Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein pores through the book Legacy of Honour with his mother Toh Puan Suhaila Mohamed Noah at the book launch yesterday as author Zainah Anwar and Noah foundation chairman Datin Dr Faridah Abdullah (right) look on.
In the days where dominant political discourse around the world increasingly centres on paranoia and mistrust, stories in a book will remind people to be more optimistic in their political journey.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the Legacy of Honour book, depicting the lives of leaders Datuk Jaafar Muhammad, Datuk Onn Jaafar and Tun Hussein Onn and their struggles to fight for the country, was a sterling model.
"This book is not just about these three men. Its a take on history of the country and a land at a time when colonialism either existed or its legacy was still vividly fresh.
Different as the settings may now be, these points in history are crucial in charting the way forward for Malaysia."
Speaking at the book launching at Putra World Trade Centre yesterday, Hishammuddin who is the son of Tun Hussein Onn, the third Prime Minister and the grandson of Datuk Onn Jaafar, a prominent Malay leader and the founder of Umno, said the pages in the book provided important lessons on diplomacy and how to deal with competing pressures in politics and governance.
"These men taught us that they did not achieve what they did by sitting idly.
They were leaders who took risks to effect the desired change, no matter how great the challenges at that time."
Hishammuddin, who is also Umno vice-president, congratulated the writer, Zainah Anwar, who spent 16 years to write the 275-page book as well as compiling historical pictures featured in the book.
"I speak for everyone in the family that we are all extremely pleased with the way in which the book, does justice to the incredible lives of these three men.
"Personally, I enjoy these bits of the book most, especially since the subjects of the book also happen to be my father, grandfather and great grandfather.
Published by the Noah Foundation, the book, priced at RM100, is sold at MPH bookstores nationwide.
