Rebooting the creative industry

Leadership is sorely needed in an industry that is not merely about entertainment. The priority is to look at creative content industry from a totally different perspective.

ONE of the hardest hit sectors during the Covid-19 pandemic is the creative industry. In our case, the three-month lockdown has impacted upon all players in more ways than one.

Film and television productions have stopped entirely. Thousands of creative workers are without jobs.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia put a figure of slightly more than 140,000 people working in the creative industry, give and take, hardly a fraction of a total of 6.9 million jobs in the country. The numbers may matter little but the contribution counts.

While a lot of attention has been given to Mak Cik Kiah and others, the mat and minah kreatif are largely ignored.

We have heard the collective groans among workers in the industry. But little is done other than some noises about “coming up with a package to help them”.

Many other countries have shown the way forward in helping the creative frontliners. The United Kingdom, via its Arts Council, has announced a RM860mil emergency response package. Singapore has availed a fund amounting to RM168mil to help major companies and leading art groups.

The European Commission has allocated a special emergency budget for the purpose.

It is not surprising in so far our government’s response to the arts and culture sector.

The frontliners in this sector are the last to be consulted nor engaged.

There have never been any real conversation between the stakeholders and the government. If any, it is a one-way dialogue.

Countless memoranda and suggestions have been presented. The government would rather listen to incompetent officers rather than to the pulse of the real people in the industry.

For many of these workers on the ground, survival is about getting employed. The industry is competitive. As TV stations are facing problems, fewer productions are being commissioned. TV stations are resorting to reruns and cheap syndicated programmes as advertisement money is dwindling.

There is a lot of legacy issues pertaining to the local creative content industry. The frequent changing of guards at the ministry and relevant institutions are creating the void in real leadership.

Those responsible hardly understood the complexity of the industry. Critical appointments are made without an inkling of the nature of the real business. Politics and connections matter more than anything else.

Billions have been spent so far to provide impetus to the film industry. Sadly it has achieved very little.

We are still creating jaguh kampung (local heroes). Nothing has changed over the years. Except for a few, our report card in the international market has been dismal.

We are still bickering over petty issues. We are lacking real funding because the agencies entrusted to help the financing are seeing creative products like nothing more than chocolate wrappers.

They are not looking at the substance. The wrappers are what’s being paraded but sadly these are merely glittery trash.

What is the secret behind the success of the South Korean creative industry?

Some would argue because South Korea has the Korea Culture and Content Agency (better known by its acronym KOCCA).

It is basically a one-stop agency to spur Korea’s creative industry. It’s motto says all, “Remaking Korea as creative star of world stage.”

Films, for example, are treated as real export, carrying the Korean label, selling it to the world with the right marketing strategy.

The priority now should be looking at the creative content industry from a totally different perspective.

The old ways of doing things are over. The dynamics of the industry are changing. New platforms are taking centre stage.

People are watching more content but on different platforms. The new normal now is to look at “Curation”, “Differentiation” and “Location”.

A new eco-system must be acknowledged and new approaches must be sought to prepare the industry for new challenges.

We must also remember that films, TV productions and performing arts are merely part of what constitute a larger creative economy. We have to relook at the entire legal parameters involving Intellectual Property (IP) and broadcasting rights.

The entire industry needs rethinking on creative content policy. The overlapping roles of agencies within the industry has to be looked into.

The way I look at it, the industry needs nothing less than rebooting.

But we can’t do all that without leadership. That is what is acutely lacking in the industry. We do not have the political will because we believe creative content is merely about entertainment.

For that reason, we don’t seem to take creative economy seriously.

Johan Jaaffar was a journalist, editor and for some years chairman of a media company, and is passionate about all things literature and the arts. And a diehard rugby fan. The views expressed here are entirely his own.