Two Poets Meet in BKPBM

Yogyakarta, MelayuOnline.com- Balai Pinang Lima – the office building of the Center for Research and Development of Malay Culture (BKPBM) – became a place for the reunion of two famous poets – Prof. Dr. Bakdi Soemanto from Indonesia and Prof. Muhammad Haji Salleh from Malaysia. They had a meet in the meeting room of Balai Pinang Lima on Friday (8/8/08). Along with them was a pantun expert named Prof. Ding Choo Ming.

In a discussion held by the Center for Cultural Studies of Gadjah Mada University (PSK-UGM) in the 1960s, Haji Salleh was invited to be a speaker at the time. Since then, Bakdi Soemanto knew Haji Salleh for the same concern on literature studies.

Haji Salleh admitted to BKPBM‘s crews that he often visited Yogyakarta than Jakarta after knowing Bakdi Soemanto. Haji Salleh‘s friends in Yogyakarta are Umar Kayam, Linus Suryadi, and Faruk HT. He knows every corner of Yogyakarta after being invited by Suryadi to look around Yogyakarta even to the hinterland.

By the 1990s, when the relations between Gadjah Mada University and several universities in Malaysia began widening, they could not meet each other for a long time. For this reason, BKPBM initiated to present those two prominent poets in a discussion “Investigating Malay Literature Development in Malaysia in the Globalization Era.” The discussion will be organized on Monday (11/8/08), in the meeting room of Balai Pinang Lima building.

(LS/brt/20/08-08)

(NI/ter/32/08-08)

Write your comment !