Kampong Glam Day Out

I met Madam Haliza by chance. Her niece was my school friend and one Sunday morning while we were having breakfast at KFC (damn those porridge!), Madam Haliza and her husband passed by us. I later found out that Saleha Mohd Shah (her pen name being Haliza Mohd Som) was the Editor of Fesyen (the first Malay women’s magazine) published by Al-Ahmadiah Press situated in Kampong Gelam. The magazine, written in Jawi, was the first magazine for Malay women with a monthly distribution of 100,000 copies in the Southeast Asian region.

 

A social activist, Madam Haliza had organised a strike at the tender age of 15 when she was studying at Sekolah Perempuan Melayu Scotts Road or Scotts Road Malay Girls’ School. Her ambition had always been to be a teacher. However, the government had then decided not to continue taking in trainee teachers who had completed their schooling. In protest against that decision, Haliza led a strike whereby she and her friends refused to sit for the final examinations in 1950. 

I featured Madam Haliza in my 'Leluhur: Singapore's Kampong Gelam' book. This conversation session (during 'Kampong Glam Day Out' organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority or URA) is meant to be a post-book launch event. However, it is now a pre-launch event due to the circumstances that are not within our control. 

Someone asked me if what I am doing (writing and publishing books) is worth all the heartache, pain and 'I'm broke most times' state. I said, I regard my effort as a form of ibadah (service). To seek and spread knowledge is a noble thing. After all, the first word of the Qur’an revealed to the Prophet was Iqra--Read.