Charting imperfections: radical voices of nationhood

Abstract

In this paper, I shall describe some of the issues that Salleh ben Joned and Cecil Rajendra deal with in their poetry. Salleh ben Joned, author of a collection of poems Sajak-sajak Saleh: Sacred and profane, and essays As I Please, reflects the uninhibited spirit of his works. Treading on many toes, Salleh's works highlight his distaste for materialism, hypocrisy, and oppressive Malaysian middle- class values. Rajendra, a poet of international acclaim, author of several anthologies of poetry, is similarly seen as a voice of dissent in the Malaysian literary world. His works have often ruffled many people because they repeatedly touch on issues sensitive to many Malaysians. Rajendra himself admits that his "position in Malaysia is very tenuous" because of his radical outlook in charting imperfections of his nation. Committed to an unflinching obligation to write sincerely, without the embellishments of the aesthetics of literature, Salleh and Rajendra see themselves as responsible for articulating their parameters of nationhood for fellow Malaysians.