Apparently Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said during his adjournment speech at the Umno general assembly last week that the Malays are religious but tend to resign themselves to fate and can be very superstitious.
Syed Nadzri takes up the theme and relates it to the kinds of books and magazines favoured by the Malay Community:
... it is quite disconcerting to note that the cerita hantu or cerita toyol (creepy gothic stories) are among the most popular among Malay readers.
That is why some tabloids and magazines are cashing in on this craze by sensationalising with headlines such items as Kubur berasap (Smoke on the grave) or Mayat bertukar menjadi babi (Dead turns into pig).
They are certainly worse than the News of the World-type of stories about UFO sightings, Elvis alive and women giving birth to crocodiles.
Among the best-selling Malay storybooks not too long ago was the Bercakap Dengan Jin series (conversations with the spirits) by an author called Tamar Jalis.
His books were all about grisly tales and they were told in a not-so-tasteful language.
The books also have garish covers. Yet these were so popular that most were sold out the moment they hit the shelves.
I know an avid reader of the series. He would spend nights on end reading the books to the point that he always overslept and was often late for work.
One of the books he read was about a snake god and the snake man.
He must have liked this book because he read it over and over until one day when he came to me with a horrified look.
I asked him what was wrong and he said: "Please help me, please, please. I am going to turn into a snake tonight. I can feel it in my skin. And they are calling me."
When I asked who "they" were, he said: "My snake family."
To my horror, he was indeed writhing and squirming on the floor when night came, although he looked as human as ever. Things were never the same for the poor chap ever since.
This could be dismissed as a remote case of a good mind gone wrong.
Some magazines and tabloids even stretch the reader’s imagination by suggesting a twist to sicknesses suffered by somebody — as in "Artis dijangkiti penyakit misteri" (Singer down with mysterious illness) when there must be a medical explanation for the ailment.
It is no surprise, therefore, that the best-selling Malay reading materials are those featuring either these kinds of bizarre fare or those with sexy and gossipy elements.
All well and good. Everyone to his or her own taste. But what is really worrying is what Syed Nazri says at the end of the article:
Journals on current affairs, literary magazines or special interest periodicals in Bahasa Malaysia hardly sell. Massa, a political and current affairs news magazine, had to cease publication not too long ago, while Dewan Bahasa’s Dewan Masyarakat and Dewan Sastera are struggling.
Would be interested to hear your views.
7 comments:
sharon, when my children went back to Malaysia, we went to the book shop and they became hooked on those ghost story series as told by taxi drivers. but even as young kids, we ourselves would huddle in corners to listen to an elder cousin or aunty tell us ghost stories. I was telling a friend too abt the belief in black magic...last year i met a professor who did a whole thesis on this.
Artistic licence to make up fanciful explanations and fictions is one thing. No doubt it is also a licence to make pots of money.
But what happens when a culture does not begin to distinguish between reality and fiction, between truth and falsity? When outright lies, myths, stupid absurdities, illogicalities and impracticalities is accepted as truth?
What happens when a culture does not inculcate the desire to check out the truth of reports?
That group of people becomes naive, gullible, accepting, conforming and fearing of all sorts of lies and situations, and easily manipulated and taken advantage of.
The most important value in education is to learn the need to verify, how to verify and to adapt to the truth learnt. All other things are secondary and flow from a respect, search and application of the truth.
Mine namesake speaks true. Personally though, I never resign myself to fate. I am very proud to say I spent my entire life fighting my obvious destiny. :)
I for one wouldn't dare to read ghost stories especially at night for I have an active imagination. But, from the bookstore I work at, teenage customers most often go for Singapore Ghost Stories. I think it's more for the thrill and because it can be true even.
However, whether it's what the Malays favor mostly, I doubt it. What did he base his statement on? In the bookstore, most of the Malays don't hang around the ghost story section but they do at the malay novels section or the religion books section.
As for them being superstitious, I think it's only natural as it is part of their life and culture what with the existence of bomohs in kampungs and such (forgive me if I'm wrong on this, but it's just my opinion).
As far as tabloids go, they are only meant to be taken lightly. But it does give some fun reading. ;D
Kak Teh - ghost stories are delicious though, aren't they!
anonymous - "The most important value in education is to learn the need to verify, how to verify and to adapt to the truth learnt. All other things are secondary and flow from a respect, search and application of the truth." Very well said. Agree entirely.
anonymous2 - "I spent my entire life fighting my obvious destiny"
Now that's the sort of statement that intrigues a reader and makes them want to know more.
Cheekymonkey - It's very nice to have the perspective of someone who works in a bookshop.
What did he base his statement on?" A very good question to ask since he doesn't back up his assertions with any hard data.
So you see what I mean. Which isn't the same as "I mean what you see" but then it shouldn't be. At any rate, you see what I mean.
I'd write the story of my life, but what would it be other than a tired, weary diatribe from one grown too old too soon ? wars tend to do that to people. And then there are the war wounds, Sharon. The landscape of my mind is filled with shell craters gratuitously delivered by verbal artillery. What's left must be relentlessly prodded to provide the kind of turgid prose that I'm inordinately fond of.
Who'd want to read that ? :)
Poor anonymous. I do hope the wounds heal over soon ... and you get your words out there again. (With bullet proof shields around them this time.)
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