Karim baffled over negative comments on Rajah

KUCHING: Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has expressed uncertainty over what prompted Jamie Bush, who claimed to represent the Sarawak cast in the ‘Rajah’ movie, to make negative comments about the movie.

The Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts said based on media reports, Jamie is a casting member and that the latter should be happy to be part of the movie.

“I have to admit that I am not very familiar with movie making, but what I know is the producer and production house make the movie, and the actors and actresses plus cast members act in the movie.

“What right has a cast member to question the line of the story in the movie-making? You are ’employed’ to be a cast member.

“It is not for you to claim that the movie is a huge disappointment or its history line is wrong,” he told New Sarawak Tribune.

Abdul Karim further said ‘Rajah’, is a movie and not a documentary.

Earlier, it was reported that Jamie had said the movie has turned out to be a huge disappointment.

She claimed that its scriptwriter and the producer had omitted many important historical facts and figures, and purposely deviated from the original storyline.

“Local historians, politicians, well-informed and patriotic Sarawakians are of the opinion that the scriptwriter and the producer of the film are utterly ignorant of the history and the sentiment of Sarawakians.

“A very important figure like Pengiran Muda Hashim was not even featured in the film. Sarawak’s important history has been completely distorted in the film, it is bizarre and disastrous beyond mention,” said Jamie, who is also a writer for a magazine.

Rajah, is a Hollywood film about Sir James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak and was entirely shot in Sarawak from September until the end of October 2019.

It was released in cinemas across Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam on March 9.