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Kee Thuan Chye (born May 25, 1954; aged 70) is a Malaysian actor, dramatist, poet and journalist. Acting in theatre, films, and on television for more than 30 years, he continues to do so. In 1981, Kee co-founded the theatre group, KAMI, in Kuala Lumpur. A noted civil rights activist, he would express in his plays whatever he could not express through the newspapers under Malaysia's repressive Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA). For speaking out without fear or favor, Kee was among the first recipients of The Annexe Heroes Freedom of Expression Awards when it was launched in 2008.^[1] In 2010, he was also voted the 34th Most Trusted Malaysian in a poll conducted by Reader's Digest.^[1]

Although social reengineering under the New Economic Policy had already begun after the May 13 Incident of 1969, it became more pronounced after Mahathir bin Mohamad became Prime Minister in 1981. At the New Straits Times, Kee Thuan Chye received numerous memos from his editor-in-chief for trying to push the parameters and opening up public discourse on what was deemed 'sensitive' issues. Firmly believing that the responsibility of a journalist to the public is to inform them of the truth, he had to battle with his superiors and as a consequence, he was often punished, marginalized, and shut out.^[2] In 1988, Kee received his Master's degree in drama from the University of Essex, after being awarded a British Council Fellowship for postgraduate studies in England.

In 2001, Kee Thuan Chye became the Associate Editor of The Star in Kuala Lumpur, creating and editing the English column, Mind Our English, until retirement in May 2009.^[3] His Sunday Star column, Playing The Fool, which he began in April 2001, ran for only two installments before it was cancelled. In his inaugural article, Kee had written that he would be speaking out frankly on social and political issues, without fear or favor. His second article, hitting out at racial discrimination in Malaysia, was published but when it came to his third article, the editors got jittery and suppressed it. The Star finally decided to terminate the column after Kee submitted his fourth article.

Civil rights advocacy

Kee Thuan Chye's political awakening began when he could not afford to pursue his Masters degree unless he had a tutor's position.^[2] He applied for the post at Universiti Sains Malaysia, his alma mater, and although he was the top student in his class, the job was given to someone else.^[2] Kee then joined the now-defunct National Echo as a literary editor where he wrote scathingly about political matters. Moving from Penang to Kuala Lumpur to join the New Straits Times in the late 1970s, he saw more clearly how race had been politicized to divide the people. Mahathir bin Mohamad who had become the Prime Minister in 1981 was becoming increasingly dictatorial and would tolerate no criticism of him and his government in the media.

What Kee Thuan Chye could not express through the newspaper, he eventually expressed in his plays. 1984 Here and Now which spoke out frankly against Big Brother and institutionalized racial discrimination, played to full houses in 1985,^[2] followed, amongst others, by The Big Purge which brazenly satirizes Mahathir and Operation Lalang.

In the aftermath of the 2008 general elections, Kee Thuan Chye rushed out his book March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up in a record three months, due to the topicality of the subject matter. This was followed by March 8: Time for Real Change in 2010. For speaking out without fear or favor, Kee was among the first recipients of The Annexe Heroes Freedom of Expression Awards when it was launched by The Annexe Gallery at Central Market in Kuala Lumpur in 2008 to recognize Malaysians who have done outstanding work in championing freedom of expression in the previous year.^[4] In 2010, he was also voted the 34th Most Trusted Malaysian in a poll conducted by Reader's Digest.^[1]

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Remarks
2008	Sell Out!	CEO 1	Directed by Yeo Joon Han (Amok Films)
2007	1957 Hati Malaya	Tan Cheng Lock	Directed by Shuhaimi Baba (Pesona Pictures)
2004	Ah Lok Kafe: The Movie	Char Koay Teow	Directed by Anwardi Jamil
2001	Snipers	Mr. Tan	Written and directed by James Lee
2000	Lips to Lips	Scrabble Man	Written and directed by Amir Muhammad
1999	Anna and the King	Second Judge	Directed by Andy Tennant, starring Jodie Foster (Twentieth Century Fox)
1999	Entrapment	Trader #1	Directed by Jon Amiel, starring Sean Connery (Twentieth Century Fox)

Television

Kee Thuan Chye has appeared in more than 20 television dramas, including but not limited to:

Year	Title	Role	Remarks
2009	10 (Sepuluh)	Liew	8-episode TV drama series
2009	Mr Siao's Mandarin Class	Robert Toh	TV sitcom
2008	Sense of Home: Kampung Kid	Marcus Owyang	Lead role in the TV-movie, shot in Siem Reap, Cambodia
2008	Secrets of the Forbidden City	Xia Yuanji	Playing the role of Minister of Revenue to the Emperor Yongle in the dramatized documentary for the BBC and the History Channel
2007	Marco Polo: Discovery of the World	Chief Map Maker	Hallmark TV-movie
2006	Realiti	David Yeoh	A TV series
2004	Singapore Shakes!	David Setoh	'Seventh Month' episode of the Singapore series
2004	Perceptions	Victor Wong	Main-cast member in the 13-episode Singapore series
2003	Each Other	Ronnie Ng	Semi-regular role in the 13-episode drama series
2002	Kopitiam	Kok Hui	Guest role in one episode of the 3rd season
2002	Love Matters: The Marriage Factor	Daddy	A Singapore telemovie
2001	Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd	Lim Pek Kong	Guest role of one episode of the Singapore sitcom
2000	Teh Tarik Dot Com	Vince	Main cast member of the 13-episode sitcom
1999	Kopitiam	Major Lim	Guest role of in one episode of sitcom (2nd season)
1996-1997	City of the Rich	Han Lee	Main cast member in the 200-episode series
1984	Maria	Peter	A Malay TV drama
1977	Bailey's Bird	Ming Ho	Guest role in German-Australian TV series

Plays

Kee Thuan Chye has written, directed, and acted in numerous plays, including but not limited to:

Year	Title	Role	Remarks
2011	Swordfish + Concubine: The Fall of Singapura	Writer	Directed by Jonathan Lim, Young 'n' Wild, Singapore
2011	The Baling Talks	Actor (as Chin Peng)	Played at the Singapore Arts Festival for Five Arts Centre
2008	The Swordfish, Then the Concubine	Writer	Directed by Ivan Heng, premiered as the opening play of the Singapore Theatre Festival 2008, organized by Wild Rice Productions.
2006	The Swordfish, Then the Concubine	Writer	The play made it to the Top 5 out of over 600 entries to the International Playwriting Festival, organized by the Warehouse Theatre in Croydon, United Kingdom, with excerpts presented at the festival in November 2006
2005	The Big Purge	Writer	Selected for Typhoon 4, a playreading festival organized by the Yellow Earth Theatre, held in Soho Theatre, London
2002	Beautifully Read	Actor	A performance sponsored by the U.S. Embassy, directed by Karin delaPena, Artistic Director of Speaking of Stories, based in Santa Barbara, California
1994	We Could *** You Mr. Birch*	Writer-cum-director	Performed for two seasons in June and December 1994. The play was invited to the Festival of Asian Performing Arts in Singapore in 1995 (performances on 5–6 June at the World Trade Centre Auditorium).
1993	The Birch and the Rod	Director	A play written by K.S. Maniam, premiering at the Australasian Drama Studies Association Conference in Perth, Western Australia
1992	Macbeth	Director	A Shakespearean play
1990	Gulls	Lead actor	Directed by Robert Hewett
1990	The Proposal	Actor (as Chubukhov)	Play written by Anton Chekhov
1989	Death of a Salesman	Actor (as Willy Loman)	Play written by American playwright Arthur Miller
1988	The Big Purge	Writer	Selected for Typhoon 4, a playreading festival organized by Yellow Earth Theatre and held in Soho Theatre, London
1987	Anak Tanjung	Actor (as Ah Heng)	A Malay play written by Noordin Hassan
1986	The Coffin Is Too Big for the Hole	Actor (one-man performance)	Play written by Kuo Pao Kun
1985	1984 Here and Now	Writer	Staged in 1985 by Five Arts Centre, directed by Krishen Jit
1985	Yap Ah Loy - The Play	Actor (various roles)	Play written by Chin San Sooi
1984	Long Day's Journey Into Night	Actor (as Jamie Tyrone)	Play written by Eugene O'Neill
1981	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead	Actor (as Claudius)	Play written by Tom Stoppard
1977	Eyeballs, Leper, and a Very Dead Spider	Writer-cum-director	-
1977	Antigone	Actor (as Creon)	Play written by Jean Anouilh
1974	Oh, But I Don't Want To Go, Oh, But I Have To...	Writer-cum-director	-
1974	The Situation of the Man who Stabbed a Dummy or a Woman and was Disarmed by the Members of the Club for a Reason Yet Obscure, If There Was One	Writer-cum-director	-
1973	An Old Man Died Today	Writer-cum-director	-

Scriptwriting for television

2009: Writing storylines for Auntie English, produced by Astro
2004: Co-writing the script for one episode of Singapore Shakes! with Remesh Panicker, followed by another episode, singly
1998–1999: Writing storylines for the 150-episode Idaman II
1997-1998: Writing storylines for the 150-episode Idaman

Major book publications

Apart from publishing numerous articles, Kee Thuan Chye has authored several books, including:

Ask for No Bullshit, Get Some More! (Marshall Cavendish, 2013)
No More Bullshit, Please, We're All Malaysians (Marshall Cavendish, 2012)
March 8: Time for Real Change (Marshall Cavendish, 2010)
March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up (Marshall Cavendish, 2008)
1984 Here and Now (Marshall Cavendish, 2004)
The Big Purge (Marshall Cavendish, 2004)
We Could **** You, Mr Birch (Marshall Cavendish, 2004)
Old Doctors Never Fade Away, a biography (Teks Publishing, 1988)
Just In So Many Words, a collection of selected writings in the press (Heinemann, 1992, reprinted 1993)
Haunting the Tiger and Other Stories, edited (Berita Publishing, 1991)

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Cite error: The named reference hero was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lim Kit Siang.com: Kee Thuan Chye unmasked
^ "Goodbye and thank you". The Star. 22 May 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
^ Loyarburok: LoyarBurokkers Receive ANNEXE HEROES Freedom Of Expression Awards 2010 (11 Dec, 12pm)

Template:Persondata

[hero-1] Cite error: The named reference hero was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[unmasked-2] Lim Kit Siang.com: Kee Thuan Chye unmasked

[3] "Goodbye and thank you". The Star. 22 May 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2009.

[loyarburok-4] Loyarburok: LoyarBurokkers Receive ANNEXE HEROES Freedom Of Expression Awards 2010 (11 Dec, 12pm)

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 {{chinese name|Kee}}
-'''Kee Thuan Chye''' (born May 25, 1954; aged {{age|1954|5|25}}) is a prominent Malaysian actor, [[drama]]tist, [[poetry|poet]] and [[journalism|journalist]]. Acting in theatre, films, and on television for more than 30 years, he continues to do so. In 1981, Kee co-founded the theatre group, [[KAMI (theatre group)|KAMI]], in [[Kuala Lumpur]]. A noted civil rights activist, he would express in his plays whatever he could not express through the newspapers under [[Malaysia]]'s repressive [[Printing Presses and Publications Act]] (PPPA). For speaking out without fear or favor, Kee was among the first recipients of The Annexe Heroes Freedom of Expression Awards when it was launched in 2008.<ref name="hero"/> In 2010, he was also voted the 34th Most Trusted Malaysian in a poll conducted by [[Reader's Digest]].<ref name="hero"/>
+'''Kee Thuan Chye''' (born May 25, 1954; aged {{age|1954|5|25}}) is a Malaysian actor, [[drama]]tist, [[poetry|poet]] and [[journalism|journalist]]. Acting in theatre, films, and on television for more than 30 years, he continues to do so. In 1981, Kee co-founded the theatre group, [[KAMI (theatre group)|KAMI]], in [[Kuala Lumpur]]. A noted civil rights activist, he would express in his plays whatever he could not express through the newspapers under [[Malaysia]]'s repressive [[Printing Presses and Publications Act]] (PPPA). For speaking out without fear or favor, Kee was among the first recipients of The Annexe Heroes Freedom of Expression Awards when it was launched in 2008.<ref name="hero"/> In 2010, he was also voted the 34th Most Trusted Malaysian in a poll conducted by [[Reader's Digest]].<ref name="hero"/>
 Although social reengineering under the [[New Economic Policy]] had already begun after the [[May 13 Incident]] of 1969, it became more pronounced after [[Mahathir bin Mohamad]] became [[Prime Minister of Malaysia|Prime Minister]] in 1981. At the New Straits Times, Kee Thuan Chye received numerous memos from his editor-in-chief for trying to push the parameters and opening up public discourse on what was deemed 'sensitive' issues. Firmly believing that the responsibility of a journalist to the public is to inform them of the truth, he had to battle with his superiors and as a consequence, he was often punished, marginalized, and shut out.<ref name=unmasked /> In 1988, Kee received his Master's degree in drama from the [[University of Essex]], after being awarded a [[British Council]] Fellowship for postgraduate studies in [[England]].