*Blog*
June 18, 2007
Alfian Sa'at
" Who is he? " - Mr K asked...
How did i truly respond? haha ... sure... i gave him the nonchalant look.
"Nobody.. Just a distinguished Malay poet who never steers away from politics..."
True enough.. someone who failed to give the darnest of care to the world of Arts n Literature ...said... "ouh...hmmm...tak pernah dengar.."
was i pissed? to a certain extent. Alfian is my hero and forever will be.
Since the day i was introduced to Singapore's education curriculum as a student, i had hated it. There was the basic maths n science. i had to score. my parents made me score. my teachers told me there was no way i could not score.
I still remembered those days vividly. The annual parents-teacher meets. Seated,the teacher's fingers would direct the parents' eyes onto the scores of two main subjects (Maths n Science). Then went the usual "tsk, tsk.. she could have done better.. brilliant student.. it's a pity!"
Then there would be the times, when peers would be filled with anguished as they started to compare MCQ answers in Section A of the Maths and Science papers, just after the exams.. way before the results.
And true enough, when the results were out... those who scored excellently well for these two 'essential' subjects would be the ones who could lift their heads up high.. even if the whole school knew they flunked their languages.
It happened beyond the phase of classrooms... language teachers were expected to be less competitive than maths and science teachers. "language is language..there is nothing to compete.. besides you guys are all peace-loving" "0) -sarcastic!
They claimed maths n science took a whole lot of skills for one to be competent in.
But they failed to take note.. The world of Arts is a gift... a god-given... a talent, not many possess..
Like Alfian, i agree.. this is Singapore and if they told you to walk straight then that was what you had to do.
He's different...
With all 10 As for O'levels
and credits for S papers in A'levels...
Alfian was named the top malay student in 1991 (Berita Harian)
He could jolly well gotten a place in medical school, but instead decided to become a playwright for Ekamatra production.
On June 12th, his application to become a releif teacher was rejected by MOE. the stated fact was that, they were afraid he would promote student activism within the classrooms.
Such courage to thread on the less cushioned avenues of Singapore's life made him an inspiration, and not a thousand releif teachers can achieve even a tiny percent of that.
I am truly honoured to be racially assosciated with Alfian Sa'at.
He gives voices to our minority race through his writings and productions. It is a real pity how we fail to respect and recognise this...
Labels: ...laments...
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