Before he challenges himself to “take Malaysian literature further to the next level,” he should check his facts.
On Monday, speaking at the inauguration of his brainchild event, Zahid said there was a lack of celebrated Malaysian works of literature in the region, let alone globally. Need anyone remind him of Tan Twan Eng’s Walter Scott prize winner, The Garden of Evening Mists, Tash Aw’s Booker-nominated The Harmony Silk Factory or Shih-Li Kow’s Ripples, which was nominated for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize?
Those are all internationally recognised awards for celebrated books, and they don’t even cover academic literature.
Moreover, authors like Kee Thuan Chye and A Samad Said have also made their mark in the region.
It is granted that works in Malay are perhaps not as well known, especially if they haven’t been translated. Despite the government’s emphasis on Malay, the language has ceased to be the lingua franca it once was for centuries now. Globally recognised and celebrated books tend to be written in English.
This isn’t to say that Malay has no value and should be sidelined. But a future of literary greatness begins with correcting weaknesses in the education system, such as the lack of effort to give equal importance to English and Malay. It’s no secret that the standard of English in Malaysian schools has been dropping, if it hasn’t yet reached abysmal lows.
Wanting to push Malaysia to great literary heights would require a paradigm shift in education. Why would the younger generation take up Zahid’s challenge when a solid reading culture hasn’t been instilled? Why would our young people take up the challenge when literature – and by extension, the arts and humanities – have taken a backseat to STEM fields?
Children don’t clamour to go into the Arts Stream. Areas of study like the liberal arts, social sciences, and humanities – all of which offer rich material for imaginative literature – have been treated like unwanted stepchildren.
Besides, one of the main purposes of literature is to explore the human condition. How can that be done when freedom of expression is so often curbed? How can we produce good fiction and poetry when some matters are always off limits due to the government’s paranoia about sedition? How can we do so if the government cannot trust citizens to write what they want to write?
The government doesn’t even want to allow foreign reading materials to come in uncensored, as announced by the Home Ministry this week.
Can world-class literature really thrive in this kind of environment? If it has thrived so far, it has done so despite the odds. Zahid tells authors not to rely on the government alone, but what exactly has the government done so far to promote Malaysian literature, especially in English?
Since the NEP, as written in Gaik Cheng Khoo’s Reclaiming Adat: Contemporary Malaysian Film and Literature, the government has supported Malay literature through Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. But it has largely left English, specifically English fiction, to the private sector.
What prompted Zahid to tell authors not to rely on the government alone for promotion when, especially in the promotion of English fiction, they have not been relying on it?
If the government is really committed to propelling Malaysian works onto the global literary scene, as Zahid says, the reforms we have suggested here would be just the first of many steps.
So is Zahid really up to the challenge?