IT was heartbreaking to learn of the untimely passing of Lewis Pragasam, aged only 66.
He was a Malaysian legend and a master drummer and percussionist of international standing. Pragasam was also an exemplary tower for the music world. An educator, producer and author, he must never fade away from our national conscience in vain.
Here is yet another born, bred and made in Malaysia individual whom the nation chose to overlook.
The fact that he was eventually awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and began teaching as an artist in residence at East Carolina University seals the widely held perception that our nation of leaders (politicians and policymakers) have repeatedly failed to nurture, celebrate and facilitate talent building.
Where were our local institutions that should have played the much-needed pivotal and catalytic role to enrich the nation’s talent pool and to ride the global waves as a country, adding value to the tapestries of human civilization?
It took a foreign institution and organisations overseas to recognise this precious, potential, high-achieving talent.
Is it unfair then to say that all the taxpayers’ money squandered to bait high-achieving Malaysians working in foreign lands is a farce, for as long as we continue to let politics, policies and religious fanaticism sidestep (if not trample upon) home-grown talent?
Why are we not quick on the double to nurture, celebrate and facilitate talent-building beyond the boundaries of conceited politics, racist demarcations and narrow religious frenzies?
May Pragasam’s untimely death open the bolted doors to accept the fact that there is much more that our government, present and future, can and must do for local talent, and do so on the double, if the world is to embrace us as a partner adding value to society. – December 18, 2023
JD Lovrenciear, an Aliran member, is a KL-based writer, trainer and consultant who also offers his time to support initiatives to build a progressive society