KUALA LUMPUR: 'Artistic difference' may put a television documentary on the nation's first Prime Minister — Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj — on hold.

Filmmaker Mansor Puteh made it through the eyes of a family member and the voice of the man himself, tracing his life's journey around the world.

Now, says Mansor, the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (Finas), which is currently reviewing the film, wants a more "conventional" method.

"Finas is opposed to the idea of a documentary being made in such a way and wants a more conventional approach. The people who made those comments don't know the Tunku. And they don't know about making documentaries.

"They don't seem to acknowledge the relationship between me and the Tunku. They just demanded that things be done to their liking," Mansor, no stranger to controversies himself, told The Malay Mail yesterday at a tahlil ceremony at the Tunku Abdul Rahman Memorial on Jalan Dato Onn yesterday to commemorate the Tunku's passing on Dec 6, 1990.

Mansor's sister is married to the Tunku's nephew, whom the former Prime Minister eventually adopted as a son.

With his brother-in-law, Mansor embarked on a trail that took them to the Tunku's alma mater in Cambridge, England, besides other locations around the globe which helped to mould him into 'Bapa Malaysia' (Father of Malaysia).

"The Tunku recounted his experience as a student in England, of how he was not accepted among the students over there because he wasn't of the same race to me in 1986.

"These accounts, in Tunku's own voice and words, were included in the documentary."

Mansor claimed that the different viewpoints is due to the fact that Finas board members responsible for reviewing materials are new. I'm still trying to explain to them what exactly the documentary is all about.

At the tahlil function, Minister of Information, Communications and Culture, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, called on filmmakers to produce documentaries on the Tunku and past Malaysian leaders.

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