BICHARA: WESTERN HUMAN RIGHTS AND ASIAN VALUES

Main Article Content

Shaharil Talib

Abstract

These provocative phrases are not the creative work of a poet. This is Lesson 24 in a book of elementary Malay compiled by S. van der Molen (adapted for the use of English-speaking students by Harry F. Cemach) and published by W. van Hoeve, The Hague, in 1949. Richard Wright who picked the booklet up while reporting on the 1955 Bandung Conference dryly commented that the author wrote 'a book to instruct an army of invaders how to demean, intimidate, and break the spirit of an enemy people in a conquered, occupied country All sentences were rendered in terms of flat orders, commands; an exclamation point usually followed each sentence, implying that one actually shouted one's orders'. An English speaking person in the mid-twentieth century learnt Malay not to bichara. He barked orders.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

Section
Articles