A man of many seasons
Malaysia has lost a national treasure with the passing of Shahnon Ahmad last month.
NO one has influenced my creative writing the way the late Datuk Dr Shahnon Ahmad (pic) did. When I started writing short stories in the early 70s, Shahnon’s style was evident in my works.
In particular, one of his short stories, Kalau Ibu Sampai Takah Tiga (If Mother Reaches the Third Stage), published in Dewan Sastera
magazine in February 1971, was a real eye-opener for me.
It displayed a technique that I emulated in my early creative years. It was simple, personal, fluid and arresting, to say the least.
I was introduced to Malay literature through the works of Usman Awang, A. Samad Said, A. Samad Ismail and many others. But Shahnon influenced me in more ways than one.
When I started reading his magnum opus, Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan
(translated by Adibah Amin as No Harvest But A Thorn), I was dumbfounded. His writing style was unique.
I was in love with the characters in the novel, Lahuma and his wife Jeha, and their seven girls. I discovered the village of Banggul Derdap in Kedah, where poverty rules. And Shahnon introduced many phrases and words that are uniquely utara
(northern) to his readers.
For many years, the book was compulsory reading for students, thus entrenching Shahnon as part of the Malay literary psyche.
I paid Shahnon a tribute when I was requested to present a paper in 1991 on “appropriating” Barthes’
S/Z textual strategy for a reading of a work in Bahasa Malaysia.
I chose Shahnon’s short story, Mayat dan Keluarga (translated as
Death in a Family), published in Dewan Sastera in 1981.
I believe that was the first attempt to apply Roland Barthes’ textual strategy to a work in Bahasa Malaysia.
My essay was published in Malay Literature Volume 9, No 2, 1996.
I had not met Shahnon for a long time. So, when I heard he was staying with his son, Azrul, in Bangi, I went to see him with Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin and another friend in May last year.
Shahnon looked frail. He was suffering from a condition known as myasthenia gravis, a rare and chronic disease characterised by the weakening and rapid fatigue of the muscles in the body.
He speech was slurring but that did not stop him from talking to us about his days as a lecturer and politician, and his last novel, Mahabbah.
When he gave us his book, Perjalananku Sejauh Ini: Sebuah Autobiografi (My Journey So Far: An Autobiography) he insisted on signing it with a note, albeit his writing became almost unreadable.
That was Shahnon, undoubtedly one of our literary greats. He had written at least 33 novels and hundreds of short stories. His novels (like Rentung, Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan, Sampah, Srengenge, Seluang Menodak Baung and Patriarch) are classics in their own right.
His Ummi dan Abang Sheihkul was written after his involvement with the now banned Al Arqam movement.
Very few novels in Malaysian history have achieved the kind of notoriety as has Sh*t, his 26th novel published in 1999.
According to researchers, at least 195 “reactions” in the form of essays, reports and news items were recorded in response to Sh*t.
Published in an election year that redefined Malaysian politics, when a hugely popular deputy prime minister was sacked, Sh*t was undeniably targeted at someone in power.
Interestingly, Shahnon was a PAS candidate for Sik in Kedah, fighting well-known Umno stalwart, the late Tan Sri Dr Abdul Hamid Othman.
Shahnon was a giant-killer, winning the seat much to the surprise of many.
His other foray into the realm beyond literature was to join PAS, largely because of his admiration for the late Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat.
Shahnon was a man of many seasons. He was a grammar school teacher before he joined the Malay Regiment in 1954. He later worked on the English-Malay dictionary project of the Australian National University of Canberra.
He joined Universiti Sains Malaysia as a tutor and was later conferred Emeritus Professor status.
In 1982 he became the second recipient of the coveted Anugerah Sastera Negara, making him a national laureate. His contribution to literature is unchallenged.
He was not only one of the most prolific creative writers the country has ever known but its ideologue too.
Shahnon was never without controversy. He spoke his mind. He initiated the debate on sastera Islam (Islamic literature) that invited many intellectuals to join in, including the late Kassim Ahmad, in 1984.
Sastera Islam as a concept was hugely debated for many years after that.
In the final chapter of his autobiography, which he named Kata Penutup Jalan (Concluding Words), he wrote, “... and with the calmness that I cherished, all of a sudden, my heart stopped beating forever.”
It happened on the morning of Dec 26, 2017.
We lost not just a great writer but a national treasure.