A tribute to a people’s politician

DURING the 2008 general elections, I was working with PKR, in the office of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

My office mates at the time included Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Sim Tze Tzin, and Nurul Izzah Anwar. All three contested in the elections.

Not a lot of people were that interested in contesting under the PKR banner then. I remember the atmosphere was one where people were almost asking semi-random people who came by the office: “Do you want to contest? No? How about you then?”

With most people of any substance contesting and campaigning all over the country, there were only a few of us who were not contesting that were left behind to take care of the office and party headquarters.

The man in charge of this small team was Dr Syed Husin Ali – who very sadly passed away a little after midnight yesterday, June 29.

This period of time was probably the closest I worked with Dr Syed, which for me as a true privilege and pleasure.

He was deputy president of the party at the time, a post he had held since his party Parti Rakyat Malaysia had merged with Parti Keadilan Nasional, and had contested (and lost) many elections previously – notably in Petaling Jaya, where our office was based.

Nobody was predicting big successes for the Opposition in 2008, and Dr Syed figured he would take a break and sit this one out.

So Dr Syed, myself, my friend Amita, and a few others were based daily at the office, while the rest of the party leaders were all over the country.

We wrote and sent out press statements, and “pioneered” mass SMS spamming, which involved my sister and her friends going around town buying up all the prepaid credit we could get our hands on.

I remember one instance in which I thought I was correcting a typo in a draft of Dr Syed’s press statement - I was about to change “umno” to “Umno”. Dr Syed said something like: “No, keep it as ‘umno’, this is psychological warfare.”

This quip remains a fond memory of one of my earliest lessons in political communication.

Through my time working with him, I managed to understand what a true scholar, activist, and gentleman Dr Syed was.

Hopefully many others who know his work better will give better accounts than I can of his time as an activist who worked tirelessly for decades to better the lives of the most downtrodden Malaysians.

A dedicated socialist, his concerns – whether as an academic or a politician – were always for the welfare of the poor.

Emeritus Prof Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Embong penned an obituary in which he talks about Dr Syed’s work with the struggle of Hamid Tuah and the landless people of Selangor in the 1960s as well as with urban pioneers, the rural folks of Baling in Kedah, and with student activists.

I read his memoir of the period he was detained under the Internal Security Act, Dua Wajah (Two Faces), which I found to be a moving account of a time that was hard not just for himself, but for his family as well, who have sacrificed much alongside Dr Syed himself. I hope they will come through this final difficult time intact and surrounded by love and support.

In various chat groups over the weekend, people paid tribute to Dr Syed’s kindness, and his support for younger students and activists. Among his students and mentees was one Anwar Ibrahim.

On election day in 2008, I remember going to vote in the morning and then coming home to rest after what had been a tiring campaign. As I recall, I spent that afternoon fairly nonchalantly, playing Call of Duty on the computer.

I figured maybe we would win a few seats here and there, and business would continue more or less the same as it had previously.

Then at some point in the night, Dr Syed called me: “Time to get back to work, we’re taking over Selangor,” he said.

I think we must have met at the office, as I have some recollection of travelling together from there to Anwar’s house in Segambut in Kuala Lumpur in Dr Syed’s car. We arrived to an electric atmosphere, and the advent of what was later called a political tsunami.

It would be understandable if Dr Syed felt a little bit of what I guess kids today call “Fomo” – fear of missing out. The Petaling Jaya seat which he had contested quite a few times recently was won in a landslide.

But Dr Syed was always a man of dignified grace. He wasn’t in this game for fame or fortune or position. He cared about Malaysia, and he cared about Malaysians.

When called upon to serve, he served – and he did so with a steadfast commitment to the principles of social justice. He did not waver, and he never lost sight of what was truly important.

He was not a man to shout or scream; as an academic, he looked for the truth, and he built all his years of activism and political work on those truths.

We will all miss him dearly, and can only hope that we find the strength to be half as committed as he was to doing what was right for Malaysia.

Nathaniel Tan is a strategic communications consultant who works with Projek #BangsaMalaysia. He can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.