Censorship in Malaysia

If you missed veteran journalist and playwright Kee Thuan Chye, dramatist and actress Jo Kukathas, Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin talking to Riz Khan on Al-Jazeera about press freedom and censorship of the arts - well, here it is again thanks to the miracle of YouTube!

Everything from Malay Ghosts and Dissenter's Balls to Toy Pianos

Our Saturday Readings@Seksan was a fabulous mixture of political discussion, Malay ghosts, poetry with toy musical instruments, and some fantasy writing which raised real world issues.

Happy I was to hand the MC-ing of this event over to Animah Kosai so I could just relax and enjoy the event. (Anyone else want to have a go another time? I like being lazy!)

Danny Lim started the ball rolling by reading about a couple of local spooks from his Malaysian Book of Ghosts. We learned about the elf-like Bunian of Malay mythology, and it was fascinating to hear about the journalist (formerly with Time magazine) who actually interviewed one for Men's Review back in 1999! We also heard about Hantu Kum Kum :

A roving female ghost carrying a tombstone like a baby, who goes around asking for milk, and attacks young virgins to restore her youth and beauty.

Incidentally, the Malay version of Danny's book, Kitab Pengetahuan Hantu Malaysia, is due to be launched this Friday 8.30 pm onwards at Bau Bau Cafe at The Annexe, Central Market with a whole variety of exciting folks reading ... including me! (I am the star attraction, come and laugh at the Mat Salleh mangling Malay!)

The focus of this particular Saturday after noon was very much on Kee Thuan Chye's March 8th : The Day Malaysia Woke Up which is a collection of contributions in response to the seismic shift in the political landscape of Malaysia following the last elections. Animah read her essay What Do the Children Think?, a very effective and yes, charming piece, blending the personal and political piece to talk about how Malaysians of different are divided from each other and how hard it is for a child to see that.

Kee Thuan Chye who put the book together read extracts which included interviews with former law minister Zaid Ibrahim (The Reforms Will Come), and the extracts from the interview with Raja Petra Kamarudin delightfully titled How Big Are Your Balls? in which he talks about his arrest under the ISA (the first time round, that is) and gives his take on the political landscape.


If there was any danger that we might take ourselves all too seriously with all that politics, all that dissipated when The Happy Unicorn Collective (a group comprising Dianne Dayanna, Priya K., Nurul, Patricia Low, Tan Koon, Fairuz S. and Adam Kharul and formed for Project Connect earlier in the year) took the floor after the break.

The group blended Priya K's eccentric poetry with an unusual mix of musical instuments which included rucksack percussion, kiddy xylophone and toy piano, stylophone, and children's trumpet! The most hilarious poem was one about seagulls being evil and stealing chips when the group went to UK. (The biggest culture shock just has to be one involving the wildlife!)

It was really great to have Glenda Larke (above) with us. As I probably told you before, I knew Glenda as an environmentalist long before I even knew she wrote - let alone was a prominent fantasy writer. She started by saying that it is ironic that fantasy is a genre much looked down on, when many very famous literary authors (among them Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Gunther Grass, Marquez) have written in the genre ... except that of course good fantasy fiction tends to get a different name slapped on it. (This is something we've talked about before on this blog.)

Glenda read to us from her new, as yet untitled novel, which is to be the first part of a new trilogy, set in a world where water is a scarce and precious commodity (as she predicts it will be for all of us soon). The extract was an engaging piece about two brothers in this arid landscape.

When the book is published we must invite her back! In the meantime, you can find Glenda's excellent blog Tropic Temper here. (She has a nice write-up of this event.)

Brian Gomez was a no show (he got the time wrong) and I was sad about that because I am really enjoying his absolutely crazy novel Devil's Place. Never mind, we will invite him again and send him an alarm call.

But it was a great stroke of luck that Kam Raslan (above) happened to be along (he is now living in China, but back for a visit) and since he also had a piece in March 8th, it was the perfect opportunity to ask him to read his essay The End of Fear, about how the violence that the government warned about if the political order were threatened, failed to materialise, and how :

Fear is a legitimate emotion but it either leads to a desire to leave or extreme caution. It is not a good fertiliser for growing exciting things (although it is manure).

After the readings ended, some folks stayed back to chat with Chye and the other authors about the book and about their thoughts about keeping the spirit of March 8th alive, while we clearer up round them.

Thanks to all who read and all who came. Thanks to Seksan for the wonderful space. Thanks to Shahril Nizam again for making the poster. Thanks too to the setters-up (foremost among them, Chet) and valiant clearers away.

Next month I think Bernice is organising something for teen writers, so I will keep you posted.

Chye and Jo and RPK On Riz Khan's Show

Learned (via Facebook, where else?) that you can catch Kee Thuan Chye on "Riz Khan Live" on Wed (Dec 3) at 10pm (1400 GMT) on Al Jazeera, Ch 513 (Astro). He will be talking about culture and politics and the ISA with Raja Petra Kamarudin and Jo Kukathas.

Unmissable, I'd say!

RPK Freed

The court decision today has made it very clear that ISA cannot be used for political reasons. I am not a terrorist. I am not a dangerous person. I am just a writer.

Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin was released from his two-year detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) yesterday following his successful habeus corpus application.

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.)

English PEN Calls for RPK's Release

The English branch of international writers' organisation PEN is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin saying that it is in violation of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. RPK was sentenced without trial to two-years in prison on 22 September 2008 under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for his critical writings published online.

(Although was it really that article on Islam that got him detained or his piece linking the wife of a very high profile politician to a spectacularly gruesome murder? I am very confused. I guess we have no way of knowing what the truth is since the case against him won't come to trial.)

PEN also provide a list of contacts to whom you can make your appeal. And should you be so inspired, you can buy a t-shirt to support RPK here.

Those Arrests

It's no good. It's too big to be ignored. Forgive the off-topicness.

This blogger vehemently protests the arrest and detention without trial of Raja Petra, MP Theresa Kok and Sin Chew Daily journalist Tan Hoon Cheng under the Internal Security Act. I add my voice to those demanding their immediate release.

More here on The Malaysian Insider ... which also says that intelligence sources said more arrests are likely ... making us wonder if this is this a repeat of the infamous Operation Lalang of 1987?

Three newspapers have also been issued show-cause letters.

Certainly these measures smack of desperation and are taken by a government which has clearly lost the plot.

Tan's arrest (for, hello, simply doing her job as a reporter!) has sent shockwaves through those working in the media. On Rocky's blog, Norlia Daud of the National Union of Journalists is quoted as saying :

This is a gravely serious matter. For the first time in 21 years, a journalist has been detained under the ISA. A reporter has been detained under ISA for doing her job, for reporting. The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, only recently told media practioners to be brave in reporting the truth [read the Star's Uphold the truth, 4/9], and now the Government has taken an action designed to intimidate these media practitioners. Sin Chew has been issued with a show-cause letter by the Government over the Ahmad Ismail report, so why invoke the ISA when before letting the newspaper editors respond to the show-cause? Also, I am very disappointed that the editors have not been hauled up. In any newspaper company, it is the Editor who is accountable. The NUJ will monitor the developments very closely.

I'm not very good at writing of matters political so please let me pass you on to other bloggers who talk a lot of sense. Here's some to start with : Kickdefella, Marina Mahathir, KTemoc, Lulu, Patrick Teoh, Jeff Ooi, Eli Wong.

(The badge, which I also picked up from Rocky's blog, is designed by Mr. Smith and I wish I had a real life version to wear.)

RPK and the Sedition Charge

This blogger adds her voice to those expressing concern and support for Raja Petra Kamaruddin who has been arrested and charged with sedition for his article Let's Send the Alantunya Murderers to Hell which he posted on his news portal Malaysia Today. RPK has refused bail and is now going to jail.

My overseas readers who don't know the background to the case, might like to read this piece the originally from Asian Wall Street Journal (now archived on the Unspun blog) about the horrifying murder and the possible political implications. The case is ongoing, but whether those who gave the order for her killing will ever be brought to justice remains to be seen.

That RPK should find himself in court over his words, I'm sure surprises no-one.

But arrested? But charged with sedition? As Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan of the Malaysian Bar Council says :

The Sedition Act is a draconian, archaic and repressive piece of legislation that has long outlived any perceived utility it may ever have had. It is incompatible with the progressive, open and democratic society that we had believed Malaysia was becoming," she said, adding that the use of such law was disconcerting and lends credence to the view that in fact the democratic space in Malaysia is still severely curtailed. ... The Sedition Act and other authoritarian laws represent a severe encroachment on the fundamental freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. These fundamental civil liberties are indisputable hallmarks of any democracy and must be safeguarded if Malaysia is to lay any claim to being a democratic nation.

It looks as if someone at the top wants to scare, not only RPK, but the whole online community into compliant silence, don't you think?