Malaysia's language minefield, part two

Malaysia's language minefield, part two

There's a new movie making waves in the US and Europe. It's being described as a spectacular superhero romp;  colourful, irreverent, Tarantino-ish fun; maybe even the film of the year.

Chances are, though that Malaysians will never be able to see it, because its title contains a word that's banned from the airwaves: ass.

This is nothing new. Malaysia's censors are among the strictest in the world, and even apparently innocuous children's films like "Babe" have fallen foul of the censors.

But the word "ass" causes special problems. There's barely an English language situation comedy  or a major movie in circulation these days that doesn't contain that word, so mainstream is its usage.

And since Malaysia's cable network runs a significant number of American shows and films, there's a constant battle to protect local sensibilities while still filling air time.

Thus, cable provider Astro is compelled to maintain a 24/7 censorship operation. A roomful of people, fingers poised above a button, bleep out all incidences of words that may be deemed offensive. (I have even seen the word "beach" erased; I can only guess that it's too close to "bitch".)

Now if the Malaysian government believes the word "ass" is morally corrupting, then obviously it is entitled to take appropriate action.

But there's just one question that keeps bothering me: what about those poor people whose job it is to listen out for those dangerous words, and erase them? Surely the constant exposure is a danger to their well-being? Does the government provide any counselling for them?

Perhaps it would make more sense to not import Western programmes into Malaysia at all?