Are you a Mrs Koh?

We all know what  Lolita or a Shylock or a Scrooge is. Each of these character names has become a by-word for certain kind of individual.  But what about a Mrs Koh? Worse still, might you yourself be a Mrs Koh?

Robert Raymer tells me that he was pleasantly surprised to find an article by educator Denis Harry in The New Straits Times telling readers why they should be wary of the Mrs Koh type :

... who is lurking somewhere waiting to pounce on her next promising victim

The character is from Robert's short story Neighbours. (You can download the PDF here.) Writes Harry :

Neighbours, a fine work by Robert Raymer in Lovers and Strangers Revisited, highlights Mrs Koh as the central character. She fabricates stories to create rifts between neighbours. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Maybe this is because there are many Mrs Kohs in this world, people who really are venomous, vicious and potentially damaging, ready to trample on whoever stands in their way.

Raymer is spot on in creating Mrs Koh's character as she is portrayed as someone we both love and loath at the same time. When you hear her loud voice mentioning someone's name in high decibel, you know she wants your attention and she knows she gets yours.

On the other hand, deep inside your heart you keep praying that she does not talk about you. Whether you want to admit it or not, we all have a certain degree of nosiness. Sensational stories surely catch our alert-as-a-rabbit's ears. Unfortunately, they come with a hefty price tag.

Mrs Koh is someone we would call a nosy parker. ... In real life, you can never argue with whatever a Mrs Koh says; she is always right.

In addition to that, she knows everything and wants you to be aware of that too. Here is the sad irony: someone like Mrs Koh may appear warm, friendly and welcoming to those on first encounter with her. Her ability to crack jokes and make fun of other people's flaws and sufferings make her a "people magnet", drawing in audience the moment you anticipate she is going to say her first word. 

Sellerating Away!

I was very happy to receive my copy of  Clutch, Brake, Sellarator - the compilation of the winning entries for last year's MPH Short Story Competition, for which I was one of the judges. Encountering the stories again reminded me of the morning all those months ago the six of us battled it out over the 20 stories that had been shortlisted for us. And I have to point out that anything I say in this post reflects my own views and not necessarily those of the judging panel as a whole.

There were, you will remember, two grand prize winners.

Tan Twan Eng's  Some Things Will Remain set the bar for the competition very high indeed (as you would expect from a Booker-longlisted author) I loved the control of the piece - not a word is wasted and the story builds and builds to its heart-stopping climax while the peace and beauty of the setting, a lotus-covered lake, contrasts so starkly with the ugliness of the crime. I appreciated too how much is left unsaid, for the reader to bring their own interpretation of events to the story. 

The title story by Ivan Yeo was enjoyed by all the judges for its humour, carefully observed characters (we particularly loved the "not girlfriend"), and strong Malaysian voice. However,  I must confess that I found it a little over-written in places and I personally had a problem with the sudden change of mood at the end which seemed out of keeping with the rest.  But it is a very strong debut piece and I do hope that Ivan keeps writing : control and craft can be learned, but the strong storyteller is there already.

Of the runners-up, the story I thought strongest was Lee Eeleen's The Englishman at Table 19. It is simultaneously a coming-of-age tale, a ghost story, and a comedy exploring the family holiday from hell: it works very well on all these levels.

Pilling Time is a surreal short story by Shih Li Kow which the judges enjoyed very much.  It was very nicely written (and would we expect any less from Shih-Li?)  but I have to say that I preferred her more "rooted-in-the real-world" pieces in Ripples.

The Hunter and the Tigress by Zed Adam Idris is a dark and magical story which captures the smell and feel of the Malaysian rainforest. It's disturbing (I found particularly chilling the scene where the tiger design on the plate begins to move and bites the hand of the man trying to steal it) and it doesn’t give easy answers.  I was interested to see in the notes in the front of the book that this piece had grown from a short short story - because I've told Zed that it feels as if it needs to grow larger still and perhaps become a novella.

Vincent Foo's The Cobra's Mate is set in Sarawak.  I liked that there was plenty of action  and that the writer manages to maintain tension. I was fascinated by the insights into the dayak culture of the time.  


The competition has, I think, been very important in opening up another avenue for local writers, and in encouraging short story writing, and this collection is well worth a read.   I'm looking forward to next year so I can send in an entry myself!

Guat's Days of Change

Chuah Guat Eng's second novel Days of Change is due for release next month. It is the sequel to her first novel Echoes of Silence and is published by her own company Holograms. Here's the blurb :

The narrator is 55-year old Hafiz, whose name means 'the preserver' and 'the memorizer'. When his story begins, Hafiz is suffering from memory loss following a fall down a ravine in Ulu Banir. Unable to talk to a psychiatrist, he uses the I Ching, the Chinese 'book of changes' to trigger his memory. His objectives: to remember the circumstances of his fall, and why he now feels repulsed by his beautiful young wife. His experiment results in 8 notebooks, in which he records his memories of his childhood, the women in his life, his battle against a major corporation bent on appropriating his land and flooding the Banir valley for a Disneyland-type theme park, and his efforts to contribute to Malaysia's progress and development while preserving local traditional knowledge and his own moral integrity. Through Hafiz's memories, thoughts, and dreams, DAYS OF CHANGE provides glimpses of the socio-political changes and ethical challenges Malaysians have had to cope with since Independence.

The launch is at 1.30pm, 12 June 2010, The Annexe, Pasar Seni, Kuala Lumpur. You are all invited.

And pre-orders available through Amazon.com. The book retails here at RM40.00

Mahbob's Planters' Tales

I wrote so readers can enjoy the stories. In the plantations, you live with colourful characters. Many appear in the sixty chapters of each book. I started planting in 1963 at Cashwood Estate in Perak, so these true stories are a glimpse of the past. I spoke Tamil, as most rubber tappers were from India then. One of the stories tells how insects were brought in from Africa to take over the work of pollinating the female flowers. It was an idea from a Scotsman, Datuk Leslie Davidson, who was a planter in Cameroon before coming to our country.

An eminent entomologist, Datuk Dr Rahman Anwar Syed from Pakistan did the scientific work. Tun Musa Hitam was Primary Industries Minister then. Soon after he agreed to have the insects brought in, we stopped all the pollination workers. The insects did a much better job.

The books have a following. You can find them at various places such as Syidah bookshop in KLIA, the Incorporated Society of Planters near Jalan Ampang, Silverfish bookshop in Bangsar and the Badan Warisan office at Jalan Conlay. The Natural History Publications sells them in Kota Kinabalu, and you can find them in the biggest bookshop in Miri. Copies will also be sold in Cameron Highlands, at the pavilion on the Boh tea estate of Sungei Palas. There, in the cool air, you can enjoy a cup of tea and read.

Plantation expert and author Mahbob Abdullah answered readers' questions on the buiness pages of The Star yesterday . When asked his reasons for writing his books Planter's Tales and Planter Upriver, he says :

It grew from my interest in reading. I went to Undang Rembau English School, where everything was new including the boo ks. I can still recall the smell of the books in that library. Miss Boon the librarian got us to read. Then the Henry Gurney Memorial Library was op ened by the town field. I also went to people’s homes if they had books. Datuk Dr Kamarudin Kachar was one of them. He came from a rich family and had many books. At the Royal Military College in Port Dickson, my teachers also got me to read. One was Capt Bernard Preedy, who fought in the First World War. He encouraged me to write. I am writing my third book, also about plantations, which is mainly about stories from overseas including Indonesia, Africa, and one on Zanzibar.

Rock Star Professor

My background was in philosophy and I’m a philosopher by training. Much later I moved to political theory and began to work on the history of politics in Malaysia, pertaining to the history of the respective political parties. ... That was when I realised that even political parties distorted their own histories and some party members did not even know their own history. I was shocked when I interviewed a leader of a party who didn’t know the date of its foundation! And that’s when I realised that there were facets of Malaysia’s past that had been kept from most of us.

Farish "Rocky Star Professor" Noor is profiled by Martin Vengadesan in today's Starmag, and talks about his own colourful family history (Jawi-Peranakan, Indian and Arab blood) and parents who worked in broadcasting; his academic background (philiospher and political -theorist) ; and great populariser of Malaysian history via his lecture series at Central Market Annexxe. (The talks are collected in What Your History Teacher Didn't Tell You.)

And one piece of very good news for us -  this already prolific author is planning to retire in three years time and turn to fiction.

Perhaps the best quote about Farish comes from Silverfish's Raman, who is one of his publishers :  

If I have to describe him in one word I would use ‘intense’. He’s an avowed socialist and always on the side of the downtrodden and the victimised, and I can never find fault with his sense of fair play and his sense of humour. ... He is also indefatigable! When I was editing Quran and Cricket, I thought to myself that this guy is crazy. I was amazed at the lengths he went to get the stories, often putting his life (not to mention his sanity) in danger. I was watching a BBC news item on Patani once while editing the book, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, how lame is that?’ Compared to Farish’s reporting, most of the current news media have no clue what is going on. I realise that this is because most reporters cannot (and are not willing) to get down to the ground like him. Can you imagine Abu Bakar Bashir giving such an interview to a Western journalist?