THE TURNING POINT IN HIS LIFE...

Salleh Ben Joned is a living legend in Malaysian letters. His swashbuckling style belies a fierce dedication to spiritual and intellectual freedom. One of a few truly inspired bilingual writers and poets, Salleh achieved national notoriety with his acerbic column, As I Please, which ran sporadically in the New Straits Times – and which has twice been published as a collection of essays: erudite, witty, and often risque. A second collection of his spicy essays and columns was published in 2003 under the title, Nothing Is Sacred. In recent years Salleh Ben Joned has become a godfather figure of sorts to a whole new generation of punks and disenchanted urban youth who flock eagerly to his poetry readings. Educated in Australia, Salleh returned to lecture in literature at Universiti Malaya, where his passion for words earned him iconic status with his students, especially the female ones. Salleh Ben Joned’s genius has never been acknowledged in Malay literary circles (perhaps they aren’t amused by his affecting the Hebraic “Ben” in place of the Arabic “Bin”). Indeed, Salleh has endured venomous attacks by Malay sasterawan (literati) whose ethnocentric concerns and smug mediocrity grate against him.