Malaysia’s Original Maverick

Truth, Beauty, Amok and Belonging
Book launch and discussion about the modernity of Salleh Ben Joned

NOTE: this page is to register for the in person event. If you would like to attend online, register here.

Salleh Ben Joned was an iconoclast whose life work embodied the first modern break in independent Malaysia’s post-colonial poetry, prose, and performance.

As a Colombo-Plan scholar, he spent a decade studying and working in Australia before returning home to inspire Malaysians – first as a lecturer at Universiti Malaya, then as an actor, playwright and translator, and most popularly, as a columnist for the New Straits Times.

As explored in Anna Salleh’s new book ‘Salleh Ben Joned – Truth, Beauty, Amok and Belonging’, he contested feudal definitions of what it is to be Malay and Malaysian. He satirised the trappings of the country’s historic industrialisation of the 1980s and 1990s, rubbing raw against Dr Mahathir’s reign.

But Salleh’s words also seeded today’s febrile debates over race, religion, language and identity, which underpins an ongoing battle for a Malay soul that dissents from Malaysia's Islamist-defined opposition politics.

Salleh’s travails are also explored in this new ABC audio documentary, seen here.

Join us for a discussion about Malaysia at Sydney University 4th July, presented by the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC) and the Malaysia Singapore Society of Australia (MASSA). Dr Anna Salleh will be in conversation with Kean Wong of MASSA.

Copies of 'Salleh Ben Joned – Truth, Beauty, Amok and Belonging’ will be available for sale at $35, with PayID available or cash.