Christopher Hugh Gallop, Man and Society in the Novels of Muslim Burmat: A Critical Analysis.

Christopher Hugh Gallop, Man and Society in the Novels of Muslim Burmat: A Critical Analysis. Christopher Hugh Gallop, Man and Society in the Novels of MuslimBurmat: A Critical Analysis. Unpublished MA thesis, Universiti SainsMalaysia, November 2000. 255pp. 'Muslim Burmat' is the pen-name used by Dato Paduka AwangHaji Muslim bin Haji Burut DPMB SMB PJK PIKB PKL, who is regarded as thegreatest living writer in Negara Brunei Darussalam. Born on 15 April1943, he was educated in both English and Malay. He began work as aclerk in the Land Office in 1964, bur quickly switched to the DewanBahasa dan Pustaka (Language and Literature Bureau) as an AssistantEditor, subsequently rising swiftly to become successively an Editor,Senior Editor, and Language Officer. His in-service training included aone-year course in Malay Studies at the University of Malaya in 1968,(1) followed in 1971-2 by a course in Writing and Book Production at theUniversity of London's Institute of Education in Tropical Areas. In1998 he was appointed a Research Fellow in the Department of MalayStudies at the University of Brunei Darussalam. He married DayangKamsiah binti Sulaiman, with whom he had one child as at 1986-7. (2) A prodigious output of novels, short stories, and works forchildren has brought Muslim Burmat a string of prizes. The firstBruneian to claim the "South-East Asia Write [sic] Award" (in1986), he is also a double winner of the MASTERAAward, first in 2001 andagain in 2007. In 1999 he was presented with the Anugerah SasteraNusantara in Johor Baharu and in 2002 he was recognized as a TokohSastera Brunei Darussalam (PBA 8.1.2003:1). He won the Novel-WritingCompetition marking the Silver Jubilee in 1992, and ended as runner-upin similar national competitions in 1980, 1982, and 1983. He has aisoreceived a Bahana creative award. The process culminated on 15 July 2006when he was created DPMB, carrying the style Dato Paduka, by His MajestySultan Hassanai Bolkiah (BBSO Su.16.7.2006:h2.htm). A photograph of himdating from 1986 may be found on page forty-eight of the June 2004 issueof JMBRAS. In 'Man and Society' (a copy of which was supplied to thereviewer by the author) Mr. Gallop sketches the literary background inBrunei/NBD and the wider regional context. He then traces MuslimBurmat's development as a novelist, five major works publishedbetween 1982 and 1996 being subjected to detailed examination. Chaptertwo looks at two early works, Lati Bersama Musim (1982) and HadiahSebuah Impian (1983). Chapter three analyzes themes of migration andintrospection in Puncak Pertama (1988). Chapter four deals withdialogues and divisions in Terbenamnya Matahari published in 1996 butactually written after Sebuah Pantai di Negeri Asing (1995), which isdiscussed in chapter five. A final chapter assesses Muslim Burmat'scontribution to Malay literature. Gallop, whose original BA degree fromthe University of London was in English (p. 255), does not consider UrihPesisir (1999), an 832-page tome with a preface by Dr. Haji Hashim binHaji Abdul Hamid, which was launched at UBD on 5 May 1999 (PB19.5.1999:11). It should be noted in passing that only three novels hadbeen published by Brunei writers before Muslim Burmat adopted theformat. As a member of the minority Kedayan ethnic group, Dato Muslimwrites from a position that is lateral to the mainstream. This enableshim to adopt a more "objective" approach. He also tends tofocus on people occupying the lower ranks of society; persons from theupper classes are almost never featured in his novels. He portrays asociety that is less than just, for example in the unequal powerrelations between employer and worker (pp. 124-5); compassion for humblepeople is one of his characteristics. He narrates without comment andtends to eschew explicit social criticism. Historical markers are oftenplanted in his works, although specific dates are rarely mentioned; oneof his motives seems to be to record for younger generations a way oflife that is disappearing. More importantly, a knowledge of history isseen as a means of establishing face and identity (p. 158). Viewed bysome as primarily a nationalist writer, it might be countered that,particularly in his later books, he has actually transcended chauvinismand the narrow limits of Negara Brunei Darussalam to produce texts ofuniversal application. A melancholic quality informs much of hiswriting. The use of"interior monologue" is noticed. Rhetoricand elegy are adopted here and there. A tendency to didacticism isdetectable on occasion (particularly in his second novel). Themes ofmigration, alienation, and "social character'" areexplored. A dissection of the individual human psyche is attempted inPuncak Pertama, which is also the first of his novels to includenon-Malay characters; racial stereotyping is avoided. TerbenamnyaMatahari touches on the role of women in society. Sebuah Panlai probesgently issues such as (no less) the meaning of life. The erudition worn lightly by Gallop in the "Pengembara"series emerges in its full flower in "Man and Society." Thereis something new to be learned on virtually every page of this lucid,subtle, and well-integrated study. Telling (but never gratuitous) use ismade of European concepts, everyone from Fromm to Derrida, from Freud toAlthusser, from Fielding to Hegel being called in aid. The richness ofMuslim Burmat's work emerges strongly. The novelist seldom presentsa single or simplistic view of an issue; and he rarely leavesuncontested a position which he himself has seemed to assert (pp. 152,154). He has an informed and liberal world view; his aim is to"provoke thought" (p. 118). He conveys dissent "byraising a question and then posing various answers in the text that willsuit different persuasions of reader, including those dissatisfied withthe status quo in [Negara] Brunei [Darussalam]" (p. 179). In duecourse dialogue becomes the novelist's "foremostdistinguishing stylistic feature"; there is a "'growingreluctance" to narrate scenes of action. Muslim Burmat developsmore interest in "delineation of character and an exploration ofthe workings of the human mind." Islam is seen to have a place inthe novels which are believed to fulfil some of the accepted criteria of"Islamic" writing. Failure is explored rather than success,allowing the author to make manifest the essential frailtyof"man". This is a "bold departure"' in thecontext of the nation-building imperative in the sultanate (p 230). ButMuslim Burmat does not introduce any new narrative techniques; and"linguistic ineptitudes and other infelicities of language"are "'not hard to discern" (p. 239). There is a tendencytowards "verbosity in dialogue"; his longer novels mightbenefit from "greater concision and excision" (p. 240).Nevertheless, the novelist's work deals with fundamental questions(notably the relations of human beings with one another, with theirenvironment, and with the Islamic deity); and in such a way as to amountto a "significant contribution to Malay literature" as a whole(p. 244). Since 2000, when Gallop was writing, Muslim Burmat has published astream of further works, including Makna Sebenar Sebuah Ladang, a novellaunched on 28 December 2002 (PBA 8.1.2003: 1) and Terbang Tinggi,published on Wednesday 7 May 2003 by the Malay Literature Department atUBD (BBO Th.8.5.2003:h13.htm). His latest work of fiction, Ntaidu, isreported to discuss the devastation caused by drought, food shortages,and famine in a village community that depended upon agriculture as itsmain source of income. Two further books, Permainan Ombak and Naskhah,were in press in late 2007 (BBO Tu.27.11.2007; BBO F.30.11.2007). Muslim Burmat emerges from Mr. Gallop's scholarly analysis asa novelist of considerable skill and complexity, well deserving of thehigh status he enjoys in his own country and overseas. "Man andSociety" itself has never been published as such, although asummary appeared in JMBRAS in 2004. This is unfortunate because Gallopis a literary critic of no mean ability. Scholars ordering a copy ofthis thesis via inter-library loan from Universiti Sains Malaysia wouldbe well repaid for their time and trouble. (1) Brunei Annual Report 1968:180. (2) Mas Osman, Biografi Penulis Brunei (DBP, BSB, 1987):97-8. (AVM Horton, Bordesley, Worcestershire, UK, Thursday 12 February2009)