Pak Non has left us-Farewell to a true Malaysian newsman

MALAYSIAN journalism lost a giant on Wednesday (Mar 27, 2013). Zainon Ahmad, aka Pak Non who was a key figure but less celebrated personality in the upper echelons of this country’s Fourth Estate passed away in hospital in Kelantan. He fought many a newsroom battle but lost this one against the big `C’.

Muslims do not mourn demise, secure in the knowledge that we are but mere travelers in this world. One’s time on this earth is simply transient and the length of one’s journey is finite known only to the Almighty. When one’s time is up, the angel Izrael carries out the task of unerringly and unflinchingly to the precise scripted moment. This moment is described as returning to the mercy of one’s maker – pulang ke rahmat allah. When one receives news of a death, one recites the prayer innallillah hi wainna ilaihi rojioon (from Him we come and to Him we return).

An important player he was but brash, loud or visible he was not. Pak Non stayed largely in the background and operated away from the limelight. Such was his unassuming anonymity that he never figured in some Sulu Sultan’s birthday honours list (the Kiram clan with their ongoing suicidal jaunt in Sabah just being one claimant) when it can be guaranteed, an editor or two gets ceremonially elevated.

Somehow, wearing the honorific Datuk Zainon or Datuk Seri Pak Non simply does not sit well with the man who mentored many. I never had the privilege to work under him as a newbie at the NST back in the 1990s but saw enough to make up my own mind about the existence of a political glass ceiling. Pak Non stayed above that fray and for that the beast extracted a price to pay.

A true newsman

It is widely acknowledged that he did not rise to the very top because he stayed aloof from politics and refrained from politicking. Word was that at one point he was sidelined as his allegiance did not conform to convention.

He faced tremendous trials and traipsed across plenty of tribulations in his time. One was when his employers decided to pack him off overseas, ostensibly on some kind of a busman’s holiday which saw him visiting parts of the world that some thought existed only in some kids’ wildest imagination.

This page of his employment history opened global vistas to his spirit of wanderlust. He went to conflict zones in the Philippines, Thailand and the Middle East and saw squalor in Latin America, Afghanistan and India.

In a delicious twist from perhaps someone’s moment of warped wisdom, he was somehow dispatched to the Sahara in a furtive attempt to keep him in cold storage. Looks like someone failed to notice the futility of selling fridges to Eskimos or sand to the Saudis.

From that day on, he wore the proud badge of being the first Malaysian journalist to have actually set foot in Timbuctoo, confirming every schoolboy’s pet general knowledge quiz query about the actual existence of this land forsaken, even by God.

Fond memories

As a newbie journalist, I lapped up his account of how the wily Touareg, coped building castles of sand and was fascinated by his account of life in the Malian desert.

I spoke to a fellow journalist Mimi Yusof who became staff correspondent for the NST in a northern state who could only sob in sorrow when reminiscing about her mentor. “Pak Non used to walk past my desk, often gently chiding me for staring blankly at computer monitor early in my rookie days. His admonishment was so fatherly that no one could have felt anything but moved to pull up ones socks,” she said.

Annie Freeda Cruez who now heads corporate communications at Prince Court Hospital Kuala Lumpur observed at close quarters Pak Non’s pedagogic penchant. “Being so well-travelled, he was a treasure trove of knowledge and information which he shared, regaling us with his exploits including some incredible tall tales,” she remembers fondly.

Ramlan Said, also of the NST describes the respectful deference accorded to Pak Non – Pak, short for Bapak or father – would sit unconvincingly on quite a number of other well-known elder, bemedalled and overly-celebrated journalism practitioners in this country. “Would you refer to so-and-so as Pak,” he said of one or two haughty media personality who for reasons of propriety shall remain in anonymity.

Awani Anchor Kamarul Bahrin’s – who we all respectfully refer to as Kam - memories of Pak Non is of the saccharine sweet and creamy distractions of metropolitan Manila. They once attended a four-day seminar in the Philippines where the great man introduced Kam to the sinfully sugary delights of that city’s confectionary parlours – thankfully it only features mango ice cream to die for.

More than that, Pak Non passed down his immense knowledge and wisdom, leaving a lasting imprint that has contributed to the flowering of Kam’s career.

The simple man

Pak Non is known for his mild manner and easy banter, giving as good as he got when the language can get a bit colourful in the cauldron of a steamy newsroom. He was so unlike some of his contemporaries who strode the newsroom with an air of regal aloofness. For that reason, he is simply incapable of offending anyone, even if he tried.

Chok Suat Ling, Sunday Times Editor remembers Pak Non as someone with the patience of a Saint. “He never raised his voice and goes out of his way to acknowledge the achievements of his subordinates. I felt as if floating on a cloud when he told me that he read the articles I wrote.” K H Lim who headed the business desk when Pak Non was Assistant Group Editor at the NST remarked on his Facebook posting how his refusal to kow tow to politics and single minded pursuit of newsroom independence did not go down well within certain personalities in the NST.

With the state of Malaysian journalism being where it is, perhaps Allah wanted to spare him the indignities of going through the trials and tribulations of the forthcoming General Election.

In most news organization scrapbooks, there exists a memorable picture of him interviewing Nur Misuari, Malaysia’s one-time friend turned our feckless foe who now is biting the hand that once fed him.

I dare bet that were Pak Non to still be around, taken leave of his senses and elected to stand as candidate in the forthcoming general election – for any party – that picture would be like a red rag to a horny Pamplona bull.

It would be used by some mercenary blogger purporting to call himself Mama No-Go to embark on a concerted smear campaign at character assassination. Why, he might conjure up fishy evidence uncovering wiered sexual proclivities or strange closeted tendencies and therefore unfit to lead fellow Muslims in prayer.

Pak Non was an indefatigable campaigner for press freedom and was a leading light in the push for the creation of a Press Council. His was an unfinished quest that would elevate the industry by removing elements that hampers the discharge of journalistic duties.

That fervent wish is unfulfilled – perhaps a marker for the young journalists of today to continue the quest to continue what would be Pak Non’s greatest legacy.

In this age of concerted effort at nation building and the frenzy of hitching everything to the 1Malaysia tag, Pak Non’s cosmopolitan upbringing is a model that deserves emulating.

He grew up amongst Indians where he picked up Tamil and attended missionary school where he sang hyms with gusto. He could recite popular passages from the Psalms without making him or his family any less of a Muslim. It would not have escaped anyone that at 70, Pak Non lived right up the biblical limit of three score years and ten.

Among the steady stream of obituaries that flowed following the sad news of his demise was one from our Prime Minister. Perhaps in this climate of generosity and unfettered largesse, Pak Non’s legacy would somehow be given posthumous recognition. Not that it would have mattered to him even when he was alive.

Farewell Pak Non; Innallillah, May Allah Bless Your Soul.