Everyone's a Winner...

Well, somebody must have read my previous blog entry! The bridge over the River Quap has now been fixed, and you can zoom over the bridge like James Bond if you want to. Well, maybe not as fast as Bond. But you get the idea....

Anyway, I had the privilege of judging a drama contest at a neighbouring university this week. This competition was a showcase of short plays and stories performed by students who had taken a course in "English for Self-Expression".

And I must say that I was blown over by the sheer quality and creativity in what I saw. It was a breath of fresh air to see young Malaysians actually enjoying themselves doing something academic!

This course in "English for Self-Expression" gives students the opportunity to create something original to be performed on stage. The course is co-ordinated by Patrick Yeoh, a highly accomplished Malaysian writer, movie maker and former broadcaster. So there must be something good there...

Now, a lot of wags in this country say disparaging things about young people. They particularly bemoan the communication abilities of young people, both in the national language, Malay, and in English. There seems to be a regular, ongoing national discourse centred on the reasons why so many young Malaysian university graduates are unemployed. The reasons cited usually spring from a lack of communication skills, especially in English.

It seems that the youth of this youthful nation cannot communicate, and find it hard to express themselves out loud, so they fail at job interviews, and cannot get on with their workmates. Many of my Malaysian friends and colleagues tell me this is because Malaysians, especially Malays, are afraid of what other people might say, so it's better not to say anything unless you are asked to.

I must say, from my observations, I can see a ring of truth in this. As an English lecturer, I am eternally appalled and slightly irritated by the yawning silences I face every time I teach my classes. It seems that I am unable to get my students to say anything in class, unless of course they are being assessed!

But, it doesn't have to be this way, as I saw when I was judging the "Night of Self Expression" at our neighbour university. Essentially, the students had to put on a play which they had written and produced themselves. Some students read out their own short stories, too.

I was profoundly moved, often to the point of tears, by the effort, passion and creativity that went into so many of the productions I saw. They varied widely, from Malaysian morality tales about the importance of hard work, or looking after your parents, to amusing stories of contemporary corporate life.

Two pieces that stood out for me were "Coffee at the Office" and "Coma". "Coffee at the Office" was a cutely absurdist piece that concerned a stuttering businessman who was obsessed by coffee and by the office girl who made it for him during a highly Pythonesque business meeting with a manager who had a violent tick.

"Coma", which won the contest, was a magnificently dark, genuinely frightening horror piece in which a man, hovering between life and death after a car crash, is taunted by the Hell-bound spirits of all the people he destroyed. Whether or not he ended up in Hell is not completely clear at the end.

I have to mention also one particular young lady who, playing a young wife driven mad by a jealous rival, performs one of the most authentic and spine-tingling screamathons that I have ever seen on the stage. I thought at one point that she was possessed by demons, and I have seen people possessed by demons, but that's another story....

At the end of the two evening contest, the organiser, Patrick Yeoh, summed it up for everyone by telling the students "you are all winners!" And he's absolutely right because by overcoming their personal and cultural barriers to self-expression, all of the students who performed their work were winning an important battle. It is a battle for confidence, a battle for self-realisation, and ultimately a battle for a better and brighter life.

I have said this kind of thing before in connection with debating and public speaking. Developing the ability to express yourself, in whatever manner or shape or form, is the best thing that you can achieve in your whole life. It will lead to so many rewards, some tangible, some not so obvious.

Some people think that the ultimate achievement is to become a millionaire, a Prime Minister or President, or a great business leader with lots of houses and Mercedes Benzes. Yes, but if you look at nearly all successful people, they were successful because they were good communicators. If they couldn't communicate effectively, persuade others, or inspire them, nobody would want to do have anything to do with them. Just think, would Bill Gates have been so successful if he couldn't communicate his vision to others? Would we have remembered Winston Churchill or John F Kennedy if they were unable to give inspiring speeches?

So the youngsters who entertained us all on Wednesday and Thursday inspired me as a lecturer to carry on trying to bring out the self-expression genie in my students. Because Malaysia, if it is to develop its full potential, really needs to have young people who can stand up, make themselves heard, and not wallow in the oblivion of silence and fear.