Christopher Hugh Gallop, Man and Society in the Novels of Muslim Burmat: A Critical Analysis.

Christopher Hugh Gallop, Man and Society in the Novels of Muslim Burmat: A Critical Analysis. Unpublished MA thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia, November 2000. 255pp.

'Muslim Burmat' is the pen-name used by Dato Paduka Awang Haji Muslim bin Haji Burut DPMB SMB PJK PIKB PKL, who is regarded as the greatest living writer in Negara Brunei Darussalam. Born on 15 April 1943, he was educated in both English and Malay. He began work as a clerk in the Land Office in 1964, bur quickly switched to the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Language and Literature Bureau) as an Assistant Editor, subsequently rising swiftly to become successively an Editor, Senior Editor, and Language Officer. His in-service training included a one-year course in Malay Studies at the University of Malaya in 1968, (1) followed in 1971-2 by a course in Writing and Book Production at the University of London's Institute of Education in Tropical Areas. In 1998 he was appointed a Research Fellow in the Department of Malay Studies at the University of Brunei Darussalam. He married Dayang Kamsiah binti Sulaiman, with whom he had one child as at 1986-7. (2)

A prodigious output of novels, short stories, and works for children has brought Muslim Burmat a string of prizes. The first Bruneian to claim the "South-East Asia Write [sic] Award" (in 1986), he is also a double winner of the MASTERAAward, first in 2001 and again in 2007. In 1999 he was presented with the Anugerah Sastera Nusantara in Johor Baharu and in 2002 he was recognized as a Tokoh Sastera Brunei Darussalam (PBA 8.1.2003:1). He won the Novel-Writing Competition marking the Silver Jubilee in 1992, and ended as runner-up in similar national competitions in 1980, 1982, and 1983. He has aiso received a Bahana creative award. The process culminated on 15 July 2006 when he was created DPMB, carrying the style Dato Paduka, by His Majesty Sultan Hassanai Bolkiah (BBSO Su.16.7.2006:h2.htm). A photograph of him dating from 1986 may be found on page forty-eight of the June 2004 issue of JMBRAS.

In 'Man and Society' (a copy of which was supplied to the reviewer by the author) Mr. Gallop sketches the literary background in Brunei/NBD and the wider regional context. He then traces Muslim Burmat's development as a novelist, five major works published between 1982 and 1996 being subjected to detailed examination. Chapter two looks at two early works, Lati Bersama Musim (1982) and Hadiah Sebuah Impian (1983). Chapter three analyzes themes of migration and introspection in Puncak Pertama (1988). Chapter four deals with dialogues and divisions in Terbenamnya Matahari published in 1996 but actually written after Sebuah Pantai di Negeri Asing (1995), which is discussed in chapter five. A final chapter assesses Muslim Burmat's contribution to Malay literature. Gallop, whose original BA degree from the University of London was in English (p. 255), does not consider Urih Pesisir (1999), an 832-page tome with a preface by Dr. Haji Hashim bin Haji Abdul Hamid, which was launched at UBD on 5 May 1999 (PB 19.5.1999:11). It should be noted in passing that only three novels had been published by Brunei writers before Muslim Burmat adopted the format.

As a member of the minority Kedayan ethnic group, Dato Muslim writes from a position that is lateral to the mainstream. This enables him to adopt a more "objective" approach. He also tends to focus on people occupying the lower ranks of society; persons from the upper classes are almost never featured in his novels. He portrays a society that is less than just, for example in the unequal power relations between employer and worker (pp. 124-5); compassion for humble people is one of his characteristics. He narrates without comment and tends to eschew explicit social criticism. Historical markers are often planted in his works, although specific dates are rarely mentioned; one of his motives seems to be to record for younger generations a way of life that is disappearing. More importantly, a knowledge of history is seen as a means of establishing face and identity (p. 158). Viewed by some as primarily a nationalist writer, it might be countered that, particularly in his later books, he has actually transcended chauvinism and the narrow limits of Negara Brunei Darussalam to produce texts of universal application. A melancholic quality informs much of his writing. The use of"interior monologue" is noticed. Rhetoric and elegy are adopted here and there. A tendency to didacticism is detectable on occasion (particularly in his second novel). Themes of migration, alienation, and "social character'" are explored. A dissection of the individual human psyche is attempted in Puncak Pertama, which is also the first of his novels to include non-Malay characters; racial stereotyping is avoided. Terbenamnya Matahari touches on the role of women in society. Sebuah Panlai probes gently issues such as (no less) the meaning of life.

The erudition worn lightly by Gallop in the "Pengembara" series emerges in its full flower in "Man and Society." There is something new to be learned on virtually every page of this lucid, subtle, and well-integrated study. Telling (but never gratuitous) use is made of European concepts, everyone from Fromm to Derrida, from Freud to Althusser, from Fielding to Hegel being called in aid. The richness of Muslim Burmat's work emerges strongly. The novelist seldom presents a single or simplistic view of an issue; and he rarely leaves uncontested a position which he himself has seemed to assert (pp. 152, 154). He has an informed and liberal world view; his aim is to "provoke thought" (p. 118). He conveys dissent "by raising a question and then posing various answers in the text that will suit different persuasions of reader, including those dissatisfied with the status quo in [Negara] Brunei [Darussalam]" (p. 179). In due course dialogue becomes the novelist's "foremost distinguishing stylistic feature"; there is a "'growing reluctance" to narrate scenes of action. Muslim Burmat develops more interest in "delineation of character and an exploration of the workings of the human mind." Islam is seen to have a place in the novels which are believed to fulfil some of the accepted criteria of "Islamic" writing. Failure is explored rather than success, allowing the author to make manifest the essential frailty of"man". This is a "bold departure"' in the context of the nation-building imperative in the sultanate (p 230). But Muslim Burmat does not introduce any new narrative techniques; and "linguistic ineptitudes and other infelicities of language" are "'not hard to discern" (p. 239). There is a tendency towards "verbosity in dialogue"; his longer novels might benefit from "greater concision and excision" (p. 240). Nevertheless, the novelist's work deals with fundamental questions (notably the relations of human beings with one another, with their environment, and with the Islamic deity); and in such a way as to amount to a "significant contribution to Malay literature" as a whole (p. 244).

Since 2000, when Gallop was writing, Muslim Burmat has published a stream of further works, including Makna Sebenar Sebuah Ladang, a novel launched on 28 December 2002 (PBA 8.1.2003: 1) and Terbang Tinggi, published on Wednesday 7 May 2003 by the Malay Literature Department at UBD (BBO Th.8.5.2003:h13.htm). His latest work of fiction, Ntaidu, is reported to discuss the devastation caused by drought, food shortages, and famine in a village community that depended upon agriculture as its main source of income. Two further books, Permainan Ombak and Naskhah, were in press in late 2007 (BBO Tu.27.11.2007; BBO F.30.11.2007).

Muslim Burmat emerges from Mr. Gallop's scholarly analysis as a novelist of considerable skill and complexity, well deserving of the high status he enjoys in his own country and overseas. "Man and Society" itself has never been published as such, although a summary appeared in JMBRAS in 2004. This is unfortunate because Gallop is a literary critic of no mean ability. Scholars ordering a copy of this thesis via inter-library loan from Universiti Sains Malaysia would be well repaid for their time and trouble.

(1) Brunei Annual Report 1968:180.

(2) Mas Osman, Biografi Penulis Brunei (DBP, BSB, 1987):97-8.

(AVM Horton, Bordesley, Worcestershire, UK, Thursday 12 February 2009)