The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 02 Sep 2012 04:47 PM PDT 3 SEPT — Sambutan ulang tahun ke-55 kemerdekaan negara pada kali ini diisi pelbagai insiden yang mengundang pelbagai reaksi dalam kalangan masyarakat yang sudah tidak boleh lagi diperkotak-katikkan. Saya secara peribadi tidak kisah apabila rata-rata pengacara stesen radio Tamil melaungkan slogan muluk "1 Malaysia" sepanjang siang dan malam. Akan tetapi, apa yang benar-benar menyakitkan telinga dan hati saya sejak sekitar dua minggu lalu adalah apabila mereka asyik membuat kenyataan "Malaysia terdiri daripada tiga kaum iaitu Melayu, Cina dan India". Malah, salah sebuah lagu "1 Malaysia" yang berkumandang hampir setiap hari menerusi MinnalFM (Tamil) memuatkan lirik yang jika diterjemahkan bermaksud "tiga kaum berganding bahu membentuk 1 Malaysia".  Rekod yang dicipta ini menimbulkan pelbagai tanda tanya. Apabila isu mengenai "Malaysia terdiri daripada tiga kaum iaitu Melayu, Cina dan India" saya paparkan menerusi Facebook pada 30 Ogos 2012, ramai rakan-rakan dan kenalan tampil memberikan pandangan. Ranjit Singh yang berasal dari Pulau Pinang dan kini bertugas di Miri mengakui bahawa "perkara seperti inilah yang menyebabkan kawan-kawan dari Sabah dan Sarawak sentiasa 'terasa' bukan sebahagian daripada Malaysia". "Tidak hairanlah, rakan-rakan yang terdiri daripada etnik Iban, Bidayuh, Kadazan dan sebagainya sentiasa rasa tersisih walaupun dikatakan 'bank' oleh pemimpin dari Semenanjung Malaysia! Bukan sahaja pengacara radio tetapi keseluruhan warga Malaysia termasuk pemimpin negara perlu sedar bahawa komposisi kaum di Malaysia tidak hanya terdiri daripada Melayu, Cina dan India," katanya. Sehingga saat makalah ini ditulis, tiada sebarang reaksi atau pandangan daripada pihak terbabit, walaupun beberapa rakan dari stesen radio itu saya tandakan (tag) pada komen di Facebook. Bagaimanapun, hasil pemerhatian saya, mulai 31 Ogos, pengacara stesen radio berkenaan sudah mula menggunakan frasa "pelbagai kaum" menggantikan "tiga kaum iaitu Melayu, Cina India". Alhamdulillah. Saya percaya penggunaan "Alhamdulillah" (Bahasa Arab) di atas tidak akan dipolitikkan mana-mana pihak. Tambahan pula, sambutan Hari Kemerdekaan kali ini membuktikan bahawa rakyat "1 Malaysia" tanpa mengira kaum dan agama memang sudah menggunakan frasa Bahasa Arab itu secara meluas untuk meluahkan rasa syukur. Saya mendapat tahu akan perkara yang sangat menggembirakan ini menerusi kempen tweet #merdeka55 yang dipelopori (Menteri Penerangan, Komunikasi dan Kebudayaan tercinta) Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.  Penyair terkenal, Pyanhabib memberi reaksi terhadap salah satu bahan di Pameran Kartun Zunar. Khabarnya kempen itu bakal tercatat dalam "The Malaysia Book of Records" dan sijil rasmi akan disampaikan pada 16 September di Sarawak sempena sambutan Hari Malaysia. Berbalik pada frasa "Alhamdullilah" (dalam konteks Bahasa Arab, bukan dalam konteks mana-mana agama), kempen Twitter itu membuktikan ia sudah digunakan secara meluas oleh pelbagai kaum/agama di Malaysia. Misalnya, "Alhamdulillah, wa syukurillah.kami sayang Malaysia. Terima kasih dgn kepimpinan @NajibRazak. Sambut #merdeka55 dgn amannya. @HishammuddinH2O" dihantar menerusi Twitter pada masa — malah saat — yang sama oleh Tan Chor Khai, Mansor Nor dan Nadaraja. Laman PoliTweet melaporkan bahawa mesej yang sama dihantar sejumlah 111 pengguna Twitter. Pendedahan juga dilakukan pelbagai pihak mengenai kemungkinan rekod yang dicipta itu mengandung unsur penipuan. Namun, saya mahu bersangka baik terhadap menteri tercinta dan konco-konconya. Apa yang penting adalah bahawa mulai 31 Ogos 2012, rakyat Malaysia tanpa mengira kaum dan agama bebas menggunakan frasa "Alhamdulillah" tanpa dilabel cuba mempersenda mana-mana kaum atau agama. Sambutan di Bukit Jalil pada 31 Ogos juga sebenarnya memberi pengiktirafan terhadap sambutan oleh Rakyat di sekitar Dataran Merdeka pada 30 Ogos. Hal ini amat nyata apabila Perdana Menteri tercinta dalam ucapannya di Bukit Jalil dilaporkan membandingkan perhimpunan anjuran Kerajaan Barisan Nasional dengan perhimpunan Janji Demokrasi anjuran Rakyat di Dataran Merdeka. Sebaik sahaja perbandingan dilakukan, maka sudah terbukti ada unsur "pengiktirafan" dan "rasa bimbang". Bernama melaporkan 150 ribu orang menyertai acara di Bukit Jalil; sementara 10 ribu orang dilaporkan menyertai acara di sekitar Dataran Merdeka pada malam sebelumnya. Media alternatif melaporkan menteri tercinta mengumumkan bahawa majlis di Bukit Jalil "berjaya menghimpunkan 10,128 orang dengan catatan 3,611,323 tweet dalam masa sejam di antara jam 8.15 malam ke 9.15 malam".  Sejumlah 111 pengguna didapati menghantar tweet yang sama. Kumpulan Sasterawan Kavyan (Kavyan) pernah menganjurkan acara "Baca Cerpen Kavyan" sempena Sambutan Kemerdekaan 2003 dan berjaya mencatat rekod dalam "The Malaysia Book of Records" berikutan pembacaan cerpen-cerpen secara berterusan selama 96 jam 32 minit. Kalaulah kini tiba-tiba kempen tweet yang meragukan dan disyaki mengandungi unsur penipuan (oleh orang dalam yang mahu sabotaj Perdana Menteri tercinta?) turut diiktiraf sebagai suatu rekod yang sah, maka betapa memalukan dan betapa suatu penghinaan bagi sekian ramai pemegang rekod yang sah dalam "The Malaysia Book of Records". Dalam pada itu, ketika berucap merasmikan Persidangan Perwakilan Umno Bahagian Putrajaya pada 1 September, Perdana Menteri tercinta @ pengerusi Barisan Nasional @ presiden Umno dilaporkan "mahu barisan kepimpinan dan ahli Umno serta BN berganding bahu bagi membentuk 'sekatan politik' terhadap impian pakatan pembangkang yang mahu menduduki Putrajaya menerusi Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13". "Kalau mereka ada slogan 'Roda to Putrajaya', kita nak sekat mereka jangan sampai ke Putrajaya. ... Ini kerana mereka tidak layak duduk (memerintah) Putrajaya sebab kita yang membangunkannya," tegasnya seperti dilaporkan di Utusan Online. Perdana Menteri juga dilaporkan berkata, pakatan pembangkang sebenarnya tidak mampu memerintah negara dan mencipta kemajuan demi kemajuan dan kejayaan demi kejayaan seperti yang dilakukan oleh Umno dan BN sejak 55 tahun lalu. Sebagai seorang pengamal media dan perunding media, saya dapat melihat betapa BN sedang menggali kubur sendiri (atau melakukan sabotaj dari dalam) melalui pelbagai tindakan "kurang bijak" (baca: bodoh) sejak belakangan ini. Nampaknya ada golongan politikus tertentu yang terlupa bahawa mereka yang memegang kuasa pemerintahan dalam kerajaan sebenarnya diundi oleh rakyat. Apabila mereka sudah diberi kuasa oleh rakyat, tidak bermakna kuasa itu menjadi milik mutlak mereka. Tidak hairanlah Zunar sentiasa tidak kering idea untuk melukis kartun kritikan politik! Pameran Kartun Zunar yang berlangsung di Galeri Shah Alam sehingga 9 September membuktikan hakikat ini. Kalaulah politikus "sedar diri", tidak akan ada politikus yang mendabik dada mengatakan mereka yang membangunkan itu dan ini. Bukankah itu tugas mereka selepas menerima "sedekah" berbentuk undi daripada rakyat? Biarlah rakyat yang menentukan siapa menduduki Putrajaya selepas Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13. Sementara itu, semoga politikus tidak terus membuat kenyataan-kenyataan atau kempen Twitter yang "memperbodohkan" atau "memperlekehkan" kuasa rakyat. * Uthaya Sankar SB adalah perunding media dan penulis sepenuh masa. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. |
| When you can never be good enough Posted: 02 Sep 2012 04:28 PM PDT SEPT 3 — It was 3am and I couldn't sleep. I was staring at the fresh, empty Word document I started half an hour ago, my eyes locked on the cursor, its rhythmic blinking waiting — asking — for the first letters to be typed in so that the words can finally give form to the maelstrom of thoughts that has been keeping me awake. And despite all the things going through my mind, I didn't know what the first words should be. Being a writer seems easy. At the end of the day every literate individual can write: string a few sentences together in a coherent manner and there you go, you've written something. You're a writer. And every day we see a piece of writing in the newspaper or magazine or online, where the language is simple and we think, oh yes, I could've written that, just simple everyday words and nothing bombastic. How hard can it be? It can be impossible, sometimes. That's what I thought five minutes later. Despite years of practise, and maybe even years to come of doing this for a living, sometimes the words just won't come. It used to be easy, or at least I thought it was. I vividly remember the time in secondary school when we had an English writing competition as part of the school's English week, and I remember sitting there, dotting the last full stop in my article with half the allotted hour still to go. And I remember how easy it was to decide that I had time for another article, they did say we could write as many as we wanted, and so I did, and so I won both the first and second prizes for that competition. I remember the 15-year-old me going home with those two plastic trophies, thinking, writing isn't that hard. I remember what it was like to be vain and proud, when I didn't know any better. But over the years I did eventually know better. Like many, I grew up and grew out of youthful arrogance and read more and eventually found out the truth about writing: it's hard. It's easy to throw down random words together and make a sentence that isn't absolute gibberish. But presenting a wholesome, well thought-out idea in a coherent, cohesive manner, making people understand, making them see through your eyes? Not always. Sometimes you have a wonderful idea, a beautiful story in your mind that screams for words to be written, typed, so that it would not pass into oblivion, forgotten. Then you type it out, and when you read it, you're disappointed. It's nothing like you imagined, and reading it you feel like you wasted your time, like you could — and should — have done better. An idea wasted, you thought. I've been there countless times. Crystallising my thoughts is always the first, the biggest challenge. And translating the abstract ideas, along with the bits and chunks of emotions and feelings that came with them, is one hurdle that I don't always get past. Maybe I'm just too green, not enough years under my belt, maybe it gets easier with experience, eh? When I told an editor just that recently, she said to me: "I believe writing should never be easy or else we will be just hacks." And that nugget of wisdom fascinated me once I got over the despair it brought. What happened to "practice makes perfect"? Why is writing different from many other skills that people learn and practise every day, that they can look forward to mastering one fine day, when it becomes second nature, almost reflex? It doesn't seem fair, but maybe in a way it is. I think writing is so difficult for most writers because we know what's out there. Writers must read a lot, and like professionals who gain knowledge reading about their field, writers gain awareness of quality as they read more and more. The quality of the very best in the business is unbelievable — the first time I read a Stephen King novel I was blown away at how vividly this man could paint a story in my head, and it was then that my dream of writing a novel died, for how could I ever hope to tell a story like he did? Like any of the greats do? The truth is that there are so many better writers out there weaving beautiful tapestries with words that astound in their simplistic elegance. Once we've seen what they can do, it's a perpetual shadow hanging over our heads, a sinister little voice telling us how that latest piece should've been much better, how we could've done much better. We're never good enough, because not even our personal magnum opus can compare, and that little voice takes delight in reminding us of our unworthiness. Stephen King once said: "The scariest moment is always just before you start." Lately I found myself understanding. That moment before I type in my first words, that moment with the empty screen is staring back at me, pleading for me to begin, is scary. Because at that moment, the expectations and pressure and memories of the brilliance of the greats come rushing in, and at that moment I grow afraid of my own words, afraid that I would be disappointed with what I would read when it's all done. Afraid that I'm not good enough. But we can't live in fear forever, can we? Of course I'm not good enough, I never will be. Because whatever it is that we do, as we improve we'll always set a higher bar, a higher standard to reach for. The moment we think we are good enough is the moment we stop learning, stop growing — we become hacks. And I owe that editor a big thanks for that little reminder. At 3.15am, I took a deep breath and started typing. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. |
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