Datuk Abdul Mutalib

First meeting

I first met Datuk Abdul Mutalib at PJ Hilton on 30 December 2008, 8 days after Tan Sri Dr Raja Ahmad Noordin had passed away. At the time I only had the "purple hardcover draft" ready. I showed Datuk Abdul Mutalib the purple draft and he was amazed at the amount of work I had done and the information I had gathered organised into chapters! He provided a lot of assistance after that first meeting. I had sent many of the draft biographies and sections of text to him for checking especially those that had legal implications. I continued to consult him on all things legal especially for newspaper articles and photos. As chairman of the NSTP, he gave me the green light to proceed to use the ones that I have included in the final book. So I am very much grateful to him.

Going through the purple hardcover draft of The Early Malay Doctors

Second meeting

I met Datuk Abdul Mutalib a second time on 15 December 2012 when he came to pick up the 2 books at Hotel Putra KL. I wrote about this meeting with Datuk Abdul Mutalib in an earlier post on AIKOL in this blog. He is happy that the books on the early Malay doctors are now published.

With the 2 books on The Early Malay Doctors

Legal matters

Datuk Abdul Mutalib has been supporting and advising me on my writing about The Early Malay Doctors since 2008. He is a lawyer by profession. I heeded his advice especially concerning topics which were still active in the Malaysian court. So if you see things missing from my book(s), they are missing for a legal reason.

Newspaper articles

I have also not included some newspaper articles for the other biographies because I had difficulty sorting out whom to clear copyright approval with. Sometimes the text belonged to the local media (NSTP HQ in Singapore) but the photo was from another foreign country (eg Australia) and I didn't have time to clear copyright for the photo. Some of the newspaper articles came to my notice very late, after I had signed with my Australian publisher for the book galley to go to print in Great Britain. So there were many reasons why many newspaper articles did not make it to my book(s) as they have appeared in the early newspapers many years ago in our history.

Contact

Dato Anwar Fazal Mohamed (Penang) provided lead on the Ghows doctors and informed me to contact Datuk Abdul Mutalib for details. At the time, Datuk Abdul Mutalib was TV3 chairman. I contacted Datuk Abdul Mutalib and he assisted in the research on the early Malay doctors. However, writing and publishing the book took so long. The book was finally published but after Datuk Abdul Mutalib left TV3.

It was sad that I could not get any of my books published before Datuk Abdul Mutalib retired as TV3 chairman. I still have regrets for the delay but readers have to understand that the nature of this research was difficult. It was difficult to do this research, to speed up this research, to write and eventually to publish. I had to make a lot of sacrifices and difficult decisions to get the books published in 2012. - Faridah

The Ghows doctors

Datuk Abdul Mutalib is connected to two early Malay medical doctors, Dr Ismail Mohamed Ghows and his daughter Dr Latifah Bee Ghows. Dr IM Ghows was Datuk Abdul Mutalib's maternal grandfather. Dr Latifah Ghows was Datuk Abdul Mutalib's aunt. Datuk Abdul Mutalib's mother Datin Sharifah Bee was Dr Latifah's younger sister.

Dr IM Ghows was a legend for his alma mater, the King Edward VII School in Taiping. He graduated from the King Edward VII Medical School in Singapore in August 1917. He was the oldest practising doctor when he died in Taiping.

From my research on the early Malay doctors, Dr Latifah Ghows was the first female Muslim Malay doctor in Hong Kong and British Malaya. She had graduated with MBBS degree from the University of Hong Kong on 23 January 1942 (this was during WWII).

Dentist

Datuk Abdul Mutalib is also connected to an early Malay dentist, Dr Abdul Karim bin Nawab Din who was his granduncle.

Datuk Abdul Mutalib's parents are Dato' Seri Mohd Razak bin Akram and Sharifah Bee Ghows. His paternal grandparents are Akram and Zainab Bee bt Nawab Din.

Dr Abdul Karim was Datuk Abdul Mutalib's paternal grandmother's younger brother. The children of Dr Abdul Karim (Prof Datuk Dr Wazir Jahan Karim, Datuk Dr Raj Karim etc) are Datuk Abdul Mutalib's aunts and uncles.