Alfian's Thoughts on Singapore

Some of the challenges that we face are universal. It is difficult to make a living and a career out of writing and publishing in Singapore. For a country of 4.5 million people, I believe that there are fewer than 10% who are active readers. From that percentage, even fewer pick up and read works written locally. Readership is a challenge. We don’t have a reading culture. If you look at the bestseller lists, they are works, in a sense, already successfully and globally marketed, like Harry Potter. A lot of self-help books reach the bestseller list. That happens to be the reading diet of the Singapore population.

Bissme S interviews award-winning playwright Alfian Sa’at in The Sun about living and writing in Singapore, and his brushes with censorship. 

This I find interesting :

I am inspired whenever I come to Kuala Lumpur. I feel there are little pocket freedoms which I do not find in Singapore. There is greater freedom of expression in Malaysia.

(Alfian is currently doing a residence at CHAI House.)

*Thanks Bissme for sending me the link.

Discrimination at the DBP?

This year I am celebrating my tenth anniversary of this so-called war. ... It all began when I submitted a collection of short stories to DBP for publication. The collection comprised stories from ten Malaysian Indian writers including myself. In the foreword I wrote, an editor in DBP wanted to change the word "Bahasa Malaysia" to "Bahasa Melayu". When I still wanted to use the term "Bahasa Malaysia", he started to lecture me that the term doesn’t exist. The matter was even taken up to (prime minister) Datuk Seri Najib Razak who was then the education minister. He made a statement to the press that it was all right to use the term "Bahasa Malaysia". But DBP said it’d only publish the book if I used the term "Bahasa Melayu". In the end, I did not allow the book to be published by DBP.

Uthaya Sankar SB talks to Bissme S in The Sun about non-malay authors writing in Bahasa Malaysia and his run-ins with Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. He puts his finger very nicely on just what is wrong with the organisation :

DBP works at a snail’s pace. Once it does get a manuscript, it can take years to publish it. It’s also an open secret that it does not have a good marketing strategy. DBP should learn from Alaf 21 (a publication house owned by Kumpulan Karangkraf Sdn Bhd). Alaf 21 starts its marketing and publicity drive long before the books hit the market. Publishing books per se is not good enough anymore. You need to promote the books vigorously so readers will pick up the books. You need to make sure the books are available everywhere. But this is not happening in DBP because most of the time, the books are merely available in the Dawama (the marketing and distribution department of DBP) storerooms. Therefore, it is not surprising that (national laureate) Datuk A. Samad Said has taken back the rights to most of his books from DBP and wants to publish under his own publishing house, Wira Bukit Sdn Bhd. Haslina Usman has also done something similar with her father (national laureate) Datuk Usman Awang’s works by taking back all the copyright from DBP and publishing under UA Enterprises Sdn Bhd. DBP is given the task and responsibility to look after our national laureates but it appears it is not doing a good job. The fact that these national laureates do not want to be under DBP’s umbrella doesn’t paint a good picture of DBP. I submitted a letter to DBP recently to officially take back the rights to my books under it. I have no other choice. In 2007, I gave DBP a letter to reprint my books under their publication since there was a demand for my books. But it has not done anything to date. It’s a sad fact that DBP is not proactive. ... Every year, DBP is getting funding from the government to publish a certain number of good quality books. It does not have to generate profit since it relies on the government funding. It feels as long as it publishes books, it has done its job.
... Privatisation is not the answer. It is the mentality of the people involved that should change.

and one hope the right people are reading and will take the comments to heart. Despite the criticisms, he describes his relationship with DBP like that of a father and son.

Another point he makes quite nicely is that* :

So far no non-Malays have made it as sasterawan negara (national laureate) and this proves discrimination exists.*

and he cites the example of poet Dr Lim Swee Tin whom he says is really deserving of the honour ...

Postscript :

(*Apologies - I attributed these words wrongly to Utthaya when these were the words used by the interviewer, Bissme S.)

Cooking Up A Stormkitchen

Author and Publisher Amri Ruhayat (aka Ruhayat X), talks to Bissme S. in The Sun and I think some of his comments are bound to stir up some lively discussion.

On the philosophy behind his imprint, Stormkitchen, he says :

A stormkitchen is this cheap cooker you use on camping trips. It is simple and utilitarian. That is the underlying philosophy: to make writing fun. Even frivolous. ... My belief and experience is that young Malays are repressed. Our society behaves like it does not welcome young ideas … That these youngsters have no value. Fair enough. But we still need to give the young an outlet to express themselves safely before it gets too late. Otherwise it will be like a pressure cooker without a safety valve. But there are not many places where they can be creative and expressive. I wanted to give them one such platform. If they go to mainstream publications, they are unlikely to get published. ... Maybe it is simply the job of the mainstream anywhere to not tolerate alternative viewpoints. Or maybe it is simply because often there are no messages in these "karya picisan" (unimportant works). When I first started out I was often asked: "What is the message of the story? What is the moral?" But heck, not every story needs to have a moral purpose.

No moral values writ large, to cram down kids' throats?? *Blink*

I feel the same, but Amri says it better :

A writer needs to be aware that whatever he writes will have an influence on at least someone. If words have no weight then people would not have burnt books or prosecuted writers throughout history. But honestly, a writer of fiction should write for no reason other than to tell a story. It is not for the writer to guide society. In the realm of fiction, the story should operate on its own moral terms. That is what separates it from reality. ... I do believe that writers have a responsibility, but that responsibility is simply that they should be true to themselves. Anyone who writes deliberately with a subtext in mind is being manipulative, if not naive. Today you cannot dictate what the subtext is going to be anymore.

He also talks about his challenges in running the magazine Elarti. Besides the financial burden he says the publication hasn't been appearing because :

... we just don’t get enough quality contributions. And my bar is not set very high, so that ought to give you something to think about.

And not enough writers are prepared to challenge convention, which, he says, may be a result of upbringing :

Traditionally, the Malays are not outspoken. Even when we criticise, we are very polite. We do not say things directly to your face. For example, if you asked us to do something, we always say "Insya Allah" even when we already know we are not going to do it. It is one of the things I admire about this culture, but these days it is not always the right solution.

He also reckons :

Culture has become stagnant and stereotypical here.

Do the rest of you reckon things are as bleak as Amri paints them? I see writing in English really taking off in Malaysia ... at all levels. But am not at all qualified to talk about writing in Malay. And if Amri's right - then is there anything we can do?

Rahmat the Rebel

It is not only the artists who should change the country and the world that they live in. It is everybody’s responsibility. The first step is to open up imagination.

Controversial poet (and artist and rebel!) Rahman Harun responds to Bissme's searching questions in the Sun and along the way talks about (among much else) the ISA, the environment, the state of the country, and how he marched to Putrajaya with others to hand the PM a pillow.

You can watch Rahmat performing his most famous poem, Keranamu Malaysia, a liturgy of Malaysian slogans on YouTube, here.

Reclaiming History

It saddens me that Malaysia does not make more of its wide and varied history.

How on earth does a British engineer in the oil and gas industry end up writing a huge historical novel set in Miri, Sarawak?

In the Sun Bissme S. interviews Paul Leslie Smith (whom some of you will remember from Readings@Seksan a couple of months back).

Paul describes how most of his novel, Rainforest Tears, which centres on the love story of a British man and a Chinese/Melanau woman, was written in hotel rooms as he travelled for business. (Writing it kept him out of the bars, he says!) He also explains how he interviewed folks in Miri who had lived through the war, including one 82 year old man who moved him to tears:

He told me how they had a fine, thriving town before the Japanese arrive. ... Then he said the Japanese spent three years beating them, raping them, killing them and leaving them with nothing.

I met Paul for coffee a week or two ago and he showed me the old photographs he collected as he was doing his research and will soon be putting up on a website. I had no idea that Miri had such a fascinating past!

Thuan Chye Rides the Tsunami

Kee Thuan Chye is interviewed in the Sun by Bissme S about the political tsunami that swept the country on March 8th, the subject of his latest book (subtitled The Day Malaysia Woke Up)which features interviews with and essays with Malaysians from all walks of life and which he believes (and I think we would totally agree) that there has been an awakening to "the true meaning and practice of democracy".

I liked this :

Fear will inhibit you from doing a lot of things. If Raja Petra had been cowed by fear, he would not have spoken out and captured the imagination of so many people. He knew he would have to face the consequences and, sure enough, he is now being detained unfairly under the ISA. ... But he set an example that surpasses any example that any of our leaders has set. We all need to be more like Raja Petra.

and also his vision of :

A regard for all Malaysians as human beings, and therefore equal and inferior to none.

He also says (quite rightly) that :

He would also like to see literature written by Malaysians regarded as Malaysian literature, not segmented into national literature and communal literature, and wishes that the Printing Presses and Publications Act would be abolished.

*A round of applause.*

(Thanks too to Bissme for letting me know about this.)

Feeling the Heat at the Coolest Event

Readings@Seksan might have been voted one of the coolest events in town, but I can tell you that on Saturday afternoon the heat was intense, the humidity suffocating. So hot in fact that our first writer started to feel unwell halfway through his set, and had to stop.

But Shinji Moriwaki came back in the second part of the afternoon with a high-energy delivery of very powerful hip-hop poems with social and political themes- the first one about Islamic fundamentalism particularly clever.

I first heard Shinji during the open mic session at one of the Wayang Kata gigs last year and knew I had to invite him. Some of you may know him better as Figure of Speech, a hip-hop drum 'n' bass emcee who is also a member of The Works.

Our Nigerian-resident-in-Malaysia author Anthony Isoh told us a little about his latest novel Black Banana and read to us from the first chapter.

Bissme S. is a journalist with The Sun and I've linked to his interviews with authors several times. He also writes short fiction, and has had stories published in Dark City 2 and now in Aweks (translated into Malay). He read for us a story called To Be His Lover which had a very surprising ending.

Kenny Mah catches the insecurities and the bitter-sweetness of love so well. (One of the pieces he was Hide and Seek).

Nazri M. Annuar, better known as Vovin who read a short story from K-Eight the latest publication put out by Sindiket Soljah.

Poet Pey Colbourne was also making her second appearance at Readings and I hope it isn't too long before we have a book of her work. Among the poems she read Lost Seasons of Sun and Rain which expressed a nostalgia for the Malaysian climate (and a peel of thunder rang out bang on cue!) and a magical piece called Fox Women based on a Chinese legend.

Kathleen Choo, George Wielgus, Reza Rosli and Hazlan Zakaria members of Poetry Underground (a very active group which meets regularly to work on their poetry and practice performance skills - find them here on Facebook) gave us a poem each, (and very appropriately Kathleen's and George's were about about what poetry should be like!)

Our afternoon ended with slices of a delicious butter cake (with a slightly salty to tease the tongue topping) baked for us by Nigel Skelchy of Just Heavenly.


Sincere thanks to all who read and all who came. To Shahril Nizam for the lovely poster - his only reward for which is plenty of good karma! To Seksan (below) for the beautiful space, even more good karma.

Apologies for not being too fast blogging all this. My camera packed up and I had to beg the photos from Lyrical Lemongrass from whom I lifted the pictures of Kenny, Pey, Shinji, cake and Seksan (see the whole set here) and from Daphne Lee (the pictures of Anthony and Bissme).

Our next event is on June 28th and among the readers will be award-winning Sri Lankan author, Elmo Jayawardena.

Pak Samad and the Copyright

National Laureate A. Samad Said talks to Bissme S. in the Sun about the serious neglect of Malay literature in this country, and how he doesn't see the situation improving.

The dumbing down of the Malay literature syllabus in schools is a particular cause for concern :

Just think of these students two decades from now. They are not exposed to good literature.

If you start saying the work of Sasterawan Negara are difficult at school level, then don’t expect them to touch these books when they leave school. You are sending out a clear message - do not read the work of Sasterawan Negara. Everything should start in school. We are not creating a situation where people will read good literature.

In America the students are studying To Kill A Mocking Bird, and in England they go for Lord Of The Flies. All are difficult books. If you want simple books, then just read ABC all the time.

Pak Samad also talks about his attempt to get the copyright of his books back from Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, so that now they are out of print and unavailable, he can publish them himself. Apparently they have given him the rights to seven books, but not to twelve others :

... the most important ones ... the ones I want.

including to Pak Samad's best known work, Salina.

DBP always says the work of Sasterawan Negara is difficult to sell. When you ask for your copyright, they don’t want to give it to you. ... I think it is the right time to give me the rights to all my books. What is the point of keeping the copyright for my books if people are not interested in reading them?

Now this is where you, my blog readers, come in.

There is a petition organised by Pak Samad's son Helmy (which I learned about from Ted's blog) urging the DBP to give the author the copyright, and you can your names to the online version.

Pak Samad now has a beautiful website where you can read about his latest publications and enjoy samples of his work. And he's also on Facebook (although no-one has thrown a sheep at him yet, it seems.)