M.I.M.

 

M.I. Merican (1882-1956)

1. M.I.M. was the initials used by my father, Mohamed Ismail Merican, when he wrote articles to the newspapers. So it seems. Khoo Salma Nasution quoted an article written by M.I.M. in her book The Chulia in Penang mentioning that the initials were my father’s. I once visited the author at her bookshop in George Town and she confirmed it.

2. Looking for my father’s writings is not easy. He was born on this day of 14 February 18 years before the dawn of the last century. He might have begun writing for the newspapers during the turn of the century. It’s very difficult to search for old newspapers from the late 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century even if they still survive in their common abodes—libraries and archives.

3. We began hunting for his writings at those places since 2013. It’s unfortunate that to date we haven’t found any. I know of at least two articles written by my father that were published in local newspapers. One is obviously the article mentioned above which was published in the Straits Echo, 1904, describing “the Dato’ Kramat cemetery in Perak Road [Penang].” The other one is an article titled “The History of Captain Kling Mosque.” And I believe there has to be several others. I just have to keep searching.

4. I was quite lucky in my search at the Archives where I found a few of his letters, albeit official ones, which reflect his character as a down-to-earth person. Besides the letters, I was fortunate to have come across a typewritten copy of one of his speeches. It was an adjournment speech at the meeting of the Council of State held on 18 August, 1948.

5. Later I found a fairly lengthy newspaper report of yet another one of his speeches in the Straits Echo & Times of Malaya dated September 7, 1951 under the headline “Case for Mukim Councils, Land Banks.” It covered much of the words of his speech.

6. On one occasion I visited his alma mater and came across a very old Free School Magazine which contained a report he wrote about the problems faced by the Cadet Corps in the absence of the teacher in charge. Consequently he remarked that someone was appointed to act for the latter who had gone on a long leave.

7. One of his writings emerged from an unexpected publication. I once got hold of a school magazine containing a piece on fascism. I lost it a long time ago together with a page of his typewritten anecdote that I kept when I was still in my teens.