It is a still-yet-dishearten feeling that I could not shake off, even till now, that leads me to write this post...I am referring to a report, from the Sun newspaper a month ago, entitled "Ministry will bar 'offensive' publications". According to this article, there are 'undesirable publications that deem to threaten public order, morality or national interest'...man, will you be surprised at the list of the books they have come up with!!!...
Few of the listed books are Rebecca Wells' Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, political biographies such as Mao: A Life and educational books like How to Talk to your Child about Sex and Breastfeeding your Baby: The Revised Edition...
So let me get it straight...reading about breastfeeding would also teach us how to turn the public order upside down....*snorts*....*psst...can I laugh now??*....* I assume permission is granted*....HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!*rolls on the floor laughing...using hanky to wipe tears...and climbs back to the chair*....Man, next to it, I might as well just dress up like a clown and start doing the Homer's Dance....
But on a serious note, I think it is a real shame...Can someone tell me, how does Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood threaten our morality in any way?...If you ask me, I think that Ms. Rebecca here made a fabulous work of art...A keen insight on sisterhood friendships....yet without dis-missing the vulnerability of human kind...
What about Things Fall Apart?...Sometimes, without any disregard nor disrespect to the Ministry, I really wonder if they have actually taken time of to spent some time reading works of this sort....or are they making a judgment based on reading a summary off a book review...Honestly!!...This piece of literature is classic...one in which I studied and prepared for my SPM, Literature In English subject, years ago...True, I don't deny the indication of violence in the story....but it talks so much about anti-colonization!!!...Isn't that suppose to be good?...Yet, how could one expect Chinua Achebe to write about sheeps skipping and hopping on a vast green meadow, when the story is trying to portray the conflicts' and struggles' of the African tribe, in keeping the peace and order of the community?...Why not then bar the works of William Shakespeare as well? Literatures such as Othello and Macbeth certainly has many elements of kinship, betrayal and violence in it...
This brings me to the book Mao: A Life...His reign in China has been one terror...and the world deserves to know what was behind the scenes and what led to his dictatorship....Why do we want to bury ourselves underneath a coconut shell?...Would anyone really believe that in doing so, we are protected?...IGNORANT...would be a so much better word, wouldn't you agree?...What now...is the Ministry really that afraid that with reading the book on Mao, someone would have gathered his guts to point a gun to our Prime Minister's head?....
Yet, the one that really amazes me, is the barring of the two books: How to Talk to Your Child About Sex and Breastfeeding Your Baby....My hats off to the Internal Security Ministry...Obviously, they are not aware...or choose to be ignorant...whichever suits the situation...of how uneducated the younger generation here, are about Sex. In our Malaysian community where we are still quite conservative to a certain extend, parents talking or even sharing the topic of sex with their children is an unwritten taboo...Well, its no wonder then, our young generation has turned to experimenting among themselves and gets into so much trouble nowadays....
My personal plea...someone tell the Ministry too...please....come on...give us all a break...and not bar these literature...It is already hard enough trying to convince our young generation to read and be curious about the world around them, without giving them another excuse to NOT read...just because the books are barred...heesh...
Honestly, I don't know about them..the Ministry...But I am TRULY, ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY ashamed on their behalf...so much for a self-declared developed nation...my arse!!!!
Few of the listed books are Rebecca Wells' Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, political biographies such as Mao: A Life and educational books like How to Talk to your Child about Sex and Breastfeeding your Baby: The Revised Edition...
So let me get it straight...reading about breastfeeding would also teach us how to turn the public order upside down....*snorts*....*psst...can I laugh now??*....* I assume permission is granted*....HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!*rolls on the floor laughing...using hanky to wipe tears...and climbs back to the chair*....Man, next to it, I might as well just dress up like a clown and start doing the Homer's Dance....
But on a serious note, I think it is a real shame...Can someone tell me, how does Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood threaten our morality in any way?...If you ask me, I think that Ms. Rebecca here made a fabulous work of art...A keen insight on sisterhood friendships....yet without dis-missing the vulnerability of human kind...
What about Things Fall Apart?...Sometimes, without any disregard nor disrespect to the Ministry, I really wonder if they have actually taken time of to spent some time reading works of this sort....or are they making a judgment based on reading a summary off a book review...Honestly!!...This piece of literature is classic...one in which I studied and prepared for my SPM, Literature In English subject, years ago...True, I don't deny the indication of violence in the story....but it talks so much about anti-colonization!!!...Isn't that suppose to be good?...Yet, how could one expect Chinua Achebe to write about sheeps skipping and hopping on a vast green meadow, when the story is trying to portray the conflicts' and struggles' of the African tribe, in keeping the peace and order of the community?...Why not then bar the works of William Shakespeare as well? Literatures such as Othello and Macbeth certainly has many elements of kinship, betrayal and violence in it...
This brings me to the book Mao: A Life...His reign in China has been one terror...and the world deserves to know what was behind the scenes and what led to his dictatorship....Why do we want to bury ourselves underneath a coconut shell?...Would anyone really believe that in doing so, we are protected?...IGNORANT...would be a so much better word, wouldn't you agree?...What now...is the Ministry really that afraid that with reading the book on Mao, someone would have gathered his guts to point a gun to our Prime Minister's head?....
Yet, the one that really amazes me, is the barring of the two books: How to Talk to Your Child About Sex and Breastfeeding Your Baby....My hats off to the Internal Security Ministry...Obviously, they are not aware...or choose to be ignorant...whichever suits the situation...of how uneducated the younger generation here, are about Sex. In our Malaysian community where we are still quite conservative to a certain extend, parents talking or even sharing the topic of sex with their children is an unwritten taboo...Well, its no wonder then, our young generation has turned to experimenting among themselves and gets into so much trouble nowadays....
My personal plea...someone tell the Ministry too...please....come on...give us all a break...and not bar these literature...It is already hard enough trying to convince our young generation to read and be curious about the world around them, without giving them another excuse to NOT read...just because the books are barred...heesh...
Honestly, I don't know about them..the Ministry...But I am TRULY, ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY ashamed on their behalf...so much for a self-declared developed nation...my arse!!!!
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