It was a great experience meeting the writer of the play The Swordfish, Then the Concubine. He is a playwright actor in fact. Well amazingly, I got to meet and speak to the person whom to me only appears as an image before. We had the session (more like a conference) with Kee Thuan Chye on Monday, March 30th 2009, thanks to Dr. Edwin for bringing him to us.
As a warmup, Kee Thuan Chye told us about his background; the school he attended, how he started writing, and what influenced his writings. Along the session, Kee Thuan Chye talked about Malaysian issues, from before independence until recent time. Although it was quite sensitive, what he talked about was in fact true, we do not really living the true “Malaysian” vision, and this was what he stresses in all his artworks. One of his saying that should be thought, “We do not really know what happened in the history”. Politics are dirty, politicians oppress not only among themselves, but entirely on the people of the country themselves. How far is our history true? How much truths are there in the history that we learnt formally? Who wrote the history? Do those writings really reflect what have happened to us? Why do we have to trust the history? Is the history that we learned reliable to be taught to the next generation? These were the questions he asked us to think about. He also talked about the politics in Malaysia; the case of Anwar Ibrahim, and the conspiracy before the process of Independence Day. All these made me think; while we are coming to lectures and other people live their daily routine, there are people on the institutions mocking, manipulating and oppressing others. These opened our mindview about what really happens around us; peace is in disguise.
As a warmup, Kee Thuan Chye told us about his background; the school he attended, how he started writing, and what influenced his writings. Along the session, Kee Thuan Chye talked about Malaysian issues, from before independence until recent time. Although it was quite sensitive, what he talked about was in fact true, we do not really living the true “Malaysian” vision, and this was what he stresses in all his artworks. One of his saying that should be thought, “We do not really know what happened in the history”. Politics are dirty, politicians oppress not only among themselves, but entirely on the people of the country themselves. How far is our history true? How much truths are there in the history that we learnt formally? Who wrote the history? Do those writings really reflect what have happened to us? Why do we have to trust the history? Is the history that we learned reliable to be taught to the next generation? These were the questions he asked us to think about. He also talked about the politics in Malaysia; the case of Anwar Ibrahim, and the conspiracy before the process of Independence Day. All these made me think; while we are coming to lectures and other people live their daily routine, there are people on the institutions mocking, manipulating and oppressing others. These opened our mindview about what really happens around us; peace is in disguise.
At the end of the conference, we had the bookselling session with him, together with taking pictures, signing autographs, shaking hands and humoring. 4 books of his were on sale: “1984, Here and Now”, “March 8, The Day Malaysia Woke Up”, “We Could **** You Mr. Birch” and “The Big Purge” (this one I have read before for MLIE).
Thanks for the autograph, Kee Thuan Chye, and thanks to Dr. Edwin for taking so much trouble to let us meet the famous writer ;)
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