Writing again on the blog - and the Passing of Syed Hussein Al Attas (1928 -2007)

Hello dear readers,
Firstly, I would like to apologise for not having updated this blog for more than one month. Too many things had happened from the time I wrote my last entry until now. Though many of the problems that cropped up are solved, there are still certain matters which may only find a resolution with the passage of time. But I see myself as facing this new year with a more introspective outlook. And hopefully, I will be more regular with my updates after this. Part of the problem stem from my no longer having an office-bound job, and it also means less idle hours when I have nothing to do yet am "chained" to the front of my desk by the fact that I was a fulltime employee. As a freelancer, I move around a lot, meet people more and do a larger variety of things in one day which also means, unfortunately, a lot less time to write anything that's not work related. More than half the time, I'm not even in front of my computer.

I'll like to begin this year's post by remembering the death of Syed Hussein Alattas, who was a great intellectual and scholar, and former vice-chancellor of Malaysia's oldest university. He died on the 23rd January 2007 and was buried on 24th Jan 2007. Maybe not many people know about him but he was one of the stalwarts that kept Malaysia's intellectual climate from dying a painful death, even as much of the victory is on the side of the philistines (I may sound snobbish for saying this). If you were to look at my blog's archives, from March 2006, you will be able to see a review of some of the last discussions we had had with him. It is indeed shameful that the rest of the country had forgotten about this man, and to think that the former Prime Minister only visited him now, after his death, when little was done to recognize him in his lifetime. I remember, when I spoke to him a few weeks back, after almost a year from our last meeting, he mentioned a host of work he intended to do, some writing he wanted to do. I am not sure if he ever started on anything prior to his heart attack. It is sad if he had not, because this man is an institutional history himself. You can and may disagree with his arguments at times, or even with his analysis. But one will still respect them because of their refusal to go the way of empty rhetorics and simplistic, falsifiable logic.


As I am currently working on a project of which his influence will be pervasive, and I hope to do something else smaller that will help me remember the egalitarian legacy of this man, a legacy that seemed to have been forgotten with his passing. There is another man with the same man, who is almost half his age, who is prominent in this country. But not the original one, any longer.

Here is a link to the news-story of his passing

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=243018