Posted by
wetbenang
at
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
ESCAPING CLUELESSNESS
I read with with interest recent news reports about Malaysians' reading habit, which is virtually non-existent. According to the reports, a survey found that 98% of Malaysian children read only two books a year. I guess it was this very shameful fact that had led the authorities to launch the annual National Reading Campaign, with plans to spend a whopping RM10 million a year for the next five years.
Yup. Yet another noble (debatable) effort by our government. I just can't wait to see the campaign's outcome. If it turns out to be a success, well and good. If not, the government can always say: Well, we tried.
Personally, I'm not quite sure how this habit could be cultivated. It's either you love reading, or you don't. Plus, there are so many distractions nowadays.
When I was a child in primary school, books were my only source of pleasure. We were so poor we did not have a TV, and the radio made its debut in our home when I was nearly 12 years old! My mother bought our first TV (she said she wanted to wait for colour TV) when I was 16 or 17.
So, I buried myself in books. My favourites were those Enid Blyton novels -- the Famous Five series -- I found in the school library. I remember finishing all the books in the series in less than a month.
My eldest sister was a bit worried, because she felt Ms Blyton's books had no real literary value. So to please her, I started reading all those novels by the late Hamka, arguably one of the most prolific of Indonesian writers, and books by Malaysian novelists like A. Samad Said, Shahnon Ahmad and the like. My sister also introduced me to the (translated) works of Rabindranath Tagore, India's Nobel laureate poet and writer. And all this while I was still in primary school!
When I got to secondary school, my staple read included classic works of Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Melville, du Maurier, de Maupassant etc. My all time favourites were Harper Lee's To Kill a Mocking Bird (I think I must have read it 36 times, or more!!) and Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind (I finished it in three days during a term break -- my mom threatened to consult a bomoh as I refused to put down the book even at meal times), and I read it again and again for a total of not less than 15 times.
But that was just me. I just loved reading. I still do, except that now I don't have the luxury of time to read a lot. But I still make it a habit to buy at least one book every time I go to the book store with my twin godsons, who just love book stores! Now, if only I could get them to love reading as much....
I'm not sure what the government wants to do with the proposed annual budget of RM10 million for the reading campaign. My suggestion is to stock school libraries, especially primary and secondary schools, with really good books, and not just those meant to help students pass their exams.
Which brings me to another point I'm trying to make. It seems that nowadays reading is only for passing exams, for finishing class assignments.
It's no longer for pleasure, no longer for discovery purposes, no longer for opening of the mind and imagination, no longer for moulding character and values. Especially among my Malay brethrens.
Opps. They do read for pleasure, but their top choice reading materials would be those gossip rags, and gossip rags only (how would you explain the staying power of URTV, and the sister rag Mangga?).
So, how to mould character and values like that? How to get them to discover knowledge, how to open up their minds and imagination, how to get them get over their ignorance and cluelessness?
On any weekend, if you go to the book stores, you'd hardly see any Malay people with their kids there. You go to Malay homes, how many would have a library or at least reading corner? Macamana nak terus maju?
So, rajin-rajinlah membaca, jangan terus hanyut dalam kejahilan minda. Ewahh.
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