Malaysian literature and beyond

Malaysian literature has come a long way since the country’s
independence. It has produced several distinguished writers in all its four major languages: Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil. Writers have achieved this success notwithstanding many challenges. For this they deserve our unqualified applause. Perhaps Malaysian literature could have excelled further without these challenges, or had they been addressed by the authorities/relevant bodies in a timely and objective fashion. Moreover, although Malaysian literature has prospered significantly in the post-independence period, the growth has not been equal in all its four languages. This is due to certain socio-political reasons which have fragmented the literary scene largely along ethnic lines, making the writers culturally insular, rather than encompassing, in their imagination.