According to an article in Dewan Sastera (April 2017), K. S. Maniam has migrated to the United States, and Rani Manicka to the United Kingdom, purely for the purpose of being accepted and recognised at the international level.
Read “Dewan Sastera Jadi Mangsa April Fool?” for more fabricated information and fake data included by Raja Rajeswari Seetha Raman in an article, and strongly being defended by the editor, Fadli Al-Akiti; to the extent of him calling me “asshole” and “twat” and “kill Uthaya first” for highlighting the mistakes in the essay.
[Also read Sasterawan Kavyan – Bahagian 1 for details.]
Going back to K. S. Maniam, the last I spoke with him in January 2017, he was still living in Malaysia! Thanusya Shanmuganathan shares this information from the Internet. Raja Rajeswari and her partner in crime, Fadli Al-Akiti, must have missed this during their Google search.
Raja Rajeswari claims that she knows many Indian lecturers who write in English, and she also has many friends in Malaysia who write in English. Therefore, it is totally surprising if she doesn’t know that K. S. Maniam is still in Malaysia. I doubt her “Indian lecturers who write in English” and “friends in Malaysia who write in English” are that naïve.
This whole misinformation and fabricated data – and the insults which the editor continuously threw towards me solely for pointing out the errors – also irked many writers and friends in Malaysia and abroad. I might not know as many lecturers and writers as Raja Rajeswari, but those whom I know seem to be better informed. I sincerely thank all of them for their moral support and comments, especially on Facebook.
Meanwhile, Eksentrika contacted K. S. Maniam and me for our comments, and you can read them here: K. S. Maniam Is Still In Malaysia, Slams Dewan Sastera’s Erroneous Essay.
The accusation that Rani Manicka migrated to the United Kingdom purely for the purpose of being accepted and recognised at the international level surely made her friends angry.
Zozan Abrams explains on Preeta Samarasan’s Facebook wall:
As for Fadli Al-Akiti, he continues to support Raja Rajeswari by implying that she could never be wrong since she is (in his opinion, imagination or alternative truth) a literary scholar with over 19 years of experience in writing essays, presenting papers, and doing field works. I could explain in detail on how she came to me in 1998, and I literally guided her to fame, but that’s another story altogether. [You might want to read a little bit here.]
Fadli Al-Akiti claims that Raja Rajeswari is being accused unfairly by the public even though (in his imagination!) she has done her research and fieldwork before writing the essay.
Yes! The essay which claims K. S. Maniam has migrated to the United States, and Rani Manicka to the United Kingdom, purely for the purpose of being accepted and recognised at the international level. The same essay which I have proven – READ HERE – to be written based purely on fake information, or fabricated data. Or alternative truth, as Raja Rajeswari and Fadli Al-Akiti might want to call it.
Is there another K. S. Maniam? Is there another Rani Manicka? Two other writers, who only exist in Raja Rajeswari and Fadli Al-Akiti’s imagination? [Note: KS Maniam passed away on 19 February 2020 -- Read Here]
As for the Malaysian Indian writers who write in Bahasa Malaysia, are there really more than the 27 writers whom I have contacted personally to get their confirmation? The 22 writers who were never asked to fill any surveys, the 1 writer who did not fill the form, and the 2 writers who returned their forms to Raja Rajeswari but their data was not used in the essay.
Perhaps – just perhaps – they all do exist in Raja Rajeswari and Fadli Al-Akiti’s imagination where alternative truth is the thing! And this reminds me of “Kita Sudah Gagal, Raja” (Rudra Avatara, 2008) where a woman – very much like Raja Rajeswari – believes in an alternative world where a group of people exist in her imagination!