The Malay Heritage Foundation‘s (MHF) Sembang Ilmu Series (SIS) returned for its eighth session in November 2022. The SIS forum, supported by Yayasan Mendaki, was co-organised with Singapore Book Council, with special thanks to Ethos Books and Ungu Pen. The forum titled “From Cradle to Grave – From Tradition to Preservation” featured Ustaz Alfian Yasrif Kuchit as the moderator and guest speakers: Maria Mahat, Zakaria Zainal and Fauzy Ismail.
Saturday, 26 November 2022 – MHF Intern, Aqilah Dahlan, began the session by welcoming the audience and speakers gathered in the Singapore Book Council Training Room at the Goodman Arts Centre. She briefly introduced the Sembang Ilmu Series (SIS) before passing it on to Ustaz Alfian Yasrif Kuchit for his opening address. Ustaz Alfian began with his short opening address and shared his difficulties as a father to find children’s storybooks that are not only in the Malay language but also aesthetically pleasing, locally produced, and spoke to the local Malay experience. He introduced Maria Mahat, a co-founder of Ungu Pen, an independent publisher and distributor of quality books and educational content. She has also written extensively in various genres and has published works in English and Malay. Maria is then called on as the first speaker to kickstart the forum.
Maria began the forum from the aspect of the cradle (or birth). As a storyteller, book publisher, and adult trainer, with a background in early childhood education, she shared book titles she has written thus far, including “There are saga seeds in our pockets!”. Maria left full-time employment in 2015 to focus on writing her books. She also took the role of freelance teacher, trainer and museum educator and has worked with the National Heritage Board to run Singapore’s Little Treasures program. From the programme, she received feedback from educators that there was a demand for Malay books centred on Singaporean lived experiences. This prompted her to publish the bilingual book “There are saga seeds in our pockets!”.
The book focuses on the character Mahir, a pre-schooler alongside his friend who went on a learning journey to the Malay Heritage Centre to see a snapshot of Singapore’s history and the vicinity of Kampung Gelam and the Malay culture. The book has then been translated into Mandarin. In 2021, in collaboration with Esplanade, a digital programme was done for the book.
Despite the book, some educators still request more books covering concepts such as kampung life. This prompted another book publication, “There are Treasures in Our Library!”. The book also encourages parents and their children to visit the library and included a broad spectrum of topics such as space and earth to batik and songket. Maria also shared other books published under Ungu Pen on the Malay culture but acknowledged that more could be done to cover a broader aspect of the culture.
Maria found that children’s books provided a safe platform to write a culture that is not so imposing and can come with rich ideas and thoughts. After stumbling upon a book on indigenous practices of childbirth, she then wrote Selamat Datang Ke Dunia Mahir Mirza (Welcome to this world Mahir Mirza), which captures Mahir’s growth from birth to the age of one. Maria followed up with another sequel – “Mahir Mirza Boleh!” for ages two to four. These four titles formed the Mahir Mirza series.
The idea behind the books would be Object-Based Learning (OBL), a form of active learning that uses artworks, artifacts, archival materials, and digital representation of unique objects to inspire close observation and deep critical thinking. The type of learning also provides a direct link to the past and is multisensorial, engaging the senses, especially touch and sight. Furthermore, central to the pedagogy would be See, Think, Wonder (STW), a thinking routine strategy developed by Project Zero Harvard which Maria adopted to allow children to develop close observation and deep critical thinking skills. One object she used in the book “There are Saga Seeds in our Pockets!” was the congkak.
Through the illustration in her book, Maria also incorporated the teaching of adab (manners) and kesantunan (politeness), such as salam (giving respect to the elders), eating etiquette, and other forms of Malay decorum. As such, her book features tangible (physical artefacts such as congkak) and intangible cultural heritage (displays of adab and kesantunan in her illustrations).
Maria next delved into the central tenet of her book, “Selamat Datang ke Dunia Mahir Mirza“, which was the cultural practices of welcoming a baby into a Malay/Muslim family and the child’s developmental milestones. In the book, some examples of intangible and tangible cultural heritage displayed were: Batik, choosing a good name for the baby, Azan and Iqamat (Recitation of a Muslim prayer on both right and left ears), Aqiqah (Sacrifice of goats or sheep for charity), Tahlik (Shaving of baby’s hair for charity), Malay lullabies and Silaturahhim (Maintaining relationships and bonding). Showing these intangible and tangible cultural heritages through object-based learning and the “See, Think, Wonder” thinking routine strategy helps pique children’s interest and ensure that learning is hands-on, using authentic materials and multi-sensorial. She further explained that children are curious, competent and active learners.
Ending her presentation, Maria highlighted that stories are also a form of intangible cultural heritage. She hopes that the younger generation can learn about the snapshot of Singapore’s history and the Malay culture, heritage, and tradition through the book series of Mahir Mirza. She also hopes the book helps cultivate awareness and appreciation for the rich culture and tradition from the cradle so that children become lifelong knowledge seekers, leaders, and heritage advocates.
Next, Ustaz Alfian introduced the next speaker, Zakaria Zainal, who will be joined by his co-author Fauzy Ismail in the Q&A segment. Fauzy Ismail graduated with a degree in architecture from the National University of Singapore, and his research interests focus on Singapore’s architecture and heritage. His co-author, Zakaria Zainal, has published several books and is a photographer.
The book Khairat Kita was a project by three authors: Zakaria Zainal, Fauzy Ismail, and Zaki Jumahri. It centres on the perennial question of what happens after death. Zakaria shared that he is interested in understanding the context of being Malay and Muslim in Singapore. With that comes the concept of Khairat Kematian.
It is a volunteer, community-led initiative based on the centuries-old tradition of mutual aid. It also entails everyone pitching a small amount towards an accumulated pooled capital for the person needing the money. Only 20 of such organisations are left, and with the declining membership and ageing committee members, the future looks uncertain for these Malay/Muslim Mutual Benefit Organisations (MMBOs).
With the project, the authors decided for it to be narrative-driven as they wanted to inform others’ stories. Touching on how the MMBOs work, Zakaria elaborated that the system involved members who set aside $2 to $10 a month to ensure that when the member or his family members passed away, all Islamic funeral arrangements would be carried out for him at no extra charge. All the necessary procedures, such as prayers, bathing the body, embalming, and transport to the burial ground, will also be included. Additionally, the family will also receive bereavement aid. A few things to note were how death could be central to Muslims and the concept of paying it forward when it comes to death ceremonies.
To add to his sharing, Zakaria briefly introduced the history of Badan Khairat, starting from the 1890s when informal Malay/Muslim mutual aid organisations were formed to 2022, where only 22 MMBOs remain and a total of 70 MBOs remain.
Comparing his presentation with Maria’s, Zakaria brought out the concept of community and displacement. With the transition from post-Merdeka onwards, some communities could be displaced more than once. Therefore, for them to be able to gather and collect their strengths collectively was a difficult feat.
The authors realised that Khairat Kematian organisations are social anchors in the community and that they are the custodians of the intangible cultural heritage of Singapore’s Malay/Muslim community.
Zakaria then proceeded to share two stories, the first being the story of a founder and president, Haji Mohamed Ali Bin Hj Ismail. Haji Mohamed Ali established BARKIS (Badan Kebajikan Khairat Kampong West Coast Singapura) in 1984 to create a community in the newly built West Coast area. He also organised religious and inter-ethnic outreach.
For the project, Zakaria informed that there were multiple parts, such as the research component, where they look into the different MMBOs present, and the book, where they distill the different stories. Another challenge the authors faced was that the project was done during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced them to rely on people’s conversations, archives, and old stories.
Another individual highlighted in Zakaria’s presentation is Mr. Haji Yahaya Bin Kadri, a retired staff of Singapore Customs and a member of an organisation of the Singapore Customs & Immigration Muslim Staff Benevolent Association for 50 years. His organisation supported the Muslim staff of Customs and now extends to Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA). Haji Yahaya also organised religious and cultural outreach within Customs.
Zakaria wrapped up his presentation by posing two questions: how these organisations can continue to thrive in the next generation, and what is the fate of volunteer organisations such as Khairat Kematian under the Mutual Benefit Organisation Act (Cap 191)?
The forum concluded with a Q&A segment where the panellists were invited to answer several questions from the virtual audience. The session was joined by an on-site audience and viewers tuning in from MHF’s Facebook live.
“From Cradle to Grave – From Tradition to Preservation” marks the third SIS event for the MHF in 2022. Previous SIS sessions were held in 2020 and 2021. SIS is a discursive platform for our youths and young professionals to deliberate and discusses issues relating to the socio-cultural development of the Malays in Singapore from a contemporary perspective. SIS supports and provides a platform for youths to discuss these issues and topics with MHF.
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