Amri Rohayat

Here is another article that gives you a glimpes of what is taking place in our literature scene. The article appeared in the sun on Feb 19 2009 .

Headline: Writing to tell a story

Storyteller and publisher Amri Rohayat is interested in adding new colour to the Malay literary scene. He wants to bring in contemporary voices and vibrant ideas. The 40-year-old talks to BISSME S. about the local literary scene, the usage of Bahasa Malaysia and racism.

What is the philosophy behind your imprint, Stormkitchen?
A stormkitchen is this cheap cooker you use on camping trips. It is simple and utilitarian. That is the underlying philosophy: to make writing fun. Even frivolous.
My belief and experience is that young Malays are repressed. Our society behaves like it does not welcome young ideas … That these youngsters have no value. Fair enough. But we still need to give the young an outlet to express themselves safely before it gets too late. Otherwise it will be like a pressure cooker without a safety valve. But there are not many places where they can be creative and expressive. I wanted to give them one such platform. If they go to mainstream publications, they are unlikely to get published.

Why do you think the mainstream publications wouldn’t publish their fiction?
Maybe it is simply the job of the mainstream anywhere to not tolerate alternative viewpoints. Or maybe it is simply because often there are no messages in these "karya picisan" (unimportant works). When I first started out I was often asked: "What is the message of the story? What is the moral?" But heck, not every story needs to have a moral purpose.

Some people believe writers should change the world by having moral messages in their works. Don’t you agree with that?
Yes. A writer needs to be aware that whatever he writes will have an influence on at least someone. If words have no weight then people would not have burnt books or prosecuted writers throughout history. But honestly, a writer of fiction should write for no reason other than to tell a story. It is not for the writer to guide society. In the realm of fiction, the story should operate on its own moral terms. That is what separates it from reality.
I do believe that writers have a responsibility, but that responsibility is simply that they should be true to themselves. Anyone who writes deliberately with a subtext in mind is being manipulative, if not naive. Today you cannot dictate what the subtext is going to be anymore.

Is it true that the National Library refused to launch one of your books, Aweks KL?
Yes. They said the book was not suitable for their target audience. I have no problems with that. If you go to somebody’s house, it is his rules. So when somebody comes to my house, I expect the same: they will have to follow my rules. But that is not what is happening today. People come to my house and keep wanting to impose their rules on me. (We laugh)

Is it true that a writer refused to let his work be featured in Aweks KL?
Yes. I liked his poems and wanted to feature them. At first he was okay with it. But then he saw the cover. He said it was repulsive and demeaning to women. He asked me to consider changing the cover. I said I would think about it. So I thought about it and I stuck with the cover. He decided to pull out, which was a surprise. He saw an image of debauchery. I saw a reflection of something happening among us. A seedy secret that no one wants to discuss or acknowledge, about how women are viewed and treated.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in running your publishing house?
First of all, this is not a proper publishing house. Stormkitchen is not even a registered company. It is not a business. I don’t intend to make money out of it. It is just a hobby, something I do when I have the cash to spare.
Elarti is supposed to be a quarterly magazine. But I have to make it an annual for a couple of reasons. The first is financial: the money comes out of my pocket. The second is practical: we just don’t get enough quality contributions. And my bar is not set very high, so that ought to give you something to think about. Or maybe I am just not reaching the right kind of crowd. Most contributors are still sticking to convention. It goes back to how we have been raised. I think it is also a cultural thing. Traditionally, the Malays are not outspoken. Even when we criticise, we are very polite. We do not say things directly to your face. For example, if you asked us to do something, we always say "Insya Allah" even when we already know we are not going to do it. It is one of the things I admire about this culture, but these days it is not always the right solution.

Some people say the works you publish are not high literature?
Some have also said Histeria (his first movie script) is trashy, shallow and has no meaning. They are right. I was told to write a B-grade movie and that is exactly what I did … the kind of Sunday matinee I used to enjoy watching when I was 10 or 1. You get engrossed for an hour or two and then it is over and you simply get back to your life.
People really should have better things to do than to centre their lives on movies, celebrities and literature. Right now I am interested in digging up new voices and pushing them into the public consciousness. So that people can see what others are thinking about. I would rather have literature manifest by accident.
You fire up an active cauldron where a lot of things are simmering, and then, some day, maybe, the best works rise up to the top. Forget about creating anything or leaving a mark to soothe your insecure feelings of mortality. You should do what you feel needs to be done and let everything else take care of itself. Good works will eventually get noticed on their own merit. Or not. But if you just do what you believe in, then it does not really matter.

Speaking of Histeria, you added a touch of lesbianism in the movie and it attracted a certain amount of controversy. Did you put the scene just to be controversial?
No. It was supposed to be a reflection of the culture in a girls boarding school. That’s it. Some people have said the film is generally illogical. If you left out lesbianism in a story about an all-girls boarding school, now that to me would be illogical. I was not making a judgment call either. I did not put it in there to either praise or condemn the behaviour. It is what it is. I just wanted to document things as I found them. Plus, I thought shooting that scene would be hot. It almost did not get made. And I was not there when it was shot, sadly.

If you are not making money from Stormkitchen, why are you doing this?
It is corporate social responsibility on a personal level. I freelance by doing copywriting, graphic design and corporate videos. All very commercial. So this is my way to atone for my sins of making money through shallow means (We laugh). Seriously though, there should be more to life than just making a living. I know a lot of people say that, but it’s not reflected in how they live and behave. When you talk about nation-building these days, a lot of the focus is on the economics. The government should also stress the intangibles: culture, civilisation and giving space for people to be creative.

What is your view on culture?
Culture has become stagnant and stereotypical here. For a culture to survive, you need to keep changing. You need to keep adapting. But for some reason it all stopped evolving in the 80’s. We keep repeating the same old themes. We keep writing the same old way. It has also become insular and inward-looking. This is not how it used to be. I can still remember when art and literature were still an integral part of society. I would go to a relative’s house in Ulu Atok or wherever, and they’d have paintings done by a member of the family on display. There would be tattered and yellowing books of poetry lying around. If you look at it from a bigger perspective, Malay culture has been adapting and evolving throughout its life.
When we were Buddhist and Hindu, you saw a lot of Buddhist and Hindu elements in our culture. When we became Muslims, you saw a lot of Islamic influences. But now it has stopped, as if someone had said, "Okay, the culture is already perfect now so let’s put it in a tin." Worse, wholesale parts of the culture are being either Americanised or Arabified.

So you believe a culture should not stop evolving?
Of course! If you want to be a great culture, you have to borrow. Otherwise it becomes incestuous. Eventually the culture will become genetically defective. Again, I do not like it either, but it is something you can’t run away from. The Greeks borrowed heavily from the Egyptians and Persians, the Persians from the Indians and so on. There has always been cross-pollination. There should be no shame in it; it is how great civilisations are born.
But now they say, we should not borrow from the West. But culture tends to follow the predominant civilisation. And the West is this epoch’s predominant civilisation. So how do you resist the osmosis? Yet, we have to be smart about it. What we need to do is borrow, not ape. The Japanese absorb a lot of Western culture and they turn these influences into something very Japanese. Same thing happens in Indonesia. But the problem here is, we merely like to ape. We do not take an idea, internalise it and come out with our own take.
For example, some people are saying US has a black president, then we must have one too. But who understands what the blacks in America had to go through to get where they are? Every country should have its own natural evolution.

You said you don’t get stories out of the box. Why do you think this happens?
Limited reach, mainly. I have not been promoting the publications as much as I should. But on a wider scale I think it has something do with the government’s clamp down on student activism in universities since the 1970’s. It has a downstream effect. Once you clamp down activism in campus, people become docile. You get followers who cannot think. Eventually everything slows down or stops.

You think the government made a mistake by not allowing politics among university students?
They thought it was necessary and I agree with their reasoning. I do not think the government is deliberately evil, despite what some people say. They just did what they thought had to be done. I have no idea why, but it seems to me that with most Malay boys, they will find any excuse not to study. If you allowed them to indulge in politicking, then that is all they are going to do.
Some Malay students in the 1970’s were squandering the opportunities being handed to them on a golden platter. They had the hopes of an entire people on their shoulders, and all they used it for was their own selfish gains, masked in a cloak of "berjuang untuk rakyat" (fighting for the people).
If you want to dedicate your sole focus into fighting for that ideal, fine, but don’t whine when the government tries to take away your scholarships and insist that it is "your right".

What other government policies do you feel have failed?
I do not think the government planned for failure. Not at first, at any rate. The problem as I see it is that they like to implement a policy in reaction to a problem. Once they think they have plugged that leak, they think that’s it, job done, and they move on to other leaks. They forget to keep monitoring the previous policy, so that it may be amended or adapted as the situation changes. So in time the policy gets calcified, and it becomes the way things are done.
This constant monitoring mechanism must be consciously written into the original plan. Surely you have to realise that all policies have side effects. But when you fail to monitor, you won’t know what the side effects are. So when those side effects come up, you think it is a new problem, which you can solve with another, unrelated policy.
For instance, Britain took 200 years to go from an agrarian society to an industrialised one. We did it in 20 years! The government’s plan for rapid industrialisation may have achieved the target to create a sizable urban Malay population. But I also believe that the disastrous fallout from this accelerated process has not been addressed even now.
What happened was you got a new generation of Malays who became rootless. They no longer had a strong sense of identity. It gets worse over the generations. And now you have all these weird social ills, which everyone thinks is just a new phenomena.

What is the biggest change you would like to see taking place in the literary scene?
I would like to see more non-Malays reading and writing Malay proficiently. Making it their own. It is about building a common national identity. I hear people talk about Malaysian Malaysia all the time. And then they won’t even wear a songkok, as if it is somehow beneath them.
Recently, I read a piece where the columnist suggested that since some politicians can’t speak Malay properly in Parliament, why don’t they make MPs speak in English. "After all, this is Malaysia," he says. If this is Malaysia, then people should be speaking Bahasa Malaysia. I swear, smart people are sometimes so smart that they become stupid.

What do you think about racism in Malaysia?
To hear people talk today, it is as if only one side has that bias. My ex-boss, who was a white American, lamented once that in the US, a white man cannot even use the "N" word without expecting some kind of backlash, but the blacks can create entire comedy performances based on ridiculing white people. These days, in some crowds, I know exactly how he feels. A racist does not just make derogatory remarks. At heart he would be someone who not only wants his own race to win all the time, but also actively stops another race from succeeding or wants to keep them subjugated. You can find those people in any race.

Do you think the Malays still need the NEP?
Yes. As a businessman, I say it is still a useful counterbalance. All this talk about competing on price and merit is fine if we had a level playing field. I remain to be convinced that we do. When you can guarantee that a Malay, a Chinese or an Indian who goes to the same supplier will get the same prices or deals, only then should the NEP be abolished.
In terms of education, I think a review should already be made in the urban areas, where there are large populations of affluent Malays. Especially when those parents had already benefited from the NEP themselves, even though I know some have not even bothered to pay back their study loans. I have met some of these loan defaulters who are anti-NEP. Go figure. It goes back to the entitlement mentality again.

Do you think the NEP has any weaknesses?
Any system has a weakness. It was there to provide us with a leg up but it has become a life-long crutch. I had one middle-aged guy say to me: "I am not going to be a beggar in my own land." The irony was he did not see that he was already begging, with his dependence on the subsidies being given to him for his farms. I think the NEP needs to be modified. You give assistance to a certain point. You don’t keep supporting them if they keep failing. You need to keep weeding out the hopeless cases. When you know that every time you fail there will be something for you to fall back on, it creates a weak society.

As a writer do you believe in total freedom of speech?
I don’t. I think people who advocate it don’t really know what they are asking. I have a feeling that at the end of the day, they won’t like what they’ll get. If you examine it, I think you will quickly find that actually they don’t support freedom of speech, either. They would just like to be the ones to control what gets to be said and what does not, that’s all.
I also think that somehow they do not see freedom of speech as being inseparably intertwined with action. They seem to think that they can get away with saying anything they like. They don’t see words as a form of action itself. I find this odd.
The American serial killer Charles Manson uses this defence frequently. He says all he did was talk. His young disciples had gone on their murder spree of their own accord. He never held a gun to their heads. All of which is true, of course. So if you believe in the freedom for someone to say whatever they wish, then you must campaign for Charles Manson to be set free.

What is the biggest misconception that people have about you?
They think I am a liberal. I am not a liberal. Not a conservative either. I am as liberal as the Quran permits me, and as conservative as it requires me to be. I err and transgress from time to time. But I try to stay on that path. I try to stick to the principles.
So when I see racism on the other side I have to call it for what it is, not make up excuses like "They are still young" or whatever. So I get in trouble with both sides every now and then. I used to critique the conservatives more, but now that the liberals are winning the battle, I find myself commenting on them more often these days, because I find them to be just as corrupt.

Who are the people who influenced you?
The five women who raised me. My mother, grandmother, my aunt (my mother’s elder sister), my mum’s cousin, and one maid who stayed with us for a while. I saw the world through their eyes. The men in my life were largely absent. So I grew up empathising more with the female agenda.

You like to go against the current. Why don’t you go with the flow?
I don’t intentionally want to be rebellious. I think God, for some reason, made it so that there will be people who are always fighting the current. I did try to be mainstream; follow the script, toe the line. But I didn’t get satisfaction or peace of mind. Every two years I would "awaken" and need to find something new to do.

Lim Swee Tin

Here is an interview that talks about bringing Malay literature to the international level to the point of winning nobel prizes.The article appeared in the sun dated Jan 3 2008
Title: Global Malay writing

Bissme S.
Lim Swee Tin is one of only a few non-Malays who wax lyrical in Malay, even writing books in the language. Of Chinese-Thai parentage, he has been writing for 37 years and has won more than 20 awards, including the SEA Write Award from Thailand and the Perdana Literary Award. the prolific writer has produced 18 books of poems, seven novels and over 20 short stories. Some of his poems have been translated into English, Russian and Korean. Lim, 55, has been invited to recite his poems in Thailand, Taiwan and Britain. A literature lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia, he also sits on the national language committee in the Education, and Arts, Culture and Heritage ministries. Lim laments to BISSME S. about the dearth of good literary works in Malay and how Malaysians do not read. Nevertheless, he dreams of seeing a Malaysian win the Nobel prize for literature.

theSun: Why do you think there are so few non-Malays in the Malay literary scene?
Lim: Sometimes the non-Malays feel an inferiority complex. Some of them feel that their work will not match that of the Malay writers. Frankly speaking, they (non-Malays) should not have this attitude. They should feel confident about their talent and their work. After all Malay is not a strange language to us anymore. It has been incorporated into our school system for years.

Some say discrimination exists, so a lot of non-Malays are not keen to write in Malay. Is this so?
I do not think discrimination exists. I am a good example. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (a government body that promotes Malay literature) has been publishing my work since 1985.

People say you are the perfect example of discrimination. You have been writing for more than 30 years yet you have not received the Sasterawan Negara (national laureate) award. So far, no non-Malay who has written in Malay has received this award.
I have a hope to get it. I have a dream to get it. I feel I have given a lot to Malay literature. The award is a recognition of your contribution and your sacrifices. If I get it, I will not reject it (laughs). It will be a thrill to be called Sasterawan Negara. I do not think I am being discriminated against. There are many writers out there who are more deserving than I.

What changes would you like to see taking place in the Malay literary scene?
In recent years, I have found the Malay literature scene stagnant. There has not been much progress. Our literature is far behind that of the (rest of the) world. We need to shake things up so our literature scene will move at a fast pace and we will catch up with the rest of the world.

But some Malay novels have been selling more than 200,000 copies. Isn’t that a good sign?
I agree that the popular commercial literature is doing very well. But not the serious Malay literature.

Why do you think serious Malay literature lags behind literature in other languages?
We are stagnant in terms of new ideas. And it is not enough just to have new ideas. It is also important to present these new ideas in a way the world’s readers can relate to them. It also boils down to your writing technique and presentation.
Malaysian writers writing in English such as Tash Aw (Harmony Silk Factory) and Rani Manicka (The Rice Mother) are on the right track. They have somehow perfected the art, presented their ideas so world readers could relate to them. It is not surprising that western journals feature them and their books. At the same time, I also find there are not enough writers producing serious Malay literature. We can count them on our fingers. One particular young writer I am really impressed with is Faisal Tehrani. I see a lot of potential in him.

Why do you think there are very few writers producing serious literature compared to popular fiction?
In the last decade or so, we have sort of neglected churning out a new generation of writers in serious literature. In the past our writing associations and government bodies had many contests and programme to encourage writers to dabble in serious literature.

Some say it is not profitable to write serious literature compared to popular literature. Do you agree?
Yes. In popular fiction, a writer spends three to six months on a book. Then he sells more than 100,000 copies. The high volume will guarantee a high royalty. But in serious literature, a writer may spend several years on one novel and the sales volume is nothing to shout about. So it can be very discouraging to write serious literature.

What are the first steps we should take to encourage young writers to produce serious literary works?
For starters our serious literature needs to be translated into English and many other languages and sold worldwide. When you have the world market, the sales volume will be higher. Slowly the western journals will feature these writers.
I will give one example of a writer from China called Wei Hui. Two of her books Shanghai Baby and Marrying Buddha have been translated into more than 20 languages and sold millions all over the world. The western media also featured her. She is only 23.
The same thing should be happening to our authors who are writing serious literature, for example Faisal Tehrani. When people see local authors of serious literature doing well, more will be tempted to write serious literature.

Some believe the themes Malay writers choose are very national and Malay culture-orientated so it is not easy to translate their books and sell them worldwide. What do you say?
It doesn’t matter what theme you choose. It doesn’t matter what culture you choose. You can choose to write about a Malay fisherman in a village. But you must be able to write it in a way the world could relate to. One good example is Indonesian writer (the late) Pramoedya Ananta Toer. He wrote about situations in Indonesia, yet readers all around the world and of different cultures could relate to his stories. His books are well known all over the world.

There is less effort in translating our literature books into English; therefore the Malay books can’t travel to the overseas market easily. Do you agree?
Yes. We need to translate more of our books into English and other languages so they will be more marketable overseas. But translation is a minor reason. What we really need is the support and people who have the experience to distribute and market our books to overseas markets.

Is the government, especially Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, doing enough to promote our books overseas?
We cannot only depend on the government and Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in this matter. Big groups such as MPH can take our serious literature to the world. It (MPH Bookstores) has the resources, the network and most of all, the experience to take our literature to the world. One company I really respect is Silverfish. In the last few years it has taken the initiative to organise international literary seminars and invited well-known writers from all over the world to participate. Indirectly their seminars give exposure to local writers to improve their knowledge and to promote their books.

Is Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka doing enough for Malay literature?
It is doing its best. But there is still room for improvement. Almost every year, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka has a booth to display our books at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Publishers all over the world come to this fair to buy and sell copyrights. But so far we have not heard of any outcome.

What kind of role do you think the government could play in promoting Malay literature?
The government could give grants to writers to attend writing seminars overseas. It is so difficult for writers to get any kind of grant. When a writer travels and attends writing seminars overseas, he meets a lot of people and he broadens his mind and his horizon. It will make him a more experienced writer and this will be reflected in his future work. If the government can send a man to space, why can’t we send a writer to a writing seminar in Spain or Germany?

What is your hope and dream for the Malay literary world?
I would love to see our literature reach world level and win a Nobel prize. I hope this dream will not remain a dream.

Do you think our literature has the potential to be nominated for the Nobel prize?
Yes, it has. I have read many works of Nobel prize winners and I really believe Sasterawan Negara (national laureates) such as A. Samad Said and Shahnon Ahmad have the potential to win this award. A. Samad Said’s Salina would have made a perfect nomination.

So why haven’t we walked this road?
It is not easy to get a Nobel prize nomination... it is a different ball game. First, someone has to nominate your work. This someone must be a scholar of literature and must be well-known worldwide. The Nobel prize committee will then check on the background of the person who nominates the writer ... (also) the background of the writer who is nominated.
So the first thing we should do is to translate our books into many languages and promote them in the world market. Then a scholar of high reputation will be able to see these works. When the scholar is impressed with the work, he or she will nominate it. But how many of our books have been translated into English and other languages? How many of our books have we sold overseas? But it is not too late for us to do that. We have young writers such as Anwar Ridhwan whose work we can promote to the world and still win a Nobel prize.

These days the education ministry is giving more preference to the English Language. Some Malay writers view English as a colonial language and we should not promote it. What do you think?
I do not see anything wrong with what the education ministry is doing. English is important. It is spoken worldwide. If we want to gain knowledge about the world, it is important we master English. My only hope is we do not neglect our Bahasa Kebangsaan (national language). There should be continuous development of Bahasa Kebangsaan.

Some serious novelists don’t like popular commercial literature. What is your stand on this form of literature?
I do not see anything wrong in writing about romance and youth-orientated themes. It still takes effort and energy to write what they write. The best thing is society loves reading them. Indirectly these writers are creating a reading society.
Our society is not a reading society and I support any attempt to promote reading. I believe, with time, these readers might want to graduate from reading only romance and youth themes. They may start looking at serious literature.

Why do you think ours is not a reading society?
We live in a time when people want instant gratification. Reading improves you intellectually. It shapes your personality. But you do not see instant results. It takes time before you see the effects of reading in your life.
So people prefer to spend their money and time on things where they see fast results. For example, if they go to a movie, when the movie ends, they will feel some kind of excitement.

Some say books are very expensive here so people are put off buying them. Do you agree?
I do not agree with that. Going on a date to see a movie is more expensive than some of the books. But people still go on dates and see movies. Why? Once again, they get instant gratification.

What can we do to inculcate the reading habit in our society, especially among the youth?
I remember when I was a kid, way back in the 60s, there were always vans coming to our kampung to sell books. They also buy back old books. People are too lazy to go to the bookshop. So why don’t we bring the bookshop to them?
Let us send these vans everywhere, from the housing estates to fancy condominiums. Who knows, that may spark an interest in reading again. Often we see vans going around collecting old mattresses and selling new ones. Perhaps it is time we see vans that sell books.

Your advice for budding writers?
A writer must always seek out knowledge. You will not be able to write a good novel if you do not have in-depth knowledge. So you must read a lot. You need to attend a lot of seminars. Not only literary seminars.
Attend any kind of seminar – from AIDS seminars to economic seminars. All these seminars will make you more knowledgeable.
Of course, you also need to travel. When you travel, you meet a lot of people and you see a lot of different things and all this makes you knowledgeable. All this knowledge will add substance to your writing and that will definitely impress your readers and critics.

Tell me something about yourself. What sparked your interest in reading?
I was born in Bachok, Kelantan in 1952. My father was Chinese and my mother was Thai. I speak Hokkien, Mandarin, Thai and mostly Malay. I always find myself expressing the best in Malay.
My father ran a small coffee shop while my mother was a housewife. My father had never gone to school. But he loved reading. He loved to tell his children the stories and articles he had read. I think that is where I got my reading habit.

Faisal Tehrani

I have heard so much of the writer Faisal Tehrani. So finally I meet him in 2008 for the first time and did an interview with him and the story appeared in the sun in July 31 2008.


Title : Writing for change

Faisal Tehrani, 34, is a rising star in the literature scene. This novelist has won prizes and awards, including the prestigious Anugerah Seni Negara in 2006. His kind critics predict this talented writer, whose real name is Mohd Faizal Musa, is a national laureate in the making. Others say his writings are Islamic extremism, anti-West and are ultra-nationalist. He speaks frankly to Bissme S. about his controversial image, early days as a writer of erotic literature and the future.

Tell me your start as a writer.
I became a writer when I was 16. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) had this programme Minggu Penulis Remaja. They pulled out a few potential writers from different schools and started giving us writing lessons.

Did you always want to be a writer?
When I was young, I wanted to be a writer for the wrong reasons. I wanted to show off to my friends and tell them: ‘I can write ... what can you do?’ I was also earning good pocket money. I was the first one to have a handphone when I was in university. It was more of an ego thing, a glamour thing, a money thing.
When I turned 22, I changed. I wanted to became a responsible writer. I wanted my writing to change society for the better. Writers should not only write stories, but be philosophers as well. They should offer solutions in society.

What inspired you to become a responsible writer?
I met Pak Samad (A. Samad Said, a national Laureate) and Shahnon Ahmad (another national Laureate who wrote the controversial Shit which is a sharp criticism of the political climate in 1999). These two writers influenced me in many ways. Pak Samad gave me many books from international writers ... writers from countries that are oppressed. I was so inspired by Shahnon’s fire and courage. That changed my perception, my principles. I also went to Kerpan, Kedah. What I witnessed there, also changed me.

What happened in Kerpan?
I saw a group of farmers whose land had been confiscated by the government for a mega project (prawn breeding). The villagers told me stories different from what was reported in the media. They were oppressed. It was not a fair negotiation.
Their story actually inspired me to write my first work of fiction Perempuan Politikus Melayu (The story loosely centres on a rich Datuk who confiscated some farmers’ land without mercy).
Because of the title of the book and because it was published during reformasi (when Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sacked as deputy prime minister), everyone quickly related the book to (Datin Seri Dr) Wan Azizah (Anwar’s wife who headed Parti Keadilan Rakyat after Anwar was sent to prison).
Then, my second novel Cinta Hari-Hari Rusuhan came out. In it I touched on the student movement and the Baling demonstration. Once again people said I was talking about Anwar Ibrahim. But both of these novels have nothing to do with Anwar Ibrahim or his wife, Wan Azizah. They are about human rights. These books are about oppression.

What is your personal view on Anwar Ibrahim?
I met him only once. That was after he was released from prison. As a person, I like him. He is seems to be a nice guy. But A. Samad and Shahnon Ahmad always tell me, ‘as a writer, you have to analyse people ... you have to analyse issues ... if you want to bring them in your pages.’ I started to analyse Anwar and I found contradictions. That is all I will say about him.

Some people think Anwar will make a great prime minister. What do you think?
That is subjective matter. Why should Anwar be the prime minister? Why do we put the burden on him only? We are not lacking leaders, are we? Why don’t we give the prime minister’s post to someone from the younger generation? There is a younger generation in PKR, PAS, DAP and Umno, with new ideas. They should be given a chance.
What about Nurul Izzah (Anwar’s daughter)? She is refreshing. She must have some new ideas. PAS has a few fresh faces who are liberal and sophisticated. DAP’s Lim Guan Eng seems to be cool. He even took pictures with Ning Baizura (singer) and flew in economy class.
The older guard ... they always have had some dramatic episodes in their past and these could easily become ... an issue. We should give the younger generation a chance.
Look at the Russian president. He is very young. (Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev. Age: 43) Look at America ... they might elect (Barrack) Obama. He is young. (Age: 47). The whole world is changing for a perspective from the young and for new ideas. I think Malaysia should walk a similar road.

You feel a writer must write to change the world for the better. But today, some people, including writers, have lost the belief that the power of words can change the world for the better.
When I was a teenager and when things were not right, my mum asked me to write letters to the newspapers to complain about stray dogs roaming freely, garbage not being cleared regularly, etc. But then things began to change slowly. The stray dogs were caught, the rubbish got cleared regularly and changes began to take place slowly. The power of words did change the situation. I also believed at that time that all "that letter writing to newspapers" spurred my interest in writing. (laughs)

Why do you prominently feature Islam in your novels?
One of the reasons is because I find there is a vacuum. Not many writers write about this and there are so many demands. When I meet readers during book festivals and fairs, they always encourage me to write on such subjects. Islam is facing many challenges now and I want to offer my views on the religion.

Some people say that based on your writing you are an Islamic extremist. Are you?
People who do not read my stuff will jump to that conclusion. Just because I write about Islam, people think I am an extremist. I feel I write more about human rights and oppression than Islam. Human rights is part of religion.
When the film Fitnah was shown, people wanted Malaysians to boycott products from Holland. I opposed the idea. I believed such boycott would get us no where. In fact, I said let us Muhasabah (look within ourselves) and ask why this film-maker (Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders) created that film.

Why didn’t you support the boycott?
Personally, I felt Fitnah was depicting Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader. It is not me. I do not interpret the Quran like that .That guy (Osama) interpreted the Quran like that. Extremism is an act by certain groups. It is not related to Islam at all.
Fitnah is different from Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. The Satanic Verses was written deliberately by Salman Rushdie to not only insult Islam, but also the British people and their former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
Geert Wilders wrote Fitnah because he is confused. Let us have a discussion about this and find ways to solve this.

There must be other reasons why people jump to the conclusion that you are an extremist.
People also jumped to that conclusion again when I criticised Yasmin Ahmad’s film, Gubra. (The story touches on a bilal and his wife’s close relationship with their neighbours who happen to be prostitutes). I just didn’t like the film. I think the film is superficial.

Did you have a problem with the scene where the bilal is touching the dog?
No, not at all . In fact I did not mention it in my review. But I do like Yasmin’s Mukhsin because it is more sincere. People did not read my reviews on Mukhsin. They just read my review on Gubra and when it was out, some of my friends avoided me. They isolated me. They put me aside.

How did you feel about being isolated? Did you wish that you didn’t write anything about Gubra or that you didn’t write too much on Islam?
I cannot stop my friends if they want to avoid me. I wish I had written more about Gubra. I really do not like that film (laughs) and I cannot avoid myself from writing on Islam ... it is just inside me. I majored in Islamic studies in the university.

What other misconceptions do people have about Faisal Tehrani?
They also say I am an ultra nationalist. In one of my articles, I said the official language is Malay and that the Malay language should be approved as the language for films, art and literary works. So people started calling me an ultra nationalist. I also opposed the idea of science and mathematics being taught in English. They have been taught in the Malay language since the 1960s, so I asked why are we changing?
Just because Tun Mahathir (former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad) thought that a few students cannot speak English he felt we should teach Science and Mathematics in English. How can you learn English grammar from Mathematics and Science? It doesn’t make sense at all.

There is an assumption that you are anti-Westerner. In your book 1511H Kombat you had Muslim soldiers take over the White House.
People in Germany thought this book was cool and wanted to translate it. (The book is being used as text in one of the universities in Germany). They say ‘we dream this will happen to the White House’. Some European countries hate America. It is not about the East hating the West or the West hating East. It is just about what one particular government is doing.
America has supported a lot of vicious stuff around the world. It is not just what they did in Iraq. It is also about what they did in Vietnam, Korea. Have we forgotten Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Now I am sounding like Iran. (laughs)
Why am I depicted as a West basher? There are other writers who did the same thing. Just because I wrote one novel where Muslims took over the White House, people are calling me names, but my book fulfilled the fantasy of many young readers. It became one of my most celebrated novels from which I am still earning royalty. A certain Western power is oppressing many countries, so I speak against it.
One day, when China becomes a super power and starts oppressing other countries, I will write about it. Then people might say I am anti-Chinese. But I am not. Like I said earlier, I write about human rights, I write about oppression.

In your early years, you wrote some erotic short stories. Are you ashamed of those works?
I will never deny that I wrote them. Those works carry my name. Some young readers have told me that they find my early works are very sexual, erotic and help to spice up their imaginative minds for something (laughs).
A part of me feels very embarrassed, but I also believe that if I didn’t write those stories, I would not have been able to arrive at this point. I might not have become a writer at all.

Do you look down on writers who write erotic stuff?
Seriously, I cannot say I look down on them. Some of them are really brilliant writers ... even better than me. But I do not write such stuff any more. It doesn’t interest me.
Personally, I avoid discussing principles of writing or other writers. My belief is that if what we write leads to a society becoming irresponsible, then it is not good. A writer should promote good things … changes that we can believe in.

Some people say the literature scene is going through a bleak period.
I see a bright future for serious literature. The Malay market is flooded with romance and thriller novels. People are bored and tired of such novels. They are looking for something different to read. Serious literature is slowly gaining a foothold, especially with those who have become frustrated by cheap thrillers.

Is Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka doing enough to promote serious literature?
I am a product of Dewan Bahasa. If I say they do nothing, it is not fair. But when you are a government agency, you have bureaucracy, you have too many rules, you have too much red tape. They should think like an artist, they should think creatively.

What changes would you like to see taking place in the literary scene?
I’d like to see our works being translated not only into English but also other languages. But we are not doing that. I will also like to see the works of local writers who write in other languages being translated into Malay. We should be translating Kee Thuan Chye and K.S. Maniam’s works into Malay.

Is the government playing its role effectively to promote serious literature?
Saying the government is not promoting literature at all is unfair. Compared to Indonesia, we are better off. Their government doesn’t do anything at all.
The Malaysian government has been helpful in many ways. But we are moving to Vision 2020. We want to be known as a first world country. We should be doing more. We have to put more effort into literature.

Would you see any of your novels made into films?
Yes, Tunggu Teduh Dulu may be made into a film. It is one novel where I do not deal with heavy issues. It is about two women struggling to plant papayas. The theme is suited to the Malaysian audience.

Do you have any film-maker in mind?
If it is Yasmin, I will be willing. She is a good movie-maker. I am willing to sit down with her and discuss the project with her. If others, I might have some doubts. Most of our films are illogical.
One of my short stories Cahaya Pada Jiwa (Light On Soul) has been adapted into a TV drama. It is about corruption. The director changed the contents so much till it became illogical. I can understand when you adapt literature to screen, there will be changes. But to make a logical short story into an illogical and complicated TV drama is really damaging.

I heard that you are dabbling in film-making. Is that true?
Yes. I am interested in making short films. I have made one that is loosely based on the recent election and it is called Bulan Mengambang Ke Langit KL. (In it, he looks at how the opposing party was trying to get its message across without the help of the mainstream media).
I am also planning to make a short film called Air (Water). There are a lot of proverbs about water and I want to translate them into images on the screen.