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MALAYSIAN DIPLOMATS: OUR STORIES

My 34 years of service in Wisma Putra which began in 1983, took me to
six countries, namely, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Finland
(where I opened the Mission), Bahrain and Republic of Ireland. I served
as the Second Secretary in Tokyo, Charge d’Af aires in Abu Dhabi, Consul
General in Jeddah and Ambassadors in Helsinki, Manama and Dublin. My
journey back home was no less interesting despite having served only in the
Political Department. I was an Assistant Secretary in the East Asia Division
when I f rst joined the service. After which, I was assigned to the Southeast
Asia Division twice as Assistant Secretary and then, Senior Assistant Secretary,
followed by the ASEAN Division where I was the Director and later on, the
Deputy Director General. I completed my f nal leg at headquarters as the
Undersecretary of Americas Division prior to my last posting to Dublin in
2014 and thereafter, my retirement at post in 2016.

Assistant Secretary Japan Desk
My f rst Senior Assistant Secretary was (the late) Mr. James Ang and
subsequently, Mr. Mohammed Muda, a.k.a Ben Muda. Not long after I
was assigned to the Desk, the then Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Yasuhiro
Nakasone was scheduled to make an of cial visit to Malaysia at the invitation
of the Government of Malaysia, by the then Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Dr.
Mahathir Mohamad, with whom I had the privilege of serving until his
retirement in 2003. I was then the Deputy Director General of the ASEAN-
Malaysia National Secretariat.

In preparation for Prime Minister Nakasone’s of cial visit to Malaysia, the
f rst hurdle was to prepare a Cabinet Paper to seek Cabinet’s approval and
to request funds from the Treasury for the visit. With no prior knowledge of
how to handle a visit, I took the bull by the horns and went around asking
my colleagues and seniors on how to go about it. To my surprise, none
of them have done it either and were not able to advise me. In the end, I
resorted to reading the f les and successfully prepared my maiden Cabinet
Paper.

With the newly introduced Look East Policy (LEP), the Japan Desk was
busy with numerous exchanges of visits. Many other related programmes too
evolved, like the 21st Century Youth Programme, JICA’s active involvement,
sending students to study in Japan and organising study tours.

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