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Sunday January 16, 2011
Abdullah: My work is being misunderstood
PETALING JAYA: The word “pariah” in the novel Interlok was not intended to offend or belittle the Indian community, said its author Datuk Abdullah Hussain.
The 91-year-old said he was disappointed that people misunderstood his work and accused him of being racist.
He said the novel was written to describe the unity between the natives of the peninsula, who were Malays, and the Chinese who came to work in the tin mines and Indians brought in by the English as labourers.
“We have to understand that the term ‘pariah’ exists in India, but not in Malaysia.
“That’s the difference between India and Malaysia.
“Furthermore, the word exists in the dictionary, but Indians here want to forget about the caste system and the term pariah,” he told Mingguan MStar, the weekly Malay news magazine of The Star.
Abdullah said the contents of Interlok only became an issue because some quarters did not understand the true essence of the novel.
“If you read until the end, you will see the actual meaning. I pictured the respective roles of the Malays, Chinese and Indians.
“The unity between the three races shaped our nation and the Malaysian race,” said the National Laureate.
At a ponggal festival at the MIC headquarters yesterday, MIC president Datuk G. Palanivel maintained that the word “pariah” should be dropped from the novel.
He said although the Interlok issue was not political, it was sensitive to the Malaysian Indian community.
Interlok is used as a literature textbook for Form Five students, beginning this year.
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