Locking On Interlok (because I can’t think of a better pun)
Friday, 14th January, 2011 § 9 Comments
photo from Google Images. Everybody's using the same pic. Who used it first? Malaysiakini?
So apparently that pesky book with that pesky word is selling like hotcakes right now, so says Nisah Haron. I’m talking about Abdullah Hussain’s Interlok which has created so much controversy because it contains the word ‘paria’ which is deemed deragatory by the Indian community in Malaysia. Abdullah Hussain’s book has been around since at least 1967 when it won the consolation prize in a writing competition. So why has a 44-year old novel created so much ire among the Indian community now? Because the story has been chosen as part of the Malaysian secondary school curriculum for Malay Literature in 2011. Nobody cared about the book all this time because, let’s face it, who reads in Malaysia? And I’m guessing not many among the Indian community read Malay novels as a hobby or otherwise they would have burned the darn book decades ago. But now that the book will be made required reading for 17 year olds, all of a sudden we’re looking at book burnings and calls for a boycott.
But as Ms. Nisah wrote in her blog, the silver lining in this sordid affair is that a Malay novel written by a national laureate other than A. Samad Said is flying off the shelves. It took a book burning for Malaysians to pay due respect to one of their living literary treasures. Admittedly, some of them might just want to flip to the page with that word just to see what the fuss is all about but hey, at least they’re reading.
By the way, I’m not going to debate who is right or wrong here. I can see good points made by both defenders and haters of the book and besides, the Malaysian chattering classes have inundated the blogosphere with their two-cents on this matter. I’m not going to jump into a crowded pool. Although I would like to say one thing. Book burning? BAD. I don’t care what book you burn. Heck, I will even make a frowny face at you even if you burn Mein Kampf (and yes, I can see the irony in burning Hitler’s diatribe of a book).
If all this brouhaha is making you curious about Abdullah Hussain’s novel but you don’t read Malay, the Malaysian National Institute of Translation has the English version in stock. It’s RM30 for the Peninsula and RM35 for Sabah and Sarawak (not including shipping). Check it out on their website.
But if you do read Malay, then Interlok (Edisi Pelajar) can be had for just RM20 of your hard earned cash at Ujana Ilmu. This ‘Edisi Pelajar’ is the edited for school edition but it still has that word.
The original unabridged edition and the English translation can also be found at MPH outlets.
Happy Reading…or book burning. Whatever, it’s your money.
Its a historical novel, and it should be read as such. Heck, Keris Mas’ Rimba Harapan was very critical of the Malay life in the early 1900s, but you don’t see people making a fuss about it.
If they make it a required reading in schools, maybe then it will cause a fuss.
The book is really interesting in describing the life of the main races in M’sia early years. It has done a good job by picturing how was the situation is back in 1900′s . Only thing i wanted to highlight is, the term ‘pariah’ has been wrongly used. Agreed that they were certain class of people call ‘pariah’ did exist in Indian comunity. But the idea of the writer reffering all Indians as pariah is not acceptable.
In the case of Rimba Harapan as Menj stated,the novel is used for English Literature text for SPM with title Jungle of Hope. However, one of my English teacher told us that schools are given the right to choose which novel that wanted to be taught at a school. Most of our schools choose The Pearl.
It is difference for Interlok’s case where a few novels are chosen and each novel only taught at one zone.
Ah, I see. My ignorance fought. I finished school before KOMSAS was introduced so I am not familiar with this new curriculum.
Interlok is only taught in Selangor, Negri Sembilan and one other state I think.
Raja Tun Uda Library (Shah Alam) has two copies of Interlok—in hardcover, the unedited, not-for-KOMSAS-version. Unfortunately book-lending is temporarily not allowed for the time being because of the moving-out progress.
I loved the book! I thought that it was an honest examination of life in Malaya in that period. It feels very true to history with little varnishing. An Indian lady pointed out that people should not be upset with the use of the word in context of the book; rather they should be upset of the social system whereby that word is a reality. :p
By the by, a number of the Indian girls in my class actually enjoy reading Malay romance novels. Yup, torrid stuff about tudung-wearing ladies and their romantic laments. Go figure.
agree with snuze. it’s a historical novel. read salina, same depiction (of malays living in setinggan during world war eras, very unflattering too). what happened in the past stays in the past. i think we all are big enough to understand pariah during that time is strictly in the context of time, not indians as a whole. another book worth mentioning is harper lee’s to kill a mocking bird. repeatedly used the word nigger when referring to blacks, but that was what blacks were referred to as during that time.
we can get past tenses, can we?
Read what the Ministry is teaching SPM students through Interlok here:
http://hartalmsm.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/interlok-when-a-language-lesson-isnt-about-language/
Actual lesson plan from Bahagian Perkembangan Kurikulum, Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia.