Petikan dari Buku Cenderamata Festival Filem Malaysia ke-29

Cabaran Semasa, Harapan Masa Hadapan

Oleh JOHAN JAAFFAR

Terlalu banyak telah berubah sejak filem Melayu pertama, Laila Majnun arahan B.S. Rajhans muncul pada tahun 1933. Usia filem tempatan kini 84 tahun. Sepanjang lebih lapan dekad telah berlaku transformasi luar biasa dalam industri filem tempatan dan luar negara.

Tidak ada industri yang lebih dinamik daripada industri filem. Ini merupakan industri yang sarat dengan cabaran, sentiasa dihuja oleh perubahan dan sentiasa memerlukan sokongan kecanggihan teknologi. Filem kini dibuat dengan cara yang tidak pernah dimimpikan oleh pembikin filem satu masa dahulu.

Lebih penting lagi filem kini berada dalam kerangka industri yang lebih besar yang dikenali sebagai industri kreatif atau creative industry. Ia merupakan industri yang bernilai berbilion ringgit.

Filem bukan sekadar hiburan tetapi merupakan sebahagian daripada kegiatan ekonomi kreatif (creative economy). Filem dipasarkan bukan sahaja sebagai filem tetapi bagi filem yang berjaya disokong oleh aspek licensing dan merchandizing membabitkan jualan produk yang berkaitan dengan francais filem berkaitan.

Lebih penting lagi bahawa karya seni buta kaum dan buta sempadan. Seni berbicara dalam bahasa antarabangsa.

Karya seni seperti filem melampaui tembok geografi dan perbezaan budaya. Penyataan atau ekpresi seni sifatnya universal. Maka itu filem adalah komoditi ekonomi yang potensinya amat besar.

Ini peluang terbaik untuk karyawan filem masa kini – untuk membuka jendela cekrawala pada pasaran yang lebih besar. Industri domestik terlalu kecil bagi karyawan filem kita.

Untuk filem Melayu sasarannya juga amat terbatas. Filem tempatan harus mencari ruang baharu.

Sejak Laila Majnun,filem tempatan masih lagi disasarkan pada kelompok kaum tertentu. Era gemilang filem Melayu pada tahun-tahun 50-an dan 60-an adalah era yang disokong oleh rata-rata orang Melayu. Walaupun ada peminat bukan Melayu untuk filem Melayu, tetapi bilangannya kecil. Demikian juga, sekadar bergantung pada audiens sebanyak 16 juta orang Melayu hariini, masih tidak mencukupi.

Akhir-akhir ini dua buah filem membuktikan bahawa sekiranya karyawan mencuba keluar dari sasaran kaum, impak pasarannya cukup berbeza. The Journey dan Ola Bola sepatutnya merupakan wake-up call bagi pembikin filem tempatan. Kedua-dua filem ini mensasarkan audiens “Malaysia” yang sebenar. Kejayaan Haji Burhanuddin Mohd Radzi dengan syarikat Les’ Copaque yang memasarkan Upin dan Ipin ke Indonesia (dan negara-negara lain) adalah satu lagi contoh yang patut diletadani. U-Wei Hj Shaari memilih novel Joseph Conrad untuk membawakan fantasi dan satira “Malaya” ke pasaran dunia melalui Hanyut. Usaha ini pasti membuka ruang baru untuk sinema Malaysia.

Moral ceritanya, filem kita harus disasarkan pada audiens yang lebih besar – audiens antarabangsa.

Kita harus belajar dari Korea Selatan yang kini mengeksport karya kreatifnya ke seluruh dunia. Karya Korea kini menakluk dunia. Dari lagu pop hingga produksi TV dan filem, “demam Korea” dirasakan di mana-mana. Korea sedar bahan kandungan kreatifnya tidak cukup untuk dipasarkan di negara itu sahaja. Dunia adalahlah sasaran mereka.

Kita harus menjurus ke arah itu. Jawaban masa depannya adalah pasaran luar negara. Kita punya potensi itu. Korea telah mewujudkan Korea Creative  Content Agency (KOCCA) sebagai agensi yang dipertanggungjawabkan membangun dan mengembangkan industri kandungan kreatif negara itu. Ia merupakan one-stop-centre untuk tujuan tersebut. Pada tahun 2012 sahaja terdapat 111,587 buah syarikat yang terbabit dalam bidang kandungan yang berdaftar dengan KOCCA.

Tagline yang digunakanoleh KOCCA juga menarik: “Remaking Korea as creative star of world stage.”

Kita dapat melihat impak KOCCA pada industri kreatif negara itu hari ini. Nampaknya kita juga memerlukan agensi seperti KOCCA untuk tujuan itu. Dan kita juga memerlukan penyelarasan dalam semua aspek membabitkan pembiayaan, perancangan masa depan, strategiek sport dan sistem sokongan. Pada masa ini terlalu banyak agensi, jabatan dan kementerian yang bertanggungjawab dalam soal industri kreatif negara. Kita juga punya terlalu banyak akta yang sebahagiannya memerlukan kajian semula oleh sebab ada yang sudah tidak relevan malah ketinggalan zaman.

Ini bukan lagi isu hak, pensepadanan atau kuasa, bagi saya ini isu masa depan industry ini. Ini soal survival! Banyak yang berpendapat bahawa kita tidak cukup pekerja kreatif untuk tujuan itu. Bagi saya, itu alasan bebal. Saya percaya kita punya petugas kreatif yang mampu bersaing dipersada dunia. Kita punya tenaga mahir untuk membuat penyesuaian dengan keperluan industri semasa. Pertugas kreatif kita terbukti berada di belakang pembangunan teknologi yang memungkinkan banyak filem-filem besar di Hollywood.

Apa yang diperlukan adalah dokongan strategik dari kerajaan – strategi masa depan yang menjadi sebahagian dari Dasar Kreatif Negara. Kita punya pekerja kreatif yang mampu menerobosi pasaran dunia sekiranya diberikan kesempatan. Kita percaya tumpuan mereka pada pasaran domestik pada masa ini adalah disebabkan kemampuan kewangan dan kurangnya sokongan institusi dalam industri. 

Mereka mahu mengorak langkah keluar tetapi perlukan sokongan agensi pemasaran dan promosi yang secukupnya.

Banyak orang berpendapat bahawa era gelmilang filem Melayu tidak akan kembali lagi. Saya tidak percaya akan hal ini. Kesilapan kita adalah kerana kita terlalu banyak membuat rujukan pada kegemilangan silam. Kita seharusnya menggunakan kayu ukur baharu dan memacakkan mercu tanda baharu. Kita harus mengukur pencapaian kita dengan kekuatan semasa orang lain, dengan kecanggihan baru teknologi, dengan kemajuan dunia perfileman negara-negara yang lebih berjaya. Kita harus memahami kecenderungan global (global trends) semasa.

Tidak ada salahnya melihat kebelakang. Tetapi kita harus juga melihat kehadapan dengan berani dan yakin.

Saya selalu mengingatkan bahawa industri kreatif bergerak pantas. Kita tidak boleh ketinggalan. Teknologi banyak memberikan impaknya. Apa yang tidak mampu dibuat satu ketika dahulu kini menjadi kenyataan. Filem Star Wars yang pertama kali muncul pada tahun 1977  kelihatan primitif hari ini. Tetapi teknologi yang diperkenalkan oleh George Lucas dalam film itu telah mengubah industri filem untuk selama-lamanya. 

Kunci katanya adalah kreativiti dan inovasi.

Saya juga melihat kebangkitan generasi baharu yang amat diperlukan dalam menyokong industri kreatif. Mereka lahir dalam era teknologi maklumat. Mereka mencorakkan industri komunikasi dan hiburan semasa. Kita juga melihat masyarakat semasa yang terasnya adalah ilmu(knowledge-based).

Maka itu industri ini memerlukan stretagi baharu bagi melahirkan pembikin filem yang disokong oleh kemahiran tercanggih dan terkini. Kita memerlukan tenaga kerja kelas dunia. Pada waktu yang sama kita mahukan pekerja seni kita berfikiran besar, mampu bersaing dan berani mengambil risiko.

Masa depan industri kreatif negara bergantung pada keupayaan kita mempersiapkan diri untuk bersaing di persada dunia.

Selamat berpesta filem!

·       Tan Sri Johan Jaaffar adalah tokoh korporat yang tidak melupakan akar seninya. Beliau pernah menjadi Pengerusi Media Prima Berhad, syarikat media terbesar negara. Beliau baru saja menerbitkan buku JejakSeni: Dari Pentas BangsawanKe Media Prima Berhad yang merupakan lakaran pembabitannya dalam seni selama 50 tahun.

Speech by Tan Sri Johan Jaaffar at the launch of The Inverted Banyan Tree and the Way Thither By JK Asher

Selangor Club, Bukit Kiara

Tuesday, 12^th September 2017

It is indeed an honour to be here, among friends, to celebrate the publication of JK Asher’s novel, The Inverted Banyan Tree and the Way Thither.

It was Datin Paduka Suhaimi Baba who spoke to me about her friend who had just published a novel. “She would like to get in touch with you,” Suhaimi said. I googled the novel, which had recently come out in Australia,and the author but there was very little about both. Asher and I got in touch via email and later WhatsApp. We met briefly over a cup of cappuccino and a pot of Earl Grey tea. And  my fate was sealed. I am to launch this novel of hers. Her first.

This is no ordinary novel. It is dense, challenging and pleasantly confusing. Wait a minute, let me explain. Those three words are enough to describe some of the toughest yet best works of literature in history – from Don Quixote to Moby Dick, from Ulysses to The Name of the Rose, from Brothers Karamazov to One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Some say these works are impenetrable classics. They have complex structures, their allusions are diverse and the linguistic styles are unique. In short, they are not your Jeffrey Archer. Don’t get me wrong. I find Jeffrey Archer interesting, so too Stephen King and JK Rowling. You cannot fault best-selling novelists, can you? 

Some say the quality of a novel is inversely proportional to the number of its readers. Wait till you read the original version of Don Quixote, The Name of the Rose, Doctor Zhivago or even The Lord of the Rings. We are made to believe, thanks to filmmakers and the state-of-art of today’s film making, that these works of literature are episodic and easily adaptable to movies. They are not.

They are “difficult” novels. Some are even least read but much talked about. Daniel S Burt came out with The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time. Not everyone will agree with the ratings, but then again, no one agrees on all things literary anyway! Let me read you the top 10 according to this ranking:Don Quixote, War and Peace, Ulysses, In Search of Lost Time, The Brothers Karamazov, Moby Dick, Madame Bovary, Middlemarch, The Magic Mountain and The Tale of Genji. Yes, in that order.

I can bet that most of you in this room have read Madame Bovary at best or not at all at worst. Yet, we all, at least most of us, claim that we love literature, with the capital “L”. 

Take the case of Ulysses, always in the list of one the world’s best novels, top of the Literary 100 List, number 3 in fact in The Novel 100 list. Yet it is probably one of the least understood novels the world has known.There is a cottage industry trying to make sense of this supposedly classic. Marilyn French was probably right when she wrote that Ulysses by James Joyce is more than just a novel, it is a world in itself. She wrote a book about the novel, succinctly titled, The Book As World. It was published in 1982, 50 years after the publication of Ulysses.

“After 50 years of intelligent and dedicated exploration, the huge subcontinent of James Joyce’s Ulysses still contains unclassified flora and fauna, untraced streams,” she concludes.

God forbid that Asher’s work would fall into this category. Based on my reading of the book, I can testify, as a reader and a lover of novels, that The Inverted Banyan Tree is not an impenetrable novel. It is, in fact, readable but with all the trappings of some of the finest literary works I have come across. It is in a class of its own, a book that demands attention. It is a classy novel.

I have reasons to be curious initially. Here she is, a Malaysian who is like Si Tanggang, who had spent years abroad, 17 to be exact, who then balik kampung and writes about a place that had helped define her, a little enclave in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan. This Tanggang, “an exile” as she called herself, was away far too long.

 But she could not resist the temptation of writing about the days growing up in Malaya/Malaysia. Her formative years came rushing back. Even as a “displaced person” (again her own words) thousands of kilometres away, she could not forget her childhood and the people around her that had affected her so much.

And interestingly, it is the sound of the azan, the call for the Muslim prayer, which has had an impact upon her in more ways than one. She grew up listening to the azan. Loving it. The azan is a call by the muezzin at a designated time. It is very much part of a Muslim community. For Asher, a non-Muslim, the azan took on a special meaning. Perhaps it was about acceptance, about diversity, about tolerance, and more. Anyone living in a Malay village back in the 1950's and 1960's would be drawn to the simplicity of village life, where social norms were observed and religion, alongside culture, played an important role.

That was then. Religiosity has yet to rear its ugly head. Today, as the Malays become more Muslim, they become less Malay, discarding even the best values their race have to offer. I call it the Arabisation of the Malay race.

How things have changed from the era depicted by the novel. We are a troubled nation now. Our people are drifting apart. Notions like muhibbah (harmony) and perpaduan (unity) are taken for granted. Even multiculturalism, the very foundation of our existence and the bedrock of the characters in this novel, is frowned upon. 

 It is within such a construct that Asher has created her characters – men and women who had lived during the period, when innocence was not yet lost, humility the rule of the day and decorum was observed to the letter. Asher’s keen attention to history’s bitter hold on the present is remarkable. She knows what history means. She uses history as backdrop, skilfully weaving it into a tapestry of happenings, big and small. The tapestry provides the setting for her novel’s love story, which is both complex and riveting.

More so because it involves the various races in pre-Independence Malaya. And what a love story it is, replete with suspense and intrigue, with a minefield full of clear and present dangers and, more importantly, a forbidden one. I shall not divulge details of the story line for it will not do justice to the author and the readers for now. Suffice to say, the love story itself is worth a movie.

But I am drawn to the discourse in The Inverted Banyan Tree, particularly one pertaining to the concept of “cultural appropriation” that is taking a new dimension, especially in the West. There is a lot of debate about cultural appropriation during a time when racism is taking centre stage in the American psyche. The concept in itself is interesting – “the adoption or use of the elements of one culture by members of another culture.” In fact, such adoption (there are others who are labelling it as plundering) is not new.

While there are some who look at cultural appropriation or misappropriation with a negative connotation, I would like to take it positively. After all, culture is dynamic. Culture evolves. Trans-cultural diffusion is an integral part of cultural transformation. Therefore, cultural appropriation should be viewed as inevitable and contributes to diversity and free expression.

Asher’s judicious and clever use of the Malay culture and infusing it with her own is commendable. The very strength of this novel is in the audacious use of different cultures and, with it,their worldviews and perspectives. I would suggest serious readers and scholars among you to look into the discourse on cultural appropriation when you study this novel.

Asher has treatedhistory differently. In the tradition of story-writing by “native” Chinua Achebe, history is merely a backdrop. But The Inverted Banyan Treetakes history to a new level. After all, Asher is an immigrant, though once a native, who has lived in a faraway land.

I salute Asher who, despite her immigrant status, still writes about her roots in Port Dickson. Many of the so-labelled “immigrant novelists” writing in English and based in the UK, such as Arundhati Roy and JhumpaLahiri, are obsessed about non-resident Indian characters or NRIs. They look at themselves as part of the immigrant issues in foreign lands. Their characters are metaphorical renderings of immigrants coming to terms with their existence.

But Asher is looking back with lots of nostalgia, emotions and psychological references. In this first novel, she is more concerned about a Serani Roman Catholic girl and two Malay gentlemen who are in love with her. Perhaps, in Australia, Asher feels unreal, outside her skin. Thus her novel is about love, sacrifices, understanding and a reconciliation of sorts. It could even be autobiographical; who knows.

The Inverted Banyan Tree is a long, erudite novel, with a post-modernist tendency, reminding me of Garbriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and our very own ASamad Said’s Hujan Pagi. Both are modern fables shrouded in the chronicle of memory. 

Asher opens her novel with a prologue, “1956: Year of the Inquisition”, not unlike Marquez and Samad who borrowed the traditional story-telling style in their works. There is a lot of “memory” involved in the grand tradition of post-modernist writers. I am not saying Asher should be categorised as such, at least not yet, but this much I can say, The Inverted Banyan Tree, using memory (selection of events) and chronicle (order of events),is framed in a unique narrative structure. Living history is satirised into “magical realism” in The Inverted Banyan Tree. Even the “tree” – a symbol that appears in all major religions – has a special meaning in this novel. But not as a tree per se or a religious symbol as such, but as a literary totem pole of faith, even hope.

The Inverted Banyan Tree is unique in another way – the way it is written. The story itself takes place in two parallel periods of time: 1950's Colonial Malaya and 1980's Post Independent Malaysia. Both periods are woven artistically by. Asher to reflect on the travails of time. Historical terrains matter in a novel like this, in which history is not just a smoke screen that separates the characters’ lives from reality itself. It is a necessity as a meta narrative. We are seeing images being deconstructed and remodeled according to the grand paradigm of postmodernist construct.

Which reminds me of John Fowles’The French Lieutenant’s Woman. This 1969 novel is labelled a post-modernist historical fiction. What is interesting is the parallel lives of characters living in a Victorian period and those living in contemporary time. In that novel, Sarah Wood ruff is a complex and troubled woman who is discovered by paleontologist Charles Smithson at Lyme Regis as she watches the brutal waves smashing the cob. The modern Sarah is in the form of an American actress, Anna.

According to Fowles, his idea to write the novel came when he envisioned a woman standing at the end of a deserted quay and staring at the sea at Lyme Regis. It was 1966. The novel was published three years later and made into a film by Karel Reisz in 1981 starring Meryl Streep and Jeromy Irons as lead characters.

The French Lieutenant’s Woman received a lot of attention because of its treatment of the gender issue. I would like to see such attention be given as well to The Inverted Banyan Tree. Mariam is my idea of our very own literary Sarah – perhaps troubled but emancipated, independent and beyond stereotypes.

I have warned you earlier that this is no easy novel to read, not your typical novel, one that you can enjoy in one reading. You will need a number of re-readings! Before I scare you, let me qualify by saying, it is rich, fertile and seductive. It is one of the best novels that I have read in many years.

That leads me to my next question: why now, why was this novel not written 17 or 20 years ago? With such talent, I find it mind-boggling that I have not read any of Asher’s works earlier. There must be a reason. As they say, better late than never. Age matters little in penning a literary work. Some writers are simply late bloomers. Or perhaps they can only find time to write after the age of 50 or even 60. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote her first novel at the age of 64, Frank McCourt at 66 and Mary Wesley at 70.

Last year, I launched a novel by Sonia Mael. Don’t Forget to Rememberwas her first novel. She is in her late 60s. Perhaps one of the pleasures of increasing age is that one starts reminiscing plentifully. Memories come cascading in fragments, in snippets or in whole. Like The Inverted Banyan Tree, Don’t Forget To Remember is also about forbidden love, in this case between a mat salleh(an English man) and a Malay girl in the 1960s.

Again, I must congratulate Asher’s success in publishing this novel. My wish is that it be published in the UK to qualify for the coveted Booker Prize. Now, this is not about winning. I assume that Asher was not thinking of the Booker Prize when she wrote the novel. But let me put this in perspective. Less deserving novels have won the prize, so you can understand what I mean. Let me say, it has all the trappings of an award winner – great writing, wonderful characterization, marvelously written. You cannot ask for more.

Asher, I hope this is not your first. Keep writing. You have the flair and more. In the difficult circumstances that we are in now, we need people like you to make sense of the turmoil, the trials and tribulations of this beloved nation of ours.

Your characters, Mariam, Ummah and Ismael, despite their imperfections and misgivings, have seen better days as part of a nation. This is a nation that needs a lot of soul-searching. Thanks, Asher, for your intuitive understanding in bridging the bridgeable – while it is not too late to do so. You have given the characters hopedespite their hopelessness, and faith despite their weaknesses.

We are like them – longing to see better days. You have expressed humanity in a way that we have always wanted to. You cannot change the nation single-handedly. Like your characters, we are merely simulacra of portraits and images. But we have our strength in  our differences and our diversity.

And thanks, Asher, for bring back such memories with style and finesse.

With that, I hereby humbly, but with great pride and honour, launch The Inverted Banyan Tree and The Way Thither by the incredibly talented JK Asher.

Thank you. 

Speech by Tan Sri Johan Jaaffar at the launch of  
Paracosm

by Puteri Fateh Arina Merican

at the Sultan Azlan Shah Law Faculty Building,

University of Malaya,

on Saturday, 6 May 2017

Puteri Fateh Arina Merican Megat Suffian Merican, or Arina, is no ordinary 17-year-old.

She is not only talented and creative but she has a point to prove, a mission to pursue and a commitment to undertake. Her writing is the totem pole of her aspirations. She speaks about herself – her joys, anxieties, frustrations, love even. In her own words, “I have had unrequited loves, loneliness, despair, discrimination, isolation, and un-faulty situations.”

She writes about people who have affected her in one way or another.

As well as of events that had an impact upon her.

A student of literature would try to ‘appropriate’ her works in the context of a larger universe of the written word. Probably placing her work within a construct, a genre, or even a new microcosm of literary realm.

It matters little what one’s conception of this collection of poems and prose is. What matters is the content, the creativity that makes up Paracosm.

I scrambled formy dictionary when I first heard the title of this collection. Not that I have not come across the word before, but coming from a young poet and writer is something else. What does the word mean to her? I was curious.

‘Paracosm’ is no ordinary word. In fact, it is a big word.

If William Shakespeare were to be still alive today, he, like me, would be checking his vocabulary too. I doubt if ‘paracosm’ would be one of the words in the vocabulary that he possessed. He was said to have coined 1,500 new words, but the last time I checked, ‘paracosm’ is not one of them.

To put it in perspective, in all his 37 plays, he used 27,870 different words. According to The Complete Works of Shakespeare, in all, he used a total of 936,443 words.

In April 2009, the one millionth English word entered the dictionary. Come to think of it, Shakespeare’s arsenal of 27,870 words made him like a primary schoolboy, vocabulary-wise. The total number of English words is now 35 times more than his total vocabulary 400 years ago. Yet he is considered one of the greatest writers the world has ever known.  

With the author

Arina’s choice of word for her book title is rather incredible. Even Microsoft Word auto-corrects every time I spell ‘paracosm’. Hey, you guys at Microsoft, listen up, you need to upgrade, seriously!

So, thanks to Arina, ‘paracosm’ is to be part of the lexicon here in this country. Remember our former prime minister who was labelled by another prime minister as “recalcitrant”? The word caught fire. I hope this one will too, popularised by Arina no less.

‘Paracosm’ is one of the more than a million words registered in the English language, albeit least used, even least understood. After consulting Wikipedia and checking my Oxford English Dictionary (OED), I found out that ‘paracosm’ is a detailed imaginary world.

Let me plunder the definition from Wikipedia: “Paracosms are thought generally to originate in childhood…. The creator of a paracosm has a complex and deeply felt relationship with this subjective universe, which may incorporate real-world or imaginary characters and conventions.” I can continue with the definition but whatever for? This is not a discourse on etymology or the origin of words.

Now you have an idea of what runs in this young lady’s mind. One sophisticated, hugely creative, monstrously fertile mind that tags her childhood dreams and imagination, developing them into lengthy structured phrases, using moments and experiences as her psychological references, weaving words into a tapestry of expressions. What we are reading is the manifestation of an immensely imaginative intellect.

Her words trickle down effortlessly, woven with style and finesse, emptying into our consciousness, at times burrowing into our guilt and self pity, at other times with thudding awareness of the dark reality around her and us. At her age, she is a shining example of what a young mind can do creatively.

Arina is good at words. Very good, in fact.

Words matter. Going through 180 pages of text and illustrations, I can fully understand why she chose Paracosm as the title of her book.

Datin Sharifah Mariam Syed Mansor Al-Idrus, in her illuminating Foreword in the book, likens Arina to the Cambodian writer, Lang Leav. With best-selling titles such as Love and Misadventure and Lullabies, Lang Leav has been hailed as a voice of the young, her works being described as “between the whimsical and the woeful, expressing a complexity beneath its childish facade.”

There is an equally eloquent piece in the book by Puan Hajah Anismah M Noh that introduces who Arina really is. She is in fact the principal of the college where Arina studied for some years. We couldn’t agree more when Anismah writes that Arina is an articulate young lady who has had a flair for writing since she was seven.

I shall not be a spoiler;I shall not dwell too much on the content. Let the anthology intrigue and enthral you.  

Perhaps Love and Misadventure is Lang Leav’s ‘paracosm’.But Lang Leav, born in a refugee camp in Thailand, went through a different path in life; her travails and challenges are different. Arina was born into a reasonably well-to-do family, an established and well-known one at that.

Arina is as good a story teller as she is a poet. And she paints too – all the illustrations in the book are hers, except two. The combination of literary works and paintings is special. Not since the time of Anak Alam, the artists’ movement of the 1970s, has any attempt been made to utilise the forms effectively as had Arina in this book.

The likes of Latiff Mohiddin, Mustapa Haji Ibrahim and Dzulkifli Dahlan, to name a few, had enlivened the world of literary and artistic expressions back  then with  different forms, two platforms, each one complementing the other. Back then, they used the term “manifestasi dua seni” or a manifestation of two arts.

This is another area that triggers my interestin Arina’s works.

Perhaps this is a work in progress, an experiment on the part of Arina, testing the water if you like, for she is still young although full of vigor.

Being 17 isn’t easy. I have three daughters who have gone through that stage in life. I am no expert on the millennials, I must confess. But parenting is becoming increasingly more challenging than ever before. Arina represents a new generation of today’s youngsters who are reshaping society, lifestyle, consumption and even politics.

They are changing the feel and look of nations. They are getting their voices heard, loud and clear. They are sounding their positions without fear and favour. They are the children of the globalised world in the true sense. In her Preface, Arina writes, “We have evolved, we are separated from the previous generations and it is time for a new age.”

Her poems and prose manifest that world of the young. A world that parents like us might even find hard to understand. We are not talking about generational gaps anymore; we are talking about major shifts in the dynamics of the relationship between ‘Them’ and ‘Us’.

But, unlike many others, Arina has chosen her own path with certainty. She has made up her mind to be a lawyer, like her parents, but not just an ordinary lawyer, a human rights lawyer. A good choice, Arina. But writing and lawyering seldom mix. A lawyer’s ‘brief’ can be as lengthy as 40-odd pages, and I hope that her literary talent will not be compromised by the discipline in that vocation. Good lawyers seldom make good writers (sorry about that)!

We are not talking about clarity of thought, argumentative style or rhetoric here.Lawyers are good at that, but we need more in the literary word – aesthetics, beauty and finesse. Above all, a purpose to exalt, to soothe, to educate, to make the world a better place.

There is something special about this book, her words and expressions. They are uniquely Arina. While educationalists and editors are concerned about the new forms emerging in social media, Arina is perfecting her language.

Out there, thanks to SMS, WhatsApp and other applications, there is an emergence of an “aberrant world of abbreviations, numerals and pictorial icons.”  It has become the Wild West of communication.

Language is being rewritten, restructured and rearranged in a way that no sane linguist would approve. The written word is undergoing “major shifts in forms and functions.” What we are witnessing is the evolution in cyberspace and social media of some kind of linguistic centaur  - part speech, part writing; half human, half beast – that is seriously undermining ‘formal language’ and, in fact, affecting all major languages.

Thank God, we have Arina. Words are still words. Words excite. Words are alive. Written words can be verbose. Yes, they are structured, formal and expository. They can be abstract and lofty too. But that’s the beauty of words. The beauty of literature.

How else can you explain this:

Angels of heaven

The horn has been blown

The beacon has been lit

Bring forth your sword and shield

We will not let Devil see the daylight

Because in this war of faith

We will rise in glory

And rise in victory.

(Kingdom of Heaven)

  

Or this:

Why does the world hate me?

Is it my intention?

Or God’s destiny?

I am surrounded by lies and judgement

I feel trapped

Like an experimental specimen

(Me)

And this:

Here in the woods

There resides old trees

Old trees of longing

And of new beginning

(The Old Elder Tree)

And this one is my favourite:

I miss you my lullaby

So I sing it to myself

Every night

But each time I close my eyes

I envy that you have

Reached paradise

Sleep well, my brother

Do not awake from your peaceful slumber

Because we will see each other again

Not in this world

But another

(Sleep Well, My Brother)

Arina is so gifted.

I am smitten by Paracosm.

You have a huge fan in me!

With DS Azman Ujang, chairman of BERNAMA

Let me share my personal experience of many decades honing my Bahasa Malaysia and English. Brought up in a village some 27 kilometers from the nearest town, I learned English the hard way. No one spoke the language at home or in the village. I went to an English school with just three words of the language, “Yes”, “No” and “Thank You.” The Englishman from Yorkshire,who was our class teacher,roared on my first day at school, “Anyone who speaks any other language in class will be fined 5 cents.” Back in 1960, I didn’t bring money to school. Understandably I was mute for three months.

I was fortunate to learn English by reciting nursery rhymes, singing gospel songs, acting in plays – in short,learning to read and write in English the old way. I can never forget my early schooling at Peserian Primary English School.

I was grateful to have gone to Peserian Primary English School, then Sekolah Menengah Semerah and later High School Muar.And it  was at this university (the University of Malaya) that I learned the ways of the world while improving both my Bahasa Malaysia and English. I was grateful for that as my job at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), and later as a journalist, required a reasonably good command of both languages.

I was an editor of national newspaper in the 90s and many years later Chairman of the largest media group in the country – Media Prima Berhad.

The last 50 years too I was involved in culture and arts – I wrote plays, acted in them and directed some of them too. The book,Jejak Seni Johan Jaaffar: Dari Pentas Bangsawan Ke Media Prima Berhad, published by DBP this year is my artistic journey of 50 years.

Arina was at Tunku Kurshiah College (TKC), where she nurtured her interest in all things literary. I guess TKC can make or break you for the poems penned during her last years at TKC are sweet and boisterous, but at times dark and forbidding! Arina has a long way to go. But something has not changed. Then and now, words matter to us. As an editor I have to bring clarity to pieces meant for publication. As a journalist I  have to bring news with clarity and simplicity to be understood by the reading public.

As a poet Arina uses words to convey her feelings and her sketches and paintings to conceptualise her emotions.

It was in Afghanistan, at the Kunar Province to be exact, in the spring of 1989 that I met an old man. He was oblivious to the dangers around him. His notion of security was placing boxes of ammunition around him.

And I met this boy, Mir Muhammad, 14 at the time, three years older than Arina today. He was a boy soldier. He looked older than his age. He didn’t go to school like many others. But he was smart, inquisitive and alert. He asked lots of questions when we were there. He couldn’t understand what I was doing in the middle of the Afghan War. Bringing stories to the outside world was beyond his comprehension.

I was touched by Mir’s stories.

As much as Arina was moved by the images of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy found dead on the beach while fleeing his war-torn country.But I am not a poet like Arina. I wish I can write about Mir in poetry form.

I am not sure what has happened to Mir since I met him. He would have been 42 if he’s still alive. But Mir changed my perspective about life. About humanity. About wars.

I am sure Aylan Kurdi and many others had a profound impact on Arina as a writer.

I am honored to be here and to celebrate with you the achievements of this young lady.

She wrote this at the beginning of her book: “Allah, this year, I ask for nothing more than to make Mummy very proud of me, please Allah. I would give everything – even my soul to you to help me accomplish this.”

Arina, you have certainly made your Mummy proud.

We are all very happy for you.

Dengan lafaz Bismillah…. Dengan ini…I hereby launch Paracosm by the extremely talented Puteri Fateh Arina Merican.

Thank you. 

With the author (in black), DS Azman Ujang (2nd from the right)
& Datuk Dr Yaakub the grandfather (extreme right)