Mynah's Final Issue 4

I've been following Mynah Magazine since its first issue. The team has published its final Issue 4 in March, and is totally done. What a pity. They've got good writers and solid articles, delving into themes and topics not often addressed in the public sphere. 

I like this little magazine because of the design effort that goes into the layout of each story. It could be an insert, glossy pages for the photos, a crossword puzzle, and such. It's published in such an easy size to hold and slip into bags, and easy on the eye. The footnotes and the bibliography are detailed and the references, factual and respectful.

When Issue 4 arrived in my mailbox, I held off reading it till much later. It's like, I don't want to finish it so fast so that it could 'last longer'. Rather silly. It doesn't work that way huh. Took it out that morning and although I read it slowly, I finished it over a long coffee and a watermelon juice.

Issue 4 holds 11 pieces, and a little write-up about its contributors. It included essays on farms in Singapore, the closure of Golden Mile Complex. The magazine's first story is Alif Ibrahim's 'These Mosques Belong to the Present'. It's a little more than remembering the mosques that have been torn down in the name of 'modernisation' and city development. Beyond a religious viewpoint, it's also a lament for a way of life lost, and how people seek to find the familiar comfort in today's buildings, and communities. 

His descriptions are not only rich with nostalgia for the kampung that has become a familiar theme in Malay literature, but also pain for what was lost. And the loss Mr Yusoff described is often as symbolic as it is material. Darussawab Mosque was built by the village, a voluntary effort by "skilled Javanese carpenters" contributing their expertise as other kampung folks "chipped in with whatever they could to build a mosque they were truly proud of." According to Mr Yusoff, Darussawab Mosque was demolished in 1975.

"The loss of the mosque was synonymous with the loss of our kampung life," he says.

Claire Voon's 'Singapore on Public Notice' is both hilarious and sad. Her story takes its title from the IG account @publicnoticesg started by Kevin Lee many years ago in 2011. 

Like how Rice put it, it's indeed the ultimate love letter to Singaporeans by Singaporeans. Hell, I'm guilty of it — leaving notes once in a bit. We're so angry, and literally paggro. We don't want to confront another, so we leave notes that are mean and nasty, and sometimes witty and hilarious. 

By becoming the complainer by proxy, Town Councils conveniently release the bothered party from doing important work: namely, that of forming connections and holding space for constructive conversations — all necessary towards building a healthy community of genuine camaraderie. The process instead encourages surreptitious targeting, gossiping, and snitching.

Faris Joraimi's 'Eating the Malay World: Singapore's Peranakan Amnesia' come across as well thought out and researched. While yes, we have Peranakan culture in Singapore, and it's great that we pay it some attention, we also seem to be selling it as a 'racial' construct, and a tourist attraction when it comes to the food, the 'culture' and the Peranakan museum.  

Of course Violet Oon's infamous 'nyonya nasi ambeng' brouhaha was mentioned. It embodies a different cultural narrative. The writer raised the issues that "Malays are penalised for eating the same things as Chinese Peranakans." 

Those changes help explain the tensions emerging from Chinese Peranakans making, eating, and selling dishes that they share with Malays. In fairness, not all Chinese Peranakans feel the same way about the revival. My personal interactions with Chinese Peranakans active in heritage circles surfaced concerns over the kind of fanaticism bordering on the absurd. 

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One can easily find Chinese Peranakan restaurants serving the same dishes without arousing concern about a public health crisis. Their menus connote opulence and traditional refinement, whereas under a Malay label, the same dishes are considered as rustic and unhealthy.

The last story 'OVERSEAS: Singaporeans Abroad' is exactly what it says. It collects the experiences and thoughts of five Singaporeans who don't live in the country. They left for various reasons, reasons that we're all too familiar with, and mostly for the lifestyle. They also want out from the rat race, and from being pegged to a standard progression in life and living. While we love Singapore, we don't embrace everything about it. We keep our Singapore citizenship, but this city doesn't have be 'home'.

Thank you for the stories, Mynah. Thanks for going where many of us are too lazy and not committed enough to turn into. Thanks for reminding us the Singapore still has another layer and a whole bunch of humans who care, but who might not be able to effect the social changes we would like to see in this generation.