Perhaps pretty faces can help READING

Snort, chuckle, roll eyes upwards. My first reaction when I read about Michelle Yeoh being picked to be a Malaysian reading ambassador.

So when Daphne Lee’s column yelled out that Pretty Faces Aren’t Enough for a reading ambassador, I could identify with her sentiments.

Though, in all fairness, well …. my initial reaction was not fair. For all I knew, the actress could be a voracious reader, lugging fat tomes around to devour between takes.


The article I first spotted on the subject stated that we already had one Malay reading ambassador (which I had been unaware of) and since the Chinese one had just been picked, someone was busy identifying an Indian one. Was this the way to reach out to our students?

The more I thought about it, the more, I had to reluctantly concede that it may result in some good.

Let’s be frank and examine what makes our schoolgoing children tick. We need to think of who they are, what influences them, what their mindsets are, who their role models are, etc.

By schoolgoing chidlren, I am referring to the 5.4 million schoolchildren enrolled under the Ministry of Education, not just kids from middle class onwards / urban areas / your community / your family.

Kids that come from homes that already practice a reading culture, would turn their cynical noses up at the whole idea. Given that they do not need help in this area, it is pointless to worry about them. It is the other lot, which would be the majority, that needs help.


When I think of the non-reading kids (from rural and urban areas) I had come in contact with in the past, I know that many of them will ape whatever a celebrity does, with nary a second thought. Same goes for some adults.



Which means that even if these ambassadors are able to only influence 10% of our 5.4 million schoolchildren, it is still an impressive figure.

A comment from an English Language teacher involved in a 3-month old reading programme in school flashes to mind. “Just getting them to hold a book in their hands is an achievement.”

Note how she has not even bothered about regular reading habits or understanding what is being read.

Which is why the amount of time Michelle Yeoh clocks in reading (for herself) is of no concern to me. But the amount of time she spends on this programme, moving from venue to venue to reach out to kids matters incredibly.


In that sense I do agree that she has to “be able to communicate ‘well and regularly’ with young people.” There has to be that pizzazz or “entertainment value” factor to stop a hall packed with schoolchildren from sleeping with their eyes wide open.

Sadly enough, knowing typical Malaysian students, they will always be far more impressed by a celebrity’s presence rather than a writer’s or illustrator’s.

Of course, it would be ideal if we could measure as to how effective our reading ambassadors are. Some sort of measurement tool should be utilized so that we can find out and improve on what works on our shores.

Now that we know the identity of two reading ambassadors, when will we be informed as to exactly what it is that they are going to do? Of course, I am also curious as to what the perks of being a reading ambassador in Malaysia is.

It is all tied in, isn’t it?