mgg pillai – the man, THE journalist

mgg pillai, the ‘legendary’ journalist.
(pic taken from jeff ooi’s)

1939 – 2006 (age: 67)
cause of death: heart attack
day/time of death: 28 april 2006, 10.47am

it is with a tinge of sadness that i learned of the death of mgg pillai, first through the ‘beritamalaysia’ newsgroup, then at jeff’s screenshot. it was quite a surprise news as i did not know that he was not feeling well. many of you would have known the name – mgg pillai – the hard-htting, out-spoken veteran journalist.

mgg pillai was the owner of the first online community discussion group, sangkancil. i joined sangkancil in 1998 and get to know mgg pillai (on the net) and the others sangkancil members (including ‘malaysian’s most influential blogger’, jeff ooi) from there. we had a great time debating in sangkancil. mgg pillai hardly joined in our debate but he was always ready with articles of his own (or from other media) for us to read and or course to…. debate.

i met mgg pillai before once… think somewhere early 1999. as i was going to KL one day, i thought why not arrange for a meet up of sangkancil members in KL (sort of like a bloggers gathering, see. this was a forum members gathering). so together with uncle yap (owner of beritamalaysia, which is actually a spin-off of sangkancil) we arrange for a meeting at the batek bar, which uncle yap frequents.

mgg was not present yet when i arrived at the venue. bob was there. er… maybe i went there (the bar) with bob… can’t quite remember as it was so long ago. i could have met bob somewhere else then both of us went to batek bar. i do remember going to the batek bar twice – once with my KL friend (not net friend) and once with bob.

ok so, while i was chatting with uncle yap and the other members in the batk bar, suddenly a big man with beard and moustache (er… and a big stomach) walked in and uncle yap remarked to me “ahh… do you know who is that person who just walked in?”. i have not seen mgg’s picture before but i heard of description of him. the minute he walked in, there was like an air of stately presence around him that i knew this must be none other than mgg pillai. i was right. he came over and uncle yap introduced us and we get down to chatting. how nice of him to turn up. he said he turned up when he heard that “lucia lai from penang is coming to KL and is planning a gathering”. haha. as if i’m so famous – i was not! but at that time i was quite a fiery debater so much so that i earned the nickname ‘the dragon lady’ in sangkancil, courtesy of yw loke, who is now beritamalaysia’s assistant moderator. hahahaha.

oh, btw, bob also wrote about mgg pillai and had mentioned meeting me at batek bar when meeting mgg. see, he said i was very opinionated then. yeah but i had since mellowed then… though BB loke (big belly loke – his nickname!) insisted that once a dragon, always a dragon! hehe. ok lah, maybe i’m a blogger dragon now?

oops. sorry this post is suppose to be about mgg pillai but the narcissistic me turned it into a post about me.

ok so back to mgg pillai. yes so i met him at the gathering in batek bar in KL. since there were quite a number of us (about 10 i think) and he was not seated next to me, we had only some brief talk now and then. he sure can talk as much as he could write.

anyway, i get the chance to talk to him more when he offered to give me a lift to puduraya for me to catch the express bus back to penang. it was then that i found out the car he drove was a left-side driver car. think he did mentioned to me the car was bought in US or somewhere. it was a wonder he could use the car on malaysian roads.

after our meeting, we did keep in touch through email and i had mentioned to him that if he did come to penang, he was welcome to look me up. however, i guess due to his hectic and busy schedule, we lost contact after a while. i mean stop corresponding. all the while i still read his articles while in sangkancil then. after i left sangkancil, i signed up for his own mailing list… a list that send out articles written by himself, and also articles from foreign media. i wanted to be able to continue reading his articles. he was one hell of a writer – who wrote with no fear or favour, with no holds barred, attacking and criticising everyone, especially the government. so much so that, he was ‘blacklisted’ by the mainstream media. well, when he started the sangkancil discussion group, and then later his own website, he was then very free to write whatever he like! he also wrote for malaysiakini in his column known as ‘chiaroscuro’… a word i don’t quite understand. (what does it mean?).

quite a number of people though, felt that mgg was very anti-US, and his articles were always full of criticisms of US and bush. oh well… whatever… but i like his local articles, esp. the way he hit out at all those ‘top brass’ BN (barisan nasional) ministers. it was also through his articles that i get to learn some ‘secrets’ of the gomen! (though of course one can’t say for sure they were true or not).
i am going to miss his articles very much. i offer mycondolence to his family.

may his soul rest in peace.

the star’s report of his demise.
malaysiakini’s report.

a letter ‘farewell, mgg’ by jonathan kent in malaysiakini is worth reading too.

bloggers who wrote about mgg pillai (apart from jeff and bob as mentioned above):

howsy, the sensitrovert
shagadelica
menj
ktemoc
desiderata
myasylum (there you can see many other links of those who wrote on mgg’s passing away)

UPDATED: here is a write-up from my friend, martin jalleh.

A Courageous and Committed Journalist

A giant has left us and Bolehland (a name that he had in fact coined) will never be the same again.MGG was a very courageous man. Dedicated to the truth, he dared to take on the powerful — the establishment (e.g., Dr Mahathir), figures in the corporate world (e.g., Vincent Tan), political hegemonies (e.g., UMNO and the Barisan Nasional) and even the judiciary (e.g., then Chief Justice Eusoff Chin).

Though he often lamented the sad state of affairs in the mainstream press, the young and the alternative/online press like Malaysiakini gave him hope. In one of his replies to me, he marveled at young journalists who have “fire in their bellies”.

MGG was a journalist who refused to compromise the truth. Just as he was fearless, he was also fair. He was consistent in what he wrote and the principles that he held. It was therefore not surprising to find him criticizing the component parties of BN on one day and the Opposition on another. He did not spare PAS even though Harakah carried his articles very often. He took an occasional dig at “Kit” (Lim Kit Siang) when he found it necessary.

His stamina for writing and interacting online (whether it is in a column, or on Sangkanchil or on his very own website) was truly amazing. I remember asking him whether he slept at all. The answer was very obvious. He would churn out articles at such an amazing rate – journalism was his life, his breath…his legacy.

Busy though he always was, he made sure there was time for the individual. I can still remember his many invitations to have tea together. Sadly, we never made it. I envy those who took up his offer and who shared how enlightend they were.

If I were to be asked to point out to what I would consider as one of his “flaws” it would be his at times rambling articles and his use of, if we could call it, “Queen’s English”, which would leave a reader confused. But the man helped us to connect with history.He was very in touch with the past whilst living fully in the present.

Chiaroscuro (which he chose as the title for his column in Malaysiakini is of Italian origin. In painting it refers to “the use of deep variations in and subtle gradations of light and shade, especially to enhance the delineation of character and for general dramatic effect.” MGG Pillai was a master of chiaroscuro in journalism. He successfully brought to light the dark shadows that has befallen this land whether it be in the courts, councils or cabinet.

I, and I am sure, many an ordinary man and woman on the street will no doubt miss MGG Pillai. He was an inspiration to many of us and in our estimate can be considered a truly Towering Malaysian in a country that he loved dearly – Bolehland.

Goodbye MGG, till we meet again…

Martin Jalleh