M. SHANMUGHALINGAM

Literary publications in English include Short Stories in Silverfish New Writing 4 launched at KL International Literary Festival, 30 July 2004, Collateral Damage : A Silverfish Collection of Short Stories, 2004, Petals of Hibiscus, A Representative Anthology of Malaysian Literature in English, 2003, Silverfish New Writing 2 Anthology of Stories from Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Africa, Silverfishbooks 2002, The Merlion and the Hibiscus Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia Penguin 2002, Short story published as Editor’s first choice from 1,450 international entries in Asylum 1928 and Other Stories Fish anthology of international short stories, Ireland, July 2001. Poems in Imbauan PPDKL (Glimpses) World Poetry Reading KL 2004, In-Sights Malaysian Poems 2003, Antologi, Poetry in our Lives Today, Kuala Lumpur World Poetry Reading 2002. Co-editor Anthology of Malaysian Poetry in English with Malay translations. Poems and short stories in anthologies/literary journals including, Howard Sergeant, New Voices of The Commonwealth, (London) with Nobel Prizewinners, Derek Walcott, Wole Soyinka and Seamus Heaney. DJ Enright, Focus, Robert Yeo, Ripples (Singapore), with R K Narayan and Ray Bradbury, ISIS and Balliol College Annual Record (Oxford), in Universities (Harvard, Malaya, Oxford and Singapore) and poems, short stories in Malay in Dewan Sastera and Dewan Budaya national literary and cultural journals.

Literary prizes include: Gertrude Hartley Memorial Prize for Poetry Balliol College, Oxford University and Second prize, Short Story Competition, judged by novelist Iris Murdoch and John Bayley, Prof of Literature, Oxford University and sponsored by ISIS, Oxford University and The Observer, Dan O’Connell Poetry Competition, Melbourne, Australia, January 2000 and Radio Malaysia Short Story and University of Malaya Playwriting Competitions.

Reviews: Short stories received favourable reviews from the Far Eastern Economic Review (Hong Kong), The Hindu (India), The Statesman (India), the Edge, the New Straits Times, Kaki Seni. Peter Carey, twice winner of the coveted Booker Prize and Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, acknowledged Shan’s draft Memoir in his My Life As A Fake and wrote that he hugely enjoyed Victoria and her Kimono and the humour in Shan’s other stories.

Articles: Malaysian Culture Group, Newsletter March 2004.

Talks and readings of short stories and poems at Voice and Place: Writers’ Forum, The Substation Guiness Theatre, Singapore, 5 September 2004, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National Univ. Malaysia), Bangi, Garden International School, Kuala Lumpur, Literary Gathering International Women’s Assoc. Reading Group, Pukka Prose Editorial Services, Penang, Symposium Singapore- Malaysian Literature, Univ. Putra Malaysia, Silverfish Book Launch, K.L., Poetry Class, Singapore Management University (SMU), Malaysian Culture Group, International Islamic University, MCG Book Club, KL and Litfest Universiti Keb.Malaysia, Bangi, Singapore Management University, Borders Bookstore Singapore, Kinokuniya Bookstore, MPH Megamall Mid Valley, KL, MPH Subang Parade, Selangor, Kinokuniya Bookstores K.L., World Poetry Reading K.L. at Planetarium, at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Malaysian Language and Literary Board) and at Universiti Malaya, KL.

Latest interview: Le Prestige, June, 2003.

On Board of Selectors, Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University (1993-2000). Participant and read own work, 26^th Cambridge Seminar on the contemporary British writer, Cambridge University, U.K., July 2000. Participating British writers included Doris Lessing, Muriel Spark, David Lodge, Malcolm Bradbury, Homi Bhaba, Wendy Cope, Ian McEwan, Rose Tremain and Helen Dunmore. Invited to serve on Panel of Judges for Fiction and Non-fiction in English, National Book Award, 2004. Invited as Session Chairperson, Commonwealth Writers’ Seminar in September 1998. Member National Committee of Writers. Participant, poetry and prose readings in Kuala Lumpur , Melbourne, in Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Adviser, Dewan Sastera, Dewan Budaya and TV3. Host and interviewer, TV live talk show on international and current affairs, film critic Radio Television Malaysia and trustee National Art Gallery. Quoted directly in TIME magazine cover story on Prime Minister of Malaysia, December 1996.

Education

D.Phil in Economics and Government, Balliol College, Oxford University, U.K. (with three prizes). M.A.Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. U.S.A. (First in class with As in all eight subjects, best grade average for several years past and offered admission to PhD programme without formal application). Sole graduate representative of the Third World in meetings with President, Harvard University. Fellow, Economic Development Institute, World Bank Washington DC. USA. B.A. (Honours) University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (triple distinctions). First in Malaysia in national pre-university entrance examination. Founder president University of Malaya Debating Union.

Career

Managing Director, Trilogic Sdn Bhd, an investment holding company. Also Director, EON Bhd and Chairman, Remuneration Committee, of Delloyd Ventures Bhd, of PBA Holdings Bhd, of Mamee-Double Decker (M) Bhd all listed on KLSE Main Board, of CIMB (Commerce International Merchant Bankers) (L) Ltd, of CIMB Discount House Ltd, of MIDF Aberdeen Asset Management Sdn Bhd. On Committee of Malaysian Administrative and Diplomatic Service Alumni Association, international/national advisory panels to Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI), Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER), and on Board of VIOBA Foundation. Served the Treasury, Ministry of Finance (1962 to 1978) last post Dep. Secretary (Econ) and PETRONAS, the national petroleum corporation (1979 to 1991) last post General Manager. Director, Malaysian International Merchant Bankers (MIMB, a subsidiary of MIDF and associate of Barclays Bank Group, UK [1992-2000]).

On invitation by Harvard University, helped in the design of a new Executive Program for Leaders in Development: Managing Economic and Political Reform developed jointly by Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Institute for International Development, Harvard University, Oct/Nov 1995 Cambridge, Mass, USA. Rep. Malaysia at U.N. special session led by Prime Minister Malaysia in New York, annual meetings World Bank, IMF, Board of Governors in Washington DC and Commonwealth Finance Ministers in London led by Finance Minister Malaysia and at OPEC Ministerial conferences in Geneva. Was Session Chairperson and Lead Speaker at Pacific Economic Cooperation Conferences (PECC) on Energy Policy, Petrochemicals etc in Canberra, Jakarta, Seoul, Tokyo and Vancouver. Led preparation of first-ever annual Economic Report of the Government to Parliament and initiated the social economic indicators on the Quality of life in Malaysia in the Economic Report. Chapter on Malaysia in Lasswell (Yale), Lerner (MIT) and Montgomery (Harvard) Values and Development: Appraising Asian Experience (MIT Press, Camb, Mass, USA.) as sole author and Memorandum to the Pearson Commission as co-author.

Dato’ Dr M SHANmughalingam, E-mail: shantri@po.jaring.my ; shantri@streamyx.com