May it please Your Royal Highnesses,
It is with the greatest of respect and humility that I faithfully submit myself to the pleasure of Your Royal Highnesses as I pen down my sorrow over the untimely passing of His Royal Highness, Tunku Laksamana of Johor, Tunku Abdul Jalil Sultan Ibrahim, or Ku Lil as the late His Royal Highness was so affectionately called, that I personally believe is vastly shared by many irrespective of race and religion.
I respectfully crave leave and indulgence of Your Royal Highnesses to offer a eulogy should Your Royal Highnesses so desire to read it.
Your Royal Highnesses,
I am writing this on no behalf of anybody but my humble self in grief, my soul in mourning, and my mind in shock, all of which are united not only in my desire to pay my respect to the late His Royal Highness, but rather, in my need to do so.
For such extraordinary appeal that millions of people sharing my sentiment in this eulogy across the county who never actually met the late His Royal Highness do feel that all of us too have lost someone close to us in the early evening of last Saturday.
This is my only opportunity to let out my sadness than I can ever hope to be offered by Your Royal Highnesses.
It has been about a week since the late His Royal Highness left us. There is not a day that goes by that I fail to shudder at the thought of losing my beloved ones. It happens, and shall definitely happen to all of us. Such is life.
No parents should bear the burden of seeing the pain borne by their children. Neither should parents have to shed tears over the misfortune of their children’ sadness, let alone wallow in the agony of losing the fruits of their loins. However, it is a painful fact all must swallow, that God’s gift is not permanent. He expects a graceful return of it when the time eventually comes.
Queen or humble subject, a mother is still a mother who will never be at ease until she has satisfied herself of her children's wellbeing. Likewise, a king by any other names would be just as disconsolate as soon as the fact that he no longer has the opportunity to retire to his son’s warmth embrace in times of grief and desperation begins to seep in.
That night, however, bore witness to the grief of Your Royal Highnesses as Your Royal Highnesses were rendered unfortunate to have lost the diamond of Your Royal Highnesses’ hearts. Howsoever strong-hearted one is or attempts to be, internalising Your Royal Highnesses’ anguish that must have since dwelled in Your Royal Highnesses’ hearts is an utter impossibility.
I must admit at once that despite never having had a privilege of a private audience with the late His Royal Highness, it was through a platform of social media that I had come to realise that apart from the late His Highness’s good-looking and gentlemanlike disposition, coupled with the late His Highness’s pleasant countenance, easy and by extension, commendable gallantry, I shall have no misgiving in pronouncing the late His Royal Highness to be the finest figure of a man with a joyful life transmitted wherever the late His Royal Highness took the late His Royal Highness’s smiles, and sparkles in those unforgettable eyes, to be deservedly looked at with much admiration and envy, by ladies and men alike for the humility and leadership displayed throughout the late His Highness’s lifetime.
For someone in the late His Royal Highness’s position, he would typically take comfort of an advantage in choosing with pleasure to think himself of his own importance and unshackled by the social values as and when he sees fit.
This is certainly not the case with the late His Royal Highness.
Pride in the late His Royal Highness’s social position had never led him to scorn anyone outside the late His Royal Highness’s own. Neither had this rendered the late His Royal Highness supercilious.
Virtuous nature
On the contrary, the late His Royal Highness had commanded the highest of regards and attention thanks to the late His Royal Highness’s virtuous nature - obliging, inoffensive, friendly, and the late His Royal Highness’s graceful appearance had affirmed the commoners’ love for late His Royal Highness.
I recall the moment when I chanced upon the late His Royal Highness’ Instagram official account, on which my eyes had gleefully perched on the late His Royal Highness’s numerous photos with animals without a tinge of fear. Also, the late His Royal Highness’s undying effort in mitigating the sufferings of others through various charity works speaks for itself.
The late His Royal Highness’s choice of words describing the occasion captured in each and every photo to me, was evidence in and of itself. The late His Royal Highness was a great man who never saw faults in anybody, not hasty in censuring anyone, and that all human beings were good and agreeable in the late His Royal Highness’s eyes.
Such were the late His Royal Highness’s nature - blind to the follies and nonsense of the others and always candid without ostentation or design. The late His Royal Highness had stood tall enough as a human being of unique qualities.
Blessed was the late His Highness to have had brothers and a sister who have an advantage of intelligence and with a decided air of fashion. Being a humble subject that I am, I never stop at any slight opportunity to emulate the virtues and wisdom that had underpinned all other wonderful attributes that I have seen from the late His Royal Highnesses.
It is not a wonder therefore that the late His Royal Highness was perfectly capable of drawing public attention by his fine, tall, and handsome feature coupled with the noble mien which would be in general circulation within seconds after the late His Royal Highness’s entrances into a public view.
Nothing could account for the lingering sadness I have over this tragic news but I have an unmitigated faith in God’s plan. Being, a leader, a son, a brother, and most importantly a person that the late His Royal Highness was, I am convinced that the late His Royal Highness is now watching all of us with pride and smile.
Living on none other than patience
The late His Royal Highness’s greatest gift from God for all of us to live on is none other than patience. The late His Royal Highness’s patience to live the life with the disease was well rewarded as patience generally is, through yet another gift of a loving mother, protective father, and caring brothers and a sister.
Your Royal Highnesses,
I reproached death for giving no notice of its presence while love was being grandly expressed and mutually exchanged for the late His Royal Highness. However, at the same time, I shall also endeavour to persuade myself and if I may, and Your Royal Highnesses to understand the beauty of parting ways with our beloved ones through death.
It is never about grieving over how one dies. Rather, it is always about celebrating how he lives.
Sweet, firm, a graceful disposition, free from conceit, and only desirous to be guided by virtues and benevolence, the late His Royal Highness was definitely a very essence of moderation, of duty, of class, of love, and of compassion one cannot afford to live without.
The late His Royal Highness was indeed a symbol of self-humanity, a standard Johorean and by extension, a Malaysian who transcended nationality, someone with the natural nobility, who was classless, and had proven to the world that the late His Royal Highness needed no royal titles to continue to generate the late Highness’s particular brand of magic.
Be sad, Your Royal Highnesses, but be disappointed not. The late His Royal Highness had lived and led a life one ought to rightfully live.
Happy feelings were upon Your Royal Highnesses the day on which the late His Royal Highness was born into this world, but blessed strength was when Your Royal Highness had to be prepared to face the eventuality of losing the late His Royal Highness.
For that reason, I shall have no qualms about acknowledging the determination Your Royal Highnesses have shown in fight against this pall of sorrow. You Royal Highnesses have been strong in times of hardship and certainly, Your Royal Highnesses will fare this extremely well.
I pray that God grants mercy and tenacity for Your Royal Highnesses to be able to continue to grace Johor and her people.
My thought has never wavered, and never shall it in the name of love and fidelity I have for Your Royal Highnesses and the entire nation alike.
Be strong, Your Royal Highnesses - For us, and most importantly, for Their Royal Highnesses - Ku Ismail, Ku Idris, Ku Inah, Ku Rahman, and Ku Boo.
Thank you for brightening my life
To Your Royal Highness, Ku Lil, thank you very much for having brightened my life even though God granted Your Royal Highness a tougher life. I feel cheated that Your Royal Highness were taken from us all so young, and yet I must learn to be thankful that Your Royal Highness had come along at all.
Only now that Your Royal Highness were gone do I appreciate what I am now without, and that life without Your Royal Highness is very difficult. It is only through the strength of messages Your Royal Highness had given us through Your Royal Highness’s years of giving has persuaded us to move forward.
Your Royal Highness had fought so hard and we all know that. It is time that Your Royal Highness treated Your Royal Highness’s kindself to a permanent salvation inside the inner sanctum no one is allowed to cause any further grievance into.
Rest well. Your Royal Highness must be very tired after all.
I now seek no further indulgence and time from Your Royal Highnesses, and shall forthwith spare Your Royal Highnesses further trouble thereof.
Allah berkati Johor, Allah selamatkan Sultan.
Much obliged,
Azlan Abdul Razak
AZLAN ABDUL RAZAK is a lawyer who believes in justice and equality. He is also a fervent advocate for women’s rights.
