Tan Sri Megat Junid bin Megat Ayub passed away of cancer at the age of 65.
I remember him from the days when he was the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs (when my father was still the serving Inspector-General of Police), right through my days in politics. Apart from that he was also a close family friend by virtue that he hailed from the same kampung as my father. I remember before the 1999 General Elections, I was asked to go to his constituency to run a program and gauge the situation there. I was the only dissenting voice, predicting doom for him while the rest were all giving him good reports. In the end he lost and his press secretary rejoined TV3 as a result of that (another press secretary, Aziz Desa, who was press-sec to the former MB of Kedah, also rejoined TV3 for a short while).
I would bump into him at PWTC during general assemblies when I was still active in the National ICT Bureau, and we’d hang out together for personal and political chats at the Riverside Cafe. Then as a preparation for the 2004 general elections, he officiated the course on Psychological Warfare and Provocation that my friends and I conducted at the training center in Janda Baik.
I last saw him on Christmas Day 2004 when he attended my younger brother’s wedding. When he saw me he called out for me and we hugged, talked about old times. He looked frail then but he was his usual jovial self. We’d be talking in Perak dialect and joked quietly about polygamy and how he thought he was better than I am as he could practise polygamy being older than I am. He’d address himself as ‘Uncle’ to me no matter where we would meet: be it a political function, or a private meet.
Being in this state of isolation from my family has caused me to not know when he actually passed away.
And I am going to miss him and his jovial self.
Rest well, Uncle, al-Fathihah.
SeaDemon Says 