Lessons to learn from Harper Lee

You don't have to be an ardent literature nut to know about one of the contemporary world's most popular novels 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee.

An American who grew up in the southern state of Alabama during the years of the civil rights movement, she constantly wrote about racial injustice even before her debut novel in 1960.

Of course, her debut novel eventually became her one and only novel and she famously became a recluse, never giving another media interview after 1964.

I read this book as an English class school assignment when I was 12 years old and it has become one of my favourite fictional books. I am reminded of it because of two reasons.

The first is because the book dealt with racial injustice. Although it talked about a period in history of the United States, I feel I can draw paralels with the situation in Malaysia.

Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' set during the Great Depression, tells the story about siblings six-year-old Scout and ten-year-old Jem Finch, their friend Dill and lawyer father Atticus.

Atticus is appointed to defend a black man who is wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. Due to that, the two children are constantly made fun of by their peers.

The accused black man is eventually found guilty in court and this badly affects the faith in equality that the whole family shares. Of course, drama ensues after all this.

Although comparing Malaysia today with the situation in the United States in the early and mid 1900s would be carrying it a little too extremely, we can still learn lessons from it.

Systematic racism is something that should not exist for the good of people and humanity. When it is instilled into government policy, it will only cause injustice and breed contempt.

When elected leaders can make racial statements and think nothing of it (ie: the ministers suggesting that Malays should boycott unscrupulous Chinese businesses), then it has been really ingrained in our system.

This is something we should not and cannot accept in the Malaysia of today. We need to stand up and get rid of systematic racism and encourage that Malaysia is for all Malaysians.

That brings me to the second reason why I am reminded of Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. News that, after 55 years, her second novel titled 'Go Set a Watchman' will be released soon.

The book, apparently written as one of the earlier drafts of 'To Kill a Mockingbird', was recently found and a very aged Lee had given permission for it to be published.

It will be a story from the perspective of Scout Finch (the six-year-old character from the first book) as an adult. Whether the Lee's second novel will be as good or better than her first is left to be seen.

However, fans of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' will definitely be excited and anticipating to get the book in their hands as soon as they can – me included, of course! – February 6, 2015.

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