(2) Coco Majid

Interview: May 2007


Selesa Hillhomes Sdn Bhd
No. 20, Jalan Lumut, Kompleks Damai
50400 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +6-03-4042 6033 / 4042 4759 / 4045 2309 /
Fax: +6-03-4041 0792 / 4045 3585
E-mail: wmendah@tm.net.my
Receptionist: Puan Safiah Mohamad


While in Kota Bharu, I contacted Tan Sri Dr Abdul Majid for brief info. I informed him that I needed more details and a photo to write his chapter. He was delighted and expressed his interest in TEMD. He was agreeable to a face-to-face interview. His secretary (receptionist) then posted his CV and a coloured portrait. In May 2007, I packed and travelled south with my family to KL. We had agreed to meet him at his office behind the Grand Seasons Hotel in KL.

In KL, we found his office at Kompleks Damai, a small office which took up the ground floor and one above it. It was a quiet office and I was looking for an old man with a big smile. I introduced myself to Puan Safiah and the reason I had come. She immediately attended to me and disappeared to find the doctor I was due to interview.

I waited a few minutes in the small office lobby while my kids got excited about whom I was to meet. I was then called in and walked slowly towards a dimly lit room. I was nervous, like I usually was, whenever I had to meet a doctor. I could just turn back and run away, but I wanted to see this doctor for my TEMD book. I braved myself and walked in.

Over in a corner was a small man talking on the phone with a Chinese-English accent. I stood in front of him and just watched him talking, giving directions that sounded more Chinese than English. He was not paying attention to me. For a while I thought I got the wrong place and the wrong man! I wanted to exit and as soon as I was about to... he put down the phone and said, "Dr Faridah..." I was alarmed and froze! "That's the doctor?" I asked myself.

Tan Sri Dr Abdul Majid (his gave me this portrait in 2007).

I got seated and introduced myself in the usual formal academic way. I was still scared stiff as I wasn't expecting this somewhat 'small man'. I was expecting a tall man! In the midst of acquainting myself and getting used to the dim light, I pulled out my chapter revisions on him and he shoved the one I had mailed but with amendments in his own handwriting.

I took the amended one and went through it with him. He pointed out the necessary corrections. When he started to narrate more than I could take down notes with pen and paper, I requested his permission for videography and called to my husband. I could not stop to talk to my husband nor give him directions to video tape as this man was just talking non stop! Nobody warned me that this man does not stop narrating once he starts to talk!