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Abstract
This paper examines the construction of working‐class Mat Motor (Malay biker) masculinity and queer desire in/through KL Menjerit, a commercial biker film that exudes the unmistakably aura of working‐class kejantanan (masculinity). Specifically, I focus on how the film – or more precisely the ‘queer moments’ it contains – resonates in ways that are not necessarily obvious to the disinterested heterosexual public eye. The discussion takes into account both filmic elements and the sexual geography of Kuala Lumpur (KL), where shifting biker spaces sometimes intersect with homosexual cruising sites. My argument is that the film’s representation of the Mat Motor protagonist as unbendingly straight and heterosexually jantan – while imaginably gratifying to the core audience of Mat Motors – actually belies the opposite reality of KL’s ‘forgotten’ underside, where gender and sexuality are much more fluid and malleable than is sanctioned by society and the state.
Notes
1. In this paper, the terms ‘queer’, ‘gay’ and ‘homosexual’ are used interchangeably.
2. http://ejad.blogdrive.com. Page accessed on 11 November 2004.
3. KL Menjerit took Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Story, Best Actor (Rosyam Nor/Shahrul), Most Promising Actor (Hasnul Rahmat/Tun), Most Promising Actress (Nisdawati Nazaruddin/Ayu) and Best Sound. It stole the thunder from critics’ favourite, Embun, a ‘serious’ Malay historical drama made with an eye for the world‐cinema market.
4. All ethnic Malays are Muslims by the definition of the Malaysian Federal Constitution.
5. The kapchai is similar to the innumerable mass‐market bikes traversing the traffic‐congested streets of Southeast Asian cities like Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Jakarta.
6. In Malaysia, although the motorbike (excluding the ‘superbike’) is generally identified with the lower class (or at least those who do not have the means to own or maintain a car), its signification is ultimately dependent upon the rider’s identity (age, ethnicity, physical attributes, etc). For instance, a high school student riding a kapchai to school would not necessarily be (regarded as) poor, as he may well be from a reasonable comfortable middle‐class family. In this case, the bike is more of a convenience than a class‐identified object. However, the case involving the rural–urban Mat Motor migrant like Shahrul is relatively more clear‐cut, for reasons already discussed.
7. On Thai Rempits, see Ghosh (Citation2004) and ‘Menace on Bangkok roads’ (Citation2004).
8. The Malaysian Mat Rempit is a sense a much less glamorous version of the fashion‐conscious Japanese ‘kamikaze biker’ (bosozoku). For a study of the bosozoku tribe, see Sato (Citation1991). Regular crackdowns by the authorities and the legislation of tougher laws have not been entirely successful in discouraging Mat Rempits from racing on the city‐streets, at times without licence or insurance, or while high on codeine (from cough mixture), alcohol (even though it is haram or forbidden to Muslim‐Malays), marijuana, methamphetamine‐type stimulants like syabu, or some other illicit drugs. The rewards for the continuation of their activities are not unattractive: hard cash, peer recognition, validation of manhood, sometimes even a female‐trophy to have sex with, not to mention intrinsic rewards like the illicit pleasure and thrill of transgressing the law and speeding on the dangerous edge. Because there is much to gain, hardcore Mat Rempits would usually only shed their Rempit identity for one or more of the following reasons: when they (or someone close to them) are maimed or killed in a road accident; are caught, convicted and imprisoned; leave the city to resettle elsewhere or in the kampung from whence they came; or decide to settle down and raise a family. Here I wish to thank Norrick for sharing his insight on the Mat Motor and Mat Rempit phenomenon during our three‐hour interview conducted in September 2004.
9. Similarly, men in contemporary Malaysia do not normally display physical affection towards each other in an overt way, such as strolling hand‐in‐hand in public, or holding each other’s hands while seated in a bus or a train), as they might in Pakistan or Bangladesh, for instance.
10. It is instructive to note that, while not all men who violate gender prescriptions are gay, and while gay and heterosexual men may be similar on such traditional masculine traits as dominance and boldness, empirical studies have tended to confirm that ‘the content of the effeminate stereotype appears to be valid for gay men on average’ (Taywaditep Citation2001: 4).
11. Mat Motors and other Malay men who have illicit premarital sex, including sex with mak nyah sex workers, are at particular risk of being caught by Malaysia’s ‘moral police’, including the austere Islamic Affairs Department, which constructs homosexuality as a western invention and ‘a crime worse than murder’ (Ramakrishnan Citation2000; see also Boswell Citation1980). The Department is a state‐apparatus empowered to arrest Muslims (mostly Malays by default) suspected of breaking Islamic laws, including unmarried couples, homosexuals, transvestites and transsexuals. As explained by an official from the Department, Muslims arrested for homosexual acts will be charged in court but not before being put through ‘what we call Islamic counselling sessions. They recite the Koran everyday and we will tell them they have committed a grave sin’ (Ramakrishnan Citation2000). Over a hundred men were reported to have been arrested under the Islamic law in 1999 alone. By contrast, no such counselling is prescribed to those arrested and charged under state laws. Section 377 of the Malaysian Penal Code defines homosexuality as an ‘unnatural offence’ and states that carnal intercourse against the ‘order of nature’, including sex between two consenting adult males, is punishable with imprisonment, a fine and/or whipping.
12. ‘Bukak api’ (lit. switch on the light) is a Malay street lingo for ‘having sex with clients’ or ‘taking it up the ass’. The film, a restricted release with limited circulation, is practically unknown to the Malaysian general public.
13. The Film Censorship Board, placed under the purview of the powerful Ministry of Home Affairs, tends to be particularly strict with local films produced for national cinema release and television broadcast. The Censorship Board’s avowed role is to protect the Malaysian audience from exposure to what it considers as negative influences, the definition of which does not always remain consistent but generally covers kissing, nudity, sex, strong language, extreme violence, supernatural themes that are not dream‐based, and ‘unhealthy’ lifestyles such as homosexuality.