A number of artistes like former actress and Miss Malaysia/World '98/99 Lina Teoh, and Shamser for example, have been brought up in Australia to a culture almost completely foreign to their Asian parent/s. A culture which is a lot more vocal, and which also embraces creativity and freedom of expression, they grew up being vastly different to their Malaysian counterparts. Then there are also the few who spent their whole lives growing up in Malaysia but found themselves with a different outlook to life.

But for those who were born and brought up abroad, some would return to Malaysia in search of themselves or visit family and end up accidentally being scouted for the media. Some on the other hand, have actively tried in their own Western home country to break into the entertainment media scene but found they couldn't because they looked "too Asian". So where would they go? Prospects were of course (relatively) better in Malaysia. At least to build a portfolio of professional media experience, and then maybe try again "back home".

Where there is supply, there's a demand for these Pan-Asian personalities. Why do media producers seem to favour the celups over local faces? The obvious answer is we're all superficial, we enjoy looking at pretty faces; and unfortunately, our distorted perception of beauty is too skewed to the Caucasian flavour. Plus we hold Western brands in higher esteem anyway. There seems to be the common idea that being Western makes you superior. Hence, the media plays with this perception - the Pan-Asian look is the East meets West look - so why not hire them? They seem to define the best of both worlds anyway.

That's just for the print ads and TV commercials where you don't even hear these talents speak, where some of their personalities don't even matter. However, in Malaysia, because our industry is so small and racially segregated, to sustain their "rice bowl" they become multi-talents across media genres - in acting and hosting TV programmes. They're embraced further because they're more articulate. They are admittedly a bit more critical, analytical and outspoken compared to their non-celup counterparts. I'm not saying there are no non-celup talents who are of the same caliber, just that the choices are few and far in between.

Especially more baffling about this ban is knowing there are so many paradoxes in our own society over things like beauty pageants. Did you know that since the mid-90s Malay women are banned from participating in any beauty contests like the Miss World, Miss Universe pageants? They'll be taken to Syariah court if caught. Irony? Malaysia is represented in the International front by a non-Malay. So what happens when our Pan-Asian girls like Miss Malaysia/Universe '03 Elaine Daly gets banned from the media completely? We won't even get to see her on our own MSM, but the whole world will know she represents us. Does that make sense? Malaysia's definitely moving backwards.

If Datuk Zainuddin Maidin's concern is that there should be a balance in selecting the faces of our media, then it should be a restriction. Not an outright ban. What I'd predict for the future of Malaysian television? More Sunsilk tudung-clad girls type of TV commercials for sure. If that's any ad to baffle your senses, that's it. And guys, imagine - no more Hannah Tan. Even if she's 100% Malaysian.

Here's a funny anecdote that happened to me during a project I completed for the Tourism Ministry before I left. We were working on a video for Visit Malaysia 2007, to which the director's concept was to show the real people of Malaysia. He was obviously going for your average Mat, Ali and Ah Beng types to give the video a feel of our reality (in a polished setting, of course) and not the pretty talents so often used. What the tourism officer told us? Hesitantly, "We'd prefer if you used prettier talents. Since the video is marketed abroad."