English in Malaysia and Singapore

IT is possible that some of the writers who were born in the Malayan territory that now constitutes Malaysia chose to stay back in Singapore after the political separation between the two countries, or later moved to Singapore and other countries, because of the stiff policies on language and literature. Would Catherine Lim or Suchen Christine Lim have made Singapore their home if the hierarchic policies and privileging norms in matters of language and literature had not been adopted? I believe there is no clear answer to such a question, although there is room for conjecture that things might have been otherwise if Malaysia had adopted a more inclusivist and accommodating spirit in its definition of national literature. I recently took the opportunity of asking both Catherine Lim and Suchen Christine Lim as to why we should not consider them as Malaysian writers in the same way as we continue to view Shirley Lim as a Malaysian writer in spite of her emigration to and subsequent citizenship in the US, or as critics see Bharati Mukherjee as an Indian writer despite her domicile in the US. Suchen Christine Lim responded with considerable ambiguity, suggesting that she belonged to both (Malaysia and Singapore) and was grateful to both, because “one gave [her] life, the other gave [her] an upbringing.” Catherine Lim's response, however, was a more resounding “no.” I asked her that since she was born and educated in Malaysia and since she wrote about her childhood memories in Malaysia, wouldn't it be appropriate to consider her a Malaysian writer? Her reply was:
I find it difficult to consider myself a 'Malaysian writer'rather than a 'Singaporean writer,' simply because I suppose my sense of being a Singaporean is so strong, Singapore being the country I have adopted, grown to love very much and will always be committed to.
One is left to wonder if the status of English and English writing in the country has anything to do with Catherine Lim's such strong attachments for Singapore and a concomitant apathy towards the country that gave her life and provided shelter and protection for the first twenty eight years.
The rigidity in the language policy and the exclusionary view of national literature has also contributed to the relative lack of dedicated new-generation writers in the language. Earlier I pointed out how the English literary scene in Malaysia is still very much dominated by the first- or second-generation writers, who were born before the inception of Malaysia. This is because those who were born in the emancipated, postcolonial Malaysia were influenced by the Language Act of 1967 in one way or another. As a result, they were either not adequately exposed to the language or they saw the futility of pursuing it as a literary medium. The language enactment, and its amendment in 1971 to further bolster the position of Bahasa Malaysia, resulted in minimal support for the teaching of English and to English activities; English literature especially suffered both at the school and tertiary levels. Before the language enactment, English was widely used in schools and offices, but after the enactment, English as a medium of education was slowly phased out from the National schools and Government administration was run absolutely in the Malay language. Although English remained as an academic subject in schools, passing it was not a strict requirement to enter university, and whatever English was taught was also on a functional basis, without any inclusion of literary texts in the curriculum or emphasis on the creative and imaginative potential of the language. Literature was also deemphasised at the university level as most of the English departments specialised in the teaching of language only, with little or no attention to literature and literary texts.
All these factors amounted to an indifferent environment for the emergence of new writers in the language. Absence of literature or literary texts in the school curriculum would have limited the exposure of students to English language writers and the potential to exercise their own creative faculties in the language. In fact, Malaysia still doesn't have English medium schools where local students could enrol freely without permission from the Ministry of Education, and in spite of some changes in the English curriculum in schools (literature was reintroduced as a component of the English syllabus in 1999), the situation is still not conducive to producing writers in the language in any significant way. The handful of younger generation writers that we see practising the craft developed their love for writing in English either because of the individual family environment they grew up in, in which English was possibly still a favoured language and somehow used for daily interaction and expression, or more probably because they have benefited from the changed policy of sending students to English speaking countries for their higher education during the Mahathir era (1981-2003). This is certainly true for most of the younger or third generation writers of the English language mentioned in this article, such as KarimRaslan, Farish Noor, Dina Zaman, Rani Manicka and Tash Aw (the last two currently residing in the UK).
The language act also had an adverse effect on the English publication industry and it severely restricted the possibility of publishing works in English, especially by new writers. Publication in a money-driven society is invariably linked to readership; fewer readers mean little or no interest from publishers. Publication still remains a major barrier for writers, although the interest in English and English activities has picked up considerably in the last twenty or so years.

(to be continued)