Offensive Words

Should a racist word be dropped from a Malay dictionary?

Malaysia's High Court has dismissed an appeal from an Indian Muslim association to have the derogatory term keling dropped from its pages. In The Star S.S. Yoga looks at the colourful history of racist slurs in Malaysia and around the world.

Writers Kee Thuan Chye, Dina Zaman and Amir Muhammad are asked for their opinions and agree that the word should not be omitted from the dictionary but should definitely be flagged as offensive.

I agree too. We may not love all the words that are in a dictionary but to pretend that they don't exist is in a sense dishonest. It is important though that dictionary users know whether such words are acceptable or not.

The example of the word nigger in English dictionaries is a good one. My Oxford Concise Dictionary (the one I keep on my desk) has a special usage note which tells me that the word has :

... strong offensive connotations and is today one of the most racially offensive words in the language ...

Wouldn't something like this work for the Kamus Dewan?

Dina's Book Finds a Home

I was so happy to read this just now on Facebook and hope you will please pass the message on :

A WRITER'S LIFE BY DINA ZAMAN

It’s the usual intellectuals speaking and writing countless essays, but what happened to the young? These voices must be captured in print and documented.

I AM Muslim – Other Voices. Yours. About two years ago, that book was published. Truth is, the book was a collection of essays written for a column I helmed at a news portal. That was around 2004/2005.

Covering Muslim life for two years was one of the most fulfilling times of my life. The people I met and shared adventures with – and, yes - the love letters I received from the public were indeed interesting, to say the least.

The column was not just me writing weekly essays. I had friends and readers who wrote in and contributed what they thought, and how they viewed their faith and being Muslims.

Mahathir Yasin, Idlan Zakaria, Menj, Shufiyan Shukur, to name a few, wrote wonderful essays. I even had an anonymous contributor who sent me emails in point form on his ‘militant’ childhood, which became a rather short-lived series for the column, titled Memoirs of a Militant Schoolboy.

Jordan Macvay, a Canadian Muslim, wrote an entertaining piece on polygamy, and had quite a number of irate Malay men baying for his blood. In short, these voices made the column a very lively place.

I had promised the published writers and other writers who were interested in contributing to the column that one day, they would all appear in a book.

I shopped the idea around, and not many bought the idea of young Muslim voices with ideas, opinions, and humour writing about their experiences. Even my publisher, bless him, was quite reserved in his enthusiasm.

Who can blame them? Selling books, especially local books, is not a money generating machine.

It took two years to find a publisher. You just have to believe in the product. I only know this: all these voices are more important than mine.

I started a blog, but with all due respect to the writers who sent in their contributions, the blog went pear shaped and became this confessional “I sinned therefore I repented and now I am a wonderful Muslimah”.

In recent years we have noted a slow silencing of diverse Muslim voices. While there were many forums and public debates that piqued the public’s interest, there seemed to be a process of publicising one voice only. Theirs. Not yours. Ours.

We have the usual intellectuals speaking and writing countless essays, but what happened to the young? Their opinions don’t matter?

These voices must be captured in print and documented, because (well in my lofty moments I do think of these) they could be clues towards public policy and grassroots NGO activity. They could highlight issues and dilemmas we need to address.

So now we have a publisher. Young, out-of-the-box, and thinks “hey, this is important to my generation and the generations below. This is our voices that must be heard”.

Hence, this project. ZI Publications will be publishing I Am Muslim Too: Other Voices and is calling for contributions from the public.

The criteria to be published are as follows:

(1) Quality writing. I don’t care how pious you are, if your writing does not come to mark, it’s sayonara.

(2) 1,000 words in either English or Bahasa Malaysia. It can be a poem, too.

(3) It does not matter if you are conservative, moderate, liberal, confused. We want to hear about your lives. It can be funny, sad, angry, calm – we just want good writing. (Yes, funny is good.)

(4) You do not have to be a Muslim or Malaysian to be part of this project. Yes, you can be a space alien, but you must write about your friendships and experiences in Muslim Malaysia. Bad or good.

(5) Redemption stories will not be entertained unless they really are good stories. If this is one of those confessionals I mentioned earlier, please submit it to a tacky tabloid.

(6) We welcome art/cartoon strips.

(7) All submissions must be addressed to info@zipublications.com.my together with your particulars. Deadline: Feb 28.

So come on. What are you waiting for? You’re ready to be heard.

The writer works for a non-profit organisation. Email her at dzawriterslife@gmail.com

Caught Live by Amir

I couldn't get to the readings Bernice organised at No Black Tie last Sunday so am thrilled to bits that Amir Muhammad took the trouble to video some of the performances. Those who haven't been able to get to the live events in KL or who live further afield (or overseas!) should enjoy these little tastes of Malaysian lit :



Bernice reads from her mini-book of short stories Lost in KL.



Preeta reads the (one and only) sex scene from Evening is the Whole Day.


Danny Lim reads for his Malaysian Book of the Undead.

Postscript :

You can see more videos of the event (of Shamini Flint,Dina Zaman and Fahmi Fadzil reading Sufian Abas) on Facebook. Gazillion thanks, Amir!

Dina's Ancestors

Many an accomplished writer is also a gifted story-teller, and my friend Dina Zaman has often kept me entertained with her stories about her colourful ancestry which border, at times, on the fantastic. Talk about magical realism! Now, she brings these stories to a new column in Starmag. She writes :

... the more I spoke to family members, the more I realised that what I want to write about is not prancing princesses and usurping sultans. I want to celebrate Ya, the African slave who came to a strange country, and Cik Puteh, one of my family’s Chinese ancestors who came from Shanghai. ... The stories of how they converted to Islam would be as peculiar to today’s readers as the experience was to them all those years ago. Throw in childhood tales of orang bunian (fairies) and jinns and I think I have a soap opera on my hands.

And it's the story of Long Ya, she begins with today.

(The photo of Dina is by Shahril Nizam and was taken at the KL Literary Festival.)

Wena's Wet Weekend

Then, after lunch and a quick rush round the supermarket to get survival rations for the afternoon with Chet's help, dashed over to Seksan's and the heaven's opened.

I was drenched even before I had unpacked the car, and the inclement weather didn't let up the whole afternoon. (What is happening to the weather? It doesn't seem like the monsoon ever went away?) But fortunately our loyal audience turned up in decent numbers. (Thank you!)

Wena Poon read a passage from her story The Shooting Ranch, my favourite story from Lions in Winter. Again, it was beautifully dramatised, and really showed how much she gets into the skin of her characters to write about them. (Not all authors - even some very big name ones - are good readers of their own work!)

Wena sadly had to rush off early as she had another appearance at Borders. I'm so glad she came, but sorry we couldn't have arranged better weather for her.

Animah Kosai (above right) dragged friends Dina Zaman (above left) ...

... and actor Na'a Murad (here getting his photo taken by a member of the press) along to read a couple of scenes from a new play she's working on called 100 Stones, which featured a woman married to a guy who has just become an elected representative. He doesn't seem to be too interested in sex, and there she is, desperately frustrated trying to seduce him with every trick in the book including sexy negligees.

It was interesting talking to Na'a in the break who reckons that the changed political landscape and the greater openness and willingness to engage in issues that has followed, is making it easier for artists of all kinds, but especially playwrights. It's early days yet ... but really, let's hope he's right.

I've been looking forward to Sufian Abas' first book for a very long time ... ever since we both got out first short stories published in Silverfish New Writing 1, in fact. Kasut Biru Robina is a collection of short shorts, some short short shorts just a few lines long. Bite size and snackable.

Sufian read a piece called Malam Mailakat Tidur (The Night the Angels Slept), and modest chap that he is, was going to end there but we encored him back for a second piece - Kisah Cinta (Love Story), a very amusing little tale about the fickleness of women.

Priya K. made an appeal for funds for the forthcoming Malaysian-UK exchange project, and illustrator Shahril Nizam brought some of his pictures along to be auctioned. The bidding is still ongoing and I'll post more about this later.

The break was extra long because the rain overhead was nosiy, but no-one seemed to mind too much as they were busy partying, networking, selling books ...

Ted Mahsun read a story, Pak Sudin's Bicycle I'd read on an e-group earlier and liked very much. He read it for the first time at Kata Suara the other week and had been surprised at how well it had gone down with the audience. Ted's writing is warm and whimsical, and it's really nice to see him developing as a writer. (He has a review of the new Stephen King book in the Star today, by the way.)

George Wielgus, poet, performer and writer describes himself as :

... a refugee from the wastelands of suburban England.

Slipping into the persona of her alter-ego, Mighty Jah-J, he gave us some hard-hitting poems, including Liberation and Death No. 1, which left us in little doubt why he had won the last KL Poetry Slam.

He was also selling his recently self-published limited edition zine for the price of a teh tarik (cup of "pulled tea"). You can read his poem Inside-Outsiders here.

We ended with a short tribute to Lloyd Fernando who passed away recently, and Priya K. read an extract from Green is the Colour.

Thanks : to all those who braved the rain, those who read, those who sold books, those who auctioned art, those who helped set up and put away and wash glasses, Shahril Nizam who designed the blogposter, and of course Seksan for the use of his beautiful space and the stunning visual backdrop provided by the current exhibition.

Our next readings is on April 19th and among the writers appearing will be author Kunal Basu.

More Awang Goneng

I tried to capture the rhythm of the language, the lifestyle we had back then. Writing the blog liberated me from my rigid, structured background as a journalist. I was always neurotic about writing the first paragraph! But the blog was free-flow. I wasn’t writing for anyone; I was essentially writing for myself. I could write whenever I wanted.

Awang Goneng tells fellow Terengganu-ite Dina Zaman in Starmag today. It's a very nice piece but how I wish more space had been given for it. (And I wish it hadn't been padded out with words Dina did not write!

My review of Growing up in Trengganu which I was asked weeks ago to write to go with her article, doesn't appear. Perhaps by now with so much publicity for the book already in the other newspapers, it has rather timed out.

Having to stick to the meager word limit means that all almost the examples I so wanted to include had to be cut out (making it a piece that I am less than satisfied with myself).

Here 'tis though, for your eyes only:

There is a delicious irony about the fact that a book as distilled from memory and marinated in the rich spice of nostalgia as Awang Goneng’s Growing up in Trengganu actually owes its existence to the electronic media. For this is one of Malaysia’s first “blooks” (as books based on a blogs or websites are known).

Awang Goneng is actually the nick of London-based veteran journalist Wan Ahmad Hulaimi who began Kecek-Kecek (which means “just chatting” in the dialect of Terengganu) as a way of recording what his childhood was like for his children who have grown up in Britain. The blog (which can still be read online at http://k ecek-kecek.blogspot.com) would probably have remained online had it not been for proactive publisher Philip Tatham of Singapore-based Monsoon Books who contacted Hulaimi and asked him whether he thought there was a book there.

There was. And while the material has been re-editing and reorganized for print, the book retains many of the characteristics of the blog and I’d say is enhanced by this, rather than otherwise.

Just as the online reader drops by a blog casually and may read posts out of sequence, this is a book that can be dipped into at any point since each short piece is self-contained and satisfying, often flowing in stream-of-consciousness style from a thought or a photograph. This is not a book to be hurried through, but rather sipped slowly and relished.

Interaction with readers plays a very important part in shaping a blog, and Pak Awang (for so I shall call him) soon acquired a following of readers whom he credits with filling in gaps in his own recollection.

Not that he seems to have too many of those, for although he protests at one point that “The light of the present has limited recall when you open the door slightly to the dark back room of your past”, what amazes the reader is the detail in which he is able to render each scene, bringing vividly alive the sights, scents and tastes of his childhood.

Whether he’s describing listening to storyteller by lamplight, talking about how Trengganu-ites coped with the monsoon season, letting us in on the secrets of making the infamous anchovy sauce budu, ruminating on the role of chickens in kampong society, or describing a family Hari Raya, Awang Goneng proves himself an erudite and gently humourous companion, weaving personal recollection into the rich tapestry of everyday life of Terengganu of the period.

It is, though, the recollections of ordinary people, shopkeepers, hawkers, kampong folk, imams and teachers, each of them described with respect and love, none of them are too humble to be noticed, that most strikes a chord.

Another of the great delights of the book is the insights it gives into the “Trengganu speak”, a dialect (which I’ve always found impenetrable and mysterious) which has a word for everything, for “There are as many ways to speak as there are chairs for cats to scratch” as Pak Awang says.

While Growing Up in Trengganu is a book which is intensely personal it is also a stunning cultural record of a time and place greatly changed, and not necessarily improved, by “progress”. The crowds flocking to the launch of the book in Kuala Terengganu and to author events in KL have clearly taken the book and its author to their hearts. The book is now into its second reprint, just a few weeks after publication.

That’s not bad going for a writer who hadn’t even thought about making a book from his blog!

I nicked the lovely photo above from Kak Teh's blog. It shows Awang Goneng with the son of one of his old teachers.

Kak Teh wasn't only Awang Goneng's bag carrier on their recent trip back to Malaysia, she also put together a documentary account for RTM's Galeri Perdana. The first part of her Jejak Awang Goneng is here**, and even if you don't understand the Malay, it gives a wonderful flavour of the place and personalities the book is based on, and the sound of the dialect:


*And I wish it hadn't been padded out with a paragraph Dina did not write! There has to be some integrity with what material goes out in your name, doesn't there?
**The links to other parts of the programme can be found on Kak Teh's blog and on Youtube.

I nicked the lovely photo above from Kak Teh's blog. It shows Awang Goneng with the son of one of his old teachers.

Sharon the Celeb??

No time to blog this morning. I am on TV this morning with Tan Twan Eng for a live show called Venus on NTV7, going out live at 11 a.m. I always panic in front of TV cameras so please don't watch or you will make me nervous.

Then I have a photoshoot for Quill magazine after lunch at a place called the Seapark Brickhouse which looks fun.

Have I arrived at celebritydom? Will I soon be plagiarising my own book of poetry?

Anyway, hope it isn't too much of a bad hair day.

Postscript:

Oops, Dina made me even more famous. If you are looking for that post, you can find it here.

Readings Gets Respectable ... Well Almost

Readings@Seksan's drew its biggest ever crowd this Saturday and it was standing room only! And the audience seemed a lot more ... *cough cough* respectable than our usual boho-chic crowd. (Although KG in his shorts and orange hair, I think tried to even up the balance.) We had *gasp* a politician ... and blow me down, even our national laureate, A . Samad Said in the audience!

I'd like to think exponential increase in numbers was due to my charm and personality, but I rather think that it all had something to do with Awang Goneng bringing his fan club along.

There was definitely an east coast theme to the afternoon, with the first of our Terengganu-ites Dina Zaman kicking the afternoon off with extracts from her short stories, The King of the Sea and a new piece (I think) called Nightwatch. She's sitting on such good material (I know because I've read some of it) and I really hope that it all gets collected into a book before too long. (Nag nag, Dina!)

Patrick Teoh, actor and radio personality (and much more) read a couple of his Teohlogy columns from Off the Edge so beautifully that it's no wonder that he's been dubbed "the voice of Malaysia". The crowd just loved his-tell-it-like-it-is critiques of Malaysian society and politics. You can catch up with Patrick on his blog Niamah!!! (a useful Cantonese swear word!).

We had a very extended break (I was waiting and waiting for the call to prayers from the Bangsar mosque, as we can't read through it ... and it caught me out yet again.)

I was going to leave Awang Goneng (the crowd puller!) until nearer the end of the afternoon, but the presence of a photographer from the Star who had to leave early forced some last minute rescheduling.

Awang Goneng (Wan Ahmad Hulaimi) began by telling us how he began blogging about his childhood in Terengganu for his children who had never lived in Malaysia. He talked about how rhythm is important to his writing (something that has struck me reading Growing Up in Trengganu*) and before he read from the book, he sang some of the songs and nasyids that he remembered from his childhood days which had helped to develop that sense. (My goodness, it was so beautiful!)

The fact that so many people turned up to the launch in Kuala Terengganu, the fact that so many people turned up today, shows just how deep a chord the book has touched. The book about Hulaimi's childhood becomes a book about other childhoods as well.

It was lovely too to see Hulaimi's wife, my friend Zahara Othman who blogs as Kak Teh.

M.K. Ajay is an Indian expatriate who has been working as the director of an American company here for the past three years. He has published a collection of short stories and two books of poems, including his recent collection Sweetness of Salt, which was released last month by Plain View Press in Austin, Texas. Ajay read several poems including Shadow that Became Rains, Definitions (and I was very taken with the image of the Petronas Twin towers as a honeycomb), Dialogue and Curry Leaves.

I will be writing more about Ajay and his book soon.

The other east coast writer (from Kuantan) was our bad boy blogger (or rather ex-blogger since he's taken his posts down and is now concentrating on other projects including film making). Amir Hafizi can always be relied upon to lower the tone. I issued a health warning before he began so that anyone with delicate sensitivities or weak hearts could leave. And bless him, he was on true Malay Male form, reading a very funny piece he'd written while drunk the night before about how he wants to get paid for sex** ... but realising first he had to get into shape had gone to sign up with California Fitness, and then of course there's the signing up process to deal with and the communication gap with the girls on the front desk!

Sadly, Shinji Moriwake didn't manage to make the event (his band had a gig at Central Market and he sms-ed to say he wouldn't be free), but I do hope that he can make it another time. (I quite fancy having a hip-hop influenced Readings ...).

Anyway, after the event people partied on and Awang Goneng signed books which were snapped up incredibly quickly. (Look how many this lady is buying!).

Thanks to Seksan, as always, for the beautiful space.

(And in case you're wondering, the artist whose work provided the backdrop for this month's event is Chu Yuan, and you can read all about her in today's Metro section of the Star.)

Thanks to all who read and all who came and cheered them on.

Thanks to Shahnim for the blog poster. (Irman's turn next month since he's so picky about fonts.)

Thanks to Eugene and Leon who washed all the glasses and cleared up.

Friends who stayed back for a chat afterwards ... and Reza had the best Christmas hat (though Adrianna Noordin came a very close second).

A very Happy New Year to you all!!!!

*By the way this is an older spelling of the state now known as Terengganu.
** If there are any takers who find him via this blog, you can pay me a small commission!


Postscript:

Nice write up on Hic Sunt Dracones blog. Manal enjoys meeting the writers. Kak Teh gives us a charming behind the scenes glimpse of what it takes to be Pak Awang's manager!

Sufian has great pictures as usual, and Firdaus adds more here.

Tales from Seventh Earth

After having a good moan at the New Straits Times for a lack of anything literary (and most particularly reviews on the pages) columnist Rehman Rashid gives us not one but three excellent reviews of recently published local books (Dina Zaman's I Am Muslim, Kam Raslan's Confessions of An old Boy: The Dato Hamid Adventures and Antares' Tanah Tujuh) with a promise of more to come next Friday. This is good news indeed.

Antares' book was also reviewed by Shakeel Abedi in Starmag yesterday.

Now I feel some rumblings of guilt. I've had the book sitting on my "needs-to-be-reviewed pile" for ages, with every intention of reviewing it, so please Antares forgive me for the tardiness of this post!

Tanah Tujuh (which literally means "seventh world" and refers to our earthly abode) is a collection of short pieces (including previously published articles, memoir pieces, and legends) in which Antares writes about the Temuan people he lives amongst with genuine warmth, clear sightedness ... and a deliciously wry sense of humour.

He recounts how he decided to get away from.

... the monstrous machinery of industrialized society

by moving to an idyllic spot on the river in Pertak in Ulu Selangor in 1992 with the plan of building an "ecospiritual" artistic community.

His neighbours, the Temuan people had had had their lives radically changed by "rapacious intruders". Antares recounts how man-made decrees had turned them into mere squatters with 99 year leases on ancestral land.

When the property changed hands, Antares moved to another perfect spot near a waterfall. Sadly the place was not to remain pristine for long, and it's impossible not to feel his grief and anger at the extensive environmental damage wrought by the timber companies. And then of course it was decided that work on the Selangor dam would go ahead.

When Antares married Anoora Chapek in 1995, his close relationship with the Temuan was further cemented, and as an "insider" he was able to collect information about their legends and belief system. It was a race against time though, as many of the older folks who remembered the old stories and traditions were dying. But these rescued stories provide the richest material in the book, and I would have loved even more of them. (My favourite was the story of how Buaya the crocodile got his teeth!) The individuals who told the stories are also lovingly captured on the pages and in photographs. (You can find a gallery of Antares photos on his website).

I also very much enjoyed the accounts of traditional healing practices which Antares recounts with a definite twinkle in his eye, and his hilarious story of Ramu and the tunnel of terror. Antares turns out damn good prose, and I have to agree with Shakheel's assessment that he's one of the country's best writers. (So more please, Antares!)

If I have one criticism of the book, it is that it seemed rather bitty with the pieces differing so much in terms of tone and focus. I also found it hard to relate to the more esoteric passage relating to universal cosmology ... perhaps because I'm one of the most cynical individuals you could meet in any matters of faith.

Nevertheless it is an extremely valuable book which both entertained me and taught me a great deal.

I found myself thinking about Orang Asli issues recently when I was in Pahang visiting schools and found myself watching my teacher-trainees teach classes with large populations of Batek children from the nearby national park area. It struck me, as it strikes Antares in the book, how hopelessly inappropriate the current model of education is for these kids ... but I saw how it's also true that if the learning is made fun and relevant they really do want to participate.

It also struck me how bloody patronising these tourist trips to visit an orang asli camp at Taman Negara (to blow a blow pipe and watch these guys make fire) actually are. (One such trip was included in the package I took my sister and her family on last year and I really felt it was demeaning ... people are not anthropological specimens to be gawped at!)

A picture I'd rather hold in my head is footage of happy Temuan children playing in the river in a video Antares showed at the KL Litfest earlier in the year.

"Readings" at NoBlackTie

There are in fact two "Readings" events next weekend. The event at Seksan's on Saturday which I've already blogged, and a second event on Sunday July 1st at No Black Tie at 9.30 p.m. which Bernice has put together. This features the star-studded cast of :

• Dina Zaman
• Rehman Rashid
• Kam Raslan
• Salleh ben Joned

There's a cover charge of RM15, but NoBlackTie has kindly offered 'happy hour' alcohol prices all night.

Books by the authors will be on sale.

For reservations please call 03-2142 3737 or email noblacktie@gmail.com.

Suddenly there's so much more happening! MASKARA, KLue readings, NoBlackTie, Jerome also talking about getting some Poetika readings started at The Attic. Not to mention bookshop readings and other events.

But this event should be very interesting. I'm glad Bernice has managed to coax Rehman out to read. Salleh was not well during the Litfest when he was supposed to launch his new book of poetry Adam's Dream. (Raman is actually having the launch for the book in July.) Kam and Dina well deserve their honour laps, both their books are doing extremely well.

Attend and be Enlightened

I received a message from Ng He Xiang (Hex) of 95% (The Writing Academy) is holding a free talk entitled About Writing in Malaysia and featuring authors Dina Zaman and David Byck this coming Monday 14th May from 8pm to 10pm.

The address is, 80A Wisma Dicklin, Jalan Bangsar. (Map below, click to enlarge.)

I'm not sure if you need to reserve a place or not, but you can call up Hex at 03-22876095/7095 or email hex@95percent.com.my

By the way, I never did find out why the organisation calls itself 95% ...

Promoting the Local Stuff

Haliza Hashim-Doyle catches up with Tan Twan Eng at the Verulam Writers Circle in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in this piece in yesterday's Malay Mail. Nice to see the picture of him at a book signing in a branch of Borders in London.

Other local authors are working hard to promote their books. Chet writes about Kam Raslan's reading at Kinokuniya and reports that the book is selling so well that the warehouse has run out of stock!

You can catch Kam again on 27 May 2007 at Borders The Curve.

Another book that has had to be reprinted already is Dina Zaman's I Am Muslim. I am sad to have missed Dina's reading yesterday afternoon at Borders, the Curve, but hope that it went well.

Just see how nicely Borders is promoting these books in Chet's photos, here and here. And Times (left) recently had The Gift of Rain stacked high in its Bangsar branch with a 25% off special offer! Kinokuniya also has a special 20% off offer on it with the purchase of another book.

Local writers can only succeed if the bookshops here are clued up, and it is great to see so much support.

Postscript

Ooops. Eric points out in the comments something I missed:

Let's not forget Kam Raslan will also be appearing with Prof. Lim Chee Seng and Nizam Zakaria at the MPH Writers' Circle at MPH One-Utama on May 19, 2007 (Saturday). They will be talking about characterization in fiction. How to develop believable characters in fiction. All lovers of fiction, whether literary or otherwise, should attend.

MPH has been doing much good work to promote writers of course with the Writer's Circle Meetings and the Litbloggers Breakfasts.

Bloggers Breakfasted

Much overdue, here are my photos from last Saturday's Breakfast with the Litbloggers held at MPH Bangsar Village. There were curry puff, tuna sandwiches ... and plenty of brain food too, especially about Islam and fundamentalism, and the need for a plurality of voices in Malaysia.

Dina Zaman talking about I Am Muslim and her project to collect other voices for the sequel.

Political scientist and human rights activist Farish Noor, author of The Other Malaysia and From Majapahit to Putrajaya talking about the need to reclaim Malaysian history, and document women's history, and his fears about extremism. Poor Farish was extremely jetlagged, and had big dark rings under his eyes, (how many countries in how many days?) but still made perfect sense.

Larry Parr, co-author (with Tan Chin Nam) of Never Say I Assume is also a fascinating political analyst, and believes that Islamic fundamentalism does not represent a threat to world peace and is largely a by-product of US interference in the Middle East. He also predicted the break up of China into a number of autonomous states. (And you thought we just talked books!)

Chatting afterwards. Kam Raslan (in the brown shirt) dropped by.

I met blogger Enar Arshad with her son. We discovered within minutes of talking to each other that we are related by marriage! (She's my sister-in-law's sister.) That's Kenny behind us, of course. He did a sterling job of facilitating the session.

I Am Muslim 2 - Over to You!

Dina Zaman is planning a sequel to her very successful I Am Muslim ... but it's going to be written by YOU!

She's inviting contributions from both Muslims and non-Muslims about Islam and faith for a new blog, I Am Muslim, and the best pieces will be compiled into the second book.

Everything you need to know about the project is here.

Pascakolonialisma in Pink

The latest issue of Quill is yours for free if you flash your MPH card, and a mere RM8 if not.

It's crammed with so much good stuff I don't know where to begin.

I loved Eric Forbes' article on the short story, chock full of excellent reading recommendations which I would love to see the bookstore promoting! He also gives sterling advice about how to submit your manuscript.

It's a Long way to the Floor author David Byck explains about how he got started. Tan Twan Eng talks about the writing of The Gift of Rain, and FireWife author Tinling Choong (who will be visiting Malaysia in July) is interviewed at length.

Dina Zaman and Tunku Halim debate about whether you would take a look at the book a person reads before you decide to get married to them. Pragmatists both. (I think books are windows to the soul ... should have thought twice when I found only war stories on my beloved's bookshelves!)

The Ambassador for Mexico, H.E. Alfredo Perez-Bravo reveals his love for Octavio Paz, Marques, Vargos Llosa and Carlos Fuentes (good for him!) and talks about Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose as the ultimate airport novel (CSI Medieval Italy!).

There's a long interview with Farish Noor, and Dr. Faridah Manaf writes a very interesting piece about gender, race and nationalism in post-colonial Malaysia. Am most impressed that the Malay word for post-colonial is pascakolonial, which I will now slip into conversation with the gardener.

Yours truly writes about why Writers Need Friends which I dedicate to my scribbling running mates. (Saras, Mercy, Soo Choon, Leah - you're famous now!). My pics of the Night of the Living Text event are in there too.

But as I told you, my article on book banning ironically got censored out.

That doesn't surprise when the PM himself graces the cover, holding the book of tributes for his wife Datin Paduka Seri Endon who died of cancer in October 2005. The book A Bouquet of Jasmines. (Yes, "jasmines" with an "s"! - a big fat grammar blooper in the title!) was launched at a grand gala evening where everyone who is anyone wore pink and drank pink drinks (think Barbie!).

(Sorry, sorry ... I don't know where such cynicism comes from.)

KLILF Round-up

The write-ups on the KL Litfest (KLILF) continue in StarMag. Jamie Khoo writes a very good overview piece which includes this great Raman quote:

There’s a huge gap in English and Malay writing here. If we take away K.S. Maniam ... who else do we have? Where are the writers?

Kadek Kris interviews Dina Zaman about her sessions and reactions to her book I Am Muslim. I liked Dina's message to her readers:

If you care enough about these stories, then you write them. Don’t wait for me.

Daphne Lee interviews Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah about her teen novel Does My Head Look Big in This? which focuses on an Australian-Palestinian Muslim girl who decides to wear the hijab. As the article points out, Randa feels it’s vital that writers who belong to ethnic minority groups write about their experiences as part of these communities.

Who knows us better than we do? We have stories that we can tell about experiences and feelings that no one else has as much knowledge of. There’s nothing like having lived through something to give weight to your description or narrative.

The Sunday Times, meanwhile, have their story on the festival slated for next Sunday in Learning Curve.

Some Litfest Photos

Two poetic lovelies: Sharanya Manivannan with Indonesian poet Lakshmi Pamuntjak (right). I took this the first day of the festival when a whole gang of us descended on Delicious for lunch.

Courting controversy. I introduced one of Dina Zaman's sessions, and she read about from I Am Muslim about "born-again virgins".
Eva Kriseova sponsored by the Embassy of the Czech republic, reading outside Starbucks in Bangsar Village 2. She's a writer with a fascinating story to tell. She worked as a reporter during the Prague Spring in 1986. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia her writings were banned. She lost her job and went underground. Later, she worked as an advisor to President Vaclav Havel.

Benjamin Zephaniah strutting his stuff at Marmalade. I sneaked a preview of his poetry at this session but enjoyed much more his great performance at Central Market last night. Plan to write more about that later.

Even though I had interviewed Canadian author Camilla Gibb a couple of days before, I was fascinated to hear even more about her writing.

I didn't manage to get to Tash Aw's workshops but met up with him at MPH Bangsar Village for his "meet the public session". Such a very nice guy. He told me that he was working hard on the second novel and trying hard to not to be distracted.

I introduced New Zealand poet/novelist Elizabeth Smither's session at Alexis. I enjoyed her well observed poems - small true moments. Was also stunned by just how prolific a writer this lady is - she has 14 volumes of poetry (soon to be 15), 4 novels, 3 (or was it four?) collections of short fiction, and other published works. All this produced around her full-time librarian's job! She says she writes 250 words of a novel everyday, and keeps a notebook on her to jot down ideas for poetry that occur to her throughout the day.

I Am Muslim

I am a great Dina fan.

I first discovered her through her first blog The Gongkapas Times and was totally beguiled - by the honesty of the writing, by the humour, by the colourful characters who inhabit Dina's world, by the fact that she has a gift for writing dialogue which reflects how Malaysians really talk (switching constantly between languages), and by the gossipy readability of it.

We became friends when she asked me to read some of her stories and give her feedback. I'm a very reluctant editor, since most people are extremely sensitive about what they write. But when I sit with Dina in Starbucks, wielding a pen over her work, I feel I can be absolutely honest about what works and what doesn't: to go back to the washing instructions analogy I love to use, Dina is hot wash, fast spin, line dry. But she's also crinkle free, no iron, shrink proof and colourfast. A real pleasure to work with.

I was familiar with quite a lot of the material in Dina Zaman's I Am Muslim long before the book was published. I'd read some of the columns on the Malaysiakini website, some on Dina's previous blog (now defunct), and heard some of them in readings at Borders and at Seksan's.

Least folks be put off the book by the title, expecting a heavy religious tome, let me hasten to add the book reflects all that is best about Dina's writing. Her writing displays a lightness of touch, but is never lightweight in terms of the value of the discussion. It's also written with warmth, humanity and humour.

Raman's website describes the books as "a selfish journey of faith" and I really do take issue with the word "selfish" to describe this very personal search for meaning and truth because, although Dina describes an inward journey, she opens the book outward to record the voices of a whole range of individual voices working through their own (often very difficult) questions about Islam and what it means to be a Muslim. Dina, to her credit, doesn't set herself up as any kind of an expert to answer them, but in this self-censoring society it takes a great deal of courage even to raise issues (particularly about relationships and sex) publicly.

The portraits are often deeply affecting, the characters as fully realized as in any piece of fiction. The episode I most love for its lyrical beauty and narrative flow is The Student and The Teacher.

I Am Muslim is also an intriguing exposé of the urban middle-class Malay in Kuala Lumpur: Dina is a lady with her ear firmly to the ground. I didn't know about the expense of keeping up with appearances with designer telekungs (prayer shrouds), costly religious classes and "jet-set umrahs" andam now much enlightened. And there is an eye-popping account of the sexual prefences of boarding school educated Malay men which is going to be very hotly denied, I think. (But Dina has her informants ...).

My only criticism of the book is that there are places where I'd have loved her to escape the short article format and developed arguments further, and some form of afterword would have drawn the book together rather better. Having proofread the book towards the end, I'm glad that the ouchy bits have gone, and commend Raman on doing a good job with the editing.

Copies can be bought online from Silverfish and shipped anywhere in the world. I would love to see I Am Muslim in the hands of readers outside Malaysia, particularly as so much of the world equates Islam with terrorism and extremism and the oppression of women and this book presents a refreshing counterbalance to the stereotypical images.

And Dina, you gotta autograph my copy!

Eight Pages of Booknews!

Wah! The Readsmonthly supplement in StarMag has doubled in size this month. What a great Sunday treat for the book addicted! (Next month we demand 12 pages.)

There's a story by Daphne Lee about a remarkable young man called Gerald Chuah who wrote a book about his favourite actor and films when he was feeling down and depressed in his early '20's. In the Eye of the Tiger: Survival Principles from Sylvester Stallone's Life and Films has finally been self-published by Chuah to coincide with the release of Rocky Balboa, the sixth film in the Rocky series.

The article tells how Chuah managed to pass the manuscript to Stallone when he was in Singapore, and how Jackie Stallone (Sylvester's mum) supported the project, even appearing at the launch with Chua. And now famous motivational speaker and author Bob Proctor has offered to publish the book internationally.

But Tan Siow Chin reviews the book in the supplement but seems decidedly underwhelmed by it. And while I'm so glad that Chuah has the courage to believe in his dreams, I'm horrified to think that anyone would put out a self-published book which isn't properly proofread, let alone carefully edited.

Among the other reviews: Dina Zaman's I Am Muslim is reviewed by Farish Noor, Amirul B. Ruslan reviews Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski (and whilst I don't think the book sounds like my cup of tea, am impressed with the 17 year old reviewer! Keep writing, kid!); Ooi Si Min reviews No Dram of Mercy - Sybil Kathigesu's memoir detailing how she gave medical aid to both civilians and members of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army; and (surprise surprise!) Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil talks about her reading, reveals herself to be a Hanif Kureishi fan (me too!) and reviews very nicely Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb. My dear friend Kaykay seems now to be writing under his real name as Krishna Kumar, and reviews Hannibal Rising.

And there's much much more!

*(The book is also included in Faces of Courage which was until recently a "restricted" book).

Pages from the Literary Tatler - Dina's Launch

So Wednesday night, there we were at Central Market Annexe for the launch of Dina Zaman's I Am Muslim.

Here are the copies piled high ...

Saras took a shine to these handsome young men who were Dina's bodyguards.

Saras again with Shahril Nizam Ahmad who designed the eye-catching cover, and Marisa Misron who was my editor when I wrote for Chrome.

There was an exhibition of art by the artists who have set up stalls in Central Market - and I couldn't resist using some of my favourite pieces as backdrops for photos of some of my friends. Here's Animah of course.

and playwright/actor Kee ThuanChye ...

and poet and publisher Raja Ahmad ...

and a very bulgy MyWordUp founder See Ming posing with an even bulgier lady.

Cool guy Reza, who took care of the sound.

After a prayer to bless the occasion, a performance of Malaysia's traditional martial art - Silat, with a bit of kris waving. There was a spectacular "swirling dervishes" dance performance by Chakra Works.

Peter Schier of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation which sponsored the publication of the book gave a very good speech outlining why he thinks the book is a very important one.

A speech from publisher Raman of Silverfish Books about why he decided to publish Dina's work.

A shy speech from the lady herself in which she thanked those who had supported her.

The symbolic moment of launch ... the banner a bit wonky at first ...

A couple of readings. Here's Chye reading the account of the visit to the weird masseur ...

It was hard to take a decent picture of Dina - she didn't keep still for very long! But at last I managed to get her to pose for one with me. She had told me that the dress code for the evening was white so that we all looked like angels. I dug the only white things that I could find out of my wardrobe. When I showed the pic to Ruhayat X later on, he said that I looked like an advert for ironing!

Dina with her family. I'd heard so much from her about her marvellously supportive mum and dad so it was really good to meet them. I think Dina looks like her mum!

Couldn't resist the opportunity to pose for a Bloggers Are Liars photo with a gaggle of bloggers and blog friends. The tall guy on the far left is of course Ahirudin Attan aka Rocky and one of the two bloggers currently being sued for defamation by the New Straits Times. In front of him Ruby Ahmad, then my blog groupies Animah and Saras then me (towering over everyone) with Chet just in front of me. Then broadcaster journalist Zahara Othman who goes by nom-de-blog Kak Teh, Nuraina A Samad and Zarina (Eliza of the Haberdashery).

Afterwards a group of us dropped by a nearby mamak shop for a drink en route to the LRT.

Here's Animah, Chet, Kenny Mah and Leon, and below Zahara with veteran journalist Aishah Ali who had brought along some of Zahara's press clippings.

Thanks Dina for a lovely evening in the company of good friends! May the book hit the bestseller list soon.

Postscript:

You can read lots of other accounts of the evening on other blogs. Dina of course has all the behind the scenes stories, entertaining stories and great pictures. The most howling funny one though is her account of the naked man when she went to inspect the venue. (Please Dina never take your blog down again. I want to laugh at this every time I feel blue). Madcap Machinist made an excellent job of the sound for the evening and was the latest to get accosted in the men's loo. Here's Ruby Ahmad having a good time and Chet networking with all the bloggers and blog friends. More links to be added as they're written.