WHEN he first became an MP in the 13th general election, DAP’s Steven Sim Chee Keong was falsely accused of being one of lawmakers from the predominantly Chinese opposition party who could not speak Bahasa Malaysia well. 

Such was the propaganda against DAP and its elected reps like Sim that few realised he not only speaks the national language fluently but also writes poetry in Bahasa Malaysia.

He can even cite Quranic verses when speaking in ceramah. 

The Bukit Mertajam MP, now deputy youth and sports minister, is launching his first book in Bahasa Malaysia titled Dalam Salju Ada Bunga (In Snow, there are Flowers).

Its launch is to coincide with the historic 61st Merdeka celebrations when the country saw a change of government for the first time.

The book is an anthology of Malay poems Sim had written over several years. It is published by the party and to be launched at Parliament tomorrow by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof and Lim Kit Siang, the DAP veteran leader and Iskandar Puteri MP.

Sim told The Malaysian Insight his poems have a political theme, reflecting his experience in politics from his university days until today.

“They express my deepest feelings towards the country, may they be love or frustration.”

Sim has picked 10 poems for the compilation. The latest is titled Lim Kit Siang, a translation from his English original A Ghost in Parliament, which was inspired by an incident in Parliament in the March sitting, before GE14.

The story was that Lim was just suspended from the Dewan Rakyat but he defied the suspension and turned up in the house.

During proceedings, he interrupted Noh Omar’s (BN-Tanjong Karang) speech. Noh was then the urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister.

The former minister sarcastically said: “I hear a voice but I don’t see it. Don’t disturb the house”.

This led Barisan Nasional’s Sungai Besar MP Budiman Mohd Zohdi to remark: “There is a ghost’s voice”.

“It may be a ghost, as a ghost doesn’t understand language,” Noh said.

And that, according to Sim, was where he got the inspiration to pen the poem.

Sim’s oldest poem, Merdeka (Independence), was written in 2003, when he was a second-year student at Universiti Malaya.

The poem tells of what Merdeka meant to him – freedom from foreign and domestic colonisation, where the people – the “bangsa Malaysia” (Malaysian race) – were aware, mature, able to think, defend themselves, fight and develop the nation.

Sim also hopes the book would be a way of celebrating the 61st Merdeka this year under a new Pakatan Harapan federal government.

“It reflects the current mood – the strong sense of love for the country.”

He quoted Che Guevara, the Argentine Marxist revolutionary and guerilla leader, who once said “the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love”.

“Revolution without love is madness,” Sim said, reflecting on how Malaysia finally changed the government after 60 years. 

“Someone also said, we campaign in poetry but govern in prose,” he cited the quote by the late Mario Cuomo, a former governor of New York.

“Perhaps we should also govern a bit in poetry and consider the importance of people, not just things.”

The Cuomo quote describes how politicians campaign. The poetry refers to the big promises, the possibilities and the problems solved. The prose refers to the mess that follows when the politicians have to govern and make do with compromises and half-victories.

In 2013, a day after winning Bukit Mertajam, Sim wrote about hope, which Pakatan Harapan sold to the people in the run up to the May 9 elections this year.

As reflected in Harapan (hope), he already knew the path ahead would be painful and “full of thorns” but “we must go on, and on, and on”.

He also wrote about the Bersih rallies; Bangsa Malaysia; National Laureate A. Samad Said, who is a DAP man; and the use of Bahasa Malaysia.

Asked why he wrote in Bahasa Malaysia, Sim said: “Why not?”

“I have always used Bahasa Malaysia, English and Chinese in my daily life and work,” said the 36-year-old father of a son. 

“I don’t think it is something extraordinary to write in Malay.”

The poems might also show his poetic and romantic side, he added, rather than his “stoic administrator” and “no-nonsense manager” image. – August 15, 2018.