TODAY I depart from writing about issues relating to law to speak of a man, a legend in his lifetime: SM Mohamed Idris. He passed on last Friday at the ripe age of 93. The widespread spontaneous public outpouring of grief attests unmistakably to a sense of great admiration and affection for one who pioneered, and then shaped to a fine art, activism in the public interest.
Until his final breath, he headed the iconic Consumers Association of Penang (CAP), which he founded in 1969 operating from his rented house in a corner of Penang.
His imprint is writ large on a plethora of issues too numerous to recount. From the mundane to the complex. To right wrongs few others dared address at a time in the 70s and 80s when the powers that be brooked no dissent. The issues ranged from complaining of such matters as the weight of school bags for primary schoolchildren, additives in food, pollution of rivers, plight of fisherfolk, radiation dangers of radioactive factories, and impact of X-rays on pregnant mothers.
He also founded and headed other organisations: Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth) which championed environmental issues at a time when authorities the world over decried environmentalists as comprising “the lunatic fringe” – in the words of then British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. And the Third World Network whose support for negotiations on such international issues as climate change was always keenly sought by developing countries.
Idris’s penchant for outcomes in critical issues impelled and motivated public interest lawyers to mount legal challenges. From the Kerpan padi farmers prejudiced by aquaculture, the Thean Teik farming community, natives of Sarawak resisting the Bakun Dam, and new villagers affected by the radioactive waste churned by the Asian Rare Earth plant. In all of which I proudly claim, under his tutelage, I had more than a passing interest.
Always looking distinguished in his customary traditional white cotton outfit, Idris shunned personal publicity, disdained a slavish copying of western values and rooted for a national and Asian sense of self pride. His energy focused on fostering awareness of these issues through the countless seminars and multiple workshops that CAP organised.
He was, of course, operating in dangerous times – when any such work was viewed with suspicion as anti-government. We recall his anguish over the detention without trial of CAP’s lawyer, Meenakshi Raman, under the Internal Security Act.
Idris himself was not free from trouble. He was charged as editor of CAP’s magazine Utusan Konsumer for publicising the work of an ayurvedic practitioner, Govindasamy. A violation of a law that prohibited advertising medical services. He was acquitted when the courts accepted his plea that he was advancing traditional medicine that provided cheap and effective alternatives for the populace.
When he faced a charge for contempt. An action brought by developers irked by CAP’s defence of a farming community which was being evicted from their lands. Again he was acquitted.
Idris truly inspired, mentored, and guided numerous persons who came within his warm embrace. I was blessed to be counted as one such. As were the likes of legal luminaries such as Sulaiman Abdullah and Azmi Sharom, to name a few.
Some did not quite understand his passion for nature. I recall a high Penang state government politician making light of Idris’s threat to tie himself to trees to prevent the government’s plans to cut them down for road development. Oblivious that Idris had initiated Penang’s tree-growing policy as a young local councillor. These were like his children, to be preserved!
On a personal note, Idris, you inspired us to reach heights we thought unattainable. And you filled others with the passion to reach out to others in need.
It is all this and more about you that we will miss.
Fare well then for now. And rest assured that we will seek to complete what you started out.
