DUNIA PERNOVELAN YANG BERUBAH

Dunia pernovelan sekarang telah semakin berubah berubah. Kita biasa mendengar Kindle keluaran Amazon dan iPad keluaran Apple yang memberi wadah baru kepada dunia perbukuan. Dengan teknologi informasi yang canggih, orang telah melangkah ke genre-genre ajaib yang tidak pernah terfikir misalnya “cellphone novel”. Mulai tiga tahun lepas, di Jepun, di antara 10 best-selling novels, sebanyak LIMA daripadanya adalah berasal daripada cellphone novel atau novel telefon bimbit.

Sebuah novel berjudul “If You” telah terjual sebanyak 400,000 naskah iaitu menjadi novel kelima paling laris selepas diundi sebagai cellphone novel paling popular. Walaupun banyak perdebatan dan perselisihan pendapat tentang kebaikan dan manfaat cellphone novel, namun ia kini terus berkembang menjadi genre yang mulai popular di kalangan pembaca remaja termasuk di dunia perbukuan bahasa Inggeris.

INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S BOOK DAY

Essentials of Research Methods

Essentials of Research Methods: A guide to social science research. (2005). Janet M. Ruane. Malden MA: Blackwell. 239 pp., Price $ 29.95 (paperback). ISBN 0-6312-3049-1.

There are many books on research methodology. My preference include this book which gives an excellent introduction to those unfamiliar with research in social sciences including media and communication studies.

First chapter explains the need for systematic research that discovers both new knowledge and avoids faulty logic. Second chapter, "Ethics: It's the Right Thing to Do," emphasizes the importance of researchers' conduct: researchers working with human participants must do no harm, must obtain informed consent and must respect participants' privacy.

The next five chapters deal with the topics of measurement and research design.. The chapters on measurement cover concepts of validity and reliability, and the chapters on design cover causal analysis, research strategies and sampling. The chapter on sampling covers the techniques used to conduct research-and assessment. Two chapters are devoted to statistics: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. As the title suggests, the book describes the essentials of research methods.

Anak Hamas: Kisah yang Memukau tentang Keganasan, Pengkhianatan, Tipu Daya Politik dan Pilihan Luar Duga

Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices
Anak Hamas: Kisah yang Memukau tentang Keganasan, Pengkhianatan, Tipu Daya Politik dan Pilihan Luar Duga.

Sebuah buku yang memberi pukulan hebat kepada perjuangan Hamas dan Palestin telah diterbitkan minggu ini di Amerika Syarikat oleh Penerbit SaltRiver. Penulis buku itu ialah Mosab Hassan Yousef (bersama dengan Ron Brakin), yang mengaku murtad pada tahun 2005 lalu menukar kepada nama Joseph. Mosab ialah anak sulung kepada Sheikh Hassan Yousef, ahli pengasas Hamas yang dikatakan sebagai pemimpin paling poular dalam gerakan itu.

Pada sesayap kiri buku setebal 288 halaman itu dinyatakan antara lain (terjemahan saya):

“Sebelum berusia 21 tahun Mosab Hassan Yousef menyaksikan sesuatu yang tidak sepatutnya disaksikan olehs sesiapa: penderitaan kemiskinan, salah guna kuasa, penyiksaan dan kematian. Beliau juga menyaksikan urusan rahsia oleh pemimpin tertinggi Timur Tengah. Dia dipercayai sepenuhnya oleh Hamas dan turut serta dalam Intifada tetapi kemudian ditangkap dan masukkan ke dalam penjara Israel yang paling digeruni. Pilihan bahaya yang dibuatnya menjadikan dia pengkhianat di mata orang yang disayanginya – dan memberinya lowongan kepada rahsia-rahsia luar biasa. Dalam buku ini, dia mendedahkan peristiwa dan proses yang sehingga kini hanya diketahui oleh beberapa orang individu…”

Selama satu dekad, Mosab mengintip Hamas bagi pihak Shin Bet iaitu agensi keselamatan dalam negeri Israel. Nama kod yang digunakan ialah "Green Prince," dan kerja-kerja perisikan yang dibuat dikatakan telah menyelamatkan banyak nyawa hasil pendedahan tentang plot pembunuhan oleh kumpulan berani mati Hamas. Baginya, dia mahu menyelamatkan nyawa, bukan untuk menghapuskannya. Tentang perkara ini, dia menulis:

"I watched the mindless killing through the eyes of Jesus," he writes, "who agonized for those who were lost. The more I read the Bible, the more clearly I saw this single truth: Loving and forgiving one's enemies is the only way to stop the bloodshed."

Buku Mosab telah mendapat puji-pujian tinggi daripada ramai pembaca bukan sahaja dari segi keberaniannya tetapi juga dari segi gaya penulisannya. Seorang pembaca menulis dalam ruangan ulasan di Amazon.com:

This book is very captivating and intriguing. The style makes you feel as if you are talking to Mosab rather than reading the book. .. It is very insightful into the deep issue of the Middle East and what it will take to overcome those issues. It is ... about respect for other people.

Penulis lain mengulas:

The story itself is also amazing. As a Christian, it was inspiring to see how one sentence from the Bible was able to transform Mosab's heart and change the course of his life. As a result, many lives were saved. It is also a work of peace, helping us see that there are no cut and dry answers to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. All have done wrong, with Jesus all are capable of peace.
It is remarkable when Mosab Hassan Yousef says, "There are two facts that Muslims don't understand ... about more than 95 percent of Muslims don't understand their own religion. It came with a much stronger language than the language that they speak so they don't understand it ... they rely only on religious people to get their knowledge about this religion.

Seorang lagi menulis: “Yousef you're a modern day prophet...whether on the side of light/thruth or that of darkness/propagandas..time will tell.”

Ketika diwawancara oleh Haaretz.com, Mosab Hasan berkata:

Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis. That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels, only a cease-fire, and no one knows that better than I. The Hamas leadership is responsible for the killing of Palestinians, not Israelis," he said. "Palestinians! They do not hesitate to massacre people in a mosque or to throw people from the 15th or 17th floor of a building, as they did during the coup in Gaza. The Israelis would never do such things. I tell you with certainty that the Israelis care about the Palestinians far more than the Hamas or Fatah leadership does.

I wish I were in Gaza now," Yousef said by phone from California, "I would put on an army uniform and join Israel's special forces in order to liberate Gilad Shalit. If I were there, I could help. We wasted so many years with investigations and arrests to capture the very terrorists that they now want to release in return for Shalit. That must not be done." “I wish I were in Gaza now” he told the newspaper from California, where he finally ended up hiding, adding: “I would put on an army uniform and join Israel’s special forces in order to liberate Gilad Shalit. If I were there I would help. We wasted so many years with investigations and arrests to capture the very terrorists that they now want to release in return for Shalit. That must not be done.

Dalam Wall Street Journal, keluaran 5 Mac 2010, Hasan ketika ditemu bual disebut sebagai berkata:

I absolutely know that in anybody's eyes I was a traitor," says Mosab Hassan Yousef. "To my family, to my nation, to my God. I crossed all the red lines in my society. I didn't leave one that I didn't cross.

Akhbar-akhbar di Timur Tengah sepanjang minggu penerbitan buku tersebut tidak banyak memberi ulasan. Seorang kolumnis untuk The Jordan Times, keluaran Jumaat 5 Mac mengulas:

It is usually difficult for people who sink so deep in the vice of treason to justify their treachery by simply pretending to be defending principles. Treason is an absolute depravity that under no circumstances can be converted into a virtue.
Despite all the Israeli fanfare and the propaganda to create from a single ordinary spy affair a big drama of a magnificent desertion from Hamas “evil” to Israeli “righteousness”, the facts remain unchanged. Such ludicrous attempts are often counterproductive, in the sense that they further expose Israeli moral bankruptcy and failure in engaging in a meaningful discourse, opting, instead, to such ragged fabrications and bare tactics.
For a state known to use any means available to its agencies, no matter how brutal, including barring sick people in desperate need of medical treatment, to recruit spies, gaining another traitor is not a big achievement worthy of such noise. Neither, apart from the understandable family pain, should it be a great deal for Hamas to suffer the loss of another defector. That happens in the best circumstances.

CNN melalui rancangan yang dikelolakan oleh Amanpour membuat liputan khas tentang reaksi terhadap buku tersebut. Beliau mewawancara Osama Hamdan, pegawai tertinggi Hamas yang member reaksi berikut:

The Israelis issued this book as a kind of propaganda. When you say that he was working for his enemies, it means that he lies for his own people, and we expect that there are big lies in this book," told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview from Damascus, Syria.

Dalam rancangan yang sama, Fawaz Gerges, professor dalam bidang politik Timur tengah berkata bahawa Hamas merupakan organisasi yang amat menjaga kerahsiaan dan sangat sukar bagi anak muda seperti Yousef untuk menerobos atau menyusupi bahagian ketenteraan.

KARYA YANG KAYA DENGAN KIASAN

Ketika saya menulis ini, saya teringat pada Sdr. Fadli Abdullah dan berterima kasih padanya kerana menggerakkan saya untuk mencatatkan sedikit sebanyak tentang manuskrip yang sedang saya sunting ketika ini.

Manuskrip itu ialah karya terjemahan daripada bahasa Turki iaitu salah satu buku pemikiran Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1878-1960). Bagi sesiapa yang belum mengenali beliau, Said Nursi sebagaimana yang dihuraikan dalam buku Contemporary Islam (Turner and Horkuc, 2009), ialah salah seorang “makers of contemporary Islam” di Turki.

Ketokohannya sejajar dengan nama-nama besar seperti Fethullah Gulen, Muhammad Abduh dan Muhammad Iqbal. Karya terkenal beliau ialah koleksi Risale-i Nur (Risalah Cahaya) yang merupakan ulasan dan penerangan ayat-ayat al-Quran dalam lebih daripada enam ribu halaman. Bediüzzaman merupakan gelaran penghormatan kepada Syed Nursi yang bermakna "keajaiban zaman".

Saya tidak bertujuan untuk menulis latar belakang Said Nursi kerana kisah hidupnya amat banyak ditulis dan dapat ditemui dengan mudah dalam Internet. Kelompok yang mempelajari penulisan dan pemikirannya kini berkembang pesat khususnya di kalangan generasi muda, bukan sahaja di Turki tetapi di seluruh dunia termasuk Malaysia. Di Turki, buku-buku Syed Nursi ditulis semula dalam huruf Arab, bukan huruf roman dan perkembangan untuk kembali kepada tulisan Arab adalah amat menggalakkan, berbeza dengan nasib malang tulisan Jawi di negara kita yang tercinta.

Beberapa tajuk dalam versi Melayu telah diterbitkan misalnya oleh Persatuan Kebudayaan Malaysia-Turki Kuala Lumpur dan Selangor iaitu untuk judul Persoalan Ijtihad Masakini dan Koleksi Rasael An-Nur (2009); Jabatan Pengajian Arab dan Tamadun Islam UKM bagi judul daripada koleksi Risale-i-Nur. Salah satu judul terjemahan Indonesia ialah Sinar Yang Mengungkap Sang Cahaya daripada edisi Inggeris bertajuk Epitomes of Light.

KIAS IBARAT
Salah satu keunikan karya yang sedang saya sunting ini ialah kekayaannya dengan analogi atau kiasan. Saya dapat membayangkan betapa sukarnya para penterjemah mencari ayat-ayat yang sesuai dalam bahasa Melayu yang berpadanan dengan bahasa Turki.

Sdr Ozata baru dua tahun mempelajari bahasa Melayu tetapi kegigihannya telah mempercepat proses pemahaman dan kefasihan dalam bahasa yang baru baginya. Beliau dibantu oleh sdr Firdaus, anak Felda Pahang yang pernah saya temui lebih sepuluh tahun lepas di Istanbul untuk menghafaz al-Quran sambil mempelajari bahasa Turki. Kini beliau telah dewasa dan menyertai program terjemahan karya-karya Said Nursi di bawah Yayasan Hayrat.

Di bawah ini ialah tiga paragraf yang saya maksudkan daripada terjemahan Risalah Said Nursi itu yang belum disunting kecuali paragraf pertama:

Insan pada fitrahnya adalah daif sedangkan semua benda mengganggu, memberi kesan dan menyakitkan. Dia juga sangat lemah walhal musibah dan musuhnya amat banyak. Dia terlalu fakir manakala hajat-hajatnya amat tinggi. Dia malas serta tidak berupaya walhal taklif-taklif hidup amat berat. Kemanusiaan telah mengaitkannya dengan alam semesta walhal kehilangan dan perpisahan semua perkara yang disayangi dan disenangi sentiasa menyakitinya. Akal pula menunjukkan kepadanya matlamat tinggi dan buah-buah abadi walhal tangannya pendek, umurnya singkat, keupayaannya kurang dan kesabarannya sedikit.

Maka betapa pentingnya bagi roh yang ada dalam keadaan demikian bermurajaah (merujuk) lalu mengadukan keadaannya, memohon taufik dan bantuan dengan rayuan, dengan solat kepada hadrat al-Qadir Zul jalal dan al-Rahim Zul Jamal pada waktu subuh. Begitu juga betapa perlunya suatu nuktah persandaran untuk menanggung tugas-tugas yang akan ditempuh dan dipikul pada dunia siang yang menyusuli subuh itu dapat difahami dengan jelas.

Masa pada waktu zohor ialah detik-detik kesempurnaan. Kecondongan ke arah menghilang dan kematangan kerja-kerja harian. Ia merupakan waktu istirahat yang sementara daripada himpitan kesibukan iaitu waktu roh memerlukan kerehatan daripada kelalaian dan kebejatan yang terhasil daripada dunia yang fana dan kerja-kerja yang tidak kekal dan berat dari satu detik terhadirnya pemberian nikmat ilahi….

PERSIDANGAN MBBY

Tema: LITERASI KANAK-KANAK DALAM DUNIA YANG BERUBAH.
Anda dialu-alukan menyertai pelbagai aktiviti berikut pada 22-23 Mac 2010:

1. SEMINAR LITERASI KANAK-KANAK:
Pembentangan kertas kerja tentang literasi dan hak kanak-kanak

2. BENGKEL PENULISAN BUKU KANAK-KANAK:
Bengkel dua hari untuk membimbing penulis berpotensi menghasilkan karya. Pembimbing: Dr Amidah Abdul Hamid.

3. BENGKEL ILUSTRASI BUKU KANAK-KANAK:
Bengkel dua hari untuk membimbing ilustrator berpotensi menghasilkan karya. Pembimbing: Yusof Gajah.

4. PAMERAN ILUSTRASI:
Peragaan karya-karya ilustrasi terpilih.

5. PERADUAN ILUSTRASI:
Dibuka untuk pelajar sekolah menengah berusia 13-17 tahun.

Untuk penyertaan atau pertanyaan, sila rujuk poster atau hubungi: Sdr. Rastam Jamali Zubir di Jabatan Pengajian Media Universiti Malaya: 03-79675551

WHAT MAKES A BOOK MEMORABLE

I once asked my postgraduate students what makes a story book memorable. The group comprising editors, media reporters, and teachers with some hesitations came up with answers such as:

• When it has moments of grief, joy, love, frustration, all in the same book, then I would have to say that its memorable.

• The ones that are witty that makes you re-read till you memorize them so you can share them with others.

• If the book made me think differently and changed my perspective.

• Excellent characters where you feel as if you know personally the person, good or bad.

• Books with an exciting plot that twists and turn.

And the list goes on.

As for me there are several books, fictions and non-fictions that I couldn’t bear to part. One of the books that my family and I enjoyed reading is Island of Blood. by Anita Pratap.

I bought the book in a Colombo bookshop while I was on Global Peace Mission’s trip to send young Malaysian volunteers to Sri Lanka. My wife and all my children loved the book and we still talk about it whenever issues about Tamil Eelam are mentioned.

The book is Anita Pratap’s memoirs as a war correspondent, presenting frontline reports from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and other conflict areas in South Asia.

With intimate knowledge of the conflict in Sri Lanka especially and with details of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), her book provides a great deal of insight into the conflict-ridden nation of Sri Lanka. On several occasions Anita has interviewed Prabhakaran, the elusive LTTE leader and has lived from close range the anti-Tamil incidents in Colombo and Jaffna during the late 80s.

Substance-wise, Anita is far from objective when it comes to Prabhakaran and the conflict. She is praiseworthy of Prabhakharan's charisma and his militant organisation. She describes the fight for Tamil Eelam as a romantic fight for freedom and justice. This may disappoint many history students. While Prabhakaran was once a hero, much of that quality has faded into the opposite whose bloody politics demeans the cause he tried to promote.

What’s memorable, I think, is her writing style and the illustration of herself as a journalist, a mother and a wife. She begins the chapters by describing her personal stories such as a luxurious holiday or her experience of giving birth to Zubin, her only child, before she plunges into the story. Zubin, described as bright, sparkling and witty is everywhere in the book. And there is also her husband’s son who is portrayed as having the opposite character.

Anita seems to have a self-indulgent and self-centered style but it is far from painful to read. And there is also a narcissistic element to her writing. Her epilogues seem to be an exercise in self-glorification. But that makes me more sympathetic to her.

She keeps me entertained and she does not force me to read through or skip so that I can go to the next chapter. It has lots of interesting details and gets me to think and be concerned with the issue at hand as well as the lead character who is the author herself.

And that makes the book memorable to me and my family.