3. CECIL RAJENDRA
• Was born in Penang
• Spent his childhood in Tg Tokong
• Received formal education at St. Xavier’s Institution,
University of Singapore and Lincoln’s Inn (doing Law)
• First recipient of the Malaysian Lifetime Humanitarian
Award, nominated for Nobel Prize for Literature (both in
2005)
http://www.crazedangels.com/thedailycrazed/lawyerpoets.html
4. CECIL RAJENDRA
• first published his poetry while doing law in London
(1965)
• through his poetry explored the cultural, spiritual
and material values of Asian society and critiqued
both industrial development and development aid
• has chosen social relevance as his constant theme
• insistence on writing about justice, war, refugees,
the destruction of the environment
http://journeytoforever.org/keith_cecil.html
5. CECIL RAJENDRA
"I wrote a poem called 'The Animal & Insect Act'
about some of our repressive laws -- almost
every aspect of our life here is circumscribed
by some piece of legislation or other.
http://journeytoforever.org/keith_cecil.html
Rajendra: "Almost every aspect of our
lives here is circumscribed by some
piece of legislation or other."
-- Photograph Christine Thery
6. CECIL RAJENDRA
Rajendra the lawyer: "I often have to
suspend my sense of reality when I
enter court."
-- Photograph Christine Thery
"The only alternative is silence,
which is no alternative at all."
-- Photograph Christine Thery
7.
8. For more info about Cecil Rajendra and his
literary writing, please visit/google
• Cecil Rajendra:
A Third World Poet and His Works
by Keith Addison
Published in South China Morning Post, September 19, 1982, and
Bangkok Post, December 5, 1982
• http://www.crazedangels.com/thedailycrazed/lawyerpoets.html
• http://journeytoforever.org/keith_cecil.html
9. THEME
LIBERATORS vs. DICTATORS – the very thin
margin which causes the vagueness whether or
not the liberators are true ones
-Definition of liberator
-Definition of dictator
-The reason for the “?” in the title of the poem
-Reference to the second stanza
-about war
10. Jump out of the frying pan into the fire
http://www.goenglish.com
11. D
E
F
I
N
I
T
I
O
N
S
Dictate: to give order to
somebody, often in
aggressive way
Dictator: an absolute
ruler, a tyrant, an
autocrat
Liberate: to set free
Liberator: a person who
frees others from
captivity, others’ control
etc.
www.thefreedictionary.com
Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary
15. Hypocrisy
• act of persistently pretending to hold beliefs,
opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or
standards that one does not actually hold.
• a kind of lie.
• Liberators or dictators ?
Example :
- Stanza 2
‘’ freeing us from the hoof of the devil
they delivered us into the claw of the vulture ‘’
16. Power corruption
• Control and influence over others
• People or an individual can be mislead by power
• It is judged and governed by the people who own it
• Examples :
- Powerful nation leaders
- Last stanza
‘’ how to tell liberator from a dictator
when both bathe in the blood of innocents …’’
17. Injustice
• Third world
• Influence of power and wealth
rulers gives priority to power and wealth and
cause grieve to the citizens (stanza 1 line
8,9,10)
• Betrayal to innocent people
liberators are compared to dictators
“when both bathe in the blood of
innocents”(stanza 3 line 4,5,6,7)
• New version of colonization in the mask of
independence
18. Irony
• Expression of meaning through the use of
language which means the opposite.
• The title is an irony
• The diction is ironic – the use of agricultural
words being associated with death, cruel acts,
injustice
19. ALLEGORIES
• Liberator – Abraham Lincoln (Great
Emancipator) abolished slavery of the African
in the USA by Civil War in AD 1860-1865
http://www.ministers-best-friend.com
21. For more info about Liberators and
Dictators, please visit
• http://secondworldwar.co.uk
• http://www.bolivarmo.com
• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
• http://history1900s.about.com/od/saddamhu
ssein/p/saddamhussein.htm
-Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius Caesar, Adolf Hitler,
Simon Bolivar, Fidel Castro
22. HOW ABOUT THIS MAN?
• He camouflaged his mission
behind the name of peace
and freedom but has
victimized millions of
innocents – Iraq war
• Liberator or dictator???
http://3003ink.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/war-in-iraq/
23. US-led forces take control of Baghdad. Iraqi civilians cheer on
advancing US troops in a celebration of the end of Saddam
Hussein's oppressive 24-year-long rule. Iraqis, aided by US Marine,
topple a huge statue of Saddam in Baghdad's main square.
"Chronology: A Timeline of Events in the Current Iraqi Conflict,"
www.npr.org, Apr. 30, 2007
24.
25. A LIBERATOR
Japan promoted the idea Asia for Asian and under their leadership,
East Asia would come to grow greater economic prosperity free from
western influence and independent of western economic
bureaucracy.
26. •They promise to help the Malayan and people from all over Asia to fight against British
and American
27. .
During that time, people were blinded by their propaganda
They don’t know underneath all the rhetoric of the slogan and
propaganda, lay hidden agenda as well
Only when they won against British in Malaya..they showed their
true color.
They are actually no different from a…..
29. Tone
• Tone – conveys the poet’s attitude toward the
subject, the reader or himself/herself
• The tone of this poem is sarcastic
30. Symbol
• Something that exists in its own right and yet
stands for or suggests something else
• Devil – dictator
“Freeing us from the hoof of the devil…”
• Vulture – liberator/dictator
“…they delivered us into the claw the
vulture”
31. Hyperbole
• A figure of speech using exaggeration for
emphasis or effect
e.g. - “Irrigated our fields with tears”
