malaysia tatler. august 2019 133
F
or Ineza Roussille, her struggle with Tun M was personal.
She was always reluctant to step into the political world
of her grandfather. “When mum asked me to help her
fi lm granddad’s election campaign, my fi rst instinct was
to say no,” refl ects this half-French, half-Malaysian young woman.
Growing up as the granddaughter of Tun M came with its
own baggage—one that she wasn’t keen to unpack again. But
she knew how important her grandfather was to Malaysia, as
a symbol of hope and progress. “I eventually said yes to the
project, but I was adamant to portray the story as honestly
as I could through other people’s voices, especially considering
how divided Malaysians feel about him,” she says.
On the campaign trail, Ineza realised how much Malaysians
were hungry for change. “Granddad was mobbed everywhere
he went. I kept hearing all these stories from those who were
against him before, now telling us, ‘I believe in change. I am
going to give this man a second chance,’” she shared.
On fi lm, Ineza gave us an intimate look at the tender side
of Tun M’s character. There’s footage of Tun M sticking out his
tongue at the camera before hitting the road for a campaign
drive, his admission of exhaustion during the campaign trail and
traces of nervousness in his face while waiting for the election
results to be announced. When he speaks to the camera, there
is a gentleness that is clearly reserved for his granddaughter.
“I always talked at him from behind the camera. So during
the editing footages, they had to do a lot of work cutting my
voice out because I was talking too much!” admits Ineza.
In the ‘war room,’ as Pakatan Harapan was announced
the winner of the general elections, Ineza recalls feeling waves
of emotions throughout the process. In a scene from the
documentary, when they announced UMNO’s stronghold state,
Johor, had fallen to Pakatan, Ineza spoke to the camera in a
vlog style to express her disbelief. Then her stepfather Tara
Sosrowardoyo playfully reminded her that she is once again the
Prime Minister’s granddaughter; “suddenly, all my childhood
memories came rushing back,” she says candidly with a laugh.
But she knew things were different now, as she witnessed her
granddad sharing the stage with his former political ‘enemies,’
Dato’ Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Lim Guan Eng and Mohamad
Sabu. “You must understand that there have been painful
disputes between granddad and these people in the past. But
they still managed to put aside their differences and reconcile.
Their willingness to shed their egos and fi ght for the country’s
future resonated with the Malaysians who then handed them the
mandate for governance,” she says.
For the international version of the documentary, Ineza served
as a narrator to help non-Malaysians understand our nation’s
politics better. It was a decision that was well received during
the documentary’s screenings abroad. “M for Malaysia is about
Malaysia, but it is so much bigger than our country. There is a
hunger for a politically positive story, and now I am glad I said
yes to be a part of it despite my initial reluctance!” shares Ineza.Ineza Roussille
DIRECTOR AND CO-PRODUCER