The passing yesterday of Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Setia Negara Pengiran Dr. Haji Mohd Yusuf bin Pengiran Haji Abdul Rahim signifies the end of a most important era in Brunei's history. It leaves a big void in the evolution of Brunei's national landscape.

The original composer of Brunei's national anthem, he could be described easily as Brunei's man for all seasons whose career had roots in the pre-independence Brunei and until his death while he was still holding an appointed membership in Brunei's Legislative Council.

He was a subject of several studies. A few theses and articles have been completed about his life and achievements.

In 1999, Abdul Hamid Abas wrote a book on the Pengiran titled 'PM Yusuf: Ahli Pejuang Kebangsaan Brunei' published by the Language and Literature Bureau. The article was meant to sum up very briefly his career and assess his accomplishments as a country's top statesman.

Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Setia Negara Pengiran Dr. Haji Mohd Yusuf was born on May 2, 1923 in Kampong Kandang, Tutong. After receiving early education in the vernacular, he joined his other erstwhile nationalist colleagues to be a Malay teacher and went to study in late 1930s at the Sultan Idris Teachers Training College at Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia. This college, founded in 1922, became a hotbed of political awareness among the trainees mostly from rural Malaya, influenced by the radicalisation of the Indonesian nationalist movement.

The first to join SITC in 1929-30 from Brunei were Bashir bin Taha and Marsal bin Maun, a former Menteri Besar. They were followed by other nationalist stalwarts like Pehin HM Salleh, Pehin Mohamed Jamil Umar, Pengiran Ali Daud and others. Brunei's early political consciousness was articulated largely by these Malay educated school teachers who later actively involved themselves during the struggle to introduce the first written Constitution for Brunei and to rid the Residency Rule introduced way back in 1906.

Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Setia Negara Pengiran Dr. Haji Mohd Yusuf had represented the group of local intelligentsia and conservatives who aligned themselves with the palace unlike other political minded nationalists who wanted to establish a constitutional monarchy in Brunei. In reality, he parted ways from his political colleagues with whom he worked shoulder to shoulder in the early years to form incipient national organisations including PENA and BARIP.

Conscious of his little country's backwardness, he had remained a committed activist for the emancipation of the Sultanate from the British hegemony. His name first emerged during the formation of the BARIP or the Brunei Youth Movement which he helped to found in 1946 with people like HM Salleh. During one of his interviews with me in 1994, Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Setia Negara Pengiran Dr. Haji Mohd Yusuf revealed it was a politically motivated organisation, albeit ostensibly meant to work for the social and political advancement of the Malays.

During the war years when Brunei came under a brief Japanese interlude since December 1941, he was chosen for a Japanese scholarship award and sent to Japan in 1944 to study at Hiroshima University of Arts and Sciences, the predecessor of Hiroshima University. He was a brilliant young man handpicked by the Japanese to be trained in their own country while other young men like Shaikh AM Azahari and Pehin Mohamed Jamil Umar were sent to study in Indonesia and Kuching respectively. Alas, Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Setia Negara Pengiran Dr. Haji Mohd Yusuf's higher education prospects was cut short by the infamous atomic bomb attack on the city, but he survived and returned home in September 1945. In Brunei he continued his teaching career.

He was drawn close to the new Sultan to carry on a struggle to regain the Sultanate's lost sovereignty from the British rule. Thus during the 1950s, he became a close associate of the newly anointed Sultan Haji Omar 'Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien who came to the throne since June 1951. Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Setia Negara Pengiran Dr. Haji Mohd Yusuf, due to his astuteness and commitment to nationalist causes, became a leading member of a group of seven of the Brunei Constitution Committee, known as the Tujuh Serangkai or the seven branches whose task was to prepare an acceptable draft for the British Colonial administration to introduce the written Constitution for Brunei.

He was also a vociferous member in the Brunei State Council and was chosen to join Bruneian delegations to London for Constitutional negotiations. At times the British Colonial administration in many of their dealings with the locals had to put up with vociferous criticisms from him and two others in particular, namely Marsal bin Maun and Pengiran Mohamed Ali who came to be referred in the British documents as the Three big Ms of Brunei!

When Brunei faced a first manpower crisis due to an irate decision made by the then Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman in mid-1961 to withdraw the Malayan officers including the principal officers in order to teach Bruneians a lesson for mistreating some of their officers, Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Setia Negara Pengiran Dr. Haji Mohd Yusuf stepped in with other Bruneians including Pengiran Ali Daud to accept government positions.

Thus, Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Setia Negara Pengiran Dr. Haji Mohd Yusuf became the Deputy State Secretary and the first Bruneian Director of Information in 1962. He later became the State Secretary just when in 1967 Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar 'Ali Saifuddien Sa'adui Khairi Waddien ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Muhammad Jamalul Alam abdicated the throne in favour of his son, His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam.

Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Setia Negara Pengiran Dr. Haji Mohd Yusuf then rose to become a Menteri Besar or Chief Minister from 1967 until 1972 when he retired from public service. His main preoccupation since then was his business undertakings.

He also became a Bruneian High Commissioner to Malaysia, and held several positions including as an appointed Legislative Council member.

He left a legacy not just as a supreme public servant but more importantly he left his mark in the local literary scene. A gifted writer, he wrote many poems, short stories and novels. His main novelette 'Mahkota Berdarah' depicting the infamous Brunei civil war between Sultan Abdul Mubin and Sultan Muhyiddin during the 17th Century stands testimony to his literary prowess.

During his early years, he used several pen names such as Yura Halim, Sekunar Hayat, and Tunas Negara to write his literary pieces. In addition to producing the first Brunei novel, his 'Sekayu Tiga Bangsi' (1965) was the first published anthology of Brunei poetry. He was also had written widely on Brunei customs, history, and culture, and in1946 composed the words for Brunei's new national anthem 'Allah Peliharakan Sultan'. He also wrote a book titled 'Barat-Timur dan Bom Atom' about his experience during the dropping of the atomic bomb. The book was recently relaunched in Tokyo.

A few years back he was the guest speaker at the Sultan Omar 'Ali Saifuddien Memorial Lecture in which he delineated his life story and contributions to his country.

A member of Brunei's Cheteria Order, he had received several State awards and decorations of high order. He also was the first Bruneian to be conferred with an honorary doctorate from Hiroshima University recently. Two other former students at the university were earlier bestowed with honorary doctorates - Hasan Rahaya, 91, a former parliamentarian in Indonesia; and Abdul Razak, 87, who taught Japanese in Malaysia. In Brunei, Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Setia Negara Pengiran Dr. Haji Mohd Yusuf established the Brunei Association of Japan Alumni in 1986, of which he continued as a main patron.

Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM

by BruDirect.com

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