Yasmin Yusuff still firing on all cylinders

MALAYSIANSKINI | Yasmin Yusuff is one of those iconic people who has been a public figure most of her life and yet never seems to slow down. 

A former Miss Malaysia who represented the country at Miss Universe 1978, she ruled the airwaves as one of the most popular radio DJs on RTM’s Radio 4 (in the late 1980s and 1990s), Rediffusion, and Encorp.

She was also a recording artist, actress, and one of the most recognised voiceover artistes in the business.

In fact, Yasmin is the official Bahasa Malaysia voice for the popular navigating app, Waze.

These days, Yasmin is the vice-president of the Malaysian Ladies Golf Association and is preparing for their Malaysian Ladies Amateur Open in July. This annual event is being held once again after a hiatus since 2019.

She is also the vice-captain at the Royal Selangor Golf Club. On top of that, she is a public relations and events coordinator, as well as an emcee.

“I have been doing these voiceovers for a company that makes learning videos for English in Malay. And I think I have been doing it for more than 10 years. 

“They have been sending their products to China and Vietnam to teach English. So it’s quite interesting because I am doing it for four, five, and six-year-olds,” said Yasmin.

She is also the voice for a local bank’s online credit card service.

Giving back to the community

During the Covid-19 lockdowns, Yasmin became an active part of the Caremongers group and was actively trying to send food to the less fortunate.

“We are now looking at doing some food donations for the homeless shelter in Chow Kit, and the children and family dorms in the National Heart Institute (IJN) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

“When a child goes for an operation at IJN, the family can stay in the dorms IJN provides, but then they still need food, so we give food to them for that too,” explained Yasmin.

The group is also always in need of sponsors especially when it comes to homeless shelters and it also provides help for individuals.

“We sometimes get requests from people we helped before. Like there’s this Malay lady who used to be a nasi lemak seller, and then they took her stall away but she’s still catering from home.

“What is so admirable about people like her is they don’t want a handout, they don’t want cash or food, they want to work. So she will contact us asking if anybody wants to order food. So we try to help,” said Yasmin, who has encountered many people like this woman.

When she joined Caremongers, Yasmin was not keen to go up and down flats and into homes. 

So she volunteered to do administrative work, which turned out to be more stressful because she had to choose who to help.

“There are a lot of requests that were not straight up. People already getting help from other people will ask for more help,” said Yasmin.

For such requests, she would advise them that others who need help might get nothing as a result.

Yasmin would also vet through requests and see what kind of work they were doing before the lockdown and found many who cooked and sold food.

“When we gave food to homeless shelters, we would ask one of them to do the catering. So you are killing two birds with one stone.”

She added that Malaysians generally want to work and support themselves.

Safe sports activism

Yasmin is also involved with Safe Sports Malaysia along with activist Sarina Sundara Rajah and Freda Liu.

“We have been trying to get the Safe Sports Act passed in Parliament for two years now. We thought it would happen at the end of last year. But now Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh has announced that there will be a Safe Sport Code. 

“We don’t want a code, we want an actual Act. Because then enforcement comes in, punishment comes in. Whereas a code is just something that people can follow. We want a much stricter process than that.”

Although there is a lot of support for what Safe Sports Malaysia is trying to do, Yasmin said many won’t come forward to report sexual abuse and rape.

“It’s not endemic, but it’s a situation that is very serious and needs a serious framework of laws to protect children and the athletes.”

She said athletes are at risk because they are young and it doesn’t matter what sport they are in - they are all at risk.

“It does not just happen to girls, it happens to boys too,” said Yasmin who recently heard from a man that his entire team were sexually abused by their coach when they were children.

“That’s why we need the government to support and to take action, and to initiate this to protect our young athletes,” she stressed.

Yasmin is a person who is constantly evolving and finding things to keep her busy.

“There are days when I feel like maybe I should just sit back and do nothing but play golf. But on the one hand, I know that I can help people with my exposure, recognition, position and sometimes my title helps as well.

“If people need me, and I think that I can make a situation better or have some sort of positive advancement on whatever they’re trying to work on, then yes,” she added.

A few fortunate turns

Yasmin shared that much of what has taken place in her career and activism happened by accident.

She read about Caremonger on Facebook and made a donation. She got a reply asking if she would like to help and be a co-admin. So began that journey. 

In 1978, she entered Miss Malaysia after seeing an ad in the local papers. 

“I didn’t tell my parents until I got to the final,” recalled Yasmin.

“A lot of things in my life have happened by accident. Seriously, everything from singing to acting, even radio DJing, it’s all accidental,” said the psychology degree holder.

“I thought about maybe doing social work or something. My dad said no one ever goes to social work,” she said.

It was also by chance that her singing career took off. She accompanied her father to his company dinner and legendary singer Ahmad Daud was there. Yasmin was encouraged to sing that night.

“When I was in school, I was already singing in a rock band. And I sang, and then he (Ahmad Daud) said, ‘hey, are you interested in singing professionally?’ I said, ‘oh, okay’.

“So he set up a meeting for me with Ahmad Nawab and Frankie Cheah, and suddenly I was recording an album,” said Yasmin, who had also taken part in a talent show called “Bakat TV” on RTM.

She recorded two albums - Yasmin (1979) and Harapan (1981) - but never pursued this part of her career any further. As an actress, despite being in several movies, most people seem to recall her role as the expatriate wife in the TV hit series “Opah”.

A much sought-after emcee for decades, Yasmin said it all began when she emceed at her friend’s children’s weddings and it grew from there.

Her radio DJ career began when she was a guest on Mohd Nor Amin’s (aka Noramin) show and she asked if she could bring her records.

“He said, okay since you brought the records, you introduce the song. Then he asked, ‘Hey, do you want to be a DJ?’ So I said, okay.

“See, it’s all accidental. It’s all serendipity. It’s like none of this was planned. It’s so weird. Then when I was away, Radio 4 had a meeting. They were looking for a morning DJ and Patrick Teoh proposed my name.

“That’s how I started doing morning radio. Having said that, even if it’s accidental, whatever I did, I put my heart and soul into it. You always try to be better than the best,” said Yasmin.

Yasmin also ran the talent-casting agency that she took over from her friend. She liked her work so much she opened her own. 

Her first clients include a breakdance group that followed her on her concert tours. Other clients include celebrities Aznil Nawawi, Ramona Rahman and Elaine Daly.

Back in the day with Michelle Yeoh

One of the talents who registered with her company was a young Michelle Yeoh who had just won Miss Malaysia.

“I’m sure I still have her old videos. When I see her, she still remembers, which is nice.

“I think with ex-beauty queens, we have a sorority. We recognise each other. So once you become a Miss Malaysia, you belong to a band, a group of people.

“Although I went to Miss Universe, and she went to Miss World. I think we sent her for some auditions. It was a bit difficult because she was from Ipoh. But I don’t think we got her any jobs until she decided to go to Hong Kong,” she said.

“I think she got a job, an ad, a commercial, in Hong Kong. It went from there,” said Yasmin who is proud of how Yeoh’s career progressed over the years.

Yeoh landed a Hong Kong watch commercial with actor Jackie Chan in 1984 and her career took off from there.

Yasmin eventually gave up the business because it was just too cutthroat for her.

“This industry is so age-biased. The younger, the better. But my value is in my experience. So, if I am seeing things like high-protocol events, I don’t have much competition,” said Yasmin referring to events where royalty and VVIPS are in attendance.

Yasmin could easily retire and enjoy a life of leisure, but she is not ready for that yet.

“It’s all about improving life, improving the quality of life,” said Yasmin, who enjoys volunteer work as much as paid jobs.

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