Tuesday 20 November 2012

Haji Zul Tiger

The alumni of the King Edward VII School in Taiping, Perak call themselves Tigers. They also use Tiger as a prefix or suffix for their names when addressing their alumni members.

One Tiger who helped me to obtain photos of the historic school is Haji Zulkifli bin Zahari, better known as Haji Zul Tiger in Facebook. I have included those photos in Appendix 9 (pages 287-8). I recently mailed him a copy of my book. Here is a photo he posted to Facebook.

Haji Zulkifli Zahari @ Haji Zul Tiger (from his Facebook, 20 November 2012)
http://www.facebook.com/zultiger

Haji Zul Tiger is well-connected to his relatives and friends. He is also linked to the descendants of Datuk Jenaton who are mainly from Perak. One interesting lady in the Datuk Jenaton group is Insun Sony Mustapha Fenner, who wrote many books about her father.

Insun Sony responded to Haji Zul Tiger's photo above in Facebook. An interesting clue came forth about two Tigers who were the early Malay doctors - Dr IM Ghows and Dr Abbas Alias.

According to Dr Abbas's daughter Dr Siti Fathimah, her father had joined the British administration just prior to the Japanese war. He followed the British till they surrendered in Singapore. Insun Sony informed that her father Mustpha Hussain had provided protection to Dr Abbas when the British surrendered in Singapore.

Insun Sony also informed that she had invited Dr Abbas to her book launch about her father in 1999 but Dr Abbas was frail and could not make it. Dr Stiti Fathimah had informed me and I wrote in my book that Dr Abbas had passed away in 2004. Dr Siti Fathimah also sent me a last photo of her father with Tan Sri Dol Ramli. Dr Abbas was in a wheelchair in that photo.

Dr Abbas is survived by his third wife and 12 children. She is a resident in PJ. Dr Siti Fathimah had retired from Hospital Melaka but continues to offer her services as a consultant radiologist. She is based in Malacca.

New info update:
  1. I asked Haji Zul Tiger to help locate Dr Burhanudin al-Helmy's family. He replied Dr Burhanudin al-Helmy's youngest brother is Drs. Norbit Mohd Noor, an active politician. Will try to obtain the whereabouts of Dr Burhanudin al-Helmy family.