Writing by Amir

Box-office figures for Malaysian films in 2011

2012-01-12T15:55:00.003+08:00

1. KL Gangster - RM11.74 million
2. Ombak Rindu - RM10.9 million
3. Hantu Bonceng - RM8.53 million
4. Kongsi - RM8.1 million
5. Khurafat - RM8.08 million
6. Nasi Lemak 2.0 - RM7 million (estimated)
7. Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa - RM6.5 million
8. Nur Kasih - RM4.93 million
9. Bini-Biniku Gangster - RM4.71 million
10. Great Day - RM4.5 million (estimated)
11. Karak - RM4.3 million
12. Suatu Malam Kubur Berasap - RM4.07 million*
13. Homecoming - RM4 million
14. Raya Tak Jadi - RM3.64 million
15. Alamak Toyol - RM3.47 million
16. Petaling Street Warriors - RM3.4 million (estimated)
17. Aku Bukan Tomboy - RM2.55 million
18. Al Hijab - RM2.24 million
19. Songlap - RM2.13 million
20. Sekali Lagi - 2.04 million
21. Flat 3A - RM1.44 million
22. Misteri Jalan Lama - RM1.33 million
23. Sini Ada Hantu - RM1.3 million
24. Kembar Siang - RM1.2 million
25. Klip 3GP - RM1.14 million
26=Cun - RM1.1 million
26=Senjakala - RM1.1 million
28. Senario the Movie: Ops Pocot - RM1.06 million
29. Rasuk - 1.03 million
30. 321 Cinta - RM980,000
31.Libas - RM930,000
32. Papa I Love You - RM890,000*
33. Penunggu Istana - RM890,000
34. Seru - RM870,000
35. Haq - RM800,000
36. Tolong! Awek Aku Pontianak - RM760,000
37.Dilarang Masuk - RM750,000
38.... Dalam Botol - RM570,000
39. Momok Jangan Panggil Aku - RM550,000
40. Datin Ghairah - RM350,000
41. Sumpahan Puaka - RM310,000
42. Karipap-Karipap Cinta - RM280,000
43. Abuya - RM210,000
44. Ratu - RM200,000
45=Toyol Nakal - RM190,000
45=Apa Tengok-Tengok - RM190,000

* Still showing

Gambar daripada sini ; chomel kan?

OMBAK RINDU and PETALING STREET WARRIORS

2011-12-18T13:42:00.001+08:00

First off: I enjoyed both Ombak Rindu and Petaling Street Warriors. And they come from different strands of Malaysian cinema.

Ombak Rindu (although it's based on a romantic potboiler novel) reminded me most of the films written by Hamzah Hussin and directed by M. Amin: Rumah Itu Dunia Aku (1963), Dosa Wanita (1967) and Sial Wanita (1969). In all of these, a virtuously suffering young heroine has terrible things done to her by Fate (in general) and a Scheming Older Bitch (in particular). The fact that the heroine is willing to endure torment for most of the movie's running time is meant to make us not only admire her fortitude but appreciate the cathartic ending even more. Thus, Ombak Rindu is a perverse paean to female masochism.

(Malay women love movies in which women get emotionally abused. Malay men don't notice, as they're too busy watching TV wrestling shows in which men get physically abused.)

There's a car-chase sequence in Ombak Rindu that recalls the end of Madu 3, but I couldn't help noticing how much freer the kebaya-wearing women in the 1964 movie were compared to the Western-garbed or tudung-clad ones in 2011. Have superficial Westernisation and Islamisation (both of which are imported values; our ancestors were neither mat salleh nor Arabs) had such a diminishing impact?

In contrast to the sentimental solipsism of Ombak Rindu is Petaling Street Warriors, which affirms that Malaysian cinema in the Chinese language is much more interested to talk about 'Malaysia' than our Malay-language cinema is.

Although a kinetic fight sequence at the end becomes a catalogue of Chinese pop cinema (such as 黃飛鴻 and 李小龍), Petaling Street Warriors actually reminded me of the robust iconoclasm of Ali Baba Bujang Lapok. Even before the cameo by 孫文 / 孫逸仙, the movie was effortlessly political as it flipped about notions of citizenship and governance. There are even 'illegal' gatherings, and therefore terribly topical.

It's not as frisky and knockabout as Nasi Lemak 2.0 (the movie it would most likely be compared to), but it shows that a mish-mash of pop genres, when handled with wit and verve, can be utterly zany and utterly serious at the same time.

The closing scenes of both movies are significant. Ombak Rindu offers a bumigeois fantasy on a yacht (where I am sure the champagne is halal). The end of Petaling Street Warriors is in the spirit of democratic optimism: it's only when we give up inherited privileges that we can truly live (together).

I am glad I saw these two movies as a double-bill, in the spirit of 1Malaysia or 2Malaysia or oh well whatever nevermind.

Nominations for Poster Terbaik, the most important category of Festival Filem Orang Melayu

2011-11-08T23:13:00.000+08:00

This annual event, which presumptuously calls itself Festival Filem Malaysia, looks even more parochial this year because the two most interesting films are shut out from the main nominations due to not being at least 70% in the Malay language.

The best local film of 2011 was the humane and transcendent Great Day, and the most contentious/frisky was Nasi Lemak 2.0. In normal circumstances, these two would have had several nominations each. But since they're mostly in Chinese, we are forced instead to pretend that the films which exist to shore up what passes for the Malay star system are not only worthier but more 'Malaysian'.

As for the posters: I don't think the winner is as clear-cut as the Histeria and Belukar of previous years. I think Dalam Botol is conceptually the strongest (it tells a story) but the red borders diminish its visual impact. So I'd say Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is the one that stands out.

Short story by Hafiz Noor Shams in the latest SELANGOR TIMES

2011-11-05T16:50:00.002+08:00

Hafiz is a columnist at The Malaysian Insider.

8 kelainan Buku Fixi yang ke-8, ZOMBIJAYA

2011-10-24T08:53:00.000+08:00

1. Judul paling panjang.
2. Jumlah perkataan paling banyak di muka depan
3. Ilustrasi dan bukannya fotografi di muka depan; juga ada 28 ilustrasi di dalam.
4. Judul yang jika ditanya Lebai Google, ia tak akan merujuk kepada apa-apa selain buku ini.
5. Halaman dedikasi yang menyebut paling ramai orang (16, termasuk George A. Romero)
6. Paling ramai orang mati (i.e. jutaan rakyat Malaysia)
7. Bukan saja mengandungi perkanaan 'zombi' tapi menggunakannya 140 kali.
8. Ada kameo oleh David Hasselhoff (halaman 220-1)

Ada persaingan sengit untuk memilih kulit depan, antara dua nih:

Tapi akhirnya yang sebelah kiri menang, hasil undian ahli Fesbuk kami.

Zombijaya belum masuk mana-mana kedai. Tapi ia boleh dibeli online di Kedai Fixi.

Kalau nak datang beli sendiri dan bersua dengan penulisnya Adib Zaini, sila hadir ke mana-mana daripada 3 acara ni. (Kalau nak jadi groupie dan datang ketiga-tiga pun boley.)

Percuma. Semua dijemput hadir. Kalau datang sebagai zombi, mungkin boleh dapat buku percuma.... atau mungkin pula dipulau dan dikeji oleh tetamu lain.

MALAYSIAN SHORTS (17 Oct), once again hosted by me!

2011-10-10T11:30:00.004+08:00

Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia
presents
MALAYSIAN SHORTS

Monday, 17 October
8pm
Auditorium, HELP University College

Pusat Bandar Damansara

Kuala Lumpur.

Entrance: FREE

All are WELCOME
No need to RESERVE SEATS

Facebook event page.

10 new narrative Malaysian short films/videos will be shown, with most of the directors present.

1. EXHALATION/ Edmund Yeo/ Japan-Malaysia/21 min
The death of a former classmate, Yosuke, brings Naoko back to her hometown. Arriving the day before his funeral, Naoko embarks upon a road trip with her friend Sayuri. They visit the site of Yosuke's fatal car accident, and gradually, their journey turns into a surrealistic experience of bittersweet remembrances, tender secrets and unspoken regrets. Dreams become increasingly vivid, memories come in the form of ghosts. They lost themselves in melancholy.

2. SUDU GAN GARFU/ Faiq Khalifa/ 14.5 minutes
Tiada kata secantik bahasa. Menampilkan lakonan oleh Adman Salleh gittew.

3. MOVEMENT IN C/ Ali Lee/ 37 seconds
The shortest short we have ever shown?

4. MARIA/ Afiq Deen/ 11 minutes
Maria is fictional thriller film inspired by the record-breaking cases of baby dumping and abandonment by Malaysian Muslim women.

5. SIX REVISITED/ Timo/ 1 minute
The second-shortest short we have ever shown?

6. MEMORIA/ Yihwen Chen/ 9 minutes
A girl. A bicycle. And a memory.

7. JEMPUT NAIK/ Ng Ken Kin/5.5 minutes
In conjunction with this year's KL 48 Hours Film Project, we present one of last year's entries by a stalwart of Malaysian Shorts. Caution: there will be blood.

8. BROGA RENDEZVOUS/ Ridhwan Saidi/ 8.5 minutes
Teman lelaki mahu ke Broga, tempat mereka pertama kali bercumbu; tetapi teman wanita tidak ingat malah sesat ketika dalam perjalanan. Dalam masa yang sama seorang guru merindui pemergian pelajar cemerlang sekolah mereka di Broga. Sebuah filpen yang melankolik, dengan sedikit unsur jenaka.

9. LE ONION DE NOIR/ Brad Liew/ 11 min
Over a telephone call, a man can be heard justifying his actions in what he sees as a sign from the divine. As he re-accounts his actions, the lines between his reality and ours blur into a mesh of primal violence. Do we question his psychotic cruelty? Or is it truly his higher calling?

10. EPAL HIJAU DI LUAR PAGAR/ Syahrul Musa/ 26 minutes
Mamat (12 tahun) mengambil upah menjaga kambing di sebuah kawasan perkuburan Cina. Satu petang, hujan lebat. Dia membawa kambing-kambing jagaannya berteduh di tokong Cina berdekatan. Kelaparan membuatkan dia terpaksa mengambil sebiji epal hijau dari tokong tersebut dan berjanji akan membayarnya semula. Dalam keadaan keluarganya yang penuh krisis, mampukah dia menepati janjinya?

TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes

Short story by Hafidz Baharom in the latest SELANGOR TIMES

2011-10-07T22:05:00.001+08:00

Can be seen as a companion piece to his earlier driving-themed story. Is there a "Drive, He Said" compilation in the works?

Speaking of Traffic, isn't this a great song?

Fiction in Esquire Malaysia

2011-10-02T16:50:00.002+08:00

I am now the Fiction Editor of Esquire Malaysia!

Aside from the thrill of being associated with the kind of magazine that puts Justin Timberlake on the cover, I'm happy to be able to commission and choose stories from my favourite local writers. One of my formative experiences, way back in the previous century, was reading short stories in the American Esquire by the likes of Raymond Carver and Jay McInerney. The US magazine no longer publishes fiction regularly, but I hope the Malaysian one can - in a local fashion, natch - fill this void.

Plus, haven't we heard/read so many American stories by now? Isn't it time we celebrated our own?

Speaking of celebration, the first story I chose was by Shih Li-Kow whose book Ripples I reviewed enthusiastically almost three years ago. Her story that I chose, Hungry in Guangzhou, was indeed from Ripples, because to kick off the Fiction section I wanted to give due kudos to a book whose excellence has still yet to be discovered by many.

All subsequent issues will have previously unpublished stories. Let the telling begin!

MALAYSIAN SHORTS is on Monday 19 Sep. Hosted by me!

2011-09-13T13:12:00.001+08:00

It's time again to view Malaysian short films!

Most of thedirectors will be present, so you can ask & mingle. Most of them won't be violent:

As usual, do vote for your 3 favourite shorts of the night.

Don't vote for the ones that put you to sleep:

Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia

presents

MALAYSIAN SHORTS (edisi September 2011)

Where:HELP University College Auditorium, Pusat Bandar Damansara, KL

When: Monday 19 September, 8pm onwards

How Much: Freelor!

You may confirm at the Facebook event page

Line-Up:

1) Afternoon River Evening Sky

Director: Edmund Yeo

2010, 19 min

A short film divided into two parallelstories. In Afternoon River, Grace, a waitress in a Bah Kut Tehrestaurant tries to go through her mundane everyday work whileignoring the incessant ringing of her cell phone. In Evening Sky, thetomboyish Lai Fun seeks justice from an illegal DVD peddler whoimpregnated her best friend.

2) The Invigilator

Director: Manesh Nesaratnam

2010, 12 min

A story about two high-school teachersand their aspirations in the teaching profession. This film is atonce a light-hearted clash of pedagogical perspectives and at thesame time an echo of societies' frustrations with the inadequacies ofavailable education systems.

3) Scene

Director: Soren Mohd Noor

2011/ 2 min

Synopsis

When a young adult receives a friendrequest from a “stranger” via his Facebook account, he findshimself dealing with issues of faith, principles and peer pressure.

4) Permata Bonda

Director: Fikri Jermadi

2010/ 16 min

Synopsis

The constant complaints and bickering between a mother and herdaughter causes the daughter, Maimon, to reevaluate her life, forcingher to make a difficult decision that could change her life forever.

5) Burger Boy

Director: Timo

2008/20 min

Synopsis

Flipping burgers is a great way to meetpeople.

6) The Lims

Director: Brad Liew

2011/3 min

Synopsis

Inspired by Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, The Royal Lims is asatire on the nasty habit of smoking and the Malaysian government'santi-smoking campaign

7) Perempuan, Hujan & Kematian

Director: Abror Rivai

2001/20 min

Synopsis

Seorang pesakit delusi sedang diwaratdi atas sebuah rumah di atas bukit. Dia berdepan dengan konflikpsikologu apabile melihat dirinya sebagai orang lain. Siapa diasebenarnya?

8) Hujan Panas

Director: Nadiah Hamzah

2011 / 20mins

Synopsis

For the longest time, Zaki has dreamedabout coming to America. He enrolls himself in a business course andfinds himself in New York City – in an apartment with two illegalIndonesian immigrants; Ferdy and Mira, in Flushing, Queens. As hegrapples with the harsh reality of living in the city, he findshimself slowly attracted to Mira. She helps him realize thepossibilities of starting life anew – possibilities that arethreatened by an impending marriage and his awaited return toMalaysia.

***

TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 51 min

*Photos from Perempuan, Hujan & Kematian and Afternoon River Evening Sky

Short story by Celine Tee in the latest SELANGOR TIMES

2011-09-10T09:13:00.003+08:00

The full issue may be read/downloaded here. This is the 40th issue and almost all had short stories in them, so there's an alumni of about 30 people (some with more than one entry).

Short story by Yusuf Martin in the latest SELANGOR TIMES

2011-08-26T10:34:00.000+08:00

This is Yusuf's second story here; Click on the tag below to scroll down and read the first!

The entire issue of Selangor Times may be read/downloaded here.

Short story by Tshiung Han See in the latest SELANGOR TIMES

2011-08-19T10:41:00.000+08:00

The rest of the issue can be downloaded here.

GROWING UP WITH GHOSTS

2011-08-17T18:58:00.000+08:00

This is the first Matahari Books publication of the year, and it's already August. Gosh, we have slowed down!

Yes there will be only 3 books this year. I don't mind, because we want to spend a lot more time on each book. Plus, there's Fixi for me to do!

Growing up with Ghosts is creative non-fiction, something that I initially set up Matahari Books to specialise in. The story of Bernice Chauly's parents effortlessly becomes one of the stories that create this nation; it is about (to use the title of a previous book of hers) "going there and coming back". That it's a labour of love goes without saying. It is a quest and a valentine, and an emphatic statement of belonging.

It's also gorgeous! Flip through the pages by 'searching inside' here.

The book will be in shops by the end of this month. If you'd like to order an autographed copy, do email info@mataharibooks.com. Deadline this Sunday noon; free delivery within Malaysia.

Short story by Eileen Lian in the latest SELANGOR TIMES

2011-08-12T09:28:00.000+08:00

While we're at it, let's also find out about the wau decoration at Sunway Pyramid.

The whole issue of Selangor Times can be read here.

Short story by Lee Ee Leen in the latest SELANGOR TIMES

2011-08-06T00:48:00.000+08:00

I am happy to read this because I think Lee Ee Leen is one of the best writers we have. We demand a book!

Short story by Fadzlishah Johanabas in the latest SELANGOR TIMES

2011-07-30T16:46:00.001+08:00

Alert readers will notice this is the second story by Dr. Fadz to be published here; the first was here.

Sneak preview of the next title by Matahari Books

2011-07-20T15:46:00.000+08:00

Title: Growing up with Ghosts
Author: Bernice Chauly
Launch date: 23 August.

Short story by Nick Choo in the latest SELANGOR TIMES

2011-07-17T10:50:00.003+08:00

Check out the rest of the issue here!

Box-office figures for the first 20 local films of the year

2011-07-13T18:23:00.003+08:00

1. KL Gangster - RM11.74 million
2. Kongsi - RM8.1 million
3. Khurafat - RM8.08 million
4. Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa - RM6.5 million
5. Nur Kasih - RM4.93 million
6. Great Day - RM4.5 million (estimated)
7. Karak - RM4.3 million
8. Homecoming - RM4 million
9. Sini Ada Hantu - RM1.3 million
10. Kembar Siang - RM1.2 million
11=Cun - RM1.1 million
11= Senjakala - RM1.1 million
13 Penunggu Istana - RM890,000
14 Seru - RM870,000
15 Haq - RM800,000
16 Dilarang Masuk - RM750,000
17 ... Dalam Botol - RM570,000
18 Momok Jangan Panggil Aku - RM550,000
19. Ratu - RM200,000
20 Toyol Nakal - RM190,000

Source: FINAS

Selangor Times short stories that I had missed

2011-07-09T22:52:00.001+08:00

Enjoy :-)

The bad news is that entries have been very slow in coming. If there aren't any new stories, the Fiction section will have to be killed! Do send in stories (about 800 words) to editor@selangortimes.com. Yes, there is pay.

Short story by Khairulnizam Bakeri in SELANGOR TIMES / Fixi in Pesta Buku Selangor

2011-06-25T01:24:00.000+08:00

Yes! The author of Pecah (which is going to be made into a movie!) has a new, published short story. Fans of his novel will experience a few intertextual frissons of pleasure as they read this:

The rest of Selangor Times can be read/downloaded here.

By the way, all the Fixi novels (as well as a few other books of the hip & happening indie persuasion; full list of publishers here) are currently being sold at our booth in Pesta Buku Selangor.

This is the first time Fixi has its own booth so I am right chuffed. The first day's crowd was much lower than what we experienced at the KL Book Fair in PWTC, but our sales were actually 40% higher! And the hall is much more comfortable, with far fewer annoying salespeople. We still have 9 days to go, so we shall see how it goes ...

ROJAK is in the running!

2011-06-02T18:06:00.001+08:00

These 10 books were chosen by the Popular chain based on sales figures for last year. This contest is now being held for the 4th year.

In 2010, Yasmin Ahmad's Films got 2nd place (Non-Fiction), while Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things (Vol 1) got 3rd place (Non-Fiction) in 2008.

These are the nominees for the Popular - The Star Readers Choice Awards 2011 in the Fiction category:

Rojak - Amir Muhammad
Madness Abroad - Yvonne Lee
The Rice Mother - Rani Manicka
Kebaya Tales - Lee Su Kim
Orans Asli Animal Tales - Lim Boo Liat (editor)
The Embrace of Harlots - David TK Wong
Inspector Singh: A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul by Shamini Flint
Sweet Offerings - Chan Ling Yap
Under The Sun - O Thiam Chin
A Bit of Earth - Suchen Christine Lim

Voting will be by coupons in The Star and Popular bookstores in June & July, with the results announced at the KL Convention Centre in late August. Ada can ker? Ntah ler ... Either way, I am grateful for the support that has been given to Rojak. The first print run of 3,000 copies sold out months ago, and the one selling now is the 2nd print. Syukur!

It was a fun book to do; thanks to Chin Yew, Liza Manshoor, Ezra Zaid and Lori Lee.

Short story by Alfian Sa'at in the 26th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-05-30T23:24:00.001+08:00

Alfian is the most famous writer to have ever graced this fiction column! This story is from his upcoming collection Malay Sketches.

The rest of Selangor Times is here!

Short story by Al Zaquan in the 25th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-05-22T14:14:00.001+08:00

The full issue of Selangor Times can be downloaded here.

This is his second story to be published in the paper; the first was here!

And it looks like I totally missed the stories in the 23rd and 24th issues. Ah well.

Novel Fixi yang keempat

2011-05-06T08:35:00.000+08:00

Dendam ialah novel Fixi yang keempat. Penulisnya Affifudin Omar pernah menjadi Timbalan Menteri Kewangan Malaysia pada suatu ketika dulu. Buku dalam proses printing & akan siap minggu depan. Untuk menang buku percuma, jenguklah fan-page ni hari Isnin ye!

Semangkuk INTERLOK boleh dimuat-turun dengan percuma!

2011-05-06T00:43:00.000+08:00

Rancangan asalnya memang untuk mencetak, menjilid dan menjual buku ini dengan cara biasa. Tapi disebabkan beberapa faktor, ini tak dapat kami lakukan. Faktor utama: kami menghadapi kesukaran untuk mendapat esei yang sanggup/mampu melihat novel Interlok dengan cara yang lain daripada 'kontroversi' yang melandanya. Jadi, kebanyakan daripada 30 esei yang diterima terlalu repetitif sifatnya.

Keputusan Matahari Books kemudian ialah menjadikan buku mini ini sebagai e-book percuma yang boleh dimuat-turun oleh sesiapa saja. Sama dengan apa yang kami buat tahun lepas dengan New Malaysian Essays 3.

Hikmah format ini:

1. E-book boleh dibaca oleh sesiapa saja (dengan talian Internet) secara percuma
2. Maklumat tentang e-book ini boleh disebar dengan lebih cepat apabila blog-blog dan laman-laman web lain memberi link untuknya. (Tunggu apa lagi?)
3. Isu mengenai Interlok belum padam-padam lagi, jadi e-book ini tidaklah berupa cubaan untuk memberi 'kata muktamad', tapi sebaliknya menjadi sebahagian kecil daripada wacana yang sedang berjalan.

Terima kasih kepada editornya Hafiz Hamzah yang tall, dark and handsome; 10 penulis yang termuat di dalamnya kerana mampu berbicara dengan rancak, nakal dan tidak klise; dan Teck Hee yang bikin kulit depan dan layout. Kata Pengenalan Hafiz bermula dengan:

Jarang-jarang kita menemukan sebuah polemik kesusasteraan. Di Malaysia apatah lagi. Yang muncul di tengah-tengah khalayak juga tak selalu mengandung isi yang melapangkan, atau mengghairahkan. Yang ada, seperti yang pernah kita saksikan, adalah pertikaman lidah yang menyempitkan, menyesakkan. Barang tentu, anda yang menatap buku ini mungkin lebih arif dengan latar yang dimaksudkan.

Untuk mengulum keseluruhan buku kecil ini, silalah muat-turun PDF Semangkuk INTERLOK!

Short story by Norman Yusoff in the 22nd issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-05-05T13:26:00.000+08:00

Although I am 6 days late in posting this up (blame the distractions of the Book Fair!), I am happy to see film lecturer Norman Yusoff here. It made me want to watch Anita Dunia Ajaib again, or maybe The Purple Rose of Cairo, or both at the same time!

Box-office figures for the first 10 Malaysian films in 2011

2011-04-28T00:09:00.000+08:00

1. Khurafat - RM8.1 million
2. Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa - RM6.5 million
3. Great Day - RM4.5 million (estimated)
4. Homecoming - RM4 million
5. Sini Ada Hantu - RM1.3 million
6. Kembar Siang - RM1.2 million
7. Cun - RM1.1 million
8. Haq - RM800,000
9. ... Dalam Botol - RM570,000
10. Ratu - RM200,000

Source: FINAS

We have reached the halfway point of the KL International Book Fair 2011

2011-04-27T00:39:00.002+08:00

Sometimes it can be tiring and annoying (oh, those overzealous salespeople in front of us!) but the bookfest is fun because it is, at the end of the day, a celebration of the fact that we can all eventually, if we choose to, sit down and have a juicy read.

Some terrific reviews of the 3 Fixi novels have been appearing lately; do check the Fixi Facebook group for the links as they come in.

5 days to go! And this Sunday 2-4 pm might be the last chance to get all 3 of the novelists together, since they are all quite busy (at least two are working on their next Fixi novels, after all). I am grateful to them the most of all.

If you don't want to brave the crowds, all 3 of the novels are now in Silverfish, Bangsar. Online orders are doing just fine in Fixi.com.my.

Short story by Rumaizah Abu Bakar in the 21st issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-04-24T01:25:00.001+08:00

The rest of Selangor Times can be read/downloaded here.

Rumaizah's debut collection of stories, The Female Cell, is now available in shops!

Buku Fixi @ Pesta Buku KL

2011-04-18T08:49:00.001+08:00

Sesi bertemu penulis - Shaz Johar (Kougar), Ridhwan Saidi (Cekik) & Khairulnizam Bakeri (Pecah) akan diadakan dua kali:
- Sabtu 23 April 2-4pm
- Ahad 1 Mei 2-4pm.

Selain itu, saya akan diinterbiu di booth Institut Terjemahan Negara Malaysia sempena Sesi Wacana Sofa Putih (juga di Dewan Tun Razak) mengenai Fixi pada
- Jumaat 29 April 3-4pm

Join fan-page Fixi di Facebook untuk tahu cara memenangi satu set buku Fixi (ya, termasuk beg!) pada setiap hari sewaktu Pesta Buku itu:

Short story by Chua They Hua in the 20th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-04-16T10:00:00.000+08:00

What a strange, unsettling little story! I am very interested to read more from this writer.

No, the Sepang Municipal Council member has nothing to do with the story, but I might as well include him in the image capture from this issue of Selangor Times so that we can Know Him!

FIXI: Bila & Bagaimana & Siapa & Apa-apa

2011-04-15T08:14:00.019+08:00

(Esei saya ini terkandung dalam press kit sidang media untuk pelancaran label Fixi semalam di restoran Teak5, Mutiara Damansara. Di acara itu, suatu MOU juga dimeterai antara Fixi dan Lightbulb Studios [label filem baru di bawah naungan Grand Brilliance]. Setiap novel Fixi akan dipertimbangkan untuk adaptasi filem oleh Lightbulb. Inilah kali pertama perjanjian sedemikian dibuat antara sebuah label buku & filem di Malaysia.)

Idea untuk Fixi datang secara mendadak pada bulan Ogos tahun lepas, di suatu acara anjuran rangkaian buku Popular. Pihak penganjur membaca senarai 10 novel Melayu yang paling laris untuk tahun sebelumnya. Hampir semuanya ada 'cinta' atau 'kasih' dalam tajuknya. Saya terus terfikir untuk membuat sesuatu yang lain.

Di Facebook, saya menghantar mesej yang berupa Call for Entries. Mesej asalnya lebih kurang begini:

PROJEK NOVEL

Cadangan: 60,000 perkataan (supaya buku sekitar 300 mukasurat).
Tema: Urban & kontemporari. Bahasa slanga dan celupar digalakkan tapi tidak dimestikan.
Boleh buat noir, thriller, cinta 4 segi, cyber-punk, dll.
Fikir 'pulp'.
Oh ya: judul harus satu perkataan saja.
Cadang nak buat cover gelap & saturated.
Boleh bincang lanjut kalau minat :-)

Mesej itu (lengkap dengan smiley) dihantar pada bulan 8 September 2010 kepada kesemua ahli page Facebook syarikat saya Matahari Books, lebih 2,500 orang. Daripada jumlah itu, 14 orang kata mereka nak tulis, biarpun hampir semua belum pernah menulis novel. Saya jangkakan daripada 14 itu, mungkin 7 akan siap novel mereka. Yang lain pasti pancit di tengah jalan.

Saya silap. Angka sebenarnya ialah 3. Di antara 11 yang lain tu, ada yang give up setelah 2 bab, ada yang perlu lebih banyak masa, dan ada yang terus tidak berhubung. Haih!

Jadi, orang pertama yang perlu mendapat "Terima kasih banyak" dari saya ialah Mark Zuckerberg. Tanpa Facebook, Fixi tak mungkin dapat dilancarkan secepat ini: 3 novel hanya 7 bulan setelah Call for Entries. Jika saya jumpa dia, saya akan belanja bir atau tapai.

Ketiga-tiga novel yang pertama ini siap sepenuhnya pada bulan Mac dan dihantar ke printer lewat bulan itu. Hasilnya ialah apa yang anda dapat baca (jangan tak baca) sekarang: Pecah, Cekik dan Kougar.

Saya sangat puas dengan ketiga-tiga novel ini. Setiap satu punya kelebihannya yang tersendiri. Pecah berjaya mengatur dan menggerakkan plotnya yang kompleks dengan penuh gaya dan rona; aturan bahasanya punya ritma yang sangat catchy. Cekik yang sinis dan memeranjatkan ialah satu renungan tajam terhadap budaya konsumer kita yang membebalkan; karya Fixi yang paling edgy setakat ini. Kougar menyelami minda protagonisnya yang slinky -- dia impulsif, nakal, tapi bukannya semata-mata 'baik' atau 'jahat' -- dalam cerita yang penuh debar. Itulah dia: catchy - edgy - slinky.

Saya amat berterima kasih kepada ketiga-tiga penulis ini -- Khairulnizam Bakeri, Ridhwan Saidi, Shaz Johar -- kerana memberi kerjasama yang total. Biarpun ini merupakan novel-novel mereka yang pertama, saya harap (dan pasti) mereka akan terus menulis.

Åpabila saya umumkan pada bulan September yang saya mencari novel, saya belum ada nama atau syarikat untuk projek ini. Syarikat saya yang lagi satu, Matahari Books, lebih bertumpu kepada karya bukan-fiksyen. Saya rasa lebih sesuai jika ditubuhkan label yang baru dengan identiti baru.

Nama 'Fixi' mengambil masa agak lama juga untuk didapati. Saya tertarik kepada perkataan Bahasa Indonesia 'fiksi' (yang sudah semestinya diambil dari fiction Bahasa Inggeris, yang diambil dari...Rujuk halaman 2 mana-mana buku Fixi) kerana bunyinya ringkas dan padat. Tapi perkataan itu sendiri telah menjadi terlalu generik, jadi saya pilih Fixi kerana sebutannya sama tapi ejaannya even more ringkas dan padat. Jika anda Google "Buku Fixi", hanya hal-hal yang berkaitan dengan syarikat ini akan keluar. Berbeza dengan, contohnya, search "Buku Fiksi" yang ada ribuan hasil dari Indonesia.

Target pembaca Fixi ialah sebenarnya sesiapa saja yang boleh membaca bahasa kebangsaan kita, termasuk mereka yang selama ini lebih suka membaca dalam Bahasa Inggeris. Saya difahamkan yang kebanyakan pembaca novel Melayu ialah perempuan; ke mana perginya kaum lelaki? Saya difahamkan kebanyakan pembaca novel Melayu ialah orang Melayu; ke mana perginya kaum lain? Saya tidaklah mengatakan bahawa Fixi dapat memancing "pembaca-pembaca yang tiada" ini, tapi sekadar bertanya. Kalau tidak Fixi, mungkin ada syarikat lain dapat mengisi gap ini, dan syabas kepada mereka.

'Gaya Fixi' berbeza dengan 'gaya Dewan (Bahasa)'. Kami ingin menekankan plot dan gaya bahasa yang immediate, yang lebih in-your-face. Kami menggalakkan bahasa slanga, celupar, rojak. Di negeri omputih, gaya ini boleh dipanggil pulp fiction. Saya teringat karya-karya arwah Hamzah Hussin, yang menulis novel dengan tajuk seperti Samseng, dan juga menulis filem dengan tajuk seperti Dosa Wanita dan Sial Wanita. Ada beberapa novel arwah A. Samad Ismail terbitan Creative Enterprise yang juga tergolong dalam kategori ini.

Pulp fiction secara amnya tertumpu kepada elemen-elemen kehidupan yang gelap, samar, sensasi, panas! Biarpun begitu, cara penceritaannya haruslah bijak. Untuk memetik kata-kata Neil Gaiman, 4 perkataan yang paling penting yang harus timbul dalam benak pembaca ialah: "And what happened next?" Antara inspirasi saya, selain nama-nama yang disebut di atas, ialah Jim Thompson, Elmore Leonard, Sidney Sheldon, Jackie Collins dan penulis-penulis murder mystery. Tiga novel yang pertama ini mungkin memberi hanya petanda awal kepada range yang mampu kami sediakan; seronok juga kalau ada yang nak tulis cerita zombi, sci-fi, psycho thriller atau sebegainya, tetapi bertempat dalam realiti masyarakat masakini. Secara peribadi saya lebih suka ayat-ayat yang berbunyi "Mereka makan di Secret Recipe KLCC" daripada "Mereka makan di sebuah restoran di salah satu pusat membeli-belah yang ternama di ibukota."

Konsep kulit buku Fixi diilham oleh salah satu label buku kegemaran saya, Vintage Black Lizard, yang menerbitkan novel jenayah. Berbeza dengan kebanyakan novel Melayu masakini, kami menggunakan fotografi dan bukannya ilustrasi. Setiap judul satu perkataan di-highlight dengan warna yang 'garang'. Kami juga akan sentiasa usha jurugambar dan model yang difikir sesuai untuk tajuk-tajuk yang mendatang.

Demi memenuhi tuntutan pasaran, setiap buku 'terpaksa' dicetak dengan kertas simili putih yang murah, untuk pastikan harga jualan setiap buku tidak akan melebihi RM20. Saiz buku pula kami tetapkan setelah mengukur saiz buku terbitan Alaf 21, yang merupakan salah satu market leader dalam bidang ini.

Cetakan pertama untuk setiap novel ialah 3,000 unit. Apabila hampir habis dijual, ia akan dicetak semula. Saya difahamkan bahawa novel-novel cinta ada yang dibuat cetakan pertama 15,000 unit, tapi biarlah kami cuba try test dulu. Kalau banyak sangat buku yang tertimbun di stor, siapa yang menyesal? Saya dan keluarga saya juga yang menyesal.

Terima kasih kepada pihak Lightbulb Studios kerana percaya bahawa Fixi dapat menerbitkan novel-novel yang dapat dipertimbangkan untuk diadaptasi ke medium filem/TV. MOU yang kami tandatangani pada hari ini ialah pertama kali suatu kerjasama sedemikian dibuat antara sebuah syarikat filem dan sebuah syarikat buku.

Sasaran Fixi ialah untuk menerbitkan sekurang-kurangnya 14 novel dalam tahun yang pertama (3 pada bulan ini dan 1 pada setiap bulan berikutnya), jadi memanglah mustahil untuk kesemua mereka diadaptasi. Sudah tentu ada yang dianggap tak begitu sesuai dari segi tema (tak cukup komersil), bajet (terlalu tinggi) atau apa-apa saja.

Sejujurnya, fokus utama saya ialah untuk memilih novel yang saya rasa berkesan sebagai novel, dengan hal kesesuaian untuk adaptasi filem/TV sebagai faktor kedua yang kuat. Fixi juga akan menerbitkan novel-novel yang mungkin akan ditolak oleh kedai buku biasa ("atas sebab-sebab tertentu") jika saya rasa bahawa karya itu tetap berkesan sebagai novel. (Buku sebegini akan dijual secara online dan di event-event tertentu sahaja, dan dibuat cetakan pertama 1,000).

Terima kasih kepada semua yang terlibat dalam penubuhan Fixi dan juga 3 novel yang pertama. Teck Hee: designer, Danny Lim: webmaster dan jurugambar, Azwan Ismail, Richard Wong dan Hafiz Hamzah yang menyemak manuskrip, Nikki Tok dalam hal urusan akaun, dan Gerakbudaya yang menjadi pengedar rasmi untuk semua buku Fixi. Dengan adanya Gerakbudaya, rancangannya ialah untuk setiap buku Fixi dijual di semua kedai buku utama di Malaysia, terutamanya Popular, MPH, Times, Borders dan Kinokuniya. Setiap buku boleh juga dibeli online di fixi.com.my. Kalau yang ovesi boleh beli di Amazon.com. Ada ke orang kat luar Malaysia yang minat beli novel Melayu kat Amazon? Belum try belum tahu dong.

Di awal tulisan ini, saya berkata bahawa Fixi terilham apabila saya melihat deretan novel-novel popular yang hampir semuanya bertemakan cinta. Apakah ini bermakna Fixi anti-cinta atau anti-novel cinta? Seperti kata Normadiah dalam filem Pusaka Pontianak: "Oh T-I-D-U-K!" Kami amat cintakan cinta. Malah, salah satu novel Fixi yang sedang dalam peracangan memang bertajuk Cintan dan sedang diusahakan oleh penulis skrip popular Amir Hafizi. Tapi untuk mengutip kata-kata klise yang biasa diberi oleh artis baru, "kehadiran kami di sini sekadar untuk menambah variasi/pilihan/seri" kepada scene novel Melayu yang memang happening ini.

Selamat membaca!

(*Foto oleh Khairulnizam Bakeri melalui Blackberry).

Short story by me (!) in the 19th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-04-08T14:01:00.004+08:00

Cinta Satay

by Amir Muhammad

She had six months to find him. She would be reaching a milestone birthday then and if her friends gave her another surprise cake, it would come with the customary joke that a fire extinguisher would be needed to extinguish all the candles. She didn't need a fire extinguisher; she just wanted a guy beside her to help her blow.

Getting dates was the easy part, as she was an eligible bachelorette. But each guy would need to pass the satay test to go further.

The satay stall was a semi-autonomous region across from a restaurant near her apartment. The restaurant really came alive at night, which meant that it was more fun to be there with someone else. Satay orders could be made to the restaurant staff but payment had to be made separately, upon delivery, to the satay-maker Sam. His stall closed only on rainy nights.

On a dry night in the first month, she brought a guy named Rais. He was full of florid praise for everything about her. But she noticed he didn't even look at Sam when ordering. Worse, he complained too loudly when there weren't enough nasi impit cubes for his liking. You could tell a lot about a guy from the way he behaved to people he considered beneath him. Rais was rude, and so he didn't go further.

On a dry night in the second month, she brought a guy named Daniel. He was punctual when he picked her up, which was such a rare quality. But she noticed that he didn't eat any of the kuah satay. When she asked why, he said, "It makes things messy." This made her look at him in a new light. A man who couldn't handle messiness would also be less fun and spontaneous later. Daniel was dry, and so he didn't go further.

On a dry night in the third month, she brought a guy named Ivan. He had great taste in clothes and aftershave. But she noticed something off-putting when he ordered the satay. "We'll have only the beef. Chicken's lame, and mutton's gross" he told Sam (and also her). She was taken aback. Did she have no say in the matter of which slain animal she might like? Ivan was inconsiderate, and so he didn't go further.

On a dry night in the fourth month, she brought a guy named Prakash. He had a very nice car, the kind she could imagine disappearing into while forgetting the congestion that might be on the road or in her head. But something happened as soon as he ordered 10 chicken and 10 mutton sticks for himself (she was not hungry this time).

"I don't really like mutton, but I make sure to always order it," he said. And he paused.

"Why?" she asked, since it seemed to be expected of her.

"It's to remind myself that, in Life, we can't always get what we want. We have to deal with even negative eventualities. So if I ordered only chicken, which is what I love, I'd be lulling myself into a false state of comfort. So I force myself to also eat mutton." He went on and on, not noticing that her eyes were glazing over. He didn't want a date, but an audience.

Prakash was ponderous, and so he didn't go further.

On a dry night in the fifth month, she brought a guy named Ghani. He was in an industry that was related to hers. So they had many matters of mutual interest, and that helped to keep the conversation lively. In fact, everything seemed to go swimmingly. She thought she'd finally found the ideal guy for the birthday party, which was only a month away. She had no problems with how he chose, ordered or ate the satay. It was only when he ostentatiously used a stick, now stripped of meat, as a toothpick that she felt dismay. He kept doing it for the rest of the conversation, which grew less scintillating as it progressed.

Ghani was gross, and so he didn't go further.

Almost a month later, she was at the restaurant alone. It was raining.

Sam, who couldn't open his stall, asked shyly if he could sit with her. She was surprised but was happy for the company.

They started talking. They'd had no reason to speak to each other before; aside from the capitalist barrier of customer/provider, she had always been busy with her dates and he with his orders. But now that they were unoccupied, she found herself having fun. She didn't even mind not having satay, because they ended up doing other things later.

Sam was sexy, and he skewered his way to the next stage perfectly.

***

* The rest of Selangor Times can be downloaded riiiiight here.
* This story was inspired by the Selangorlicious campaign (which I also plan to join).
* This is my second Selangor Times story, after Land Where My Blood Spills. I am happy that little idea I had (for a newspaper to have a Fiction column) has been chugging along quite well. Long may it continue!

Pelacaran buku-buku FIXI yang pertama

2011-04-05T14:51:00.003+08:00

FIXI ialah label yang baru untuk novel-novel Malaysia yang urban dan masakini.

Semua cik adik dan cik abang dijemput ke parti pelancaran 3 novel yang pertama.

Tempat: The Annexe Gallery, Central Market KL
Tarikh: 15 April (Jumaat)
Masa: 8:30pm

3 novel yang akan dilancar ialah:

CEKIK oleh Ridhwan Saidi
Sinopsis:
Tahun 2020, di Bandar. Warith, pemuda berusia 16 tahun, menerima berita pembunuhan bapanya di Kampung melalui telefon. Imbas kembali Warith sewaktu kecil menonton video porno milik bapanya. Warith kini bersekedudukan dengan teman wanitanya Suria, yang berusia 32 tahun. Dari jendela apartment mereka, Menara Warisan Merdeka kelihatan agam.
Warith pulang ke Kampung dengan Suria. Di kawasan perkuburan, mereka didatangi Detektif Anthony, yang pernah mengenali Suria sewaktu sama-sama gila-gila remaja. Mereka kemudian ke tempat pembunuhan, di mana beberapa rahsia lain akan terbongkar.
CEKIK ialah hidangan pascamoden yang memeranjatkan. Ia mengajak kita merasai apa itu nafsu, apa itu kota, apa itu mi Maggi, McDonalds, khutbah, tudung dan juga liwat.
Pages: 258 / Harga: RM18

KOUGAR oleh Shaz Johar
Sinopsis:
Kisha wanita moden yang konfiden dan bahagia dengan kerjaya dan kehidupan sosialnya. Berumur 40 tahun, dan masih bujang.
Ibunya di kampung mahu menjodohkannya dengan seorang duda bergelar imam. Tetapi minatnya lebih cenderung kepada anak muda berusia 25 tahun bernama Azril, yang bekerja di pejabat yang sama.
Tetapi Kisha kekadang impulsif. Tanpa disedari, dia telah menerima undangan dari seorang Datuk untuk keluar berhibur di karaoke. Dari situ, mereka akhirnya terlanjur. Apakah kecuaian Kisha itu dapat dirahsiakan atau akan ada impak yang terjadi di dalam jangka panjang nanti?
Pages: 322 / Harga: RM20

PECAH oleh Khairulnizam Bakeri
Sinopsis:
Bank CIMB Shah Alam simpan harta. Herman, Alan, Radi, dan Don sempat lari dengan wang. Namun Alan ditembak pengurus bank. Parah. Mereka sepakat ke hospital.
Rumah Seri Memori simpan warga emas. Bakar – sang penghuni dimamah dosa – tiba-tiba tumbang. Hilang sedar. Lidya – sang jururawat – dan Dr Vivian gegas bantu. Mereka sepakat ke hospital.
Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah simpan nyawa. Alan di wad kecemasan. Bakar di wad lelaki. Herman-Don-Radi mahu cabut namun terbantut. Kereta kandas, sedang Inspektor Paul tiba pantas. Pintu pagar hospital dikawal, mereka perlu cari akal.
Herman-Lidya cinta hati. Dalam denyut debar Herman; di celah kerunyut gebar Bakar; satu-persatu kisah terpokah. Satu-persatu PECAH.
Pages: 335 / Harga RM20

Ketiga-tiga novelis akan hadir, dan ketiga-tiga judul akan dijual!

+ TIDAK ada VIP
+ TIDAK ada ucapan panjang

Tapi

+ ADA persembahan muzik oleh kugiran power-pop Couple
+ ADA jamuan ringan

Jadi jangan malu-malu.

* Buku-buku tersebut akan turut dijual di Pesta Buku Antarabangsa KL yang bermula seminggu selepas parti ini. Tapi inilah peluang anda untuk dapatkan novel-novel ini dalam keadaan yang lebih 'chillax'.

* 10% daripada hasil penjualan buku pada malam ini akan diderma kepada sebuah badan kebajikan yang diiktiraf, dan jumlahnya berserta dengan bukti pembayaran akan diumumkan di laman ini setelah parti itu selesai.

* Bole juga konfirm di Bukumuka.

In a bottle

2011-04-03T13:25:00.002+08:00

...Dalam Botol is the most interesting Malay movie of the year, so far. Even though it's not about what people have been led to believe it's about.

The title alone, plus its tendency to use shadows and have people framed in narrow corridors, shows that the theme isn't transsexualism, but the feeling of being trapped.

It's neither anti-gay nor pro-gay. In fact, Bidin's gayness is taken as a given. But his passivity (which is nowhere shown to be linked to his sexuality) ensures that he always makes the wrong decisions at the behest of others: first his boyfriend, then his (dead) father, then his mother, then his "girlfriend." As in the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the protagonist here seems to be masochistically complicit in his own victimhood. This will dismay those who think that protagonists should always be role-models of some sort (call it The Oprah Syndrome), but it's also an affective way to open up the power relations in the society it depicts.

The film this most closely resembles is indeed Fassbinder's In a Year with 13 Moons. It's similarly daring in its use of silences, and also potent visual metaphors (the abattoir opening of the German film is replaced with a dead tree-stump here).

A well-choreographed and strikingly scored wedding scene near the end is a gender-reversed homage to the opening of U-Wei's Perempuan, Isteri dan Jalang, which was in turn a modern homage to the climax of Salleh Ghani's Sri Mersing. And a nearly wordless scene in a bedroom right after that is one of the finest achievements in Malay cinema.

Although hamstrung by a low budget (the dialogue dubs sometimes sound like they were done in somebody's bathroom), the pithy and elliptical conversations achieve a remarkable degree of verisimilitude. It's a rare local movie (aside from the works of Ho Yuhang and Tan Chui Mui) that makes it seem like we are actually eavesdropping on real people.

Its refusal to present Bidin's gayness or his transsexual condition (he's not a genuine transsexual) in slapstick or monochromatic terms already puts it way ahead of the much shoddier and sleazier 2 Alam. But its relentless dourness can make it a discomforting experience. The (mostly nocturnal or interior) cityscape is a place of liberation but also of constraints, as can be seen in Bidin's financial situation and also his boyfriend's smoking addiction.

A bare-bones synopsis, plus some rash statements by its producer Raja Azmi, can make you think this is a reactionary and judgmental freak-show. But the screenwriter/director Khir Rahman seems to have done a lot to make ... Dalam Botol a much more complex experience. It lingers. This a film that doesn't let anyone (including its audience) off the hook. My take on this film is exactly what Yasmin Ahmad had said about Raja Azmi's previous film Haru Biru: "I don't care what weirdo produced it, I quite like it!"

Short story by Zed Adam in the 18th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-04-02T02:04:00.001+08:00

Zed Adam was shortlisted in last year's MPH Short Story Prize (and therefore published in this book) and he also has a story in Body 2 Body: A Malaysian Queer Anthology.

The rest of Selangor Times can be read/downloaded here!

Buku esei mengenai INTERLOK dah siap!

2011-03-29T15:46:00.000+08:00

Pada 31 Januari kami mula minta esei daripada sesiapa yang pernah baca novel Interlok, dan mahu memperkatakan sesuatu tentangnya.

Kami menerima sekitar 30 esei semuanya. Dan daripada jumlah itu, 10 dipilih oleh editornya Hafiz Hamzah.

Saiz dan bentuk buku ini akan sama seperti buku chomel ini:

Tapi kandungannya lain kot...

Short story by Hafidz Baharom in the 17th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-03-26T15:08:00.000+08:00

You may join the Selangor Times Facebook fan-page here!

Hafidz Baharom is an indefatigable columnist!

Kulit penuh untuk 3 novel Fixi yang pertama

2011-03-18T21:54:00.000+08:00

Fotografi: Danny Lim
Rekabentuk: Teck Hee
Model-model: Mila & Dewa

Short story by Ghulam Hussain Bhalwani in the 16th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-03-18T21:06:00.000+08:00

The rest of the issue can be read/downloaded here!

Short story by Julya Oui in the 15th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-03-11T19:36:00.000+08:00

The rest of Selangor Times can be read/downloaded here.

Julya's fiction has appeared in a few anthologies, including Body 2 Body: A Malaysian Queer Anthology.

She blogs here!

Halaman pertama untuk 3 novel Fixi yang pertama

2011-03-11T08:20:00.002+08:00

3 novel Fixi akan mula dijual bulan depan di Pesta Buku Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur (22 April - 1 Mei) di PWTC.

Cekik oleh Ridhwan Saidi:

Kougar oleh Shaz Johar:

Pecah oleh Khairulnizam Bakeri:

Short story by Zen Cho in the 14th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-03-04T20:27:00.001+08:00

So cute!

The rest of Selangor Times can be read/downloaded here.

Short story by Anusha Bai Paramasivan in the 14th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-02-25T15:41:00.001+08:00

14 stories in 14 issues, and the editor tells me that "the queue [for new stories] now is very long." This is great news.

By the way, I don't know Anusha. It's great that there are Malaysian writers I don't know; otherwise, the scene would seem so small!

The full issue is here!

Invitation to watch 12 of the 120 MALAY MOVIES

2011-02-24T09:56:00.002+08:00

One of FAQ for this book has been: "How do I get to watch these movies ah? How ah how ah?"

Well, keep the next two weekends free and you can watch 12 of them! These are 12 that I lavished particular praise on. I made sure not to include any P. Ramlee movies, because those tend to be easily available already. It would be my pleasure to introduce you to films that you may not have seen, or not seen recently.

The venue is in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (you may confirm here) which, unfortunately has no LRT station. But it shall be a cosy event, admission is free, and bring your own kuaci. I will introduce each movie.

This is a song from the very first movie we will show. Unfortunately the synching on Youtube is not as good as what you will see on Saturday 2pm, but you get the idea:

20 buku ROJAK (Edisi BM) kini boleh dibeli

2011-02-23T08:43:00.000+08:00

Buku Rojak (Edisi BM) boleh dibeli terus dari saya! Tapi 20 keping sahajork (seperti dalam gambar).

Saya tak dapat jual lebih daripada itu sebab saya bukan penerbitnya ;-)

Jika nak, sila deposit RM20 ke Maybank 014105120512 (Amir Muhammad) dan emel nama, alamat & nombor telefon anda ke info@mataharibooks.com. Penghantaran akan dibuat dengan City-Link courier. RM20 ialah harga pasaran buku ini; kos pengeposan disponsor oleh saya untuk mana-mana destinasi di 1Malaysia.

Di samping itu, kalau nak beli mana-mana buku Matahari Books sekaligus, saya OK asalkan anda OK.

Sedangkan lidah (dan bibir) lagi tergigit...

2011-02-22T07:55:00.001+08:00

Salah satu filem komedi kegemaran saya, arahan mendiang Paul Bartel:

The Rolling Stones bukanlah kugiran favorit saya, tapi kalau depa buat konsert kat sini sudah tentu saya tidak akan pakai serban dan buat protes di depan; inilah logo mereka yang cukup terkenal:

Saya tak pernah baca mana-mana karya Chuck Palahniuk (filem The Fight Club pun belum tengok) tapi ini merupakan salah satu bukunya:

Dan yang terkini, kulit buku Rojak (Edisi BM) rekaan Liza Manshoor. Akan dilancarkan malam ni di MAP KL. Datanglah! Kami tak ada MJ (Mick Jagger) tapi kami ada MJ (Mohd Jayzuan).

Fixi

2011-02-21T08:18:00.002+08:00

Fixi ialah syarikat saya yang baru (ya, memang baru daftar minggu lepas) yang akan menerbitkan novel-novel baru dalam Bahasa Malaysia.

Nama syarikat diambil dari perkataan Bahasa Indonesia 'fiksi' yang diambil dari perkataan Bahasa Inggeris 'fiction' yang diambil dari Bahasa Perancis Lama 'ficcion' yang diambil dari Bahasa Latin 'fictionem' ... untuk menunjukkan yang tidak ada apa-apa yang original dalam dunia ini. Ia juga satu-satunya nama syarikat penerbitan di Malaysia yang merupakan 'a four-letter word beginning with F'.

3 novel pertama telahpun siap ditulis, dan akan dilancar serentak pada 22 April di Pesta Buku Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur, insya-Allah.

Setelah itu, sasaran saya ialah untuk menerbitkan satu novel setiap bulan!

Jika anda berminat untuk tulis, inilah syarat-syaratnya:

Cadangan: 60,000 perkataan (supaya buku sekitar 300 mukasurat).

Tema: Urban & kontemporari. Bahasa slanga dan celupar digalakkan tapi tidak dimestikan.

Boleh buat noir, thriller, cinta 4 segi, cyber-punk, dll.

Fikir 'pulp'.

Oh ya: judul harus satu perkataan saja.

Cadang nak buat cover gelap & saturated, macam beberapa Jim Thompson / Elmore Leonard.

Boleh bincang lanjut kalau minat :-)

Short story by Fadzlishah Johanabas in the 13th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-02-18T18:56:00.001+08:00

This is the first story in the paper that I would like to read the sequel to!

Fadz is a doctor and blogs his fiction here.

Selangor Times 18 Feb 2011

KISS & Rojak (Versi BM). Semua dijemput hadir.

2011-02-13T16:32:00.002+08:00

Tuesday 22 February.
8pm onwards.
The Black Box, MAP @ PUBLIKA, Dutamas KL.

Screening of new (mostly Malaysian) films! All under the theme of KISS (Keep it Short, Stupid).

Entrance is free. Many of the directors will attend. Best of all, there will be Walls Ice-Cream!

Screening order:

buang, the lost malay scientist / isabelle desjuex / 6 min / singapore-france / 2011
kiamu!!! / anwari / 10 min / malaysia / 2010
harap tenang, ada ujian / ifa isfansyah / indonesia / 15 min / 2006
outing / jow zhi wei / 17min / singapura / 2009
creatures / bernice chauly / 8 min / malaysia / 2010

INTERMISSION:
Launch of the book Rojak (BM) by Amir Muhammad (ZI Publications)

bila cinta sudah melekat, tahi kucing rasa cokelat / ridhwan saidi / 9 min malaysia / 2010
play / idora alhabshi / australia-malaysia / 27 min / 2010
shrivel / oliver husain / 8 min / germany-indonesia / 2005
ameen / sanif olek / 14 min / singapura / 2010
cin-ntah / mohd jayzuan / 2 min / malaysia / 2011

*

This event is held in conjunction with LiFest, to raise funds for Yayasan Kurang Upaya Kelantan (YOKUP). You may confirm on Facebook.

Short story by Hadi Mohd Nor in the 10th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-02-11T20:38:00.001+08:00

How cool that there have now been 10 stories! Hadi is the first person that I am not at least Facebook friends with; I wonder who he is?

The rest of Selangor Times can be read/downloaded here.

For Tunku Abdul Rahman's 108th birthday, my chapter on his RAJA BERSIONG from 120 MALAY MOVIES

2011-02-08T10:31:00.000+08:00

On the set of the movie.

Raja Bersiong (1968)

Directed by Jamil Sulong
Starring Ahmad Mahmud, Sarimah, Aziz Jaafar, Zaiton & Normadiah

This is the most expensive movie in this book .

It’s based, of course, on the same Kedah legend that was made into the 1963 movie. But this is in wide-screen colour, with a Japanese co-director and cinematographer, and a screenplay by the Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman (his second and last after Mahsuri). It cost ten times the average budget for a Malay movie but was a flop when released. It was one of the final nails in the coffin for Shaw’s investment in Malay cinema.

Its place in cinema history aside, I can’t help seeing this Raja Bersiong as the end of a different kind of Malaysia, too. This film used to be shown on TV but has been noticeably absent for years; I guess its depiction of religion is a key factor. The colour Raja Bersiong seeks to be more faithful to the Hindu-Buddhist roots of Kedah royalty, and there are numerous scenes of Malay actors going to the kuil (temple) to pray, which our censors no longer allow.

There is also a distinct Thai flavour to the costumes and dances, which might seem surprising until you realise that Kedah had strong cultural ties with Siam and became (a few centuries after the events of this myth) a Siamese protectorate.

While Malek Selamat in the 1963 movie starts off (and actually remains) a sympathetic king with an unfortunate addiction, Ahmad Mahmud here is a raging psychopath almost from the beginning. At the 10-minute mark, he is visited by a demon, and from then on, all bets are off. Crucially, he is shown as decadent and venal even before consuming the spinach soup which had traces of blood in it. When the next day’s soup doesn’t please him nearly as much, he badgers the cook (Normadiah) to find out why:

Apa lebihnya rempah
Apa kurangnya rencah
Gulai sayur bayam
Hari ni dan semalam?

When told by the trembling woman of the unintended secret ingredient, his eyes start to glow. He barks to his henchman to take a jailed traitor, drain him of blood, and then use that blood for his special spice from now on:

Kau pergi ke penjara
Pilih seorang penderhaka
Ambil darahnya
Buat rencah santapan beta

Yes, this is the first film we have seen since Panca Delima to consist of rhymes. (This time, I summarised at the beginning instead of translating.)

The anti-feudal theme is especially strong here. This might seem surprising because Tunku Abdul Rahman himself was of royal blood. The movie is also about the pressing need for a change in leadership; the king was out of touch with his subjects. Is there a deliberate self-critique by Tunku going on? Did he already know that there were people within the Establishment who were plotting to get rid of him?

We recall the words of the warrior Aziz Jaafar (whose girlfriend Zaiton would be raped by the horny king) urging an immediate coup d’état against the undead creature on the throne:

Tak guna berbicara panjang
Singkirkan raja dari sekarang

The priest urges a more peaceful — but, to secular ears, more batty — way out: they should consult a gajah sakti (sacred elephant). This elephant actually does appear in the end, and helps resolve a pressing issue of lineage. The new, worthy heir to the throne was born in the house of a commoner,
and this is a clue that democratic egalitarianism promises a better future.

This Raja Bersiong isn’t the intense character study of the first film but it’s splashy and enjoyable. Ahmad Mahmud and his queen Sarimah look great, and I love the way she maintains haughty decorum when it’s obvious to anyone that he is now a dangerous loony. Our interest dips a bit when he redeems himself in the second half, however.

What this movie made me realise is the extent to which the discursive terrain of Malaysia has been dominated by the south of Peninsular Malaysia. The Kedah kingdom started earlier than Melaka, but it is Melaka that gets privileged as the foundation point of our history. This despite the fact that two of our most influential Prime Ministers (Tunku Abdul Rahman and Dr. Mahathir) were from the north. What gives?

Is it because the Portuguese and therefore the West took over Melaka first in 1511, and the other states lost their feudal autonomy much later? The story in Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat would have been yawningly familiar to any local schoolchild, but I dare say that the story of Raja Bersiong got a big boost from the two movies. The task of investigating other aspects of Malaysian history and mythology is something well worth doing.

The colours are a clashing riot and must have looked much better on the big screen. As it is, there is no DVD or even VCD of this film in release. I had to watch a bootleg pan-and-scan version. The whole thing is also available on YouTube, of all places. This is the final irony of Raja Bersiong: despite its lavish cost, it is now on the same level as any video footage that a teenager with a bit of spare time can upload. In other words, it’s democracy in action.

* 120 Malay Movies is available in shops! Or you can order it directly from me by emailing info@mataharibooks.com

Why are our Chinese movies more cheerful than our Malay movies?

2011-02-02T11:35:00.001+08:00

OK, I am basing this only on the four movies that have been released so far in 2011. My favourite is this:

Great Day is a feel-good tale about the pleasure of family. Even if some of the younger people don't have as much time as they would like to spend with their elders, the movie does not condemn. It is a warm cinematic embrace of compassion. A particularly poignant moment had a little girl (unused to the Roman alphabet) mistaking the 'Alor Setar' sign for the 'Arau' one. It brings home the point that Malaysia is a land of overlapping cultural discourses; if we don't see the 'signs' we can relate to, it's up to us to create these 'signs'.

Funnier but also waaay schmaltzier, Homecoming is a Singapore-Malaysia collaboration that makes great use of the comic presence of Jack Neo (in drag) and Afdlin Shauki. There's much frantic hand-waving, toilet humour, and plot contrivance, but it posits that Singaporeans and Malaysians are part of a big family. Although (to comply with Singapore language restrictions) the Chinese dialogue is all in Mandarin, I am told that 'diversity' is still sneakily celebrated by having many different slang/dialect forms of Mandarin.

Khurafat shows that Syamsul Yusof can direct! There's a neat twist in the end, and the night scenes look great. But it's also unrelentingly gloomy, right down to its cynical, almost masochistic denouement. On one level, it's about the failure of Malay patriarchy: Shamsul in an early scene is shown 'leading' women in prayer, but in a later scene 'following' the women at a funeral procession. The traditional moral authority is reversed, but what comes in its place? It starts from lust and black magic, and the movie revels in recrimination: it's too late for regret.

Haq is similar to Khurafat in that it's also obsessed with guilt and sin. It moves at a more lugubrious pace, but what's dismaying about this movie which claims "the application and promotion of Islamic concepts" is the absence of redemptive hope: The 'bad' are simply born 'bad' and remain 'bad' and deserve to be killed. The scenes of luxury are well-depicted, but oddly funereal: Why aspire to success if your life becomes an empty shell? And in marked contrast to the two Chinese movies, family members (even when supposedly close) don't seem comfortable together.

The recent news that local films not primarily in the Malay language can now be classified as 'Malaysian movies' and receive the same valuable tax breaks is a good one. If these four films are any indication, watching only Malay movies can be seriously damaging to one's sense of cheer. Let's have a bit of life-affirming variety, before cinemas start giving out free razor blades with the popcorn.

Pelawaan untuk menulis: Buku esei mengenai INTERLOK

2011-01-31T10:29:00.001+08:00

Matahari Books ingin menerbitkan sebuah buku esei mengenai INTERLOK.

Setiap esei tidak semestinya (tapi boleh) merujuk kepada mana-mana kontroversi yang berkaitan dengan buku itu. Contohnya, esei tentang 'makanan' atau 'gender' amatlah dialu-alukan.

Syarat jika anda ingin menulis: anda seharusnya telah membaca keseluruhan INTERLOK dan memetik beberapa ayat daripada buku itu untuk menguatkan hujah anda.

Panjang 1,000 - 3,000 perkataan.
Tarikh akhir 1 Mac 2011.
Sila hantar ke info@mataharibooks.com dalam bentuk Word.

Pelancaran buku: 22 April di Pesta Buku Antarabangsa KL

Sila kongsi pelawaan ini dengan sesiapa yang mungkin berminat :-)

How we failed INTERLOK

2011-01-30T18:46:00.011+08:00

Back when Abdullah Hussein's Interlok was first published in 1971, Malaysia was a different place.

In the ensuing 4 decades, we have become much more multi-racist. This entrenched communalism has been, to a large extent, caused by the implementation (rather than original aims) of the New Economic Policy. In the 1980s, the racist rhetoric of 'Malay supremacy' also started to be bandied about, further alienating non-Malays. The Malays were never intended to be 'supreme'. The assistance given to this group was meant to be (to quote former DPM Tun Dr. Ismail) akin to a golf handicap. But when you have an Establishment dominated by a coalition of mainly ethnic-based parties, each party will be called upon to champion only 'its' people, against the 'other' people. (Lest we forget, Barisan Nasional started in 1971, too).

The National Cultural Policy, also implemented in 1971, further helped turn what should be national institutions into very Malay ones instead. Hence, organisations like Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka and even the national education system became identified as mainly 'Malay/Muslim' rather than 'Malaysian', as can be seen not only in their staff ratio but their actions, such as having long doa sessions before the start of each event.

I think Interlok is a worthwhile novel. There are many stereotypes (both good and bad), and at times it feels like a more benevolent (though, unfortunately, less humorous) version of The Malayan Trilogy. The fact that the first three Parts of the book are divided into 'Malay family-Chinese family-Indian family' also recalls the introduction to P. Ramlee's 1968 film Sesudah Subuh. (The two men were friends; one of the books I read during the research of 120 Malay Movies was Abdullah's P. Ramlee: Kisah Hidup Seniman Agung, 1973).

It is sadly indicative of our sorry intellectual climate that most of the rhetoric about Interlok has been led by people who have not read the whole novel. (For proof, check out this statement: "I have instructed my researcher to read the book and find passages that may have degraded the Malays and point it out." This is by someone who held a press conference to explain why he found the book 'degrading'!)

It's easy for people with an axe to grind to read certain sentences and try to make those sentences fit their political agenda. Hey, you can even try it for Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird, not to mention The Merchant of Venice (a work whose racial politics is far more problematic than Interlok's.) A good teaching system for this book would be a wonderful chance for students to relearn some of the basic empathy that we have lost over the past four decades. In other words, it is the opposite of a racist book. It is even earnest. I will just pick three scenes that I really like.

In one scene, Cing Huat as a boy had just left his village in China with his father; they are flat broke and as they pass a town market, they are enticed by the food they cannot afford:

Ada bakul-bakul besar yang berisi beras (beras putih, beras gandum merah, hitam dan mas muda), kacang keledai yang kuning, kacang hijau yang besar, jelai. Daging babi bergantungan di lehernya, dibelah sepanjang-panjang tubuhnya yang merah, lapis-lapis lemaknya, kulitnya yang putih, tebal dan lembut. Itik bergantung berjajar-jajar, itik merah yang sudah dibakar di atas pemanggang, itik putih, angsa yang dipotong berjurai-jurai.

This is very evocative prose; and the pork becomes a crucial part of the scene in a totally non-judgemental way that you wouldn't expect from a stereotypically songkok-wearing sasterawan.

Another is when Maniam first catches sight of the land that would become his new home:

Waktu kapal itu mendekati pantai Pulau Pinang, Maniam terasa negeri yang didatanginya itu sama seperti negerinya sendiri. Pohon kelapa melambai-lambai di tepi pantai dan warna hijau menutupi sebahagian besar daratan pulau itu. Negerinya juga begitu. Lereng Gunung Nilgiris hijau dengan pokok-pokok kayu putih yang tinggi-tinggi mewangi. Maniam sedikit pun tidak berasa bahawa dia datang ke negeri asing.

Lovely. An enlightened school syllabus would have the teacher discussing with her students the extent to which Indian and Southeast Asian histories have been entwined for centuries. In fact, the early kingdoms of the Malay peninsula were all Hindu-Buddhist.

Take this bit where Maniam's wife (unlike the men around her) dares to confront the white tuan of the estate, in order to defend the truth about her husband:

Malini membesarkan anak matanya. Dia tidak takut pada orang putih itu lagi. Mem itu juga dia tidak takut ... Sekali lagi Perumal menjeling. Dia menyumpah-nyumpah anaknya, kerana berani bercakap dengan orang putih begitu ... Orang putih itu rasa kagum juga pada perempuan yang kurus ini.

What a great chance for students to then discuss gender roles in society; why was it surprising that she would speak up, and what would be the consequence if women always kept mute?

The book was written in the late 1960s for a contest commemorating the 10th anniversary of Malayan Independence. As such, there are elements that are contrived in order to fit this theme. There is a lot of emphasis on the suffering that the individual characters go through, so that the redemptive unity at the end would seem more glowingly optimistic. Hence, the (at times melodramatic) insistence on 'negative traits' in the first three sections of the book, which need to be transcended and therefore 'cured' by the time the novel reaches its muhibbah end. The way the book is structured therefore emphasis certain ethnicised 'negative traits' (such as the Hindu caste system, which is referenced twice). The 'Malay part' alone has: laziness (Seman's father would rather pawn his land than work harder at the fields), superstition (the same man, when deathly ill, is treated by an unreliable bomoh rather than a doctor) and hostility to education (Seman is kept illiterate because his parents don't see the point of school).

Interlok is one of the few Malay novels to have prominent non-Malay characters. The utter shame is that it should really have been the first of many more local novels that did the same. If this had been the case, we would be spoiled for choice for a '1Malaysia novel' to fit the literature syllabus. But as it is, the cultural politics of 1971 onwards made more novels of this kind very difficult: 'Malay' writers started to write 'Malay' books; 'Chinese educationists' started to develop the 'Chinese school system' (which was not nearly as robust in 1971 as it is now); and so on.

Because supposedly national institutions now seemed more 'Malay/Muslim' than 'Malaysian', there came a corresponding lack of faith on just how neutral these institutions could be. Hence, the automatic cynicism that greeted the Prime Minister's 1Malaysia slogan. How to believe it, when the Establishment had been thriving on divide-and-rule for decades? (And when even his Deputy said he is 'Malay first'?)

In the last four decades, how many writers have had a national appeal? I think only Lat, and to a certain extent Usman Awang (but do kids read Usman Awang nowadays?). Even in the more accessible realm of showbiz, the names of entertainers who have had pan-national appeal are few and far between: Sudirman, Alleycats, Yasmin Ahmad. Almost everyone else becomes 'Malay' rather than 'Malaysian'. (Now, there is also a parallel 'Chinese' star system, as seen in the success of movies like Tiger Woohoo (2010) onwards).

In the brouhaha over Interlok, we have heard from 'Indian NGOs' and 'Malay NGOs'. Why are there so few 'Malaysian NGOs' or indeed Malaysians? (Except from the admirable statement from Chandra Muzaffar, with which I agree.) It's also a bit rich for associations like Gapena and Perkasa (which are both more 'Malay' than 'Malaysian') to suddenly champion freedom of expression. If they were consistent, they would do the same with Namewee, whose right to create and share his work I defend.

I am appalled that people who have not bothered to read the novel are being so loud and even pyrotechnic in their protests. If taught properly, Interlok will be a fascinating chance for our students to find ways in which they can build upon the essentialist (but not racist) worldview it depicts. But, at the same time, I think I understand how we have come to this. Each community is now addicted to what in America was once called, by an Australian critic, "the culture of complaint". Our wounds are our badges of honour. We have been made so aware of what countries our ancestors came from that we have lost sight of what country we are creating for our descendants.

Interlok, the novel, is innocent. It is we, as Malaysians, who have allowed ourselves to become guilty.

Seutas kata mutiara (bahagian 2)

2011-01-30T02:36:00.000+08:00

Orang konservatif ialah orang yang memiliki sepasang kaki tapi tak pernah belajar untuk melangkah ke depan. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Jika benar kau tak boleh hidup tanpaku, kenapa kau tak mati-mati lagi? - Cynthia Heimel

Seorang pengarah filem harus menjadi seorang ahli polis, mak bidan, pakar sakit jiwa, kaki bodek dan anak haram. - Billy Wilder

Lakonan adalah kerjaya yang paling sesuai untuk orang tolol. - Katharine Hepburn

TV adalah sumber ilmu bagi saya. Setiap kali TV dipasang, saya akan pergi ke bilik sebelah untuk membaca buku. - Groucho Marx

Jika saya tiada rasa humor, saya sudah lama bunuh diri. - Gandhi

Jika kamu tak pernah dibenci oleh anakmu sendiri, kamu belum pernah menjadi ibu atau bapa. - Bette Davis

Jika kita mahu tahu kesucian, kita harus berkenalan dulu dengan maksiat. - Marquis de Sade

Orang yang merajuk sebab tak mendapat anugerah di dunia ialah orang yang tahu kerjanya tak akan dihargai di akhirat. - Amir Muhammad

Kata-kata ringkas ialah kepetahan yang paling mempesona. - Cicero, lebih 2,000 tahun sebelum wujudnya Twitter.

Kalau pengundian berupaya mengubah apa-apa, mereka akan mengharamkannya. - Emma Goldman

Orang kaya akan tetap menambah harta dan orang miskin akan tetap menambah anak. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Setiap benda yang benar-benar jahat bermula dari kemurnian. - Ernest Hemingway

Short story by Lee Ee Leen in the 9th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-01-29T00:33:00.000+08:00

The rest of Selangor Times can be read/downloaded here.

Lee Ee Leen has different stories in several recent anthologies including Best of Southeast Asian Erotica, Urban Odysseys: KL Stories and Crime Scene: Singapore. She blogs here!

My first short story for 2011

2011-01-26T08:51:00.002+08:00

Left-handed Luk
by Amir Muhammad

The New Straits Times. 26 January 2011

It was in kindergarten that Luk knew he was different from the other boys. This happened when the class was told to draw elephants.

When the black-garbed teacher saw him, she rapped him on the knuckles with a heavy wooden ruler.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"It's an elephant," he replied. "I know it doesn't look like one yet but --"

"Good people don't use their left hand! That's something only the Devil does!" The ruler connected again. It hurt.

Luk forced himself to continue with his right hand. The elephant looked even weirder now, and since he had not heard of Cubism (give chance, he was only 4!) the result made his head hurt. And that's when he knew that left-handedness was not close to Godliness.

So when he drew at home, he would do it secretly in his room. But one day, his mother walked in while he was doing it, and she caught him blue-handed (he was colouring the sky). She was more sad than shocked; she had always suspected something, but had pretended it would go away if she ignored it.

She tried to change him. "Think of how lonely you'll be when you grow up," she said. "You won't have any friends." A part of him that thought: "What sort of friends won't accept me for what I am?" But he knew this rebellious thought was probably planted by the Devil to lead him astray. And he wept.

"Electric-shock therapy can do it," said an uncle with some relish, but no one was resourceful enough to find out how this could be done. "Is it because I coddled him too much?" his mother Puan Kas wondered to her friends, who murmured in sympathy as they mentally rehearsed how they would spread the scandalous news to their other friends. "You've been such a good mother!" responded Puan Rah to her. "It's up to him to change. Don't let him mix around with left-handed people, they will only influence him." And Puan Kas replied: "But he doesn't know any..." -- she forced herself to say the words --"left-handed people."

And it was true, he didn't. Well, not at first.

In secondary school, he suspected there were other boys like him, but their orientation was not shown openly. They would laugh along, albeit uneasily, when people make jokes about how unclean and unnatural the left-handed must be.

One hot morning, a senior called him aside after he left the Biology lab. This senior, Om, was smoking behind the canteen. "I saw the way you held that test-tube," Om said. "You're ... left-handed, aren't you?" Luk was too shocked to respond.

"So am I, " said Om, and sure enough: the cigarette was in his left hand. "But no one knows. Here, hold it."

"But I don't smoke," said Luk.

"You don't have to, just hold it, " said Om.

Luk was nervous but excited as he took it in his left hand and obeyed Om's instructions: "Hold it. Rub it. Stroke it. Doesn't that feel good?"

And Luk said: "Yes. Yes. It feels so good." But it was also lit, so he passed it back before he singed his fingers.

At the end of that school-day, something else happened. He was waiting for the bus when Om and a few of his friends came by. Luk wondered if they were all left-handed, too. But before he could wonder any more, Om signalled for Luk to follow them behind some trees that had supposedly been there since the Japanese Occupation (which Luk doubted). Luk happily followed his new friend. When they were out of sight of the rest of the school, Luk's happiness was cut short, because Om and his friends took turns to beat him up. The result was not pretty, and it ended with Om, glowing with contempt, spitting at him. "Freak," he said.

Luk stayed on the ground. Movement might be too painful. Might as well just lie there for the rest of his damned life. In a corny display of pathetic fallacy, it started to rain. This actually made him feel better, because he was very fond of playing in the rain and never got sick from it. That was just one other thing that made him weird -- or special, depending on how he wanted to look at it.

The Luk that we see now is not quite the same Luk of the beginning of this story: he's a dozen years older and had consulted many teachers, some with names like Google and Yahoo. He knew of many successful left-handed people, and he recited their names. Winfrey! Obama! Gates! Einstein! (But, alas, Bieber too.) But he could already hear the objections of those around him: "Those are Westerners! They aren't like us. We have values!"

Luk wondered what Om hated about him; it was probably what Om hated about himself. He wondered how he would get through the rest of his teenage years, and if things would indeed get better.

Through the rain, Luk saw a figure clad entirely in white running towards him. Was this an angel or a Japanese ghost or a prefect? He was curious but a bit apprehensive (you never knew with prefects). The figure put out a hand to help him up. Luk looked up but couldn't see the face properly, or appreciate the significance that the hand being offered was not the traditional one.

The main difference between the 5th edition and all the earlier editions

2011-01-23T00:46:00.000+08:00

5th edition:

All the previous editions:

Yup, it's just gone for the 5th print. This is the only Matahari Books title to have done so!

If you're a big fan of Pang Khee Teik, you might want to buy the copies that are still selling now. The slightly amended new cover will hit the stands in about a month's time, insya-Allah.

Short story by Uthaya Sankar SB in the 9th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-01-21T23:22:00.004+08:00

The rest of Selangor Times may be read or downloaded here.

You may also read Uthaya's adults-only blog here. My review of an earlier book of his is here.

Box-office figures for all Malaysian films in 2010

2011-01-19T12:15:00.004+08:00

1. NGANGKUNG - RM8.18 million
2. HANTU KAK LIMAH BALIK RUMAH - RM7.90 million

3. ADNAN SEMPIT - RM7.66 million
4. KL DRIFT 2 - RM5.67 million
5. LAGENDA BUDAK SETAN - RM4.28 million
6. JANGAN PANDANG BELAKANG CONGKAK 2 - RM4.23 million
7. TIGER WOOHOO - RM4 million
8. V3:SAMSENG JALANAN - RM3.88 million
9. NIYANG RAPIK - RM3.72 million
10. ICE KACANG PUPPY LOVE - RM3.6 million
11. CUTI-CUTI CINTA - RM3.17 million
12. MAGIKA - RM3.14 million
13. MANTRA - RM2.74 million
14. SENARIO ASAM GARAM - RM2.47 million
15. ZOO - RM2.17 million
16. LU PIKIRLAH SENDIRI - RM2.15 million
17. SEMERAH CINTA STILETTO - RM2.13 million
18. AKU MASIH DARA - RM2.05 million
19. KECOH BETUL - RM2.03 million
20. LELIO POPO - RM2 million (estimated)
21. 4 MADU - RM1.82 million
22. DAMPING MALAM - RM1.67 million
23. JANIN - RM1.42 million
24. APPALAM - RM800,000 (estimated)
25. AKU TAK BODOH - RM740,000
26. ANDARTU TERLAMPAU: 21 HARI MENCARI SUAMI - RM560,000
27. 2 ALAM - RM440,000
28. 2 HATI 1 JIWA - RM400,000
29. ESTET - RM350,000
30. BELUKAR - 300,000
31. HOOPERZ - RM290,000
32. KAPOWW!! - RM270,000
33. CRAYON - RM53,000
34. THE KILLER CLOWN - Less than RM50,000

Source: FINAS

Trivia:
1. The top three movies are also the top three local movies of all time (without making allowances for inflation, of course).
2. The film at #5 is the biggest hit movie to ever be made from a novel.
3. There are three hit movies in the Chinese language (#7, #10 and #20); this is the first time there has been even one.
5. The most successful studio would appear to be Metrowealth, which has 5 out of the Top 10 (#1, #3, #6, #8 and #9).
6. I saw only seven! Must try harder this year :-)

Seutas kata mutiara

2011-01-18T16:43:00.002+08:00

Jika kita mahu tahu kesucian, kita harus berkenalan dulu dengan maksiat. - Marquis de Sade

Saya suka binatang babi. Anjing hormati kita. Kucing pandang rendah kepada kita. Tapi babi anggap kita sama taraf. - Winston Churchill

Komputer semuanya tak berguna. Mereka hanya boleh berikan jawapan. - Pablo Picasso (pada tahun 1968).

Jika kamu memiliki faraj dan juga sudut pandang, itu merupakan kombinasi yang cukup mengancam. - Sharon Stone

Jika sebuah filem bermula dengan ayat-ayat Allah, itu bukanlah petanda bahawa filem itu sendiri bukan macam setan. - Amir Muhammad

Apabila dunia dipenuni dusta, bercakap benar menjadi satu tindakan revolusioner. - George Orwell

Jika saya tidak dibenarkan ketawa di Syurga, saya tidak mahu ke sana. - Martin Luther (1483-1546).

Apa yang diperlukan untuk sesuatu filem hanyalah seorang perempuan dan sepucuk pistol. - Jean-Luc Godard

Adakah seks itu kotor? Hanya jika dibuat dengan betul. - Woody Allen

Sukan tinju ialah apabila ramai lelaki kulit putih menonton dua lelaki kulit hitam berbelasah sesama sendiri. - Muhammad Ali

Neraka dipenuhi oleh ahli-ahli muzik yang amatur. - George Bernard Shaw.

Setia kepada negara sentiasa. Setia kepada kerajaan apabila ia layak menerimanya. - Mark Twain

Selalu maafkan musuh-musuh anda; tiada apa yang akan membuat mereka lebih geram. - Oscar Wilde.

Benarlah pada dirimu sendiri, dan ia akan menuruti, bagaikan malam menuruti siang, dirimu takkan bertindak palsu dengan orang lain - Shakespeare.

Orang yang punyai begitu ramai kawan sebenarnya tiada kawan. - Aristotle, lebih 2,000 tahun sebelum wujud Facebook.

Orang baik tak perlu undang-undang untuk pastikan diri mereka baik, sedangkan orang jahat akan temui cara atasi undang-undang untuk terus jahat. - Plato

Sayalah orang paling bijaksana dalam hidup ini, kerana saya tahu satu hal: bahawa saya tidak tahu apa-apa. - Socrates.

Short story by John Ling in the 8th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-01-15T05:19:00.001+08:00

The full newspaper may be read/downloaded here.

And you may visit John Ling's site here.

Short story by Hazlan Zakaria in the 7th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-01-07T20:58:00.000+08:00

Hazlan Zakaria is a Malaysiakini journalist.

At a time when Malaysians are releasing only (a) horror movies; or (b) spoofs of horror movies, this Iranian film opens on Thursday

2011-01-04T10:27:00.003+08:00

Song of Sparrows has taken three years to reach our shores but I'm sure is worth a look on the big screen.

I enjoyed Majid Majidi's previous films Children of Heaven, The Colour of Paradise and Baran. Yes, you may say they're sentimental, somewhat manipulative but - mon Dieu! (masya-Allah!) - that shot of the man running with the blue door alone (1:34) is enough to make us see how Cinema can connect, when it cares enough to.

For the record (not that anyone's asking) my favourite Iranian film is A Moment of Innocence by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. I also heart Sara by Dariush Mehrjui (starring the incandescent Niki Karimi), Offside by Jafar Panahi and Men at Work by Mani Haghighi (from a story by Abbas Kiarostami).

Short story by Shih-Li Kow in the 6th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2011-01-01T07:44:00.002+08:00

The full issue of Selangor Times can be read/downloaded here.

Do get Shih-Li's excellent book, Ripples and Other Stories.

My 5 books of 2010

2010-12-31T21:37:00.002+08:00

These are the five books in which I was involved as writer this year!

1. Rojak (ZI Publications, July). My first fiction book comprised 60 "bite-sized stories." Strangely enough, after I had enough for the book, I found myself unable to write anything else of the same word-length. So, alas, it looks like the book will have no 'sequel' in the foreseeable future. I am pleased that this spent a few weeks at #1 on the MPH bestseller list and even one week atop the Kinokuniya list. Alhamdulillah.

2. 120 Malay Movies (Matahari Books, August). It took me about two years to complete, and I was sad to let it go! Weirdly enough, it has been bought mainly as gifts for people's fathers or grandfathers. And here I was, thinking it would be vividly contemporary! The most common annoying question that I have received about it: "Did you REALLY watch all 120?" Well, duh...

3. Best of Southeast Asian Erotica (Monsoon Books, Singapore; September). A version of my story "The Sex Thing with the Tempoyak" is included in this naughty anthology. Although I haven't read all the stories in this volume, my favourite so far is Lee Ee Leen's "Aqua Subculture," which is a gorgeous, shimmering, slippery thing. According to the editor Richard Lord: "All the Malaysian submissions indicate an ironic, sometimes even comic approach to the question of human sexuality." I'm glad to know it.

4. Kuala Lumpur Panorama (Editions Didier Miller, Kuala Lumpur; the copyright date is 2011 but it has been on sale locally since late 2010). I did the text for this photo-book on KL. Well, I didn't have to write much since SC Shekar's photos did most of the work! But writing the 3,000 word Introduction was fun as I could express what I felt about the city I spent most of my life in (although I now live in PJ).

5. Asian Women in Film (Cathay Organisation, Singapore; December). This is the most beautiful of the lot. It weighs several kilos (I kid you not) and is a fabric-bound hardcover. It highlights 28 women who made an impact in their respective fields. When the Executive Director of Cathay Organisation asked if I would write the chapter on Yasmin Ahmad, it didn't take me long to say Yes! Other women featured include Christine Hakim, Aishwarya Rai, Maggie Cheung and Michelle Yeoh. Only 1,500 numbered copies of this book were printed; it's not for sale and is a corporate gift from Cathay, but I expect the better libraries would get copies, too.

I hope there will be more titles in 2011. Insya-Allah! And may the Gregorian New Year bring good things to you, too.

Why is the 98% scared of the 2%?

2010-12-28T17:37:00.010+08:00

The fact that the Syiah community in Malaysia is getting vocal about its continual harassment by the authorities is a good sign. As the Gregorian year winds to a close, it's nice that, amidst all the corniness and the cynicism that abound (and the two C words are just mirror images of each other), there are people who are now brave enough to say: Enough!

Malaysia is one of the few ostensibly 'Muslim' countries that bans a person from adhering to Syiah principles. For decades, Muslim school-kids in Malaysia were taught that Syiah is a 'deviant' and even 'bloodthirsty' sect instead of a product of a political schism in the years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). An rony is that Malaysia is a firm buddy of Iran, where being Syiah is the official norm. But if they were really so horrible, why do we acknowledge the 'Islamic Republic' of Iran? I am sure the ayatollah types there would benefit from a firm lecture on 'deviancy' by the likes of JAKIM (when they aren't too busy peeping into people's bedrooms, of course).

The Shi'ites (and, yes, how we used to giggle when we saw this word in print) believe that the prophet's rightful successor is his cousin (and son-in-law, through marriage to his daughter Fatimah) Ali. Although they believe in the same Quran, the corpus of hadith that the Syiah and the Sunni subscribe to are largely different. The former subscribe to hadith narrated by the Prophet's closest family members (the ahlul bait - People of the House) rather than those of the first three caliphs. The fact that Ali was murdered, of course, adds to the cult status accorded to him by the Syiah.

The Syiah community has existed in the Malay archipelago for centuries. To pick just one proof: the names Tongkat Ali and Kacip Fatimah, the energy-boosting (of perhaps more than one type of 'energy', knowwhatimean?) are obviously inspired by the names of a man and a woman revered in Syiah tradition. There is even a Malay Syiah epic, Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah. (More details in this fascinating essay, In Search of Fatimah)

Syiah people comprise perhaps 2% of the Muslim population here; exact figures are hard to come by because no one is allowed to officially proclaim themselves to be one. And yet, the religious institutions representing the other 98% choose to see them as a "threat to national security", as if their religious rituals could shake the foundations of anything. The Sunnis in Malaysian should stop behaving like big fat bullies!

I am not the hugest fan of the Iranian administration; any nation that jails filmmakers for years for supporting opposition parties is not terribly kosher. Not to mention its President's delusional remark that there are no homosexuals in Iran. (When the regime figured out there were indeed a few, they went ahead and executed them.)

Like the Syiah of Malaysia, there are probably only 2% of people in this world who are homosexual. And yet there are various organisations squealing like stuck pigs (to use a non-halal simile) at this "threat to the nation". Further hypocrisy ensues when the "moral panic" is spread only via Muslim religious bodies. If it's really so threatening, shouldn't gays of any religion (or no religion) also be targeted?And what threat are we talking about here, exactly? The threat that all Malay boys will stop listening to rock bands and listen only to Ziana and Siti instead? (Yes. Stereotype. I know).

More people have visited this blog over the past week than at any time since its inception, because people have been Googling "Azwan Ismail." My post also attracted the most comments. Hardly anyone read the bloody brilliant Pablo Neruda translations I have been doing, such as this one on wine. Why? Because Malaysians, especially those who love claiming the moral high ground, are inordinately fond of other people's sex lives. Hence, the prevalence of skodeng (peeping tom) squads. Yes, there is a word for these faux moralists, and that word is pervert.

A blogger whose site is garlanded with Quranic verses also lists with pious enthusiasm the various methods by which gays should be killed. I am surprised he did not know that the Quran acknowledges same-sex attraction, and that the reward for good people who happen to be gay is Paradise. There are three places in the Quran that mention the wildan (heavenly boys) that will serve in the Hereafter:

52:24 Round about them will serve, to them, boys (handsome) as pearls well- guarded.

56:17 Round about them will serve boys of perpetual freshness.

76:19 And round about them will serve boys of perpetual freshness: if thou seest them, thou wouldst think them scattered pearls.

The Arabic term for these boys is apparently the same used for enticing (female) virgins, but it's telling that some translators choose the more chaste-sounding 'male servants'. The five lines of 52:24-28 are also significant:

52:24	And round them shall go boys of theirs as if they were hidden pearls.
52:25	And some of them shall advance towards others questioning each other.
52:26	Saying: "Surely we feared before on account of our families:
52:27	But Allah has been gracious to us and He has saved us from the punishment of the hot wind:
52:28	Surely we called upon Him before: Surely He is the Benign, the Merciful."

Now, what does that sound like to you? Attractive boys are placed in the same category as wine (which is similarly available in Paradise). You see, the Quran will not be a complete book if it neglects the 2%. It's only the humans, in their supreme arrogance, who choose to do so.

SYAIR PUJIAN UNTUK PENGGUNAAN SETERIKA oleh Pablo Neruda

2010-12-27T15:52:00.000+08:00

Puisi ialah putih:
ia keluar menitis dari air,
ia mengerut dan menimbun,
kita harus meregangkan kulit planet ini,
kita harus menyeterika laut dalam keputihannya,
tangan-tangan yang sentiasa bergerak,
dan begitulah sesuatu dicipta,
tangan mencipta dunia setiap hari,
api berganding dengan waja,
linen, kanvas dan belacu kembali
dari berperang di tempat basuh,
dan dari cahaya ini seekor merpati dilahirkan
kesucian datang semula dari busa sabun.

SYAIR PUJIAN UNTUK SI TUNA BESAR DI PASAR oleh Pablo Neruda

2010-12-27T13:03:00.004+08:00

Di celah kehijauan pasar
sebutir peluru
dari perut
lautan,
projektil
berenang,
aku nampakmu,
mati.

Semua di sekitarmu
ialah daun salad,
buih lautan
bumi ini,
lobak merah,
anggur,
tapi
dari ketulenan
lautan,
dari yang tidak diketahui,
dari bayang-bayang
yang tidak terduga,
dalamnya laut,
lubang dalam,
hanya kamu yang bertahan,
saksi tewas,
yang hitam-legam,
kepada malam yang pekat.

Hanya kamu, peluru gelap
yang dituju dengan tepat
dari lubang dalam,
dimusnah pada satu hujung,
tapi sentiasa
dilahirkan semula,
sebuah sauh dalam arus,
sirip yang bersayap,
berkincir
dalam penerbangan
yang lincah
si bayang-bayang
maritim,
panah berkabung,
sumpit di laut,
ikan berminyak, seperti zaitun.

Aku melihatmu yang mati,
raja yang mangkat
dari lautanku,
serangan hijau,
cemara selam yang berwarna perak,
benih
dari gempa laut,
kini
yang tinggal hanya kematian,
namun
di seluruh pasar ini
kamulah
satu-satunya
bentuk yang punya tujuan
di antara
penaklukan alam
yang membingungkan;
di antara kehijauan yang rapuh
kamulah
kapal yang sepi,
bersenjatakan,
di antara sayur-sayuran,
sirip dan bahagian depan yang hitam dan berminyak,
seolah-olah kamu masih
kapal dari angin,
satu-satunya
mesin
lautan
tulen:
tanpa cacat, mengemudi
perairan kematian.

(Versi asal: Oda a un gran atún en el mercado)

SYAIR PUJIAN UNTUK GARAM oleh Pablo Neruda

2010-12-26T18:32:00.001+08:00

Garam ini
dalam bekas garamnya
Aku pernah nampak di lombong garam.
Aku tahu
kau takkan
percaya
tapi
ia menyanyi
garam menyanyi, kulit
dari lombong garam
menyanyi
dengan mulut yang dikambus
oleh tanah.
Aku menggigil dalam
kesunyian itu
bila aku mendengar
suara
garam
di padang gurun.
Dekat Antofagasta
tanah pampa
bernitrat
bergema:
suara
yang patah,
lagu
berkabung.

Dalam guanya
garam mengerang, segunung
cahaya yang ditanam,
katedral yang lutsinar,
kristal dari lautan, yang dilupakan
oleh ombak.
Kemudian di setiap meja
di dunia,
garam,
kita nampak serbukmu
yang mengasyikkan
menabur
cahaya yang diperlukan
ke atas
makanan kita.
Pemelihara
tempat simpanan
kapal lama,
penemu
di laut yang jauh,
kelasi
terawal
untuk apa yang tidak diketahui,
simpangan buih yang berubah-ubah.
Debu laut, keranamu
lidah menerima ciuman
dari malamnya laut:
setiap makanan berperisa
mendapat rasa dari zat lautanmu;
gelombang paling kecil,
miniatur
dari bekas garam
menunjukkan kita
bukan saya keputihan rumahtangga;
di dalamnya, kami merasai apa yang tak terbatas.

(Versi asal: Oda al Sal)

SYAIR PUJIAN UNTUK SI TOMATO oleh Pablo Neruda

2010-12-26T10:25:00.000+08:00

Jalan itu
dipenuhi tomato,
tengahari,
musim panas,
cahaya
dibelah dua
seperti tomato
jusnya
berlari
merentasi jalan-jalan itu.
Pada bulan Disember
tanpa henti
si tomato
menyerbu
dapur,
ia masuk semasa makan tengahari,
dengan santai mengambil
tempatnya
di atas
kaunter,
antara gelas-gelas,
piring mentega,
tempat garam biru.
Ia melimpahkan
cahayanya yang tersendiri,
keagungan yang jinak.
Malangnya, kita harus
membunuhnya:
pisau itu
memotong
tubuh yang hidup,
merah
rongga perutnya,
matahari
yang nyaman,
mendalam,
tak pernah habis,
meramaikan penduduk salad-salad Chile,
dengan gembiranya, dia berkahwin
dengan bawang yang jernih,
dan untuk merayakan mempelai ini
kita
tuang
minyak,
zat
anak hasil zaitun,
ke dua belahan hemisferanya,
lada
menambahkan
semerbak;
garam, tarikan magnetnya;
inilah perkahwinan hari ini,
peterseli
menaikkan benderanya,
ubi-ubi
membuih dengan deras,
kewangian
daging panggang
mengetuk
di pintu,
dah sampai masa!
marilah!
dan, di atas
meja, di tengah-tengah
musim panas,
si tomato,
bintang bumi, bintang yang
kerap muncul
dan subur,
menunjukkan
belit-belitnya
kanalnya,
jangkauan dan kelimpahannya
yang mengagumkan,
tiada biji keras,
tiada kulit keras,
tiada daun atau duri,
si tomato memberi
hadiahnya
warna yang berapi-api
dan diirnya yang lengkap dan nyaman.

(Versi asal: Oda al Tomate )

SYAIR PUJIAN UNTUK SEPASANG SARUNG KAKI oleh Pablo Neruda

2010-12-26T01:00:00.001+08:00

Mara Mori memberiku
sepasang sarung kaki,
yang dia tenun sendiri
dengan tangan gembala biri-birinya,
dua sarung kaki selembut arnab.
Aku menyelinap kakiku ke dalam mereka
seolah-olah mereka dua kotak
ditenun dengan benang-dengan senja dan kulit kambing.

Sarung kaki yang ganas,
kakiku dua ekor ikan buatan bulu biri-biri,
dua yu panjang
biru laut, disulam oleh
selembar benang emas,
dua burung jalak yang besar,
dua meriam,
kakiku mendapat penghormatan ini,
oleh sarung kaki yang bagaikan dari syurga.

Mereka sangat tampan dan untuk kali pertamanya,
kakiku seperti tidak dapat aku terima,
seperti dua ahli bomba yang lapuk,
ahli bomba yang tak layak untuk api yang ditenun,
oleh sarung kaki yang bersinar itu.

Namun, aku menahan godaan kuat
untuk memelihara mereka bagaikan budak sekolah
mengumpul kelip-kelip,
atau para ulama menyimpan
kitab suci,
aku menolak desakan gila
untuk meletakkan mereka
dalam sangkar emas dan setiap hari memberi mereka
makanan burung dan hirisan tembikai merah muda.
Seperti peneroka di hutan
yang menyerahkan rusa hijau yang jarang ditemui
ke tempat masak dan memakannya dengan kesal,
aku memanjangkan kakiku dan memakai
sarung kaki yang hebat itu dan kasutku.

Mesej syair pujianku ialah:
keindahan ialah dua kaliganda indah
dan apa yang baik ialah dua kaliganda baik
apabila halnya ialah dua sarung kaki
buatan bulu biri-biri di musim sejuk.

(Versi asal: Oda a Los Calcetines)

SYAIR PUJIAN UNTUK WAIN oleh Pablo Neruda

2010-12-25T19:43:00.001+08:00

Wain yang berwarna siang,
wain yang berwarna malam,
wain dengan kaki ungu
atau darah topaz,
wain
anak berbintang
bumi ini,
wain, licin
bagaikan pedang emas,
lembut
bagaikan baldu berahi,
wain, dalam kerang beruli
dan penuh ajaib,
penuh kasih,
lautan,
tak pernah muat dalam satu gelas,
sebuah lagu, seorang lelaki,
kamulah korus, ramah bersuara,
sekurang-kurangnya, kamu mesti dikongsi.
Ada kalanya,
kamu menjamah memori hidup;
ombakmu membawa kami
dari makam ke makam,
tukang kubur dari kubur ais,
dan kami menangis
airmata fana;
tapi
gaun musim bungamu
yang indah
ialah lain,
jantung akan naik melalui cabang-cabang,
angin menghasut hari,
tiada yang tinggal
dari rohmu yang abadi.
Wain
menggerakkan musim bunga, kegembiraan
memancut dari bumi bagaikan tanaman,
dinding meruntuh,
dan tebing berbatu,
jurang merapat,
bila lagu dilahirkan.
Sekendi wain, dan dikau bersamaku
di belantara,
nyanyi si penyair lama.
Biarkan bekas wain ini
menambah ciumnya
kepada ciuman cinta.

Kasihku, tiba-tiba
garis pinggulmu
menjadi lenggok cawan wain
yang hampir melimpah,
buah dadamu ialah gugusan anggur
putingmu ialah anggur,
cahaya roh menyinari rambutmu,
pusatmu ialah meterai suci
dicap atas perutmu,
cintamu bagaikan limpahan air
yang tidak henti-henti,
cahaya yang menerangi deriaku,
nikmat hidup di bumi.

Tapi kamu lebih dari cinta,
ciuman berapi,
kehangatan api,
lebih dari wain kehidupan;
kamulah persaudaraan manusia,
ketelusan,
paduan disiplin,
kelimpahan bunga.
Aku suka kalau di meja,
semasa berbual,
cahaya dari botol
wain yang bijaksana.
Minumlah ia,
dan ingatlah dalam setiap titis emas itu,
dalam setiap gelas topaz,
dalam setiap sudu ungu,
bahawa musim luruh telah bekerja
untuk mengisi kendi dengan wain;
dan dalam upacara kerjanya
biarlah manusia sentiasa ingat
akan tanah dan tugasnya,
untuk menyebarkan lagu suci wain.

(Versi asal: Oda al Vino )

SYAIR PUJIAN UNTUK SI KUCING oleh Pablo Neruda

2010-12-25T11:59:00.014+08:00

Binatang-binatang itu

tidak sempurna.

Ekor panjang, sedih

di kepala,

Sedikit demi sedikit mereka

 mengatur diri mereka, 

menjadi satu lanskap, 

memperoleh bintik-bintik, gaya, penerbangan. 

Si kucing, 

hanya kucing 

muncul lengkap

dan bangga: 

lahir benar-benar selesai, 

berjalan sendirian dan tahu apa yang ia mahu. 

Manusia ingin menjadi ikan atau burung, 

ular lebih suka memiliki sayap 

anjing adalah singa yang sesat,

 jurutera ingin menjadi seorang penyair,

 lalat mempelajari layang-layang, 

penyair cuba untuk meniru lalat,

 tapi si kucing

 hanya ingin menjadi kucing

 dan setiap kucing ialah kucing

 dari misai ke ekor, 

dari firasatnya ke tikus hidup 

dari malam ke mata emasnya. 

Tidak ada satu 

seperti dia,

 tidak ada

 bulan dan bunga

 tiada konteks sepertinya:

 ia adalah satu

 seperti matahari atau sebentuk topaz,

 dan garis elastik dari konturnya 

kuat dan halus seperti 

garis haluan di kapal. 

Mata kuningnya

 tinggalkan hanya  

secelah

 untuk meyumbat syiling emas malam.   

Oh si kecil

 maharaja tanpa dunia, 

penakluk tanpa negara, 

harimau kecil ruang tamu, pengantin

sultan dari langit  

ubin berahi, 

angin cinta

 di tempat terbuka

 anda desak

 ketika anda melewati 

dan sempat posing,

 empat kaki halus 

di lantai ,

menghidu, 

merasa sangsi 

terhadap semua benda di dunia ,

kerana semuanya 

terlalu kotor

untuk kaki rapi si kucing. 

 O binatang bebas

di rumah, 

sisa-sisa malam yang sombong,

 malas, lincah

dan asing, 

kucing yang mendalam,

 polis rahsia

tempat kediaman,

 lambang

untuk

baldu yang hilang,  

mungkin tiada

teka-teki

dengan cara anda,

 mungkin anda tidak misteri

 semua orang tahu anda dan anda kepunyaan

 mahkluk yang paling tiada misteri, 

mungkin semua orang percaya itu, 

semua orang percaya merekalah tuan,

 pemilik, bapa saudara

 si kucing, pendamping,
rakan sejawat, 

murid atau kawan  si kucing.   

Bukan aku. 

Aku tidak percaya itu. 

Aku tidak kenal si kucing. 

Aku kenal semuanya, kehidupan dan kepulauannya,

 lautan dan bandar tak terhitung ,

botani,

 tempat tinggal gundik-gundik dan kelampauannya,

 kelebihan dan kekurangan matematik ,

saluran darah gunung berapi dunia,

 kulit keras buaya yang tidak benar, 

kebaikan tersorok pemadam kebakaran,  

kebiruan paderi yang pernah muncul dulu,

 tapi aku tidak boleh memahami si kucing.

 Fikiran saya tergelincir di depan ketidakpeduliannya, 

matanya yang mengandungi nombor emas.

(Versi asal: Oda al Gato)

Short story by Chuah Guat Eng in 5th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2010-12-24T16:49:00.001+08:00

After reading this, you may also want to check out Chuah Guat Eng's books! One of the stories in The Old House is translated and included in Orang Macam Kita, too.

#1 in Kinokuniya!

2010-12-22T02:41:00.002+08:00

The first time this has ever happened to me, so Alhamdulillah! (I've been #1 at MPH as writer twice, but never at Kinokuniya). The list combines local and foreign, so this is also a rare instance where I can be on top of the likes of Mr. Brown, Mr. Grisham, Mr. Follet, Mr. Archer and Ms. Picoult.

And thank you, lovely Christians, for making book-buying and book-giving a very acceptable part of your holy celebration. (Book sales in December are by far the highest of the year.)

How Amin Sweeney explained our obsession with the sex lives of others

2010-12-21T01:41:00.005+08:00

The scholar Amin Sweeney (who was English, Malaysian, formerly Kelantanese, formerly Californian, finally Jakartan) died last month. He specialised in Malay literature, and seemed to move between the discursive realms of both Malaysia and Indonesia with graceful ease; in fact, one of his last major works, a 3-volume critical edition of the works of Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir (aka Munshi Abdullah) was published in Jakarta rather than KL.

A particularly delightful essay by him is Martyr to Science or Gaseous Windbag of Colossal Ignorance? which is about ... oh, I shall not spoil it, read it yourself. He had, as you can see, a particular gift for the naughty, sharply observed aside. How many essays in academic books can make you LOL?

A short book of his was published online posthumously: Pusat Plagiarisme, which meticulously confirms a plagiarism accusation against an Indonesian linguistic body. Before he even reaches what Monty Python would call the fulcrum of his gist, he has a couple of sentences right on Page 1 that are not about the subject at all. But this aside is the perfect explanation for the prurience of Indonesians (but the nationality can be interchanged with ours, and in fact I think it fits Malaysians even better) when it comes to matters sexual:

Di negeri waras dan matang, tidak akan ada obsesi yang sakit parah dengan seks. Tapi dalam suasana represif yang penuh kemunafikan, tentu saja terdapat reaksi penuh gairah ala alhamdulillah—masyaallah—alhamdulillah—masyaallah. Tutup mata sambil mengagumi lewat celah jari.

I immediately thought of this quote when, a few weeks ago, there was a local Youtube sensation: a couple of Malay teenagers were making out in front of their friends; the phrase "pilih KLCC" was used somewhere. Almost all the comments condemned this couple to Hell with gleeful enthusiasm, with quite a few using their scandalous behaviour to explain why our region has lately been tsunami-prone. Yes, God in His wisdom sent down tsunamis to Sumatera because camwhoring KL teenagers get horny, which must mean (rather blasphemously) that He missed them by a few hundred kilometres.

The kissing = tsunami link might seem baffling, until you remember that some people in Malaysia take their worldview from Mastika magazine, in which sexual transgressors always receive lurid punishments, which are usually of the medical or supernatural variety but which sometimes, as in this case, explode into the realm of the meteorological. You rarely hear of such colourful bala (divine punishments) meted out to, say, corporate embezzlers, big-time environmental polluters or corrupt politicians, even though these people have caused harm to many people. No, it's invariably sex that takes centre-stage, simply because sex is a much more entertaining spectator sport. You get hot and tingly from not only watching but from the pleasurable moral outrage that courses through you. Alhamdulillah—masyaallah—alhamdulillah—masyaallah indeed!

Who is Azwan Ismail and why are some people saying terrible things about him?

2010-12-20T02:07:00.001+08:00

Those of us who watched Malaysian TV circa 1990 would be familiar with the effeminate Sam (played by the actor Imuda) in the sitcom 2+1. I didn't watch every episode, but I do remember a few instances where Sam flirted with brawnier men. This made Sam not only lembut (soft) but gay, although I don't think his desires were ever permitted to be reciprocated.

Folks loved Sam. When the Information Ministry decided to ban the character, the TV viewers -- and by this I mean regular people (we aren't talking about gender/sexuality activists here, not that gender/sexuality activists aren't regular people too) -- were actually upset. There was even a play, Jangan Bunuh Sam (Don't Kill Sam).

Sam was a stereotype that anyone familiar with slapstick comedy will immediately recognise: the non-threatening, endearing, but faintly ridiculous queen. You could also say that his trademark phrase ("Here's my card!") identified him as being a peculiarly urban/bourgeois phenomenon: no 'manly' proletariat would carry around name-cards, or feel the need to proclaim their existence all the time! So I'm not saying Sam was such a progressive role model; he was a figure of fun. And yet, the fact that he existed at all, without howls of outrage from the majority of viewers, is proof that there is space for queerness in the popular Malay imagination.

It's not just Sam, of course. In my book 120 Malay Movies -- and a bloody entertaining book it is, too -- I identify the first gay male character as being in Kaki Kuda (1958) and the first lesbian as being in Nora Zain Ajen Wanita 001 (1967). The fact that both characters were campy villains need not detain us for now; what's important is that they existed.

And it ain't just fictional depictions, either. Stories about the jambu in male boarding schools, or kakak angkat in female boarding schools, would be familiar to anyone. And then -- surprise! -- some of these boys and girls do not outgrow this 'phase'. This is 2010. I think every Malaysian -- who isn't a hermit, or delusional, or unobservant, or all three -- would know at least one gay person. Gay attraction is certainly not a foreign concept.

With that in mind, watch this video, and read (or try to read) most of the comments. I will wait here while you do so:

OK. Welcome back.

My thesis -- and I do have one -- is that some people aren't appalled by the fact of Azwan Ismail's sexuality. What they are affronted by is that he's a person who's giving his own name, and being completely honest about what he wants to say.

We are a society that thrives of innuendo and nudge-wink insinuations. Most people are aware of local gay celebrities who 'cover line', sometimes to the extent of having lavish weddings. How long would these sham unions last, and how much unhappiness would they cause? Those questions somehow recede into irrelevance; what's important is that the values of the community have been upheld. By 'values', I don't mean marriage but hypocrisy. There's a perverse pleasure to be had in making people lie about themselves. What Azwan did, and he seems quite unprecedented in this, was to choose to tell the truth.

Despite what the newspapers are saying, the video isn't some gratuitous pengakuan berani mati (shockingly brave confession) but a response to the international campaign It Gets Better, which is meant to encourage LGBTQ youth not to feel alone or to despair. (Yes, the irony is that the mostly negative comments might end up having the opposite effect! But remember what whoever-it-was said about the longest journey.) And his is not the only Malaysian video, either; there are more to come. Unfortunately, this wider context has been drowned out, at least for now, by tabloid noise.

Azwan Ismail is a friend and I've known him way before he co-edited the bloody fantastic Orang Macam Kita. But even if I hadn't known him, I'll say that what he did was significant, right down to his decision to quote Shahnon Ahmad instead of, say, Shakespeare (so who says homosexuality is a 'Western invention"?).

What he did was violate a code. Not the code of sexual conduct, but the code of faham-faham ajelah or kalau ya pun, janganlah buat terang-terang. An analogy: Walk down the stairwell of any office building during a Ramadhan afternoon; you will find at least one Malay man surreptitiously sneaking a smoke. Everyone 'knows' this happens but no one makes a big fuss because there was an attempt at concealment. What Azwan did was, to some people, the equivalent of having a nasi dagang lunch during the fasting month, live on national TV. What's shocking isn't the fact but the openness.

There is, as always in our dear country, a political context, too. There's a sense of majority privilege about everything; and this is a majority that is very prickly and always seeing threats to its very existence. The newspaper Berita Harian that 'broke' the story also has this poll result:

Check out the result! Being Malay in this instance is analogous to being heterosexual; it's the majority, therefore its 'dominance' cannot be 'questioned'! To do so would let 'outsiders take over'.

The direct gaze of the video is why some people feel threatened. (And by 'some people', I mean also the middle-class gays who want to protect the comfortable 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' status quo that has provided a comfortably living. To extend the political analogy: these would be the non-Malay tycoons who got rich from Malay affirmative action policies, and thus don't want to rock the political boat.)

Yes, you might find the approach of the video, starting with its title, "Saya Gay, Saya OK" to be too direct, somehow 'unMalay'. Couldn't a euphemism have been used? You know, like "Saya Rama-Rama, Tak Mengapa" or "Saya Merpati, Nak Terbang Lagi" or something suitably fey? That would have been less provocative, perhaps. But what's done cannot be undone. Whatever happens after this, 'Sam' is not going away -- because, you see, he has always lived here.

Short story by Al Zaquan in 4th issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2010-12-17T21:36:00.003+08:00

The 4th issue of Selangor Times can be read/downloaded here. And as usual, there is a short story which I will duly blog. This is his first published piece.

The first newspaper review of ISLAM IN MALAYSIA: PERCEPTIONS & FACTS

2010-12-12T00:43:00.000+08:00

Yusuf Martin's short story in the 3rd issue of SELANGOR TIMES

2010-12-10T16:49:00.003+08:00

In case you still can't get hold of Selangor Times (i.e. if you don't happen to be an LRT user in Selangor), this is the short story in its third issue!

If you want to write short fiction, do email your submission (about 800 words) to editor@selangortimes.com . Yes, there is pay! But perhaps more importantly (oh, listen to me!), it's a chance to keep something going.

Chua Kok Yee's short story in SELANGOR TIMES

2010-12-03T22:36:00.016+08:00

For those of you who didn't get a copy, the second issue of Selangor Times features a new short story by Chua Kok Yee. If you like it, get his book Without Anchovies.

Half A Chicken And A Quarter Of A Cow

Fiction by Chua Kok Yee

Colin was standing over the sink with a knife in his hand. He looked down and realised his shirt was smeared with blood. With a shriek, he dropped the knife and turned around. On the kitchen table, a severed chicken head was engaged in a conversation with a cow’s head. The clucking and mooing became louder and louder, until Colin had to press his palms against his ears.

“I screamed at them to stop, and then I woke up,” Colin said. He lets out a sigh, and slumps back to the couch. Jonathan, his friend, was seated across him.

“Do you think it’s because of the job? My boss is crazy, and maybe the insanity is catching.”

Jonathan looked at him, but said nothing. Colin’s boss, Mr Wong, was one of the richest persons in Asia. After visiting a temple on his 60th birthday, Mr Wong handpicked a group of accountants from his companies, including Colin, to work in a special project under him. Colin was exhilarated at the prospect of working directly with the tycoon, but the excitement turned into incredulity after the first briefing.

Mr Wong wanted a big surplus in his ‘karma account’ to ensure he would have a good ending to his current life, and enough positive karma to carry forward to the next. He decided to compensate for any bad karma he has earned, and would receive, in the only way he knew; in dollars and cents.

The project team was split into two groups. The first group was assigned to put monetary values on the negative things Mr Wong had done in the past, and make a monthly recommendation of donation amount to be made to organisations. The job involved a lot of research and interviews to reconstruct Mr Wong’s life history.

Wouldn’t it be easier if you just donate a really huge amount, sir? Surely, that would cover everything, someone asked Mr Wong at the briefing. Mr Wong explained that excessive money would lead to sinful thoughts among the recipients, which in turn would bring more negative karma to him.

So the amount has to be measured and reasonably accurate, Mr Wong explained, before firing that guy on the spot. Later, he donated the fired guy’s two years’ salary to a charity, of course.

Colin was assigned to the second group which was responsible for the present. They had to discreetly observe Mr Wong, and place a value on his deed. After brainstorming and debating, the team agreed on a measurement system by using a karma factor. The karma factor was in proportion to the negativity of the deed. If Mr Wong purchased a chicken wing and ate it, the value would be the price of the wing multiplied by the karma factor of one. However, if he stole the wing and ate it, the karma factor would be increased to three.

Despite the ludicrousness of the endeavour, Colin actually enjoyed the first few weeks on the job. He had all-expenses paid visits to New York, Amsterdam and Monaco along with his boss, and the salary was good. Furthermore it was not as stressful as his previous position; all he had to do during his shift was to record Mr Wong’s actions, review them and assign a value to it. Someone in the office would compile them, and give out the appropriate donation at the end of each month.

Good life, easy money.

Then the nightmares started. There were a few variations to the theme, but always with a lot of blood and chatty dead animals. Once, he dreamt of soaking in a bathtub filled with blood with a swine. The beast, with half of its body roasted, was espousing the merits of socialism.

“I’ve a theory,” Jonathan said.

Colin turned towards Jonathan, and raised his eyebrows.

“How do you measure the value if your boss orders a huge steak, or half a roasted chicken?”

“That’s easy - I’ll use their prices on the menu, and multiply them by karma factor of one.”

“I believe here is where you got it wrong. You can’t just take the price of the food. The bad karma in this case comes from the loss of lives. Half a chicken is one dead chicken, and a quarter of a cow is still one slaughtered cow. So you have undervalued them.”

Colin thought about it for awhile, before nodding. “Thus I’m receiving bad vibes from them? It’s karma.”

The two of them sat there in silence. “You could be right,” Colin said after awhile. “Who really understand how this karma things really works, right?

Fiction in SELANGOR TIMES

2010-11-27T18:49:00.003+08:00

There's a brand-new newspaper in the country, Selangor Times. It's a weekly (available every Friday) with a circulation of 100,000. It's so new that its website is not even up yet -- but you can read a news report about it in theSun here.

It's a free newspaper; the first issue was given out yesterday at all LRT stations in Selangor, and is now completely gone. There weren't enough copies to be sent to 7-Eleven stores, but I am told this will be rectified by the time the next issue is out.

This paper has me particularly psyched because it is now the only regular venue for Malaysian fiction in English. All the main Malay papers have published short stories and even serial novels for decades, but fiction has so far been absent from the oghe putih press. Why? Because English has been complacently assumed to be merely a utilitarian, upwardly-mobile device rather than a language that you can embrace, tickle and otherwise get naughty with.

I was initially approached by the editor to write a column, but I think there are already so many hand-wringing columns about The State of the Nation; what's the point of adding to the chatter? So I proposed instead a Fiction section. My own short story *ahem* is the first to be published. Click to enlarge!

Subsequent issues will use stories that other people send in. Do email the Chief Editor Chan Kok Leong at editor@selangortimes.com Length should be 800 words, and the target audience is, well, anyone in Selangor today. Yes, there is pay!

I'm a fan of movie posters, but I have never seen one quite like this

2010-11-16T23:01:00.000+08:00

Is this the first movie poster in the history of the universe which features no cast members, but instead TWO pictures of its rather flamboyant producer? (That's also him right at the top, in a chair.)

Well, it's certainly better than the first poster for this movie, which was marred by an unfortunate act of plagiarism.

I have not seen the movie yet and so will not comment.

There will be many people Googling the movie's title and the producer's name in the next few days, to see if he will reach his oft-brayed box-office target. But, blushing little wallflower that I am, I am not gonna mention the title and his name.

Hello there, Luang Prabang!

2010-11-10T23:13:00.000+08:00

I'm trying not to accept so many film festival invitations (oh, you should hear how some of them beg and beg!), what with me now being a book publisher and all. But I've never been to Laos, so I didn't want to turn this one down. (And it's not just because I'm a fan of the Dr. Siri Paiboun crime novels.)

Luang Prabang itself, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, promises to be a beaut!

Laos has no film industry to speak of but I admire the effort the organisers took to come up with this inaugural, albeit low-key, event. Contrast that with the slapstick dodginess of the well-sponsored Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival (which was supposed to take place this month but just got postponed, apparently). Everyone involved in KLIFF should really be ashamed of themselves -- but since its organisers include a certain Malaysian filmmaker who has a habit of never paying his crew members, I don't suppose they're the kind to embarrass easily.

Postal orders for ISLAM IN MALAYSIA: PERCEPTIONS & FACTS

2010-11-01T09:45:00.004+08:00

Islam in Malaysia: Perceptions & Facts is the translation of Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin's book Mengemudi Bahtera Perubahan Minda. The translation and annotations were by U-En Ng.

The synopsis begins:

While still in his 30s, Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, former Mufti of Perlis, earned a reputation as a popular, and sometimes controversial, public intellectual on the subject of Islam in Malaysia. This collection of his articles seeks to identify and celebrate the true Islamic essence of simplicity, rationality and justice; and to separate it from superstition, prejudice and taklid (blind adherence) to self- serving 'religious' leaders.

At 343 pages, this is the second-thickest publication by Matahari Books (after 120 Malay Movies, which is 432 pages). You may download 3 of the 47 chapters as a free PDF at the end of this link here.

The bad news is that the main bookshops will only stock this book at the end of the month; they're still making up their minds. The good news is that you may order it right now!

Here are the four methods:

1. Bank in RM40 to Maybank 014105120512 (Amir Muhammad) and email info@mataharibooks.com with your proof of payment, your address and phone number. Delivery will be by City-Link courier, three times a week. (Free delivery anywhere in Malaysia.) 10% of the proceeds from this postal order will be donated to the MERCY Malaysia - Yasmin Ahmad Fund for Children. You may also, of course, order any of the other books in the Matahari Books catalogue as well, while you're at it!

2. Order directly from the distributor, Gerakbudaya, here.

3. Get it in person at Silverfish Books in Bangsar.

4. Pre-order on Amazon.com here.

This is totally different from the other Matahari Books titles so far. For one, it's a compilation from a newspaper column (his articles originally appeared in Mingguan Malaysia); but since these are newly translated, with over a hundred extra footnotes and a Glossary, it is a venture very much worthwhile.

The subject of Islam in Malaysia (the title of the book came from the author, who politely declined my own suggestion, What the Mufti Saw) will grow in size and importance in the coming years, and this book will, I hope, be part of the discussion. I certainly learned a few things from it, and although his world-view is essentially more, shall we say, traditional than mine, I admire the way he can cut through the racialised, culture-bound and divisive BS that so often obfuscates popular Islamist discourse here. Just read the 3 sample chapters and you will get what I mean.

I will also be posting on Twitter a few dozen self-contained extracts from the book, so stay tuned!

My 12 favourite local movie posters of the past decade

2010-10-21T19:06:00.003+08:00

Restricted to movies that were commercially released here.

I also picked only the posters used for the Malaysian release; for example, I much prefer the international festival poster of Sell Out? to what was used in Malaysia and Singapore.

I have also modestly not included the posters of movies in which I served as director or producer -- although anyone can tell you that the ones for Susuk and Punggok Rindukan Bulan are bloody brilliant.

Also my nominee for Best Tagline:
"Love. Despair. Love. Despair."

Tagline goes on 2 words too long!

Pity about that horrible GSC logo.

Pity I don't have a clearer image of this;
it captures the Gila-Gila aesthetic so well.

Those are the 12. A special mention goes to:

Why only Special Mention? Because I initially quite liked it, and then I saw this!

Nominees for Best Poster, the most important category of Festival Filem Malaysia

2010-10-15T02:48:00.000+08:00

Which is your favourite? Mine would be Belukar.

Coming in November from Matahari Books

2010-10-11T01:40:00.003+08:00

More details will be posted later. In the meantime, a free book goes to the first Malaysian resident who can identify the photographer responsible for the front cover!

Buku ORANG MACAM KITA

2010-09-23T11:47:00.066+08:00

Bukunya dah siap, uols!

Orang Macam Kita ialah sebuah antologi cerpen dan esei mengenai seksualiti alternatif di Malaysia. Seksualiti alternatif boleh diertikan sebagai homoseksual, biseksual, transgender dan dwikelamin. Ini termasuklah gay, lesbian, tomboy, mak nyah dan khunsa. Label-label sebegini mungkin tampak sensasi atau klinikal. Namun cerita-cerita dan kajian-kajian di dalam buku ini mungkin mendedahkan sisi lain, yakni sisi alternatif, daripada tanggapan yang sedia ada.

Orang Macam Kita memuatkan 25 karya dengan gaya dan pendekatan yang berbeza-beza: kisah cinta dan penerimaan yang mencuit, cerita pendedahan yang dramatik, kajian mengenai media, sastera dan filem; dan ada yang melayang jauh ke alam surreal. Kepelbagaian ini turut diraikan; tepuk dada tanya selera!

Kandungan:

Pengenalan - Azwan Ismail & Diana Dirani

Tiga Perbualan dan Satu Siri Pesanan Ringkas - Nur Fadhlin Binti Mohd Yusof
Anak Ikan - Ajami Hashim & Fadli al-Akiti
Sembang Ratu - Nizam Zakaria
Jika Itu Takdirnya - Khalid Idris
Pangkon - Dalih Sembiring
Hanya Jauhari Menyelindung Manikam: Memburu Ikon Gay dalam Filem Malaysia - Fadli al-Akiti
Avatar Tekne Seksual - Clarissa Lee
Rabak - Mohd Zaain Bin Md Zin
Sulalatus Anilingus - Ridhwan Saidi
Lurus Atau Bengkok - Dina Zaman
Pencuri Hati - Nizam Zakaria
Gay.a Ke Aku? - Zulkifli Bin Mohamad
Duyung Karuna - Chuah Guat Eng
Indra Dan Fadil - Paul Agusta
Sejarah Ringkas Media Cetak Tentang Orang Macam Kita - Hafidz Baharom
Tiada Sesalan - Azwan Ismail
Wanita Dua Wajah - Bissme S.
Honey - Bernice Chauly
Sepetang Di Kafe Oedipus - Mohd Ikhwan
Syi - Mohd Syahar Azizan
Vagabundando, Vagabundando - Fernando Rosa Ribeiro
Yang Sebenarnya - Adibah Yahya
Sembang Ratu II - Nizam Zakaria
Sekilas Ikan Di Air, Siapa Tahu Jantan Betina: Siapa Sebenarnya Panji Semirang Asmarantaka? - Farish A. Noor
Asmara Dua Vampir - Diana Dirani

Jumlah mukasurat: 226

Harga: RM20 sahajork

Ni kulit penuh; judulnya ialah sticker yang boleh perpindah-randah mengikut selera si pembeli:

Buku ini TIDAK akan dijual di kedai-kedai buku utama (hanya di Silverfish). Ia hanya boleh dibeli di event-event (bermula dengan Pekan Frinjan pada malam 2 Oktober) dan juga melalui pesanan pos (sila emel saya di info@mataharibooks.com - pengeposan percuma di seluruh 1Malaysia ).

Yang ovesi boleh pesan melalui Amazon.

ROJAK returns to #1 in MPH!

2010-09-21T01:48:00.001+08:00

This is two and a half months after debuting there!

MPH Local Authors Bestseller List

For the week ending 19 September

1. Rojak: Bite-Sized Stories
Author : Amir Muhammad

2. Found in Malaysia
Author : The Nut Graph

3. Indahnya Amalan Doa
Author : Dato Ismail Kamus

4. Nasib Melayu di Bumi Melayu
Author : Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah

5. Jadi 'Cool + Positif: Psikologi Suka-Suka (Kompilasi Ruangan Psikologi Majalah Remaja)

6. Pemilik Cintaku Setelah Allah dan Rasul
Author : Fatimah Syarha Mohd Noordin

7. Mencari Pasangan Hidup

8. Mama, Saya Lapar: Berkongsi Pengalaman Mengenai Pemakanan Berkhasiat untuk Anak-Anak
Author : Wardina Saffiyah

9. Senjata Mukmin
Author : Haji Muhidir Haji Tamjis

10. Iskandar Malaysia: A Story of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur
Author : Ho Chin Soon

NEW MALAYSIAN ESSAYS 3 is a free e-book!

2010-09-15T11:40:00.000+08:00

You won't be able to buy New Malaysian Essays 3 anywhere.

Not because it's banned or anything, but because the book will not be a physical entity.

It will exist solely as a PDF that you can download from tomorrow onwards. You can then read it on your computer, print it out, or embed the PDF on your blog.

Check this link tomorrow, ya?

Happy Malaysia Day!

And if you need to, erm, complete the experience, you can still order *ahem* New Malaysian Essays 1 and New Malaysian Essays 2 directly from me ;-)

NEW MALAYSIAN ESSAYS 3 will be released on Thursday (Malaysia Day) in an unusual way!

2010-09-13T09:59:00.009+08:00

It will feature:

1. How to Demonstrate Creatively by Wong Chin Huat
We have political scientist Wong Chin Huat's upbeat guide to civil disobedience, a small handbook of ideas on getting your voice heard while pressing for political reform in Malaysia ... Wong’s essay draws on concepts developed in Gandhian non-violent direct action and its descendants in the U.S. civil rights movement. Here, he applies them with a twist to the Malaysian context.

2. An Empty Canvas on Which Many Shadows Have Already Fallen by Simon Soon
Soon takes us through these big issues via the careers of a dynamic duo of the Malaysian art world, perhaps ‘terrible twins’ is a more apt moniker; Redza Piyadasa and Sulaiman Esa. These two artist-intellectuals debated, challenged and provoked each other and those around them to find a fruitful way to produce beauty in a manner that was both critical and socially relevant. Both were early enthusiasts of the NCP, but found themselves having to chart out a more flexible and ecumenical direction in order to make themselves both Malaysian and globally significant. Along the way, they have to contend with the urinary critique of an even more formidable enfant terrible, poet Salleh Ben Joned.

3. Queer Ways: An Un-straight Survey of the Direction of Malaysian Popular Culture and Fashion by Clarissa Lee
Clarissa Lee’s essay takes us into another side of the cultural world that is seldom subjected to analysis; the world of fashion and popular culture since Merdeka. This is not an exhaustive survey, but rather one that explores multiple strands including advertising, branding, film, beauty pageants, burlesque, stripping, dress, cross-dressing, nasyid, drag shows, and men and women’s magazines. Lee also challenges her readers to question any assumption that Malaysian history is simply a history of heterosexuals...

4. Uwang Asli Moden by Mor Ajani
(this is a bilingual essay, in Temuan and Malay)
Taking us into the zone between village and city is Mor Ajani’s essay on modern life amongst the Orang Asli, Peninsular Malaysia’s indigenous peoples. Mor is a young comic book artist, cultural documenter, and cultural activist on Orang Asli matters. He paints a picture of how Orang Asli have engaged in modern urban life, an encounter that has frequently placed their lands and traditions in jeopardy.

5. Among the Exiles: Reflections of a Refugee Lawyer by Sumitra Visvanathan
Sumitra Visvanathan is a veteran refugee lawyer who has worked in Malaysia and the region for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). She has personally processed thousands of asylum applications in her 14-year career. Working this closely with refugees has given her a sharp insight into their plight and their humanity.

The editor is Yin Shao Loong (and the paragraphs in italics above are all from his Introduction).

The cover is designed by Teck Hee and features an artwork by ... go on, guess!

*

Check back here on Thursday, ya?

In the midst of flag-burning and chest-thumping, a sane socialist stand..

2010-09-05T02:34:00.005+08:00

(I am not affiliated with either of these parties, but am sharing this joint statement here because it has not yet been put on PSM's website.)

JOINT STATEMENT BY

THE WORKING PEOPLE ASSOCIATION(PRP), INDONESIA

AND

SOCIALIST PARTY OF MALAYSIA (PSM)

ON THE TENSE INDONESIA-MALAYSIA RELATIONSHIP

We, the undersigned organizations, are in view with deep concerns over the recent development of Indonesian-Malaysian relations in related to ultra-nationalist sentiment which emerged following the incidents happened at the waters near Bintan Island on 13 August 2010. During the incidents, 3 patrolling officers from Indonesian Maritime and Fisheries Department were arrested by Malaysian Marine Police after 7 Malaysian fisherfolks arrested by Indonesian authority on the same day.

The upsurge of anti-Malaysia sentiment among Indonesians or the other way round is not related to the interests of both ordinary people in Indonesia and Malaysia. The people in both countries are now facing the same neo-liberal attacks carried out by the ruling regime of both nations.

At the moment in Malaysia, the richest 10% controlled 38.4% of economic wealth, while 10% of the poorest only get 1.7%. Apart from that, a recent study shows that 34% of workers in Malaysia or around 1.3 millions receive monthly wage of RM 720 which below the poverty line. Meanwhile in Indonesia, total population live in poverty has reached 100 millions. There is a fact that the either in Malaysia or Indonesia, there are massive implementations of neoliberal policies that worsened the situation. Those policies included cutting subsidies, privatization, cheap labour and market liberalization.

The stirring up of ultra-nationalist sentiment has served nothing but to divert people’s attention from crucial issues like neo-liberal attacks on people’s welfare, and to strengthen the ruling regime in order to protect the interests of capital. In the dispute of Ambalat sea block, rested the interests of capital. Ambalat is a water area which has abundance of petroleum (estimated up to 1 billion barrels of crude oil), and becoming a hotspot for international petroleum industries. Indonesia has signed agreements with Emi Ambalat Ltd. (Italy) and Unocal Indonesia Ventures Ltd (US), while Malaysia has signed concession with Royal Dutch Shell and Petronas, for petroleum exploration at the region.

While the cultural claims made by Malaysia have related to the interests of tourism industries in Malaysia. Tourism is an important sector in Malaysia to earn foreign currency besides manufacturing. For example, Malaysia receipted RM 17.4 billion from 10.22 million tourists in 2000, and the following years increased significantly. Last year, Malaysia receipted RM 53.4 billion (USD 17.1 billion) from tourism industry. Tourism sector also contributed significantly in providing work opportunities. Service sector accounted for 51% of total workforce in Malaysia. About 5.4 millions out of 10.73 million workforce directly or indirectly employed in tourism sector, e.g. restaurants, travel agencies, airlines, transportations etc. By providing job opportunities, tourism industry plays a significant role in keeping unemployment rate low at about 3.5%.

Although there are much rhetoric about protection for Indonesian migrant workers, Indonesian government has in fact legalised outsourcing of Indonesian migrant workers thru PJTKI. Indonesian government also never provide proper protection for Indonesian migrant workers. The Indonesian government prefer to protect Malaysian capital owner, as the fifth largest investor in Indonesia. Meanwhile, Malaysia government uses those migrant workers to develop its economy and keep workers’ wage in Malaysia at low level.

We condemn those ultra-nationalist elements who tried to split the working people and the poor by exploiting issues on border dispute which only served to protect the interests of ruling class. All solution for the dispute must involve the people from both countries.

At the moment, the urgent need for working class and the poor in Indonesia and Malaysia, is to build solidarity among each other in order to avoid falling into ultra-nationalist sentiment. People’s movements in Indonesia and Malaysia need to be consolidated for building genuine regional cooperation and friendly bilateral relationships between Indonesia and Malaysia, based on solidarity trade and sustainable exchanges for the benefit of all working people, and NOT on the basis of predatory free trade and profit-driven investment.

JOINT SPONSOR
1. SOCIALIST PARTY OF MALAYSIA (PSM)
2. THE WORKING PEOPLE ASSOCIATION, INDONESIA
http://www.parti-sosialis.org/

SEJARAH MELAYU RELOADED, the new web project by Matahari Books

2010-08-16T13:55:00.010+08:00

It all started when I bought this charming box-set last month:

I had read Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Annals) back in secondary school, but I'd forgotten much of it, except for odd things like the repeated use of the phrase "ratna mutu manikam".

So getting the box-set was an incentive to read it again, proper-proper. This collection by MBRAS actually contains the oldest surviving text of Sulalat us-Salatin (The Genealogy of Sultans) -- which would be better known, centuries later, as Sejarah Melayu. (There are 32 Jawi manuscripts in all, 29 of them outside Malaysia, and they vary.) It dates back to 1612 and was written (or 'written') by Tun Bambang for the Johor court.

Since I was going to read the thing anyway, I thought it would be fun to record my impressions. So I would write something after each chapter. Ladies and germs, I now bring to you Sejarah Melayu Reloaded.*

Chapter 1 is already up! I hope to sustain this daily and end on 16 September. Sempena Hari Malaysia gitu.

* I am grateful to Reza Rosli for helping out with web matters!

#6 (as writer) and #10 (as publisher) in MPH

2010-08-10T04:39:00.003+08:00

MPH Bestseller List: For week ending 8th August 2010

Local Authors

1 Indahnya Amalan Doa
Author : Dato Ismail Kamus

2 Like Me, Follow Me: Using Facebook & Twitter to Boosts Your Business
Author : Oon Yeoh; Chris Leong

3 Pemilik Cintaku Setelah Allah dan Rasul
Author : Fatimah Syarha Mohd Noordin

4 Jadi 'Cool + Positif: Psikologi Suka-Suka (Kompilasi Ruangan Psikologi Majalah Remaja)
Author : -

5 Top Money Tips For Malaysians
Author : KC Lau

6 Rojak: Bite-Sized Stories
Author : Amir Muhammad

7 Shafee Yahaya Story Estate Boy to ACA Chief
Author : Kalsom Taib

8 Kaum-Kaum Yang Pupus (Edisi Promosi Istimewa)
Author : Harun Yahya

9 Mama, Saya Lapar: Berkongsi Pengalaman Mengenai Pemakanan Berkhasiat untuk Anak-Anak
Author : Wardina Saffiyah

10 What Your Teacher Didn't Tell You: The Annexe Lectures (Vol. 1)
Author : Farish A. Noor