A trilingual Malaysian who can’t seem to make up his mind between Bahasa Melayu & English, Jamal Raslan is a great example of the conundrum that is the current Malaysian youth – modern, exposed, liberal but yet struggling to find a sense of belonging in the identity crisis that rocks every English-speaking Malay Muslim. Equally at home conversing & thinking in Bahasa Melayu & English, he used to write poetry exclusively in Bahasa Melayu as he didn’t think he has an English poetry “voice”, until Youtube introduced him to spoken word.

Heavily inspired by spoken word poets around the world, from slam poets to Def Poetry to the articulate & emotive African poets at Poet’s Passport in Cyberjaya, he writes about the the challenges that the country faces in its pursuit for progress & Wawasan 2020 in a way that he hopes will one day help form a unique “voice” that is Malaysian spoken word.

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