Put out the Fire, Agni Koothu ( Theatre of Fire)

In a multiracial, multi-religious, multi-lingual society such as Singapore, where diversity is pervasive, unity will be its strength and disunity will be its death knell. In such a highly diverse country disunity is worth less than a match but combustible enough to set everything on fire, whereas unity is less eloquent than charming words but supreme enough to propel the country to greater heights. We cannot allow elements to sow discord, suspicion or divides. We equally cannot permit anyone to promote racism or intolerance.

Pharoah was an unjust and cruel king who oppressed the tribe of Israel. When God sent Moses, peace be upon him, the mission was to establish justice. Moses, peace be upon him, did exactly that. However as the tribe of Israel only knew how to live by justice with no sense of love, they became territorial. God then had to send Jesus son of Mary, peace be upon him, to establish love.

Modern Singapore as we all know was built by a lawyer who came at a time where crime was high, injustices were vast etc. His natural response was to establish justice which he did impressively. People too have learned how to live by the law. An unfortunate outcome is that of a society having many people who only have a sense of "law" but no sense of love, hereby being territorial. To them nothing is wrong as long as its not criminal or illegal. However not everything that is legal and non-criminal is not cruel or unethical. HOwever for one to understand ethics, a heart is required. The pursuit of "justice" or "law" alone without a sense of love, will only kill that heart within us. When that heart in us dies, we become a beast that is territorial, vicious and cruel. Agni Kootthu is one such entity. They simply have no regard for anything unethical, intolerant, insensitive as long as they can legally do it. To them, their territorial instincts will only have them naively believes its not a wrong but their fundamental right. In fact they are now aggressively trying to rally up support to pressure authorities to relax the laws for this or future productions. Legal boundaries of expression dont necessarily start and end with social boundaries of expression. In a multi-racial society like this, should a community identify a boundary of expression as the limit, others must respect it. As artists, one must have greater sense to respect these limits of others and not insist on straying these social boundaries till restrained by legal boundaries. Thats beastly behaviour.

Thenmoli, Agni Kootthu's president, was behind the staging of Talaq play some years ago which stereotyped Indian Muslim community as being ridden with women abuse. Even when the authorities banned the play to protect sensitivities of the Indian Muslim community, she attempted to stage it forcibly and had to be arrested to prevent it. Now again Agni Kootthu has produced a racially insensitive play which again the authorities has banned and Thenmoli is again getting confrontational. Refer to her reply here

Agni Kootthu must realize that their zealeous and radical attitudes amount to nothing less than racism. They are nothing less then being intolerant. What they are doing is unethical, even if they are to be allowed to do it legally. This form of Hindu fundamentalism and secular extrimism will only bring about divides, confusion and destroy goodwill. Their fiery brand of fanaticism is racism not arts. Its racial harrassment. Agni Kootthu need to put out their fire....

If Agni Kootthu really want to explore and address issues in other communities, they have to do it with a sense of love not with a sense of fire.