by Cecil Rajendra
Bogle-L'Ouverture Press, London: 1999
The report said, he
had been suffering
from strange delusions
of justice and equality;
that he believed in
such myths like love
brotherhood and liberty.
Worse, the man in question
had visions of an open
society: free from poverty
bigotry and corruption.
He also had a long history
of dreams of a friendlier
environment for his children.
These hazardous hallucinations
(the report went on to say)
precipitated the patient into
speaking out at public forums
and writing a series of articles
which forced our authorities'
hand in stopping the propagation
of such an inflammable material.
After three short months
in a Government facility,
followed by another nine
of counselling and therapy,
the patient can be deemed
(the report concluded) to
have been truly rehabilitated;
he is now in a position
to take his rightful place
in the ranks of the establishment
- fully cured of all his romanticism!
Bucharest : - Romanian villagers stoned an eight-year-old AIDS victim and her family and tried to drive them away from their home. -Reuters -
Caught in the crossfire
between myth and reality
she has nowhere to turn
to escape the stigma
of this latter day 'leprosy'.
It matters not if she
be innocent or a toddler
tainted by a transfusion;
in our shuttered minds
she is beyond redemption.
Driven by purblind ignorance
we have lumped our fears
of sex, sin and superstition
and made of this misfortune
a mountain of misconception.
And, how shall we atone?
Let he, who is without
guilt, cast the first stone...
Cecil Rajendra has once again displayed through poems his sharp criticism of today's society. His latest poem collection entitled Sharpnel, Silence & Sand... provides a review of the problems besetting almost all countries in the world not just Malaysia. His call for accountability for those in power as well as for ordinary people who contribute in one way or the other to societal malaise comes out clear in the witty lines of his poems.
Cecil, as he is known to many social activists, non-traditional lawyers, NGO workers, and socially-committed academics in Southeast and South Asia, put in few words what others have been trying hard to explain in various ways through the years. His poems are potent medium for self-reflection as well as societal action.
Here below is the publisher's note about Cecil's background:
"Cecil Rajendra has long been acknowledged as one of Asia's finest poets if also its most controversial.
In 1993 the Malaysian Government impounded his passport ostensibly for his "anti-logging activities" which, in substance, was the writing and performing of several environmental poems at home and abroad.
After an international campaign spearheaded by his London publishers and the poet Adrian Mitchell, Mr. Rajendra's passport was summarily returned to him.
Cecil Rajendra's poem have been published and broadcast in over 50 countries and been translated into several languages including German, Japanese, Chinese, Bengali, French, Malay, Tamil, Urdu, Danish and Tagalog.
His poems have also appeared on records, cassettes, greeting cards, posters, environmental kits, hymnals, tourist handbooks, human rights dossiers, cantata, lieder and school and university texts in Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States. Amnesty International (U.K.) based its 1997 calendar on his celebrated poem 'The Animal and Insect Act" which parodies security laws.
However, in his native country he is constantly pilloried by both local academics, critics and political establishment who regard him as a 'non-poet' and 'trouble-maker'. A leading local journalist, who recently attempted to put his work in perspective, received a death threat!
Mr. Rajendra is a London-trained barrister; and, after coming down from Lincoln's Inn, he returned home to pioneer Malaysia's first rural legal aid center for indigent farmers, fishermen and factory workers.
He is a member of the Malaysian Bar Council and chairs its Human Rights Committee. Cecil Rajendra now lives in Penang, Malaysia where he is in private law practice."
For copies of the publication please contact: Bogle-L'Ouverture Press, P.O. Box 2186, W13 9QZ England.