Deaf activist Dr Anthony Alexander Chong outlines plans for literary workshop that highlights Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia

He's also one of the 11 beneficiaries of this year’s Krishen Jit Fund.

By Anandhi Gopinath

23 December 2021 - 10:37am

Supported by Astro and the Creador Foundation, the fund — of which Chong is one of 11 beneficiaries this year — is inspired by the late theatre director’s pioneering work in celebrating original Malaysian creativity (All photos: Anthony Alexander Chong)

It was while setting up the interview with deaf activist Dr Anthony Alexander Chong that it occurred how much we take for granted, and how mortifyingly unaware we are about the daily minutiae that can be difficult for people who are hearing-impaired. Chong is exceptionally gracious about it all, but the effect of that initial exchange is permanently seared in our collective consciousness: While we may acknowledge that the world can be a difficult place for the differently-abled, we really have no idea what some of their day-to-day challenges are.

In fact, Chong’s own activism work would not have been further highlighted if not for the Krishen Jit Fund, which is aimed at providing deserving arts practitioners with monetary aid to pursue projects in the arts. Supported by Astro and the Creador Foundation, the fund — of which Chong is one of 11 beneficiaries this year — is inspired by the late theatre director’s pioneering work in celebrating original Malaysian creativity in as varied and alternative ways as possible.

Queer and Deaf in ASEAN Countries

PUBLISHED ON 13 DEC 2021
POSTED BY DR. ANTHONY CHONG
POSTED ON ACTIVIST VOICES

I would like to begin with a few facts about Deaf people in Malaysia. It is already difficult to live as a Deaf person in mainstream society, as many people are ignorant about Deaf people and do not understand that we are a linguistic minority. We experience poor access to information because of the ignorance of others, not because of our deafness. We are compelled to spend time and money on speech and listening therapy, even though such therapy does not always work for many of us. Despite its futility, people around us continue to insist that we give importance to speech and listening therapy. This has caused us to lose a lot of valuable time, money and energy in fruitless efforts towards mastery of oral communication. If we could pursue self-empowerment via sign language, our natural language, we would acquire sufficient literacy skills to access information in the mass media and other sources to function better.

Our lives become complicated when we realize that we are not heterosexual. We become fearful and do not know what to do with this self-realization. We learn from the stories of others and from the movies that it is not safe to live with an LGBTIQ identity. The worst has happened to those who revealed their queer identity -- they have been forced to go through conversion therapy. We feel a little better when we find another Deaf person with LGBTIQ.

Krishen Jit Fund 2021 doubles arts support, announces 11 beneficiaries

This year's Krishen Jit Fund featured 11 recipients (from top, left) Susan Philip, Anthony Chong, Rezza Coebar Abel, Talha K.K., Komeil Zarin, a reprentative of Syamsul Azhar, Izat Arif, Jeffrey Lim and Gogularaajan Rajendran. Photo: The Star/Ong Soon Hin

Gogularaajan Rajendran, a filmmaker, has always heard rich stories from his grandparents about estate life in Malaysia in the 1960s. What bothered him was the fact that he had never seen such stories depicted in local films.

“All this while, plantation stories have only been focused on the struggles of the people. But there is more to it than that. I believe we have missed out the life, joys and humour of Malaysian Indian communities who lived in the plantations. I'm curious about the many rich and nuanced stories out there. I’m planning to interview 50 people over the age of 60 from five different estates as part of a documentary film and research project for my upcoming feature film Kaali,” says Gogu, as he is fondly known.

Krishen Jit Fund awards 11 grants to 11 Malaysian artists

Some of the recipients of the Krishen Jit Fund this year

KUALA LUMPUR: The Krishen Jit Fund, that promotes the aspirations of promising Malaysians who thrive in the creative arts, is back and has just awarded grants to 11 individual and collective artists.

The fund, managed by Astro and the Five Arts Centre and supported by Creador Foundation, awarded RM86,000 to the artists in a ceremony held at the Five Arts Centre in Taman Tun Dr Ismail today.

The creative recipients for this year are Anthony Alexander Chong whose project is the Malaysian Sign Language literature workshop, Jeffrey Lim (Khemah Kamera), Flux28 Collective (Night Shift), Izat Arif (Hybrid Exhibition), Rezza Coebar (Earthshine), Fraulina Tajuddin (Young Kids' Web Series), Gogularaajan Rajendran (Plantation Life: As It Was), Syamsul Azhar Mohamad Azmi (Dari Pinggiran), Arief Iskandar Hamizan (Panas Play Reads), Susan Philip (The Satira Archives) and Komeil Zarin (30 Portraits In Exile).

Would you mind to use correct term please? Correct term is Jurubahasa BIM (BIM interpreter), instead of Jurubahasa Isyarat (Sign Language Interpreter).

It is really very important to use correct term. I have seen wrong terms in mass media and it will cause people think that every interpreter in Malaysia masters 200 sign languages which is not true.

Nobody here in Malaysia or other countries is expert to evaluate interpreters for 200 sign languages.

I could not understand why media keeps using this “sign language interpreter” when the term is not correct.

Government officers will not understand that Malaysian Deaf is capable to communicate in BIM only, not 200 sign languages. People misunderstand that KTBM is a sign language, which is not true too. If we keep promising “sign language interpreter”, the government will say,

Since it is “sign language”, so why not we take sign language from Japan, UK, Australia, Hong Kong for the Deaf students. All sign languages are just same thing. Everyone uses hands.

Celebrating Thriving Deaf Communities

Dear all friends!

 
It is our pleasure to invite you to attend a webinar Celebrating Thriving Deaf Communities, In conjunction with International Week of the Deaf People (IWDP) and International Day of Sign Languages (IDSL) 2021. It is jointly organized by three civil society organization: MyBIM, JUPEBIM and DeafMT. It will be held on 2 and 3 October 2021. The webinar will be in English and BIM.

Please mark these dates and time slots in your calendar. Please register yourself for the webinar: https://tinyurl.com/2021BIMSeminar

More details about the programme can be found in this poster (PDF). Alternatively, you may see the programme below (image).

We sincerely hope to see you there!

Deaf UM student earns PhD

The Star 1 August 2021 by Yeung Yeu-Mynn

PEOPLE with disabilities are part of our diverse community, and just because they are different does not mean they are incapable of achieving great things – this was the message Dr Anthony Chong (pic) wanted to convey to the public during a recent email interview with StarEdu.

It is also a reality he embodies through his academic achievement as a deaf person.

Recently, the 39-year-old made waves on social media after he shared news about his latest academic milestone – he was conferred a doctoral degree (PhD) in anthropology and sociology from Universiti Malaya (UM).

Chong is the varsity’s first deaf doctorate recipient who communicates using Malaysian Sign Language (BIM) instead of speech.

While he was pleasantly surprised by the recognition, Chong was more interested in raising the awareness and changing the perspectives of society, including policymakers, government officials and hearing academicians serving the deaf community.

“I also hope that this news will encourage more deaf people to pursue a PhD regardless of their struggles,” he said, adding that nothing is impossible if one is willing to step out of one’s comfort zone.

Chong himself had experienced some of the struggles firsthand throughout his journey as a student.

He recalled urging his teachers to give his special education class a timetable on his first day in secondary school.

“Teachers just came to our class to teach whenever they had time. I realised most of us were spending time talking and idling away,” he said.

His proactive approach led to a teacher asking if he was interested in studying with his hearing peers instead, he shared.

It was an opportunity that the Selangorian seized without hesitation. He went on to stun his teachers and 40 hearing classmates when he was subsequently promoted from the 16th class to the third, where he ranked top of his class.

Chong succeeded in doing so, despite having difficulty mastering Bahasa Malaysia and the English language, and coping with communication barriers with hearing people.

“Most of my teachers were not fluent in BIM. This hindered effective communication.

“I could not grasp lessons and relied heavily on notes my deskmates shared. Communication with my hearing classmates was also limited to writing on paper,” he said.

He added that it was only when he was pursuing his Master’s degree in linguistics in UM that he received BIM interpreting services.

“These services, however, were only lecture-limited. Hence, I had to communicate with my supervisors through pen and paper,” said Chong, who received scholarships to pursue a computing degree at KDU College, as well as a Master’s degree in deaf studies focusing on cultural studies at Gallaudet University in the United States.

While he obtained a postgraduate research grant worth RM19,800 from UM, his six-year PhD journey hit a hurdle from the outset as finding a supervisor proved to be arduous.

“I had to email each lecturer. Many said they were not skilled in my area of study until I finally found Dr Rosila Bee Mohd Hussain.

“She had been supportive throughout, tirelessly pushing me and providing resources to help with my thesis writing,” he said.

He also shared that pursuing his PhD studies, while holding a full-time job as an administrative officer and being actively involved in the deaf community, could be overwhelming for him sometimes.

“It was a constant race against time. On several occasions, I would isolate myself and simply hit the books overnight.

“When I needed to complete my thesis, I set aside all prior commitments,” he said.

In his dissertation, Chong zoomed in on the construction of deaf people’s identities through intersectionality in Malaysia’s mainstream society. Through his research, he discovered that deaf Malaysians develop two identities at an intersection, contrary to previous literature.

He found that they identify as persons with disabilities due to their inability to speak society’s language, as well as develop a personalised cultural and linguistic identity as a result of their inability to master BIM.

“Interestingly, these two identities are embraced without realisation,” he said.

According to Chong, these intersectional identities occur due to societal experiences.

“If deaf people do not encounter societal barriers, they would simply be people with a diversified background. They become persons with disabilities because society places these barriers on them,” he said.

He also pointed out that it is important to use the term “BIM interpreter” in the Malaysian context, instead of “sign language interpreter”, as there are over 200 sign languages in the world.

“This is to raise awareness and eliminate misconceptions that sign language is universal,” he said, adding that British Sign Language and American Sign Language have been introduced to the education system, further widening the communication gap between the old and the younger generation of deaf people.

On what’s next for him, Chong said he looks forward to playing a part in shaping the future of the deaf community who, he said, fuels his passion to work for their betterment.

“I hope to be involved in policymaking. i would also like to conduct research projects and collaborate with universities.

“It is time to reform deaf community policies and shift misconceptions, especially those revolving around BIM,” he said.

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Yeung, 21, a student in Selangor, is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) team. Throughout the year-long programme, participants aged between 14 and 22 from all across the country experience life as journalists, contributing ideas, conducting interviews, and completing writing assignments. They get to earn bylines, attend workshops, and extend their social networks. To join Star-NiE’s online youth community, go to facebook.com/niebrats.

From the source: The Star.