According to Unc, Sudirman started his singing career whilst still a law student. He won a Malaysian talent time contest on RTM.
A wee digression here - capturing as much of Unc’s rant as possible wakakaka - Unc said in his time, there were only 2 TV channels, RTM 1 and RTM 2. Though the second channel showed Chinese and other language programs he stopped viewing that channel because of the 'weird' (his words, today we would have just blaste them as ‘incompetent’) programming.
For example, right in the middle of a Chinese movie, the program would switch over to a compulsory viewing of the news (or government propaganda, and worse, delivered in a long monotonous boring way), ‘Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah’ snapshots, and of course prayers.
While prayers and ‘Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah’ were short and sharp, the news report weren’t, so by the time the Chinese movie resumed, it may well be more than an hour down the line, by which time almost everyone had lost interest or patience with the way TV 2 viewers were treated with disdain and disrespect by the TV programmers.
To add to the chagrin, frustration and resentment of Chinese viewers he said that when a good soccer game was on TV 1, the so-called compulsory news bulletin wasn’t allowed to intrude on Mokhtar Dahari weaving his magic, with prayer times only advised by a tape caption.
OK, that was his rant on the double standards and the torture perpetrated by RTM on Chinese viewers. Back to Sudirman.
Unc remembered the winning song by Sudirman, Cabaret, made famous by Liza Minnelli (daughter of Judy Garland) in the movie of the same title.
While most local singers at that time would resort to pop songs, trust the late Sudirman to do the unprecedented and pick a Broadway song like Cabaret to make his mark, and what a scintillating statement it was. He was the most outstanding Malaysian artist, an international mega-star until sadly, his early demise.
Unc said Sudirman was a great Malaysian with a love and respect for multicultural and multiracial mores, practices and tastes. He would make the effort to sing Chinese, Indian (Tamil) and other ethnic songs, and did them well too. And his performances were always uniquely choreographed.
Unfortunately that didn’t put him in the good book of the bigoted rednecks.
Unc said there was an incident when Sudirman and his (at that time) best singing/performing sidekick Noor Kumalasari were dressed up in traditional Chinese costumes for a performance, but they were harassed by the ultras into not appearing in China-pek dresses. Unc remembered Noor was reduced to tears by the feral brutality of the harassment.
Sudirman & Noor
There was another encounter with ultras and Muslim fundamentalists at UKM. Aparently the student unions and academic staff, including the dean of the Islamic faculty, were all against his performing at the Uni. Anonymous threats were made that if he dared to front up for the concert, he would have acid thrown in his face.
The story went that Dr Mahathir, then PM, stepped in to ensure Sudirman performed, because of the bigger picture at stake for Malaysia. Dr M didn’t want the fundamentalists to derail Malaysia’s modernization programs in any way.
Sudirman was also supported by many thousands of his fans in that showdown at UKM, which fortunately didn’t eventuate. But Sudirman was also careful not to provoke the ultras, choosing sensitively to dress himself up with the Malaysian flag and singing mainly Malaysian and folksy songs.
If he was alive today, he would be 55. Sadly, he died of a heart attack in 1992, just aged 37.
HRH Sultan of Pahang has just honoured this son of Pahang posthumously with a Datukship – see Malaysian Insider's Sudirman conferred Datukship...17 years too late
A truly great Malaysian and probably Malaysia's greatest artist.
Requiescat in pace, Bung Sudirman.
Sayang seribu sayang. Miss him dearly. Yes he was a great artist. Comparable to none.
ReplyDeleteHis comedy sketches with Yusni Jaafar was genuinely funny. Comedy at that time compared to these days punya comedy i feel is so bizarre. I just can't relate to it. *sigh*
Only the good guys die young.
I thought he died of AIDS.
ReplyDeleteCrankster, that's only a rumour but I remember they say he died of pneumonia.
ReplyDeleteI agree Sudirman was unique and also he does looked abit Chinese too.
I still remember him singing his winning song "A thousand Million smiles" in the Royal Albert Hall.
In Malaysia when a Malay is great he or she will be slapped around by the Malay ultras for political gains. It is a good thing that God took Sudirman 17 years ago. Imagine what the ultras and religious nuts will do to this Malay chap in today's highly charged political atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteIt does not matter how Sudirman died. It is more important what he did when he is alive. I believe nobody can deny that he is truly a legend on his own way. On of the singer that is able to win the heart of all races. Truly a big lost to the nation.
ReplyDeleteSudirman are one of the earliest Malaysia cultural export.
ReplyDelete1000 politickus and royals fail to achieve the performance of 1 Sudirman Arshad.
Today, what remains are urban legend of his death. This is sad.
Oh yes, Sudirman was one entertainer who was a true Malaysian. His Chow Kit Road concert was another memorable event in my younger days. 'Merisik Khabar' remains one of my all time favourites. He also had some good camaraderie with Anita Sarawak (Noor's half-sister). Wonderful guy - miss him terribly...
ReplyDeleteMy Dad loves Sudirman's songs although he barely listens to them :).
ReplyDeleteHe also likes P Ramlee movies, although he barely watches them :). He'd spend sometime watching the old funny black-and-white movie if it was on telly :).
Poor Dad. He suffered so much with today's in-your-face cheapskate syok-sendiri rubbish. Gone were the days when real talent and art were entertainment :(
I was so shocked to learn Sudirman was with us no more! I lived in Msia for a short time and while I was here, I really enjoyed his songs, especially, the catchy, Kasih. I still remembered watching him and Noor performing Eat It on a t.v. programme. He was soooo fab and soooo brilliant. I'm just shocked that he passed on sooo young but I did see his c.d.s in the music stores, really glad he is still with us thru his unique, passionate singing. You live on, Dato' Sudirman.
ReplyDelete