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WRITE IT 2006 (Honourable Mention): Spurring a revolution of the mind through reading

Our third and final Honourable Mention for theCICAK’s Write It! 2006 competition sees DAVID TNEH CHENG ENG lamenting the lack of interest in reading and writing among young Malaysians. He tells us what we’re missing out on by confining our reading to sticking our noses in our textbooks, and offers some practical suggestions for a literary Renaissance.

By DAVID TNEH CHENG ENG

We are what we read, and we are what we write. Reading and literacy have always been a measure of an individual’s intellectual worth. Knowledge and information - if gainfully used - are equal to Power, and there is no limitation to the boundaries of knowledge, save the barriers imposed by ourselves.

The global tidal waves of borderless information have swamped Malaysia with the birth of the Web and here lies the crux of the matter: denizens of Malaysia, especially youths, simply do not read and write enough.

Reading and writing have always been thorny issues in Malaysia. While our public libraries have commendable collections of books of various disciplines, they seem to be always devoid of patrons.

Secondary and tertiary students of Malaysia do read, but the reading here is compelled by reasons such as the completion of assignments and the innate desire to excel in exams. Malaysian youths simply do not know what is worth reading besides their school and university texts.

We live in an age where most youths are taught to chase after the elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. By enrolling only in certain critical courses like accountancy, law, engineering, architecture, and medicine, our view of a successful person seems only to hinge on the individual graduating in the above professional fields. While it is not wrong aspiring to be such a professional or willing our children to master such disciplines, the pursuit of knowledge ends, more often than not, during graduation.

The Muse of Reading seems to have eluded Malaysian youths aged 13-20, and if the culture of reading and writing is not inculcated in these impressionistic years, such intellectually stimulating and building traits would just dissipate.

There seems to be no yearning for knowledge among Malaysian youths, there is no craving or all-consuming desire to know all that is worth learning and to put to writing what is digested intellectually. We are, simply put, not voracious readers as we should be. And if we read a lot, we should write a lot as well.

Ours is a vicious cycle of acquisition and consumption. We acquire books and read them (and perhaps only a handful of Malaysians do this!), but we do not build or add value to what we read and know. The production aspect of writing is somewhat non-existent in our Malaysian culture, save perhaps a few who partake in scholarly research and writing.

Our education system has always been missing a bolt or two or even an entire gear or two in the creativity department. There is simply a lack of imagination in our education system, which inhibits self-expression.

The motivation to indulge in creative writing, for example, is seen to be too self-indulgent and individualistic. In an age where creativity is highly regarded as a hallmark of ingenuity and highly valued by companies such as Pixar, Google, and Microsoft, Malaysia must re-evaluate its education and higher education policies to include the imaginative aspect of learning.

The time has come for the establishment of a sustained and diversified reading and writing tradition. The liberal arts and humanities have been marginalised for far too long in favour of the sciences. For meaningful and intellectual change to take place, the cultivation of interest in reading and writing could be accomplished through the revival and stronger emphasis on literary studies and creative thinking and writing.

Such a revival encompasses various literary events such as short story and poetry-writing competitions, poetry recitals, the staging of dramas, script-writing competitions, and national-level recognition for literary and creative writing endeavours. Events such as these would also enable a creative movement to take momentum and possibly fill up the vacuum caused by the dearth of imagination in the Malaysian education scene.

Such programmes, if widely and effectively implemented from the primary to tertiary levels, would spur a greater deal of discourse, analysis, critical thinking, and a heightened sensitivity towards languages, cultures, human emotions. Furthermore, it would encourage a greater sense of compassion for humanity which is indeed lacking in the present era of moral and material decadence.

It is only with a Renaissance of the mind that a Revolution in thinking is possible for one to seek the enlightenment of the Golden Ages where infinite knowledge and wisdom awaits the passionate and determined.
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DAVID TNEH CHENG ENG is an academician who teaches English studies at a private university in Petaling Jaya. He is also very much into creative writing and his works have been published in Singapore and California.