Improve accessibility to online Malay literature

I WAS doing some research on Malay literature recently and became quite frustrated with the lack of digitalised text online.

While it was easy to find the digitalised texts to English classics like A Tale of Two Cities and Chinese classics like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I was hard-pressed to search for the ones for Malay classics such as Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Annals) and Hikayat Hang Tuah (The Legend of Hang Tuah).

Such a situation should not exist in this digital era, where most books and texts that have expired copyrights are in the public domain and are available for free online.

Even though I could have easily gone over to a bookshop to find a printed copy, it would be much easier if I could view these texts online for quick reference.

One of my favourite web- sites to view these texts is Wikisource, where texts of various subjects ranging from fiction to scientific papers are available to everyone.

I urge the relevant parties to improve the accessibility to Malay literature.

Our country has a wealth of classics to offer that have shaped our country in numerous ways.

In digitalising them, we are not only allowing our younger generation easier access to these classics, we are also opening a new channel to introduce our rich heritage to the world.

TAN FONG JIAN

Penang