Have you ever wondered what happens when the wild places we love start to disappear? This is not just a question. It is a reality lived by the inhabitants of the Kelantan hinterland.
Listen to the conversation with Juliet Jacons and co-host Surin Suksuwan on BFM 89.9 – The Business Station to learn more about the elements that influences the story of Alak.
The destruction of these beautiful landscapes inspires the author to create the Alak book series, including Alak in the Hinterland and Alak and the Curse of Jerangau.
Real issues, magical reality
While the world of Alak is filled with magic, the motivation behind it is very real. The author wrote these books to talk about logging, habitat loss, and greed.
As a journalist, he observed how massive areas of forest were being cleared. In some cases, over 30,000 hectares of forest were cut down and then simply abandoned without being replanted.
This loss of nature is what drives the adventure in his stories
Nature strikes back
One of the most important parts of the Alak books is the human-wildlife conflict. Salhan explains that when we disrupt the homes of animals, they have nowhere else to go.
Between 2020 and 2024, there were over 66,000 complaints in Malaysia about animals and humans clashing.
In the books, the forest and the animals strike back against the pressure of losing their homes, just like they do in real life
A hero for the future
Salhan chose a child named Alak to be the hero because children represent hope. Alak is a witness to the poaching and greed happening in the forest.
This is to help readers understand why groups like the Temiar (Orang Asli) people put up blockades to protect their land.
The story also weaves in powerful elements from the local folklore and belief system, like Guruh, which is the thunder, and Petir the lightning.
Through Alak’s adventures, Salhan hopes that young readers will learn to empathise with nature. He wants us to see that protecting the forest isn’t just about saving trees.
It’s about protecting the water we drink and the incredible animals that lives there.
By reading Alak’s story, you aren’t just going on an adventure; you’re learning how to be a guardian of the natural world.
Trivia
The author mentioned Gila-Gila, which is Malaysia’s oldest humor magazine. This cartoons look fun and simple, but beware of the sharp criticism and social commentary within the pages.
While the drawings might make you laugh, the writers used humor to inform the people about the human struggles and the world. They poked fun to show what needed to change.
It wasn’t just comedy, it was a clever way to talk about serious issues.
Inside these pages, the author discovered the writings of seasoned journalists and intellectuals like Pak Sako (Ishak Haji Muhammad) and A Samad Ismail.
The work of these intellectual rebels were not merely funny pieces, they were masterclasses in concise, impactful prose as a tool for intellectual resistance.
Another important writer mentioned in the interview is Azizi Hj Abdullah who is also a contemporary of Pak Sako and A Samad.
Azizi’s work often mirrors the themes of the relationship between human and the environment.
The three of them are a symbol of profound existential struggles, and a reminder that writing is often the result of a long, solitary labor.
It is very much like the uphill climb of the old man in Azizi’s seminal work, Seorang Tua Di Kaki Gunung (An Old Man At The Foot Of The Mountain).
Listen to the podcast here.
