Growing Up To Tell The Truth

The Memoirs

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The son of Syed Jaafar Albar, known as The Lion of UMNO, an inveterate figure in the nationalist politics of pre- and post- independence Malaya/Malaysia, Syed Hamid Albar grew into politics from the experience of the legal profession and an early involvement in social movements.

The Memoirs of Syed Hamid Albar is a lyrical, lucid, historically insightful reflection by one of Malaysia’s most experienced and longest serving cabinet ministers. Having occupied some of the most important positions in various Malaysian administrations, and during some of the most critical periods in Malaysia’s recent history, the Memoirs provide a living testament to the shifting politics, governmental preoccupations and regional and international challenges of a nation- in-becoming.

The Memoirs offer respectful observations of the first generation of Malaysian pubic figures, including Malaysia’s first and second Prime Minister’s Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak respectively; candid and forthright reflections on a relationship with Malaysia’s longest serving and most enigmatic Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, and insight into the vacillating fortunes of Abdullah Badawi, Mahathir’s successor.

The Memoirs commences with recollections of lineage and genealogy and is also an intimate remembrance of early family life, of a formative generation of local Malays venturing to study abroad and, most prominently, a narrative of the relationship between father and son, enveloped by the course of history.