KL International Book Fair 2009, PWTC

From Raden Saleh, Tun Perak, Abdul Samad Amjah to Mawdudi and Hamid Enayat

Visiting the KL book fair has become part of my annual routine for the past 5 years or so. I've lost count how many books lying on my shelves that I haven't read or waiting to be read and yet, today I bought another five books. Well, I guess that is fairly normal for a bookworm, isn't it?

Out of the five books, I am particularly interested in "Raden Saleh: Anak Belanda, Mooi Indie & Nasionalisme" (Komunitas Bambu, 2009) by Harsja W. Bachtiar, Peter B.R. Carey and Ongkokham. It's in Bahasa Indonesia by the way. Many thanks to Gerak Budaya and SIRD for bringing in excellent Indonesian books to our shores.

Browsing through the pages of Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman, a 19th century Javanese aristocrat, scientist and one of the greatest Indonesian painter; I had a lot of questions running through my mind. I began to wonder whether there exist such a distinct intellectual within the Malay society in the 19th century other than Munshi Abdullah, the father of modern Malay literature. If ever there were any, could it be possible that such work was left unpublished or lost? (Note: According to 'Hikayat Abdullah', thousands of original Malay manuscripts were lost at the time when Stamford Raffles' ship went up in smoke) Also, I wonder why is it that the awareness of nationalism, intellectualism and independence came in rather late in the Malay states, if we were to compare with others say in India or in the Arab states?

Reading 'Hikayat Abdullah', the great Munshi made no apologies when he criticized the attitude of the superstitious Malay society, the stupidity and cruel Malay Sultan(s) (note: Sultan Husin Syah of Singapore and the Temenggung), their negative attitude toward education and so forth. Upon finishing reading through Munshi Abdullah's social critique on the Malay society, I find it rather sad that some of the old Malay traits are still exist in the modern era. No doubt there's been a great deal of improvement in terms of education, social, economy etc, but certain aspect like witchcraft, magic and other un-Islamic rites are still being practiced till today. I'm thinking of reading again Mahathir's Malay Dilemma and probably Syed Hussein Ali's 'Orang Melayu - Masalah & Masa Depan' later on.

Back to work!

Previous KLIBF postings
KL International Book Fair 2008
KL International Book Fair 2007