Letting off Lat

The letter was written on 4th March 1980 and twenty-nine years later it found its way to page 94 of "Lat the Early Series" published by the NST. It was a letter written by my other half to Lat reminding him in a light hearted way the £13.89 that was long overdue for the cleaning of the apartment in which he stayed during his visit to London.

Judging from the letters published in his latest book sold during the launch of the IMalaysia Exhibition at the Bangsar Shopping Centre, the much loved cartoonist never threw away anything – letters from old classmates to fans from far and near were all carefully kept. He knew they would make good reading one day.

Datuk Lat with AG and Zainul Ariffin, NST GME

















So there was a lot of ribbing and banter when we met up a few minutes before Tun M, the man who Lat religiously caricatured, arrived. Tun M , who was given the honour to launch the exhibition said Lat had made his nose a few mm bigger and jokingly demanded 10 sens for every caricature that is published.


When the time came for book signing, Lat was in top form. He spent a lot of time with each and everyone who came up to him for his famous signature, inspite of the discomfort he was feeling after an eye operation. We stood in line patiently for him to sign near the published letter. True to form, he wrote the word “Beres!” and a cartoon of his gleeful self, seemingly relieved of the burden of hutang!

It was interesting to note that many VIPs and celebrities who had been caricatured by Lat, turned up at the event. I managed to catch a few.



Errr....who is this??

More ramblings on Datuk Lat here:

Congratulations Datuk Lat
Lat 41 years LATer

Congratulations Dato Dr Lat!!!

Dato Dr. Lat - CONGRATULATIONS!!!

In the olden days, news that a certain dignitary or hero was passing through a village would bring people from all walks of life, in all shapes and sizes to line the streets and greet him. And this would prompt the local penglipur lara to weave lyricals like this:

yang buta datang berpimpin,

yang capek datang bertongkat

yang bulat datang bergolek,

yang tua datang berteman.

This is not unlike the scene that greeted our Kampong Boy celebrity Dato Lat, recently.

News that the famous cartoonist was coming to participate in an event to celebrate Malaysia’s 50^th independence brought a lot of people from nooks and corners of London. Someone, ehem, ehem, not a million miles from this blog, even took a day off and came all the way from Kent.

(Yang jauh datang berkereta api (membawa dua biji kek!))

And need I say, most came with their precious Kampong Boy comic books and editions from yesteryears, well thumbed and all yellowing at the edges but lovingly kept for occasions such as this – moments when they will meet their idol in person.

Like the gentleman who brought the first edition of Lat’s comic when he came here 30 years ago to remind him of life in Malaysia. He still kept it in pristine condition. It was all worth it – and the long queue to get to the cartoonist himself who patiently answered every question while sketching his famous signature in every book.

Or the lady who grabbed this opportunity to tell the cartoonist himself that he had actually drawn buildings in Ipoh, such as the Jubilee Park and the cinemas that were actually designed by her late father.

And many, many came with memories and reminiscence of how they could relate to Lat’s cartoons and depictions of life in Malaysia. Many talked about how they laughed and cried looking at how the cartoonist looked at life.

Dato Lat gave a talk about his life as a cartoonist at Asia House to a very appreciative audience, growing up bathing in the river, playing on tree tops right up to the move to a bigger town, which made him briefly a Town Boy.

We felt that one day, in fact two hours, with him was certainly not enough and hastily arranged another gathering at Malaysia Hall two days later. Word spread fast and wide and on that Saturday afternoon, the hall was filled with about 60 people, young and old. Considering the Selfridges' sales and the Gay Parade, we were not doing too badly. And I was given the honour to introduce him. What an honour.

And Kampong Boy, Lots of Lat and Town Boy were snapped up like hot pisang goreng.

So, Dato Dr Lat – congratulations once again – a truly deserved honour by UKM and thank you for making our life all the more richer and funnier seeing it through your eyes.

And thank you too for THE FAVOUR.

More on LAT here.

Lat 41 years later!

If Lat is a blogger, I believe he'd be categorizedd as a Life Blogger but he'’d be documenting what we document in our blogs with those clever strokes of the pen bringing to life characters and events in every little detail that never escape his keen observation. And make it fun!! Oh, how I wish he'’d do that!

Meeting Dato Lat again, after all these years was indeed a wonderful experience. There'’s a lot of catching up to do. When he got married, the newly wed visited us in London. And that must have been in 1980. God, how time flies. Now, like us , they have four children. But he is instantly recognisable although he has lopped off those famous mop of hair, which brings the most maternal instincts out in you. You'’d want to rush over and pull out your brush and brush those curls with a neat middle parting. (He has since admitted that its quite impossible to run a comb through it!)

The first time I saw Lat was of course when I was doing my training at that big building in Jalan Riong. Part of the excitement of working there was to meet names that you read as bylines in the newspaper. Names like Adibah Amin and Lat were top of the list. And another one, a feature writer Wan A something. Loved reading his film reviews. (But this is another storylah , kan?). Being trainee reporters, we daren'’t approach him but would loiter outside his room and peep in to see what he was up to. And all we could see was this mop of hair over his papers.

And I always wondered why, on Saturdays, at the sight of two coach loads of schoolchildren, driving into the compound, Lat would make a beeline out of his room to somewhere no one could find him. I have always assumed Lat to be very shy. For indeed he was. But he has other reasons…!

Anyway, so, Lat and family are here in London after a trip to Paris - a once in a while family holiday together. I can almost see them, in comic strips of course, walking under the Eiffel Tower, camera hanging around their necks, walking in a line across the bridge to where the memorial in rememberance of Diana is, and lugging themselves up the six flight of stairs to the apartment they were renting. Lat, Mrs Lat and junior Lats – all in a row.

We met the whole Lat clan over dinner, with fellow blogger Atok and family.

Like all of you, I do find LatÂ's cartoon very funny, very nostalgic, but seriously, I had forgotten how funny Lat himself is. We spoke about old times in the newsroom and had visions of certain people there, like Pak Samad, who had the hired the then budding cartoonist after recognising his talents, the late Tan Sr Lee Siew Yee, our MD and the lovable Kak Adib. Its impossible not to instantly recognise the the hand on the hip, the one leg crossing the other, the expressions on the face that Lat expertly transfered on to paper. You just know who he was talking about!

We remembered dialogues from the Kampong Boy, from Scenes of Malaysian Life, Mat Som and many more. Before coming to London, apart from the images that you get from TV, you imagine London to be like the ones he caricatured during his stint with old Harry Miller in Fleet Street. Visiting Malaysia Hall for the first time, I really expected it to be as depicted in his cartoonÂ…and it was.

We talked about many things from his days as a crime reporter, his interest in books, his talent in music, his admiration of the late P Ramlee and then it was nearly 12 midnight.

Lat books are usually a must for anyone leaving the country for long periods of time. They are not only good for souveniers but also for those times when you get home sick. You laugh again and again and thought certain depictions of events couldn'’t have happened, but they did - and they would appear in Lat'’s cartoon - an unfailing source of delight, even to those people he cleverly caricatured. Lat's documentation of events in our everyday life is like no other we have seen in our life time.

I particularly love Mat Som. Lat has cleverly done it from a movie making perspective. Reading it is like watching it on screen. It is almost like Pak Samad Said'’s novel Salina, written in a similar way. But that is by the by.

ThereÂ’s a lot to be said of Lat and many have been said by those commenting in this blog. I believe, like others, he is tough act to follow.

Kak Adib wrote in a forward for one of his books, a postcard was simply sent to Lat, Malaysia. And he received it. He is that big.

Has it really been 41 years of Lat? How time flies when we are having fun. Forty one years of entertaining us with his unique sense of humour, yet, the title Dato notwithstanding, the fame and the adulation, he is still very much the lovable Kampong Boy!