Malaysia has lost a national treasure, and we barely noticed it. Can't help but mourn the loss of the wayang kulit maestro, Pak Dollah Baju Merah.
There's something beautiful about this man who has mastered his art (or rather, was mastered by it) and seek to communicate it to the younger generation...
Al-Fatiha.
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"...most of all, I treasured the moments when Pak Dollah took out his puppets to play, to tease us. He brought out two puppets and depicted them in mortal duel, making them dance with daggers in their hands. As the defender sidestepped his attacker, Pak Dollah, with a deft twist of his hand, ended the sequence with a keris plunged in the latter’s back.
Pak Dollah went on to explain, with a mischievous grin, how different he was from other dalangs – that in a battle such as this, some dalangs would simply let the puppets at each other. He, on the other hand, would use that sequence to divulge the nature of people in conflict: humans, and perhaps the Malays particularly, are very able backstabbers.
For me, this small gesture revealed something about the role the dalang plays – that he is the people’s storyteller, the observant commentator of his society, someone who understands the times and the necessity for symbols and stories.
Keeper of Traditions
Dollah Baju Merah emerged as the principal force behind substantive changes in wayang repertoire, creating a lasting and contemporary tradition of cerita ranting (branch stories) that combined all the elements of bawdiness, sensuality and high drama for which he was renowned and which he performed with inimitable dexterity and grace. Popular Hindi songs found their way into his musical repertoire, and his comic sequences embraced sardonic political satire.
At 68, just months before his death, Dollah Baju Merah was still intensely involved in his art. Years later, following the proscription on wayang performance in Kelantan by the PAS-led state government, he would state, with a combination of contempt and pride, “they did not like me”.
Throughout his life as a performer, Dalang Dollah Baju Merah negotiated the boundary between tradition and innovation, creating deep, dramatic tensions off which he played effortlessly.
“Performance,” he would explain, “is theirs,” referring to his audience. “Tradition, on the other hand, is mine.”
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