刘泰安思维录 (Thoughts of Ir Lau Tai Onn): A Memorable Meetup With Respectable Seniors

Newswav article December 7, 2022

https://newswav.com/A2212_PibsIc?s=A_k6eFYn7&fbclid=IwAR0gw0jFZiC7nfjDkfCFj9ihFe3gubVk_EDxiUD8r_N5O45g11SrNsV6gWg

By: Lau Tai Onn (freelance writer / retired engineer)

Pic (L): Chin, Dennis, Aw, Lau

I had the honour of making the acquaintance of a retired businessman hailed from Kelantan Mr. Aw Eng Sun, who is 15 years my senior, in a social chat group a couple of years ago.

Through our interactions, I learned that his son Tash Aw is a very successful English writer now living in London. He is a winner of many internationally acclaimed book prizes and is considered the most successful Malaysian writer of recent years.

Little wonder, like his son, Mr. Aw writes elegant English and I often need to refer to the dictionary in order to understand the stylish words or phrases he wrote. He is multilingual including the Chinese language and currently writes for Newswav using the pen name of “Oyang Sen” which is actually the Mandarin pronunciation of his name. He is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging me to write for Newwav too.

Sometimes in August last year, I read about the impending publication of a book entitled “PARADISE LOST: Mahathir & The End of Hope” written by former Malaysian diplomat Dennis Ignatius. I was interested to write something about this book for my weekly column in the Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau (NYSP).

It so happened that Dennis Ignatius is a tennis buddy of Aw. No sooner had I told Aw about my intention than he approached Dennis who was so kind as to promptly courier a copy of his autographed book to my house on September 1, 2021.

The book “PARADISE LOST:” was officially launched by Mohamed Tawfik Tun Dr. Ismail on September 9, 2022 in a webinar called “Umno Redux: What Next for Malaysia” in the presence of distinguished panel speakers like Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, Prof. Mohd. Tajuddin Rasdi and Prof. James Chin alongside with the author.

(Refer: https://www.facebook.com/malaysianalcms/videos/284432033113900 )

My short review of the book was eventually written and published in NYSP on September 14, 2021. (Refer: https://www.enanyang.my/%E8%A8%80%E8%AE%BA/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%B1%E4%B9%90%E5%9B%AD%E9%A9%AC%E5%93%88%E8%BF%AA%E4%B8%8E%E5%B8%8C%E6%9C%9B%E7%9A%84%E7%BB%88%E7%BB%93%E3%80%8B%E7%9F%AD%E8%AF%84%E5%88%98%E6%B3%B0%E5%AE%89 )

Briefly, Datuk Dennis Ignatius is a retired career diplomat of 36 years in the Malaysian Foreign Service, having served in London, Beijing and Washington and appointed ambassador to Chile and Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay, and High Commissioner to Canada. He retired from the foreign service in June 2008 and is presently a foreign policy consultant and columnist for Asia Sentinel, The Star, Malaysiakini, Free Malaysia Today and many other media portals.

The book “PARADISE LOST” takes a critical look at two-time former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s role in Malaysia’s political evolution and his ultimately destructive legacy of corruption, racism and religious extremism.

All this while I had neither met nor spoke to Aw in person although we regularly exchanged messages via WhatsApp. One day, he proposed a meetup with me at the Royal Lake Club, Kuiala Lumpur on October 22, 2021. He would arrange for Dennis Ignatius to join us after the latter’s tennis game.

As Aw suggested for me to bring along another friend, preferably a writer, for the occasion, I contacted a longtime friend cum fellow member of the Standing Committee on Information and Publications of The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM) Ir. Chin Mee Poon, who is 7 years my senior. He gracefully accepted my invitation to come along.

Chin is a retired civil engineer and after retirement he travels extensively with his wife covering more than 100 countries. He is an avid writer and passionate photographer having contributed articles and photos to many newspapers and magazines since his schooling days. He also occasionally writes for NYSP these days. .He is also a publisher and has so far published six nos. of his own travel story books and a memoir of himself, not to mention sponsoring the book publication of several local Chinese writers.

So on Friday morning, October 22, 2021 at the Royal Lake Club, K.L., I had the great pleasure of meeting three respectable seniors, two of them for the first time.

Chin bought the book “PARADISE LOST” from Dennis and obtained his autograph on the spot.

Chin presenting a IEM's book to Dennis

Meanwhile, I arranged the presentation of two complimentary copies of the IEM’s publication “Engineering Heritage of Malaysia” (with Ir. Chin as the editor) as well as the July 2020 issue of the IEM monthly bulletin JURUTERA (in which there was an article written by me) as a gift to Dennis and Aw.

We had a very pleasant chit-chat for almost 3 hours with Dennis doing the talking most of the time. He was very talkative and eloquently shared with us many interesting political inside stories and thought-provoking viewpoints on the current affairs. My two other respectable friends also chipped in and shared their knowledge and experience making the entire session very enjoyable.