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  • Editor’s Note
  • Paul H Kratoska, Editor

My path to the editorship of JMBRAS included 10 years as a member of the History Section at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang (1977–87). My colleagues at USM included Dr Cheah Boon Kheng and Dr Badriyah Haji Salleh, and one of the best aspects of becoming a member of the MBRAS Council a few years ago was the opportunity to work with them again. Sadly, both passed away during 2015, and as Boon Kheng’s successor editing the journal it has become my melancholy responsibility to organize the tributes sent in by friends and colleagues that appear in the present issue of the journal.

Boon Kheng served as a Vice President of the Society, and for nearly two decades edited the journal more or less single-handedly. He remained deeply interested in the journal and the Society throughout his final illness, and returned to his research notes to work on an interview he had conducted many years earlier with a former senior figure in the Malayan Communist Party named R. Balan, part of a planned series of interviews that was cut short owing to Balan’s death. He suggested that the material he collected be included as a feature in the journal that he inaugurated under the heading “An Article I Never Published”. Balan’s interview appears under that heading in the current issue.

Badriyah earned her PhD from Columbia University and taught social and economic history at USM after she returned to Malaysia. After she retired, she became involved with museum and heritage work, and finally returned to her home kampong in Lower Perak. In this final stage of her career, she taught courses at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris in Tanjung Malim, and managed the Madrasah Saadiah Salihiah, located in the town of Temoh. She served on the JMBRAS Council between 2004 and 2013 and helped prepare a number of manuscripts for publication in the JMBRAS monograph series and in the journal.

An organization such as the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society relies on the support and enthusiasm of people who are willing to invest their time, energy and expertise to help plan and carry out Society functions. Boon Kheng and Badriyah were key members of the MBRAS family and close friends, and we miss them. [End Page 1]

Paul H Kratoska, Editor
JMBRAS
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