Having seen more of the world and what reality really has to offer, I could use some imaginative world.
Image courtesy of unknown.
Anyway, back to the topic of cencorship, I recalled a moment in time where the Board of Film Censorship intended to ban Power Rangers simple because of the word Morphin. The rational for that was because the word encourages kids to do drugs, read MORPHINE.
Excuse me but at my tender age, all I could think of was Morphin as in the short for the word Morphing. It is like how we use runnin in place of running, eatin in place of eating, etc. Any Tom, Dick and Harry would have known that and even if some drug addicts decided to come and tempt the kid into taking drugs, the conversation would have went something like this:
Drug Addict: Hi, have you watched Power Rangers before?
Kid: Yes I have.
Drug Addict: Remember they are called The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers?
Kid: Errr… yea yea…
Drug Addict: Well, uncle have something for you. This white powder here is MORPHINE. You take it, you can morph into a Power Ranger as well.
Kid: You are lying. I don’t see the Power Rangers take white powder to morph…
Drug Addict: -____-”
As you can see, the movie has never in any way mislead kids into thinking they have to take white powder to morph and kids are not stupid alright?!?! They can make better conclusions and inferences than some idiot grown ups can!
Speaking of which, films aired in cineplexes and on live TV is censored, which is fine with me because it is publicly broadcasted. Therefore, it needs some kind of rating and censorship to ensure a community friendly service.
It is when censorship sneaks into DVDs and VCDs meant for private viewing that really cheeses me off. Like many other countries, including Singapore, this shouldn’t be happening in Malaysia. Viewing of the video content should really be at the discretion of the audiences and parents.
Ratings could be done but parts of the films really shouldn’t be censored even if they contain sexual, gross or even political elements. I say censorship is fine when implemented properly. Censorship should be there as a guideline and not to limit viewing pleasure.
