KUALA LUMPUR: The kids sit silently in front of the television. The elder brother turns slightly and watches as his father quickly turns the channel from a program that they say is too violent for the kids to watch. It's a Tamil drama from India that shows violence, and Yussif, the father, won't let his children watch. “I just don't think it's appropriate at their young age,” he told Bikyamasr.com. “But I don't mind the show.” He said he is against calls from a Consumers Association in Malaysia that has called for a ban on Tamil serial dramas over their use of violence. For Yussif and his wife, Sana, “we don't think it is the government's place to tell us what we can and can't watch. If we are responsible, then we make that decision for ourselves.” The are part of the new middle-class in Malaysia who are shunning censorship in favor of responsibility, arguing that the future of Malaysia will depend on its people “making right decisions for themselves and their children.” The Consumer Association of Penang education officer NV Subbarow said that many homes “were left neglected as the families were busy watching these shows every day.” Local daily Tamil Nesan quoted him as saying that the “negative scenes in these dramas have had a negative influence on the ethnic Indian community, with many youths involved in crime.” Subbarow asked the censorship board to come down hard and ban these dramas, adding that the local ethnic Indian community should also boycott these dramas. Some 8 percent of Malaysia's 28 million people is ethnic Indian and majority of these are Tamils. Tamil language television serials are very popular in ethnic Indian households while Tamil movies are released here simultaneously with Tamil Nadu in India. But many observers argue that other factors could play a role in neglect and violence, including what many social workers said, was the poverty and lack of opportunities that is growing among the Tamil population in Malaysia. For Yussif and Sana, both ethnically Tamil but converts to Islam, they believe “Malaysia's diversity is so important and we shouldn't start censoring things because it makes us uncomfortable.”
