Interlok: When The Indian Cries, Nobody Hears
By Hartal MSM, Malaysian Mirror
Interlok is a less-than-subtle vehicle to knock into the heads of young students (who have to study this novel for their exam) that the Chinese pendatang — referred to repeatedly in the book as “bangsa asing” — must be grateful for the opportunities given by Malaysia.
The book propagates a popular picture that Chinese and Indian immigrants set sail here because they were impoverished, and coming to this land of milk and honey with nothing except the shirt on their back. And the immigrants then proceed to dispossess the natives, just stopping short of daylight robbery.
Interlok’s treatment of the Chinese immigrants parallels the ‘pariah’ theme with regard to the book’s Indian characters. The Chinese nasty characters in Interlok scarcely have any redeeming graces. In fact, the book brims with every conceivable negative racial stereotype of Indians and Chinese that one can think of.
Chinese are also depicted as possessing no loyalty to the country but eternal migrants impelled to move from place to place, and always seeking greener pastures. The Biro Tata Negara or BTN subtext to indoctrinate the majority and minority races is quite evident.
Interlok is handy for propaganda purposes to reinforce a prejudice that the Chinese and Indians who came to this land were from the lowest social order, and here to do the meanest of tasks.
The main Chinese character in the book is Chin Huat who arrives with his father Kim Lock. One of Kim Lock’s first jobs was to pull a rickshaw, whereas his son — the young boy — slaved away as a kopitiam assistant.
Kim Lock also worked as a nightsoil carrier, i.e. someone who daily collects and empties the buckets of human faeces from outhouses in the neighbourhood. (In olden days, they did not have indoor plumbing with the flush system.)
Portrayal of early Chinese immigrants as hardworking labour is not necessarily negative. However reinforcing the nasty stereotype of Chinese as grubbers willing to steal or do anything for money is pure bigotry.
Kim Lock, for instance, is even depicted as someone quite prepared to sell a daughter. And his son Chin Huat is the same, i.e. willing to trade away his daughters too. Kim Lock’s mistress, the main Chinese female character in the book, has been selling her body since young.
Author Abdullah Hussain portrays the Chinese as caring for little else except to make money — lots of it — and to get rich quickly. They are stingy merchants always looking for profit, and demanding a good bargain but when in turn buying from others, only offering the lowest prices.
Abdullah also makes out to his readers that Chinese are dishonest traders whose rule of thumb is to short-change customers when weighing merchandise on the scale.Interlok
Yet thus far, it is only the Indians, Indian NGOs and Indian political parties who have been pressing for the withdrawal of the novel as a Sastera exam component.
We’ve strangely not heard any objections by say, any DAP Chinese leader to the book’s contents. Or perhaps they do not think that the Chinese community has been maligned at all by ‘Interlok’?
