BALING

On 3 April, while the class is making their ways to our second field trip, I asked my classmates who sat next to me.

Q: What is the word "baling" means?

A: Throw.

(Sorry for my poor Malay...)

Although lecturer mentioned this play is regarding some historical events in Malaysia, but I still expect the "throwing" element would happen somewhere in this play. Later on, I only found out it's a place in Kedah, its name - Baling. (Ok, sorry again for my poor general knowledge) Also, I don't even know there was Baling Talk happened in our country's history. (Oh my sejarah...)

For this field trip, we went to Five Arts Centre to watch the 3pm 'Baling' theatre show.

Ticket, brochure & 14-page transcript distributed by Five Arts Centre crews. 

(It's my first time watching a theatre performance though)

Again, my expectation doesn't work. I was quite surprised to know the location is at the corner lot of a shoplots row. I thought the place is at least inside a building or whatsoever.

We are asked to remove our shoes before we enter the place. These are what first came to our sights...

Projector showing the slides of some historical facts.

Black&white mugshots and news articles hanging above the sitting area. 

Tons of history books (Textbooks, autobiographies...) related to Baling arranged in standing position.

We were first presented with the historical facts for around 10 minutes. Then we moved to upstairs for another segment.

The setting of upstairs performance area. Three sides of wall are fully sticked with the transcripts we got earlier. 

(Photo at the left and below credits to Five Arts Centre's Facebook.) 









There comes the main characters - Tunku Abdul Rahman (Chief Minister in Federation of Malaya), Chin Peng (Secretary-general of Malayan Communist Party), David Marshall (Chief Minister of Malaya) and Dato Sir Tan Cheng Lock. The performers are Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri, Fahmi Fadzil, Imri Nasution and Anne James.

The core idea of this documentary theatre is based on one of the most significant political moment in Malaysia, which is Baling, the negotiation talk between the leaders (as mentioned above) for independence and peace from the British to end the Malayan Emergency that took place in December 28, 1955.

Performers picking up the books.

(Photo courtesy to Five Arts Centre's Facebook)

The political leaders sit down to discuss for negotiation and surrender terms. 

(Photo courtesy to Five Arts Centre's Facebook)

The performers are seen to be reading the 1955 Baling Talk transcript. Not only that, they do not have a fixed character as they change from a character to another based on the scenes. In addition, they don't have a stage. We the audiences who sit on the floor, are not very far from where the performers stand to perform their acts. When they walk across the audience seats, it makes me feel like the political leader is near to us, as if we are the nation. They used different props such as transcript, book, mugshot in different scenes.

Other than reenacting the controversial moments, the performers also offer their perspectives by bringing in their personal work (eg: researches, interviews) into this play. This totally gives us a "21st century views" from the historical event. An interesting attempt of storytelling.

Besides, this is not the typical theatre. It's a site-specific theatre or site-responsive theatre. We move from downstairs to upstairs, then move to downstairs again. Sometimes, the performing area is here; sometimes, the performing area is there. All depends on where the performers stand. In other words, you will never get to sit comfortably in the same spot. But, don't it suggest us to look things from different angles?

In this 'Baling' play, the team casted performers from different race and gender. As told by lecturer, Five Arts Centre is different from others theatre companies as they cast performers from different races for their multiracial performances. True that, a performer's ability shouldn't be stopped by all these boundaries and limitations.

While watching this show, forget about the performers' appearance, I mean the skin colour and gender. All you have to do is immerse yourself into the characters. Throughout the whole 'Baling' play, you can easily identify who acts as Tunku by whoever wears the songkok (Because Malay men wear it). For others, identify their characters through the dialogues.

I was dumbfounded when Anne James wears songkok. I know from time to time, they exchange characters. But in my mind, "So this lady is Tunku now?" ... I've never seen a lady wearing songkok, that explains my dumbfounded feeling. I just need some time to adjust what I see and feel.

Well, the shifting between characters in performers is not a bad thing. I questioned this to our tutor, I agreed what she said. By doing this, we wouldn't have bias feeling towards the performers. For instance, Tunku -> David Marshall -> Chin Peng, each of these leaders have different ideologies. This is quite new to me.

Of all segments, the most heart wrenching part for me goes to the last segment, when Imri Nasution played the unreleased interview footage of Chin Peng (whose real name Ong Boon Hua) that him and his team originally shot for their documentary project in 2010.

Chin Peng was old. He couldn't speak well, he took long time to digest the question and think of what to answer. The smoothest conversation is only when he expressed his only desire. He wanted to return to his country. Where he born, is also where he wants to die and be buried. He was very desperate and firm about this. But in the end, what he wished didn't come true, until today, even his remains are still not allowed to make a return.

I feel really emotional. If we're just plain human without knowing his background, Chin Peng was just an old man afterall. This old man had a wish: Return to his home (Malaysia), that's it. But the reality is, once the 'Public Enemy No.1', forever a 'Public Enemy No.1'. My thoughts are... Ya, maybe he made mistake, but who has the authority to judge? Different people have different methods in doing things. Some may agree, some may disagree. The history is the past. Are you currently living in the past? This man is not worth for a second chance? :/  Reality, it is. Sigh.

Apart from that, it solved my curiousity towards this most wanted man in Malaya. I've only seen and heard his name in news article or programme, but never really know more in-depth stories about this sensational figure.

Tunku fought for Malaya's freedom. Chin Peng had the same goal as well, but his ideologies are not well supported. In the end, Chin Peng rejected the surrender terms offered by Tunku's side. Then, Tunku became the first prime minister of Malaya (and Malaysia), known as the Father of Independence. Nevertheless, the result doesn't define who is the winner, I suppose?

 

Close up of the black and white mugshots & articles. It's Ong Boon Hua, aka Chin Peng.

Group photos with the casts and crews :)

Baling is definitely an eye-opening theatre performance. As a 90s who doesn't not pay much attention to Malaysian history, this alternative way of education broadens my horizons in historical view. We might not really know what happened that time, but this documentary theatre is able to provoke your critical thinking between the ideologies of nationalist (Tunku) and communist (Chin Peng).  

Stand up for the truth, would you?