Zubir Said, the Composer of Majulah Singapura

Preface

Zubir Said passed away on 16 November 1987 at the age of 80 years. In 1928, at the young age of 21, with only the shirt on his back and a clean towel, he left Sumatra and crossed the seas to make his home in Singapore. For almost 60 years, Singapore was haven for him as he lived and worked by the adage “where the sky above I uphold, the earth beneath I tread”. His dedication and loyalty to his adopted country were unwavering. From being a violinist in the bangsawan, a form of Malay opera, to being a music icon in Singapore, he traversed through life building milestone after milestone, creating a personal history that leaves trails of achievements and legacies. He was a man who left little else but an unblemished character and reputation. He was a man who died leaving his name like the tiger that died leaving its stripes, as the Malay proverb says. His name is, above all, associated with the stirring national anthem of Singapore. He was well-known as a champion of Malay music, the arts and culture that is unadulterated. He once quoted his sentiment as that of Confucius, saying “I am not one who was born in possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity and earnest in seeking it there.” This book is about the life and struggle of a man who was insatiable in his search for knowledge — any knowledge — who loved tradition and had a great respect for time-honoured customs and virtues. Zubir Said’s life was cloaked in unpretentious modesty. Coming from humble beginnings, totally self-driven all his life, humility and simplicity became second nature to him. He empathized with the less fortunate and the less educated as he himself was. A very significant driving force behind his work was his desire to pass on as much knowledge as he could to these people, especially the young. This is the story of an extraordinary man charting many facets in his life with total commitment, courage, enthusiasm and candid humour in difficult as well as in good times: a life that was strewn and enriched with his jubilations and his disappointments. He accepted his limits and had gone beyond them. Preface xi rb111313_iseas_zubir_layout_prelims_v5a.indd 11 17/9/12 2:21 PM In 1992, I took early retirement from the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, with the noble intention of devoting my time to writing my father’s biography. But procrastination took over for many years I’m ashamed to admit, being caught up in the web of my busy life. When my mother passed away in 2007 in Johor Bahru, I had the sad and painful task of sorting out her belongings. Among these were six boxes of my father’s paraphernalia. I brought them to Kuala Lumpur and for the next two years I sifted through the enormous volume of materials that belonged to Papa and organized them in some kind of order: files and files of correspondence, newspaper clippings, music scores, 23 reels of oral history tapes conducted by the National Archives of Singapore, books, old receipts, his log books, his medals and other awards, his favourite pipes and innumerable photographs and some gramophone records. The task was not without its problems because of missing pages in some of his academic papers; some letters were undated, but generally, Papa, being a stickler for discipline, had left enough materials for me to venture to recreate his chequered life into some semblance of his personal history. For example, most of the time he had carbon copies — photocopying was not in vogue then — of letters he received and replied to. I was very aware that I was duty bound to write my father’s biography. It is an honour and a privilege. I have never written a narration before; only academic papers. I had no inkling where to begin, until one day I happened to mention to Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam what I was doing and that I wanted to look for a publisher. He instantly and kindly contacted Ambassador K. Kesavapany, then Director of ISEAS (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) in Singapore. Mr Kesavapany lost no time in e-mailing me and the rest is history. I felt comfortable that the book would be published by ISEAS of Singapore because Papa had dedicated his entire life to Singapore, and the island state had honoured him in many ways. xii rb111313_iseas_zubir_layout_prelims_v5a.indd 12...