Abstract
Criticism on Malaysian literature in English rarely addresses environmental concerns and in this article I attempt to redress this by examining two contemporary Malaysian novels in English, KS Maniam’s (2003) Between Lives and Yang-May Ooi’s (1998) The Flame Tree. This article investigates some of the environmental ethics suggested by these Malaysian writers, based on four important arguments for “doing” environmental ethics: duty, character, relationships and rights. Analyses of the novels reveal an environmental ethics that seems to revolve around the profound ideas that we are part of the environment, that the future of the environment hinges on actions and knowledge to ensure its sustainability and that action is derived from a sense of shared duty and activism and having good character and relationships. Also revealed in these texts is the commendable influence of religious beliefs and traditions and how these are interwoven with current ethical concerns about the environment and its sustainability.
Introduction
From an agriculture-based economy, Malaysia has evolved into a modern, industrialising, export-oriented economy, and by 2020 it is expected that the country will become truly industrialised. Throughout this evolution, poverty and income inequality have been relatively reduced. Employment rates, life expectancy, levels of literacy and education, public facilities and infrastructure have also improved. However, underlying this success story is a host of environmental problems that are hindering environmentally sustainable development in Malaysia, leading to the crucial question: where is rapid economic transformation and development leading us? This question also inevitably points to some practical and moral implications related to the environment or to environmental ethics. Environmental ethics seeks to engage with ethical problems related to the environment, and critically examines the beliefs and values we place on the environment as well as prescribing how we should act and behave in order to sustain it. This kind of moral examination is crucial in guiding humanity to prudential decision-making and problem-solving. As pointed out by Boylan (2014: 8), “the [environmental] decision-making process differs when we add the ethical mode”.
Ethics and the environment
A discipline of philosophy that emerged in the West in the 1970s, environmental ethics developed in response to the rigorous questioning and rethinking of the moral relationship between humanity and nature, reflected in publications such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), Lynn White’s “The historical roots of our ecological crisis” (1967), Garett Hardin’s “The tragedy of the commons” (1968) and Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb (1968), which underscore the environmental degradation caused by a multitude of anthropocentric activities and attitudes. By and large, grounded on Western perspectives and cultural experiences, the field of environmental ethics has flourished and become more important since the 1970s as it was believed that traditional ethical theories were too anthropocentric, and thus inadequate to discuss the moral complexity of the human-nature relationship. Early environmental ethicists, such as Holmes Rolston III and J Baird Callicott, advocated the need to ascribe intrinsic value to nature (value in its own right, independent of human interests), which then led to the divisive views of individualism and holism. Under the umbrella of individualism are theories generally considered to be forms of individualism such as biocentrism (the view that each living thing matters morally in its own right) proposed by Albert Schweitzer, and animal rights (the view that some or all animals have moral rights) advocated by Peter Singer. Under holism, ecocentrism theory (the view that individuals in the ecosystem have value because they have something to contribute to the ecosystem), for instance, dominates. Aldo Leopold is considered the pioneer in the development of ecocentric environmental ethics, calling for the radical view of a “land ethic,” which shifts the focus of moral consideration from humans to the biotic communities of the land.
In the 1990s, criticism centred around the field’s preoccupation with abstract questions about value rather than its practical relevance to environmental policies. In view of the latter, some ethicists proposed pluralism, based on the recognition that there is no one valid, correct moral theory. To pluralists, environmental ethics needs to make room for different ethical approaches, including non-Western cultural and religious perspectives, in order to tackle different kinds of environmental issues. For example, Robert D Bullard (2001) and Peter S Wenz (2001) have raised the issue of overcoming racism in environmental decision-making in line with the new movement of environmental justice, which aims to highlight how environmental ethicists have ignored the issue of justice for humans, especially in terms of the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens. Ramachandra Guha (2004: 340), in his article “Radical environmentalism and wilderness preservation: A Third World critique,” criticised the deep ecology movement’s focus on the need to preserve wildlife rather than humans. According to Guha (2008: 344), such efforts are not appropriate when applied in a Third World context, especially when it would lead to the displacement of people from their land. Segun Ogungbemi and Godfrey Tangwa have also pioneered philosophical discussions on environmental ethics from an African perspective. For instance, Ogungbemi probes into the cultural causes of environmental degradation in Africa and proposes what he calls the “ethics of nature-relatedness,” which is “ethics that leads human beings to seek to co-exist peacefully with nature and treat it with some reasonable concern for its worth, survival, and sustainability” (Ogungbemi, 2008: 337). Tangwa proposes “eco-bio-communitarianism” as a theory for African environmental ethics, which entails the “recognition and acceptance of inter-dependence and peaceful coexistence between earth, plants, animals and humans” (Tangwa, 2004: 389).
Three dominant schools of thought have emerged from environmental ethics. The first school of thought, deep ecology, was founded by Arne Naess who argues that a profound response to environmental degradation should be a change in our assumptions about the world. Naess proposes a “biospherical egalitarianism,” which is the idea that all living things have an equal right to flourish and that humanity needs to see the self as relational (rather than distinct) to aspects of nature. The second school of thought that has had a profound impact on environmental ethics is ecofeminism, where the link between the domination of nature and the domination of women is analysed. In essence, what these two schools of thought have in common is that they “criticize what they take to be common assumptions (at least within Western cultures) about the distinction between what is natural and what is artificial or cultural” (McShane, 2009: 415). Lastly, social ecology, pioneered by Murray Bookchin, asserts that the domination of nature stems from social hierarchy and domination which are major aspects of capitalism.
Recent trends in environmental ethics include environmental virtue ethics (sometimes called character ethics), which focuses on how people can achieve moral excellence, and the incorporation of theories about value from other fields such as economics and aesthetics. In addition, religious traditions around the world, particularly Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, have also been actively recovering ethical concerns for the environment, contributing to religious environmental ethics (Hay, 2002: 94). Indeed, many different ethical theories and approaches to the environment have been offered to provide a platform for humanity to develop more informed judgements about the construction of their moralities and those of others. These theories and approaches may offer different prescriptions of what needs to be done but the general consensus in the field is that the ecosystem is running on a limited capacity to withstand destruction and that human activities need to proceed with caution and humility for the sake of future generations as well as other living beings (DesJardins, 1997: 251).
Ethics and literature
Literature and ethics have long been interrelated, following the nature of literature as an aesthetic medium providing excellent use in ethical inquiry by philosophers, writers and critics. As pointed out by Colin McGinn (2003: 2–3): One purpose of fiction is to present and reveal character in such a way as to invite moral appraisal: we are brought to enter into someone’s character as it is expressed in feeling and action, and we react to this with various evaluative attitudes – affective as well as cognitive. And one purpose of literary criticism or commentary is (or ought to be) to make clear the ethical import of the actions and experiences of fictional characters. Thus questions of ethics intersect with artistic and literary questions.
Whilst literature has proven to be useful in ethical discussions, ethical criticism has been largely shunned in literary criticism. With the advent of literary theory in the 1960s, studies of literature have benefited from many theoretical perspectives developed in other fields, focusing more on the structures of language, psychological underpinnings or economic capital than on ethical and moral consciousness (Love, 2010: 372). Thus, ethical theory and literary theory, two fields that could potentially be productive in literary criticism, become “separate discourses” (Larson, 2001: 2).
Nevertheless, the ethical dimension in critical literary undertakings has been addressed commendably by scholars from the 1980s onwards, what is often referred to as the “turn to ethics” (Arizti and Martínez-Falquina, 2007: x). Wayne Booth’s The Company We Keep (1988), Barbara Herrnstein Smith’s Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory (1988) and Tobin Siebers’ The Ethics of Criticism (1988) paved the way to bring ethics back to literary theory. In the 1990s, Andrew Newton’s Narrative Ethics (1995), Hadfield, Rainsford and Woods’ The Ethics in Literature (1999) and Louis P Pojman and Lewis Vaughn’s The Moral Life: An Introductory Reader in Ethics and Literature (1999), to name a few, further advanced the “turn to ethics” project. Many more works emerged on literature and ethics, particularly those from the Anglo-American tradition. However, these efforts have “often been circumscribed in terms of their chronology and focus” (Brie and Rossiter, 2010: 1). To illustrate, Larson’s (2001) Ethics in the English Novel 1880–1914 focuses on ethics and Victorian novels and Arizti and Martínez-Falquina’s On The Turn: The Ethics of Fiction in Contemporary Narrative in English (2007) concentrates on contemporary fiction, whereas Brie and Rossiter’s (2010) book Literature and Ethics: From the Green Knight to the Dark Knight attempts to be more comprehensive by covering different periods in English literature from medieval to modern times.
Indeed, ethical criticism has proliferated and has inspired philosophers and literary scholars to participate in literary discourse, discussing many ethical issues that vary in scale and scope, with the common concern of elevating the relationship between literature and ethics and the effects of this relationship. In line with this rigorous approach, studies geared towards understanding environmental ethics that emerge through literature are crucial; after all, the setting of a literary work almost always implies an environment.
Criticism on Malaysian literature in English rarely addresses environmental concerns, and in this article I attempt to redress this sparsity of work by investigating the environmental ethics suggested by two prominent Malaysian writers, KS Maniam and Yang May Ooi, in their treatment of land-related issues in Between Lives (Maniam, 2003) and The Flame Tree (Ooi, 1998), respectively. Set in the late 1990s and early 2000s, respectively, The Flame Tree and Between Lives are informed by the interplay of many local and global events that took place in Malaysia in the 1990s, a truly significant era in Malaysia’s history.
Socio-political context
Marked by robust economic growth, the 1990s saw the evolution of Malaysia from an agriculture-based economy into a modern, industrialising, capitalist, export-oriented one. The state became engrossed with technological advancement, new convergent communications and multimedia industries, and numerous multi-billion dollar mega-projects were launched during this era, mostly for functional, symbolic and ideological reasons. In general, these projects attest to the integration of the Malaysian local market to the global finance market, and symbolise “the shift from Third to First World status, from cultural periphery to creator of cultural symbols for global consumption and regime maintenance based on legitimisation through internationalisation” (Douglass, 2000: 2322).
The 1990s was also the era when the word globalisation preoccupied public consciousness all over the world, and Malaysia was no exception where the country had to adopt a more open policy, not only economically but also socially and culturally. Malaysia responded to globalisation in many ways, for instance by promoting massive inflows of portfolio investment, adopting a more liberal education policy and guaranteeing freedom of expression online (See, 2011: 9–12).
Also concurrent with the globalisation phenomenon in the 1990s was the worldwide concern surrounding the approaching millennium where all kinds of predictions were made by scientists, economists, religious leaders and politicians which further escalated people’s anxiety. As noted by Starrs (2002: 4), millennium anxiety and globalisation also involved elements of the persistence of “traditional” imperialism and colonialism, which eventually made Asians and ex-Western colonies become uncomfortable with or suspicious of globalisation. This distrust has culminated in the rise of Asian nationalism, propagated and reinforced through the Asian values ideology in the 1990s in South East Asia, particularly by the then-Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew and Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamed (Starrs, 2002: 7). The rejection of the hegemonic political, social and cultural norms that are Western, and the promotion of other equally good alternative norms considered Asian, are at the core of the Asian values argument. It also puts great emphasis on forms of conduct within relationships and on personal virtue, obedience to authority, family, loyalty, social harmony and education, all resting on Asian cultural premises (Barr, 2002: 5). For example, Mahathir’s Asian values centre around four areas: the emulation of East Asian values and work ethic, resentment against liberal democracy, the corrupting influence of Western value and the West’s continuing exploitation of the developing world (Barr, 2002: 41–45). It is usually argued that the propagation of Asian values serves to undermine and dismiss public opinions and criticism, traits usually associated with Western democracy (Barr, 2002: 178).
The 1990s was also marked by a great deal of local and international criticism and campaigns, especially concerning the destruction of the natural environment and the sacrifice of environmental sustainability (Rigg, 1997: 35–36). “National tragedies” caused by hill land developments such as the Highland Towers Tragedy in Kuala Lumpur in 1993, the Genting Highland landslide tragedy in 1995 and the North-South Highway landslide near Gua Tempurung in 1996 (Zainal Abidin and Tew, 2000: iv) claimed many lives, caused immense damage to the environment and left the public in uproar after each tragedy. They demanded explanations, compelling the state to carry out thorough investigations. These national tragedies served as catalysts for greater environmental awareness and activism in line with the rise of a civil society in Malaysia which gained momentum in 1998. The sacking of then-Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in 1998, followed by the formation of the Reformasi (reformation) movement, served as the catalyst for a civil society that is rooted in justice, democratic reforms and governance rather than in race and state patronage (Bowie, 2004: 197; Weiss and Hassan, 2004: 12). As Loh has argued, in the 1990s, a “new democratic politics” has emerged, comprising new social organisations, NGOs, associations and informal groups which have their own set of leaders, goals and agendas which are not based on race (Loh, 2009: xvi–xvii), or what Weiss and Hassan (2004: 12) have termed “contemporary Malaysian social movements”. These movements provide Malaysians with “some space to organise, to complement or even to oppose [the state]” (Weiss and Hassan, 2004: 5).
“Doing” environmental ethics
My analysis of Between Lives and The Flame Tree is based on four ethical presumptions for “doing” environmental ethics: duty, character, relationships and rights (Traer, 2009: 138). Duty refers to taking the right action or doing what is right for other persons, future generations and nature. Character implies being a good person, having ecological virtues that would involve “not just the disposition to act in a particular way but also the ability to identify cases to which the virtue is applicable, having the appropriate emotions and attitudes, acting for the right reasons and so on” (Jamieson, 2008: 86). Relationships connote having feelings of empathy and integrity for ecosystems which enable us “to see and appreciate our relationships in nature and also to discern and define the integrity of ecosystems” (Traer, 2009: 101). Lastly, rights refer to our duty to provide the necessary social conditions for the realisation of animal and human rights. Traer demonstrates the likely consequences of doing these four moral presumptions (which either support or challenge the presumptions) on environmental issues such as sustainable consumption, environmental policy, clean air and water, urban ecology and climate change. “What you do matters,” Traer (2009: ix) writes, “and the person you are matters. In ethics we look for reasons to explain why this is so.” In this article, I investigate the kinds of duty, character, relationships and rights adopted by Maniam and Ooi and the consequences of doing (or not doing) these on land that is threatened by destructive environmental projects.
My analysis is also a response to Ng’s prudent observation of how “religion does permeate the work of Malaysian authors who write in English” (Ng, 2011: 1) and how this significance “has not been well reflected in available scholarship” (Ng, 2011: 24). In this article, I attempt to show the commendable influences of religious beliefs and traditions in Maniam’s Between Lives and Ooi’s The Flame Tree, and how these are interwoven with current environmental ethical concerns proving that capitalist modernity and its central tenets – science, secular culture, liberal democracy, individualism and humanism – have not completely replaced religious traditions, and that traditional religious ways of knowing and perceiving the environment continue to be the basis of humanity’s experience.
Rights, duty and character in The Flame Tree
Ooi’s The Flame Tree (henceforth, TFT) incorporates many of the most significant developments that occurred in Malaysia in the 1990s – the globalisation phenomenon, mega-projects, national tragedies and the propagation of Asian values – to delineate its central theme, that of environmental stability. In TFT, environmental sustainability is the central theme, implicit in the way the novel is divided into three parts: Part One – Yang, Part Two – Yin and Part Three – Tao. These divisions, named after major Taoist principles, are grounded in the dominant cultural traditions of Taoism which, to this day, has continued to influence Malaysian Chinese thinking about humanity’s relationship with the environment. Tan (1997), cited in Lee (2009: 23), points out that the Malaysian Chinese inherit a conglomerate of the religious traditions of China (Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism) as well as local appropriation of beliefs and practices.
In Taoism, the environment is conceived as an articulate unity, one between humanity and nature, and the Taoist principles of yin and yang illustrate how this unity works. Although yin and yang are opposite in nature (yin – the feminine and negative side, yang – the masculine and positive side), they rely on and cannot exist without each other. Balance is therefore achieved by the interchange and interplay of these two components. In the same context, fundamental to the concept of sustainability are the social, economic and environmental systems of a society which are interdependent and must be kept in harmony or balance if the society is to continuously function now and in the future.
The Taoist elements of yang, yin and tao provide an enriching basis for the causal connections between the characters and the juxtaposition of events. Part One of the book, “Yang”, is described by Ooi as the “masculine principle,” the “animus” that gives logical reasoning and proud strength, and the “ambition” that steers humanity to power and achievement (p. 1). Part One essentially establishes the story’s exposition, especially the relentless “ambitions” behind the most visionary megaproject in Asia and the symbol of the nation’s ambition, the Titiwangsa University. Other ambitions also unfold and Ooi ascertains this through the ‘stakeholders’ involved and the ethical dilemmas that ensued. There is Jasmine who leaves Malaysia behind at 18 and, through hard work and perseverance, becomes the youngest ever partner in one of the most prestigious law firms in London and is set to lead the legal team of Jordan’s construction and property management business. Jordan’s ambition is to win the Titiwangsa University contract by any means. Tan and his brother, who thrive in security businesses and whom Jordan has hired, also play a part in ensuring the contract is won. There is also Luke, an environmental consultant who is determined to look into the technical side of the designs submitted during the tender process so as to ensure a sustainable development is delivered to the people. Another character is Dr Chan, who aims to ensure that the proposed development brings prosperity to Ranjing and Kampung Tanah without bringing any environmental disasters. Through the exposition of these characters, Ooi establishes the ethical dilemmas involved and how the characters attempt to navigate through these dilemmas. Luke and Chan are concerned with the economic prosperity that the project would bring, but not at the expense of transparency, social justice and respect towards the people’s rights and their vulnerability. Jordan and Tan are not concerned about the kinds of immoral consequences stemming from their actions as long as they manage to secure the Titiwangsa contract. The ethical dilemma is most profound in Jasmine’s case. Her part as the legal advisor in the Titiwangsa project consistently challenges her abilities to determine the right thing to do, to carry out effective ethical action and to lay out an effective strategy in order to avoid any ethical quandaries in the future.
Part Two of the book, “Yin”, is described by Ooi as “feminine,” the “nurturing spirit that allows us to love and guides us to wisdom,” and the “intuitive emotion that holds us against the storm, and in endurance, roots us to life” (p. 217). It revolves around what happens when the Titiwangsa project is awarded to Jordan. Land is cleared for New Kampung Tanah, foundation works for the tower begin and the project brings prosperity to the town as jobs are created and businesses thrive. However, Dr Chan and Luke suffer the consequences of their battle to expose Jordan’s faulty design. The former dies in a tragic car accident staged by Tan, and Luke suffers from the bad publicity he receives as a result of Jordan’s slanderous campaigns.
Part Two essentially reveals the consequences of the unethical decisions that are made in Part One of the story, following Jordan’s vicious scheming, Jasmine’s blatant ignorance and Tan’s complicity in Jordan’s relentless ambition. The controversial university tower collapses within a year after construction has begun. This causes a massive landslide that slams into the town hall of New Kampung Tanah where Jordan is holding a celebration to commemorate the completion of Phase I of the project. The landslide “skidded and flowed down the full length of the slope, taking with it the new town, tracts of forest, cleared ground and any car, float, surprised resident and costumed child in its path” (p. 304). What is particularly striking in Part Two is how Jasmine and Tan deal with the consequences of their actions. Realising their mistakes too late, they receive their “wake-up call”, that an ambition that does not take into consideration the interdependence of people and their environment yields disaster and catastrophe. Before the collapse, when a reporter enquires about the Titiwangsa Tower foundation, Jasmine is disturbed and remembers what Luke has told her and, having witnessed the catastrophe, she feels that she is to be blamed for her ignorance. Tan, too, is overwhelmed by the tragedy and is convinced that he is paying for his sins, especially for his part in Dr Chan’s tragic accident: “If I take a life, I pay with a life” (p. 234).
Part Three, “Tao”, described by Ooi as “the way of harmony,” “the intertwined balance of yin and yang” that enables us “to walk the path of life with true courage to illuminate the chaos with our inner light” (p. 341), reveals the aftermath of the tragedy and accounts for all remaining loose ends. Trying to make up for their mistakes, Jasmine and Tan attempt to expose Jordan’s evil doings. Jasmine goes to Robert’s office in Kuala Lumpur to gather evidence of Jordan’s part in the disastrous project. This includes a recording of the conversation between Jordan and Zain whom he has bribed, notes exchanged between Jordan and Tsui whom he has also bribed and Luke’s missing reports (pp. 377–383). Conversely, Tan writes down everything about his involvement with Jordan to pass to Luke as evidence and, feeling guilty over his involvement in Dr Chan’s murder, he feels that he “had been the catalyst. He had killed the man who might have saved them all. Who might have stopped the construction of the tower. Who might have stopped Jordan” (p. 387). He also wants to stop Kidd, his brother and business partner, who has been hired by Jordan to kill Luke, convinced that he was “offering to the spirits…And then he would have repaid his debt. A life for a life” (p. 387). Tan also consoles himself that he no longer does any dirty work. During the catastrophe, he helps rescue other people, saving lives including those of Luke and Jasmine.
The Taoist principles of yin, yang and tao assist Ooi in establishing the metaphysical linkage between humanity and nature. This linkage also has a moral implication as Taoism teaches the interdependence of things, much like ecology whereby every member of the ecological system is equal and dependent on each other for survival, sustenance and fulfilment (Ip, 1998: 295). This very strong sense of dependence and connectedness carries with it a positive attitude that promotes good behaviour towards the environment, to “act in accordance with nature” (Ip, 1998: 294). In TFT, this interdependence is threatened due to the construction of Titiwangsa University. The economic wealth that comes with the development of the mega-project is welcomed but the defective design of the university tower disrupts the interdependence of things in Kampung Tanah, or the “equilibrium” as Tan comes to realise too late, bringing “destruction to the balance of life in Kampung Tanah” (p. 389). As Ooi has highlighted in Part Three, it is the “inner chaos” (p. 341) that enables the tragedy to happen, stemming from ignorance and denial on the part of humanity to feel and appreciate the interconnectedness of every form of life. Through the concepts of yin, yang and tao, Ooi elevates the needs for humanity to live in harmony with nature and for humanity to be responsible, positive, cooperative, kind and committed to sustaining the environment.
Besides the emphasis on sustainability, Ooi also highlights the conditions necessary to promote activism. She suggests that people should claim their right to information and to participation in decisions related to development projects, as well as the right to participate and form environmental committees that work to prevent projects from impacting on the land and its community. The first step taken by Dr Chan towards realising these rights is to gather the necessary data and reports, and he hires Luke, a local university researcher who is also an expert in environmental assessment. Concerned and keen to help the people by bringing his scientific and analytical expertise to bear on the impending environmental problem foreseen by Dr Chan, Luke alludes to the role of knowledge in advancing more powerful arguments about risky environmental projects and the need for a more discriminative approach to development. Besides claiming participatory rights, knowledge backed by scientific research and evidence is also seen as a necessary condition to promote activism. Dr Chan and Luke’s collaboration articulates the people’s right to information, to participation in decision-making and to justice where development projects are concerned. Ooi also seems to suggest that people affected by development projects should assert their political participation collectively when state officials or agencies fail to act or to ensure that the land is being protected. Ooi asserts that claiming their participatory rights in ensuring sustainability is the ultimate action the public should take, even though business corporations such as Jordan’s often trample on these rights.
While Dr Chan and Luke consider it their duty to protect the land involved in the construction of the Titiwangsa University mega-project, Jordan, Jasmine and Tan choose to concentrate on fulfilling their self-interests. Jordan’s self-interest is evident in his scheming to win the Titiwangsa project tender and his blatant disregard for distant people and land. Jasmine’s self-interest, however, is compounded in the dilemma involved in serving the interests of her client, Jordan, as well as the people of Kampung Tanah, “the kind of people from whom she had come” (p. 87). She is aware of the issue that “development must benefit the local people” (p. 82) and knows that the Kampung Tanah residents would have to be relocated and, therefore, not incorporated into the development of Titiwangsa if Jordan were to win the contract. But in order to convince Jordan and his associates that she is professionally right for the job and is doing everything to help them secure the contract, she proposes that Jordan buy the New Kampung Tanah land and reduce the tender price. To balance this, the locals are given expensive new houses in exchange for their old ones, and are required to pay the difference in value. In this way, Jordan gets to recoup the losses he incurs in reducing the tender price and in relocating the people. Jasmine will also make sure that she includes exclusion-of-liability clauses in the agreements that the people have to sign for when they relocate (p. 86). Jasmine’s role as the legal advisor in the Titiwangsa project positions her at the centre of the ethical dilemma revolving around the proposed project in that she could have been the agency for ethical actions but this is dismissed for the sake of fulfilling her ambition. She consoles herself that Kampung Tanah’s interests were not her concern and that she is not their lawyer (p. 87), and resolves the ethical dilemma she faces by reminding herself that her job and her commitment to act in the best interest of her client take precedence over other matters.
Ooi highlights the perils of fulfilling one’s self-interests through Tan’s actions in capitalising on Jordan’s “offers” to make sure the contract will be awarded to Jordan PLC. Tan’s ruthless complicity in Jordan’s unscrupulous ambition has long-term fatal effects on Kampung Tanah, its people and the local environment. For quite some time, he shows no remorse for his part in threatening, intimidating and “buying over” the people of Kampung Tanah so that they will embrace progress, always making up for his immoral acts with devout Buddhist worship. “He was an intensely religious man and contributed an impressive sum every month to the temple,” believing that “dues” are to be paid and “favours” are to be bestowed, and that these are all part of his duty and obligation (p. 36). To Tan, as long as he fulfils his duties to the gods and spirits (pays his dues), his business enterprise should be successful (favours bestowed by the gods and spirits). However, when the tower collapses, Tan begins to see the damage he has caused to the people of Kampong Tanah, and is convinced that he is paying for his sins, especially for his part in Dr Chan’s staged car accident. Ooi seems to emphasise here that one’s “good” character is based on fulfilling one’s duty not only to the gods and spirits but also to strangers, both human and non-human. Ultimately, Tan’s remorse bears resemblance to the Buddhist precept concerning killing living creatures, based on the ethical premise concerning the value of life. Buddhism values all living creatures and therefore it is the responsibility of humanity to abstain from destroying nature, animals and fellow human beings. The infliction of suffering and pain on living creatures is also condemned and it is these critical aspects of Buddhism that Ooi tries to draw attention to in Tan’s characterisation. Implicit in these aspects is the essence of Buddhist environmental ethics, the duty to be non-violent and gentle towards all living creatures, as well as acting with a pure mind that is devoid of greed and hatred (De Silva, 2008: 322). Ooi demonstrates that fulfilling this duty is fundamental and that a good “character” is one who has knowledge about this duty, and thus applies it by having empathy and acting responsibly to preserve the integrity of the environment.
Jasmine’s blatant ignorance when she finds out the truth about Jordan’s defective design also points to the interconnectedness between intention, behaviour and long-term effects. The moral to be drawn from this is quite straight-forward: the sort of intentions and behaviours a person seeks to achieve when dealing with the environment determines the effects of these intentions and behaviours on the environment. The New Kampung Tanah tragedy is symbolic of the long-term effects of bad intentions and behaviour. As Ooi has highlighted in Part Three, it is the “inner chaos” (p. 341) that enables the tragedy to happen, a chaos that stems from self-interest fulfilment. Here, Ooi also makes clear another duty, which is the necessity of humans to practice self-restraint, where environmental sustainability is perceived as emerging through one’s “inner revolution” in choosing the right intention and course of actions, as well as in correcting one’s course of action when it becomes evident that it is causing tremendous disruption to the sustainability of the environment. Self-restraint also seems to hinge on the ultimate duty to act with care and compassion. Through care and compassion towards others, activism towards sustainability can be carried out both in the private and public arenas.
Through Dr Chan’s and Luke’s attempts to save Kampung Tanah, Ooi makes clear the duty to promote environmental justice. Underlying this duty is the human potential to inflict harm when the relationship between humans, as well as the relationship between humans and the rest of the environment, is not aimed at the general good. Dr Chan’s and Luke’s public activities, which are initially private, are ultimately left in the hands of Luke. He holds the key to Jordan’s devious plan and becomes Ooi’s most important moral agency in TFT. However, the ultimate “responsibility” given to Luke seems to encourage an individualised project of activism. Harnessing the power and influence of a group seems to be too big a task for Luke to tackle, leaving him alone in his quest to seek justice for the people of Kampung Tanah.
Sacred duty and relationships in Between Lives
Implicit in Maniam’s Between Lives (henceforth, BL) is an environmental ethics that is largely grounded in Hinduism, a subject that has been employed in most of his works to address various issues pertaining to the Indian community in Malaysia. Maniam inherits from Hinduism an ethic that holds the land in reverence, so much so that caring for it and ensuring its sustainability are of paramount importance. Ng, in his 2011 book Intimating The Sacred: Religion in English Language Malaysian Fiction, has argued that Hinduism helps the characters in Maniam’s two other novels to embed roots “spiritually and transcendentally to a land which they cannot otherwise find a sense of belonging” (Ng, 2011: 26–27). In BL, Hinduism again plays a fundamental role, this time with the ethical message that caring and sustaining humanity’s relationship with the land is one’s religious calling.
In the novel, religious values and ethics seem to be one of the major conditions necessary to promote activism. As first- and second-generation Indian migrants in Malaya, Sellamma’s family retain their Indian identity by practising integral parts of their motherland’s culture such as the Tamil language and Hinduism, wherein their religion especially plays a defining role in governing the norms, values and rituals practised by the family. Many aspects of Sellamma’s land are associated with religious identities and rituals that her family used to practise and which keep her attached to the land. The Sacred Rama-Sita grove is one of these in that this sacred grove serves to highlight one of the important aspects of the tradition of the Indian diaspora in Malaysia, creating and/or building sacred places of worship similar to the ones found in their ancestral land so that ties with the ancestral land are maintained. Sellamma’s family is no different, and the sacred grove that sprawls over their land has its origins in India.
The institution of the sacred grove in India is very ancient and dates back to the pre-agrarian hunter-gatherer period, before humans had settled down to raise livestock and till the land (Malhotra et al., 2001: 6). A traditional means of biodiversity conservation, these groves are similar to what is now referred to as natural sanctuaries where all forms of living creatures are under protection. Dedicated to a certain deity, no one is allowed to cut any tree or plant, kill animals or birds or harm any form of life in the sacred grove area. Ancient Indian texts have many references to these groves, and it is estimated that nowadays in India there are at least 13,720 sacred groves (Malhotra et al., 2001: 12). In terms of religion, they serve to propitiate certain deities and/or ancestral spirits and also have a sociocultural function in that they provide a cultural space for the community as the common property resource where festivals, social gatherings and weddings are held. The groves also have an economic function, whereby village folk collect and extract dead plant and animal material for fuel or energy. Lastly, sacred groves also have a political dimension in that they provide territorial affiliation and village membership. As sacred groves serve religious, sociocultural, economic and political functions, they are invaluable in lessening the human impact on the environment and ensuring uninterrupted ecological processes (Malhotra et al., 2001: 18). However, nowadays these groves are under threat from traditional belief systems, encroachment and rapid urbanisation (Singh, 2008). By ascribing a religious identity to the Rama-Sita Grove, Sellamma keeps ties to the land, her family and her Indian cultural traditions.
Another aspect of the land that is associated with religious identities and rituals is the river. It is sacred to Sellamma just as water is considered sacred in Hinduism. Water is of special significance in Hinduism because it is related to physical cleanliness and spiritual well-being, which explains why most rituals and holy places are usually found on the banks of rivers, coasts, seashores and mountains. To Hindus, water, and especially rivers, has spiritually cleansing powers and there are seven sacred rivers in India – the Ganges, Yamuna, Godavari, Sarasvati, Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri. Bathing in rivers is considered sacred, for it is believed to cleanse the bather of his or her sins, and the river that runs through Sellamma’s land is given the same religious significance. Swimming together with Sumitra, Sellama reinforces the importance of the river to her family: “We always come here after working in the Rama-Sita grove. And after family quarrels or celebrations. More after the quarrels” (p. 64). Therefore, the river cleanses the whole family from physical impurities as well as spiritual ones, and by swimming together with Sumitra in the river that sprawls across her land Sellamma reinforces the spiritual importance of the river to her family. This ritual, as well as other rituals performed on her land, proves to work for Sellamma as it enables Sumitra and her family to believe in and treat the sacred land around them with respect. By letting Sumitra and, soon after, Sumitra’s family see and experience the “magical plentifulness” (p. 108) of her land, Sellamma demonstrates how rituals associated with religion can be used as a mechanism to create respect for the land, and eventually encourage humans to fulfil their duty to contribute to sustainability. Thus, helping to protect Sellamma’s land also becomes a social calling as she makes Sumitra and her family realise that her land is also a part of Sumitra and her family’s heritage, and that attempts to dispossess Sellamma of her land are unjust and sacrilegious. Maniam also seems to suggest that when religion is sidelined the environmental values and ethics embedded in the religion that encourage due respect and regard for God’s creation are naturally also sidelined. In the same context, Maniam implies that the sustainability of religious knowledge, values and ethics is also crucial to the sustainability of the environment. To Maniam, religious knowledge, values and ethics are humanity’s solid supporters that give substance to life (Lim, 2005: 41).
Threatened by involuntary displacement from her land, Sellamma shares the same problem faced by other invisible and powerless victims who have to bear the brunt of environmental crisis alone. Besides providing the material and historical significance of the land, Maniam also imparts the spiritual relationship that Sellamma has with the land, a relationship that also plays a fundamental part in explaining why she refuses to leave, thus claiming her rights to continue living on it. The values that she inherits from the teachings of Hinduism, particularly from the Ramayana, are put to practice on her land. Here, Maniam seems to remind us of a long-held Hindu view of divinity, that it is pervasive in all species, as is stated in most of its sacred texts, especially in its Vedas (Dwivedi, 2006: 162). The concept of “God is one and is everywhere present” enjoins Hindus to respect all elements of creation in order to maintain and protect the relationship between humanity and nature (Dwivedi, 2006: 162). In BL, Maniam reiterates this view of divinity through Sellamma’s attachment to the Rama-Sita Grove, the garden where Sellamma’s family grows vegetables. When she was a child, she used to delight in associating the vegetables in the grove with the physical attributes of goddesses, referring to ladies fingers as “Sita’s fingers” and the brinjals as the Great Devi’s “breasts” (p. 184).
The Hindu concept of the Earth as “the Mother” who provides energy for the sustenance of all species also carries particular relevance in BL. When Sellamma plucks a brinjal in the Rama-Sita Grove, she is convinced that: “When they cut them open, they will see,” Sellamma said. “The seeds like pearls. The flesh like milk.” “They will only taste the ripeness,” Anjalai said. “They will feel the Great Mother in everything,” Selamma said and plucked one and held it tenderly against her cheek. “All from this land!”. (p. 185)
However, this knowledge is insufficient alone to help Sellamma protect her land; her devotion and active participation in addressing its sustainability serves to highlight the importance of moral agencies and collective activism in serving causes related to the environment. Sellamma’s efforts are invisible to the public, making her efforts a solitary duty, therefore encouraging an individualistic understanding of environmental activism. None of the state agencies that have worked on Sellamma’s case try to understand the spiritual and emotional connections she has with her land. Until Sumitra arrives, Sellamma’s rights of access to justice are limited due to her unsocial, reclusive lifestyle. However, her rights are extended when Sumitra, her family and her friends discover the reasons behind Sellamma’s reluctance to give up her land, and they unite to publicise the injustice imposed on her. Maniam seems to suggest that another condition vital in sustaining the environment is cooperation and/or connection with people who have the knowledge and the means to disseminate information about the causes and consequences of environmental threats. Complementary to this condition is also voluntary collective action, as exemplified by Sumitra, her family and her friends’ efforts to ward off the developer and to make the threats posed to the land known to the public.
Maniam puts forward several ways in which one can fulfil one’s duties or act in ways that contribute to sustainability. One is the duty to treat land as sacred. Hinduism’s concept of pancha mahabhutas (five great elements that constitute the physical world) is of particular relevance to Maniam to show the land’s sacredness in BL. Earth, water, fire, air and space are five essential elements that make up all of creation, and it is believed that upon death humans dissolve into these five elements thus balancing the cycle of nature. The interconnectedness of these elements is demonstrated towards the end when Sumitra scatters Sellamma’s ashes over the Rama-Site grove and the river, saying, “Now you really belong to the land, Sellam. Now you really belong” (p. 325).
Indeed, the three main segments of the physical environment, space, water and earth, that create the web of life, and hence the interconnectedness of the cosmos and humanity, are given great significance in BL. Many aspects of the land are ascribed religious identities, for example the Rama-Sita Grove that sprawls on Sellamma’s land serves an economic as well as a religious function. When Sellamma brings Sumitra to the Rama-Sita Grove, she insists that Sumitra has “contact” with the soil. Initially, Sumitra, who has never held a changkul (hoe) in her life, finds it awkward but after trying it she can identify with the exhilaration that comes from “labouring” and “having contact” with the land: I pick up the changkul and struggle through the furrow to [Sellamma’s] side. I continue to struggle beside her, but my body is beginning to move less awkwardly. Then we are bringing the changkuls down together, and in the pause between the swings, I listen, as I’ve seen the old woman do, to the singing silence. Then the thud comes, we crack the lumps of earth, knock them into looser soil, and move on. The air fills, at first, with the smell of stale substances, coming perhaps from the trapped bodies of snails and their shells, then is slowly replaced with that of crushed grass and leaves, and of fresh sap. Better watch it, I tell myself, or you might get addicted to these things like the old woman! But I’m thrilled when after we’ve done the last furrow, we straighten up, and lean on the changkul handles, gasping, and smile at each other, the shining sweat of our labour feeling like a second skin on our bodies! (pp. 62–63)
Sellamma’s devotion to her land also illuminates a person’s responsibility to protect the environment. To articulate this message, Maniam avails us of the Hindu concept of dharma which is commonly referred to as one’s duty and responsibility to the religion. Protecting the environment is considered an important expression of dharma, with two-fold duties – a duty to the self whereby inner strength is sought through spiritual action, and a duty to the community whereby social good is worked for (Dwivedi, 2006: 169). All the rituals performed and practised on the land by Sellamma and her family are based on principles properly knitted within the Hindu way of life, and the fundamentals are observed by Sellamma even after her family disintegrates. To Sellamma, protecting her land and the divinity that prevails in it is her duty, a duty that gives her strength, fulfilment and character. It is also a duty that she desires succeeding generations, represented by Sumitra and her family, to realise, practise and sustain. Here Maniam seems to extend the individual duty to community duty, stressing the importance of passing this duty to succeeding generations. Embedded in this individual and communal duty is the idea that sustainability is a practice that can potentially unite a community.
Modernity, materialism, individualism and rapid economic transformation have somehow alienated Sumitra and her family from the Hindu way of life. Sumitra’s condescending attitude towards Sellamma’s obsession with her puja (act of worship) in the beginning, thinking that Sellamma is not in tune with the changing times, reflects the effects of this alienation. Sumitra’s disdain towards the spiritual traditions that Sellamma inherits from her family also points to this alienation: “You’ve to take life as it comes, and not go off into some weird process of bringing back into life what was not living properly!” (p. 76).
To fight for environmental justice also underlies Maniam’s concern about sustainability. This duty is built upon the practice of solidarity with the vulnerable and marginalised, such as Sellamma who faces forced eviction from the land where she lives, works and has a spiritual connection. In her own way, Sellamma instils this duty in her tireless devotion to her land, and when Sumitra, her family and friends recognise this, they develop a common strategy to act as a group towards helping her to preserve the land, especially after Sellamma’s passing. When the developer comes to mark the land and begins work on the area surrounding Sellamma’s land, Sumitra, together with her parents and her friends Aishah and Christina, construct fences, put up lighting around the land and keep vigil to ward off the developer’s men. These efforts are further reinforced by Sumitra and her friends when they create a website highlighting their confrontation with this injustice. When Christina and Aishah remark on Sumitra’s attachment to Sellamma, Sumitra’s response affirms the need to fight for justice, as the land not only symbolises her relationship to Sellamma but also the sacredness of Mother Earth. “Become really attached to her, huh?” Christina says, a little nervously. “Not just to her”. “To her land?” Aishah says. “More than the land.” (p. 320)
Conclusion
Implicit in Maniam’s Between Lives and Ooi’s The Flame Tree is an environmental ethics that is grounded on an understanding of the responsibilities on the part of humanity to serve causes related to sustaining the environment. Maniam and Ooi seem to promote environmental ethics that are appropriate to the achievement of sustainability in Malaysia. The view that humanity is an integral part of the environment is foregrounded in both texts, reiterating the interconnectedness of all things in this world in a cause-and-effect relationship. This understanding is crucial in order to drive home the message that what we do with the environment around us, and the kind of people we are, matters. Traer’s moral presumptions for “doing” environmental ethics – duty, character, relationship and rights – prove to be productive in this analysis as they help to highlight the writers’ desire to promote environmental sustainability in Malaysia.
These writers seem to suggest that humanity’s core duty is to respect the land and its community, to act with care and compassion towards humans and non-humans and to seek social and environmental justice. In foregrounding the fulfilment of these duties towards sustainability, Maniam and Ooi demonstrate that these duties can be traced back to religious traditions, ones that have not been eroded by capitalist modernity and which can be shared and reinforced to potentially draw individuals in the direction of that ultimate goal of caring for and sustaining the environment. Extending Ng’s argument on the use of religion in Malaysian literature in English, what becomes evident in these texts is the “pronounced presence of religion” (Ng, 2011: 24), which is merged with current concerns for the environment and its sustainability.
Being a good person with ethical and moral strength can be challenging, and closely related to this challenge is having empathy and integrity. The writers seem to suggest that empathy and integrity, the ability to understand and do the right thing in the midst of an environmental crisis or dilemma, are also fundamental in dealing with the environment. These inner qualities can be cultivated through the regular practice of our own cultural orientation and faith. A sense of place, belonging and community, which nourishes a shared identity, also serves to help shape positive attitudes and behaviour towards nature. In terms of activism, the claiming of rights is seen as crucial by Maniam and Ooi, with the emphasis on the rights to justice, to get access to information, take part in decision-making and to form an environmental committee. This claiming of rights alludes to the recent rise of the concept of a civil society in the Malaysian context. However, these rights need to be backed by knowledge based on scientific research and evidence as well as by collective resistance action. As Curtin (2005: 194) has highlighted, activism nowadays, “is a practice of resistance. It is the attempt to establish and maintain a public space in which the common good can be fostered”. It is problematic that the claiming of these rights proves to be difficult in Malaysia where capitalism does not show any signs of stopping and the environmental movement in Malaysia is still in its infancy. Checks and balances need to be applied to sanction the complicity of the state with business interests in environmental degradation. When no checks and balances exist, as illustrated in BL and TFT, the impact is felt in the realm of human rights and environmental protection. However, the writers’ focus on the fulfilment of duty by individual characters seems to reinforce an individual and private sense of activism towards environmental sustainability, when fulfilling duties towards sustainability also requires collective participation in public life. Perhaps this shortcoming has much to say about the actual resolution of environmental problems in Malaysia, that it needs a shift in environmental attitudes, beliefs and values, stemming from a serious understanding of individual and collective environmental commitment.
Maniam’s BL and Ooi’s TFT allude to an environmental ethics in a Malaysian context which appears to revolve around the profound ideas that we are part of the environment, that the future of the environment hinges on actions and knowledge to ensure its sustainability and that action is derived from a sense of shared duty and activism and having good character and relationships. These ideas, although not new, must not be misconstrued as unique Malaysian environmental ethics, as they show some coherence with the existing known ethics of the environment such as sustainability, ecocentrism, environmental justice and virtue. Given that these existing ethics are the outcome of global concerns about the current environmental crisis, the writers’ treatment of environmental ethics can be perceived as a cross-cultural dialogue that seeks to distil from Malaysian culture those values and attitudes that govern and develop humanity’s judgments about their moral relationship and interconnection with the environment.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research received funding from the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, grant no. FRGS/1/2016/SS102/UPM/03/1.