NATRAH

Saya baru selesai membaca buku Natrah karya Datin Fatini Yaacob terbitan UTM Press. Bacaan buku setebal lebih 450 muka surat ini memerlukan iltizam yang tinggi untuk dihabiskan. Ditambah lebih 40 muka prakata dan penghargaan ianya memang mencabar. Bukannya ia membosankan tetapi oleh kerana ketebalannya, saya semacam tidak ingin "membuang masa" untuk membacanya memandangkan banyak perkara lain yang saya perlu beri perhatian pada masa ini. Nasib baik saya telah dikehendaki untuk ke Vietnam dan Indonesia minggu lepas, jadi kesempatan diatas pesawat saya gunakan sebaiknya untuk tujuan ini.

Buku ini telah ditulis dengan lengkap, saya rasa, merangkumi berbagai aspek manusia yang bernama Natrah (Nadra sebenarnya) atau Bertha Hertogh. Penulis telah membuat penyelidikan yang teliti dan menyeluruh, semestinya sejajar dengan hakikat yang ia diterbitkan oleh percetakan sebuah universiti penyelidikan. Tetapi saya agak musykil mengapa mesti ada tiga "Prakata". Tulisan Naib Canselor UTM saya akui relevannya tetapi apa perlu prakata dari Daim Zainuddin (mantan Menteri Kewangan) dan Tan Sri Adam Kadir (mantan YDP Dewan Negara). Saya "memaksa diri" untuk membaca kedua-dua prakata yang saya persoalkan ini dengan harapan dapat terjumpa mutiara kata yang memberi justifikasi perlunya ia dimuatkan dalam buku ini tetapi saya tidak terjumpa. Ini membuat saya memulakan bacaan buku ini dalam persepsi yang becampur baur. Tetapi bila penulis memulakan ceritanya dengan memberi latar belakang Natrah di Bandung, saya sudah merasa susah untuk meletakkan buku ini.

Saya sememangnya meminati bacaan yang berbentuk "real life", jadi tidak hairan saya mudah membaca buku ini apabila telah bermula. Banyak perkara yang menarik perhatian saya terutama catatan tentang rusuhan yang berlaku di Singapura ekoran perbicaraan di mahkamah Inggeris yang memaksa Natrah berpisah dari keluarga angkatnya dan dikembalikan kepada keluarga asalnya yang nyata tidak begitu menghendaki beliau. Saya pernah membaca tentang rusuhan ini. Saya juga pernah mendengar arwah ayah bercerita tentangnya tetapi saya tidak mempunyai latar belakang yang mencukupi ketika itu untuk bertanya lebih lanjut.

Sekarang saya sudah ada fakta tetapi ayah pula sudah tiada. Ia sudah pasti menarik jika saya dapat bertanya dengan ayah yang menjadi polis di Singapura ketika itu. Berbagai pengajaran yang boleh didapati dari cerita Natrah ini terutama sejaran dan sikap orang Melayu Islam. Ia juga memberi gambaran terhadap pemimpin dan kepimpinan Melayu yang saya rasa boleh dikaitkan dengan sikap kepimpinan Melayu yang ada sekarang. Ia juga memberi penekanan terhadap betapa pentingnya peranan media dalam membentuk pemikiran masyarakat.

Secara jujur saya nyatakan buku Natrah memang patut dibaca oleh semua orang Melayu. Cuma saya agak terkilan kerana penulis terlalu menyerlah dengan pandangan dan keprcayaan beliau. Sebagai sebuah buku yang mencatit sejarah beliau sepatutnya menyatakan fakta dan membiarkan pembaca berfikir dan membuat kesimpulan. Beliau tidak perlu melihat pembaca sebagai pelajar yang perlu dibentuk persepsinya. Memang penulis berhak terhadap pendapat dan pandangan beliau sendiri tetapi pembaca perlu diberi ruang untuk berfikir dan menemui kesimpulan masing-masing.

Memang kita sangat terkilan yang Natrah tidak dapat diselamatkan Islamnya. Tetapi ini semua ketentuan Yang Maha Esa dan sudah pasti Dia yang Maha Mengetahui tentang kebaikan untuk kita semua dari episod ini. Cuma kita yang tidak dapat menghargai kebaikan yang sudah semestinya ada dan telah kita nikmati.

Sebenarnya cerita Natrah bukan pertama kali cuba diketengahkan tetapi saya rasa buku ini yang paling komprehensif. Alangkah baiknya jika ada pihak yang sudi membiayai pembikinan filem Natrah dengan bajet yang besar. Kita tidak mahu membuat filem dengan bajet sekitar RM10 juta tetapi sekurang-kurangnya USD100 juta. Kita mahu filem tersebut membina kembali suasana Singapura sekitar 1950an lengkap dengan kostum dan sesuai. Kita mahu tunjukkan bukan saja dimana kekutatan Melayu ketika itu tetapi dimana kelemahan dan kesilapan yang telah dilakukan supaya ia tidak diulang.

Saya menjumpai beberapa sites yang bercerita tentang Natrah. Ada satu bolg entri yang saya rasa memberi gambaran yang agak peribadi dan informatif. Link entri tersebut saya sertakan disini.

: Aku, Tan Sri Prof Ahmad Ibrahim dan Natrah

Pakcik Tik

Entri ini mungkin agak terlambat sebab seorang adik dan seorang anak saudara saya telah pun memblog topik yang sama. Tetapi saya mesti memasukkan juga entri ini dalam blog saya, jika tidak blog ini akan "kehilangan" satu episod yang amat penting dalam kehidupan saya.

Pakcik Tik Yasin adalah seorang rakan karib arwah ayah saya. Saya pernah memblog perkara ini tidak berapa lama dulu atas tajuk "Family Friends". Sejak yang saya ingat, Pakcik Tik, isteri beliau Makcik Bedah dan semua ahli keluarga mereka merupakan sesuatu yang sinonim dengan keluarga kami. Malah mereka yang sebenarnya tidak mempunyai tali persaudaraan khusus (selain dari keluarga seagama dan sebangsa) merupakan satu kemestian dalam setiap acara keluarga yang kami adakan. Seringkali, mereka kami anggap lebih penting dari sesetengah ahli keluarga kami sendiri.


Kedua-dua keluarga kami mempunyai jumlah ahli yang besar. Bila kami berjumpa semasa hari raya (selalunya kami akan bergilir, setahun di Bukit Rambai dan setahun di Kesang) suasana akan menjadi heboh, kecoh dengan kegembiraan. Saya masih terbayang suasana meriah sebegini terutama ketika Makcik Bedah masih ada. Sekarang, semua ini tinggal kenangan cuma.

Satu jasa Pakcik Tik dan Makcik Bedah yang tidak mungkin dapat kami sekeluarga lupakan ialah usaha mereka mengatur perkahwinan ayah kami dengan Makcik Rammelah. Jasa seorang kawan yang memberi menafaat yang tidak terhingga bukan saja kepada kawan tersebut tetapi kepada anak-anak dan cucu-cucu beliau. Cuma Tuhan yang dapat membalas jasa ini.



Kali terakhir saya berjumpa dengan Pakcik Tik ialah penghujung tahun 2009 di rumah anak beliau, Amran, yang tinggal dekat Batu Caves. Waktu itu Pakcik Tik baru saja terjatuh di bilik air dan beliau datang berehat dirumah Amran. Seperti biasa, ketika bertemu kami beliau begitu ceria, cuma pendengaran beliau agak kurang.

Sebenarnya saya baru merancang untuk bertemu beliau pada Hari Raya akan datang untuk bertanya tentang kisah Natrah yang berlaku di Singapura pada tahun 1950an. Saya baru selesai membaca buku tentang Natrah dan ada beberapa soalan yang ingin saya ajukan kepada Pakcik Tik tetapi ternyata saya terlambat. Saya punya rancangan tetapi rancangan Yang Maha Esa jua yang mengatasi segala-galanya.

Pakcik Tik meninggal dunia pada hari Khamis malam Jumaat, 24 Jun 2010 bersamaan 12 Rejab. Semoga roh beliau di beri keampunan dan ditempatkan bersama roh orang-orang yang soleh. AlFatihah buat Pakcik Tik dan Makcik Bedah.

qur'an and cricket

This is the latest book I managed to finish reading. Actually, I finished it quite a while back but I did not find the inspiration to blog about it. Not that I'm overly inspired right now but since I'm about to finish reading another book, I thought I better blog about this one quickly.

Biodata of the author from Wikipedia:

Dr. Farish Ahmad Noor (born 15 May 1967 in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia) is a Malaysian political scientist and historian and is presently a Senior Fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

He was formerly attached to Zentrum Moderner Orient (Centre for Modern Oriental Studies) in Berlin, Germany, Sciences-Po Paris, the Institute for the Study of Muslim Society (ISIMM, Ecole des haute etudes et sciences sociale, EHESS), Paris and the International Institute for the Study of the Muslim World (ISIM), Leiden, Netherlands. Dr. Noor's teaching credits include the Centre for Civilisational Dialogue, University of Malaya, the Institute for Islamic Studies, Free University Berlin, Sunan Kalijaga Islamic University (Jogjakarta), Muhamadiyah University Surakarta and Nanyang Technological University presently.

He received his BA in Philosophy & Literature from the University of Sussex in 1989, before studying for an MA in Philosophy at the same University in 1990, an MA in South-East Asian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, before completing his PhD at the University of Essex in 1997 in the field of governance and politics.

It is a pity that a person having such credentials did not find it attractive to offer his services to Malaysian universities. Even if he did, I don't think he can last long as his views would most probably be not in tune with the powers that be.

In this book, Farish writes about his travels to the various madrasahs and religious places of the world to "study" the way f life at these places. His trip took him to Pakistan, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Jogjakarta, Solo, Surakarta, Saigon, Turkey, Amsterdam, Cairo, the Desert of Libya, Kuala Trengganu, Kota Bharu, Patani, Narathiwat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Its a good tour indeed.

The journey took the writer, among others, to Darul Oloom where Tuan Guru Nik Aziz had his studies. He also met up with Ustaz Abu Bakar Bashir of JI fame. He roamed the places where the Ottoman rulers used to reign supreme and also maybe the land where The Lion of the Desert, Umar Mukhtar used to fight the Italians and died a syahid. He was also involved in rescue efforts during the earthquake that hit the Indian subcontinent.

There are several chapters that left special impressions on me such as when he was in Turkey where he noted the following:

In practically every Muslim country I've visited, nostalgia and authenticity cast their spells. From Morocco to Pakistan to Indonesia, ordinary Muslims - be they taxi drivers, school teachers, or clerks - seem ever so inclined to return to the past to escape, albeit momentarily, the squalid realities of the present.

I also like Farish's take on the general election of 2008 when he was in Trengganu and Kota Bharu such as this:

The large screen that projects rhe live report by TV3 announces that Lim Kit Siang, leader of DAP has won. For half a second there was silence. Then the rebel yell is raised, "Takbir, Allahuakbar, Allahuakbar, Allahuakbar"....Who would have thought that here in Kota Bharu, a thousand PAS supporters would be cheering on their allies, the DAP?

Overall, the book was a good read plus it provides valuable insights into the happenings of the places visited by the writer. Farish writing make for easy reading though at times I feel he did spice things up a bit.

Ayah dan Ibu

Al-Fatihah buat Ayah dan Ibu yang telah pergi. Untuk mereka-mereka yang masih ada ibu dan ayah, hargai lah mereka selagi berkesempatan.

A Marry Weekend

The past weekend was spent attending weddings, five of them, to be exact. Two in Bangi, two in Kelana Jaya and one in Shah Alam. All are either friends, relatives or neighbours, so I deemed our attendance compulsory. Alhamdullillah, we managed to do it.


As usual, at occasions like these we will meet old friends and colleagues from our old school or places of work. These opportunities, I treasure most. Of course, I met people who I recognized but cannot make up their names but I think I have perfected the art of acting as if I know their names all along. I have always had problems remembering names but that do not stop me remembering their faces.

Selamat Hari Guru

Its the 16th of May, the official Teacher's Day. I was in two minds about making this post but finally I decided that I have to do it, about 30 minutes before the day is over.

Why did I hesitated in making the post? Because I do not want to be seen as appreciating my teachers only on Teacher's Day. Just like why I did not celebrate Mother's Day because I feel mothers (like my wife, since I do not my mother anymore, though I have a replacement in my Makcik who has been a gem to me my siblings and all our children) deserves more than just a day of appreciation.

The only problem with "official" days is that by not celebrating them we are deemed to be not appreciative of the people concerned. To prevent this "misconception" I decided to make this post.

I can talk (or write for that matter) forever about teachers. However, in this post I am only going to write about my primary school teachers.



Standard One 1965 - Mr. M. Palany. He slapped me once for climbing the hill going up from the field instead of taking the stairs. I was also the class monitor and had the honor of carrying the exercise books of the class to his home not far from the school on my way home to catch the bus.


Standard 2 1966 - Miss Saraswathy (I think). Did not remember too much but I hate it when we were asked to remember our tables and recite them one by one in class failing which we have to stand on our chairs. Despite this I was still bad with my tables.

Just found out that actually my class teacher in standard 2 was Miss Wong. Ms. Saraswathy was a subject teacher (maybe).

Standard 3 1967 - Cikgu Jamaluddin. Again as a class monitor I was given to do some chores for the teacher. In this case I was asked to mark the work of the class. The teacher will give me his red ink pen and I will do the marking. He will just sign at the end. On one occasion I put a remark "Good" on the exercise done by a girl whom I thought I had a crush on. I was given a scolding by the cikgu and after that he did not ask me to do the marking again.

Standard 4 1968 - Mr. Chow Weng Wah. Had very little memory about the year. I was caught fighting one day with a new student who just transferred from Singapore after his father retired from the police. I thought he did not show enough respect for us kampong boys and gave him a few punches. Mr Chow was upset and scolded both of us. He then said if we want to fight, come to the front of the class. I thought I heard him said he want me to go to the front of the class. When I reach the front, he said in a loud voice: You still want to fight?. No wonder my friends looked puzzled when I walked past them towards the front of the class


Standard 5 1969 - Miss Devi. The year of our Assessment Exams, the first major exam in my life. Back then very few students scored all As (five subjects). I was earmarked to get 5 As. Miss Devi knew that my weakest subject was English but my other subjects are okay. So whenever we have extra classes, while the other students were studying all the exam subjects I will only be studying English. Despite all her efforts, I did not get A for English and there no one who scored all As for the school that year.



Standard 6 1970 - Mr. Victor Chinniah. Hockey master and a few other clubs including Scouts if I'm not mistaken. He was a good teacher but I was not happy with him when I left school. I was always competing with another boy, Thomas, to get the first position in our exams since our early years and we have alternatively grabbed the first place on many occasions. In the first term exam in Std 6, I beat Thomas. In the final exam (the last exam of our primary education), we scored exactly the same marks, so it was tie. To break the tie, Mr Chinniah said whoever got the higher English mark will be first. So Thomas got first and I got second. I thought that was not fair. Why should it be English and not Malay (which I was better at)? It should have been a neutral subject like Mathematics (which I would have won) or Science (which I think Thomas would have won).

The other teachers:

Mr. Tan Beng Hooi - Headmaster, Very dedicated teacher with a fatherly figure type of attitude. He taught Civics which helped us be better citizens. I remembered that Civics was not a boring subject then.

Cikgu Ali Bulat. Big sized teacher who taught us Bahasa Melayu.

Ustaz Abu Bakar - Taught us Ugama Islam. Very strict (but only with the boys, if I remember well). His exams are very tough and in Jawi. On many occasions, my agama marks pull my average down depriving me of first position in class. He later furthered his studies to university. Later he taught at mosques and suraus where he then became a teacher to my late father. I still bumped into him during Hari Raya prayers.

To all the above teachers who are still alive, Thank you very much and may your life be Blessed. To those who have left us, May Allah give His Blessings to your souls.

SELAMAT HARI GURU, Cikgu.

Note: Class photos courtesy of Saleha Hassan (via Facebook), a classmate in primary school. Now a teacher at St Francis Institution, Melaka.

Family Friends

All of us have friends, all kinds of friends. Some of our friends are for the short term while both of us have "excuses" to remain friendly such as friends at school, at work, or any other similar circumstances. On some occasions these short term friends may develop into long term relationships.

I am blessed to have a few such friends where we started became friends in primary school, continue to secondary school and kept in touch during college and cement the friendship when we started working until now, more than 40 years after our first meeting. I also have friends that I first met during college or during my working days and keep being friends still.

But I do not have family friends. What do I mean by family friends? These are friends but they are more like family. Normally when we have friends, they only know us or at the most our spouses. However, family friends are not related to us but they know us just like family, even more so at times. They are not only friendly to us but they know our children, our parents and siblings too. Similarly, we and our family know about their family as well.

My late father has a true family friend. I do not know how they became friends (I regret not asking my father about this). Both of them were policemen in Singapore before independence. All of us know each other so well. Their children are more like brothers and sisters to us. My late father and mother would go to them whenever they have problems before going to their siblings.

When my late father was in KL Hospital undergoing his chemotherapy, I knew one of his friend's daughter visited him more often that I did, bringing home cooked meals for him and makcik who was looking after him. She is definitely more family than our real family.

My late father-in-law also has a family friend of similar stature, although I'm not in a position to know too much details. But this guy used to work for my father-in-law when he was the Director of Hospital University. Even after his retirement, their friendship remain in tact, in fact it was further strengthen maybe because my father is law was no longer his boss. Until now, without fail, he and his whole family will at my father-in-law's in times of sorrow or happiness. In fact when my father in law was hospitalised for quite an extended period and we had to take turns to sleep at the hospital, his name was also in the list of volunteers.

So far, I have not been able to establish any strong family friends despite the fact that I have quite a number of close friends but both our families have not been able to get into the act.

I know it is indeed a privilege to have family friends and I should I should work at achieving this.



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