In a short span of just one week, I have lost two very important intellectual mentors: Hugo Young, an anchor columnist of The Guardian , and Edward Said, whose Orientalism sent shock waves across the western academia in 1979.

Unlike many other Asians studying or residing in Britain, who were (and still are) content with having their own enclaves and could not care less about what was going on in the world around them, I had this unquenchable thirst for knowing more about the host society throughout my long years of rootless existence there. One of the main doors to understanding the British is, of course, the print media, the tabloids and the broadsheets alike.

Quite naturally, the hidden 'Anglo-Saxonism' promoted by The Daily Telegraph and The Times , as well as their nostalgia for the erstwhile glories of the empire, failed to endear to me. Thus, as a sojourner, I was profoundly thankful for the liberal and humanist Guardian , which introduced to me a different but caring face of British society.

Britain, or, more to the point, England, was permeated with anti-Europe sentiments politically when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. The unbridgeable gap between the Europhobes and the Europhiles, as well as the endless debate over the Continent inevitably produced a crude and superficial English nationalism that was based on increasing reference to The Land of Hope and Glory. Not only that the blacks and the Asians (mostly Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis) were feeling increasingly uneasy, such English Populism also did not go down well with other non-English such as the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish.

Journalist Young

But the many refreshing and enlightening articles in The Guardian became a source of comfort for me, especially those written by Hugo Young. A Yorkshireman himself, Young never hesitated in rebuking the ultra-English nationalists for their narrow-mindedness, criticising the 'little Englanders' for being responsible for the widespread demonisation of the Continental Europe, while arguing for greater political space for the ethnic minorities on an equal basis. Without fear or favour, he gave his views on national figures of all political persuasions. Within the left-leaning Guardian, he maintained a non-partisan stance throughout.

Before his writing commitment with The Guardian began in 1984, Young had worked with The Sunday Times for almost two decades. After the take-over of The Times , together with its sister publication The Sunday Times , by Rupert Murdoch, the Australia media tycoon, Young became acutely aware of the eventuality of the most popular Sunday paper being compromised on its content for the sake of business interests. Having fought hard from within and lost, he finally bid The Sunday Times goodbye and crossed over to The Guardian in 1984 to continue the pursuit of his ideas.

Murdoch is a true blue Anglo-Saxonist, which was one of the reasons why The Times later shifted its political allegiance to the Thatcher-led Conservative Party, a change that vindicated Young's departure.

In British press industry, where fair games and open competition are the norm, it is natural for a heavyweight writer to quit one daily and work for another that is more in line with his or her personal convictions. Dirty tricks, such as the shameless containment and despicable suppression, employed by other Chinese Malaysian newspapers to block the nascent Chinese-language Oriental Daily would be utterly alien to the British.

The Guardian

is best known for its liberalist inclination, and seems proud of its cynicism about traditional institutions like family, marriage and faiths. However, all through his 18 years of service, Young remained unassimilated by the mainstream attitude within The Guardian , and hence became one of the few left-wing liberals who continued to believe in tradition, owing perhaps to his Roman Catholic background. On this, I have immense respect for him, which testifies to the highest regard that The Guardian was willing to accord him.

Young never sought to challenge the politicians just to prove his worth and influence; his mission was to safeguard the very thin and fragile line between journalism and politics, writing, 'If the separation of journalism from politics doesn't mean journalists constantly challenging the extension of arbitrary authority, what's the point of not being a politician?' (Supping with The Devils: Political Writing from Thatcher to Blair)

Media strategist

Judging from this pronounced position of his, it is quite clear that what Young would be contemptuous of would be the like of Alastair Campbell, who left Downing Street as the director of communications recently. It is not uncommon to see journalists like Campbell utilising their profession as a stepping stone to rub shoulders with the powerful and the famous.

Having been courted by Prime Minister Tony Blair, Campbell went through a magic transformation and became the creative media strategist tasked with the job of packaging and propagandising for his political master.

Young called him 'the supreme exponent' of spinning (Every Prime Minister must have an Alastair Campbell). In Malaysia, there is an even greater supply of such 'media professionals'.

When are we to see a giant journalist like Hugo Young in Malaysia? Or even a shadow of him?

If Young assured me of a space in British society, then Edward Said's books and writings changed my worldviews and thoughts beyond recognition. His influence on me is life-changing, for want of a better word.

From an average person of Asian origin, who tended to judge his own peers using the yardsticks and benchmarks prescribed by the West, my outlook and thinking were thoroughly 'subverted' by Orientalism, Said's chef-d'oeuvre.

Things that I took for granted, such as the 'cultured' whiteman and the 'backward' oriental, the 'progressive' westerner and the 'closed-minded' Muslim, were all subject to the most stringent scrutiny and deconstructed under Said's mighty pen one after another. In the end, I was forced to concede that I was independent only in body, as my mind was still tightly bound by the remnants of British colonialism.

Being a beneficiary of British and later American elite education, Said was well versed in Anglo-Saxon literature. But in Culture and Imperialism, he debunked the myth of the superior western literati, and denounced the colonialists for making the non-white world a subordinate to Anglo-Saxon culture through cultural colonisation.

Painful to deconstruct

Quite clearly, Said would not be too kind with the Indian, Arab, African or Chinese who is pleased with English literature, but knows very little about his or her own culture or literature.

I have myself encountered many Chinese Malaysians who are least interested in the tragically romantic Butterfly Story, but look subserviently to those who can quote Shakespeare and interpret his Romeo and Juliet. Throughout his life as a literary critic, Said was often at pains to deconstruct such internal colonisation of the ex-colonised.

That Said came from a Christian Palestinian family was no bar to his dedication to the predominantly Muslim Palestinian struggle for a homeland. So powerful are the Christian Zionist forces in the United States, that a vast majority of Christian Americans see the founding of the present-day Israel as the fulfilment of God's promise in the Old Testament with regard to the revival of the Jewish race.

These so-called believers in God vow to defend Israel even to death, and remain unmoved in spite of the volumes of evidence pointing to the indiscriminate killing of innocent Palestinians by the Israeli authorities.

In many ways, these Christians are trying to be more Jewish than the orthodox Jews. Unfortunately, many Chinese-speaking churches around the world have been heavily influenced by these Christian zealots, and have misunderstood the Palestinians and extended their blind support to Israel.

The involvement of Edward Said in the Palestinian movement broke two important myths: first, that not all Palestinians are Muslim, for as many as 25% of the Palestinians are Christian. The Christian Right in the US claim themselves to be on the side of God in defending Israel.

If they truly have no sympathy for the Muslim Palestinians, are their hearts so hardened that they are indifferent even to the sorrow and pain of their Christian brethren in Palestine? After all, all lives, Muslim or Christian, are precious in God's sight, and this was the very message that Said was striving to get across.

Passionate plea

Secondly, Said was significant in that his passionate plea on behalf of the Palestinians showed that not all Christians are supportive of the racist Israeli regime. In fact, to uphold universal justice, it is only proper for Christians to sympathise with the Palestinian struggle against oppression and discrimination.

Although he was fighting tooth and nail against the Zionists, Said was never personally hostile to the Jews. In fact, he was one of the very first Palestinian scholars who recognised the right of the Jews to a homeland in Palestine, and called for a peaceful co-existence between the two descendants of Abraham. Musically gifted, Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Daniel Barenhoim, a Jew, in 1999, leaving the coming generation with a beautiful example to follow.

Neither did he condone the failings of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, for he was as fiercely critical of Yasser Arafat's arbitrariness and the corrupt practices of the Palestinian leaders as he was of the ruthless Israelis.

Right from the very beginning, he was clear in his objective of fighting alongside the Palestinian people, not the ruling elites. In the face of the vicious American media, he braved the storms and walked through the thunders, only to become bolder in spirit and stronger in mind.

I am indeed deeply saddened and lost. The control freaks in Britain would be relieved at the death of Hugo Young. But aren't the right-wing forces in the US elated at the passing of Edward Said as well?

Confronting hegemony of all forms is never a voyage of plain sailing. With the departure of Hugo Young and Edward Said, the journey will be all the lonelier and more treacherous. May the two humanist writers rest in peace, and their courage and wisdom be the inspiration for others to fight on.

JOSH HONG is trained in international politics. While distraught by all the ongoing global conflicts, he nevertheless considers reconciling the many paradoxes and differences in human life to be a cause worthy of lifelong pursuit.