book review
The reviewer's lot is often an unhappy one indeed. And this is particularly true for those of us who have to read through the writings of political writers in this blessed country of ours. There are times when one feels like knocking together the heads of Malaysian politicians so that they see some sense, and this is one of them.Having read Shahnon Ahmad's Anjing (Dog) and Ibrahim Ali's 'Babi' (Pig), one can only come to the sad conclusion that there is no limit to how low Malaysian politics can sink. Now that the toilet of Malay literature is overflowing with masterpieces like Shit and Muntah (vomit), Malay politician-writers have begun to fill the zoo with dogs and pigs as well. One waits with bated breath (and closed nostrils) for the next putrid offering from these two great statespersons of our time.
To ask the question which book is worse than the other would be a superfluous effort. Both are equally bad, and that in itself is an accomplishment of sorts. But there has to be some order in the midst of this chaos, so it is my unpleasant task to introduce to the reader the first of these two toilet-reading masterpieces.
Anjing was written by the ex-academic, ex-Sufi cult member turned PAS politician and member of arliament Shahnon Ahmad. Like his previous works Shit and Muntah , Shahnon's Anjing is basically a long, rambling and incoherent narrative that is broken down to a series of short vignettes, each of which purports to contain an obscure moral message of some kind. It is clear that this is strictly reading for the in-crowd.
The stories themselves make no sense whatsoever to anyone who is not familiar with the local political scene and the various persona who make up the cast of the wayang kulit (shadow play) of Malaysian politics. Courageous defender of truth and justice that he is, Shahnon never mentions any of his targets specifically. They all come under various pseudonyms and disguises like al-Kataki, Paduka Maha, etc.
Clueless
At times Shahnon comes close to saying something actually interesting and controversial. The short story 'Ikan kecil yang tak tergamak dijamah' is meant to be about a national leader who is alleged to have raped an under-aged girl in her teens. (One wonders who that could possibly be?) But the bold Shahnon stops short from revealing who the person really is.
In another story ('Al-Kataki') , Shahnon lampoons the amphibian antics of a certain politician who has the tendency to jump from one party to another.
Again, the reader is left clueless as to the real identity of the person in question, as Shahnon never mentions the name of his subject. And so the stories drag on and on, and we are left with these tiresome jibes and backhanded accusations that are so common in the world of the Malay wayang .
Not long after the publication of Anjing , the ex-Abim, ex-Semangat '46 politician turned Umno leader Ibrahim Ali put his pen to paper and came up with Babi . Ibrahim himself admits that his own masterpiece was inspired by the work of his rival Shahnon.
(The two books, incidentally, are almost exactly alike in appearance. Both have the same typesets, fonts, layout, etc. except that Shahnon's book has a yellow cover while Ibrahim's is green. And Shahnon's has a picture of a rather cute puppy on the cover while Ibrahim's has a full-frontal portrait of a somewhat over-endowed porker on his.)
Like Shahnon's work, Ibrahim's book is basically another long-winding, tiresome and aimless narrative that is broken down to a number of short chapters. In them, he gives various accounts of different types of swine, and it is clear that the barbed references are directed towards particular figures in the opposition.
He spends considerable effort ridiculing a certain Babi Miang (amorous pig) who was caught in a somewhat compromising situation in a certain room '121' (You know who you are, sir). More bile and venom is spilt on other babis , including the babi muda, babi tua, babi nyanyuk , etc. But like the intrepid Shahnon, Ibrahim the fearless is likewise unable or unwilling to openly name the people he is talking about.
All sound and fury
Reading Anjing and Babi consecutively is a painful exercise which merits the highest medal of honour and bravery this country can afford. The same cannot be said of those responsible for writing them, who should be charged with crimes against humanity.
The most disappointing thing about the books is that they show too clearly that Malaysian politics - and Malay politics in particular - remains all sound and fury, signifying nothing. That Malaysian politicians can write such drivel while they are meant to be running the country is a shame and an insult to the people who voted them to power.
That their superiors could allow them to continue wasting their time (and ours) thus is an indictment on the lack of political wisdom and leadership in this country. It is no exaggeration to say that in any other country no politician worth his/her salt would have the guts to show his/her face in public after writing such nonsense. But here in Malaysia they are promoted to even greater heights instead.
For that reason at least, both Anjing and Babi deserve closer reading and analysis. The books (if one could call them that) themselves have no literary merit whatsoever, but they nonetheless serve as vital symptoms of a political culture that has seriously degenerated and gone off the rails. In them we find no sound political analysis or rational critique, but they reveal the mindset of Malay politicians who seem to think that politics is a game best played with their drinking buddies from the local warong around the corner.
Here is coffee-shop politics taken to the highest level and normalised as part of mainstream political discourse. Malaysians may continue to wonder aloud about how a racist hairdresser like Pauline Hanson could rise to such prominence in Australia. They should look no further: Ibrahim Ali and Shahnon Ahmad are two local homegrown examples of mediocrity elevated to 'genius' in a country where the banal is regarded as extraordinary.
Mediocrity elevated to genius
The mediocre touch, which is now en vogue among so many Malaysian leaders, is clearly evident in both Babi and Anjing . In the chapter entitled Katak tidak berdosa dengan sesiapa' (Frogs have never hurt anyone), Ibrahim Ali extols the virtue of the amphibian critter to whom he has been most closely identified:
"Kalau ia manusia, katak boleh diamanahkan menjadi hulubalang yang setia dan tempat pemimpin meletakkan kepercayaannya untuk mendapat maklum balas yang ikhlas dan jelas." (pg 55)
Setia (Loyalty) is obviously the key word here, being one of Ibrahim Ali's main selling points all the while. (The problem, perhaps, was not the fact that he was loyal, but that he was loyal to too many leaders of too many parties). And as for the claim that the 'loyal frog' is always the one who receives and passes on reliable feedback from the masses, one is tempted to ask Ibrahim what kind of 'reliable' feedback he received and passed on during the last elections, when he himself lost his seat in Kelantan?
But these petty foibles obviously do not get in the way of Ibrahim's rapier-like intellect. For him, the main attributes of the frog are cunning, guile and the knack for political survival. As he points out himself:
"Baik-baik fikir untung juga jadi katak. Mana tak untungnya, dalam air boleh duduk, di daratpun boleh hidup. Di mana-mana ada makanan. Yang indahnya dia dapat tengok macam-macam. Pasalnya dia kecil. Nak pergi ke satu tempat ke satu tempat, dia hanya melompat." (pg. 57)
Here is the traditional Malay understanding of politics in a nutshell. Bereft of all pretense to ethics, morality, purpose or ideology, it is about political survival pure and simple. Ibrahim's laudatory paean to the frog speaks volumes about his own understanding of politics, rooted as it is in a neo-feudal mindset which sees loyalty, pragmatism and all manner of chicanery as positive attributes.
Like that other wily jungle denizen Sang Kancil who epitomises the mentality of the untermenshen who would stoop to anything to conquer, Ibrahim's idealised frog stands for the ideal Malaysian politician who would do anything to get to the top, without letting rectitude or moral values get in his way.
Free-for-all politics
A bleaker picture is painted by the more morose Shahnon, who spends much of his time blasting away at the conceit of others and his own people these days. In Anjing , Shahnon describes contemporary Malaysian politics as a free-for-all where 'politik terkini menghalalkan apa cara pun asalkan matlamat tercapai sudah.' (pg 40).
Needless to say, Shahnon's primary targets are the leaders of the opposite political camp (Umno and the BN). Like Ibrahim, he too bemoans the absence of moral scruples in Malaysian politics, but like Ibrahim, he too offers no rational analysis or concrete solutions to it.
Rather, Shahnon spends much of his time and energy lamenting the fact that the Malays in particular have become a domesticated race of anjing (dogs) who have lost their bark and bite, and who are lorded over by the great Paduka Maha.
In the final chapter of his book, Shahnon launches himself on yet another fiery tirade against the contemporary Malay, whom he claims has lost his roots, his will to fight and resist, and his will for independence. The Malays are, for him, a race that is easily domesticated and manipulated ("mudah diternak, boleh diperkakaskan, sangup diperkudakan" . Pg 97). The great 'Maha' who he despises so, on the other hand, is portrayed as an almost God-like being with seemingly infinite powers:
"Dia hanya duduk kukuh-kukuh di atas singgahsananya yang gagah persona itu dan di situ dia cuma memetik jari atau hanya menjueh mulut sebagai isharat perintahnya. Sudah banyak kali dia hanya memetik jarinya saja. Dan dalam sekelip mata, tampa banyak helah dan sebab akibatnya, jadilah apa sahaja yang dihajatnya." (pg 99).
It appears that in the eyes of Shahnon, the domestication of Malaysians and the Malay race in particular is complete. The great 'Maha' merely has to snap his fingers and reality is transformed according to his will. The masses can no longer resist, but merely follow his beck and call meekly without question.
Simplistic and dismal view
But such a pessimistic view begs the simple question: Does Shahnon mean to say that Malaysians- and Malays in particular- are so servile a nation that one man alone can domesticate them all?
If this is so, what role is there for rational agency and the process of social change and evolution? Have power-relations, cleavages of class and divisions of power anything to do with this dismal state of affairs?
Such a simplistic and dismal view of the present demands an intelligent justification, but one is not forthcoming in this book that contains little else but Shahnon's morbid fascination with decay and social collapse.
All in all, both Anjing and Babi make for interesting (though depressing) reading for social scientists and/or the unemployed who have nothing better to do. The books reveal more about the mindset and values of the authors themselves, and should therefore be read in that light. They teach us nothing new about Malaysian politics, since most jaded Malaysians are already painfully aware of the fact that ideology and moral values went out of the window a long time ago.
But they do show us how and why Malaysian politics has not been able to evolve over the past few years, and why even after the great brouhaha over reformasi and other trendy fads we have not been able to take this country beyond square one.
Malaysian politics - and Malay political culture - being what it is, will take much more than the rabid imaginings of Shahnon Ahmad or Ibrahim Ali to bring about a radical paradigm shift in the way that this country is run. If anything, the two latest books from them show that the search for a new form of politics hasn't even begun.
Shahnon Ahmad's Anjing is published by Pustaka Anak Sik, Kampung Banggol, Kedah. June 2001. 103 pages. Price: RM8.00.
Ibrahim Ali's Babi is published by Koperasi Anak Pasir Mas, Kelantan. 2001. 103 pages. Price: RM8.00.
