Excerpt from Usman Awang speech

Excerpt from Usman Awang’s acceptance speech for the Anugerah Sastera Negara (National Literary Award), A Writer’s Voice of Humanity (1983):

“Now when we talk about Bahasa Malaysia, I am really sad and disappointed to see how this beautiful and sensitive language can be so parleyed, due to the interests of party politics. For as long as Bahasa Malaysia does not become the common language of all Malaysians, used, loved and respected by all races, it can never then become a tool of unity, and without unity, our country wil indeed be weak and poor.

One common language and culture will emanate from the usage, hope and dreams shared by all races of this nation. Such a possibility will not come true if it is totally dependent on political agitation or bureaucratic decrees.

No one can claim that it has a monopoly over the culture of Malaysia. Our shared, common culture can only emerge from a mutual acceptance by all the rakyat, not only from some arrogant examples of the privileged few.

I am not an expert who is fit to give advice on how to overcome these problems. I am but a humble being, ever grateful to Allah Almighty who has blessed my talent in using this Malay language which I consider to be the most beautiful in the world. And I have used it to try and voice my innermost feelings which I believe is the innermost feelings of society. Thus in my voices, I have not demarcated race, nationality, beliefs or the colour of the skin. I have repeated time and time again that the clamourings of the Chinese noodle-seller in Petaling Street is no different from that of the Malay nasi lemak seller in Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur, or that of the Indian tose-seller in Jalan Brickfields, as they all go about peddling their foodstuffs.

The same goes for the misery of Pak Ngah Ali and Pok Nik, symbolizing the Malay farmers and fishermen of the east coast, the anguish of Ah Kau and Ah Lim representing the Chinese miners in the Kinta Valley or the construction workers in the city of Kuala Lumpur. Their agony is no different from the despair of Ramasamy or Kandaya, the Indian roadbuilders and estate rubber tappers.

I believe this is the voice and meaning of humanity which has more or less formed the basis of Malaysian literature. For this, writers of all races in Malaysia must first and foremost destroy whatever racial barriers that now exist. Only then can a new wind blow forth and the bloom of Malaysian literature flower with all its colourful and fragranced splendour.

From Malaysian Literary Laureates – Selected Works, translated by Solehah Ishak et. al. Published by DBP, 1998