In the year 2009, at an MPH bookstore event meant to promote the Singaporean Writers Festival, Wong Phui Nam quipped that “Malaysian English literature is fast becoming an adjunct of Singaporean writing”, shocking his audience at said event, and (judging by several posts on the internet) angering many commentators of Malaysian literature. He also lamented that many writers have migrated to Singapore, and that there is a lack of younger, fresh talent in the Malaysian writing scene. Whether his observations hold water is still debatable of course (the online debates being a testament of this), but what can be said about Phui Nam is this- the man is not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to this subject.

At the risk of sounding like we are straddling the fence, we on this site are of the humble opinion that Phui Nam had reasonable cause to make the statements he made. At the same time however, we agree with the general sentiment of dissatisfaction expressed in the online posts with regards to Phui Nam’s dark prophecy about the future of Malaysian literature in English left at the hands of the current generation. While clearly there is a lot to be desired currently, to say that the prospects for Malaysian literature in English is so bleak that it would cease to exist as we know it, and would instead become an adjunct of Singaporean literature is uncalled for.

Yet Phui Nam being Phui Nam- if our lay man’s observation on his person after seeing him read and talk at a handful of conferences and readings count for anything- perhaps he knew exactly what he was getting into when he made this controversial statement. Perhaps his disgruntled old man’s speech was meant to provoke, and challenge the current generation of writers to more actively write- and write better, at that. Perhaps, like the writer Amir Muhammad puts it in his comment on Sharon Bakar’s blog, Uncle Phui Nam was just being “naughty”.