“ONE of the things I look forward to the most when I do any documentary is the fact that I’ll be a changed person when I finish,” declares documentary filmmaker, Ahmad Yazid Ahmad Puad, his eyes dancing under his stylish dark-rimmed glasses. From my perch inside the spacious meeting room of Rack Focus Films in Bukit Tunku, I can see the sun shining gloriously outside beyond the oversized windows.
On the trees, macaques swing with gay abandon, oblivious to the ‘Spanish Inquisition’ taking place inside the beautiful bungalow that the company has called its home for the last couple of months. Meanwhile, seated opposite me and looking on expectantly is a trio of talented documentary filmmakers.
There’s the 34-year-old Yazid, his slight frame wrapped in a sporty-looking jacket presumably as a shield against the chills of the air conditioning in the room (“We’ve been up all night editing. The deadline is going bonkers!”); Rob Nevis, a soft-spoken 54-year-old Sri Lankan filmmaker who has made Malaysia home for more than 10 years, and attractive American/Sarawakian Lydia Lubon, 39, whose last documentary, Operation Sumatran Rhino, was shown on National Geographic.
These are the guys at the helm of the historical documentary, Road to Nationhood, which will be airing its Season Three offerings on the evening of Merdeka. Season 1, which premiered back in 2016, was Road to Nationhood: Journey to Independence, a two-part series charting Malaysia’s journey to independence. It was followed by Road to Nationhood: Formation of Malaysia the following year, which took off after Malaysia gained independence from the British on Aug 31, 1957, and outlined the untold political and economic struggles Malaysia had to face prior to 1963 when the Federation was created.
It was also in Season Two that we saw Singapore no longer being a part of Malaysia. Season Three is Road to Nationhood: The Undeclared War (Konfrontasi) and Road to Nationhood: The Rajahs and Rebels (Part 1) and Sarawak Reclaimed (Part 2).
The former, Road to Nationhood: The Undeclared War tells of what happened during the turbulent years of Konfrontasi. In the 1960s, Tunku Abdul Rahman’s proposal to form Malaysia was vehemently opposed by President Sukarno of Indonesia.
Sukarno believed that Malaysia was an invention and tool of the British, a form of neocolonialism designed to let the British withdraw from their colonies, while still maintaining control from a distance.
What started as a diplomatic snub turned into border skirmishes, reaching a nadir when Indonesian troops parachuted into Peninsular Malaysia — despite the fact that there never was a formal declaration of war. Meanwhile, Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed covers the history of Sarawak from its early days under the White Rajahs straight through to when they achieved independence — and then immediately after becoming a part of Malaysia.
In the process, some like Datu Patinggi Ali and Tun Jugah worked with the outsiders, while those such as Rentap and Penghulu Asun opposed them. In the end, all had a role in shaping modern-day Sarawak.
The New Straits Times Press (NSTP) and Rack Focus Films recently signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on expertise and resources for the production of Season 3, with the former providing photographs and newspaper articles sourced from its comprehensive archival content. This year marks NSTP’s third year of collaboration with Rack Focus Films.
INSPIRATION FLOATS
Self-confessed history buff, Nevis, recalls clearly how it all started. He remembers that he and Yazid were actually working on a military documentary called Blade Runners: Codename Operation Gonzales at the time, a story set in 1974 where Malaysia’s Special Service Regiment went after communist insurgents in a search and destroy mission deep in Malaysia’s jungle.
“And then Yazid found the New Straits Times Press Group Publications book of the same name at the NST’s resource centre. It was sometime in 2012. He was so taken by the images inside and wanted to do something.”
Continuing, Nevis, who’d previously worked on a number of Hollywood productions while with Sri Lankan film production company, Asian Film Location Services (a one-stop-shop film and television production and location services company specialising in international productions shooting in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia), adds: “I remember asking him why he wanted to do another Merdeka documentary. To be honest, I hadn’t really seen that many Merdeka documentaries; the ones I had were so news reel-like.”
But, says Nevis, Yazid’s enthusiasm for it was infectious. “He kept exclaiming how rich the images were and that we needed to do a documentary. He was adamant that we could make the images come to life. Before you knew it, we ended up discussing about animating certain parts, using the green screen to do small movements, like the hand, or waving the hat.”
With a smile, Nevis concedes that the turning point for him personally came when they were doing Operation Gonzales and got the opportunity to interview General Tan Sri Datuk Mohd Ghazali Mohd Seth, the son of Datuk Mohd Seth, the deputy chief minister of Johor during Merdeka.
“He told us some untold stories about his father and how Tunku managed to convince him to accept his proposals when he was in London, despite everyone knowing that Johor wasn’t in agreement. It was an exciting piece of information and had never been captured. It’s an untold story about Merdeka.”
Then they met with Datin Paduka Tan Siok Choo (Cheng Lok’s granddaughter) recalls Nevis, and she regaled them with stories about her father’s and grandfather’s journey. “So we started collecting these untold stories. That’s how it all started.”
The team, shares Nevis, pooled their resources and commenced shooting sometime in 2015 — before Finas had even approved their papers. Chuckling, Nevis says: “It was the craziest thing to do but we believed in it so much. Most of the archives for Road to Nationhood didn’t just come from Finas or RTM. We had stuff from Getty, BBC, IWM (Imperial War Museum).Our archives budget alone was about RM200,000.”
Also, as the idea for the project had been inspired by the NSTP’s book, the team went to meet with NSTP’s Group Managing Editor at the time (today the Chief Executive Officer),Datuk Seri Abdul Jalil Hamid and Azizi Othman, the-then NSTP’s Special Projects, Executive Editor (today its General Manager, Digital Business and Development).
“They liked the idea of the project and subsequently came on board with their rich archives. That’s when our partnership started. We’re really blessed because NST has a real goldmine there!”
JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY
The interviews for the series were predominantly conducted by Yazid, who also wears the hats of director, scriptwriter and executive producer. Meanwhile, the interviews for the Sarawak episodes were carried out by Lubon, the project’s creative producer, who’s of Iban-descent.
Recalling his opening confession about how cathartic the whole experience can be, Yazid says: “I’ve grown a lot from doing this project. Almost 90 per cent of the things I discovered through the course of doing this documentary, I hadn’t known before. And it really blew my mind.”
Leaning forward, the affable Johorian confides that he used to hate Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first Prime Minister. “I grew up in JB and everyone hated him. But after doing last year’s documentary — on Formation —I discovered that Lee Kuan Yew actually did a lot to make sure that Malaysia happened. Then I started growing fond of him. I still think he could have done things differently but I appreciate every single effort that he made to ensure that Malaysia happened.”
Chuckling, he adds that Indonesia’s first President, Sukarno, grew on him too. “We just finished the edit for Konfrontasi — The Undeclared War. I used to dislike him but through this project, I realised that he had great visions for his country. Maybe he was just standing on the wrong side of history. But nevertheless, he had great ideas about what nation identity should be and the importance of investing emotionally with the country. I think Malaysia today can learn from Indonesia’s spirit of nationalism!”
Concurring, Nevis chips in: “It’s been like jumping into a gold mine of knowledge doing this project. I didn’t know much about Datuk Onn Jaafar (former Chief Minister of Johor in the-then Malaya) before but after I learnt what I learnt, I believe that he should have been the first Prime Minister of Malaysia. Not Tunku. But his ideas were ahead of time. It has been a journey doing this and I’ve grown a lot.”
CARDINAL SIN
When Yazid and Lubon made their first foray into the country’s documentary making scene, sometime in early 2000, it was a fairly non-existent industry. Yazid was then a cameraman/editor at Carter Productions and it was there that he met Lubon, a freelance production assistant.
Today, Yazid acknowledges that the industry has grown somewhat (although he believes there are only about four production houses actually producing ‘real’ documentaries) but there remains some confusion as to what actually constitutes a documentary.
Shaking his head exasperatedly, Yazid says: “People are confused between documentary and TV programme.” A documentary, he continues, has a story. “It’s not about having a host appear at some tourist site and telling you what you’re seeing. With documentaries, you tell a story within your factual realm... but the story is still there.”
His brows furrowing, he attempts to elaborate. “It’s like you have Batman who’s fighting the Joker and there are explosions in between. And in the end, the hero wins. The same formula applies with documentaries. You find a character, for example, in our show, we make Tunku the hero or protagonist. So he’s going to go through challenges in order to achieve Merdeka. We have to treat him just like how fiction filmmakers treat their superhero. Like Batman or Jason Bourne or whatever. So there’ll be things that he doubts along the way and then he comes back to what he really believes in. At some point, he feels that he’s almost failing but then, he perseveres. The result? We get Merdeka. So that’s a story. With TV programmes, they just tell you what it is and then, “Bye, bye, jumpa lagi minggu depan (See you next week!).””
So what makes a bad documentary? “When you approach it likeapower point presentation,” replies Yazid, again his brows furrowing.
“One of the key ingredients of a good documentary is a good story and a good story requires an emotional ride, emotional journey. In any emotional journey, there has to be triumphs and failures. But a lot of the things that we see on local TV don’t show that. Factual storytellers commit that sin of always thinking that they need to say everything great about whoever it is. Isn’t it obvious that Tunku was great because he failed so many times?”
His voice laced with passion, Yazid shares: “When I first opened the book by NST and realised that, wow, Tunku was actually told to ‘eff off’ by the British in 1954 and in turn, Tunku was like, screw it, I’m still going to go and I’m not giving up. It was an eye opener. Tunku went around Malaya to try to win the elections with MCA and MIC. And then he almost gave up thinking that it wasn’t going anywhere in 1955. But suddenly he won the first Malayan election in 1955, which people hadn’t expected as the British had done everything to ensure his failure so that Datuk Onn Jaafar (then with Parti Negara) would win. But Tunku won — by one seat.”
OF PERSPECTIVE AND TRUTH
The team is keen to emphasise that what the audience sees when they watch Road to Nationhood stems from their perspective. “We’ve never claimed that our story is the truth,” says Yazid emphatically, adding: “Have you seen this thing that’s gone viral on social media? There’s this cylinder and a guy standing on the left and another guy standing in front of it. The guy who is standing on the left sees something round, while the guy who’s looking on from the front, sees it as a rectangle. But which one is right? Well, it depends on where you’re standing. It’s always about perspective.”
But, continues Yazid, what people need to understand is that even though it’s perspective, everything in the documentary is factual. “We didn’t lie that Merdeka is on Aug 28. We didn’t lie and say that Tunku went to London in 1956 for the Merdeka Mission to ask from the British if they would let us be independent after he achieved his success in the elections of 1955. It happened.”
Here’s an example of their perspective. Independence didn’t come from Umno. Umno never thought of it. Umno liked to be under the British. The person who brought up the idea of independence, and someone who was within Umno, was Datuk Onn Jaafar — and he took it from the Left.
Says Yazid: “It was the Left who wanted independence, ever since after the war. The Communists were championing this idea. If you check the details, Umno, until 1949, you never heard of them mentioning anything about wanting independence. They liked the British to pamper them. It was the Left that brought up the idea, but in our documentary we never said that Datuk Onn Jaafar came up with the idea for independence. He was championing the idea. The Left had already been talking about it from the beginning. The Malay Nationalist Party, Kesatuan Melayu Muda... they were the ones talking about independence. Maybe it was because they were on the wrong side of history. They weren’t on the victors’ side.”
His tone wry, Yazid continues: “The British were the victors. And the good thing about Umno was that they knew how to play the game. The Left didn’t. They only wanted to play their own game. But Umno? They said, ok, which game is going to make us successful? We’ll choose that game! So that’s our perspective. There’s no such thing as truth. I always say that truth is a big BS!”
Hitherto the solemn observer, Nevis finally offers his thoughts: “I enjoyed meeting all these people who’d walked through history. And one of the people that we met twice for the Formation of Malaysia and this time, Konfrontasi, was Datuk Dominic Puthucheary. On my first meeting with him, he asked me, “What’s this about Merdeka? Which story are you telling?” Of course we told him the mainstream story. And then he sat back in his chair and said, “Well, the lion never gets to tell his story does he?””
Noting my look of confusion, Nevis elaborates: “What he meant was that it’s always the case that the hunter gets to tell his story because he’s the victor. He shoots the lion and the lion dies. You never get to hear the lion’s side of the story. Coming back to our meeting, we were talking about Konfrontasi. He’s one of the last in that age group who journeyed through that period. He was in prison. Lee Kuan Yew put him there. I asked him, “Datuk, what remains in your memory?””
His voice low, Nevis continues: “He said that he was grateful to God that he has his nice little office where he can write his memoirs (Puthucheary is working on a book called Once There Was A River). And then he said, “... but what a tragedy it is when your memories are filled with sad things too, like when the British came down here and put their guns to our heads saying we had guns — when actually, all we had were books. We had freedom but it was taken away. And then we got it back.” It’s deep and I enjoy learning from these personal stories of these great people.”
A solemn hush descends around the room, the only sound to pierce the silence coming from the incessant hum of the air conditioner. I’m the first to break the spell.
“So what’s next guys?” The ‘spell’ broken, Yazid is the first to reply: “I didn’t think that we were going to go beyond one hour! Today, we’re talking about Season 3. Thanks to NSTP, we’ve been able to continue the journey. Our plan is to make it into Season 5 and ending it all in 2020. Certainly, there’ll be a lot more stories coming out in the next two years.” They also have plans to expand the project beyond Malaysia.
Concludes Yazid: “We have to find more sponsorship, of course. We’re looking to franchise this into other countries. One of the most fascinating histories of the world is the history of India. Maybe we can do the Road to Nationhood of India. Or even Indonesia. The same thing that we’re doing right now can be replicated.”
As for next year, Yazid and team are already onto another gem — sports history. “We’re trying to relive some of the great sporting moments that occurred in Malaysia in the last 40 to 50 years. One of my idols when I was growing up was the boxer, Sapok Biki, who won the gold medal in the light flyweight class at the 1998 commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. An Iban, he’s now a ranger in Kluang. I’m definitely looking forward to this!”
ROAD TO NATIONHOOD: SEASON 3 will air on National Geographic Channel and Astro Maya HD, Prima, Hello and Astro Awani on Aug 31, 2018