Malaysia's Tamil Writers

One can be forgiven if one has never heard of – never mind, read – Malaysian Tamil authors. It’s not that they don’t exist. It’s just that they are not known (or made known) to a non-Tamil-speaking audience. 

and who better than Uthaya Sankar SB to shine a light on them?

of the contemporary Tamil writing scene, Uthaya says :

Generally speaking, this is the state of the Tamil literary scene in Malaysia. Content takes precedence over form. Even then, one need not have a new story to tell – one can always rehash the same story for the hundredth time. In fact, it seems that as long as you are competent in written Tamil, you can see your story in print.

But, Uthaya concludes (based on his experience with financing M. Balachandran's sell-out collection Illa Manathin Vergal in 1997) : 

There is a new breed of talented young writers, and readers are ready for their unconventionality.

Saturday's Star Studded Cast of Readers

Yesterday's Readings@Seksan went off well - the audience a bit on the small side though, mainly I think because many people are still away because of the school hols, and because there are a lot of Hari Raya parties going on. Haslina Usman couldn't make it (but will another time) and I was lucky that I managed to co-opt in a couple of last minute readers.


First up was Karina Bahrin who recently had her first story, the quirky A Woman in Five Pieces, published in Urban Odysseys. She read part of a new story The Unofficial Wife and it sounded excellent. She is currently working on a short story collection, which I think is very good news for all of us.

Sufian Abas (below) turned up with his new protogee, a young poet called Mimi Morticia (above) whose first collection Tangerin & Nicotin (the title is virtually the same in English) he has just published. The official launch is actually today at Central Market Annexxe.

I was so happy to be able to rope her in for the event. She also read a very short short story from Sufian's new collection Matanya Teleskop, Hatinya Kapal Dalam Botol Kaca (badly translated as His/Her Eye's a Telescope, His/Her Heart's a Ship in a Glass Bottle.)


Uthaya Sankar (below) is an award-winning writers of short stories. (He says he prefers the form because he has a short attention span, which seems as good a reason to me as any!). He last read at Seksan's last August and today gave us part of his story Nayagi, Mistress of Destiny in Malay and his friend, Monash lecturer Symala Dhoraisungam Samuel (pictured below after Uthaya) read the English version which appears in an anthology called Sea of Rainbows, edited by Muhammad Haji Salleh and translated by Institut Terjemahan Negara Malaysia.


Shanon Shah (below) is an award-winning singer-songwriter, a passionate human-rights advocate (particularly when it comes to issues of gender, sexuality, HIV/AIDS and Islam). He has written for both print and online publications (including The New Straits Times, Kakiseni.com, and Muslim WakeUp.com). He is also a playwright - his debut play Aircon has now had two sell-out runs.

Two of his essays have recently been published in collections : The Khutbah Diaries appears in New Malaysian Essays 2, and today he read the opening of Muslim2Muslim, his very powerful piece that appears in the anthology Body2Body, which starts with the furor surrounding Animah Wudud's appearance at an international conference in KL.

I am twisting Shanon's arm to come back and sing for us another time!

Remember me telling you some time back about the rather "Graham-Greenish" (my desciption, not his) novel Ioannis Gatsiounis was working on? I read a draft of it some time back, and am very happy to learn that in a much trimmed back form it appears as a novella called The Guest House in his new collection of stories Velvet and Cinder Blocks: I'm really looking forward to re-encountering it. Ioannis read us his story The Rat Tooth - extremely good.

Amir Muhammad, bless him, when he knew that we needed a last minute reader ran off to a nearby cyber-cafe to print off an extract from his new book on Yasmin Ahmad's films to read for us. Although of course the main focus is on the films, I like the fact that the commentary in the side bars takes off in interesting directions.


Afterwards, Chet, Leon and I went over to D'lish for a bite and to toast our birthday boy, Eric Forbes (above).

Thanks to all who came and the brave souls who read. Thanks to Seksan for the beautiful space, and to Jess and Kenny who came early to help me set up.

Keep your eyes on this space because there will be Readings again soon - just I may be away end of Oct because of the Singapore Writers' Festival so dates may have to be moved round.

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.)

Uthaya's New Collection

Another forthcoming book launch, this time of Uthaya Sankar S.B.'s new collection of stories in Bahasa Malaysia : Kathakali.

This event takes place 9:00 - 12:00pm on Sunday, July 12 at the auditorium at the National Library on Jalan Tun Razak, KL.

The book will be launched by the library's director Encik Raslin bin Abu Bakar and will be followed by a discussion about the book buku with Prof Madya Dr Lim Swee Tin.

If you would like to attend RSVP to infokavyan@yahoo.com before 10th July 4p.m.

Pulp Friction and Four Letter Words

Amir Muhammad's weekly Pulp Friction column in the Malay Mail is something I look forward to for its intelligent reviews of local books, both newly released as well as older titles, all of which have much to say about the country.

You can read all his pieces archived on his blog. The most recent talks about Kee Thuan Chye's We Could **** You Mr. Birch :

... a subversive play in both form and content.

I had always wondered about the **** of the title, but Amir solves the mystery :

The original title was We Could Kill You Mr. Birch. But the licensing authorities of 1994 thought the word ‘kill’ was too rude. So the playwright Kee Thuan Chye changed it to four asterisks. The authorities approved, not realising of course that the title now seemed much ruder.

I'm so looking forward to hearing Uthaya Sankar SB at Readings@Seksan next Saturday, and has recently released a collection of short stories, Rudra Avatara, written in Bahasa Melayu Malaysia (the distinction is vital!), and Amir says of the book :

If Uthaya were merely a spokesman for his race, this would not make him an interesting writer. What counts for more: His supple and surprising uses of plot and perspective, his sense of irony and the absurd, his occasionally breathtaking endings. ... Although he has won the requisite sastera (literary) awards, Uthaya has an almost potboiler sense of pace and momentum; not surprising when you consider John Grisham is one of his favourite writers.

The best place to source for books by local authors is of course Silverfish.

Amir currently awaits the banning of his latest film, Malaysian Gods.

A Master Storyteller

It’s amazing to read about Hindu beliefs and iconography – narrated, as it were, from the inside – in the national language. It makes you realise how free of iconoclasm, and therefore how neutered and ‘circumcised’, the language has been over the decades.

If Uthaya were merely a spokesman for his race, this would not make him an interesting writer. What counts for more: His supple and surprising uses of plot and perspective, his sense of irony and the absurd, his occasionally breathtaking endings.

Amir Muhammad reviews Uthaya Sankar's collection of short fiction Rudra Avatara: Kumpulan Cerpen Bahasa Malaysia.