A Reporter’s Memoir: NO HARD FEELINGS

In Gedungku, memories are made of this…

I just met a girl named Hidayah Amin, or Cik Idah in short, who possesses the three Ps – passionate, persistent and plucky or rather pushy, depending on one’s frame of mind – in great abundance.

With such drive, she has obviously been to places; National University of Singapore, Fulbright scholar at LeHigh University, an internship at the United Nations, and currently a graduate student in Cambridge University, to mention just a few.

Her professor at Cambridge mentioned me by name, and that was the start that led us to meet at Wardah Bookshop in Bussorah Street to exchange views and books.

I presented to her my No Hard Feelings memoir (2^nd print 2009) and she, in turn, gave me her Gedung Kuning Memories of a Malay Childhood which was published last year.

Like me, she too felt compelled to tell her story. Unlike me, she managed to get others including the Singapore Heritage Society on board her personal project.

The result is a highly readable and well-produced book, with glossaries of Malay and Javanese words, maps and references that place her subject in the larger context of the culture and history of Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Her family saga began with the arrival of Haji Mohamed Noor Bin Haji Ali who relocated to Singapore from Solo, Java, in the late 19^th century to set up a food business.

It was his son, Singapore-born Haji Yusoff who built the family’s fortune based on songkok (caps) and tali pinggang (belts) and became one of the pillars of the Malay-Muslim society, noted for both his business acumen and his philanthropic activities in and around Kampung Glam.

When Gedung Kuning was put on sale by the descendants of Sultan Hussein in 1912, her maternal great grandfather, Haji Yusoff, wasted no time in buying over this historic building, which is adjacent to the Istana Kampung Glam, for his two wives and their children.

Cik Idah is the fourth generation. She was born and grew up in Gedung Kuning, together with other descendants of Haji Yusoff until the government took it over under the Land Acquisition Act in 1999 to turn it into a Heritage Centre. It is now known as the Tepak sireh restaurant.

Despite protests, the government stood by its decision to compensate the family only $3.6 million for the 13,254 sq. feet stately mansion, which by today’s property prices, looks like daylight robbery.

Obviously, she was peeved at being turned out of her home. But her loss is our gain as it made her conscious of her heritage, and propelled her to want to share that legacy with readers in 28 simple, short stories on growing up in Gedung Kuning.

From such humble materials as a mango tree, nenek (grandmother), emak (mother) and ambin (raised platform), she manages to pull them together into a vivid account of how one girl looks at the life around her.

Through her eyes, we get a glimpse, not only of her family’s contribution, but also the Malay-Muslim way of life that revolves around Islamic festivals and rituals, customs, traditions, fears and prejudices.

At another level, hers is not an unfamiliar story. It is a recurring theme in Malay-Muslim society that the first one or two generation built the wealth, and the succeeding generations lived off the patrimony and squabbled over wills and legal suits and untrustworthy trustees.

In the case of this family, there is at least the hope that Cik Idah might be able to resuscitate, if not the family’s fortune, at least its good name.

The story of Cik Idah, the girl with the 3Ps, will hopefully inspire other Singaporean, especially Malay girls and also the boys, to rev up their drive and pursue their goals with greater focus and determination.

The downside, of course, is that you may be called names, and as she confessed to me on that hot afternoon in the bookshop, a top Malay PAP leader conferred on her another ‘P’ when he called her a pest. I assume it was said half out of exasperation and half in jest.

Given the scarcity of literature in English on the Singapore Malays, I consider her book a valuable addition.

I find particularly the many old photos from the family album reprinted in the book as a visual treat of a way of life long gone by; among them is one showing retired Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, garlanded, and with a black Malay songkok precariously perched on his head, on a visit to Kampung Glam.

I hope that Gedung Kuning will inspire other Malays to pen their stories. You don’t need to be at the pinnacle of your career or be a household figure before you start writing. Like Cik Idah, everybody can also do it.

Some years ago a group of Malay graduates including myself got together to plan a memoir of a generation, with everyone contributing a piece. But it never got off ground as only one member responded.

I still hope that the project can be revived and I am still prepared to play my part to bring it to fruition.

Ismail Kassim

12 October 2011

P/S: Gedung Kuning is available at Wardah and selected bookshops. Wardah, which has a fine selection of books on Sufism, has also started to stock my NO Hard Feelings memoir.

The bookshop is owned by the family of the late Ahmad Ibrahim, Singapore’s first Attorney General and one of the sharpest legal minds. It is now managed by his grandson, Ibrahim.