A daughter's tribute to one of Malaysia's best known intellectuals – and the largely-forgotten woman by his side. FMTNews
Today is the anniversary of the birth of my father, Syed Hussein Alatas. My column takes on a slightly different characteristic. I reveal an interesting personality in Malaysia’s national history, one who has been largely ignored in public but silently remembered affectionately throughout the decades.
Overall, his ideas on modernisation, Muslim society and corruption are timeless. I take note of one of my father’s famous quotes which reads, “The dead can only inspire; it is the living who must aspire.” “Progressive Islam” covered topics such as the nature of Islam and its relation to modern society, the state of the Muslim world, and the impact of Western ideas on Asian society.
While researching material for this piece, I realised that digitalising print and broadcast media has relegated the bulk of non-digital era information to a disorganised, haphazard and unretrievable “pending” pile. There were some errors in the report though. First, “Al-Attas” should have been spelt as Alatas. Second, their “berbulan madu” sojourn was spent in Singapore, not Hong Kong.
Most of all, she was witty, a confident conversationalist and very intelligent. A very popular radio personality, these were added qualities which complemented my father’s intellectual vibrancy. After marriage, my mother decided to confine her work to the home. When my father left for Amsterdam to complete his doctoral work, she went along. She was able to develop her analytical skills overseas.
In February of 2002, NCWO’s Environment Commission, of which my mother was chairperson, launched its recycling programme. Sadly, it is still common to see Malaysians throwing garbage out their car windows. We refuse to acknowledge that the accumulated garbage leads to a clogged drainage system and perpetual flash flooding, besides other environmental and related societal problems.
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