Bagi penyanyi
rap yang tidak pernah sepi dengan kontroversi, kata-kata akhir yang diluahkan
Namewee (gambar) adalah, “saya dah penat”. Anak Cina ni pernah dicadangkan di
Dewan Rakyat supaya dilucutkan kerakyatannya dan dicampakkan caja ke laut. Ini
semua gara-gara menyanyikan lagu Negaraku guna versi rap dan ada bait lagunya
yang dianggap menghina azan yang dimuat naikkan di TouTube.
Kontrovervi
terbaru, dia dikatakan pelampau kerana membantah sekatan penayangan filem The
New Village (TNV) yang dikatakan mengagungkan kumunis. Ini semua adalah gangguan politik katanya. Itulah anak cina yang guna
nama ‘Namewee’.
“Saya dah tak
tahan lagi. Saya dah berusaha keras, menghabiskan banyak masa dan menyatukan
belia melalui filem namun ini yang saya dapat,” katanya kepada The Malaysian
Insider merujuk serangan akhbar milik
Umno, Utusan Malaysia dan Perkasa.
Apabila
ditanya adakah dia bimbang polis akan datang menyiasat terhadap penerbitan
video kontroversi itu, Namewee berkata polis seharusnya menangkap orang jahat
sebenar.
Ikuti temubual
bersama wartawan The Malaysian Insider;
What
the *&%^*& – here’s the Namewee
you didn’t expect
As he stepped out of his white
Toyota Land Cruiser wearing his trademark beanie, baggy jeans, large
metal-beaded necklace and a loose T-shirt, he walked quickly towards a mamak
shop holding his green water tumbler and immediately introduced himself.
“Hi, I am Meng Chee. I’m really
sorry I’m late. I set two alarm clocks but I still overslept,” he said to The
Malaysian Insider when met recently.
Wee Meng Chee a.k.a Namewee really
needs no introduction. Everyone knows the multi-hyphenate Muar-born
foul-mouthed rapper-songwriter-director-actor who is no stranger to
controversy.
Using the Chinese words for
takeaway, he said, “I just want to ta pau something, then we can start the
interview.”
After paying for his food, he made
his way to a friend’s studio on the first floor of a shop lot in Kota Damansara
to the back pantry, sat down on a stool at a small round table and opened his
takeaway nasi kandar. He even asked for permission to eat his ‘breakfast’
(actually a very late lunch) as the interview went on.
“Namewee is actually my YouTube
account name. It came from my name ‘Meng Chee’ which means ‘name’ in Chinese.
The media picked it up and eventually Namewee stuck,” he shrugged and smiled.
As he ate his rice with a white
plastic spoon, Namewee kept apologising for his tardiness, saying that he was
really hungry as he had been working the whole night.
“Believe it or not, I have been
working till this morning. I work 18 hours every day and sleep for about three
hours a day.
“You may not believe me but I
practically have no life. People think I am always going out partying,
clubbing, but really… my life is between my refrigerator and my studio,” he
said a slightly husky voice.
Namewee has found himself constantly
criticised by Malay-rights groups like Perkasa and Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia,
who call him a racist out to insult the Malays.
Yet he claims to have no ill
feelings towards them. “We all know Perkasa and Utusan are extremists. I think
their job is to criticise somebody, and I became their target,” he smiled.
“To be honest, I was initially
shocked and thought I was wrong. But after a while, I felt tired and fed up
having to explain myself. I never intend to insult Muslims. But they would
twist and turn the stories and make it sound like no one else is right but
them.”
Now, however, Namewee said he found
the shenanigans interesting.
“You see, when they do these things,
it makes my life and Malaysian news so much more interesting. Otherwise,
Malaysian news would be so boring, like Singapore news,” he said laughing.
So does he have any Malay friends?
Without hesitation, Namewee sniggered and said, “Got. Did you know that my
grandmother is a Nyonya? My mother speaks fluent Bahasa Malaysia. My neighbours
in Muar are mostly Malays and my father’s parents run a small kopitiam selling
Malay food. A lot of our Malay friends go there.
“I have so many Malay friends that
when we have open house during Chinese New Year, most of those who visit our
house are Malays. We used to joke around among races and there was no tension.
But now, people can’t seem to accept that. This is all because of politics.”
And obviously, being famous he has
garnered not only fans but haters as well.
“You would be surprised I have a lot
of haters and they are Chinese,” he said as he raised an eyebrow.
Why? “To the conservative Chinese,
they can’t accept that I sing and rap songs which are not just about love. I
sing and rap about everything. But to them, Chinese songs must be love songs,”
he said.
Namewee studied in SRJK Chung Hwa 1B
and Chung Hwa High School in Muar before furthering his studies in Mass
Communications in Ming Chuan University in Taiwan in 2002. While in Taiwan, he
also worked backstage in a singing competition called “A Million Star”. He
returned to Malaysia in 2006.
He was also born into a family of
show business. His father, Wee Ann Hee, taught karaoke singing and mother, Ong
Kwang Fang, still does emceeing part-time.
“My mother was the host of the
karaoke competition show on television,” he said proudly, adding that he has a
younger sister who will be going to London to study theatre and a younger
brother who is currently in Japan taking a movie-making course.
“I first picked up the mike when I
was in kindergarten. I can’t remember what song I sang but it was a children’s
song. I sang and played a small piano.”
When asked about the last time he
went on holiday, being the workaholic that he is, he paused and stared into
space.
“Hmmm… I can’t remember,” he said.
“I have been working. My mind keeps
running. I have so many ideas and views that I want to express and I feel like
I don’t have enough time because I feel like I am dying soon.
“I have 600 to 700 songs in my
computer. I have about 30 to 40 movie ideas. So I have this phobia that I will
never get everything out before I die. That is why I feel life it too short.”
So far, Namewee said he has about 70
music videos on YouTube and four movies out.
He said it did occur to him once to
try change his image and perhaps watch his language. “But then again, why
should I? This is me. I want to express
my creativity. YouTube didn’t stop me, so why should I?” – September 15, 2013.
BY RITA JONG
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