A group of protesters urge the government to ban the controversial Malay literature textbook "Interlok"
Writers and their writing, and the right to write must not be subjected to scrutiny or ridicule. Burning of books must be condoned as an act of infringement against literary rights. Freedom of expression of authors must be allowed to flourish so that the nation can harvest the best of artistic expression. The information revolution has broken the myth that information is not the birthright of a privileged few. Books which are even perceived as insulting and prejudicial to some segments of society; and even these writings must not be curtailed or truncated of their intellectual propriety rights. Notwithstanding the freedom of expression, books which have been chosen as part of a compulsive school curriculum must be meticulously checked for the reliability of the content, the age group this material will be exposed, and their implication on the multi racial students. The issue unfolding now regarding this controversial novel ‘Interloke’ is basically the offensive contents in the novel, which are considered as derogatory and demeaning to the Indian community, which the Government is insisting it must be used as textbook for Malay literature for Form five students at all cost in appeasing Umno to safeguard their fragile support. The prerogative of any responsible Government would be to swiftly react to rectify and remedy the problem, rather than bulldozing to be used, regardless of all the concern shown. Muyideen Yasin the deputy PM on the 29th of January announced the formation of an independent panel comprising various NGOs to amend and remove the offending parts of the novel and continue the novel as textbook. He also reiterated that the novel is good in nurturing and strengthening unity among the people. His proposal of amending the novel is the pinnacle of all ideocrazy.It’s mother of all stupidity. It is the ultimate insult to any writer, it’s better to remove it as textbook rather than to demean the author. The government’s indifference and lackadaisical attitude in not condoning historical inaccuracies among adolescents on the pretext that a purported national literary laureate has penned some scum is great disservice, and contrary to what the government is unleashing now as the One Hypocrisy Malaysia policy. The BN governments BTN programs has already poisoned a great number of our Malay students in higher educational institutions and now unwittingly the process of racial supremacy and the and Great race concept like Aryan race of the Nazis will be envisaged earlier in secondary school, to sow racial hatred. The pejorative word of pariah was used in the novel as to imply that the majority of the Indians are as such. The author’s intention may not be; to demean or insult the Indians, but his writings will have grave consequences among the students in future to belittle their fellow Indian students. The Indians as any other race have their own problems and weaknesses which they are aware and they are promulgating reforms and are committed in changing their very own apartheid system. It is an insult to injury to write something which is factually and contextually incorrectly, which will only succeeded in demeaning the already marginalised and helpless Indians. The MIC the coalition partner of Barisan Nasional only came out with statements not to derail the Indian support for 30th January Tenang by election. The electoral defeat of Umno in the March 2008 election has made them ultra sensitive in their drive towards the winning back of the Malay votes to their fold. The sprouting of extreme Malay ethno religious organizations under the covert support of Umno is sensationalising even the pleading of their legitimate rights of Non Malays as acts of treason against the Agong and the nation. Police reports were made regarding this as an affront to Malay Rights and the royalty. The call to remove the interlock novel as the textbook for Form five Malay literatures by some Indian Ngo’s is considered by the Malay supremacist organisation as treasonable and insulting the Malay rulers. When the novel ‘Shit’ was written by the National Laureate Dato Shannon Ahmad in 1999, Umno called for its banning because of the purported allegorical reference of Barisan National and Mahathir and his continues clinging to power, and it was deemed to be anti Islamic. The then Ministry of education called for the cancellation of Dato Shahnon Ahmad’s National literary award given in 1982 just because the writer was from PAS and critical of the PM.The National Malay Literary Organization didn’t make any police report against the government for defiling a prominent author when the government media insulted Shahnon Ahmad. This double standard of the ruling clique is very obvious now as they are on war path on all those opposed to the novel. The non Malays of late have been victim of racial slurs and insults by School principals, teachers and Ministers. As such calling for the books to be removed as text book for the subject of Malay literature to the harmonious racial relationship must not be perceived as affront for the freedom of expression; it is a desperate cry of the Indians to be treated with dignity. Their ancestors might have been instrumental in civilising the people in South East Asia one thousand eight hundred years ago; bringing language, religion and culture to the region, but the irony is that, now they are considered and treated like savages. The only solution of this quagmire is the removal of the novel from school rather than ‘amending’ as per our Deputy PM’s great innovation idea. May be the novel ‘shitt’ should be introduced in schools which will at least ignite some flames of change and maturity among our mundane schools.
