 |
| Aden, Yemen |
 |
| Sailors on a Steamer |
 |
| Malay Opera |
 |
| Editorial Board, Utusan |
Pa was born in
Makkah in 1917
After the
Arabs were ‘liberated’ by T. E. Lawrence
From the
crumbling Ottoman Caliphate
Also known as
the ‘Sick Old Man of Europe’
His father was
a Bugis from Klang
In 1911, he
arrived in the Holy Land
To advance his
studies in Arabic and Quran
There he met
and married Sitti, a Perakian
Who bore their
eldest daughter and son
Named Azizah
and Badarudin
A year later,
to the Jawi Land they returned
To set up a madrasah in
Sitti’s hometown
Before setting
sail for Makkah again in ‘37
This time they
settled in Ajaid
A village on
the hillside
Overlooking
the Grand Mosque
By now, the
family had expanded to eight
With Mohamed,
Hanifah, Ishak and Hasnah
Thankful for
the Almighty’s reward
They turned
their home into a waqf
And opened
their doors to travellers to the holy place
That November,
Pa turned twenty
He began to
feel edgy
The walled
compound felt stuffy
His feet
itched to go on a journey
To places
where he could sight see
And know the
people and their philosophy
He hitched a
ride on a fruit truck to the port of Jeddah
Where he
signed up as a sailor on a merchant steamer
For the next
five years
He discovered
Aden, Muscat, Doha and Bahrain
He trekked the
coast of Iran to the majestic mountains of Afghanistan
On to Karachi,
where he boarded another sailing vessel
Which dropped
its anchor at Mumbai and Chennai
Before it
crossed the Bay of Bengal
To the Pearl
of the Orient
And, finally,
Port Swettenham
In the late
‘30s and early ‘40s
Singapore was
the trading centre
Of the FMS
Also the
magnet for reformists and anti-colonialists
Since the
early 19th century
Traders and
scholars from Haudramaut
With names
like AlJuneid, AlSagoff and alKaff
Had inspired
the young men to be change agents
They called
themselves Kaum Muda
They challenged the old-fashioned ideas
Of the Kaum
Tua, or Group of Elders
Through writings
in the newspapers
Editors,
journalists and type-setters of these mouthpieces
Were Malay
intellectuals and skilled labourers
Like Pa's
buddy Sako and Ma's father Mat Semawi
Ma was a
second generation Singaporean
Bugis and
Javanese blood coursed in her veins
According to
her family folklore
Tok Mat’s
father was a Bugis warrior
Who walked
around barefooted in his black outfit
Black pants,
tunic, sash, headband and kris
That was the
way they dressed
Back in the
old country as in La Galigo epic
Ma’s maternal
side was Jawa Tok-tok
Her mother,
Karsinah, was nicknamed Cemplok
Raised by
eccentric matriarchs, Nek Tuek
And her
adopted sister, Nek Kuchit
Given away by
her Chinese family as an infant
Hence, Ma’s
Sino appearance and expression
The fair skin,
moon face, snub nose, doe eyes
A mild
demeanour which masked a furnace
Tok Mat Semawi
worked day and night
To feed his
large brood
A day job as a
type-setter
And night duty
as a Bangsawan director
Very dull jobs compared to his forefathers’
Said to be
pirates of the straits and seas
Hired by warring factions as mercenaries
Rebels in
their homeland and beyond boundaries
Unlike the
meek Javanese
Peasants who
escaped the Dutch oppression
Poor pilgrims
stranded on the island
Short changed
by greedy Hajj agents
All the same,
the Bugis and Javanese blood
Showed in
their speech and acts
The ‘garang’
dimension of the Bugis
Often ruled
the ‘halus’ side of the Javanese
And so it was
the fiery Bugis in Tok Mat
Which made him
jumped ship
Along with
editors, journalists and 19 type-setters
And the
refined Javanese in him
Which made him
sacrifice time
And money
Along with
other investors and employees
For Yusoff
Ishak’s the Malay Herald
The Malays,
Bugis and Javanese
May be
employees of the wealthy Hadramis
But to them,
the Muslim Arabs and the Indians
Were Jawi
Peranakans, or foreign-born
Since most
Arabs arrived when they were young
They were looked
upon as aliens
Their
privileged life
Made the
Malays felt deprived
They had their
own madrasahs to study Arabic
And they could
afford the fees at Raffles Institution to learn English
Heirs to their
families’ businesses
They inherited
fleets of pilgrimage ships
And rows of
textile shops on Arab Street
Printing
presses on Cecil Street
Editors-in-Chief
of dailies, weeklies
And humour
magazines
Local editors
and journalists –
Kajai, Sako,
ZABHA and Za’ba
They loved
their pen names and acronyms
They used the
newspapers and magazines
To fight for
Independence from the Brits
Not happy with
Arabs’ control of Malay media
These angry
young men planned their own lidah and suara
In ‘37, Yusoff
Ishak left Warta Malaya
In ‘38, he
talked to leaders and activists
At Enchik
Daud’s house in Siglap
Business
tycoons and generous donors were invited
Tuan Yunan,
Embok Sooloh and Enchik Sudin were present
For three long
hours they brainstormed
The final
verdict was a Malay broadsheet
The founders
chipped in $2,000 for start-up
All over
Singapore and Malaya Yusoff went
He coaxed
petty traders, teachers, farmers and fishermen
Who parted
with their daily wages
And raised
almost $2,000 more worth of shares
With three
days left to the deadline
And $8,500
short
Enchik Daud
and Embok Sooloh dug deep
Into their
pockets and forked out the cash
Thus the first
edition of the new Utusan
Which hit the
news stands on May '39
No comments:
Post a Comment