Cerita Di Sebalik Drama “Pokok”

Oleh JOHAN JAAFFAR

Rencana ini termuat dalam buku cenderamata drama “Pokok” yang dipentaskan di Auditorium DBP dari 7 Disember hingga 16 Disember 2018. Drama ini merupakan persembahan Drama Perdana DBP dan diterbitkan dengan kerjasama Jabatan Kebudayaan dan Kesenian Negara (JKKN), Perodua dan Institut Terjemahan Buku Malaysia (ITBM). Rencana ini juga tersiar dalam Dewan Sastera, Februari 2019.

Alhamdulillah, drama “Pokok” yang tersiar dalam majalah Dewan Sastera, September 2017 telah Berjaya dipentaskan. “Pokok”  merupakan sebahagian Teater Perdana DBP, yang juga merupakan drama ke-70 yang dipentaskan oleh DBP. Drama pertama adalah “Tamu Bukit Kenyy” karya Usman Awang (Sasterawan Negara) dan diarahkan oleh Baharuddin Zainal (juga kemudiannya menjadi Sasterawan Ngara) pada tahun 1967.

“Pokok” diarahkan U-Wei HjShaari, pengarah filem tersohor yang 10 tahun lalu pernah mengarahkan “Wangi Jadi Saksi” juga terbitan bersama DBP. Drama ini dilakonkan oleh Haliza Misbun, Ebby Saiful, Rahim Jailani dan Buyung Zasdar.

Apakah yang menghilhamkan “Pokok”? Sewaktu proses latihan pelakon yang terbabit ingin tahu bagaimana saya mendapat ilham untuk “Pokok.” Mereka juga ingin tahu apakah watak-watak seperti Mardiah, Darwis, Amud dan Tuk Kaya berdasarkan manusia yang hidup atau komposit daripada watak yang saya kenal. Atau mungkin juga ada watak di dalamnya yang terbina dari latar-belakang saya sendiri.

Memang “Pokok” ada ceritanya yang tersendiri.

Saya membesar di sebuah kampung, jauh dari Bandar yang terdekat. Belukar, kebun getah, sawah padi, pokok, lalang, semak, tumbuh-tumbuhan, menjadi sebahagian daripada backdrop kehidupan saya. Bersama-sama rakan-rakan sebaya di Kampung Sungai Balang Besar, Muar, Johor, saya mengenal kehidupan dari pengalaman bermandi-manda di parit dan sungai, bermain di antara pohon getah dan belukar, mengailikan,  menangkap burung wak-wak serta membantu bapa saudara bersawah atau pergi ke laut.

Kami punya “Laluba Street, Tokyo”, lorong sempit di bawah rimbunan pohon duku dan manggis berdekatan dengan rumah saya. 

Di lorong itu terdapat pohon yang besar dan tinggi yang menjadi tempat kami berteduh. Namun dahannya yang rapuh selalu mengancam kami. Entah siapa yang memberikan nama seunik itup ada locong kecil yang bercakap abila hujan dan sentiasa semak yang harus kami untuk pergi mengaji pada setiap malam.

Lorong itu punya cerita yang tersendiri buat kami. Lorong ini saya abadikan dalam cerpen saya, “Laluba Street, Tokyo” yang pernah tersiar dalam Mingguan Malaysia, 9 Oktober 1977, yang juga terkumpul dalam koleksi cerpen Pelarian Sang Hero (1980, diterbitkan semula 2018).

Dalam buku saya Jejak Seni: Dari Pentas BangsawanKe Media Prima Berhad, saya menceritakan kisah tiga sahabat yang berjanji akan bertemu semulas etiap 10 tahun di bawah sebatang pokok besar dekat sekolah pertama saya di Semerah - Peserian Primary English School. Sekali lagi pokok besar memainkan peranan penting dalam naratif kanak-kanak saya. Pokok itu menjadi tempat kami bermain. Tidak hairanlah jikalau kami  tiga sahabat berjanji akan bertemu di pokok itu selepas meninggalkan sekolah, walaupun di mana dan apa yang kami lakukan dalam hidup kami kemudian.

Saya tetap menunaikan janji saya. Pokok itu tidak lagi berdiri sejak 20 tahun yang lalu.  Bagaimana pun janji zaman kanak-kanak tetap saya tunaikan setiap 10 tahun bermula pada tahun 1975. Tahun 2015 genaplah 40 tahun selepas perjanjian kami. Kedua-dua kawan saya tidak muncul pada setiap waktu yang dijanjikan. Insya Allah sekiranya umur saya panjang saya akan berada di tempat itu pada tahun 2025.

Maka itu “pokok” sentiasa membayangi kehidupan saya. Pada tahun 1996 saya membeli sebuah rumah di Bukit Gasing, Petaling Jaya. Saya telah menanam sepohon jejawi dari kecil. Dua puluh tahun kemudian ia menjadi pohon besar dan mengancam rumah kami dengan akarnya yang kuat. Dua tahun yang lalu, dengan penuh rasa kesal saya terpaksa menebang pokok besar itu.

Setiap kali saya melihat pokok besar itu, saya teringat tentang “pokok” yang saya “kenal” sepanjang saya membesar.. Dan saya terfikir untuk “menghidupkan” pokok dalam imaginasi kreatif saya. Entah puluhan tahun saya memikirkan tentang sebuah drama yang berkisar di sekeliling “pokok”.  Saya membayangkan pelbagai scenario bagaimana pokok itu menjadi “watak utama”dalam drama saya.

Pada tahun 1980/81, saya menjadi siding pengarang majalah Dewan Budaya terbitan Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP). Ketua Bahagian Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Sastera (BPPS) ketika itu adalah Baharuddin Zainal atau Baha Zain (Datuk dan kemudiannya pemenang Anugerah Sasterawan Negara). Beliau mencadangkan saya membuat laporan penyiasatan tentang kehidupan malam di KL. Saya tidak perlu datang ke pejabat selama sebulan. Setiap malam saya akan menyusuri KL melihat sendiri kehidupan pelbagai penghuni malamnya.

Selama sebulan saya menemui penari kabaret dan dangdut, saya menjengah rumah urut dan rumah pelacuran, saya merayau lorong-lorong yang jarang dilalui orang, serta kelab, pelbagai tempat judi haram dan sarang samseng.

Saya mempersiapkan tujuh (7) siri rencana yang saya berikan nama “Bila Malam Bertambah Malam.”Agaknya mungkin terlalu kontroversil pembongkaran itu, Baha Zain mencadangkan hanya sebuah rencana yang disiarkan, itu pun nadanya telah dilunakkan dari laporan asal (Dewan Budaya, Julai 1981).

Daripada sekian banyak manusia yang saya temui, seorang wanita menarik perhatian saya. Beliau adalah seorang bartender di sebuah pub di Jalan Pahang. Saya hanya mengenal namanya sebagai “Ji” – berusia kira-kira 30-an. Beliau khabarnya bekas banduan, pernah terbabit dalam kes rompakan dan dadah. Tetapi Ji yang saya lihat di pub itu seorang wanita yang baik, prihatin dan suka menolong. Saya tahu reputasinya sebagai kasar dan celupar, tetapi dalam profesyen sedemikian, siapakah yang boleh menyalahkan beliau. Beliau masih cantik dan banyak peminat di pub itu.

Bagi anak muda seperti saya yang baru empat tahun keluar university dengan idealisme yang luar biasa, tentulah kehidupan Ji menarik perhatian saya. Saya tidak lama mengenalnya.  Beberapa bulan selepas habis tugasan malam untuk majalah Dewan Budaya itu saya singgah di pub itu, tetapi Ji sudah tidak lagi bekerja di situ. Malang sekali kisah bartender itu tidak dapat saya muatkan dalam laporan yang tersiar dalam majalah Dewan Budaya itu.

Bagaimanapun “Ji” saya rakamkan dalam cerpen saya, “Potret Seorang Anu Sebagai Anu” yang tersiar dalam majalah Dewan Sastera, Februari 1983. Bartender dalam cerpen itu saya beri nama Ji.

Lama selepas perkenalan saya dengan Ji, saya masih mengingat tentang perwatakan dan kehidupannya.  Saya enggan menggunakan ukuran moral dan agama untuk menilai beliau. Saya tidak mahu menetapkan buruk baik profesyen beliau. Tetapi saya melihat aspek kemanusiaan dari kehidupan Ji yang saya percaya penuh drama dan cabaran.

Ji saya jelmakan sebagai“Mardiah” dalam drama ini. Saya berikan latar-belakang saya sendiri tentang watak Mardiah. Saya tidak tahu apakah Ji ada kekasih, suami atau tinggal sendirian. Mardiah saya berikan sedikit latar-belakang Ji, tetapi dengan permasalahan yang berbeza. Saya tidak tahu siapa ayah Ji tetapi dalam watak yang saya jelmakan dalam “Pokok” Ji punya latar kehidupan yang amat dramatik.

Beliau anak kepada seorang ayah yang baik, terlalu baik hingga Mardiah menjatuhkan hukum:

“Kadang-kadang terfikir juga saya, apakah dia akan diberi ganjaran di akhirrat kerana jujurnya atau dihukum kerana kegagalannya mendidik anak-anaknya.”

Mardiah, mungkin juga Ji, melihat dunia yang brutal, kasar dan tanpa kemanusiaan. Mungkin orang baik tiada tempatnya di dunia yang menggilai kebendaan. Mardiah mahu menjadi baik. 

Mungkin dia tidak menemui kebaikan itu. Mungkin dia hanya menemui salvation apabila mengenali Darwis.

Saya tidak tahu apakah dilemma Ji sama dengan Mardiah. Saya tidak dapat menyelami kehidupan Ji dengan lebih mendalam. Tetapi saya dapat membina karaktor Mardiah dengan cermat.

Ji memang inspirasi saya untuk watak “Mardiah” – watak utama dalam “Pokok.” Tetapi Mardiah bukan Ji. Mungkin juga secara tidak sedar Mardiah adalah komposit pelbagai karaktor manusia yang pernah saya kenal atau saya temui. Tetapi Ji tidak terhenti setakat tahun 1981, watak itu mengganggu imaginasi saya bertahun-tahun hingga saya rakamkan dalam drama “Pokok”. 

Ji muncul dalam”Pokok” 36 tahun kemudian, tidak sepenuhnya tetapi sebahagian daripada watak yang saya bina.Entah mengapa saya berasa begitu puas. Pokok yang menjelma dalam pelbagai situasi dalam hidup saya kini saya gabungkan dengan seorang wanita yang penuh warna-warna yang mengharapkan pokok besar di hadapan rumahnya akan menaunginya.

Watak-watak lain melengkapi kehidupan Mardiah dalam “Pokok”. Darwis, lelaki malang yang akhirnya mengenal ketenangan dan kebahagiaan bersama Mardiah. Amud punya cerita panjang tentang perkahwinan dan survival dan Tuk Kaya yang sebenarnya melihat dunia hanya dari kaca mata kekayaannya.

Mardiah bagi saya terlalu berharga. Mardiah bukan sekadar seorang wanita yang kompleks – keras hati, degil, celupar, combative, tapi penuh humour serta playful, tetapi mendefinisikan semula kehidupannya setelah menemui Darwis. Banyak orang mungkin tidak faham (seperti juga Tuk Kaya dalam drama ini) mengapa orang secantik Mardiah boleh mengahwini Darwis yang “tidak punya apa-apa.”

“Mardiah” muncul 14 tahun selepas watak besar ciptaan saya bernama “Asiah Samiah”.

Saya jadikan Asiah Samiah judul drama saya, drama yang memenangai Hadiah Sastera pada tahun 2003. “Asiah Samiah” juga pernah memenangai Hadiah Sastera Negeri Johor pada tahun yang sama. Terdahulu daripada itu saya pernah memenangi Hadiah Sastera pada tahun 1986 kerana adaptasi pentas novel Hari-Hari Terakhir Seorang Seniman karya Anwar Rithwan.

Saya telah mengarahkan drama adaptasi itu dan selama dua tahun Badan Budaya DBP membawanya ke banyak tempat termasuk di Singapura. 

Drama itu juga memperkenalkan banyak pelakon yang kemudiannya menjadi pengarah dan pelakon teater dan filem yang hebat di negara ini.

“Pokok”adalah pengalaman menulis yang luar biasa. Saya jarang menulis drama yang berciri realis untuk pentas. “Asiah Samiah” masih terlihat nada eksperimental dan “absurd”nya. Sehingga ini “Asiah Samiah”  belum dipentaskan. Ia menjadi naskhah wajib untuk sastera tingkatan enam (Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan) sehingga ini.

Saya lebih dikenali sebagai salah seorang dramatis yang dikaitkan dengan aliran absurd di Malaysia bersama-sama Nordin Hassan, Dinsman, Hatta Azad Khan, Mana Sikana, Anuar Nor Arai, Zakaria Ariffin dan ramai lagi. Orang mengenal saya kerana teater eksperimental seperti “Kotaku Oh Kotaku”, “Angin Kering”, “Sang Puteri” “Dia” dan “Pemain”. Untuk menulis drama TV saya menggunakan nama “Jaafar Khan”. Pada penghujung tahun 70-an dan 80-an, drama-drama TV saya (yang hamper kesemuanya diterbitkan oleh Allahyarham Abdullah Zainol) disiarkan oleh RTM. Antara drama-drama terbitan RTM karya saya adalah “Asy Syura”. “Angin Bila Menderu”, “Anjung Batu”, “Pemandu Teksi”, “Pelari”, “Pak Tua” dan “Pendekar Raibah.”

Saya sudah meninggalkan dunia teater sejak tahun 1987. Arahan saya yang terakhir ialah “Tuk Selampit” karyaAllahyarham Dr Anuar Nor Arai. Itu pun tak dapat saya habiskan. Zakaria Ariffin mengambil alih tugas mengarahkan drama itu yang kemudiannya dibawa ke Pesta Teater Asean di Manila pada bulan Ogos tahun itu. Namun demikian saya tidak pernah melupakan teater. Kecintaan saya pada dunia teater tidak pernah padam. Sewaktu di UtusanMelayu (sebagai Ketua Pengarang dari 1992 hingga 1998) saya membantu menerbitkan beberapa buah drama besar, antaranya “Lantai T. Pinkie” karya A. Samad Said. Saya beruntung menjadi Pengerusi Media Prima Berhad, yang merupakan syarikat media terbesar dan memiliki syarikat menerbitkankan dungan atau content,  Primeworks.

Saya melihat perkembangan drama semasa yang jauh berbeza dengan zaman saya, Dinsman, Hatta, Anuar Araidan  Zakaria. Di KL, Panggung Eksperimen dan Panggung Drama DBKL selain Balai Budaya DBB, menjadi lantai di mana berkocaknya seni teater pada tahun-tahun  1970-an dan 1980-an.

Semua itu hanya tinggal kenangan.

Maka itu apabila saya menulis “Pokok” secara sedar saya mahu mengembalikan tradisi drama realis ke pentas –sesuai dengan semangat yang pernah ditiupkan oleh Usman Awang, Kala Dewata, Kalam Hamidi dan Bidin Subari.

Pengalaman menulis “Pokok” cukup istimewa bagi saya. Apabila ia tersiar dalam majalah Dewan Sastera pada bulan September 2017, saya tidak pernah terfikir ia akan dipentaskan sebegitu cepat. U-Wei menyatakan beliau terhuja dengan drama itu lantas berhasrat untuk mengarahkannya. U-Wei pengarah besar yang mencipta nama dengan Perempuan, Isteri Dan…, BuaiLaju-Laju, Kaki Bakar, Jogho dan Hanyut bersedia mengarahkan drama dari naskhah saya ini. Saya menganggapnya satu penghormatan.

Akibat banyak siri “ngeteh” bersamaU-Wei (pengarah), Syahid (penerbit), Sabri Yunus dan Aris Othman maka muncullah “Pokok” di pentas.

·        

The Launch of Tan Sri Leo Moggie’s From Longhouse to Capital: Recollections

At Badan Warisan, Jalan Stonor, KL

Saturday, 8^th December 2018

By TAN SRI JOHAN JAAFFAR

It is always fascinating to read the story of a boy, born literally in the “wilderness”, becoming “somebody” one day. And he is no ordinary “somebody” – he is an embodiment of what human achievement is all about. It is also a story about dedication, tenacity and commitment. This is an incredible book of an Iban boy who made his mark as an exemplary government officer, later on as a politician, in fact a minister, and then a leader of a corporate entity.

I must confess that I find this book exhilarating. I have read many memoirs, autobiographies and biographies. It is a genre that is always high on my list of reading priorities. I am moved and inspired by some and many of these works remain etched in my memory for years.

Nostalgia excites. As we get older, memories come flashing back in bits and pieces, like images from old movies, full of drama, laughter and even tears. And there will be family members, friends, teachers and those who we met along the way. All of us  have pleasant and  not so pleasant encounters with people we met in our lives. These memories come cascading down, which need to be recorded before we lose them all.

As a journalist I have met many individuals, leaders in various disciplines, legends some of them, monumental figures in their own right. I have traveled the world over. I have dined with cannibals (literally), conversed and interviewed corporate shakers and movers, even the most ruthless despots and alleged terrorists. I have met the good, the bad and the ugly among the so-labelled “leaders”. I had conversations with Nelson Mandela, J.P. Kalam, Vaclav Havel, Margaret Thatcher, Suharto, to name a few, even having breakfast with the notorious Gulbuddin Hekmateyar, leader of the Hisbi Islamic faction in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in the spring of 1989, now high on the list of the most wanted terrorists by the Americans. I have read their writings and writings about them. Some I liked, some I hated.

But literature about people never fail to amaze me. I find it interestingto see the number of memoirs in the book shops today. It is an industry by itself. I was in the UK recently, reading Becoming by the former First Lady of the United States, Michele Obama, and a biography of one of the most daring women journalists, Marie Colvin, entitled In Extremis by Lindsay Hilsum.

Everyone has his or her own story to tell. If you think ordinary folks cannot write memoirs, think again. Ordinariness can even be a virtue. Who would imagine that a story of a teacher living in New York could become a best-seller. No kidding. The late Frank McCourt is one.  Frank made his mark with his Angela’s Ashes published in 1996. He was born in New York in 1930 to Malachy and Angela McCourt. It is not easy to raise children in Depression-era America. The family moved back to Limerick, Ireland, in 1934. Things got worse. Frank’s father left them, the mother had to work hard to feed the children, three of them died of diseases related to malnutrition. They lived in a house that they shared with rats. Frank went back to the States, joined the army and later became a teacher.

Angela’s Ashes was a massive hit when it was published. Gripping poverty was the theme. He later came out with ‘Tis (1999) and Teacher Man (2006). It doesn’t matter that even his mother has doubts about the authenticity of the events he narrated in the book. He was denounced, in his own words, “from the hill, pulpit and barstool” for disgracing the good name of Limerick and Ireland.

But then, he started a whole new genre in memoir writing – “misery memoirs”. There is an avalanche of books under that genre now.

This book, From Longhouse to Capital:Recollections, certainly is not in the tradition of McCourt’s type of memoirs. It is in a class of its own. This is a story of the first Iban to graduate with a university degree, the first to have an MA, then an MBA. He has done his people proud, his country even prouder. This isn’t Angela’s Ashes for sure!

I was given the book to read, with a little note attached, and subsequently had a phone conversation with the author who requested me to launch the book. I am honoured of course.

This book is written by Tan Sri Datuk Amar Leo Moggie, no ordinary bloke in Malaysian politics and the corporate circle. I read the book and I was fixated. To say that I enjoyed the book is an under statement. In fact I find the book fascinating. It is well written, too well written. The author in his preface claims that this is merely a book of recollections, it is not even a memoir, but let the readers and history judge, for the difference between a memoir, recollections or autobiography is demarcated by a thin line. Let’s not get into a debate about semantics. This is indeed a memoir, by one of the best minds the country has ever produced. Or call it recollections, for all I know, it is a collection of memories of an individual about his life, moments and events, both public and private, that took place in his lifetime. This book could have been titled The Life and Times of Leo Moggie! 

His granddaughter, Didi, did the right thing when she pestered Tan Sri Leo Moggie to write his own book after reading Sidney Poitier’s Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter. Who could forget him, a Black actor who carried a movie single-handedly on his shoulders, something unthinkable back in 1963, when he played the role of Homer Smith an itinerant worker, in Lilies of the Field.For that he won the Best Actor award at the Oscars, the first for a Black actor. In 1967 he was Virgil Tibbs, in the movie In The Heat of the Night, a devastatingly frank movie about racism in America. 

A black Philadelphia policeman suspected of murder has to face a racist police chief in the form of Rod Steiger in small town Sparta, Mississippi is a tough role to play. In the same year he was playing Mark Thackeray in the hit movie, To Sir, With Love. Those three were monumental films that defined not only the actor but about race in the UK and the US during those years. 

In his memoir The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography, Poitier wrote:

“I have no wish to play the pontificating fool, pretending that I’ve suddenly come out with the answers to all life’s questions. Quite the contrary, I began this book as an exploration, an exercise in self-questing. In other words, I wanted to find out as I looked back at a long and complicated life, with many twists and turns, how well I’ve done at measuring up to the values I myself have set.”

I can’t ignore those words by Poitier as I read Tan Sri’s book. Yes, this book is not trying to answer “all life’s questions” but more like “an exploration”, even an exercise in “self-questing” and looking back at “a long complicated life”, and how much the author has done to measure up to the values he has set for himself.

Tan Sri Leo Moggie

This is no ordinary book for what the author went through is not an ordinary journey. This book is so laden with facts and events that one wonders at the author’s incredible memory, as in his preface, he confesses that he never kept a diary. What you are reading in this book are events arranged chronologically, flawless to a point, narrating every aspect of his involvement from his schooling and university days to his time working as a pegawai kerajaan (government officer), and later his involvement in politics for 30 years.

I guess having a former history teacher as his significant other half, Puan Sri Datin Amar Elizabeth, would certainly help in reminding him of the need to pen a feel-good memoir to savour a nearly forgotten past.

The entire book is so well structured and well documented that it is more than just about the author, it is also part-history of his community, his political party, his state and his country. The personal story of the author intertwined with that of the nation. It is therefore not an exaggeration to say this is a book that needed to be written, published and read. Tan Sri Leo Moggie’s documentation of events, especially the ones that mattered to the nation in which he was involved directly or otherwise, is superb. He was in the thick of things at two of the crucial ministries during its formative years, that of the Ministry of Energy, Telecommunications and Post and the Ministry of Works. 

Those were the days when the Multimedia Super-Corridor was mooted, the Bakun Dam (with all its controversies) was built, the North-South and East-West Highways were constructed and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) was designed and built.

I must say, I can claim a stake in Tan Sri’s ministry’s foray into information technology. I was one of the first individuals appointed  as a board member of the newly created Multimedia Development Council (MDC, which later became MDec)under the leadership of the late Tan Sri Othman Yeop Abdullahin 1996. Yes, it was uncharted territory back then. Dr Mahathir Mohamad was in his first tour as the Prime Minister. No one was sure about the river of knowledge and garbage (the Internet) and how we were going to deal with that.

But MDC was needed to spearhead the MSC initiatives. To have an MDC office among palm trees to push forward one of the boldest and most audacious multimedia initiatives the world has ever knownwasn’t easy. You could hear the sneering by sceptical Malaysians and neighbours. What were we trying to prove? Dr Mahathir, as stated by Tan Sri Leo, seized the visionary implication of the futurist Kenichi Ohmae when he presented a proposal on “The Making of a Malaysian Miracle.” A visionary that Dr Mahathir is, the MSC was his child till he left office in 2003.

Thanks to the minister at the helm, we did remarkably well, considering. We had a good head start. But sadly, as pointed out by Tan Sri in this book, the MSC initiatives were derailed at some point because those who were entrusted to spearhead the MSC was thinking more about real estate development rather than creating our own Silicon Valley. Some of the ambitious projects, like the E-Village, stalled.

But more importantly, one must look at Tan Sri’s early years as pegawai daerah. His first posting at Kapit in February 1966 was a real eye opener. Back then, Sarawak was hardly three years in the Malaysian federation. Backwardness in all aspects of development was the feature. For  Tan Sri serving in Kapit, though not in the district he was born,  was “balik kampung”, and more so “giving back to society.” He was uprooted from his village early in life. But those years serving the people in such areas brought awareness and a sense of pride. He gained another experience though, leading the Borneo Literature Bureau in 1968.

But the juiciest part of the book is about politics. I will not dwell on that, read those chapters for yourself, and you’ll understand how politics have impacted upon the author, for better or otherwise. Thirty years is a long time in politics. Rightly or wrongly, politicians affect us in more ways than one. Politics is the game of the impossible. And politics is not for the weak-hearted. I am no judge in Tan Sri Leo’s political adventures or his trials and tribulations in that vocation. He was heading a party (SNAP) that became part of the political construct of his state and certainly had its bearing at the national level.

I believe he is a man of integrity and places good governance above all else in politics. If at all there is honesty and goodness in politics, Tan Sri Leo is an example. I have no intention of making a bold stroke of generalisation here, but politicians are mostly driven by self-interest more than anything else. The culture of politics is one that can be horrendously flawed. One can easily be sucked into the vortex of misnomer and inappropriateness. In short, power corrupts. But not all politicians are bad, some are excellent, but political culture is changing the good to become bad.

I support this statement in the book,

“The public want our politicians to worry more about improving the country’s corruption perception index or ensuring our poverty rate that actually has gone down and the gap between the rich and the poor that has narrowed rather than widened. Economic inequality is a recipe for disunity.”

I guess that is Tan Sri’s guiding principle as a politician.

In rural areas like Sarawak, as pointed out by the author, good educational  facilities and basic infrastructure such as roads, potable water and electricity, are still important. In most cases pembangunan, as we understand it, is taken for granted. There are politicians who are saying, let’s move beyond politik pembangunan. In many rural areas in Sabah and Sarawak, solar-based electricity is still in place. Even then, the budget allocated to provide basic infrastructure for the rakyat can go astray.

Tan Sri Leo Moggies gives credit where credit is due. He is thankful even to the longboat drivers who took him places in Kapit – the likes of Balang, Hassan and Said. These unsung heroes were merely names in the registry of government servants. But to Tan Sri  Leo Moggie, “people like them were indispensable to the functioning administration of rural Sarawak in the 1960s.”

He provides names in this book. He criticises. He is frank and never minces words. But he does it with style and finesse. He doesn’t shy away from criticising policies that he feels are not beneficial to the people. He is critical about the state of racial relations in the country. He is concerned about the ugly head of religious extremism that is surfacing. He has reasons to worry about the divisiveness in current Malaysian society. Thus he is  fond of his school days back at BatuLintang. There was no “Us”and “Them” back then – they were all students of different races.

Perhaps, that is reflected in the school song;

It’s a far cry from Kuching to Brunei

For Dayaks, Ibans, Dusuns and Malays

And for Kenyahs, Muruts, Kayans far away

Yet all of us are gathered here today.

The fact that he remembers those lyrics even today and how name after name of persons of different races are reflected in the book speaks volumes of his view about the idea of muhibbah and perpaduan for a country like ours.

Tan Sri Leo Moggie has seen it all. I believe this is a work in progress. There are perhaps many more recollections thathe needs to record later. This is indeed a good start. Tan Sri has woven a narrative worthy of attention. With self-conscious understanding that, in an era of divisive politics and political correctness, to tell the truth isn’t easy for one can easily be misconstrued for the most harmless of statements. But Tan Sri Leo Moggie is not seeking controversy here. There is nothing controversial in fact. But telling things as it is, the Leo Moggie way, in such erudite recollections is a sure-fire way to win hearts and minds.

This book of frank, jubilant and kaleidoscopic recollections by a towering personality needs to be read by all Malaysians. 

Thank you.