Suratman Markasan ialah seorang tukang seni dan penyaksi sejarah sastera dan budaya. Sebagai salah seorang perinstis sastera di tanah air, beliau juga adalah antara manikam sastera di rantau ini. Beliau telah menghasilkan pelbagai ilham pena dalam beberapa genre sepanjang tujuh dekad, merentasi zaman kolonial, Pendudukan Jepun, Malaya, Malaysia sehinggalah ke republik Singapura moden. 

Kehalusan kerja sastera beliau terletak dalam spektrum penulis modernis yang memiliki kecenderungan pembaharuan, bersungguh mengupas perihal masyarakatnya yang hidup dalam latar multi-budaya. Karya-karya Suratman, sepertimana sasterawan lainnya, mewakili jiwa rasa masyarakatnya. Bertahun lamanya berkarya, hasil penanya menyaksikan kematangan pemikiran, pembaikan dalam seni ketukangan dan gaya penulisan, serta tema-tema yang diangkat. 

Suratman berangkat dari tradisi sastera yang memanfaatkan wadah karya penulisan demi menyeru kepada kemajuan dan menyinggung sikap yang acuh tidak acuh berkenaan permasalahan dalam masyarakat. Baginya sastera yang berterlibat adalah sebahagian daripada pembangunan negara dan masyarakat.  

Di kalangan kelompok penulis Melayu Singapura, Suratman sering disapa sebagai Cikgu. Beliau ialah seorang pendidik, berbakti mengajar berdekad lamanya di sekolah dan maktab perguruan. Beliau sangat prihatin akan kebajikan masyarakat, termasuk perihal tradisi budaya, dan seni. Beliau juga bergiat sebagai aktivis sastera. Lain perkataan, beliau adalah penjaga-pewaris sastera, peduli akan hal-ehwal serta hala tujunya. Beliau yakin bahawa respons dari ranah sastera, budaya dan intelektual boleh memberi masukan dan perubahan, betapa sedikit. 

Suratman Markasan ialah penganyam sastera yang par excellence. Beliau dianugerahkan bakat sebagai penulis yang teliti dan berani, peka rohani dan seni. Beliau ialah penganyam dalam ranah kekata, imaginasi dan visi. Anyaman seni  beliau terbukti dalam dua segi, yakni berkarya kreatif dalam menghasilkan prosa dan puisi. Kedua, menulis dalam wacana idea, pemikiran, tersulam di dalamnya impian dan harapan. Yang menjadi benang merah dalam karya beliau adalah keyakinan perlunya ada pertanggungjawaban moral dan intelektual.

Beliau yakin dengan cogan kata: “Penulis harus menjadi mata dan telinga untuk masyarakat.” Beliau berbagi kupasan kritis, ilmu dan imaginasi dalam pelbagai wadah, mengendalikan bengkel dan seminar demi meniupkan minat bersastera, selain mantap dengan teknik penulisan. Melalui karya dan bicara, beliau melantun kritik sosial, dengan penegasan bahawa kita sebagai masyarakat dan bangsa tidak boleh membenarkan tamak haloba dan ketandusan akhlak, serta tidak berakar kepada sejarah sehingga kita hilang sauh budaya. Malah menjadi neutral dan kononnya berobjektif, tidak mendapat tempat dalam cakerawala pemikiran Suratman. Beliau berpegang kepada dasar nilai-nilai kemanusiaan dan keagamaan sejagat. Berpihak kepada yang terpinggir menjadi salah satu pendirian beliau sewaktu menulis. Sebagaimana terbayang dalam puisi berikut: 

“apabila kita makan dan minum 

teringatkah kita kepada anak-anak malang 

di empat penjuru jagat raya lalu bertanya:

apakah laparnya sudah kenyang 

apakah dinginnya sudah hangat 

apakah sakitnya sudah sembuh 

apakah bodohnya sudah pandai?”

Pemikiran Suratman bersifat pluralistik, tetapi kepedulian pada keadilan mesti menjadi asas aturan masyarakat. Dalam karya-karya beliau, akan kita ketemukan cerita tentang manusia dan masyarakat yang tergusur, terpinggir, dinafikan dan disenyapkan. Pendirian sebegini pastinya mengungkap suara kemanusiaan. 

Suratman menulis dalam pelbagai genre dan wadah, yakni novel, cerpen, puisi, esei, sorotan dan kritikan. Beliau juga pernah menyusun antologi cerpen dan puisi, dipilih dari para penulis Singapura. Ini sekaligus memperkenalkan karya-karya ini ke Seberang Tambak, yakni semasa beliau menjadi penulis tamu di Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka di Kuala Lumpur. 

Novel pertama beliau, Tak Ada Jalan Keluar (1962) menceritakan himpitan hidup golongan terpinggir. Pahit getir seorang ibu tunggal terakam dalam novel ini. Novel Penghulu yang hilang segala-galanya (1998) menceritakan jerih payah para penduduk pulau-pulau Selatan yang berpindah ke tanah besar Singapura, dan harus menempuh cara kehidupan masyarakat pengindustrian. Mereka yang mengharungi kehidupan kota ini mengingatkan kita akan nasib gologan yang tertinggal dalam proses modenisasi. 

Cerpen-cerpen beliau rata-rata menjurus dan mudah difahami, namun penyelesaiannya sering menampilkan keberlainan.   Puisi-puisi karangan beliau umumnya panjang, manakala kritikan dan renungan beriringan maklumat sehingga hujah-hujah yang dibuat bernas.  Inilah kesungguhan beliau dalam menulis. Seperti penulis besar lainnya, Suratman ialah anak zamannya, yang membentuk cara beliau berfikir, kaedah penyampainnya, segi pemahaman dan penyimpulannya.

Suratman sadar akan keperluan untuk berubah dan beradaptasi, namun harus teguh memelihara budaya.  Beliau mampu mengayam tradisi dengan moderniti dalam penulisannya. Tradisi merangkumi nilai, keyakinan, kerohanian dan altrusime. Moderniti pula adalah penggerak kemajuan dan kebajikan untuk semua. Keduanya perlu dianyam secukup dan setaranya. Namun penulisan beliau bukan terhad kepada isu-isu kemasyarakatan; beliau juga menulis sejumlah puisi tentang kasih sayang, khasnya yang ditujukan kepada isteri beliau, almarhumah Saerah Taris. 

Sebagai sasterawan, Suratman ialah seorang pencari, terus menegakkan kebenaran, martabat dan kepekaan. Beliau tidak mencari kontemplasi yang terpisah dari masyarakatnya. Beliau ialah pencari yang konkrit, kerana yakin bahawa karya sastera harus sedia berbakti kepada masyarakat dan negara. Inilah yang terangkum dalam ratusan karya beliau. Lima sisi yang dapat kita tarik dari keperibadian dan kepimpinan beliau: 

1. Seorang pengamal dan pengagum tradisi, namun tidak sampai menjadi taksub
2. Penulisannya kritis, namun tidak sampai memaksakan pemikirannya kepada yang lain
3. Jarang berbicara secara rumit, tanpa berbuat-buat untuk berfalsafah, tetapi pandangannya selalu mengispiratif dan memberdaya
4. Kepekaan kepada cabaran masyarakat, tanpa beliau mendabik sebagai jagoh populis
5. Penulis yang beramanah, mengajak kita untuk sadar bahawa bergerak ke depan untuk kemajuan, kita mesti berani untuk berubah.

Keseluruhannya, Suratman ialah pemimpin dalam pelbagai bidang, sebagai guru, pensyarah, dan ahli dan pemimpin dalam berbagai-bagai jawatankuasa organisasi tempatan. Beliau mampu menggerakkan ikhtiar, sepertimana beliau pernah menjawat dalam ASAS”50, sebuah badan penulis yang mapan di Singapura. Inilah antara sumbangan beliau kepada masyarakat dan negaranya. 

Suratman mengambil peranan sebagai penyaksi. Menyaksikan zaman yang berubah dengan tantangannnya. Beliau menyaksikan zaman penjajahan, kemerdekaan negara dan dan era global ini. Sebagai ahli dalam masyarakat Melayu, beliau bangga dengan sejarah dan maruah bangsanya. 

Beliau adalah penyimpan memori yang menakjubkan, khasnya dalam bidang sastera. Pengdokumentasian beliau akan perkembangan puisi Melayu Singapura, adalah kerja yang bersifat ilmiah dan menyeluruh padu. Beliau juga gemar membaca dunia politik. Beliau menolak kekacauan, keganasan dan peperangan. Puisi beliau “Iraq” dan “Palestin” membayangkan pendirian termasuk tentang perihal Gaza, yang pastinya masih relevan sehingga kini. 

Surataman ialah seorang sasterawan unggul. Beliau berbudaya dengan ghairah, kukuh dengan pegangan moral dan dianugerahkan sikap yang rendah diri. Beliau ialah penulis terakhir dari barisan generasinya. Kerana diberkati umur yang panjang, beliau mencurahkan seluruh kehidupannya untuk menulis sehingga beliau tutup usia. Karyanya yang berjilid-jilid itu adalah khazanah budaya dan seni negara ini. 

Seorang penganyam adalah tukang yang pandai dalam ranahnya. Seorang tukang rumah, tukang besi, tukang jahit, tukang masak, tukang emas -- adalah antara kerja dan bakat tukang dalam ranah masing-masing. Seorang tukang itu mempunyai kedudukan yang terhormat. Dalam masyarakat lisan, terdapat tukang cerita. Dalam istana, ada perawi atau tukang tulis. Para sasterawan kita juga boleh disifatkan sebagai tukang cerita, dan yang handal di antara mereka akan disebut sebagai tukang surat. Suratman Markasan sesungguhnya ialah seorang tukang surat yang telah menghulurkan jasa baktinya sepanjang hidup untuk dunia kesusasteraan kita. Beliaulah sang penganyam dalam ranah ini, sekaligus seri permata dalam warisan sastera dan budaya tanah air kita.  

Dr Azhar Ibrahim 

Universiti Nasional Singapura

Suratman Markasan was both a crafter and witness of the history of our literary and cultural landscape. As one of our national literary pioneers, he is also one of the literary gems of the region who has penned many works in various genres across over seven decades, covering the colonial period, Japanese Occupation, Malaya, Malaysia, and modern Singapore republic. 

His literary flair falls within the spectrum of modernist writers with a reformistic bent, aligned to speak for his community in a multi-cultural society. Works by Suratman, like other leading literati, represent an emblematic soul of the community. His long years of literary endeavour saw the maturity of his thought, the improvement of his writing craft and style, and the themes that he has taken up. 

Suratman hailed from a literary tradition that appropriates the literary medium to clamour for progress and criticise those who are ambivalent to the communities’ predicaments. His literary engagement points to the fact that literary engagement has been part of our community and nation building. 

Within the Singapore Malay literary circle, Suratman was often addressed as Cikgu (Teacher). He was an educationist, dedicated for decades teaching in schools and teacher’s college, apart from his concerns for the community’s wellbeing, their cultural tradition and their literary finesse. He was also a literary activist. In this sense he is a literary preserver, concerned about his community’s wellbeing and their destiny. He was convinced that literary, cultural and intellectual responses could make a difference.

Suratman Markasan is a literary weaver par excellence. He has the gift of being meticulous and courageous, as well as spiritual and aesthetical. He was a weaver in the realms of words, imagination and vision. His weaving is testified in two areas, namely creative production of fictional prose and verse. Second is the discursive work of ideas, thoughts, dreams and hopes.

Most importantly, he was fully convinced of his dictum: “A writer must be the eyes and ears for his society.” He shared his critical insights, knowledge and imagination as a litterateur in various platforms, conducting workshops and seminars to infuse literary interest and writing techniques. Through his works and talks, he projected his social criticisms, that we, as community and nation, cannot allow ourselves to be dictated by impulses of greed and immorality, or made bereft of history to a point that we lose our cultural anchor. Being neutral or so-called objective has no place in Suratman’s worldview. He based his values on universal humanistic and religious values. Taking sides with the marginalised was one of his literary positions. As reflected in this poem: 

“when we eat and drink 

Do we remember those unfortunate children? 

From all the corners of the world then ask: 

Are their hunger already being fed 

Are their cold being given warmth 

Are their illness given medicine 

Are their ignorance given education?”

Suratman’s thinking was very much pluralistic, but a sense of justice must be the social order.  In his works we shall encounter the narratives of man and society who are displaced, left out, denied, silenced. Such a stand is unmistakably one of humanism. 

Suratman wrote in various genres and forms, namely novels, short stories, poems, essays, and literary reviews and criticism. He also compiled two anthologies of short stories and poems of selected Singapore writers, and introduced these works across the Causeway, when he was a resident writer at Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka in Kuala Lumpur.  

His first novel Tak Ada Jalan Keluar (1962) depicts the struggle of the wretched in the social margin. The struggle of single mothers is very well captured in this novel.  The novel Penghulu yang hilang segala-galanya (1998) narrates the tribulations of the southern islanders when they were relocated to mainland Singapore and faced the demands of industrial society. Their struggle to adapt with the fast pace of development reminds us about the plight of those who are left behind in the process of modernisation. 

His short stories are normally straightforward, but the ending is often intriguing. His long poems are prosaic, but his criticism and reflection are no less biting. His essays and criticisms are not mere reflections; he furnished factual data to make his arguments cogent. This is his true dedication. Like all great writers, he was also the son of his time, conditioned by thinking, the way he articulated, understood, and concluded.

Suratman was conscious of the need to change and adapt, yet be resilient in one’s own cultural tradition. He was able to weave tradition and modernity in his writings. Tradition in the realm of values, faith, spirituality, and altruism. Modernity is a motor of progress and wellbeing of the people. Both needed to be woven equally and adequately. But Suratman’s literary repertoire is not limited to social issues; he has written a fair number of poems about love, in particular, the ones he wrote for his late wife, Saerah Taris.

As a litterateur, Suratman was a seeker, always in search of truth, dignity and sensibility.  But he seeks no contemplation that is divorced from society. He was indeed a concrete seeker, as he was convinced that literary works should render service to his community and nation. This is attested by his voluminous works. Five features which could be read from Suratman’s personality and leadership:  

1. A man of tradition, but never extreme in position
2. His writing is critical, but without the need to impose his thoughts on others
3. He rarely spoke of complex subjects without the pretension to philosophise, but his views were always inspiring and empowering
4. He was sensitive to the community’s challenges, without the need to call himself a populist 
5. He is a writer of integrity, making us realise that to move forward towards progress, we need to be brave to change 

Overall, Suratman was a leader in various areas, performing the role of a teacher, lecturer, committee leader and member in various committees in community organisations. He was able to move things, such as his role in ASAS’50, an established Malay literary group in Singapore. These are his contributions to the community and country. 

Suratman bears the role of a witness. Witnessing the changing eras and its predicaments. He witnessed colonial rule, the independence of national government and the era of global order. As a respected member of the Malay community, he took pride in its history and the self-esteem of the people. 

He was an amazing keeper of memories, especially in the realm of literature. His documentation on the development of Singapore Malay poetry is both scholarly and highly documentative. He was an avid reader of world politics too. He rejected disruption, violence, and wars. His poems “Iraq” and “Palestine” reflect his stands, including that on Gaza, and are relevant even today. 

Suratman is truly a man of letters. He is culturally passionate, morally integral and endowed with humility.  He was the last writer of his generation. Being blessed with a long life, he dedicated himself to the life of writing until his last days. His voluminous works are our national cultural and literary assets. 

A weaver is a specialist or crafter. In Malay the latter is called tukang. House builder, iron smith, tailor, cook, goldsmith – are examples of a crafter in their respective domains. A tukang is an honourable position. In oral society, there is a narrator called tukang cerita. In the royal courts, there were scribes called tukang tulis. Our writers are in many ways tukang cerita, and the best amongst them will be a tukang surat or essentially men of letters. Suratman Markasan is indeed a tukang surat who has dedicated his life and contributed to our literary world. This weaver of the literary realm is a gem for our national literary and cultural heritage.  

Dr Azhar Ibrahim 

National University of Singapore