KALAM

Todays session at Kalam literary fest which is the confluence of writers and ideas.Really thrilled to listen to Amir Muhammads talk on a scintillating out of print novel written in the 1960s of the taboo idea of liberalism.Liberal is a dirty word nowadays.Erotic literature doesnt have to be censored when its suggestive without being explicit.I think the crowd represents a good mix of youths and the.not so young.Amir Muhammad has a large fan base bridging different generations and races But to attend the afternoon session was the highlight of the festival cause i got the autograph from the panel moderator Faisal Tehrani,the author of the Koro Riots.He is an anarchist at heart cause his writing is thought provoking and pushes the boundary..I bought his next novel written in Malay because of a controversial word in the title Babi,Kongkang , Panda.Now Babi is a haram word in Malaysian society that now they call it khindzir.so even the movie Babe is banned in Malaysian cinemas because it sounds like Babi.Words are toxic and can corrupt young minds.Babi,Komunis and Liberals are threats to national security declares the guardians of preservation of moral decency. Its so exciting to listen to translators point of view and three southeast asians in the literary scene,a Cambodian,Vietnamese and a Burmese.Ive seen translated fictional works of Thai and Indonesians but never came across Burmese,Vietnamese and Cambodian English translated fiction so to promote better regional understanding of Asean neighbours,its time for bookshops to stock Asean fiction.We understand our neighbours better through mass media like Thai movies,Phillipines soap operas or Indonesian dangdut.Movies and pop culture helps to foster understanding and bridge differences.of course in Malaysia,regional food from Vietnam,Thailand,indonesia and The Phillipines are available but food doesnt allow us to understand the hearts and minds of others,only pop culture and literature can do so.If we can enjoy Japanese manga,anime,KPop dance and music,then learning more about Asean pop culture is not daunting with the age of the internet.Asean youtube channel of soap operas is a good start.why we may pick up a smattering of the language too.