Layag Sug
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TIWAKPETEMO: The Power of Poetry

10/26/2016

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PicturePhoto grab from M I Fitri.
(From a workshop I conducted at the KK Asylum on October 1, 2016)

Poetry, for many, is probably not as important as other things to deal with in life. It doesn’t make one rich. Which is true, if one thinks of richness only in terms of money. But for me, a rich person is one who is able to touch other people’s lives positively, one who is able to make himself/herself useful to society.

I actually know of some people who still think of poetry (and art and literature in general) as “stupid” endeavours. I feel sad for them.

They probably do not know that poetry plays a major role in shaping our humanity. Without poetry, we’d be reduced to mere creatures without souls.   

Poetry can cure illness, political chaos, and social stigma, even personal depression. Poetry gives us an avenue to express our actions, characters, the chronology of events, times and history, experiences, settings, and our motives in our lives. Most of all, it allows us to touch other people's lives.  

Poetry as we all know is also called poesy from which our Malay word “puisi” originates.
Poetry is not just an art. It's beyond art.

Poetry allows us to access different things that happen in our lives. Its power reinforces our desire to change, our desire to be the catalyst of change. To me, it is intellectual “insanity” that drives us to create changes to ourselves and others.

We are here today because we want to share how poetry has touched our lives. There are many of us. So we have many stories to listen to.

Don’t hesitate. We don’t really need to be poets per se in order to write poetry. What makes one a poet is just what poetry makes him one. Poetry is within us, it is us, and it is all around us. Eventually, poetry makes us even richer than others once we make it a channel and outlet towards something good.

Poetry can be shouting for some, can be voicing hatred, can be making other things fight. But it is also making hate melt and evaporate like smoke going up and disappearing through air.

Also remember, we write not to compete with others. Poetry is beyond that--far, far beyond egos that often afflict us human beings. And being a poet is not simply our choice. It has been fixed by the Supreme Being because we all have roles and responsibilities in this society. (Please, please and please let’s not forget to read about society. If not by reading books, by looking and observing ourselves inside and out--who are we to others, who others are to us. In the process, let’s question ourselves if we are good enough to look down upon others.)

In poetry writing, let’s not find ourselves in our poetry; instead let our poetry find itself in ourselves. And please stop making poetry too poetical, poetry is poetical enough.

Now. Get one ringgit bill, and then create something out of it. What do you see and feel? Find your own voices from others. Hear the voices of their hearts and your hearts. Speak the truth even it is falsified. We don't need to be brave to speak our hearts out; we only need a brain to say it through our keyboards and pens.

Poetry is also a critic to ourselves, even if we are the ones speaking and writing.

​Writing poetry is not fixed, but the causes and purposes are. It’s not necessary for a poem to be beautiful per se; ugliness can also be its beauty. It also doesn’t need to be academic, because academics can also diminish the thrash of poetry.  Academics and the thrash of poetry compliment each other. Perhaps, there can never be a study that comes out without listening to this trash of poetry. It’s us that give meaning and life to poetry. An extraordinary poem is just an ordinary one if it doesn’t capture the agony and happiness of readers. And what makes it extraordinary is its ordinariness.

Poetry is a synoptic or a tiny novel. It’s also a laconic and subtle expression that pierces through our psyche, our souls, minds and spirit. Writing poetry is telling a story in a shorter manner. You have all key elements similar to writing stories: action, character, chronology, experience, setting, and motive.  Writing poetry is reporting, like the  “One Husband and Five Wives “ method or the “NEWS” method. And it is complemented with five senses--sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.

As I sailed through the rough seas of poetry or poesy writing, I learned to name my sails as ACCESM.
In Malay I call it TIWAKPETEMO, a portmanteau of Tindakan, Watak, Kronologi, Pengalaman, Tetapan and Motif. That is why poetry writing is a significant part of our study. Poetry comes with love, romance and humanity. It signifies the joy of being us today, living our lives.


​Thank you so much. I love you, peace. Let’s sail together. Layag Sug!

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​SELAMAT HARI MALAYSIA!

10/22/2016

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15 September 2018, FB Post.
Neldy Jolo
​
With regards to this video, I want to bring some points to people's attention. It needs to be looked into it deeply, to correct and to put it to proper perspectives. I am not to let you accept. But here are some facts that people need to know and understand:

1. The Muslims of Sabah did not exist only by 1963. Before the Federation of Malaysia established in 16 September 1963, Sabah has its Muslims inhabitants. There was no such called ‘illegal immigrants’ as issuing identification card was not yet implemented.

​2. The British established Company in North Borneo with the agreements signed between Brunei (1877) and Sulu (1761, 1765 and 1878) sultanates. And by these periods the indigenous Muslims have been living side by side with the indigenous non-Muslims.

3. Christianity was established in North Borneo in 1882 after the establishment of British North Borneo. According to a manuscript of Idahan found in Lahad Datu Islam landed on Sabah in 1408. Borneo was ruled by Brunei and Sulu, the Islamic empires, so Islam plays an important part in Sabah history (Sabah Islamic Civilisation Museum).

4. Sabah has a long history of being part of the Sulu and Brunei sultanates and Islam exist and widely practice in Sabah long before the establishment of Malaysia. There are evidences of Islamic tombstones and old mosques in Sabah. And you should not look at the history of Sabah only started from 1963.

5. The so called ‘Sabahan’ are indigenous Muslims and non-Muslims alike. They are composed of more than 30 ethnic groups. It should be noted that many non-Muslim natives in Sabah embraced Islam and moved to the category of being Muslim Bumiputera or Muslim Anak Negeri. They have no issues of being Muslims and non-Muslims. They are against of any exportation of hatred based on religion.

6. As per Interpretation (Definition of Natives) Ordinance of North Borneo in 1952, indigenous Muslims Sabahan are also natives (anak negeri) and not at all ‘illegal immigrants’ and ‘refugees’. It should have been emphasized in this video, so there would be no misconceptions arise towards indigenous Muslims Sabahan.

7. If some Muslims arrived from the Sulu archipelago in 70’s due to war, it just because they have been coming back and forth before the establishment of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. They are just like the other non-Muslims of the same race who are natives in both Sabah and Kalimantan (Indonesia) as their ancestral domain includes both territories and borders. But their presence in Sabah is not questioned.

8. Just like in West Malaysia, where not all residence at the time of Hari Merdeka was citizens. Hence, the issue of ‘Tamil Stateless’ is being regularised until today. It’s similar to Sabah where not all residence of Sabah at Malaysia Day were citizens as many were deemed undocumented including all the more than 30 indigenous ethnic groups in Sabah. There are huge population in Sabah including the non-Muslims who are still applying for citizenship.

9. For information, many indigenous people in Sabah don’t live by documents but culture and native domain compared to the affluent and 'educated' population in the cities.

10. Many Muslim people in Sabah live in the hundreds of islands and are nomadic. One of their ancestral homelands is in Sabah and its islands. And don't look at the history of this country only during and after Malaysia is established.

11. The Muslims and non-Muslims in Sabah are peacefully living side by side. The issue of religion should not be used to divide these natives. The wild conspiracy theory imposed by irresponsible political forces and racist elements are to divide Sabahans for political purpose.

12. The issue should deeply be corrected and studied, so the story and narrative can be a fair account of all, and so it may not become a one-sided story and ‘racist’ as well as ‘Islamophobic’ in nature.

13. It should be put in a term that Sabah is a vast and complicated state with hundreds of islands with different races of indigenous people (Muslims and non-Muslims alike) who are until today struggling to get documentation, citizenship and their rights due to the political propaganda and poverty as well as logistical issues and illiteracy.

14. This is not discounting that some corrupt officials have in the past issued fake IC’s or documents but it is not specifically limited to Muslim ethnics but including other non-Muslim ethnics that are part of the more than 30 ethnic groups as well as other ethnics from the other part of the world.

Thank you.

#SayangiMalaysiaku
#SelamatHariMalaysia
 
Here's the answer of the Newsflash Video Producer, commented in my FB Post:

Hello Neldy,

I am the producer of this episode of Newsflash. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment on it. I'm glad that there is an active discussion going on around a topic that has been shushed away for so long.

I wish to apologize as we were not able to go in depth on discussing the nature and religions of indigenous populations in Sabah. No doubt there have been Muslims in the region but because of the time constraint (we try to keep the episode within 8 minutes), we couldn't go in depth.

We did however acknowledge that most of the people that were given documents as part of project IC were the existing population but perhaps we focused too much on the political motivations of state actors.

We will do better next time. Thank you for voicing out your thoughts; it's discussions like these that keep us in check to be more considerate with our work.

Thanks once again.

- Satpal Kaler
19 September 2018
Producer , Newsflash

And Nadira Ilana answered him with this , in the same post:

You can go into depth. Your focus just needs to be more pointed. Political motivations were and always to Malaynise and ethnically absorb Borneo natives (Muslim and non-Muslim alike) into the Malay category because Malaysia was built on Malay supremacy. Hence Article 153 within the Federal Constitution. This is common knowledge in Sabah. The cultural erasure is despicable and should be held in the same gravity as indigenous peoples in Australia and Hawaii et al. Duration is not the issue. It’s the development of the story and idea so you can get to the ‘heart’ of the issue. Not just ‘part’ of the issue.
​
- Nadira Ilana

And Ecore Prayitno commented in Malay:

​Neldy Jolo, Naratif dibina! Banyak saja sebenarnya kalau mahu persoalkan tindakan-tindakan politik era PBS. Malahan, hujah sama digunakan oleh Yusoff Ismail dalam bercerita politik non-Muslim di Sabah. Jadi bila tengok video ini, aku rasa matlamat politiknya lebih besar berbanding kehendaknya untuk menyampaikan maklumat.

- Ecore Prayitno 
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    About

    Nelson Dino. Tau Sug inside and out. Former university lecturer. Peace fighter. Loves writing, taking photos, researching things.

    To get in touch, email nsd.neldy@gmail.com.


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