A drought of creativity in the talent pool

It was just over the last weekend that I moderated the first session of a masterclass series with UndiMsia! in conjunction with the Malaysian Centre of Constitutional and Human Rights (MCCHR) Pusat Rakyat LB, a community centre located along Jalan Pantai Baharu, Bangsar.

We had the privilege of having the acclaimed writer and lecturer Shivani Sivagurunathan from the University of Nottingham Malaysia campus give a workshop on creative writing.

It was a small crowd but that was what made the entire experience  more worthwhile for participants. They had an opportunity to engage with Shivani on a more intimate level and see the wondrously intuitive relationship she has with writing stories. It allowed them a better understanding of their own potential styles of writing by tapping into their strengths and weaknesses.

What I found most intriguing as I observed the workshop was how diversified the group was in terms of age and occupational differences. I was compelled into getting to know some of them.

I was particularly immersed in a conversation with an older man and a young lady. The older man had been an engineer by profession but upon losing his job, he became an Uber driver while the young lady was a statistician with Bank Negara. In spite of their polarities, both these individuals seemed to be looking for one thing in common: to quench the thirst for creativity and the longing to express themselves.

Creativity is an essential part of life. In fact, it is the very essence of nourishment for the human spirit because it opens the door to the kind of innovation that promotes a sense of adventure, a curiosity that propels progressiveness in society.

A great misconception is that the element of creativity is limited to only certain disciplines, commonly associated with the liberal arts. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that it plays a significant role in shaping national identity as well. In a multi-ethnic country like Malaysia, such formulation is deeply rooted in our richly diversified culture and heritage.

Unfortunately, many of these practices have either gone out of fashion or are deemed idolatrous simply because they do not subscribe to the notions that are subject to extreme interpretations by some authorities.

One needs not to look so far as to the likes of famous thinkers to validate the role of creativity in the making of a nation as even our first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman articulated this concern in some of his writings:

“We usually forget that apart from making a living on this earth, human beings live in societies and these societies have culture. It is only through having cultures that mankind on this earth has an ordered and meaningful life. Music and drama are two of the many important manifestation of a culture. They are important because they represent the expressions emanating from the power of human artistic creativity.”

It is the creative soul that drives the continuity of nation-building as we can observe in the course of history, which is why we need to encourage its cultivation even more.

A recent report by Astro Awani stated that the chief executive officer of Talentcorp, Johan Mahmood Merican addressed said the issue of brain drain in Malaysia was facing an obstacle of more efforts for persuasion to attract talents from abroad due to the unsettling political and economic climate.

In spite of the desperate need to tackle brain drain to meet the demands of an expanding economy battling against a depreciating currency and growing income inequality, I cannot help but feel that much of the lack of incentive to serve the country is deeply rooted in the pitiful lack of creative space.

For us to really address this problem begins with the acknowledgment of the foundation that gives life to creativity in the hearts and minds of the people, so much so that we seek to become future leaders of the nation: freedom.

Each one of us is constitutionally entitled to the right to freedom of expression. This, I believe, spins the thread of creative values that are needed for a social fabric of developing talents. It is a characteristic that sets one apart from others because it is a catalyst for the incredible entrepreneurial leadership skills that Talentcorp aspires to retain in Malaysia.

However, in order to pave the way for the inculcation of such attitudes, something must be done about filling in the gap in the talent pool through the expansion of creative space.

An insufficient championing of academic freedom in educational institutions can be the murderer of creativity. In fact, Ken Robinson makes this a profound and moving case in his highly viewed TED talk called “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”.

Frankly, when teachers dismiss the contestation of debates or ideas, not only does it stop the creative process from occurring, it incapacitates intellectual growth as well. When a learner deviates from traditional routes of attaining knowledge, he or she is considered a lost soul.

Meanwhile in the corporate world, everyone ends up enslaved to the nooses of their working ties for career advancements, so much so that they end up doing only what pleases others in a system that is not entirely meritocratic. Wherever it is, the spirit of freedom in innovation is declining as time progresses.

Creativity is demonised as a loss of integration with the normalities of the peculiar system we have here. It is my opinion that this culture stems from a fear of the implications of striving for radicalisation that may possibly upset the establishment order which hopes to turn a blind eye and remain advantaged in power.

This is why it is vital for us to restore the liberal democratic institutions of our country. If we wish for creativity to not cease in its existence, there has to be a constant upholding of individual liberty and dignity in order for us to inspire the capabilities of the talented Malaysians in which we see the promise of people-centric visions.

For the sake of resurrecting nation-building, freedom needs to be the rain that cures the long drought in creativity. – September 10, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.