No need lah!

OCT 13 — Three years down the road, and people keep asking, so when’s the next one? Weren’t you going to do one written by other Muslims? Are you going to write another book?

There are many reasons as to why I haven’t gone on to write another. Some of them are as follows:

1. The last five years saw a change in the practise of the faith I belong to. When I wrote that column which became that book, it was fun. These days to write about Muslim Malaysians – do people have empathy and humour anymore? Cow heads, Chinese Muslim converts inciting hate – eh, when I wrote the column, even the hardcore personalities were funny. And had a heart beneath their stern outlook.

And that is precisely it. 

Where is the heart?

Perhaps because after the book came out, and I write for a living, I just kept reading and meeting very angry Malaysians. I can’t even joke with my friends now, because everything is sensitive. Does being a Muslim mean you have to be humourless? And not empathise with others because they are not Muslims? And if some Muslims do show concern, it seems it would be to plug a cause. I’m tired of causes.

2. I want to explore my country but the bus drivers of this nation scare the bejesus out of me. When that book came out I was in my 30s. I’m in my 40s now and I don’t think I can take frights well. Since I turned 40, I have had good friends die from stress-related heart attacks and cancer. I have to be sensible! In any case I have two insurance policies.

3. Suddenly, everyone who is a Muslim is a spokesperson. I get very scared meeting these people because they are very clever, and know it too, but I also wonder if they are in touch with reality. Also, what scares me is suddenly being a spokesperson for Islam and Muslims in this country is… tres cool. Le chic. I personally am not comfortable with this branding exercise. Obviously there is a need to be so, so The Other will understand what Islam is about. But it’s become so hip these days that I wonder whether the packaging of Islam is healthy.

4. Now that there are so many voices, do I really need to write another book?

5. Maybe I’m just too old, lazy and can’t be arsed.

6. My characters seem to have disappeared. And they formed the backbone of the first book.

Islam in Malaysia has become more strident and political. Malaysians have become more emotional and rightly so. How long are we going to be like this?

Is another voice going to make things better?

Almost everyone I know is writing a memoir/travelogue/academic thesis on Islam in Malaysia. Soon the market will be inundated by such books.

This very website has a coterie of accomplished columnists who write about Islam in Malaysia. They come from different backgrounds, and have different leanings, albeit Muslim.

So tell me dear reader. Is there a need for another book on Malaysia and Muslims?

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.