MALAYSIAKINI 当今大马
《我的浮罗山背》社区刊物非历史权威
Ahad, 13 Februari 2011
Article by Natasha Khanum, former participant of ARTS-ED
IN RESPONSE TO THE BALIK PULAU CONTROVERSY
by Natasha Khanum on Sunday, February 13, 2011
We have heard this one too many times and let’s face it, we are getting sick of it. The idea that all us are out to ‘hina Melayu’ is so last decade. By blaming Arts-Ed for bringing out ‘isu perkauman’, the ‘Gabungan Bela Hak Insan’ has stooped so low in order to spread its own political ideologies.
According to ‘Gabungan Bela Hak Insan’, they were “merely pointing out errors”. The last time I checked, pointing out errors did not involve burning 15 copies of our children’s hard work and screaming “Allahuakhbar” while doing so. Stop making everything racial and religious. We are just tired of this pattern of using race and religion to gain more support.
Let us be clear, Arts-Ed is non-political! It is an organization that educates youths about our community’s heritage. This is done by children residing in the community whom conduct interviews and collect oral history from their own community. We have no intention to alter history whatsoever but to share history and stories that are unique to each person in the community. It is basically residents sharing their life stories amongst each other. How can one say my personal family and life history is wrong? It is my ancestors, my family, my life. I am appalled at the claim by Muhammad Farid Saad saying we are deliberately attempting to steal the rights of our fellow Malays away.
Arts-Ed is a remarkable effort to educate youths about our history and gives us a sense of identity. Something that formal history education and school culture has failed to do for years, Art-Ed achieves this in a span of a few months. I have been working with Arts-Ed since 2003 at the tender age of 13, and Arts-Ed gave me a reason to be proud of my culture, my state and my country. I knew nothing about history. All I learned from schools is how to memorize history, not understand my history. The Government thinks by singing a few National songs and murmuring some ‘ikrar’ on a weekly basis would make us students more patriotic. Boy do they have it wrong!
Arts-Ed takes a different approach to learning history. They use arts as a tool to educate youths about heritage. We learn so much about our people and ourselves. We learn skills schools never thought us. There is only so much textbooks and classrooms can teach us. We learn maturity, independence, and most importantly, we learn unity. We realize how all of us are uniquely different but fundamentally the same. We learn the songs, music, and traditional trades. We try with our very best to keep our heritage alive! By burning copies of our work, what are you planning to achieve?
Instead of bashing Arts-Ed efforts, they should be applauding Arts-Ed for their efforts for really making the ‘One Malaysia’ vision come true. Go for an Arts-Ed meeting, see how our children interact with each other, see how they do not even notice the color of each other’s skin. See the love, support and patriotism they have for each other and for our beloved Penang. Learn from them! Arts-Ed children have grasped the idea of ‘One Malaysia’ long before our government even thought of implementing it. Race and religion has never been and will NEVER be an issue in Arts-Ed.
Yours truly,
Natasha Khanum
Fellow Arts-Ed participant
Natasha's comment also in
THE NUT GRAPH
Speaking up for Arts-ED
http://www.thenutgraph.com/speaking-up-for-arts-ed/
Natasha's comment also in
THE NUT GRAPH
Speaking up for Arts-ED
http://www.thenutgraph.com/speaking-up-for-arts-ed/
Letter to Editor by Nur Faizah Faiz, former participant of ARTS-ED
Salam 1 Malaysia!
Nur Faizah J.Jayakumar
Georgetown, Penang.
13 Februari 2011
Salam 1 Malaysia! Salaman yang kita sering kedengaran akhir-akhir ini. Akan tetapi, salaman ini bukanlah satu kebiasaan baru bagi saya. Idea disebalik laungan 1 Malaysia ini bukanlah satu agenda yang baru. Hal ini kerana, idea di sebalik “Salam 1 Malaysia” ini telah lama saya dapat zahirkan melalui penyertaan saya dalam program Anak-Anak Kota (Children of The City) yang dianjurkan oleh Arts-Ed. “Hi Sher Ryn! Hi Selvan! Hi Aida!” Begitulah gambaran yang berlaku dahulu semasa saya menyertai program ini. Program Anak-Anak Kota ini telah mengumpulkan pelajar-pelajar yang berbilang bangsa dan juga umur untuk menghayati tinggalan khazanah pusaka Georgetown melalui gerak tari, muzik dan juga seni visual. Saya amat tertarik sekali untuk menyertainya kerana pendekatan yang digunakan untuk mengenali sejarah dan juga menanam rasa cintakan sejarah bukanlah dengan menggunakan cara konvensional iaitu dengan mengahafal buku teks sejarah . Objektif subjek sejarah diperkenalkan adalah untuk menanam rasa cintakan negara dan juga mengenali sejarah kita, Akan tetapi adakah pelajar yang mendapat gred A bagi subjek sejarah mempunyai tahap taat setia kepada negara lebih berbanding dengan pelajar mendapat selain daripada gred A? Oleh itu, Anak-Anak Kota telah menggunakan pendekatan yang bijaksana dengan memberi peluang kepada saya untuk merasa, mendengar, melihat dan menyentuh warisan tinggalan George Town yang dahulunya saya hanya dapat membayangkan sahaja ketika membaca buku teks sejarah. Peluang yang diberi seolah-oleh melengkapkan kepingan terakhir dalam permainan jigsaw. Saya dapat berinteraksi dan bekerjasama dengan rakan-rakan lain yang mempunyai latar belakang dan kaum yang berbeza-beza. Temubual secara lisan dengan penduduk tempatan dilakukan bagi memperolehi maklumat berharga yang tidak pernah dikongsi. Toleransi kaum benar-benar ditekankan dalam program ini. Saya masih teringat akan peristiwa di mana pada penghujung program ini, setiap kumpulan iaitu gerak tari, muzik dan juga seni visual harus membuat membuat satu persembahan besar-besaran di tepi jalan. Persembahan kami dihentikan sebentar bagi memberi laluan kepada azan Isyak untuk berkumandang. Oleh itu, usaha yang dilakukan Arts-Ed untuk mempromosi keharmonian kaum haruslah dipuji dan bukanlah dijadikan bahan untuk berpolitik.
Letter to Editor by Ch'ng Yu Jean, former participant of ARTS-ED
Speaking up for Arts-Ed
by Ch'ng Yu Jean
February 13, 2011
FEB 13 — If you and I are of the same generation (born in 1988), plus minus a few years, you would probably agree that our History education sucks. Mindless memorisation of useless facts, overemphasis on naming the correct years and characters, uncreative and dreadful learning experience, and the oh-so-clearly disproportionate reading of “world” history, all for the sake of getting an A for the SPM History paper.
Coming from a top school in Penang, where we were groomed for A’s by practising on revision books, trial papers, forecast papers, and past-year papers, I got my very well-deserved A.
This A, however, represents nothing but a failure in our History education.
In the Form 1 textbook that we used, it tells you why you should learn history. One of them is to “mengenal jati diri”. Till today, I still have no idea what that means. We all learned “history” because it is a compulsory subject in SPM.
In 2006, I got myself involved in a heritage project sponsored by Digi. Digi conferred the title of “Amazing Malaysians” to heritage champions in this country and these heritage champions had to carry out a heritage project with young people. I was a participant under Amazing Malaysian Janet Pillai (of Arts-Ed), and that year was the turning point of my life.
At the age of 18, I was one of the oldest participants in the project. At the end of the project, we were to stage a musical drama on the history of George Town. For three months, we spent our weekends discovering for ourselves what heritage is.
We had the privilege of being brought on historical walks around George Town, we scoured the streets to document the sight and sounds of George Town, we spoke to and interviewed people about old George Town, and we learned about performing, making music out of random objects, boria, gamelan, wayang kulit, and composing.
I came out from that project a transformed person. I found history amazing, I found Penang amazing, I learned different ways of learning history, I learned to be inclusive of people, I learned that I very much enjoy performing, I learned humility, I learned to work with people of different ages and ethnic, and most of all, I had fallen in love with Penang.
People around me see me as “the Penang girl”. Some would claim that I’m the unofficial Penang tourism rep for always being so gung-ho about Penang. I am the unpaid tour guide for my non-Penang friends because I am almost always so willing to show them around. I am so Penang that one can take me out of Penang but they can’t take the Penang out of me. Oh, do ask my friends...
Now, we have the learning of our national history in place but what I find missing is the learning of our local history. If you are from Banting, what do you know about Banting’s history? If you are from Ipoh, what do you know about Ipoh’s history? If you are from Kulim, what do you know about Kulim’s history?
This is basically what Arts-Ed, the NGO trapped in the recent Balik Pulau controversy, does.
Or at least what they have done for me. Through them, I learned the value of local history.
For people unfamiliar with the “Arts-Ed” style of executing a project, Arts-Ed works with young people in creative ways. Things one does not get do in school. We use cameras to take pictures, produce photo exhibitions, shoot and edit videos, compose lyrics from interviews, create dance moves through observation of people’s movements, perform history of the common people, produce booklets and newsletter, carry out visits and tours.
I learned that history is not limited to textbooks and history experts but what the average layperson experiences and remembers are also part of history. There are stories and legends about the place we live that we can never read from books.
Things like coolies running to the port with their handcarts to carry sacks of spices, that they were paid 50 sen for each bag they carried, the system of loading and unloading goods from the ship to the boat, the “stairway” arrangements of the sacks, and that the head of the coolies were called “tandaal”, and the division of profit between the coolies and the “tandaal”.
History books do not tell me this. Laypeople do.
Arts Ed encourages young people to leave their books and collect stories. These are called oral histories. Stories that are transmitted verbally, that some of us youngsters classify as “grandmother stories”, and will be lost when its bearer dies. And when you learn how cute, distinct, and special the place you live is, that’s when you learn to love the place you live.
This is what Arts-Ed is doing in Balik Pulau. Documenting and presenting oral history of the people of Balik Pulau, preserving them so that the younger generation would know, understand, and carry them on.
As a proud graduate of Arts-Ed’s projects, it saddens me that the only NGO who gives a voice to young people, who works in creative ways, who educate for free (almost), who believe that everyone has a right to tell their story, and runs on fewer women-power than the number of fingers on your one hand, is now accused of spreading fallacy, a scapegoat and victim of a political agenda.
How irresponsible for people ignorant about the learning of history nor care about them to put Arts-Ed in a bad light when they themselves are not clear about Arts Ed methodology of education.
Muhammad Farid Saad, here’s a lesson on history. History does not belong to experts. History does not belong to the state. History belongs to everyone and we all have a say in history (yes, that includes you).
Your recollection of history matters just as much as the laksa uncle’s and the aunty jus buah pala’s. As has been clarified, MyBalikPulau is not a textbook and is was not intended to be so, it is but a compilation of oral history.
Stories from uncles and aunties. People whose opinions and memories will never ever appear in the history books just because they are not history experts. Will you deny them a chance to share their history of Balik Pulau?
Though you may never have the chance to be in Arts-Ed’s programmes (as they usually only for young people) I hope you will make the effort to learn about Arts-Ed and their ways because they have changed my life. They have played a major role in shaping who I am today and I hope other children will have the chance to experience what I have experienced.
Someday, should I become the chief minister of Penang, I know that Arts-Ed has started this path for me.
Yu Jean's opinion can be found at
THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
MALAYSIAKINI
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