Penang is a city that seems very exotic to me even though I visit it very regularly. It has food that is just different than in Kuala Lumpur (the taste always seems better), well-preserved history and an environment that seems to inspire me as a writer and filmmaker.

So when I was invited to be a participant at the 2014 George Town Literary Festival by the director, Umapagan Ampikaipakan, I couldn’t say no. The invitation was together with my graphic novel co-author, Arif Rafhan Othman, who is an illustrator.

*Just a little shameless plug - my third book, a non-fiction graphic novel titled 'Adventures of a KL-ite in Afghanistan', is now on sale at all major bookstores!

Thought-provoking discussions on literature doesn’t happen that often in this country, and when it does, it can get very interesting. And so the festival kicked off on Saturday morning with a panel discussion called ‘What are you hiding?’.

The panel consisted of Ooi Kee Beng (Malaysia), Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh (Singapore) and Leila S. Chudori (Indonesia), moderated by Sharaad Kuttan. They spoke about their respective countries and how the political environment dictated what could and could not be written about.

The most open country of the three was Indonesia and even there, they had to go through several leadership and party changes in order to achieve their level of freedom of speech and expression, explained Leila, a veteran journalist and author with Indonesian current affairs magazine Tempo.

“It also seems that Islamic religious voices seem to be getting stronger and stronger,” she added.

Sudhir, author of the non-fiction book ‘Floating on a Malayan Breeze’, talked about the political hold of the Lee family in Singapore and also about his experience and observations after cycling around Peninsular Malaysia sourcing for his book.

“As a writer, I don’t think about what to say or what not to say, but how to say it,” said Ooi Kee Beng when asked about restrictions when it came to writing in Malaysia.

He mainly spoke about how Malaysian writers tend to write very angrily when it came to local current affairs because many were frustrated with the country's political development.

(Left to right) Moderator Sharaad Kuttan with writers Ooi Kee Beng, Leila S. Chudori and Sudir Thomas Vadaketh.
(Left to right) Moderator Sharaad Kuttan with writers Ooi Kee Beng, Leila S. Chudori and Sudir Thomas Vadaketh.

The next panel discussion that interested me was in the afternoon, and after a delicious nasi kandar at the famous Line Clear restaurant that left me drenched in sweat, I headed for the air-conditioned hall where the session ‘Logging off: Writing in the age of the Internet’ was being held.

Being an editor for the digital media division of Astro AWANI, I was expecting a fresh and new look at how writing and literature could adapt, influence or be influenced by online media. However, I was left personally a little bit disappointed by the discussion that took place.

What transpired was a mainly sociological discussion by Ahmad Fuad Rahmat (from the Malaysian online magazine Projek Dialog), Sonny Liew (comic artist from Singapore) and Bernadette Foley (Australian publisher) on how the Internet can be productive or counter-productive for a writer.

Not to say that the session was not beneficial (it was), but I was just left with a feeling that so many writers who write using the traditional print form such as newspapers, magazines and books, seem to want to translate their same style for the Internet. It should be a whole different style.

(Left to right) Ahmad Fuad Rahmat, Sonny Liew, Bernadette Foley and moderator Ling Low.
(Left to right) Ahmad Fuad Rahmat, Sonny Liew, Bernadette Foley and moderator Ling Low.

Later in the day, the panel discussion that involved me called ‘Egad! This book has pictures’ took place.

Along side me was my illustrator Arif Rafhan Othman and Sonny Liew, a comic artist who has worked for the likes of Marvel, DC Vertigo and published numerous graphic novels of his own. Moderating the session was the festival director himself Umapagan.

Although comics has been around for a very long time, it seemed that non-fiction graphic novels isn't a familiar thing with people in Malaysia - they seemed to only associate comics with stories about super heroes (hey, in my comic, I'm the hero!).

And as far as Asian comic stories are concerned, the panel and audience concluded that we don't necessarily need a lone super hero like how the Americans need since we live a more communal life than they do. Hence, a true comic tradition in Asia is still struggling to find a foot hold.

And so the day ended with an extremely overindulging dinner of Penang Laksa, satay and pasembur at the over-touristy Gurney Drive hawker centre.

Sonny Liew, Arif Rafhan and Zan Azlee talking about comics and graphic novels with moderator and festival director Umapagan Ambikaipagan.
Sonny Liew, Arif Rafhan and Zan Azlee talking about comics and graphic novels with moderator and festival director Umapagan Ampikaipakan.

On Sunday morning, I struggled to wake up due to the coma-like sleep induced by heavy gorging of great Penang food the night before. But I made it to my session called ‘The end of the rainbow: How writers make money’. The moderator, Maya Tan Abdulah and my fellow panelists Rozlan Mohd Noor (crime novelist from Malaysia) and Miguel Syjuco (Filipino author) were waiting.

The three of us came from different backgrounds and earn our livings as writers in various ways. Syjuco pursued the hard core novelist route, pursuing an academic career and doing odd jobs to survive while struggling hard to earn a reputation and get himself on awards listings so he can get an agent and a book deals.

Rozlan, who started writing professionally late in his life, makes his money from being very prolific. He’s written six books in the past four years. Now that is amazing. I, on the other hand, don’t rely much on the revenue from my book royalties. I used to do a lot of other forms of writing in my early days such as copywriting and what not.

But after 14 years, I’m happy to say that I get to choose what I want to write these days. I also do all kinds of other media work, from scriptwriting, videography, photography and, of course, my day job as a journalist. At the end of the day, all three agreed that money has never been the motivation for any of us when it came to writing.

(Left to right) Rozlan Mohd Noor, Zan Azlee, Maya Tan Abdullah and Miguel Syjuco talking money.
(Left to right) Rozlan Mohd Noor, Zan Azlee, Maya Tan Abdullah and Miguel Syjuco talk money.

The final session that I attended was called ‘Stranger than fiction’, which saw Malaysian arts archivist, Eddin Khoo, moderating a panel consisting of Miguel Syjuco, Leila S. Chudori, Brian Stoddard (crime novelist from New Zealand) and Said El Haji (Dutch writer).

The discussion went quite serious delving into how cultural context, regional politics and even religious ideologies could influence writers in their writing, from fiction to non-fiction. It was a very philosophical session and it touched on issues such as writing on dissent, taboos, and as a voice that provokes society.

"We should be able to write about everything. Break taboos. I want to feel like I'm doing something wrong," explained Said.

And from that discussion, I took away the belief that any issue or question is valid and no one has a right to say that it cannot be discussed or debated. As writers and readers, the society as a whole has a responsibility to engage each other and improve intellectual discourse.

"With all due respect, if we start limiting questions that people are allowed to ask, then we as a society are f**ked," summed up Syjuco.

(Left to right) Brian Stoddard, Said El Haji, Leila S. Chudori, Miguel Syjuco and moderator Eddin Khoo.
(Left to right) Brian Stoddard, Said El Haji, Leila S. Chudori, Miguel Syjuco and moderator Eddin Khoo.

There were many more panel discussions, readings, poetry recitals and book launches that happened throughout the three day festival. It was exciting and seeing that the festival is already in it’s fourth year and looks like it will continue, the atmosphere of intellectual discourse that was created is definitely something that will push the literary scene in Malaysia forward.

I feel more invigorated to write more and be as prolific as I can to help the betterment of the country. Either that, or I can just start traveling to Penang more often to stuff myself crazy with nasi kandar, laksa and pasembur.