Reflection on Malaysian Literature in English by Muhammad Ikram B. Mustafa

Reflection on Malaysian Literature in English (MLIE)

What I know about Malaysian Literature in English (MLIE)? First of all, MLIE is works of art by our Malaysian writer such as Mohd. Hj Saleh, Shirley Lim, Dina Zaman and Adibah Amin. It should be quite clear that the language is English and the writers will be of Malaysian nationality. The language bit seems quite straightforward and easy to accept. Malaysian literature is concerns more about Malaysian cultures, religions and races. It is obviously affected by our mother tongue and it varies according to the writers races whether they are Malay, Chinese or Indian. Besides that, some of the works by Malaysian writers are translated work from foreign writers.

What I want to know about MLIE? Why is that our work of art or in other word our Malaysian literary canon is not recognized at international level? How can we make our Malaysian literary canon well known at international level? What does motivate the writer to write in English? What are the obstacles faces by Malaysian writer? Why not the MLIE works profitable? When will the freedom of expression given to MLIE writers? What is the future for MLIE writers?

What I learned? As I studied MLIE, I learned that in Malaysia writers who choose to writes in English will face difficulties more compared to those who choose to writes in Malays. That is because of the mindset of the society towards English language. They are afraid of the history of colonization by the western be repeated. The culture and belief of different races limits ability of the writers to writes about them. They are also difficult to writes about sensitive issues such as religious and races because as they write about sensitive issues they will only get criticized and negative feedback from the readers. Moreover, the policy of the government that has limit the freedom of the Malaysian writer to writes about sensitive issues happened in the country. The rules and regulation set by the government because of the fear that one day English will take over Malay language as the primary language in the country. Therefore, mostly writers who writes in Malay has been given a lot of advantages in order to make sure that the culture of this country is not affected by English language. This has restrained many English writers from keep on doing their writing in English as they need to market their works to earn for their living. WE could say that political agenda of the government has stopped the evolving of MLIE in this country.

How I learn MLIE? The limited resources of MLIE works in the internet are the difficulties that I have to face as I studied MLIE. Most of the resources in the Internet that I could find are only the findings or review of our Malaysian writer’s works. The validity of the review depends on the side chooses by its writers whether they are supporters of the Malaysian writers or opposing. Therefore, to widen my knowledge about MLIE I need to buy their pieces of works from major bookstores and the availability of the work is also limited due to the lack of reading activities by our Malaysian society. Besides the attitude of Malaysian writer on reading activities, the acceptance of Malaysian towards MLIE writers because of their prejudices of English language as they see English as a threat to our country.

In conclusion, we as students who studied Malaysian writers work should take part to change the society negative perception towards English language. To learn more than one language does not mean that we are not nationalists. Instead we should take it as an advantage to learn new knowledge and technologies from different cultures.

By Muhammad Ikram B. Mustafa