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Elevating the status of Malay literature
By Rosli Abidin Yahya
Some four officers
from the Language and Literature Bureau (DBP), Ministry
of Culture, Youth and Sports departed for Jakarta,
Indonesia yesterday morning to attend a sub-committee
meeting towards elevating the status of the Malay
literature to be on par with major world language
literatures.
Led by DBP Deputy
Director Hj Abu Bakar bin Hj Zainal - the head of Brunei
Darussalam's delegation - other officers in the group
included Senior Language Officer Dayang Aminah bte Hj
Momin - the secretary of Brunei Darussalam's Southeast
Asia Literature Council (Brunei MASTERA), Senior Writer
Awang Alimin bin Haji Abdul Hamid - Brunei MASTERA
Secretariat, and Writer Dayang Hajah Shaharah bte Dato
Paduka Haji Abd Wahab - Brunei MASTERA Secretariat.
According to Dayang
Aminah, the June 24 - 25 meeting to be held in Banten,
Jakarta will discuss additional and further actions for
the oncoming 9th MASTERA Conference to be held on March
6 - 7 next year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
MASTERA, she said,
will also be announcing all its activities for the year
2004 and will table proposals for the Council's
literature activities for next year.
"Activities for the
year 2004 include publications of Pangsura Journal by
Brunei Darussalam, MASTERA add-on publications in Bahana
magazine, and the programme to introduce local and
regional literary figures and literati to schools.
"Other activities
include the teaching and learning of regional Malay
literature, essay writing programme, 8th Literature
Comparison Lecture, Regional Literature Teachers
Seminar, Research on Poem Comparison 20 years after
independence, Research on short stories, Comparison 20
years after independence, and short descriptions of
classic literature works," she said.
Dayang Aminah also
listed out proposals for next year's MASTERA activities
such as the planned 10th MASTERA Conference.
"We will be discussing
the agendas for the conference such as determining a
suitable theme, deciding time and place, and publishing
the results of MASTERA activities, giving recognitions
to participants of MASTERA Writing Program from the
three member countries, and the proposal for a poem and
short stories competition for teenagers in the three
member nations," she said.
Apart from that, the committee will also determine the
meetings to be organised by the sub-committee, discuss
the next MASTERA Writing programme in drama, the 9th
Comparison Literature Lecture and MASTERA add-ons pages
to literature magazines in the thee member nations and
scrutinising the Malay Lithography Manuscript.
The delegation will return to Brunei Darussalam on
Saturday.
Source: Brunei Press
Sdn Bhd
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