News In Memoriam Razak : Man who stuck to his guns 
| Razak : Man who stuck to his guns |
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| Contributed by Haji Sulaiman Abdullah | |
| Sunday, 12 August 2007 06:30pm | |
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From Allah we come and to Allah is our return. I would like to thank the MBW for his dedication to his job and for informing us of this sad event so quickly after it happened. Yeo Yang Poh is absolutely spot on in his assessment of Razak. In 1966 I was in my 2nd year law at the University of Singapore. I was with others in my class waiting for a lecture to begin in NLT 1. It was election time for USSU. So, we were not too surprised when a few election candidates came into the lecture hall to canvass for votes. Among them was Chan Kean Hin, 3rd Year Law, Gurdial Singh Nijar, 2nd Year Law, Peter Yip, then an Economics student, and Abdul Razak Ahmad, Final Year Law. Now, in those days the SU Law Faculty had a fearsome slaughter rate in its various exams. Razak was one of those rare birds, a student from "The Federation" as up-country Malayans were then known, and he was in the Final Year Law without having had to repeat any year!
And so we voted them in......Nijar, Kean Hin, Peter and Razak. And that year, D.P Vijendran, big gun in the Union, had returned from a State Department sponsored stay in the USA and he came back full of enthusiasm over the US Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King and, yes, "WE Shall Overcome!" DP introduced that song to the Union and he persuaded the Union to go on a campaign to restore University Autonomy. So, persuaded by DP's practised advocacy the students marched around the Bukit Timah campus singing, "We shall overcome!" and then went back to their books convinced that they had done enough. But according to the Singapore Government authorities Peter, Nijar, Kean Hin and Razak had gone on to stir the Nanyang students and others and there was a massive protest outside City Hall where Kuan Yew's office was with students demanding autonomy. The Singapore Govt's re-action was dramatic and drastic; Kean Hin, Razak, Nijar and Peter were banished from Singapore. All of them were academically quite bright. And what a sacrifice! Shortly thereafter the Home Affairs Ministry in Singapore discovered that Chan Kean Hin, unlike the other 3, was a Singapore citizen and so his banishment was revoked. He went on to pass all his exams and get called to the Singapore Bar only to die tragically in Malaysia when the helicopter he was in crashed returning from Genting. Peter and Nijar were not allowed back to sit for their exams. They then went to London and qualified at the English Bar. Razak was not allowed back for his Final Year lectures. But he was allowed in to sit for his Finals. He had studied on his own. And he passed. And never in the 41 years since did I hear Razak or Peter or Nijar say one word against anyone who had not stood by them in their hour of need. And never did Razak flinch from his chosen mission of standing up for the poor, the oppressed and the voiceless in society. So many times he could have taken the easy road and given up the struggle. But he was always true to his conscience right till the end. And he never told you about his sufferings. He never hinted at the sacrifices he had made for what he thought to be right. I could have written all this while he was alive in reply to the Bar Website interview with him. But I knew that his innate modesty would have flinched at all I have to say. And now he has gone and I can say it. Farewell, my friend. I salute you and your sacrifices. Yes, you have shown a batch of 2nd year kids you meant every word you said about sacrifice. And you showed it every day of your life after that! Forgive us. Thank you, Razak, Allah bika. Comments (5)
CHAN'S BANISHMENT 'AN EMBARRASSMENT'
written by Stephen Tan Ban Cheng, Sunday, August 12 2007 08:57 pm
My dear Tuan Haji Sulaiman
Al-Fatihah
written by Abdul Fareed Bin Abdul Gafoor, Sunday, August 12 2007 10:37 pm
Al-Fatihah....semoga Allah SWT mencucuri rahmatNya keatas roh Allahyarham SWT.
Dedication to Allahyarham Razak...
written by Justin Johari Bin Azman, Monday, August 13 2007 02:24 pm
Tariq bin Shihab reported: I heard the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) say: "Whoever, amongst you, sees something abominable should rectify it with his hand; and if he has not strength enough to do it, then he should do it with his tongue; and if he has not strength enough to do it, (even) then he should (abhor it) from his heart, it being the lowest degree of faith." (Bukhari/Muslim)
~Al-Fatihah~ written by Sarah Binti Mohd Zakaria, Tuesday, August 14 2007 10:11 pm
"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a well-spent life brings happy death." ~Leonardo Da Vinci~ Write comment
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"And never did Razak flinch from his chosen mission of
standing up for the poor, the oppressed and the voiceless in society. So many
times he could have taken the easy road and given up the struggle. But he was
always true to his conscience right till the end. And he never told you about
his sufferings. He never hinted at the sacrifices he had made for what he
thought to be right."
So, while we could understand people like Nijar or Kean Hin
standing for the Students Union no way could we see Razak risking his Finals for
the sake of serving his fellow students! We put it to him, we brave 2nd years
taking on a lofty Final Year student, "Aaaiy Razak, come onlah, you not going to
sacrifice your Final Year for the Union, what?" (As you can see we hardly spoke
the English of Lee Kuan Yew!) And Razak silenced us by saying, "Yes, I am
prepared to sacrifice my Final Year if that is what is needed to serve you
properly!"
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Circular No 297/2008
My dear Tuan Haji Sulaiman
That was a salutary eulogy for a departed fellow student.
As a fellow Penangite and a fellow Malaysian, and as someone who has never met the late Abdul Razak Ahmad but have lived through his many escapades and known of some of his many trials and tribulations, I respect you for what you have had to say of this true blue but definitely unsung Malaysian patriot who never asked for anything for himself while he nobly went through a life time of sacrifice.
It is very bad and very sad that the late Abdul Razak Ahmad was never allowed to visit Singapore despite the passage of so many years and despite his appeals to the authorities.
The thought that strikes me is this: Teresa Teng, that popular Taiwan-born singer of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, shared a similar predicament. Plans for her to perform concerts throughout mainland China in 1992 were already in place when the Beijing authorities discovered that she had joined a Nationalist or Kuomintang organisation. That permission was suspended pending an investigation.
The asthmatic singing icon, however, died while holidaying in Chiangmai, Thailand, three years later on May 8, 1995 at the age of 42 - without ever landing in China all because the investigations were still in progress!
The Minister of Culture of the People's Republic of China, Mr Liu Zhongde, in an interview on Aug 3 last year about his six-year term as a Cabinet Minister from 1992 till 1998, expressed as one of his regrets this failure to get Teresa Teng to perform in China. To me, Mr Liu has a heart big enough to state this.
I wonder whether the Singapore authorities will find sufficient nobility of spirit to express regret for their decision to maintain the ban on the late Abdul Razak Ahmad visiting Singapore and catching up with his friends and fellow students. Maybe, I am asking for too much.
Stephen Tan Ban Cheng