Jawi good for nostalgia, not a cyber world

OPINION  |  AZLY RAHMAN

Published: Today 6:44 pm  |  Modified: Today 6:44 pm

     

COMMENT | I use Jawi only for nostalgia and for reasons of reverence. A special script that connects me to my loved ones, no longer in this physical world. 

But don't force it on non-Malays, non-Muslims, though. It is not meaningful to most of them. Let it be. They will reject. That is fine. I would be in anguish if those who do not like or love Malay writing start cursing it, out of being forced to learn against their will. 

I hate reading such angry words. Because Jawi is a memory of my mother and grandmother.

My advice, as a 30-year global educationist: educating is not about forcing. It's about "buying in" what is meaningful to the child. Not about advancing Islam and imposing related scripts or way of writing on children of different faiths. 

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Khat is Quranic artform. The Education Ministry must not force, to serve the interests of political masters. It must educate, not aggravate, propagate. When will the Ministry of Education learn the very basic principle of Multicultural Education? 

Jawi can’t help the Malaysian economy

Jawi is nice to access ancient Malay texts. But Jawi is not necessarily useful for today's hyper-loop economy. Mind you, cybernetic artifacts are not written in Jawi. Why fight to impose it? The English language is more effective, not only for scientific advancement, but also in fostering unity amongst Malaysians. 

Though I have mastered Jawi, I seldom use it. Romanized Malay and English are the key lingua franca I utilize. English is my primary language today. I write, lecture, think, argue, create, and contemplate in English.

Curriculum design need not be reactionary, ideological, poorly planned when it comes to crafting "national unity". 

Chinese & Indian scripts existed way longer than Jawi. Let the Chinese and Indian take pride in preserving each. Fair. Just stick to Romanized Malay and English as 21st. century education's emphasis. Jawi for Malays only. Choice for the rest. Chinese & Indians are fighting against Jawi. This shows the failure of national unity. Education is supposed to mediate. Failed.

The issue is hegemony, ideology, and semiotics of Islamism. There is no meaning in learning Jawi. Education is about meaningfulness.

Did the audience in Kelantan understand Zakir Naik who spoke entirely in English? Or was it just a show of the so-called ‘defending the ummah,” though we do not know what is to be defended and against who?

There was a khat controversy in West Virginia in America in 2015, when 24 schools were closed because one Geography teacher was teaching children how to write Quranic verses. What can Malaysians learn from this? 

Tell the truth about khat

The Ministry of Education must say the truth: that "khat" is Quranic art. Intellectual honesty will go a long way. Deceit will not. 

I am not against Quranic calligraphy. I write Jawi well, and do khat as an amateur too. But semiotically, it is not for non-Muslims to learn if you wish to be true to the use of khat, i.e. to fall in love with Quranic verses. 

We are a multicultural society juggling related sensitivities. Respect all religions. Begin the process of separating religion and the state, and how it is approached in schooling.

For non-Muslims lovers of Jawi and khat, bravo for your cross-cultural interest for whatever reason and orientation. It is your right to love the Quranic artform. The central issue here is realism. Overzealous Muslims in Malaysia have succeeded in painting a scary image of Islam such that even Jawi is rejected.

Rock star mullahs and radical Wahabi preachers get to run around spewing nonsense about the Islamic state and we think non-Muslims are not scared? Had Islam been presented well, with love and compassion, people would even learn to sing Islamic acapella songs. But that is not happening. And Jawi becomes the semiotic scapegoat.

Khat is a gateway to Islam, to the Quran, perhaps to facilitate a child’s early socialization with a religion. I once wrote how the gateway to Islam in Java was created through the transformation of the wayang kulit, shadow puppet play. 

The piece was for an undergraduate class in Traditional Literature of Southeast Asia, exploring the philosophy, statecraft, and literature of "Nusantara" during the days of Hindu-Buddhist philosophy, before the arrival of Islam. The idea was to gradually replace the dominant paradigm of thinking, from Hindu-Buddhist to Islam. "Informal education" through the wayangs is used as a gateway to the introduction and consequent infiltration of Islam.

This is primarily a view of the "transcultural flow of ideas," an area of interest that led me, much later, to pursue a dissertation concerning the flow of "cybernetics" into the material and psychological landscape of hypermodernity. 

Today, adults in the political parties are arguing about a writing system. We should stop and ask the kid in school: do you want to learn "khat" or prefer superhero cartooning? We forgot to ask, whose future should it be and what politicians are doing.

Culture is dynamic, hybridizing, and about meaningfulness. A Muslim covering her head is cultural. If it's meaningful to her, she can go ahead and fashion herself as such. No arguing about religion. 

In culture, there are abling and disabling aspects. Choose what to take, choose what to leave behind, to author your identity. 

How I crafted my “cultural being”

Let me share the process of identity formation I went through. 

My teen years of liking "American culture" led me later to teach American History and the American Experience.

I wanted to be like Lao Tzu more than Confucius or Mencius. Lao Tzu is like a Hippie. Nice philosophy. 

Reading the novels of Haruki Murakami brought me to an exploration of Shintoism. The idea of cleanliness and purity. 

Loving JS Bach, especially, has brought me closer to learning about Christian philosophy. On the topic of love, especially.

My current love for Spanish culture has ignited my interest in learning how to play the Spanish guitar.

My love for Indian Philosophy led me to learn how to play the sitar and love the classical dances. I love reading the 'Bhagavad Gita'. Profound philosophy of magical-realism-existentialism. Taught it too, in my Anthropology classes. 

I wanted to be a Shaolin warrior when I was a kid. Never did. But studied Chinese philosophy and literature in later years.

"Culture" is a system of variegated meanings. If khat is not meaningful to the non-Muslims, don't push it. Don't push grand narratives on those who do not wish to embrace.

I wonder: with only 10 minutes of a lesson on khat, what can kids write? (Alif-Mim-Nun-Wau SARKAS! Lol. Bless P. Ramlee, my man, for making me think of a scene in one of his movies.)

So, those in the Ministry of Education here’s the thing: the bottom line is you can't force cultural understanding on people. You have to have a cultural appreciation plan. Have roots, then wings. You shall then soar gracefully in a multicultural society.