Battling censorship and ignorance

This is like some bad daytime soapie.

One never knows what the twists and turns in the narrative are, and who’s doing the twisting and turning.

Below is an excerpt from a piece from Malaysiakini.com (Chinese version); time stamp:- 17 May 2007, 3.10 pm; byline: Ng Ling Fong.

Summary –

a. MPH said they don’t want to sell it, as KDN has advised them not to, even though the book isn’t banned.

(updated) In the updated English version of the news (time stamp: 18 May 2007, 6.15pm), there appears to be a change of instructions. Yeah!

A MPH spokesperson, who also declined to be named, told malaysiakini yesterday that it made the decision after officers from the ministry confiscated copies of the book on Tuesday.

However checks today revealed that MPH had taken fresh orders for the book from the publisher.

b. Kinokuniya said, because the book is controversial, they will practice self-censorship and not sell it.

c. Popular said, they will sell it – and this is exactly why I hold a Popular Bookstore card for the past five years.

Admittedly, I met the distributor at 5 pm to do a stock-take and to grill him on a number of issues – hence my post earlier this morning. This development has given the distributor more grey hairs, ditto for the publisher.

But upon reading the article in Malaysiakini, a couple of more questions popped up.

1. Why aren’t the bookshops selling the book even though it’s not banned?

2. How many other ‘controversial’ books have they thrown out from their order list in the past, and how many more will suffer the same fate in the future?

These are questions for customers who frequent these bookshops to forward to the management. This is when a bit of consumer activism kicks in.
Ask them WHY they aren’t selling the book.
Tell them WHY they should be selling the book.

For crying out loud – they are selling ‘The Secret’ – and not “May 13”??

There is very little that we can do, if bookshops do not live up to their social responsibility as frontliners in the war against ignorance and pem-bodoh-fication (a word first introduced to me by Jason Tan, editor of Off The Edge) of the minds. There are only a few independent bookstores here which take this responsibility seriously – one of them being Silverfishbooks.

So in the end, it will be Singaporeans who will be able to buy and read this book (and many others), perhaps even open their minds and eyes a little wider.

Across the border, we remain none the wiser.

MPH书局：遭搜查后已停售

MPH书局一位不愿具名的发言人指出，经过国安部官员於本周二下午3时的搜查行动后，该书局已经停止出售《513密件》一书。

这位发言人表示，虽然胡亚桥今日在报章上指称，《513密件》一书仍未被列为禁书，但是国安部官员却劝告该书局勿出售该书，因此该书局必须遵守有关指示。

“在国安部那天搜查和充公《513密件》后，我们已经停止出售了。至于我们是否会继续售卖，就要看国安部是否允许我们出售了。如果当局说可以卖，那么我们将会出售。”

这位发言人表示，不清楚该书局第一批共订购多少本《513密件》，但是可以确定的是，他们目前不会再订购第二批新书。

纪伊国屋：自我审查决定出售

吉隆坡市内其中一家最大型的书局–纪伊国屋（KINOKUNIYA）则表示，有鉴于柯嘉逊博士的新著《513密件》已经在报章上引起许多争议，因此自行决定不再出售有关书籍。

纪伊国屋书局经理黄丽娴告诉《当今大马》说，他们开始时以为《513密件》只是一本历史性书籍，因此在未详细过目之下，第一批只订购30本。

她表示，该书局是於本周二开始出售《513密件》，熟料在短短的两、三个小时内，就全部售罄。

虽然国安部宣称目前仍未定夺是否查禁《513密件》，但是黄丽娴表示，此书已经引起广泛的争议，因此该书局决定实施自我审核，不会再订购第二批新书。

“报纸已经说了，我们觉得不是很好，所以决定不卖。是我们本身实施自我审查（impose self-censorship）。”

她表示，只听闻国安部人员日前到谷中城MPH书局搜查和充公了10本《513密件》，至今为止，并没有任何官员到纪伊国屋书局搜查。

“我们只是根据国安部的5个指南行事。其中一个指南说，该部有权没收任何会引起种族不和谐的书籍，因此我们必须遵守。虽然国安部并没有派人来，但是我们自己先自我审查。”

否认曾订购200本新书

她强调，除非有关当局在报章上公开指明该书并非禁书，这样纪伊国屋书局才会继续订购及出售该书。

此外，黄丽娴也否认该书局已经订购第2批位数200本新书及在下周抵达，并宣称对有关的报道毫不知情。

“没有人问过我，通常电话都会接到我这里来，你是第一个问我的人。”

不过，黄丽娴坦言，由于她尚未有机会详阅《513密件》一书，因此她不清楚为何该书会引起如此巨大的争议。(con’t)