“MALCHIN TESTAMENT” By Salleh Ben Joned

“MALCHIN TESTAMENT” By Salleh Ben Joned

The purpose of writing a poem is to convey meanings through it and to show how a culture being celebrates in certain ways. As in the poem “Malchin Testament” by Salleh Ben Joned, this poem generally shows how Manglish being used in certain Malaysian society.

After reading through this poem, the poem “Malchin Testament” by Salleh Ben Joned has successfully celebrates Malaysian cultures by showing how English language being used among Malaysian people especially Malay and Chinese people that I will show later in this essay.

The main point that I would like to discuss is the personae in this poem. The personae show the voice of Malaysian people, how certain people used English language by their own unique ways. This can be seen through this poem because the used of words like ‘our’ and ‘we’ shows many people, not one. For examples:

“we say ‘cool’ eeben wen it’s hot lah” (stanza two)
“we true malaysians, you no,” (stanza three)

The most important part in this poem is the connection of the poem and its title. ‘Malchin’ itself means Malay (Mal) Chinese (Chin) and ‘Testament’ itself means showing clearly that the used of Manglish by certain people in Malaysian society like in this poem. Manglish or sometimes called Mangled English is the colloquial version of the English language as spoken in Malaysia and it is a portmanteau of the word Malay and English, also possibly Mandarin and English. In another words, Manglish means a blend of Malay and English which implicitly suggests that any such mixture is a mangled version of one language or the other language. For example:

“we tekan words like our leaders” (stanza four)
“tekan ebri word, ebri ting” (stanza four)

As what have been showed in examples above, the Malaysian Manglish is sometimes known as Rojak or Rojak Language (Bahasa Rojak) or “salad language” (rojak is a spicy mix of fruits and vegetables and very popular in Malaysia). The "salad" idiom is actually used throughout Southeast Asia to disparage code-switching and other linguistic mixtures. Sometimes, Manglish itself is differs with the Rojak language by the usage of English as the base language and how they pronounce certain English words by their own ways like in stanza four “tekan ebri word, ebri ting”. Manglish is also more similar to Singlish - Singaporean English.

In addition, Manglish shares substantial linguistic similarities with Singaporean English (Singlish) even though distinctions can be made particularly in vocabulary. Some of Chinese in Malaysia speak singlish as singlish is less influenced by Bahasa Melayu. Initially, "Singlish" and "Manglish" were essentially the same language, when Singapore and Malaysia were a single geographic entity - Malaya. In old Malaya, English was the language of the British administration while Malay was spoken as the lingua franca of the street. Thus, the Chinese would revert to Malay when speaking to Chinese people who did not speak the same Chinese dialect to get better communications among them. It appears that Manglish exist in Malaysian culture starting when Malay and Chinese nativize certain English words by using it in their own ways in order to make it as their language.

Theoretically, English as spoken in Malaysia is based on British English and called Malaysian English. British spelling is generally followed. However, the influence of American English modes of expression and slang is strong, particularly among Malaysian youth. Since independence of Malaysia, Malay or Bahasa Melayu, has been the country's sole official language. While English is widely used, many Malay words have become part of common usage in informal English or Manglish. For examples:

“we say ‘cool’ eeben wen it’s hot lah” (stanza two)
“talk this law lah, that law lah” (stanza six)
“ebritime talk English lah” (stanza thirteen)

As state in examples above, suffixing sentences with lah, as in, “we say ‘cool’ eeben wen it’s hot lah”, which is usually used to present a sentence as rather light-going and not so serious, the suffix has no specific meaning, but sometimes it’s use to affirm a statement, similar to "of course". Frequently used at the end of sentences and usually ends with an exclamation mark (!). It is derived from and has the same meaning as the Chinese expression when saying something more informal. However, Chinese dialects also make abundant use of the suffix lah and there is some disagreement as to which language it was originally borrowed from. There is also a strong influence from Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, and Tamil, which are other major dialects and languages spoken in Malaysia.

In addition, the ‘lah’ word used at the end of a sentence can also be described as a particle that simultaneously asserts a position and entices solidarity. We took note that 'lah' is often written after a comma for clarity, but there is never a pause before it. This is because in the original Malay, 'lah' is appended to the end of the word and is not a separate word by itself. In Malay, the 'lah' word is used to change a verb into a command or to soften its tone, particularly when usage of the verb may seem impolite. For example, "to drink" is "minum", but "Here, drink!" is "minumlah". Similarly, 'lah' is frequently used with imperatives in Singlish, such as the command, "Drink, lah!" (Come on, drink!). The 'lah' word also occurs frequently with "Yah" and "No" (hence "Yah lah" and "No lah"), resulting in a less brusque sound, thus facilitating the flow of conversation. This form is more used by Chinese in Malaysia. The poem “Malchin Testament” itself shows how the ‘lah’ word being used over and over again. The ‘lah’ word is often used with brusque, short, negative responses, and used for reassurance.

Although the ‘lah’ word can appear nearly anywhere, it cannot appear with a yes-no question. Another particle should be used instead. For example:
“Where are you ar?” (This is especially of Chinese origin.)
Most of the Manglish grammar described here is of Chinese origin since Malays do not converse in English daily, while the Indians use a different form of Manglish. The Chinese influence in Manglish, however, can be seen among other races in Malaysia, especially when conversing with Chinese-speaking people. This principle can be generally applied to all forms of non-standard English spoken in Malaysia.

Another point of view that I want to show is about the tone in this poem as one of other poetic devices. The tone itself in the poem “Malchin Testament” shows that we are so proud being Malaysian with our own unique cultures especially in using English language on our very own ways even though not all Malaysian people use Manglish. This statement can probably be shown through this poem in stanza three,

we true malaysians, you no,
we pree people, you no: pree
to make English not english
but our very own, you see

The most interesting part is how the writer makes the reader to recite his poem by the way he wants. In the poem “Malchin Testament”, we can see that the writer bold certain syllable, so the reader will recite his poem by beating the stressed syllable. For example, look at the stanza three above on the word ‘people’. The writer bold the second syllable in the word people, so the reader will have to pronounce that word inappropriate ways. The word ‘people’ should be pronounce by stressing the first syllable. We can see that the writer have bold the stressed syllable in the wrong places and it can be seen through this poem with other examples. This is what actually happening in current Malaysian society in using Manglish by our own unique ways. This can be seen through the following stanza in “Malchin Testament” poem,

we tekan words our own always
we tekan the’du’ in education
cause we pree to do what we like
with word meanings and dikshen

In stanza above, I’m consuming that it shows how we use and stress words like we wants, not according to the rules or standard English language, because we are free peoples and it means independence from others to do what we like with language and convey our very own meanings through what we said.

What is your reaction to the poem?
amusement and relatability, relatively humorous because it strikes a message of nationalism in a country dealing with postcolonial complications whilst in the journey of finding itself.


a) why so? Themes?
Malaysians claiming the english language as their own, appropriating the integrated language of the colonisers into Malaysian culture by making it unique to the diversity of Malaysian cultures. In this manner, a national identity exclusive to Malaysia is formed and proudly shared by the multicultural rakyat, which encourages the growth of unity across ethnicities.

whereas they want to be free from any colonization. They hated coloniser but at the same time still use their language. We can see the evidence in stanza two and three: ..“stress put in all the wrong places, we say ‘cool’ eeben wen it’s hot lah, we hate the mat saleh races, but hijack deh lingo lah!..(Stanza 2) and “we true malaysians, you no, we pree people, you no: pree, to make english not English, but our very own, you see”.. It shows that a new vision of Malaysian had emerged in all their blessed arrogance and freedom.

“Malchin” is a hybrid language which is the combination of the first syllable of the words “Malay” and “Chinese”. The way of how this poem is written shows that the persona is totally celebrating Malaysian cultures. He writes about the issue of “Malayness” and “Nation” identity in such a way as to break down stereotypes.


-diction: personae show the voice of Malaysian people, how certain people used English language by their own unique ways, using recurring suffixation of "lahs" that signify the blended culture of Malaysian/Singaporean verbiage. 

-tone: patriotic, indignant, defensive, proud, forceful, powerful, united, firm. from strong adjectives like 'hate…hijack', 'brit liberty shit', 'full blast', 'stress', 'our stress'

 indignant? flippant? using recurring suffixation of "lahs that is informal, but this is from the biased viewpoint that centres formality on the queen's english, which precisely goes against the point that Salleh is making.


-imagery:  tekan: tactile, kinaesthetic
 

-sound: 

alliteration: "pree people", "should stay in deh dictionary"

repetition: our, we 

assonance in the 1st n 8th n 11th stanza respectively: "not…you no", the latter: "prefer to differ" and "so oso the do(o)m"


-form: free open form, first POV, 


What is your understanding of the poem?
a) What is it about?
celebrates Malaysian cultures by showing how English language being used among Malaysian people 



-how much of your understanding is influenced by your position?

very much so. a non-national might not fully receive the sly innuendoes or implicit suggestions seeded throughout the poem, giving it the defining cut of multilayered richness and complexity exclusive to those who are familiar with this variation of the english language unique to Malaysia.