Remembering National Literati Usman Awang

Last night, I was invited as a guest of honour to the launch of Turunnya Sebuah Bendera, a Malay-language collection of short stories written by National Literati Usman Awang (1929 - 2001). At the KL Central Market where the launch was held, I met some old personal friends of the late Usman Awang (left) like Lee Ban Chen, Tan Kai Hee, Dr. M.K. Rajakumar and another National Literati, A. Samad Said.

According to Mr. Tan (pix above, second from left), who is now a successful businessman and also the Honorary Secretary of the Malaysia-China Friendship Association, he and his generation of progressive Chinese were inspired by the humanist personality and inclusivist outlook of Usman Awang to learn the Malay language as early as 1950s and 1960s without being forced by anyone. He recalled that Usman Awang also encouraged the translation of progressive works of modern Chinese literature into the Malay language.

Dr. Rajakumar, also speaking in Malay, said that his friendship with Usman Awang was so close that he treated the latter's daughter Lyna "almost" as his own, especially since both of her parents passed away. Lyna Usman Awang (left) was also present to share her thoughts about her father whose most well-known nom de plume was Tongkat Warrant.

Lee Ban Chen (pix above, left), an ex-editor of the Sin Chew Jit Poh and a veteran Chinese educationist with Dong Jiao Zong (DJZ), now writes Malay-language columns in the online malaysiakini. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, while he was detained without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for leading strikes of plantation workers, he had already written a book on modern philosophy in Malay.

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