Long before blogs, Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider, Raja Petra, there was Cecil Rajendra, an iconoclast extraordinaire, a passionate activist who firmly believes in the pen being mightier than the sword.

Rajendra who recently gave a reading of his poems organised by the Perak Academy at the Royal Perak Golf Club, is one of the few Malaysian poets writing in the English language today.

His poetry gives voice to the socially marginalised and acts as a conscience for the environment. Not as widely read in Malaysia, Cecil Rajendra’s poetry has travelled far and wide, cited by WWF, UNICEF, UNESCO, National Geographic and Amnesty International.

When I asked to verify if he was in fact a Nobel Literature nominee, he modestly brushed the question aside and said that the nomination came from Philippines and U.S.A. The fact that there is little local media interest on him is curious – which is possibly due to the controversial content of his writings, but snubbing a Nobel nominee who’s touted as Malaysia’s unsung poet laureate deserves research and this is what I did, albeit briefly.

Rajendra devotes his writing in awakening people to the burning social issues that afflict Malaysia and the Third World generally – oppression, injustice and exploitation, corruption and greed, want, hunger and poverty and ecological ruin.

But it is with Malaysia that he is focused and about Malaysia for Malaysians that he writes.

“Faults in another / that would not matter /
in our loved ones / assume / cataclysmic proportions /
and if i did not care / i would not dare /
chart / your many imperfections” 

excerpt ‘To My Country’ from ‘Refugees and Other Despairs’

In a speech he made at the Asian PEN Conference held in Manila in the early 1980s, Rajendra’s address, “The Higher Duty of a Writer in a Developing Society”, sparked off a storm which was to envelope him in controversy for the rest of his life: “It becomes no longer a matter of choice, but the moral obligation and bounden duty of every responsible writer to bear witness to the times he lives in and to put his life and his work at the service of humanity.”

His speech, brief and to the point, was widely reported in the Philippines press and elsewhere in the region, but virtually ignored in Malaysia. His poetry is part of a total commitment and controversy would continue to plague him back at home where in 1993 his passport was retained for ‘anti-logging activities, which it was felt could damage the country’s image overseas’. 

His passport has since been returned to him and Rajendra continues writing his passionate pleas, his technique more Japanese haiku than Keats or Shelley whose poetry coloured  his undergraduate years,  his thinking influenced by such men as Amilcar Cabral, Pablo Neruda, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

Cecil Rajendra is a practising lawyer and on returning to Malaysia after 13 years in the UK, initiated the country’s first free legal advice centre in a depressed rural area in Penang, serving needy people who would normally have no access to legal representation; as well as a mobile legal aid clinic (MOBLAC) to take legal aid to far flung villages in North Malaysia. He is a senior member of the Malaysian Bar Council and has chaired both its National Legal Aid and Human Rights Committees. He is also a past president of the National Human Rights Society of Malaysia (HAKAM).

His first collection of poems was published in England in 1965 when he was still a law student as Lincoln’s Inn, London. Since then his poems have travelled to over 50 countries and been translated into several languages including Chinese, German, Japanese, Malay, Tamil, Swahili, French, Thai, Tagalong, Urdu, Croat and Esquimaux.  In 2005, Cecil Rajendra was the first ever recipient of the Malaysian Lifetime Humanitarian Award for his pioneering legal work and inspirational poetry,   recognition which is long overdue in his homeland, Malaysia, where he is its most vociferous critic and staunch patriot.

His latest work ‘Tankas from a Tsunami’ marks his 19^th collection of poetry. A new book is nearing completion. To be titled, ‘Parables, Prophets and Pillocks’ (pillock: an almost extinct word from the 16^th century, meaning a stupid or annoying person, numbskull or blockhead) is guaranteed to raise a few eyebrows if not heckles. The new book which is a culmination of Rajendra’s writings in the past five years, which is centred on the theme of religious extremism and political chicanery, should have people sitting on the edge of their chairs at future poetry readings.

His poetry reading that evening in Ipoh was as he promised, “to entertain and not to bore”. He read from a selection of his extensive collection including some from his soon-to-be-published book. On whether he writes on a computer, he confessed to being a ‘dinosaur’ and still writes with pen and paper- pulp from destruction of trees notwithstanding. “But I don’t whip out pen and pad to record notes and thoughts at every opportunity. That’ll be like stopping in the middle of wonderful lovemaking and saying, ‘Excuse me darling, I’ve got to jot these feelings down!’ When I sit down to write, it all comes.” He continued to confess that he has a large collection of love poems that will most likely be published posthumously as they were too bawdy for publication while he’s still alive!

Ipoh Echo is fortunate to have permission to be the first to publish the following poem which should strike a chord in fellow Perakeans after the political upheaval of the past year.

Mud-Skippers

With oversize head  / myopic pop-out /  foraging eyes /

And versatile flippers…../  these shrimp-like /

Slippery, slimy creatures / skip nonchalant /

from this bank / to that, then back…./

prompted only by / an appetite & the tide….

Anthropologists / far and wide  /

Come see them / perform their / self-serving antics /

Not in mangrove swamp / but in the mud and murky /

Waters of our politics!

Cecil Rajendra’s books may be purchased from the Perak Academy: 28, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah Tel: 05-5478949 email: contact@perakacademy.com

Other sources: Scoob Books and Silver Fish Books.

Ipoh based Yayasan Sultan Idris Shah for the Disabled (YSIS) has grown in the last 27 years to become an internationally recognised centre of skills training for disability management.

It is also the first NGO in the country to initiate a skills training programme that is being sought after by staff of government-run Pusat Permulihan Dalam Komuniti (PDKs) throughout the country, special education teachers, trainees from nursing colleges and other caregivers.

The training programme is to support the government’s efforts in training up more skilled and competent workers in the right techniques of disability management.  About 900 personnel have been trained at the centre in Bercham. And steps are being taken to elevate its present certificate course to that of Diploma level.

The centre working in collaboration with the International Association for the Scientific Studies of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID) and the Welfare Services Department held a series of workshops conducted by highly qualified lecturers from Canada, England and Australia on various aspects of disability management.

Recently, it held a one-week workshop for the Japanese Overseas Volunteers’ Programme, second-year Physiotherapy students from MAHSA College, special education teachers from the Ministry of Education, and nursing students from MRA Institute & Nursing Colleges.  

Discussions were held for students from University of Illinois, Boston University and possibly Harvard University to come on attachment to the centre.

For its concerted efforts in rehabilitating the disabled, YSIS has received due recognition with a host of awards amongst which, the Country Winner for the Best NGO Award in 2005 organised by Resource Alliance UK and Citigroup Foundation; the Excellence Award and the Best NGO in Perak  in 2006  from the Registrar of Societies; and in 2008 the dual endorsement of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development and State Welfare Services Department on its certificates to caregivers on completion of the skills training course.

The YSIS was established in 1982 and headed by Tan Sri V. Jeyaratnam as its chairman ever since. Its sole purpose is to improve the socio-economic well-being and quality of life for adults and children with disabilities, regardless of race, religion and free of any costs.

From the humble beginning of a wooden building, it moved into an eight-acre site in Bercham donated by the State Government 10 years later and gradually set up a state-of-the-art main centre, Pusat Permulihan Sultan Azlan Shah.

Its free community-based rehabilitation programmes, which based on WHO’s modules using multi-disciplinary and holistic approaches, render among others physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, sound and sensory stimulation therapy, music therapy, play therapy, hydrotherapy and hippotherapy (riding for the disabled).

Apart from these, its Social & Community Development Unit runs a comprehensive network system to liaise with relevant government agencies in helping to:

To apply for renewal of motorcycle and car special licenses for disabled;

Inform disabled and their families of the availability of various government aids and allowances and help them to apply for them;

Assist disabled in getting sponsorship for their assistive devices/prosthetics;

Assist them in job placements; and

Plan community-link projects which enable the disabled to integrate with members of the public.

YSIS even provides free transportation to take the disabled to and from their homes to its centre for their rehabilitation sessions, as many could not afford a vehicle while public transportation is generally not disabled friendly.

Its main rehabilitation centre was completed in 2001 and over the years 11 other independent centres were set up throughout the state. 

JERRY FRANCIS