Salleh Ben Joned

Have Tempurung Will Travel by Salleh Ben Joned

• In this poem, Salleh Ben Joned uses several words in Malay language such as modernisasi, intellektual, moden, kampong, globalisasi and others. The use of these words signifies that regardless of the idea of preserving our own mother tongue, we are actually using or borrowing words from the West. The idea is that we can still use the modern or Western language, but we must not forget our roots.
• This poem highlights the idea of nationalism and the tone is provocative. Salleh ben Joned uses this particular poem in order to mock and to make fun of the Malays.(especially Malay Language)
• The theme of this poem leads to the issue on how to open up and deal with modern world. Salleh satirizes everyone in this country as a form to make them change their perspectives towards life.
• He indicates that we should never be narrow-minded and stay put in one place only. We should go out, go discover new things and take advantage on what the world has to offer.
• It could be seen from the title itself that Salleh urges and also provokes the Malaysian Malay not to sit under the coconut shell (tempurung), we should always be open-minded and learn new things rather than dwelling too much on unnecessary issue, for instance the issue of language politics itself.
• Besides that, he indicates that if we just sit still and do nothing, we could never improve and develop ourselves. thus, this country will never progress and develop.
• Therefore, this poem is relevant to the issue of language politics which is happening in our country. It is highlighted by the use of several words which are considered as Malaywords by the Malays themselves, but the truth is, those words are not ours and they belong to the West.
• Thus, the issue of language politics should be taken into consideration by looking at the positive side of it rather than focusing on the ethnic based, race based and theoriginality of it.
• Language is for everyone as a form of communication and it should not be politicized since we are all citizens of this country, and we should be positive with one another.