Tash's Duty and Dreams

We were the first generation of Malaysians who grew up in a state of peace, and for whom higher education was a given: a huge number of us had the added luxury of being educated abroad. ... I look at the names of my email contact list and see people who now occupy lofty positions in investment banks and accounting firms in KL and elsewhere. And yet, in those moments of quiet and solitude, just before we turn our lights out at night, we might ask ourselves one question: what exactly have we achieved in our lives—for ourselves and for Malaysia?

On Eric's blog Tash Aw talks to his Malaysian readers about the importance of giving something back. The piece was written for Merdeka. (Sorry I'm just late finding it and blogging it.)

Methinks Tash has given us plenty, just by beating the odds and becoming a great success in a field where few make it, and then by encouraging the rest of us to read, to write, and get published.

Shared History, Shared Culture

History helps us understand who we are and where we have come from. This, in turn, allows us to appreciate other races whose ancestors too may have come from afar. And all of us, their descendants, are lucky enough to meet and mingle on this soil which we call home. ... Our forebears may have journeyed here centuries ago but it is the inward journey, one of mutual respect and trust, we should continue today.

I wish a very happy Merdeka to all Malaysians today, despite the sadness that many feel (including but certainly not limited to this.) It is so nice to See Malaysian authors featured in the National Day Special Supplement in The Star today. Tunku Halim talks about how Malaysian history that belongs to all while Lydia Teh talks about food and festivals and the other things that make Malaysians of all races Different But Same. Incidentally, Hal has a fascinating Merdeka piece on his blog about how an Englishman Tuanku Simon Mackay was appointed Malaysia’s 10th Yang DiPertuan Agong.

National Day Books

Malaysia is enjoying a long weekend for the 51st National Day, so Sunday's newspapers are, predictably, full of talk of nation building. It was a lovely surprise to see my friend and erstwhile writing group buddy Soo Choon on the pages of the Star, talking about her cross-cultural marriage.

In a very packed-with-good-stuff ReadsMonthly section the Starmag team journalists compile a list of their 51 best reads esp for Merdeka.

Daphne Lee interviews Bernice Chauly about her work (You can find the full interview on Daphne's blog.) :

Chauly’s poems are deeply personal. They may or may not be autobiographical in detail, but the stories they tell feel like they were shaped by real emotions and memories.

They are Chauly’s emotions, memories and stories, but they also speak to and for women the world over. They are familiar tales, but filtered through the voice of an individual, they defy the cliches of everyday experience and become significant, compelling and unique.

and Ahnaf reviews her collection of poetry The Book of Sins.

There's a write up by Rouwen Lin about the Read While Waiting flashmob event of last weekend.

Janet Tay review Nam Le's collection of short fiction The Boat (and there's a 25% off token!), and KayKay enjoys David Sedaris' When You Are englulfed by Flames.

Vernon Adrian Emaung crossed the causeway for Kee Thuan Chye's The Swordfish, Then the Concubine, which sounds as if it was beautifully staged :

Set in minimalist staging that featured a serambi or open platform for village gatherings, 15 Singaporean actors tackled a story that called for a cast of thousands across two generations – you couldn’t get more epic than that, right? Especially so when you have a gamelan orchestra providing for the peaks and troughs of human drama, the deafening clamour of war, and the crescendo of divine retribution. Music composer Joyce Teo and the Gamelan Asmarada group delivered proficiently on that aspect. The underlying political commentary linked current issues to these ancient myths quite commendably in the writing. Similarly, it was truly fascinating to watch the production draw stylistically from bangsawan (Malay opera), dikir barat, and silat to facilitate and vibrantly colour the storytelling.

It was quite an honour to have a Malaysian play kick off a Singaporean Theatre Festival. How sad I am I missed it. But I do hope it is staged here soon.

Tunku and Me

Here I am (or a slightly younger version of) being presented to Tunku Abdul Rahman who was Malaysia's first Prime Minister and led the crowds in a rousing call of Merdeka! (freedom) on this day fifty years ago when Malaysia became a nation.

The photo was taken on a less grand occasion. It was Malay College Speech Day 1986. After all the speeches, the staff lined up in the corridor to meet him. I was so proud to have shaken the hand of such a great man.

Wish all Malaysians, here and overseas, a very happy Merdeka.

The Long Literary Journey to Merdeka

You know the 31st of August is coming soon when you get woken by the sweet sound of MIG fighters screaming over the rooftops on a Sunday morning, as they practice for the fly-past for the Merdeka celebrations. I'm just near Subang airport where the planes are based, and am just waiting for the day when one lands in my cornflakes.

On a happier note, the NST is giving away a free facsimile copy of an edition from fifty-years ago with the paper each day in the run up to the celebrations. It's an amazing way to step back into the past, to find out what was in the news (anti-Communist operations, Field Marshall Sir Gerald Templer flying in for the celebrations and longing for a bath, an A-bomb test in South Australia) , what was on at the cinema (Stewart Granger and Rhonda Fleming in Gun Glory, Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers in The Seventh Sin based on Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil); what goods were being advertised (Brands Essence of Chicken - does nothing change?), what was on TV (oops, there was no TV in Malaya in 1957*. Sorry Tash!).


But of course, what caught my eye was the book page. Two Novelists write on Borneo, Malaya, says one headline, and the reviewer discusses Hugh Hickling's Festival of Hungry Ghosts (which involves the killing of a district officers somewhere in Borneo) and Katherine Sim's Malacca Boy ("the story of a Malacca boy, part Indian, a child of the kamponground whose life she wraps and understanding of the Malay scene").

Both books I'm now curious to read. Hickling's book is available at Abebooks, Sim's I can't trace anywhere.

Malaya and Borneo seen through British eyes ... literature written by the British, for the British.

Remember Burgess' optimism? That one day other races besides the Brits:

... may well themselves contribute to English literature.

You've come a long literary way in fifty years, Malaysia!

*TV broadcasts began here in 1963.

The Englishman Who Shouted Merdeka!

Was delighted to see Fredrick Lees interviewed by Wan A. Hulaimi in the New Sunday Times today.

Some of you will know Freddy as the author of Fool's Gold, a novel (published by Silverfish) based on his own experiences as an officer in the Colonial Service in Malaya, and may have met him at the first KL Literary Festival.

I met Freddy through my friends Jean and Barry who also have a house in Rye, in Sussex.

He really is a fascinating storyteller and I loved hearing about how things were here "back then", particularly when he took my head on a virtual tour of KL in the fifties and I saw the skyscrapers dissolve and the mansions along Jalan Ampang swim back into view.

But the best story and the one I told him really must be written was his account of how he - an Englishman - was actually the person who lead the crowds in the rousing call "Merdeka!" on that auspicious day.

Freddy had been enlisted as a member of the committee that organised the Independence Day celebrations:

At midnight, Aug 30, 1957, Tunku Abdul Rahman delivered his independence message to the people. "A new star has risen in the eastern sky, a star of freedom for yet another Asian people." From his drawer, Lees pulls out a bound copy of cyclostyled sheets, the schedule of events on the morning of Saturday, Aug 31.
Everything was timed exactly as it should have happened. "At 7.36 HRH the Duke of Gloucester arrives at the stadium and greeted by Datuk Abdul Razak and Encik Abdul Rahman Talib," he reads from one page.

But not everything went to plan, the Declaration of Independence as read by the Tunku and which everyone now takes as the highlight of the event, was not read as timed in the sheets. "What happened was a bus came up to the front of the Merdeka Stadium, drove into the storm drain and could not be removed. So the whole ceremony took place one hour later," recalls Lees with a chuckle.

He also remembers another incident that still gives him great satisfaction. Lees was in the stadium’s control box with Umno’s then rising star, Syed Jaafar Albar. Just as they were studying the schedules and looking out nervously for possible glitches, "Tunku Abdul Rahman popped his head in" on his way down to the stadium grounds.

He asked Syed Jaafar to lead the crowd in cheers of "Merdeka" at the conclusion of the event. This Syed Jaafar did. "Merdeka! Merdeka!" he shouted into the microphone as the dignitaries were moving out from the specially built Merdeka platform in the stadium.

The crowd responded with equal gusto, and then, according to Lees, another hitch: Syed Jaafar lost his voice. "Syed Jaafar turned to me and said, ‘My throat’s gone, my throat’s gone. You do it!’ "I did and shouted ‘Merdeka’ into the microphone, and ‘Merdeka!’ the crowd responded. Again, ‘Merdeka’..."
In his house in the peak of Rye, at midday, in front of the landmark church of St Mary the Virgin, Lees speaks his gruff voice into an imagined microphone of 50 years ago. "Merdeka! Merdeka!" Lees proclaims to the whitewashed room of his book-lined study. He sits back with a broad smile.

"I thought then, ‘This is marvellous, it gives me tremendous satisfaction. This is why I came here.’"

Flag Waving and Photos

Selamat Hari Merdeka.

Britain doesn't have a national day. (Well okay, we have our patron saint days e.g. England has St. George's day which everyone forgets about.) We're pretty sneery about patriotism in general. The only displays of patriotism now are reserved for international football matches, royal weddings and funerals, and the last night of the Proms.

But I think a national day is a much good thing, even if you're cynical about the marching and the flag waving and other openly extravagant shows of patriotism. It makes you think about your nation, examine how far you've gone since the turning point of Independence, and contemplate your future.

This year's National Day feels a bit dislocated. 49 is an awkward birthday. (Been there myself, bought the t-shirt.) You're contemplating the big one, when you can really pull all the stops out, so you don't bother much with the one at hand.

Congrats then to the New Straits Times which is celebrating Merdeka with an excellent exhibition of photos from 1957 in Bangsar Shopping Complex. The pictures also appear in a special pull-out section in today's newspaper.

I scanned in my favourite photo (top) captioned Have payung, will travel. I just love this group of smiling Malay girls strolling with their parasols. And how gaya they are in their traditional dress with flowers pinned in their hair.

Can a whole era be summarized in these images? Nostalgia naturally tints the past in rosy tones, but I do wonder if folks were happier back then.

The NST has also produced a facsmile of it's 1957 Merdeka issue which makes fascinating reading.*

Merde Kah

Another event to celebrate Merdeka. Or more cynically perhaps Merde Kah. (Parlez vous Francais?)

Presented by Unclogged, the event takes place 8.30 tomorrow Friday, 1st September 2006 at Little Havana, Changkat Bukit Bintang KL and costs RM15. (Click on poster to enlarge.)

I just want to know - is poet Ramat Harun acquiring superstar status?

Mat Salleh Boleh!!!

Hari ini, Hari Merdeka.
Sehelai bendera tidak ada di rumah kami
Sebab suami aku bersama kucing aku
Sudah dikolonisikan balik!

Tetapi
Walaupun aku asal dari negeri Britain,
Hari ini aku terpaksa membelogkan
Dalam Bahasa Melayu.
Aku sudah berjanji pada kawan belog aku
Yang bernama Eyeris.

Susahlah!
Aku tidak pandai menulis
Dalam BM.

Aku boleh bercakap sikit-sikit
Tapi aku selalu
Membuat banyak kesalahan.

Bila ibu-papa kawan aku bertanya "Mana pergi?"
"Oh, saya pergi makan anjing" saya menjawab.

"Tolong sapu semua sarang labu-labu,"
Aku cakap kepada pembantu rumah.

Suami aku selalu nak becakap dalam Bahasa Ingerris.
Kalau aku berbual dengan pekerja kebun,
Suami berkata itulah
“Macam ayam cakap dengan itik.”

Tapi kami selalu bercakap dalam BM
Waktu bila kami berada
Di negeri England,
Dalam pub dan sebagainya,
Sebab orang British tak boleh faham.
(Tetapi pada suatu hari kami berjumpa
Pemandu teksi yang boleh faham:
Berkata dia "Terima kasih"
Bila saya baginya tambang!)

Hari ini, hari sangat istimewa
Untuk raykat Malaysia.
Sebab itu
Aku mahu mendedikasikan
Puisi pertama aku di BM
Kepada semua kawan-kawanku.

Inilah dia:

Dikeliling kebun,
Seperti Si Bruang,
Pijak satu! Pijak dua!
Geletek kau? Jangan!!!

Mari Kita Berblogging

Yikes! What have I let myself in for?