In light of the statement that Elton John is performing in Malaysia, PAS has been making statements of popular singer figures coming in to Malaysia and perform for the past all these years as somewhat promoting the "western culture that is wrong (in their definition)" among youngsters here. Elton John is not the only one that is also the target of PAS Youth, but past figures including Gwen Stefani for instance and a few others. To most people including fans in the world, the adjective of gay as what Elton John publicly declares is eclipsed by his popularity in pop culture given by his array number of hit songs / music that was performed in over more than 30 years.
What I am trying to point out is that PAS is in this case over protective of the people. It is like a overbearing mother who tries to keep a child inside a shell although it clearly defies the nature of curiosity inhabited in each and everyone of us. What is also underscored by their actions is that PAS still has yet to let people able to make their own decisions and having them to use their own discretion. This in one way is best to encourage people to think for themselves, not to show that "I know best, and I do it for you" thing.
To say that this is from the western culture is not entirely accurate. It is actually part of the capitalism culture - to make money, profits from it. Famous people come and perform here because of the demand from fans, with firsthand knowledge of how popular they themselves are. Simply use this on the Far Eastern artists that come here to perform. Aren't they on the same capacity as these famous artists do, until to the point where PAS has to bark up on that?
It is best for PAS to say "I let you decide" but they should not have a strong hand of intervention on this case. The more positive statement that they might say is "Look, we don't really encouraged you to get spoiled by their rowdy behavior but you make the final choice". What PAS do not understand that many youngsters are willing to pay extra money, like in Singapore dollars to go down the causeway to watch their favorite concerts, if there happens to be none performed in Kuala Lumpur. Since having performed here is cheaper than going down (considering the cost of food, travelling and lodging, not to mention the high exchange rate between the hosting currency vs our currency).
It's very hard to see a celebrity coming down once in a blue moon to perform here. To shoo a famous person off, in spite of noble intentions and despite a person with a famous popularity and reputation is to give a slap as the first impression on the artist performing here. As the saying goes, people don't forget on how you make them feel, even though they may forget and forgive what you would do to them. So, the real bottom line is that PAS Youth in particular should start moving away from its overprotective attribute of themselves and encourage people to let them think.
If it is not already enough with our present education system which churns out people to think and behave like a robot instead of encouraging a creative and inquisitive mind who is able to make better judgements and learn more by its curiosity. This culture, with the ulterior being to prevent a person to go rocking the boat because of the curiosity nature (a.k.a suppression) has stop here, if Malaysia wants to have a level up in its society, since we still have many lazy and submissive natives around.
PAS should go around and ask everyone, not just their own Malay youths on whether they like for instance Elton John music or they like people to come here or not. This is not the 1980s, but we're in the 21st century. Already PAS has taken a lot of brickbats from its hudud saga and they should not give more info for the enemy to hit them with such kind of issue. Aren't they aware of traps to make people's support for them to wane already?
