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The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 07:23 PM PST

December 03, 2013

Shukur mempunyai lebih 30 tahun pengalaman sebagai wartawan dan bekerja dengan pelbagai media. Beliau kini pencen tetapi menjadi pemerhati politik yang tegar.

Meskipun terlewat beberapa hari, tetapi belum terlalu terlewat untuk kita mengingati kepergian seorang sasterawan rakyat, Usman Awang atauTongkat Warant, yang menemui Ilahi pada 29 November 2001, bulan Ramadan pada umur 72 tahun, setelah menghidap sakit jantung.

Kita mengingatinya bukan semata-mata kerana nama besarnya, tetapi bahkan kerana usahanya menjadi besar. Penyair ternama ini dinobatkan sebabai Sasterawan Negara dan beberapa anugerah lain oleh pelbagai pihak.

Namun Usman tetap dikenang sebagai sasterawan rakyat kerana karya-karyanya - puisi, drama, novel dan cerpen - yang sentiasa melakarkan perjuangan rakyat, bahkan pergaulannya yang luas dengan pelbagai kaum dan agama, menyebabkan beliau adalah sasterawan yang benar-benar berjiwa Malaysia.

Selepas bersara daripada Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka, Usman Awang bergiat cergas dalam beberapa pertubuhan masyarakat. Antaranya ialah Persatuan Persahabatan Malaysia-Cina. Sementara itu dalam tahun 1991, beliau dilantik sebagai Ahli Jemaah Kolej Selatan. Pelantikan ini disifatkan oleh beliau sebagai pemangkin ke arah meningkatkan hubungan antara kaum dalam proses pembentukan satu bangsa Malaysia. Jawatan ini dipegangnya hingga tahun 2001. Selain itu, beliau dilantik sebagai Penasihat Sastera Maybank mulai 1991 hingga 2001.

Disebabkan latar belakang kehidupannya sebagai anak nelayan miskin di Kampung Tanjung Lembu, Kuala Sedili, Kota Tinggi, Johor, pada 12 Julai 1929, maka Usman tidak dapat bersekolah di peringkat tinggi. Ibunya bernama Halimah, meninggal dunia sewaktu beliau masih kecil lagi. Ayahnya seorang nelayan yang mencari dan menjual rotan pada waktu musim tengkujuh. Beliau melalui alam kemiskinan semasa kanak-kanak yang menyebabkan beliau hanya mampu belajar setakat darjah enam Sekolah Melayu saja.

Kemiskinan tidak membenarkannya mengecap kejayaan dengan lebih jauh dalam bidang pendidikan walaupun dia sangat gemar membaca sejak kecil lagi. Beliau bersekolah di Kuala Sedili (1936), Mersing (1937) dan Bandar Maharani (1940) hingga lulus Darjah 6.

Itulah juga menyebabkan puisi, drama, cerpen dan novelnya memancarkan potret kemiskinan rakyat, terutama nelayan, begitu hidup kerana Usman benar-benar menjiwai kemiskinan itu.

Sebagai sasterawan, pengamatannya sangat tajam terhadap kehidupan ini, termasuk pengamatannya terhadap watak bangsa Melayu seperti yang terpancar dalam sajaknya, 'Melayu'. Kesayangannya dan kritikannya terhadap bangsanya terpancar dalam sajaknya itu, antara lain:

Melayu itu orang yang bijaksana

Nakalnya bersulam jenaka

Budi bahasanya tidak terkira

Kurang ajarnya tetap santun

Jika menipu pun masih bersopan

Bila mengampu bijak beralas tangan.

Melayu itu berani jika bersalah

Kecut takut kerana benar

Janji simpan di perut

Selalu pecah di mulut

Biar mati adat

Jangan mati anak.

Dalam sejarahnya

Melayu itu pengembara lautan

Melorongkan jalur sejarah zaman

Begitu luas daerah sempadan.

Sayangnya kini segala kehilangan

Melayu itu kaya falsafahnya

Kias kata bidal pusaka

Akar budi bersulamkan daya

Gedung akal laut bicara.

Malangnya Melayu itu kuat bersorak

Terlalu ghairah pesta temasya

Sedangkan kampung telah tergadai

Sawah sejalur tinggal sejengkal tanah sebidang mudah terjual

Meski telah memiliki telaga

Tangan masih memegang tali

Sedang orang mencapai timba.

Berbuahlah pisang tiga kali

Melayu itu masih bermimpi

Walaupun sudah mengenal universiti

Masih berdagang di rumah sendiri.

Berkelahi cara Melayu

Menikam dengan pantun

Menyanggah dengan senyum

Marahnya dengan diam

Merendah bukan menyembah

Meninggi bukan melonjak.

Watak Melayu menolak permusuhan

Setia dan sabar tiada sempadan

Tapi jika marah tak nampak telinga

Musuh dicari ke lubang cacing

Tak dapat tanduk telinga dijinjing

Maruah dan agama dihina jangan

Hebat amuknya tak kenal lawan

Berdamai cara Melayu indah sekali

Silaturrahim hati yang murni

Maaf diungkap senantiasa bersahut

Tangan diulur sentiasa bersambut

Luka pun tidak lagi berparut.

Baiknya hati Melayu itu tak terbandingkan

Selagi yang ada sanggup diberikan

Sehingga tercipta sebuah kiasan:

"Dagang lalu nasi ditanakkan

Suami pulang lapar tak makan

Kera di hutan disusu-susukan

Anak di pangkuan mati kebuluran"

Bagaimanakah Melayu abad dua puluh satu

Masihkan tunduk tersipu-sipu?

Jangan takut melanggar pantang

Jika pantang menghalang kemajuan.

Jangan segan menentang larangan

Jika yakin kepada kebenaran;

Jangan malu mengucapkan keyakinan

Jika percaya kepada keadilan.

Jadilah bangsa yang bijaksana

Memegang tali memegang timba

Memiliki ekonomi mencipta budaya

Menjadi tuan di negara Merdeka.

Di zaman Usman berkarya bersama teman-temannya dalam Angkatan Sasterawan '50 di Singapura dan di Malaysia - seperti Kris Mas, Asraf, A Samad Ismail, Awam El-Sarkam dan lain-lain - gelora perjuangan menuntut kemerdekaan terpancar dalam karya mereka di samping berjuang untuk menegakkan keadilan kepada rakyat.

Maka lahirlah sajaknya, 'Pak Utih' (kisah derita petani), 'Nasib Buruh', 'Keranda 152' (kisah perjuangan bahasa Melayu), 'Telok Gong' (kisah perjuangan petani' dan banyak lagi yang menggambarkan besarnya simpati sasterawan besar ini kepada nasib rakyat. Di samping itu Usman juga menjalin hubungan baik dengan masyarakat pelbagai kaum seperti yang terpancar dalam sajaknya, 'Gadis Tionghua', 'Salam Benua', 'Bunga Popi' dan lain-lain.

Sungguhpun beliau lahir dan dibesarkan dalam suasana kampung Melayu sehingga dewasa dan berhijrah ke bandar, namun menerusi sajaknya, Usman lebih banyak menyuarakan masalah rakyat pelbagai kaum dan sikapnya sangat terbuka, di mana begitu ramai sahabatnya di kalangan kaum Tionghua dan India. Sebab itu karya beliau diterima baik oleh pelbagai kaum kerana beliau sentiasa berada di tengah rakyat pelbagai kaum. Inilah antara kebesaran Usman.

Hari ini, hanya segelintir penulis/penyair yang mampu berada di tengah rakyat. Antaranya, Sasterawan Negara A Samad Said yang sanggup berembun dan di bakar matahari serta bergelut dengan gas pemedih mata di tengah perhimpunan rakyat di mana-mana untuk memperjuangkan hak mereka. Inilah potret sasterawan rakyat yang sangat indah.

Meneruskan kehidupan seperti ini memang penuh getir, melainkan mereka yang benar-benar berjiwa rakyat, mengerti peranan menentang kemungkaran, kezaliman dalam perjuangan menegakkan keadilan. A Samad, teman lama Usman, ternyata mampu meneruskan perjuangan segetir ini, mewarisi perjuangan pengarang terdahulu, Ishak Haji Muhamad dan teman-temannya yang lain.

Dunia sastera kini sepi tanpa kehadiran sasterawan seperti ini. – 3 Disember, 2013.

* Ini adalah pendapat peribadi penulis dan tidak semestinya mewakili pandangan The Malaysian Insider.

A patronising version of Islam

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 03:57 PM PST

December 03, 2013

Abdar Rahman Koya is at the end of his thirties, and considers himself to have all the qualities of an ordinary Malaysian, a practising Muslim, and an incorrigible cynic.

After nearly three decades, I went back to a primary school the other day to register my 5-year-old daughter for the 2015 session. The last time I was in the compound of a Sekolah Kebangsaan was when I was in Standard 6. Since then, I have probably gone in and out for only a few minutes to cast my vote for the general elections.

It was nostalgic, yet there was something different. The whole environment made it seem as if I was entering a school meant not for all races but for only Muslims, specifically Malays. I was greeted by a clutter of posters with Islamic greetings, and I could be forgiven for thinking that it was a madrasah.

In the school office, the intense Islamic cosmetics soon gave way to the normal government office atmosphere Malaysians have grown used to. A group of teachers were busy having their tea break, and just sat there eating even as I was handing over my forms and documents, which for some bizarre logic also included my marriage certificate.

As I came out of the school, I began to worry about my daughter. Will she be confused with the kind of "Islamicity" being hammered into pupils? God forbid, I told myself, that she would one day grow to be like the ministers' wives, who laughed and giggled when a government "ustaz" spoke to them on the practices (and, yes, dangers) of "deviant" Shi'ites, thinking that their version of Islam was sent from the sky together with God's revelation to the Prophet.

Yet, the truth is that this patronising behaviour of Malaysian Muslims is felt not only by unsuspecting children but also by Muslim men and women. I keep asking my non-Muslim friends why they complain so much. As Muslims, we are being patronised left and right, even when our doors are locked. They at least don't have such nuisance. And the pressure is more felt by Muslims who know their stuff, who have a fairly good knowledge of Islam and its concepts, who practise the Islamic rituals and try as much to fulfil basic Islamic expectations.

Malaysia now has a countless number of institutions and concepts with the Islamic label. We have Islamic banks, Islamic pawn shops, a mushrooming education industry made up of Islamic pre-schools all the way to Islamic universities. More recently, we have boutiques specialising in Islamic fashion, tour offices offering Islamic holiday packages, Islamic hotels and, of course, Islamic non-governmental organisations and professional bodies.

Switch on your TV in the morning and do some channel surfing and you will stumble upon at least two or three Islamic motivational programmes on Islamic channels, where one would be forgiven for thinking the speakers were comedians, until they break into a litany of Quranic quotes from memory.

So you see, Islam is a big business, bigger than its subsidiary halal industry, which has now grown into monstrous proportions banking on what seemed to be centuries of misinterpretation and half-baked understanding of what is lawful and what is not for a Muslim.

But as ironic as it may sound, these Islamic institutions are the biggest bane of the development of the Muslim mind. In the past, when one hardly saw Islam in the public domain, Muslims produced scholars and works which continue to be used today. It is as if demonstrating that the more Islam is pronounced in public institutions, the more backward is the state of affairs of the Muslim community.

The same plight befell Christianity when clergymen from Europe began to build Christian missionary schools at a time when Christianity was on its deathbed in Europe and when Western civilisation were shunning anything having to do with Christianity, which is now relegated to necklaces, birthday cards and car rear windscreens.

It does seem now that Muslims in Malaysia are fast going down this road. They want to be better Muslims – many out of guilt – but they don't know how. One can't help noticing that this is more pronounced now among those busy Muslims in middle-class housing areas, who seek solace in foreign preachers. Some come to mosques dressed in the typical Saudi-priest garb with a golden lining, imitating their newfound Youtube idols.

They buy Islamic books in English, printed in Jeddah on bulky glossy paper, many written with atrocious grammar and lacking substance. In them, the life of the Prophet and his companions are narrated and venerated, with the only difference between these books and pre-school books being the font size and vocabulary.

Meanwhile, the less rich can still have their Islamic entertainment in the form of sexual jokes disguised as knowledge by celebrity ustads at capacity stadiums, broadcast live of course.

Little wonder, then, that anything remotely Islam can be viewed with suspicion by non-Muslims. Are they to blame for not wanting to know more or to have anything to do with this Islam being paraded by salaried Malay bureaucrats, many of whom have no clue about others in Malaysian society.

And little wonder, then, that back in the school, adding my daughter's name to a long list of names of children who would begin schooling two years from now, I could only see a long line of Ms in the column for race. – December 3, 2013.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Selasa, 3 Disember 2013

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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