Sunday, May 04, 2008

Postcards for Protest

Sisters In Islam were handing out these lovely little postcards at the book fair. Not for people to tuck into their new books to mark the page (although I did steal one or two and will use them for that purpose) but to sign and send to the Minster of Home Affairs as a protest about the banning of books in Malaysia. The picture is by ... of course everyone's favourite illustrator, Shahril Nizam. I wonder if this is the cutest protest by anyone, anywhere, ever.


My clumsy translation (without help, without a dictionary and which you can pick me up on!) :
As a Malaysian citizen who loves to read, I strongly condemn book banning by the government.

The act of banning goes against the notion of freedom of information and runs contrary to the reading campaigns that the government itself has encouraged.

I am concerned that action like this will have a harmful effect on the intellectual development and creativity of the people.
More about the forum on book banning to come.

13 comments:

Kak Teh said...

wow, sharon wow!!!
That's brilliant! I only want to point out something that is missing. Just put a comma after membaca in the second line. It'll read better - but wow! sharon!

I will send one too if there is such an effort to send postcards to the dato seri.

bibliobibuli said...

yes, it's worth inundating him! btw loved your piece about the 1st malay regiment in london and abu is so chuffed that they are going to be on parade at twickenham at half time!

Kak Teh said...

sharon, these last few days I have been with them and dont i feel old. You know the saying, when you think the london bobbies are getting younger, you know that you've grown old.
But am enjoying every minute - I have given twickenham a miss - but will be at the Royal Windsor tattoo.

BTW - I hate that headline on my piece. We are really at the mercy of sub editors...and not many people know that we dont write the headlines. I cringed when I read that.

Cmate said...

Wow! Brilliant translation!

savante said...

Best protest ever! Hope they get lots of supporters. they should really publicize it more.

Anonymous said...

Yea good luck with the protest. Hope they wave placard in front of the Min. of Interior's offices :)

Anonymous said...

kak teh, i know what you mean about sub-eds. i had a heart attack yesterday. i know they're doing their job, but aduih.

Anonymous said...

The postcards are too nice to be sent away to the minister.

Can we just use those 50-sen postcards instead?

Anonymous said...

the book burning mob looks so cute . it makes me want to join and burn some too.

Anonymous said...

the book burning mob looks so cute . it makes me want to join and burn some too.

Anonymous said...

That's a really cute card and ya, brilliant translation too:)

Anonymous said...

darn it. I signed one too at the KLAB. If I knew it was a Shahril Nizam illustration, I would have kept one for myself.. :)

Anonymous said...

Put in anything you want.. heck get all your friends to sign it :)

Not that it will make a difference whichever government we have but still... :)