A tribute

This house used to be loud and vibrant all day and night
With kids running around on rampant, with all their might
One particular girl thought her footprints looked nice on the newly-painted wall
Sent her grandfather fuming and chased her around the house until nightfall

There used to be a huge bourgenvilla tree in front of this house
Where the girl used to hide whenever she was lazy to board the school bus
Or she would hide her textbooks among the tree branches
And told her aunt the books were missing, just another I-can't-go-to-school excuses

When other girls her age would play barbie dolls and other girlie toys
She was only interested in rounders, combats or flying kites with the boys
In the afternoon, she would help her grandma cutting grass and mending the plants
Or she would climb up the jambu/rambutan/kedondong trees and got bitten by the ants

2 decades later, she hardly goes back there but never forget the sweet memory
The house itself has lost its colour and strength but never its old glory
She hopes the house will be preserved and stay within the family
This is her kampung, nothing can delete it from her life history

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I learnt alot about politics when I was at primary age due to my granddad's decades of involvement in it. At the tender age of 8, I've already read a lot of political books like Malay Dilemma and many more which titles I could not remember anymore. I was genuinely interested and was very well-versed on the topic back then.

My dad briefly joined politics too in the mid-late 80s but got disillusioned with the money-politics, back-stabbings and all the dramas involving UMNO Johor at the time (and quite a few of those from his time are ministers now) so he shied away. But my granddad stayed on and remained as a true politician who really fought for the betterment of his people till the day he retired from politics. He looked after 'orang pasar' @ the local small businesses to the point that he would lent them his personal money when they were in need although he himself already retired at the time. There were a few times when I followed him on his pasar and pasar malam rounds (we just walked from home, no flashy cars back then) and I was so proud to be 'cucu Haji Hussein' . Of course, I was happy back then because I was treated with free satay and ABC but looking back now, I realised that these people really looked up at my granddad, not as a politician, but as somebody they could really rely on.

Of course, being 'cucu Haji Hussein' had its own disadvantage... as a somebody with strong religious background, my granddad were frequently invited to teach al-quran or marhaban at my sekolah agama and being his 'cucu' I obviously had to perform and behave. Performing wasn't that hard..In fact, I frequently scored the highest in every subjects especially arabic (although the only thing I can remember now is 'jumjumatun-tengkorak'!) but behaving was another story all together. I remember one day after sekolah agama, my friends and I saw some sukun (what is it called in English?) on somebody's land near the school and decided to take some (the key word here is 'take' not 'steal' ok!). Since the fruits were too high up on the tree and we couldn't climb up, we resorted to throwing stones hoping that the fruits would drop. Unfortunately, one of the stones (and it was a big one!) went straight to the owner's house window and it broke into thousand pieces. Of course, we saved our butts and quickly ran away but the day after, the owner came to the school and told my ustazah that "cucu haji hussein pecahkan tingkap saya semalam!" Needless to say, I got a slash of rotan from my headmaster that day but because he was a good friend of my granddad, he decided to keep the incident to himself knowing that I would surely get a taste of my granddad's tongkat burung if he got to know about it!

Anyway, back to my granddad and his devotion to his passion...

During general or local elections, my granddad would personally filled in every single polling information cards for his area members and sent them himself to their homes to ensure that all members would know where to go and have all the polling details with them come the important day. He was so particular about the polling cards that I was not even allowed to help with the filling in since he said my handwriting was not legible enough for people to read. And I got sticky bright stars at school for nice writings ok!

A true politician my granddad was, he passed away last friday night, on the eve of the recent general election. Although he had retired from politics for more than 5 years before his death, I guess he is still regarded as a local legend. On the morning of his burial, people came in droves to pay their last respects including the two parlimentary and state candidates, Shahrir Samad and Adam Sumiro. It was really heartwarming to see many voters including 'orang pasar' made a detour to the house before they went to cast their votes.

Anyway, in the last few years, my granddad had only one real wish and his wish was finally granted on that fateful saturday. His body was buried just next to my grandmother's, his beloved wife, who passed away 5 years earlier. May god bless both their souls. Al-fatihah.


My grandparents with my cousin and I... somewhere in the 70s..