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I would like, as Chairman of the Fund Raising Dinner Organising Committee, on behalf of the Tun Suffian Foundation Incorporated, thank the many who made the Inaugural Fund Raising Dinner on Friday, 28 April 2006, a resounding success. The late Tun Suffian is obviously well loved and well revered for his timeless judicial qualities.

Naysayers notwithstanding, the Tun Suffian Foundation Inaugural Dinner received a positive and wonderful response with donations amounting to over RM600,000.00. (Please click here to view the picture gallery and click here to download the Souvenir Book for the Dinner)

The Judiciary, the Bar, the Attorney General’s Chambers and the public responded magnificently to the letter of appeal of YAB Tun Dzaiddin the Chairman of the Foundation and to the personal chivying of the members of the Dinner Committee! When The Sunday Star 16 April 2006 ran a delightful article by Chelsea Ng on the reasons for holding the dinner and on the need for the highly esteemed qualities of the Tun Suffian to be emulated especially by the young that article and a later article by Giam in The Sun struck a chord in many. Donations started flowing in. Many outside the Pantai Valley also responded and the Dinner Committee had in fact to open a few more tables on dinner day itself with over RM50,000.00 in donations pledged just before the dinner.

To those members of the Judiciary, the Bar, the Attorney General’s Chambers and to the public who had magnificently responded with their donations the sincere thanks of the Tun Suffian Foundation.

That the response was so magnificent was in no small measure due to the royal presence of His Royal Highness Sultan Raja Azlan Shah and Her Royal Highness Tuanku Bainun. His Royal Highness, a former Lord President, another worthy and highly respected Lord President, helmed the highly respected Judiciary after Tun Suffian. The Foundation thanks His Royal Highness and Her Royal Highness for their gracious royal presence and for the spontaneous donation by His Royal Highness of RM50,000.00 during the course of the dinner. It was so generous.

On the royal table as befitted the occasion was Tun Dzaiddin a former Chief Justice and his wife. Also there were former Lord President Tun Salleh and Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Siti Norma and their spouses together with the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, Tan Sri Steve Shim. We had Lord Millet a former Lord Justice of the House of Lords and his wife with the Vice Chairman of the Bar Council Ms. Ambiga Sreenevasan as guests of honour on the next table. We thank all our honoured guests for their gracious presence.

The planning for the dinner took many months with endless meetings. The pace become frenetic with twice a week meetings in the last month leading to the dinner.

Dato’ Shaik Daud, Datin Dr. Liew Yin Mei, Professor Khaw Lake Tee and myself (as Chairman), trustees of the Foundation, were appointed as members of the Fund-Raising Dinner Committee, and we in turn co-opted Dato’ Dr. Yaacob Hussain Merican and his wife Tunku Dato’ Sofiah Jewa, also trustees, into the Committee.

We were fortunate when Tan Sri Siti Norma Chief Judge of Malaya graciously came on board early part of our planning and spent many afternoons with us contributing her experience and giving insights into what could and what should not be done. The good response from the Judiciary and the retired Judges and the Attorney General’s Chambers is entirely her effort. We thank her for being an indispensable mentor to our Committee.

We unreservedly thank the Bar Council for their unstinting support and for allowing us the use of their secretarial services. Fortunately we had Ms Catherine Eu to manage the incredible number of details for such a dinner with her usual depth of knowledge and experience and her enormous patience.

One of the biggest headaches leading to the dinner was the planning of who sits on which table and with whom and which table goes where. We had the vivacious and cool Ms Lee Chooi Peng, among others including the ushers helping out the night of the dinner. The planning helped even if there were last minute changes and fortunately there were just a few bruised sensibilities and some crushed toes that night! Catherine Eu deserves our thanks unreservedly and we also thank Ms Lynette Tan and Ms Chandrika and Ms Lee Chooi Peng and the ushers for ably assisting her.

We are also grateful to Mr Roger Tan of the Bar Council itself who gave willingly of his time and at great expense his expertise in photography and his writing skills. He worked on and edited the Souvenir Book for the dinner. It is about Tun Suffian with poignant recollections by many on Tun Suffian and his greatness as a Judge and his innate humility. There is a quiet but thoughtful article by Roger Tan reproduced from The New Sunday Times of 2 April 2006 which also bears reading. Many have commended the book and we should print more for distribution especially for law students and graduates.

The Committee requested for young lawyers to help out. We were more than fortunate when Mr Richard Wee and Mr Will Fung joined us. We never knew what hit us! These young lawyers had terrific enthusiasm, great ideas and were on high octane drive. They spent a lot of their precious time away from their office and cheerfully took on the more onerous duties from the older members of the Committee. They were in the thick of things. Grateful indeed are we to them. They teamed up with Roger Tan (as Chairman) on the Publicity, Souvenir Book, Power Point Presentation and the Caricature Sub-Committee and sifted through countless photographs in the possession of Tunku Dato’ Dr. Hjh Sofiah and produced a simple but moving presentation on Tun Suffian, Toh Puan Bunny, his achievements and his last days. There were many who quietly wiped away their tears. We thank the young lawyers, ably assisted by Ms Chan Wen Lee, for their wise selection of photographs and for the appropriate accompanying music.

This Sub-Committee complemented the Banquet and Hotel Matters Sub-Committee under the leadership of Dato’ Seri Visu Sinnadurai. That we had excellent cuisine served us with impeccable hotel service was in no more measure due to Dato’ Visu’s refined tastes and his great rapport with the Hotel Management and staff. We are greatly indebted to him and his team.

Ms June Lee our Secretary deserves a very special thank you. She was the one who sent out the letters of appeal for donations, toted up the donations, wrote innumerable minutes and receipts and who kept us reminded of what had been stated in earlier meetings. She was really efficient and nary a complaint from her although her precious office time was being eaten into.

The maestro for the evening was the inimitable Norina Yahya of TV fame. Beautiful diction. Calm voice. Directing effortlessly the flow of the events that evening as the dinner glided seamlessly into the night till 11.30pm when it should have ended at 11.00pm! To the busy and gracious lawyer and TV personality our heartfelt thanks for the flawless timing and for taking off time almost every week for our sometimes lackluster meetings!

Reggie Lee the well known cartoonist put RM50,000.00 into our kitty when the caricature of Tun Suffian which he sketched was taken up by silent auction that night. The man modestly said, “This is my way of contributing back to society and to keep the legacy of this great judge alive.” (Sunday Star, 30 April 2006) Reggie Lee’s contribution will be remembered for a long time and we hope copies of the caricature will hang in our law office. Thank you Reggie Lee.

The String Quartet, courtesy of Mr Dennis Lau, provided the ambience of a truly relaxing evening and our thanks also go to Mr Lau and his Quartet for the soothing and relaxed dinner that night.

Electrifying was the grand entrance of dazzling Joanne Yeoh with her virtuoso performance with the electric violin. Most in the hall wanted to hear more but she, it will be remembered, said “Time is of the essence!”, no doubt mindful that other events were waiting in the wings. Our grateful thanks to Joanne (in spite of the fact we did not have enough of her) for donating her precious time.

To the Reluctant Performers, what a show! As Lord Millet remarked. “They are remarkably talented!” I was worried when I approached Sheena, Karen and Sonia for the Reluctant Performance to appear at our dinner. Sheena consulted her team and the team graciously agreed to give a show in spite of their busy work life. They did it gratis too. They even returned money which we provided for their out of pocket expenses! What a cerebral show and how so devastatingly clever! Thank you so very, very much! What a fitting end to the nights with guffaws aplenty!

To Seh Lih and her team from SUHAKAM and the Law Faculty the unreluctant ushers thank you for your tact, patience and of course the gracious manners. So also our thank to Alisa of Hotel Shangri-la and her team for the extremely well managed dinner service, hotel lights and sounds.

We would be remiss in our duty if we did not thank Meor Azmi (YA Tan Sri Siti Norma’s son) for helping to record the events digitally. We must not forget Puteri Fateh Arina, granddaughter of Dato’ Yaacob Merican and Dato’ Sofian who presented a bouquet of flowers to Her Royal Highness Tuanku Bainun on behalf of the Foundation.

I may have missed mentioning some person or other who helped us and I do apologise for the omission.

With the generous dinner donations and what the Foundation had earlier collected, again through generous donations, the Foundation will hopefully be able to establish The Tun Suffian Research Centre at the UM Law Faculty Library soon to benefit all undergraduates and we can certainly make a start to finance one candidate to pursue a Master’s Programme at Cambridge.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Sincerely,

K. C. Vohrah
Chairman of Fund Raising Committee
on behalf of the Committee and the
Tun Suffian Foundation Incorporated.

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