The Poet and the Filmmaker

A.SAMAD Said, or Pak Samad as he is known, is a distinguished poet and novelist. He received the Sasterawan Negara award in 1986, and his novel Salina is a canonical work of Malaysian literature. He has recently become more know as one of the key figures of the Bersih movement, a coalition of NGOs advocating for free and fair elections, however.

At an event commemorating Malaysia's 56th Merdeka, Pak Samad read a poem, during which a number of activists raised the Sang Saka, a pre-Merdeka flag. Flags are material symbols of nationhood imbued with deep symbolic meaning. Thus, to fly an alternative to the Jalur Gemilang at the Merdeka celebration is to register one's dissatisfaction with the nation as it is currently constructed. Similar strategies of protest have been used by Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander communities, for example.