HUZIR SULAIMAN

Huzir was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and was educated at Princeton University. He now lives in Singapore, where he is a co-founder and Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre.

His plays are frequently performed in Malaysia and Singapore and have been presented in Tokyo, Berlin, New York, and London. His work is collected in Eight Plays(Silverfish Books) and his plays - 14 to date - are studied in universities in the region. They range from Atomic Jaya (1998), a classic satire on what would happen if Malaysia decided to construct an atomic bomb, to Cogito (a commission of the 2007 Singapore Arts Festival), a lyrical exploration of grief, memory, and what it means to be human.

Wide Angle, his fortnightly column in Malaysia’s leading English newspaper, The Star, covers diverse topics in culture, politics, and society. He currently teaches playwriting at the National University of Singapore, and is working on a novel.

Interview: Huzir Sulaiman of Atomic Jaya

Atomic Jaya is acclaimed playwright Huzir Sulaiman’s cheeky reimagining of Malaysia attempting to build an atomic bomb. He talks to us about the history of the show and the ties that bind Singapore and Malaysia.

How did the idea for the play come about?
It was inspired by Malaysia’s mega-projects: Petronas Twin Towers, Multimedia Super Corridor, Bakun Dam and bizarre things like the World’s Biggest Ketupat. It was an interesting kind of national hubris that was developing. So I thought to myself, what would be the most mega of national mega-projects? Nuclear weapons, of course!

Do you enjoy taking pot shots at real world issues?
All playwrights work from real life to some extent. My early work dealt quite a bit with society and politics, but my recent work has explored a more interior landscape. Atomic Jaya captures the joyful madcap energy of a certain period of the country and my life.

Are Malaysian authorities OK with the idea?
Absolutely. It was written with a lot of love, and it fundamentally celebrates Malaysian-ness in all its hilarious and crazy forms.

What do you think Singapore would do if Malaysia decided to build the A-bomb?
It’s really not likely to happen, seeing as Malaysia did sign the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty more than 40 years ago. But if it did, I’m sure the behind-the-scenes diplomacy would kick into full swing. Again, a series of good meals might sort things out.

How would you describe the differences between a typical Malaysian and a Singaporean?
Singaporeans are a little more punctual, and a little more private. If Singapore was building an atomic bomb, they’d have finished it already, and we wouldn’t know about it.

Do you think the two countries might merge one day?
I don’t think an outright political merger is likely, but greater cooperation and openness would be great. Gastronomically, we would rule the world together.

Tash Aw

Tash Aw is a writer of Malaysian origin who was born in Taiwan, grew up in Kuala Lumpur and currently resides in London. He is the author of “The Harmony Silk Factory” (2005), which won the Whitbread Book Award, given to authors based in Britain and Ireland, as well as the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and of “Map of the Invisible World” (2009). His most recent novel, “Five Star Billionaire,” which was released this year, was placed on the long list for the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s top literary award. The book captures the changes sweeping across China through the lives of five Malaysian-Chinese immigrants who move to Shanghai in pursuit of the Chinese dream.India Ink spoke with the author at the Tata Literature Live festival in Mumbai, which ended Sunday, about contemporary China, societies in transformation and capitalism in Asia.

August 1, 2013

Shanghai For Strivers

By DWIGHT GARNER

FIVE STAR BILLIONAIRE

By Tash Aw

379 pages. Spiegel & Grau. $26.

Tash Aw’s estimable third novel, “Five Star Billionaire,” takes its title from a fictional self-help book, and its mantras function as chapter titles: “Move to where the money is”; “Reinvent yourself”; “Cultivate an urbane, humorous personality.” Some of these mantras are touching, like “Know when to cut your losses.”

The novel’s setting is Shanghai, circa right now. Mr. Aw’s five central characters are mostly insecure strivers from the outlands. They’re trying to shake their hick accents, their poor postures and their cheap shoes and to make it, by any means necessary, in the big sleek city.

One of these characters, an amoral spa receptionist named Phoebe, shows up for a date at a sophisticated Western restaurant after making a list of things to remember. These include “how to use the cutlery, what to do with the little baskets of bread that arrived before the meal, how to deal with olives.” Soon, Phoebe “did not even need to look in her handbag for the piece of paper on which she had written: 1. Soup (+ bread). 2. Fish (flat knife). 3. Meat. 4. Cheese. 5. Dessert. 6. Coffee.”

Mr. Aw has an eye for status distinctions. There is some Edith Wharton, as well as some Tom Wolfe, in how he invests awareness of these distinctions with moral and financial peril. “Five Star Billionaire” was recently placed on the long list for the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s top literary award, and one of its pleasures is purely sociological. It’s a busy yet sophisticated portrait of life in one of the most populous cities on earth.

The primary characters, besides Phoebe, are Gary, a Justin Bieber-like pop singer whose career derails; Yinghui, a free spirit who abandons art for commerce; Justin, the troubled scion of a wealthy family; and Walter, the five-star billionaire himself. Mr. Aw weaves these lives together gently, like a man plaiting hair.

“Five Star Billionaire” is a meditation, at heart, on impermanence. The New China never stands still; to pause for even a moment is to be left behind. “Every village, every city, everything is changing,” a young woman says. “It’s as if we are possessed by a spirit — like in a strange horror film.”

Ambitious rural kids flee to the city; ambitious urbanites, flush with new wealth, flee to see the world. Here is an actress, Zhou X., downloading her funny-prickly sense of the West:

“European food is awful, meat, meat, meat, always in huge burned lumps, often not even cooked. She went to a Chinese restaurant in Paris; the rice was like little plastic pellets. German people are fat. Dutch people are tall. French people are elegant but rude. English people dress very messily. London is dirty but they have nice parks.”

Rapacious capitalism has overthrown the old rules. Wealth brings respect, as well as the late-night heartburn of moral queasiness. All those fancy terms beloved by financiers, Walter thinks, “like takeovers, selling short, asset stripping — are these not rich people’s terms for bullying, gambling, and cheating?”

Similarly, Justin thinks to himself about those who would stand in the way of his ruthless family’s projects, “It was awkward when someone acted out of principle.”

Mr. Aw’s array of characters lets him examine what we used to think of as the American dream, transplanted to China, from multiple angles, some sardonic. “Corruption is quite comforting, really,” one character declares. “I mean, it suits us, suits the Asian temperament. Westerners aren’t comfortable with it, not just because they have stricter rules in place, but because something in their nature prevents them from appreciating it.”

Mr. Aw is a patient writer, and an elegant one. His supple yet unshowy prose can resemble Kazuo Ishiguro’s. The drawback to the author’s measured attack is that “Five Star Billionaire” is a long book that simmers without ever coming to a boil.

This simmering quality is one that modern readers have grown used to, now that ambitious literary novels so reliably hopscotch among points of view. Our novelists, like our chefs, deliver long sequences of small plates.

That thing that novels do so well, and that caused us to love them in the first place — envelop us, induce us to submit to the spell being cast — is repudiated. Can we pause for a moment to thank Charlotte Brontë for not hitting the shuffle button on “Jane Eyre,” splintering her novel into bite-size arias by Jane, Helen Burns, Mr. Rochester, Adèle Varens and Grace Poole?

Mr. Aw was born in Taipei, raised in Malaysia and went to college in England. He’s a writer to watch. He works high and low, and is as interesting to read on pop music as he is on finance or sibling rivalry.

His most dazzling creation is Phoebe, the spa receptionist, a self-invented factory girl from Malaysia. When her chapters spin into view, you sit up a bit straighter in your armchair. She leaps from the toaster like a Pop-Tart.

“She had become an expert in the courtship rituals of the Internet,” Mr. Aw observes. “She could tell if a man was lying about who he was, about his job and income, where he was from. She could tell if he was from Beijing or if he was a Pakistani pretending to be from Beijing.”

Phoebe is equal parts virgin and dynamo. “Being open and honest with a man,” she thinks, “is like asking him to drive over you with a bulldozer!”

Like Yinghui, this book’s other prominent female character, she worries about what she might become: “a leftover woman, the dregs, or a shaggy monster waiting to be slayed by the Monkey God.”

Everyone in this artful novel is hovering on a precipice. Today’s rules are unlikely to be tomorrow’s. A mantra from “Five Star Billionaire,” the self-help book, summons the mood: “Even beautiful things will fade.”

Bangsa Malaysia in Lloyd Fernando's Green is the Colour

I very much enjoyed this piece by David C.E. Tneh in The Sun on his experience teaching Lloyd Fernando's Green is the Colour :

Three weeks ago, when the entire political landscape of Malaysia was embroiled in the perennial debate over the meaning, definition, and concept of "Bangsa Malaysia", I had in my hands a dog-eared, silverfish-infested 1993 copy of Professor Lloyd Fernando's novel entitled "Green is the Colour".

Being entrusted to teach a course on Malaysian literature in English, I was really gung-ho about it. I pictured myself as Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) being given a mission impossible task to complete. Saving the world and an Asian beauty in distress while overthrowing an eastern European nuclear warlord with a penchant for world domination and a weakness for leather gloves would be a lesser challenge that teaching this course in the short semester.

While a baker's dozen or so local denizens from a political party south of Malaysia was debating intensely over the semantics of the term "Bangsa Malaysia". I imbibed myself in the essence and spirit of Fernando's novel and pondered over the coincidence and timing of such an academic endeavour.

Fernando is the first Malaysian to be a Professor of English and played a significant role in promoting Malaysian literary status in his illustrious career at University of Malaya's department of English. Published in 1993, the novel centres on Yun Ming and Siti Sara falling in love with each other in post-May 13, 1969. Never mind that both are from different racial backgrounds and faiths but both are also married at the same time to different people and thus committing adultery during a very traumatic period of Malaysian history. This only spells triple disaster for them. Furthermore, Siti Sara's father in the novel is a respected religious figure. (I rest my case.)

Written 13 years ago, Fernando's novel was considered the first English novel to be ever written on the May 13 incident and it remains the only novel that offers a possible solution to inter-racial conflict and race relations in 21st century Malaysia.

While I was explaining the intricacies of the background and plot to 35 English major undergraduates, the greatest challenge for me was to convince my students of the importance and relevance of Fernando's novel to nation-building and to Life itself. During my lectures, I treaded carefully on issues like the May 13 racial riots, the New Economic Policy, inter-racial relationships, religion, and racial integration in Malaysia.

Could my students comprehend the complexities of the love-hate relationship between Yun Ming and Siti Sara or the amoral, heinous, and Machiavellian Panglima, an up and coming government official bent on creating a "homogenous" society devoid of cultural differences and religious diversity? Could I make my students see what fear, hate, jealousy, ignorance, fanaticism, and intolerance could do to multi-racial Malaysia by people like Panglima? Or perhaps the different manifestations of the theme of Power and the tolerance of Siti Sara's father, who saw beyond race, religion, and status, and blessed Yun Ming and Sara's relationship.

I was indeed happy when my students could see and relate to Fernando's vision of a world free of prejudice, religious bigotry, and cultural intolerance. It is a world where green is the colour of innocence, new hope, a new beginning, a primeval and natural state of existence - a return to Nature. And like Nature that does not discriminate, paradise on earth is not elusive but attainable if individuals love one another indiscriminately like Yun Ming and Siti Sara. Perhaps this is why, bearing the present circumstances, that Fernando's timeless novel is more relevant and appealing in the present than when it was published in 1993.

In all sincerity, it was satisfying teaching Malaysian literature in English to this wonderful group of multi-racial students who could take stock of what was happening to their beloved country. In the glint of their eyes, I could feel the intensity of their longing for an idyllic world of love, tranquillity, and understanding, a world that is free from oppression, obsession, and intolerance. They were truly "colour-blind" to one another's differences and this was truly encouraging.

Amidst the laughter, smiles, and bashfulness of my final lecture, I realised that I was slowly discovering myself, and I saw, just for a fleeting moment, a vivid glimpse of Fernando's world in my class of 35, where indeed, Green is the Colour.

Scorpion Orchid by Lloyd Fernando

Scorpion Orchid appeared on every iteration of my lists. This means that since last August, I’ve read the title, or descriptions of the book, or discussions of its literary significance nigh daily. When I started this novel, I therefore expected it to be akin to a Malayan version of Dead Poets Society sans Robin Williams and that whole desk bit: four friends from disparate backgrounds are about to graduate from University and must deal with their own personal struggles while retaining the bonds of their friendship in the face of a rocky social landscape (1950s Singapore, so after the Japanese occupation but before Independence). 

I’m still not sure if my expectations were fairly inaccurate, but I still think there’s a significance between these two narrative styles that’s worth considering. I’ll somewhat shamefully admit that I wasn’t especially enamoured with the text when I started it. The texts on my lists from the 60s and 70s (_very_ broadly speaking, here) thus far deal commonly with a heavy-handed masculinity as boys/men come into their own alongside the Independence of their nation. Reading a handful of these novels in close succession can be a bit much, even if they are of great literary significance or are spectacularly well-written. 

But I think that Scorpion Orchid does a rather careful and considerate job of narrating the four boys’ stories and showing how they’re attempting to write their own (fractured) personal narratives, while juxtaposing this against their country’s fragmented national story. Singapore is caught in this type of liminal zone, at once recovering from Japanese occupation while trying to manifest its own national identity and seek independence from Britain. Yet as the boys’ language and general education suggests, identity construction — both national and individual — seems to be thought of as a type of grab-bag at times, where one has to choose which facets of their history they’ll keep (British education) even as they eschew others (dominance of British culture). 

In short, I think that Scorpion Orchid will end up serving as the crux of my discussion of the earlier SEA texts in English, and how a hyper-masculine bildungsroman becomes entwined with national identity. The texts even lends itself to this reading as the boys’ stories are interspersed with italicized sections that relate the myths and stories that underpin the cultural backgrounds of each of the boys. Because, importantly, the four boys (men?) in the story represent the four predominate races in Singapore at the time: Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Eurasian. 

I’m excited to do a multicultural and cosmopolitanism reading of this novel, but more excited to add it to the tally of SEA bildungsromans, so I can (hopefully) soon start generating ideas about why they are absolutely splattered across this list*

Lloyd Fernando

Lloyd Fernando Biography

• He is a Malaysian who born in Sri Lanka.
• At the age of 12, he migrated to Singapore with his family.
• This early migration across the Indian Ocean has an enriching influence on Fernando,the writer of scholar,as it was to plant the seed of transcultural and diasporic imigination in him.
• His father were killed in Japanese bombing raids.
• Following  his father death,Fernando started working as a trishaw rider,construction laborer and apprentice mechanic to support his family.
• Joined the Ceylon Branch of the Indian National Army.
• After the war,Fernando completed his Cambridge School Certificate and embarked on a school teaching career.
• 1955-he enrolled University of Singapore graduating in 1959 with two Honours in English and Philosophy.
• 1960-Joined University of Malaya in KL as an assistant lecturer.
• Returned to the same post 4 years,had obtained his PHD in English from University of Leeds,England.
• 1967- elevated to Professor and Head of English at UM held until 1979.
• He went back to England and studied law at City University.
• Joined a firm and admitted as Advocate and Solicitor in High Court of Malaya in 1980 at the age 54.
• Passed away in 2008 -leaving behind his wife Marie,2 daughter and 4 grandchildren.

SYBIL KATHIGASU

Who is Sybil Kathigasu? 

• About her birth and ancestry, Sybil records that she was born in Medan.
• Eurasian Catholic who is fluent in Chinese.
• She is also known as "freedom fighter in Malaya".
• In the book , No Dram Of Mercy" (2006) , a memoir of Sybil's memoir,the authors gave an account of a woman (Sybil Kathigasu) a great courage, who should be regarded as a beacon and role model to all Malaysians.

What about " No Dram Of Mercy"?

"No Dram of Mercy" describe what the Japanese did in Malaya and how the Kathigasu familly and other Malayans endured and responded.

• On 1 August 1942, a nurse,Sybil Kathigasu,43 was arrested in Perak by the Japanese occupiers.
• Sybil Kathigasu also known as Mrs k or Missy.
• Over the 3 years of detention, the Japanese imperialist treated them brutally. They were subjected to humiliation,isolation,cold,disease ridden place,insects and starvation.
• Physically tortured by beatings, slapping,exposure to the sun and also burning.

What about the book title "No Dram Of Mercy"?

In this book,it tells that a title derived from a few lines in Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice.

"Great Saint Anthony,please intercede for me with the infant Jesus give to me the strength and courage to bear bravely what God's holy will has ordained for me. Let me face the death,if I must,in the spirit of Holy Martyrs.But if I am spread to write a book about what I have undergone, I promise that the proceeds from the book sale shall go to building a church in your name,in Ipoh, and if there any over when the church is completed,to the relief of the poor and suffering,whatever their race or religion. Please help me, Saint Anthony..." 

(Kathigasu,Sybil,No Dram Of Mercy.Kuala Lumpur: Prometheus,2006;page 162).

Why "No Dram of Mercy" controversial debut said it was an autobioghraphy? 

• I think it is more helpful to describe it as a personal account of her life 3 years of Japanese occupation of Malaya, narrated by a woman who expended her life on behalf of others.
• .I say this because I had to look beyond the book for personal information about the Kathigasu's family.

Read more at: 

SYBIL KATHIGASU: We know little of local heroes - Letters to the Editor - New Straits Timeshttp://www.nst.com.my/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/sybil-kathigasu-we-know-little-of-local-heroes-1.316934#ixzz2xJsIuwya

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF KARIM RASLAN

Who is Karim Raslan/ Kam Raslan?

Karim Raslan is a writer and director, working in film,TV and theatre in Malaysia. He is a columnist in The Edge Weekly and Off the Edge magazine. His writings were previously compiled in Generation : A Collection of Contemporary Malaysian ideas.He also writes for the Instant Cafe Theatre and will one day make his own feature film.

What is "Ceritalah Malaysia"?

"Ceritalah Malaysia" is a 13 episode news documentary magazine which will be aired on Astro Awani featuring Karim Raslan travel through the length and breadth of Malaysia from hectic cosmopolitan Kuala Lumpur to the remote communities of Sabah and Sarawak to meet with everyday Malaysian from all walks of life.

Fluid in nature,each episodes features at least one or two Malaysians sharing their hopes and aspirations for the future.

Ceritalah Malaysia, Kuala Kangsar 

( Episode 1)

• Kuala Kangsar was my fathers hometown, his kampung,my kampung and his resting place, though to say it is to risk admitting my ignorance of the skein of life that had brought me this town.
• Kuala Kangsar was where he grew up, a ‘Royal town, home to the Sultans of Perak and their Court.
• My father was the eldest son of a man who struck fear and apprehension into all he encountered, not least the Sultan.
• And yet, my father never lived with his father. Instead he was cared for by my uncle. It was a Malay custom at the time(or perhaps a custom peculiar to Perak) that the eldest son should be entrusted to the care of his most senior uncle.
• It must have broken my grandmothers heart- a woman who died long before my birth.
• She was a dutiful woman and would never have thought to dispute the claim.
• For many years thereafter,when my grandmother visited her son with presents or clothes she had made for him, he would call her the ‘tailor’ knowing no better.

• This is not my Kuala Kangsar, my ‘KK’. When I think of KK, I remember the cemetery of the Ubudiah mosque which is full of family graves, intermingled with those of the Perak royal families.
• I remember funerals and family gatherings and men and women who had never ventured outside KK.
• I think back to a time of certainty and order, generations of men who ruled by right, and ruled well, if harshly.
• History, blood and death, men and women whose past lives I hae reconstructed in an attempt to glean an understanding of myself.

• The funeral was hot and stuffy-once again sensations,sensations:hot and cold,dampness and dryness, but no emotion.
• We had been woken and dressed by our aunts –marshalled into our ill-fitting baju Melayu.
• I remember being sat on a chair,in the shade I cried uncontrollably.
• That I remember- thank God! But did I cry because I knew myfather was dead? Did i? I don’t think so.
• I think I was beyong tears,beyond understanding. My younger brother , who was only three at the time, also cried, more out of fear and tiredness.

• My mother was not there because she was still recovering from the accident.
• It is not impossible that I thought that she, too, had died and that her body was also being lowered into the same grave.

• Quite apart from the hidden delights of the house, many of which were strictly forbidden us, there was always Kak Masa and Pak Abid, the couple who lived in the shabby wooden house behind the kitchens.

• They had iinnumerable children and the house shook whenever they were all in at once.

• Kak Masa cooked and cleaned for my grandmother; Pak Abid delegated and since he had eight children, the delegation remained remarkably straight forward.

• My fther used to call him ‘Andy Capp’ after the cartoon character.

• Kak Masa looked Chinese. She had a mole on her chin. There was a long hair that grew out of it which she refused to pluck. Her hair was tied up in a bun that loosed as the day went on. When we were all there, it fell out inevitably by midday.

• Kak Masa held sway in the kitchen. Request for food had to be made to her. She would try to be firm, by being soft-heartened by nature, she could never refuse giving each of us a sliver of whatever she might be making.

• The house now stands empty. It is difficult to find tenants and clothes mildew in the wardrobes.

• Pak abid and Kak Masa have long moved to their own concrete house, bought with the money my mother gave them before she took us back to England.

• My family have long since moved to Kuala Lumpur and visit Kuala Kangsar infrequently. 

Ceritalah Malaysia,Port Dickson,Negeri Sembilan(Episode 2)

Watch it now on  youtube:
Ceritalah Malaysia (E2 Part1) - From ordinary boy to a priest
http://bit.ly/XrY9Qb

Ceritalah Malaysia (E2 Part2) - From ordinary boy to a priest
http://bit.ly/Wajlx0

In this episode, tukang cerita spends time with Reuben, a 16 year old boy, who works as a temple attendant in Port Dickson.

Port Dickson
General Info-http://bit.ly/11dMD1w
Sejarah-http://bit.ly/11dMECO
Journey Malaysia-http://bit.ly/WxeA0U

Issues
Indian youths urged to come forward- http://bit.ly/TVKCVN
Have more schemes for Indian youth- http://bit.ly/c3VbBn

Military
Port Dickson sinonim dengan ketenteraan- http://bit.ly/NdOgVI
PD now known as Army Town-http://bit.ly/4Btp3t

Gas
Shell company background-http://bit.ly/XRvV1p

Power Plant
Port Dickson Power Bhd (PDP)-http://bit.ly/XheV5z

Ceritalah Malaysia,

Temerloh, Pahang ( Episode 3)

Watch it now on youtube: 

Ceritalah Malaysia (Episode 3) - Running a food-stall by the Temerloh River

http://bit.ly/10Hvatn

In this episode, tukang cerita is in Temerloh,Pahang to experience Pekan Sehari and meet with Shahrizal, a 22 year old entreprenuer, who runs Gerai Aqilah to support his family.

Temerloh

JKR Daerah Temerloh- Sejarah Temerloh at http://bit.ly/XusOeS

Pahang Delights-Delightful TEMERLOH Home of the Patin (Silver Catfish) at http://bit.ly/11Ktfcp

Eating Asia- Daytrippin': Temerloh's Pekan Sehari  at http://bit.ly/T7Hzcw

Article by Karim Raslan

Sinar Harian

6 Mac 2012

Kegigihan anak muda Temerloh

by Karim Raslan

http://bit.ly/wEzfUj

Shahrizal ialah seorang wira budiman yang kental menghadapi cabaran hidup. Pada usia 22 tahun, Shahrizal sudah bekerja tiga tahun untuk menyara ibu dan tiga adik kecilnya, setelah orang tuanya berpisah.

Anak sulung dari tujuh beradik (ayahnya sekarang tinggal di Pulau Pinang dengan empat adik-beradiknya yang lain, termasuk dua adik perempuannya) ini memiliki sebuah warung yang menjual lauk-pauk tempatan seperti ikan patin masak tempoyak dan nasi ayam di pekan Temerloh yang mempunyai jumlah penduduk seramai 60,000 orang.

Terletak di Jalan Ibrahim dengan pemandangan Sungai Pahang, anda boleh melihat esplanad yang dibarisi pokok dan tanda nama T-E-M-E-R-L-O-H ala Hollywood sambil menikmati juadah di warung Shahrizal.

Keluarga Shahrizal pada asalnya merupakan peneroka Felda dari kawasan Rompin, tetapi dia telah berpindah ke pekan Temerloh ketika berusia lapan tahun untuk bersekolah.Dengan gelagatnya yang pemalu, Shahrizat bukanlah seorang yang mampu menarik banyak perhatian.

Tetapi kisah Shahrizal, suatu kisah peribadi tentang pentingnya mempertahankan maruah keluarga dan kebebasan ini harus diamati. Ternyata, anak muda ini telah berjaya untuk meraih kejayaan walaupun tidak berbekal bantuan atau belas-kasihan orang lain.

Tanpa sebak, tetapi dengan nada bangga, Shahrizal memberitahu saya bahawa beliau tidak pernah mengambil walau sesen pinjaman untuk membeli bekalan dan peralatan beliau dari peti ais ke perabot: semua dibayar tunai oleh wang titik peluh dirinya sendiri.

Modal memulakan perniagaannya sendiri diperoleh daripada bayaran pampasan insurans kemalangan motosikal. Namun, tragedi masih menghantui dirinya - tahun lalu rumah ibu tempat mereka sekeluarga berteduh hangus terbakar. Walaupun begitu, kesungguhan beliau masih utuh.

Shahrizal memberitahu saya beliau pergi ke pasar sebelum Subuh setiap hari. “Modal harian saya sebanyak RM150. Cili sekarang memang mahal, pada satu ketika harganya melambung ke RM22 sekilo.” Shahrizal menerangkan lagi: “Selalunya saya beli 200 hingga 400 gram cili dan seekor ayam. Banyak ikan patin di pasaran daripada penternak patin ini tidak mahal seperti ikan patin liar yang sememangnya makanan mewah.”

Pulangnya dari pasar, Shahrizal menghabiskan paginya memasak. Warungnya dibuka dari 8.30 pagi hingga 7 petang. “Pada hari yang baik, saya mampu memperoleh RM300 setiap hari, jika tidak RM180-RM200 secara purata. Bil elektrik saya sejumlah RM300 sebulan dan RM80 untuk bil air.”

Shahrizal menerangkan setelah rumah ibunya terbakar, mereka sekeluarga menyewa rumah di seberang sungai dengan harga RM200 sebulan. “Namun kini saya harus tinggal di bilik di atas warung ini kerana banyak kes kecurian yang berlaku sejak kebelakangan ini,” jelas belia Pahang ini.

Apabila saya bertanya tentang wang simpanan masa depannya, Shahrizal mengaku memang sukar untuk menabung, “saya hanya ada kurang RM1,000 di bank,” ujar Shahrizal.

Shahrizal bersemangat sekali apabila bercakap tentang masa depannya. “Saya teringin untuk mengembangkan usaha saya, tetapi saya tidak tahu bagaimana untuk meminjam dari bank atau agensi kerajaan. Terlalu banyak borang untuk diisi!” Peniaga nasi campur ini menambah, “mereka tiada masa untuk orang seperti saya.”

Namun Shahrizal mempunyai beberapa isu yang mahu diselesaikan segera. “Temerloh ini terlalu sunyi.” Jika dulu ada bas yang membawa peneroka Felda keluar masuk, kini perkhidmatan bas itu tidak lagi beroperasi. Tambahan pula, terminal bas yang dulunya terletak berhampiran warungnya telah dipindahkan berhampiran gedung The Store, dan menurut anak muda ini, masih ada rencana untuk memindahkan terminal itu lebih jauh dari sekarang.

Pekan sunyi ini sememangnya berlainan dengan Mentakab yang berhampiran di mana kompleks membeli-belah Star Mall yang baru dibuka turut menempatkan pawagam GSC.

Namun, pada pengamatan saya tidak ada secebis rasa marah atau dendam di hati Shahrizal. Kelihatan terpancar di matanya kesungguhan untuk membantu keluarga dan memajukan perniagaan kecilnya. Tatkala syarikat besar korporat Melayu masih bergantung kepada pertolongan kerajaan, adanya insan seperti Shahrizal yang gigih berusaha tanpa bantuan kerajaan.

Inilah “hero” bangsa kita - dan saya harap beliau maju jaya dalam mengembangkan warungnya dan membantu keluarga!