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On His Majesty’s

Service

Abdullah Faiz Zain

“Travelling - it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller”.
Ibn Battuta

My odyssey began 40 years ago the day I knocked on the doors of the
Ministry of Foreign Af airs on 1 December 1981. Armed with a degree in
Ecology from University of Malaya and not International Relations or Law,
I was fresh out of a year’s Diploma in Public Administration course and was
ready to join Public Service as a diplomat.

T e story I am about to relate is but one of the many “misadventures” I had
as a diplomat, and more so as a serving ambassador. I was privileged to be
posted as ambassador to three countries, each unique in its own perspective,
but sharing a common trait – all were post conf ict countries. T e dictum
“An Ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country” by
Henry Wotton comes to mind.

We have embassies designated as hard posts where family members are left
behind in Malaysia for security and safety reasons such as Libya, North Korea
and Mali (both closed). Except for Chile, my two other ambassadorial posts
in Timor-Leste and Yemen were without my family. Missing all the family
anniversaries and birthdays was no fun. My daughter, Ayra, was three when
I was in Timor-Leste and about ten when I was about to retire in Yemen.
T ese are some of the many sacrif ces an ambassador or a diplomat has to
make unknown to the public.

T e People’s Republic of Timor-Leste
I was posted as Malaysia’s f rst Ambassador to Timor-Leste a year after its

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