POETS OF THE SITC ERA AS A MEDIUM FOR CONVEYANCE OF MALAY MESSAGE (1922-1957)

The British government with the consent of the Sultan of Perak had established a teachertraining centre in Tanjung Malim, Perak on 29th October 1922. The centre which was established as Sultan Idris Training College (SITC) and officiated by W.G.Maxwell C.M.G.with it’s first 120 students had registered for the first time. It was believed that the development of Modern Malay literature had began during this period in tandem with the setting up of this teaching institution and the most identified literary genre that was highly written at that time was Malay poetry. During the early development of modern poetry, the nation was still being colonised by the British, Japan and again the British. The majority of the society lived in poverty, thus it was natural and became a strong inspiration and became the central issue in poetry writing. As a result, the published poetry had elements of patriotism. The issue managed to build members of the society who had to live an uncomfortable life. The life of the society and private life of teachers-to-be became the input for significant allegory to be read by the society at large. Thus, several decades of its establishment managed to produce several significant names like Ahmad Bakhtiar, Harun Aminurashid, Abdullah Sidek, Muhd Yassin Makmur, Ahmad Murad Nasaruddin, Ngumba, Cintati and Masuri SN. These were the writers who had the believed to develop the human capital and the spirit of patriotism. This study was able to explain academically in terms of the contributions of Malay poets in the development of the national literature; thus places UPSI as an important institution which able to harness and produce great traditions for Malay literature specifically.