By Zhang ML
Hassan Sui (photo right) was a member of the Task Force set up by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, which concluded categorically that the allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation of Penan women in Baram are true.
In fact, he was roped in by the state government to the Task Force as a representative of the Penan. As such he was supposed to represent the challenges and interests of his “own people”, the Penan, in the task force. He was meant to participate in the work of the Task Force, originally set up to investigate the allegations and to make recommendations for protection of the girls and women.
However his statements made in the Borneo Post on November 7 make for nauseating reading. It would appear he has tried to undermine the credibility and importance of the findings of the ministerial Task Force.
He said “recent allegations of sexual abuse of Penan women and girls in Baram were obvious examples of how outsiders had once again meddled in the affairs of the ethnic group”.
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By Sim Kwang Yang
The naiveté of half-cooked patriotism knows no bounds. A reader wrote in to the NST, questioning why Malaysian students should study English literature. Why, he wondered, should our children not study Malaysian literature instead?
The obvious problem is with the very existence of anything that we can recognise as Malaysian literature. Obviously, there is a body of Malay literature, especially that promoted by the Dewan Pustaka dan Bahasa. All the Chinese newspapers give plenty of space for aspiring writers to develop their talents. I am sure the Indian community also have some literary activity. But do we have a Malaysian literature – for all Malaysians?
Strangely enough, the most robust English dailies have done little to encourage literary creativity in English. Does it mean that there is no market for it, and that English-educated Malaysians of all races are simply not interested in literature?
We tend to think of literature as the product of highbrow intellectual activity, a kind of self-indulgence bandied about by the very educated elite to display their superior taste. But literature in the modern sense became a mass phenomenon only after the arrival of what Benedict Anderson described as print capitalism. Literary successes depend very much on market demand. Writers, poets, playwrights, and novelists must be paid, or else they would simply starve.
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By Sim Kwang Yang
Internet writers like me have a cushy job. We stare into the blank wall, try to imagine the audience out there in cyberspace, and bang out a string of connected ideas at break-neck speed to beat the deadline.
Writing is a lonely business. Thank God, I do get some feedback from readers sent to my email address every week. Otherwise, I would have stopped writing out of boredom. I try to answer them all.
The messages accumulated over the six or seven years of my service with Malaysiakini amount to a huge pile. Most are friendly, but there are a few that are very critical. Of course, one has learned long ago the art of agreeing to disagree with mutual respect.
Then, there are readers and bloggers who cut and paste my articles all over the Internet. I am not sticky on the issue of intellectual property rights, so that is okay too. Any idea of mine, once it is out there, for better or for worse, is public property.
While googling my own name one day, I came across a self-proclaimed ‘Al Muslimin NGO’ blog commenting on my writing.
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By Sim Kwang Yang
On the eve of polling in the March 8 2008 general election, a close friend enquired whether Anwar Ibrahim could be trusted or not, given his chameleon-like political career that saw him change his affinity in rather dramatic ways several times. This question about Anwar Ibrahim’s trustworthiness has become all the more topical now that he is scheduled to come back to our Malaysian political arena on full steam next week.
Even before the general election, there was widespread mistrust for Anwar Ibrahim among the Chinese electorate, because of his perceived sins committed against Chinese education during his tenure as Education Minister. One could argue that, as Education Minister, Anwar Ibrahim was implementing the education policy of UMNO, but that would still not diminish the burden of his rather huge political baggage.
The Chinese community has always had ambiguous feelings for Anwar, even from the early days when he was involved with ABIM as a young radical Islamic activist. His Islamic credentials may have been an asset for his career, first in UMNO, then as an ally of PAS when he was banished to the political wilderness ten years ago. But for many Chinese who suffer from Islam phobia, Anwar Ibrahim is often perceived by many as a mildly threatening enigma.
In the ten-year existence of PKR, right up to the time of the general election last month, I was constantly bombarded with the question of whether Anwar Ibrahim would return to UMNO, just like Ku Li did in the 90s after fighting UMNO in vain with Semangat 46 as his political vehicle.
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By Kenny Gan
Ever since the epic 12th general elections, which saw a realignment of the political landscape, the average Malaysian, normally apathetic to politics due to the boring regularity of BN’s sweeping victories, have started to take an interest in elections, especially the next general election.
Pakatan Rakyat supporters who can’t wait to see BN swept out of power are notably impatient for the next general election, even though the last one was held a mere 20 months ago. As general elections are held every 5 years, the next one is not due until March 2013.
However it is the usual practice for the incumbent government to hold elections earlier, rather than wait until its term expires. This allows it to choose an opportune time, such as a booming economy, when its support may be higher. To wait until the last months deprives it of the freedom to choose a favourable timing or the ability to wait for scandals to cool, if any should pop up unexpectedly.
Another reason for holding early elections may be to clear the way to institute an unpopular policy which may harm its chances in the next election. Abdullah Badawi held the 2008 elections a full year before his term was to expire in March 2009, because he wanted to raise the price of oil drastically. True enough, Malaysians were hit with the steepest ever increase in oil price barely 3 months after the election.
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By Sim Kwang Yang
The small band of mud-caked near-naked young boys were tearing through the lalang and the undergrowth from the direction of the river bank, shrieking and laughing as they stumbled over one another towards the foot of the staircase of this lone kampong house.
I was alarmed by their state of unusual excitement, and moved to the doorway to investigate. Gasping for breath, they fought among themselves for the chance to report their discovery, “Uncle, a crocodile! At the river bank!” Arms were flung apart at various lengths to indicate the size of the feared reptile.
This was a matter of grave concern indeed for the Iban communities living along the placid Stutong River meandering around the outskirts of Kuching City. The dozen or so adults sitting in the room behind me immediately exploded into an animated discussion.
The scorching heat of the day had waned, and the stilted wooden hut with its thatched roof was basking in the afterglow of the sun. The evening dusk descended upon the surrounding rubber trees long abandoned to grow wild. Visitors had drifted into the hospitable shade of the little hut in small parties. The visitors were on their way back from their gardens, where they worked the land as their ancestors had done for countless generations, even though they no longer needed to.
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By Sim Kwang Yang
Ever since we launched this blog over seven months ago, I had only one promise made to myself: there must be a new posting everyday.
Everyday, as the sun sets, if there is no new story in my email, then I will have to bang out something on the computer. After a while, it gets to be quite tiring, especially when I am almost a full time writer for a few publications as well.
At the end of the evening, my mind would be having mental cramps from overwork.
That is why I began to upload my old stories published in Malaysiakini in the past, for my mental relief, as a kind of stop-gap measure. At first I worried about the copyright issue, since Malaysiakini does pay me for my writing. But everyone else is cutting and pasting my Malaysiakini articles on their blogs anyway, so I might as well join in the crowd.
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By Bunga Pakma
Malaysia’s MSM, too, briefly noted the passing of a great man a week ago, and this observance does Malaysia an honour, for he was an anthropologist—a discipline here under the eye of official suspicion—and a humanist intellectual of the loftiest sublimity. The world rarely remembers this breed still lives among them.
Claude Lévi-Strauss died in Paris on 31 October. If he had hung on for four weeks he would have reached the great age of 101. We can feel joy when a distinguished man passes away after a long life filled with fruitful work, love, much seen and felt, and honour. He was a member of the Academie Française. Such a person has won at life, if anybody can be said to win at life.
Lévi-Strauss was destined to be a profound thinker, whichever way he took. He entered the University of Paris as a student of philosophy, and after a few years determined that “…philosophy, as taught at the Sorbonne, exercised the intelligence but left the spirit high and dry.” (Apologies to SKY.) The career that faced Lévi-Strauss, after he took his degree, consisted of repeating the same lectures year after year. In horror, and with the help of a few lucky encounters, he escaped to anthropology and in 1934 sailed to Brazil. An academic post gave him a base from which to travel to the deep country, rainforest or savannah, and do fieldwork among the Indians.
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By Pak Bui
The explosion of political blogs and internet news sites over the last five years has left our Ministry of Information hacks and our mainstream Malaysian TV and news editors staggering, dazed and confused.
The pent-up emotions of the Malaysian public have been suppressed for half a century under a BN mass media mafia. Now set free by greater public access to the Internet, these emotions have swept over the blogs and comments sections of internet news portals.
Any glance through my favourite sites, the usual suspects like “Hornbill Unleashed” and the various Malaysia news portals (Today, Kini, Mirror, Insider and the Nut Graph), yields a huge chunk of readers’ comments. I admit many of these are repetitive, ignorant and even bigoted, hidden behind pseudonyms. But there are some carefully considered and informative views and heartfelt appeals for justice too.
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Kaypo Anak Sarawak is a Columnist of Hermit Hornbill at The Borneo Post Online , His article is published in The Borneo Post every Sunday. (Used by permission of the Author )
ACCORDING to the definition established by the United Nations, an aged person is one who has reached or exceeded 60 years of age. That makes me an aged person. Of course, when you have passed the magic hurdle of 60, you think sometimes of the ‘Grim Reaper’, for there is no way of getting out of this life alive. But according to the national statistics for life expectancy, I should have 16 years more to go, if I am careful.
But life is hard to tell. A friend’s son aged 49 just died from a heart attack three days ago on the badminton court; he was given a clean bill of health 6 months ago by his doctor during a regular medical check up.
So I consider myself blessed, living in relatively good health, except for the mandatory conditions of the aged like diabetes, high blood pressure, and creaking joints. I still contribute to the national GDP growth by my writing, a task I can do as long as I am sane and have two hands to do the typing on the computer keyboard.
The contribution to the GDP by the aged is an important issue for national economic planner.
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By Sim Kwang Yang
On a recent visit to my hometown Kuching City, I chose to stay at the Holiday Inn overlooking the limpid water of the lazy Sarawak River.
I sauntered over to a small shop selling books, magazines, and cigarettes. Paying for my purchase, I struck up a conversation with the petite young lady in tudung, something that I did rarely in KL.
After a brief chat on the weather and the high price of the Star in Kuching, I told her how much I loved Sarawak because of her friendly people. Thinking that I was a Chinese from West Malaysia, she smiled proudly and said, “Yes, we are friendly in Sarawak. I can even eat with you at the same table.”
Our national grand narrative on national unity and racial harmony are couched in sweeping abstract slogans like 1Malaysia. The real racial harmony is actually to be found in the little narratives of daily life in Sarawak and Sabah.
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By Keruah Usit @ Malaysiakini
The national task force report on rape and sexual abuse of Penan girls in Baram was released on September 8. The report by the
Ministry for Women, Family and Community Development, was compiled by a high-level task force, comprising government officials, a police representative and women’s groups.
However, nearly two months later, no arrests have been made, despite continuing pressure from civil society and the international community. The police have said they have no leads and that the NGOs supporting the Penan have refused to co-operate with them.
According to the Borneo Post, a newspaper owned by a local logging company, Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin, head of the national Criminal Investigation Department (CID), complained on October 22 that the police could not gather enough evidence.
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