Hello once again! PBMUKS just had our production last Sunday, QALBU. Its our 3rd attempt at staging a drama, and I shall say that QALBU ended on a note with very mixed feelings.

Before I start, I would like to thank all who got something from the show stuck in their own QALBU and did took the effort to express it to us or for us to see. There is a Malay saying I took from the mouths of your favourite Malay diva, Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, and made it my own principle; Tak hidup dek puji, tak mati dek keji. Don’t live by praises, neither do we die by criticisms. And that should be the way.

Criticisms means that we have rooms for improvement and the existence of it creates opportunities for us to improve. Praises boost our morale. Get the two to mix and ta-dah! You get a new found excitement for a better show upcoming Pentas Budaya.

For those who enjoyed Pentas Budaya 09, wait till you see whats coming next year! Okay I probably shouldn’t be too gleeful in light of the upcoming exams.

This bit is for those who did not have the opportunity to watch it; it was a play intended to explore issues of motherhood; a woman whose natural role is to mother but she did not and she can’t due to circumstances. She transferred the mothering to another woman. This woman was a mother in her own right, was forced to be a mother to her husband’s illegitimate daughter. Then there was the transvestite who became the talk-of-the-town for the night. No, we’re not endorsing cross dressers, thats not a PBMUKS niche by the way. But the character manifested how someone whose fitrah, or nature, does not allow for motherhood, so he-she tries as hard as possible to foster it through being a mummy for the girls in Kelab Mawar.

Okay so here is where some of those who went will do a flip and ask, REALLY?

My honest answer? Yup.

We’re sorry if the community sees the play as inadequate. I guess we could have done much more, as undergraduates. But thats the thing, every experience in life, no matter how defeating it makes us feel, should be a learning process. Especially now where we’re still students. We will learn something from this, we all will, we all have. And we will keep learning and hopefully, do better by the day.

PBMUKS definitely is capable of doing more, and we feel that QALBU was not the pinnacle of success for the Performing Arts Secretariat… so wait for it! We’ll be back on stage next year with a new act! (Trust me, you’ll love this one.)

Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone who came, everyone behind the Qalbu team, everyone who helped us along the way in any way, and our sponsors and mentors. We hope for your continuing support.

I would like to close off with a Malay quatrain;

Buah cempedak di luar pagar,
Ambil Galah tolong jolokkan;
Kami budak baru belajar,
Kalau salah tolong tunjukkan.

The jackfruit lies outside of the fence,
Get a pole and help me bring it down,
We’re youth whose learning had just commence;
Do advise us for if it doesn’t seem sound.

Yours Sincerely,

Farah Nadia Jamalludin
President, PBMUKS.

2009 have been around for almost a month now, and we are all feeling the wave of 2009. The economic crisis, the pressure to mug and do well this semester to cover up for last semester, and saving up for the wedding after graduation, buying that Mitsubishi EX and covering the insurance and fuel costs… not necessarily in that order, of course.

Point is, this is definitely not a good time for us to waste our resources. And thus, we have drawn up a programme with a two-pronged approach to respond to this time of crisis.

Firstly, as a Malay/Muslim organization, it is only right that we help cushion the crisis for the community and enable them to brave these times. Hence, we have came up with The Young Entrepreneur’s Camp! This camp is aimed at enabling children from dysfunctional families to start their own small enterprise and have their own bazaar stall right at the heart of Singapore! Next weekend, PBMUKS (Malay Language Society, NUS; that’s us!) will be organizing a two day camp for these students, at the Sultan Mosque in Bugis. There, we have lined up for them an enriching programme where they will learn the basic how-tos of setting up a business, through various hands-on activities and challenges, as well as talks from a successful entrepreneur, Abang Abu from abangabu.com.

Now THIS is where YOU come in. On the 1st of February 2009, the participants of the camp will be setting up their own stalls at the compound of the mosque. So what you can do to help, is to come over, show some love, and support these children. A little help goes a long, long way. And even if you have made a vow to not shop, come down, join the crowd, and have fun!

And if you have a little bit of extra this year, why not go the extra mile and do something more for these children? This is an opportunity and an avenue where you can do your part and help the children! Do contact Nadirah at 82232555 for further information on how YOU can play a part in this initiative.

We pray for your wellbeing and insyaAllah we’ll all tide over this difficult time, in which the most vulnerable member of society are the children; their education and their wellbeing.

See you on 1st Feb!

Warmest Regards,
Farah Nadia Jamalludin
President,
PBMUKS.

The school holidays have just ended, a new year have come, and I hope you are well. With every new year, everybody will be drawing up resolutions and posting it up on their blogs. I happen to come across a teacher’s blog, in which she made a resolution to help show her students the difference between situations that would need formal use of Malay, and those that will be great with casual use of Malay. I think this has got something to do with her students handing in assignments written in Malay SMS lingo..

Which brings me to a thought:

Read the Berita Harian and you’d see that when readers, teachers and Malay Language experts write in to lament about the deteriorating concern, usage and quality of the mother tongue among the young, they’d usually refer to the youths; the msn-blogging-social-networking generation who text message faster than they speak. The thing is, with all this concern about instilling awareness of the language and putting zest back in the learning of the language, one group is seemingly being ignored — the young, young children in primary school and kindergarten.

The pressure of excelling in the English Language, Maths and Sciences, and also to perfect their command of English, the global language of science, business and innovation, is also pressing to the children in our primary schools and kindergarten, a time where the foundations of the subjects are being learnt and mastered.

So why is it that when there are activities to inject zest back into the Malay language, why is it that these initiatives are more often than not, focused on those on secondary school and beyond, that our little brothers and sisters are… left out?

As much as we want to make learning more engaging and interesting for those whose interest and passion in Malay have already been jaded, we should also, at the same time, nip the problem in the bud. Teenagers are increasingly less concerned with Malay Language and its usage, or so it had been reported. Therefore we should examine what happens before that, before the teenagehood, and how we can salvage what happens in that ‘before’ period in order to alleviate whats happening now, to those in the ‘after’ period.

In true Singaporean style, spicing up the learning of the Malay Language requires a ‘helping-hand approach’. Sure, the teachers are the formal educators of the children, but we all have a part to play in this. Don’t we all have siblings, neighbours, relatives who are still blissfully in their childhood? Who we can reach out too? We should use that to our advantage and make it happen.

Many have claimed the youth are spoiling the Malay language. I’m sure many youths out there, like myself, know that we do not do that and we don’t condone it. So lets not only prove them otherwise, but also show to them that we care, and that we can do something about it.

In a recent speech to student leaders from institutes of higher learning, Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Education & Ministry of Home Affairs, called for more activities catered to primary school students in an effort to promote and strengthen the use and learning of the Malay Language. The audience, who were members and leaders of student bodies and organizations, nodded in agreement and presumably, have taken their cue.

This year ahead, and the year after, is definitely a time parents, teachers and the primary school students themselves should watch out for. There’ll be something in store for them…

On another note, Happy New Year! And may you have a great year ahead. =)

Best Regards,
Farah Nadia Jamalludin
The President
PBMUKS

P/S: PBMUKS will be organising the annual oratorical competition for primary school students, ‘Cakap Petah’. Watch this space!