Remember the guy who urged the Malaysian government to regulate Netflix? The former CEO of the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) who suggested that the government should enact a law to address the issue as content shown by Netflix and similar platforms were usually uncensored. Yes, the man who said that contents on Netflix could be potentially harmful to children and youth despite the fact that Netflix has a parental lock option? Yes, I’m talking about Ahmad Idham Ahmad Nadzri who a month after saying what he said, “left” FINAS in December 2019. Well, he’s not the former CEO of FINAS anymore. He’s back.
2020 really is something, isn’t it?
It was reported earlier today that FINAS has appointed Ahmad Idham Ahmad Nadzri as its new CEO. Zakaria Abdul Hamid, who was appointed as the chairman last month, made the announcement. You see, FINAS, just like a lot of other things in the country, has been a complete shit show for the past 3-4 months.
The former chairman, Hans Isaac, who immediately pushed back against Ahmad Idham’s call to censor Netflix and said “FINAS will not be moral police” lost his job after the downfall of Pakatan Harapan and the formation of Perikatan Nasional. The new chairman, Mr Zakaria, was a former Parti Keadilan Rakyat (part of the PH coalition) member who was expelled by the party due to corruption allegations.
So, what we essentially have now is an allegedly corrupt former politician and someone who wishes to censor art, running the NATIONAL FILM DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION. And if you’re wondering why more people aren’t making noise about it, it’s probably because a lot of these little moves are happening while our country is in the midst of battling COVID-19 and dealing with political unrest.
