#MalaysiaYangMuda : Rosli Ibrahim

Editorial

#MalaysiaYangMuda is a weekly series of short interviews with our friends and movers of politics, arts, and culture who continuously make Malaysia and its people livelier. With us today, Rosli Ibrahim!

In our eighth week, we sat down for a lengthy conversation of almost four hours of phone interview with Rosli Ibrahim, a disability-rights activist with OKU Bangkit, accomplished writer and ardent reader-organizer of Bacaan Liar, Reading Group Malaysia and Kuliah Buku among others. Through the conversation excerpts, we look at Rosli’s amateurish yet rigorous intellectual formation that had inspired his participation in diverse literary and book activisms in Malaysia in the midst of the Reformasi period.

MM: Malaysia Muda / RI: Rosli Ibrahim

MM: If we were to take this conversation further back to your life’s history, is it possible for you to briefly share with us your upbringing? Many people identify you as a voracious reader. What triggered you to become an avid reader back then?

RI: Both of my parents are illiterate. And as you know, I am also partially blind. I was properly aware of it since young. Although my father is illiterate, he has a noble character. He will search for books or newspapers from the dustbins. I am a proud son of an illiterate father. Every day, he would bring them back for me so I could read them.

I was born in 1973. I attended school in the early ’80s in Pasir Mas, Kelantan. But of course, we did not have adequate exposure during then about my condition. I was sent to a school for the visually impaired in Johor. At the school, I did not make friends so every day, the library was the place for me to go as they had Braille-based resources.

These conditions triggered my involvement with disable activism. In the early 80s, I was introduced to ‘sighted writing’ for those who are partially blind. There was also an observation room to teach partially blind students to write using the pen and also, reading. During that time, I took the chance to practice my reading.

I also have dyslexia of which I got to know when I entered secondary school in St John Institution, Kuala Lumpur. I was often being thrown things by the teacher there because I always misspelled the letters ‘b’ and ‘d’. It was the first time I knew that I have dyslexia. At that time, St John had an integrated program where a student with different needs is in the same class as normal students. Just imagine, a blind student with forty other normal students in one class.

In school, we also have a transcribing room to change Braille to normal writing, and vice versa. I faced hardships in writing. I am not good at writing but to overcome that, I develop my reading skills intensively. I guess that’s fate. That’s how fate works, we do not understand it when it happens during the time. Only as time passes, then it makes sense.

Returning to my father’s story, there used to be a small bookshop by the main road in Pasir Mas. It was during the school holiday in late 1986, I asked my father to buy two books entitled ‘Senjata Hikmat’ by Ali Zulfakar and ‘Risalah Hukum Jimak’.

My father did not know what was inside the book as he could not read. My mother was furious with him as she thought my father bought me pornographic books because of the cover they had in front.

Another interesting thing is that my father also brought back a book by Hamka entitled ‘Falsafah Hidup’ published by Pustaka Antara. Sadly, I no longer have it with me. It was one of the few initial ‘heavy’ readings that I encountered.

Starting from that moment, when I was 13 years old, to overcome my hardships in writing, I started reading. From then on, I always looked for books and went around the city looking for bookshops. It was during that time, I got to know of a bookstore at Wisma Yakin by the name Pustaka Indonesia.

The owner, Pak Agus, is someone that I knew way back when I was still a teenager, wearing my school uniform and did not have much money to buy any books. But the owner never stopped me from reading the books.

There was another important thing that occurred to me. For us who are partially blind, we will help to read books for our blind friends. We will be reading any notes or books of which they will transcribe it into Braille. It was through this exercise, that it helped me to read faster. I was the reader for my other blind friends. We read novels as well.

We will be in a circle and I will read it to the group. That was how I believe it shaped me as an avid reader. Additionally, I also have another teacher who taught religious studies where she would read to us a book by Tamar Jalis entitled ‘Talking With the Djinns’. This was something that we picked up during our secondary school. We even read mild erotic materials back then!

What I want to say here is that, blind people are not hampered towards reading but the condition is what makes all the difference. There’s another story that I found profound, though it might not sound intellectual. It is just a story of normal people. There was a gardener who loved reading. He would read Dewan Siswa and Dewan Masyarakat during that time. I still remember there was at one point when there was series of report on Shamsiah Fakeh of which those who were interested would follow the story eagerly. The gardener was the one who helped read it for me.

It was the same for the activity of collective newspaper reading during the school assembly. The teachers would read important news for all of us. I still remember vividly the Mina Tunnel tragedy in the 90s in Mecca. I also learnt a lot by listening to the radio. I was being exposed to all the mediums at that time.

Beginning from there, I would always go to Pustaka Indonesia which is located in front of the Masjid India. There were different second-hand bookstalls in the area as well. It was really cheap. I still have the books with me now. It was from my rather little savings; through the pocket money from my parents.

I still remember staring at people eating fried rice, but I only ate whatever there was only in order to buy books! It was sad if I was to recall but it was such a fulfilling moment. I would not allow people to borrow any of my books because of that! That was how I became an ardent reader.

But then, if we are going to talk of my intellectual background and formation, it’s got to do with how the ustaz that I got to know shaped my readings as well. I still remember the teacher, I called him Ustaz Nawawi who taught history. It was during that time, there was the emergence of the Islamic movements, from tabligh, Al-Arqam, and to the ABIM (Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia) movement.

It was quite common at that time for teachers to be involved in those kinds of movements. They were the ones who brought it up to us and encouraged me to ask everything. Ustaz Nawawi was one of the few people who let me borrow his books. One of the first books that he lent me was by Ahmad Amir published by Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka entitled “Fajar Islam”. I already knew Hamka by that time.

Another teacher I will remember fondly was Ustaz Zainon. The Islamic debate that we have now among the Salafis, of which I was involved in during the early 2000s, was something I had a background in. I had read A. Hassan Bandung, ‘Seribu Satu Permasalahan” that engaged the debate when I was thirteen years old.

Besides, Ustaz Zainon would be the go-to-person if I wanted to understand more of the Muktazilah and Asyariyah sides of the debate. Interestingly, never once did my teacher tell me off by saying that I’m just a school student to know anything about the debate.

He explained everything clearly as if I am a mature person. He appreciated my interests and I’m fortunate to have these kinds of people in my circle. Once, the teacher also recommended me books to further understand the discussions.

The reading materials were also full of quality at that time. By the late 80s, it was quite common, if you were to browse through the magazines, there were already talking about Rene Descartes in the segment of world philosophy. They were talking about all the Muslim philosophers as well.

It meant that I was exposed to these kinds of readings beforehand. It was the same with the newspapers as well where there was a lot of discussion on the Prophet’s sayings (hadith). The Shia-Sunni polemics was also present quite prominently back then.

I have a habit of making scrapbooks out of newspaper cuttings. I make it for myself. I still remember going to Mamak stalls and asked if there were any leftover newspapers. I would buy them for ten cents each. I would go through one by one and make my scrapbooks. It sort of became like a personal archive of mine.

You are aware of the controversy with the Sri Petaling mosque recently? That is with all the Covid-19 clusters among the tabligh. Back in the 80s, the tabligh group was active at Masjid India instead before they moved to Sri Petaling mosque. It was during that time I was exposed to those trained in Islamic teachings in India and I followed tabligh as well during then when I was fourteen years old.

I have a friend who bears the same name as me, Rosli. He is a religious teacher in Terengganu now but was trained in South Africa before that. He was the one who brought me into the tabligh circle. I have my nostalgia and sympathy towards the movement to a certain extent. I followed the mass gathering organized by the tabligh groups. I even went out for ‘three’ or ‘forty days’ doing dakwah.

What I want to tell you is not about tabligh directly but during the gathering, there was always bookstalls, from where the Bazar is now in front of the Masjid India all the way to Masjid Jamek. The book market was where I used to find books. Every week, even if I do not have any money, if its only ten ringgit in my pocket, I will go around to look for books.

That was how I got to know Pustaka Indonesia initially. Just imagine, it was full of book markets on both sides of the road. It was popular back in the 80s. One of the most prominent publishers at that time was Thinker’s Library.

But of course, I did not have a lot of money so any books that I could get my hands on, will be read enthusiastically until it is worn out! I will reread it from page to page. That was how I remember my book world.

MM: If we were to follow your development, having being exposed and encountering different reading materials, it seemed like a fermentation period where from reading, gradually it influenced your way of organizing around the act of reading itself, from book discussions to reading groups. It is such an important transition. Regarding this, will it be possible for you to share with us if there were any moments, as early as the 80s that shaped your inclination?

RI: If I were to trace back and confined it to political moments, it might be when, PAS (the Islamic Party of Malaysia) managed to capture Kelantan, a Malay belt state in the eastern part of peninsular Malaysia during the election.

The students who were from Kelantan at that time celebrated PAS’s triumph. We were so loud that the warden in our boarding school was aware of the noises we made. Of course, it might only be because of the local sentiments but it sowed the seeds for how I got to be interested in politics.

Besides that, I would love to share how my parents have shaped me. My father is such a great person and though he was an illiterate person, it did not mean that he was not knowledgeable. He was a rickshaw driver so when he finished working, he would rest together with his friends. Chitchats and discussions of the news among his friends was what he would bring back to our family.

He would share anything with us, from everyday news to the questions of Islamic political thinking. It was something that I found interesting. For me, he is an organic intellectual. He instilled my love for knowledge without him saying it. He led by example in that sense.

Even my mother, you have to know this, you can imagine, a young blind child was going to be sent far away to study. There were disagreements in my family to decide whether or not to send me away. For my mother, she said that it’s better to send me away as we were poor and they would not live forever. We did not have anything except for knowledge in our life.

My mother is someone who appreciates knowledge hence the reason why she chose to send me away. It was quite normal for Kelantanese workers to cross to Singapore for work and my father used to work there as well. Because of that, he would visit me every week. I was attending Princess Elizabeth School, Johor Bahru at that time.

When I finished school, I already started to read Harakah (PAS official main newspaper). At that time, I got to buy Harakah at Puduraya. There was a stall nearby where there were a lot of magazines from Indonesia like Gantra and Historia. The time of the nineties was a vibrant era for magazine publications like Dunia Islam, which was very popular. At that time, the editor was Pak Zin Mahmud.

I still remember, during 92’, the biggest news was about how FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) was betrayed after an election in Algeria. They won the election but were denied through a coup. Beginning from that, I become anti-democracy. I felt that democracy was for non-believers.

Magazines at that time, the orientation was already towards jihadis, anti-democracy precisely because of the situation at that time. I understood the context where it makes people become anti-democracy. I experienced that myself.

I was attracted to ABIM after being aware of Anwar Ibrahim but I was not quite sure how to become a member. ABIM also published a lot of books during that time. I think, the 1990s – 2000s was like a publication heaven. Very vibrant. Can you imagine, within a month I have to buy different magazines; Ummah, Dunia Islam, Al-Arqam with their magazine of Dunia Baru among others.

It did influence me to read a lot of Islamic publications. The discourse can be perceived as one dimensional if I am to look at it again. I guess the freshest idea was only by Fathi Aris (a senior journalist). That was the reason I was attracted to know him personally.

Of course, Reformasi in 1998 influenced me intellectually, morally, and socially. For example, intellectually I have to challenge everything that I know previously by engaging with different groups like UBU (Universiti Bangsar Utama).

If you are aware during the early 2000s, the polemic was on liberal Islam. At that time, Pustaka Indonesia had been selling a lot of books by Paramadina, a liberal Islam publisher based in Indonesia. During that time, I got to know about their publications.

The 98’ event had shifted me away from reading alone to doing it collectively by engaging different groups. Koi loved to share, he is just like Benz Ali, from Kuliah Buku. Sometimes, he will dissect everything. He is now teaching in UKM.

In 1998’, I did not join any protest or political event at UBU. For me, I don’t affiliate myself with politics. It might be related to my fear. Of course, one of the most interesting phenomena was the political rally. I liked attending them. I lived in Kampung Padang Balang before getting married, which is quite near to Taman Melewar where the PAS Headquarter is.

I would walk to listen to the political speeches but what were more interesting for me were the booksellers. It was there that I took my opportunity to have access to many interesting reading resources.

After the turbulent period of Reformasi, there was a surge of the non-periodical newspaper. Of course, most of it carried political content but with Ahmad Lutfi Othman, a former editor and journalist, he had a different touch to it. Harakah, for example, during the 90s was different from the 2010s and above.

In the 90s, the headline for Harakah will be political but if you went inside and read it, there was a lot of intellectual content. I got to know the discourse of indigenization and Islamization of knowledge through this kind of paper. In the 90s, Harakah was partially political. The articles were so diverse.

Newspapers like SIASAH and Eksklusif published by Karangkraf were carrying a lot of intellectual writings. I still have every newspaper from that time. I guess we do not have this culture in Malaysia like in Indonesia. We did not republish columnist writings and articles. For me, the debate happened there.

For example, the debate on Ulama leadership in PAS already happened since 2003. The criticism towards the Ulama leadership can be traced back to during that period based on the newspaper columns. It is not enough to interview people who were involved, it is the writings that will prevail.

The polemic on liberal Islam faced as well the same situation. It had happened earlier but it was drowned by various political maneuverings. All the polemics that emerged during that time, I will try to find books and engage as much as possible with different people from a diverse background. We have to dissect our own opinion and go through the intellectual formations for each polemic.

MM: It is important when you mentioned that in the process, we can observe the transition that occurs between different generations. One of them is the lack of discourse to sustain the movement hence influencing the way these groups were enticed into institutionalized politics. How do you perceive this phenomena?

RI: If you noticed, the vibrancy of these kinds of discussion groups were important to understand these phenomena. For example, Buku Jalanan helped to popularize these phenomena. The same goes for a group like Lepak Maqasid. But the problem is the opportunists who is everywhere in the discussion and book scene. They were the ones who reap the fruits of labors from the others. 

For the opportunists, it is merely a ‘cloth’ for them to wear. Not many who are consistent with the discourse, it is perceive to be too idealistic. (Partisan) politics is more tempting. We cannot predict what kind of fruits of labor we are going to reap.

I have been thinking of this since 2008 when I founded Reading Group Malaysia, an online platform with the initial idea to archive everything that I have read. I did all the re-writing and scanned everything for the blog. At that time, Facebook was still not popular. Sometimes, we do not see how it develops along the way but can only look at how it prevails now.

I am satisfied with how people are still looking and searching in my blog. It is the same as the book itself; it will never finish being read. Once you read something earlier when you were young, and you read it again today, it will always give you a different experience.

It’s a learning process for those who are readers. You must breathe and live for knowledge. You do not have anything more beyond that. We have to love the knowledge, its like a fountain. Love will make you sacrifice anything; same goes with knowledge.

I guess this is the situation facing our reading community. When I am sharing with you this story; when I became a reader to my fellow blind friends, why I opened a blog were because of this – the importance of doing things; reading, and discussing collaboratively.

I got the idea to form a blog from the same community, Reading Group Singapore. I knew Imran Mohamed Taib and Dr. Azhar Ibrahim at that time. Of course, the direction of the group in Singapore may be different but I can form the philosophy of Reading Group Malaysia myself. For me, we have to read voraciously, everything that we can get hold on to.

Another important initiative that I have is Bacaan Liar. It is actually the same materials that I shared on the blog but now, it is being run on Facebook as it is more accessible. It has to do with another initiative, OKU Bangkit, a coalition of disabled activists pushing to create awareness, which was established on 17th March 2013. Both initiatives shared the same founding date.

It has got to do with the questions of knowledge accessibility for the disabled community. If you ever come across DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System), it is a system where it questions the concept of accessibility of knowledge and information. It is a concept of ‘universal design’. When there is a situation of ‘print disability’; it does not necessarily print materials but also audio and visual materials.

It is a common discussion in disability studies. So I was in the midst of developing a structure on how to share more knowledge. Since then, it sparked my initiative to continue my sharing with everyone. To ‘memasyarakatkan’ (to ‘societize’) the knowledge.

It was through these kinds of groups, I became aware that people like to read but it is a question of accessibility and sources of reading materials. So from here, we are opening the possibility to allow people to explore more ideas. ‘Bacaan Liar’ allows the space to do that, hence forming the reading community. If you noticed, the emergence of various groups emerges during that particular time.

Coming back to Reformasi, people always perceived 98’ as a political event but for me, it was more like an intellectual event. The debate is more on what exactly was democracy. People were being urged to know what exactly democracy is and what are the limitations? But for the past twenty years, we didn’t produce anything substantial, let’s say, thorough debates on the questions of human rights or feminism.

For me, although we have passed the twenty years mark of Reformasi the inherent problem that we are facing now is where most of the groups are being tempted to get involved in partisan politics instead…

Notes: The interview was conducted by fellow Malaysia Muda writer-organizer, Zikri Rahman, who is currently doing his research on sporadic networks of knowledge production circles and cultural intervention in Malaysia.