LETTERS: She was always sought out for her views on the nations pulse, past memories and the way forward. Fittingly so. Toh Puan Uma Sambanthan still measures up as one of the most revered and loved woman in Malaysia - not only by the people but by every Prime Minister in the last six decades.

The 90 year-old Toh Puan was one of the torchbearers when history was made in 1957. On the 31 st of August, 1957, a young Uma had stood with the founding fathers of Malaya - the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun V.T. Sambanthan and Tun Tan Cheng Lok when independence was declared.

Since then, for the last 63 years, she had been in the present with the same intensity and passion for the country. When she voices on the realities of each phase and era, her stand is contemporary, relevant and ominous. She expresses them with unabashed honesty and yet with her trademark grace.

Toh Puan is a natural story teller. She talks about a Malaya that we would love to be part of - A Malaya where racial harmony came naturally. She has a distinctively precise memory of the nations history from British rule, the Japanese Occupation, Merdeka and major events like the separation of Singapore and the formation of Malaysia.

And while in conversation she can checkmate any one of us with detailed facts. For instance, she corrects documented history: Merdeka did not happen at the stroke of midnight, as it has been reported, but a little later. This was because Tunku was delayed by ardent supporters, who wanted to bestow him with a title.

Her understanding about the Merdeka event, has a depth of multi dimensional levels. When the Union Jack was lowered and our Flag was raised, I thought how ironic it was that our independence ceremony was held in the Dataran Merdeka, next to Selangor Club where only the British were allowed.

Throughout the event, I was very thrilled that we were finally free to think for ourselves and free to lead our own country with a system that didnt oppress people. Till today, when the National Anthem is played, I get the nostalgia of being liberated from the colonial regime.

Her personalized reflections are fresh and evergreen. A few hours before the Merdeka event on the 31st of August 1957 (there were different events over two days), we were driven in our black Mercedes with the number plate AB57 to the Merdeka Stadium. In one occasion I was wearing an off-white silk sari with a red border, an engagement gift from my husband.

Uma was born in Beruas, Perak. Her father O.M. Subramaniam was a senior officer with the Public Works Department and her mother, Jayalakshmi Swaminathan Sastrigal was a home-maker. Both were very supportive of Umas education. In 1941, Uma went to the Anglo- Chinese School in Sungai Siput, Perak, where she won the Best Indian Student of the Year scholarship for 1942. However, her education was interrupted by the Japanese Occupation from 1942 to 1945.

After the Japanese Occupation, she graduated with a First Class B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the Madras University and was awarded the Indian cultural scholarship to study for a Masters degree in the Presidency College, Chennai.

On returning home to Muar, she taught Science in the Princess Alexandra School in Singapore while waiting to continue a post graduate research degree in Germany. She was applying for a scholarship for which a reference was needed. Mr. Sambanthan was Minister of Labour in Kuala Lumpur.

His family and my parents were close friends. My father suggested that I could ask him for the reference. That is how I met my husband in February 1956, during the Chinese New year season.

He did not give me the reference. Instead, he sent a proposal for marriage. We were married in May, three months later at our home in Muar.

As someone who had been literally married to my Chemistry laboratory, I now had to learn to work with people. Our home was open to MIC members, and people from my husbands constituency, all the time.

The women had to be mobilized to play their role in n

ation building. My husband emphasised that I should do voluntary work with multi-communal womens groups. He gave me great support and guidance in my activities. I improved my Malay language skills. In my work, I tried to bridge the gap between the races and urban and racial divides.

From the last quarter of 1956 till the 70s, she worked with the National Association of Womens Institute generally organising proper nutrition and healthcare for kampung babies, reviving local recipes, and on income generation in general. Uma was also the chairman and director of the National Land Finance Co-operative Society (NLFC) which was set up by her husband in 1960 to prevent the fragmentation of estates in the early `60s.

Uma speaks fondly of Tunku as a leader who truly believed that Malaysia belongs to each and every Malaysian irrespective of race or religion.

On the 10th Anniversary of Merdeka (31st August 1967), that is, midnight of 30th August, the Merdeka celebration was re-enacted. Dataran Merdeka was filled with people of all races in colourful clothes-like a beautiful garden, she recounts.

The programme went on till late past 2am and when it was over, we saw Tunku to his car and left for our home near the Lake Gardens. Early the next morning, we went to the Tunkus residence to give our felicitations for the occasion. We were met by his wife, Puan Sharifah Rodziah, affectionately called Ma Ungku, smiling her welcome. The Tunku came down after his morning prayer. After wishing him, my husband asked him whether he had got any rest after such a late night.

The Tunku replied: How to rest Sambanthan? I saw all those wonderful people gathered there, and came back and prayed for them. The love for the nation and her people was etched deep in Tun Sambanthan also.

At that time the biggest part of the budget was towards education. My husband was dedicated to teaching English to the estate children. Together, we set up multi-racial preschools to ensure national harmony was instilled at a very young age, she said. As Minister of National Unity, he set up pre school education for children of all races.

Sambanthan had four portfolios during his tenure in government Health, Labour, Works, Posts and Telecommunications and the Ministry of National Unity. He was always invested in education. Prior to his entry in politics, Tun Sambanthan was interested in teaching English to estate children.

In his pre-political life, he was instrumental in setting up the Mahatma Gandhi Kalasalai, a Tamil school in his home town of Sungai Siput. In all his portfolios, he stressed training to improve qualifications. He would even take pictures to illustrate the problems to ministry officers.

An example of this was to improve toilets in the third class womens maternity wards which had slippery cement steps. There were also no telephones in rural areas, how could emergencies be communicated? These are illustrations of basic needs which he felt had to be addressed.

Toh Puan Uma has also been interested in education, she organised the infrastructure for the first government girls school in Jalan Ampang and the first government primary school in Selayang Baru, using the facilities available from the government.

In memory of Sambanthans service and dedication, Jalan Tun Sambanthan and Monorail Station Tun Sambanthan, were named after him by the government. Wisma Tun Sambanthan has also been named after him by the National Land Finance Co-operative Society Bhd, which he founded as a vehicle to empower the plantation worker to fight fragmentation of estates.

Her daughter Kunjari Sambanthan remarks that the principal feature common to both parents was their commitment to self-improvement.

My consistent image throughout my life was of them reading books, magazines, not novels but relating to specific subjects whether science, astronomy, philosophy, the works of great thinkers, spiritual texts from Hinduism to Sufi thoughts etc. My father had given me many books ranging in topics from the Mahabharata and the Thai and Cambodian versions of t

he Ramayana, to works of poetry by Rabindranath Tagore, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and others.

The first book she received from her mother was the biography of Florence Nightingale. My image of Toh Puan will always be of her with stacks and stacks of books on almost every topic. The last time I saw her in the house, she was reading the Bengali version of the Gospel of Paramahamsa Ramakrishna.

Toh Puan Uma Sambanthan marked the end of an era. She leaves behind an idea that gives the rest of us women, a sense of pride that we knew her.

VASANTHI RAMACHANDRAN

Kuala Lumpur

More here:
The woman who carries a nation's history - New Straits Times