I am in no position to review my own book, or chapter. I am the writer of chapter four titled “Genealogical Consciousness, Identity and Honesty in a Malay Family” in a recently published book. Titled Roots Living Heritage, edited by Halimah Said, Danny Wong Tze Ken and Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja, the book comprising some 18 narratives, by 17 writers was published in 2022 by the University of Malaya Press.

In their Introduction, the editor highlights the importance of narrating and documenting life stories, a genre of biography/autobiography. In some ways, my chapter is a response to what has been posed to me some 20 years ago by a relative to write about the evolution of the larger family – as a Malay family in Malaysia. My search and research have not only focused on the family tree (and family trees are never complete), but the larger genealogical context – names, places (birth, travel, domiciled and death), anecdotes, episodes, and identities sourced from oral histories, documents, including maps, and publications. The family history is a case of rantau and merantau, unveiling the notion of “second,” and subsequent merantaus. It is a pertinent illustration on the workings of the Tanah Air.

Earlier on, I wrote a few papers and books on the subject but approaching it more from a socio-historical perspective, partly in challenging the mainstream history. One outcome is the book Batu Uban: Sejarah Awal Pulau Pinang (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2015).

This essay is revised and abridged from the first few pages of the chapter. I begin with my parents, both of whom are great narrators. It is not only of Tanjong stories, but early episodes and personalities of ancestors and family members in the Malay peninsula and the rest of the Tanah Air. My mother continues that precious tradition. My mother would be the initial storyteller in my life. It was my mother who instilled upon me the value of history and heritage. My mother is my first history teacher.

She was the one who triggered me to write on family history. One was manifested in my first book on the subject, Batu Uban as mentioned earlier. My mother Hindon binti Ahmad was born in Bukit Chandan, Kuala Kangsar, Perak on 2 August 1932, daughter of Teh Kalsom, scion of the marriage between a fourth generation Minangkabau perantau; and the 6th generation of an Ottoman Mamluk governor of Baghdad, born in Tbilisi, in what is now Georgia.

Over the years, my mother would remind me that records and artefacts must be documented; and curated. I remember more than 40 years ago, she suggested that I meet with one Syed Ali, the imam of Masjid Batu Uban. This was in the late 1970s. That was the first effort at documenting on history of Pulau Pinang. My interview was on the history of Batu Uban and the masjid. Then I was undergoing my internship at the New Straits Times in Chulia Street. That experience was perhaps instrumental in maintaining my continued interest in narrating family history; centered on Pulau Pinang. This was reinforced when she brought me to the makam of her ancestors at Minden, just outside the campus grounds of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The campus grounds at USM, facing Batu Uban and Gelugor, before it was called Minden, and earlier Minden Barracks, was known as Bukit Dato’ Jenaton.

The early 1970s was also perhaps for the first time I was told with much certainty on the term “Jawi Pekan.” I had heard and read on it a little earlier. I was 13 years old then. My mother was referring to my late father, Mohd. Noor Merican bin Ahmad Merican, fondly remembered by his relatives as Noh. My late father is a Jawi Pekan. He passed away on the Wednesday morning of 12 June 2019, the day I reported for my new appointment at the Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, International Islamic University (ISTAC-IIUM), at Bukit Tunku, Kuala Lumpur. He was 89, a day short of his 90th birthday.

Previously I was at USM. One of my main tasks at the Centre for Policy Research and International Studies (CenPRIS) was to develop an inclusive narrative for Pulau Pinang history. There I convened a programme called the CenPris Dato’ Jenaton Lectures. I managed to organise a total of 14 lectures. Eleven of these are published as Batu Uban, Tanjong dan Bagan: Pengkisahan Lisan by Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2020. The coming second edition would include the rest of the three chapters.

My father was what I would call an Orang Tanjong – born and bred in George Town, the usurper of Tanjong Penaga. The areas from Simpang Enam to Dato’ Keramat; Seang Tek Road, Irving Road, Kinta Lane, Jahudi Road (now Jalan S.M. Zainul Abidin), Aboo Sittee Lane and Hutton Lane were his playground. A novel titled Achi Patmabi, penned by Azmi Iskandar Merican, published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in 2012, captures the social, economic and cultural life of the Jawi Pekan/ Jawi Peranakan in Tanjong. Azmi whose real name is Syeikh Iskandar bin S.H.O Marican, was born on 4th October 1937. The novel was based on true stories and personalities in Tanjong in the decades toward the end of the 1800s through the years before World War 2. The novel captures the experiences and encounters of the author.

In 2016, I gave my father a copy of the book. He read it, and recognised the life and times described by the writer. He retold some of the episodes to me. Some were his Jawi Pekan kinsmen known to him from the 1930s. He recalled Haji Mustafi (real name was Haji Mustapha), who taught him the Quran. In the novel, Haji Mustafi was a pious character, learned and taught the Quran. Haji Mustapha was the nephew of my father’s grandmother, Fatimah Sham, who passed away in Seang Tek Road in December of 1956, 10 months before I was born.

Father Mohd. Noor Merican was fond of the Brunei story. One were the visits by the Sultan of Brunei to Tanjong in the 1950s. He would relate that the Brunei Sultan then, Omar Ali Saifuddien III (1950 – 1967), the father of the present monarch, would visit his relatives on the island. My father would mention Kampung Makam (along Dato’ Keramat Road), Kampung Dodol (along Perak Road), Jelutong and Bayan Lepas. One name that always appeared in his stories was Haji Shaukat, related by marriage to the family. He was said to be privy of family records and genealogies on Brunei families in Pulau Pinang.

My father was a descendant of Kader Mydin Merican, popularly known as the Kapitan Keling, who was said to have settled in Tanjong – recorded as Tanjong Pudukarrai, in 1759. He was the 6th generation descendant of the Kapitan Keling who died in 1834. Kader Mydin Merican was said to have many wives. His third wife is part of the family narrative. She is Tengku Maheran, a daughter of Sultan Abdullah Mukaram Shah.

Roots Living Heritage, comprising some 18 narratives, by 17 writers is published in 2022 by the University of Malaya Press.