A story of an unflagging spirit and quest

Memoir-writing at its best recalls and shares the warmth of a life being lived. When the author’s life has been long and observant, his or her story, especially if it is honest delineation of passing scene, can assist historical research.

Readers don’t expect memoirists to be rigorous with the facts, but they don’t want them to be cavalier either. It’s sufficient the narrative has the ring of plausibility for it to sustain attention.

When the tale has to do with engagement with the larger issues of the day, it is certain to have stuff that is compelling, provided the teller does not make himself or herself the centre of the story.

When, in addition, the narrator resists the temptation to exculpate error, discharge rancor, and settle scores, his story not only demands attention, it deserves engagement.

For displaying this assortment of excellences, ‘Memoir Perjuangan Politik Syed Husin Ali’ (Syed Husin Ali: Reminiscences of a Political Activist), is a compelling work.

Anwar Ibrahim, PKR supremo, was right to mandate its reading by the leadership and rank-and-file, for the life of Syed Husin Ali, indefatigable campaigner for social and economic justice over nearly six decades, has been a byword for ideological consistency and personal integrity, traits not exactly found in abundant supply in PKR.

Syed Husin, 75, relinquished the PKR deputy presidency this time last year, a move that was unwise for the predictable consequences it gave rise to: a divisive battle for the vacated post between rival claimants Azmin Ali and parvenu Zaid Ibrahim that exposed in the losers the ideological flakiness and shaky commitment that Syed Husin’s career is admirably free of.

In rationalising his decision to quit, an ageing Syed Husin said he needed to free time to write; presumably, party responsibilities were too onerous for him to have time left over to write.

His lean and spare prose

But if there is one thing conspicuous by its absence in his book, it is the lack of a meditative quality.

One would have thought (Syed Husin did write bits and pieces of ‘Memoir’ in whatever little free time he had while being a full-time politician) that the freed-up time he had after quitting his party post would have allowed for the coalescence of thought after a long life of engagement in the political struggles of his time.

For this congealing to occur, one has to have intellectual curiosity and philosophic depth, a yen to wander in the penumbra of thought.

It is not as if Syed Husin lacks this curiosity or depth - he is the holder of a doctorate from the London School of Economics no less.

Perhaps it is the Malay (Syed Husin is authentically Malay despite a first name - the subject of a dig by Dr Mahathir Mohamad that the author deflects with panache in the book) preference for indirection, for a mode of discourse and interaction that is not pert that constrains the examination of surfaces, the probing of depth, thus preventing reflection from congealing.

Maybe there is advantage in this in that the pace at which a story can be told is swift for its lack of mediation through reflection.

Certainly, Syed Husin’s lean and spare prose style lends itself to his fluid pace. His use of the conjunctions “akan tetapi” and “konon” (they are difficult to render in English) is ingenious in how it speeds his story along.

In fewer than 300 pages, he has told the parable of a lifetime’s engagement with the seminal issues of his times. Non-Malay readers will find his book easy to read for its pace, its use of brisk Malay, and the interestingness of the story he relates.

It is the story of a man who has been a socialist in economic matters, a stickler for standards in academic practice, a defender of democratic principles in politics, a foe of conservative and centrist complacency in the face of human suffering, and a critic of totalitarian practice.

In sum, he is a paragon for the party (PKR) he helped found and steered and which he expects to inherit the mantle of Malaysian political leadership that the left-wing cohort of his youth believe British colonialism cheated them off.

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TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them. It is the ideal occupation for a temperament that finds power fascinating and its exercise abhorrent.