50 years on, Pahang museum keeps its stories alive

From the Tengku Ampuan of Pahang, Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah

Before I begin, I would like to congratulate Muzium Negeri Pahang on its 50th anniversary, its Golden Jubilee.

On this occasion, I remember with gratitude my late father-in-law, Almarhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, who made Istana Kota Beram available to become a museum. That decision gave our heritage a home, and the museum has come a very long way since then.

So has its director.

I still remember Dato’ Farid, the Dato Setia Jasa, as a skinny young man, fresh out of university. To me, he was practically a little boy. Today, he has grown in experience, confidence and wisdom, and acquired a few white hairs along the way.

I hope the museum deserves most of the credit for his wisdom, and that I am not entirely responsible for the white hairs!

But seriously, Farid has grown with this museum. I congratulate him on the ideas, dedication and vision he has brought to it, and on the ideas and vision he continues to have.

Our museum is increasingly talked about, and that makes me proud.

A museum must keep moving. It should inform and welcome people. Its exhibitions should change, giving visitors something new to discover and a reason to return. It should attract families, students, scholars and people who may never have thought that a museum was a place for them.

It should make people feel that their history belongs to them.

That is what I believe Muzium Pahang has worked hard to achieve.

My thanks also go to the staff whose work makes all this possible, and to the Pahang State Government for understanding our ambitions and continuing to support us.

Although, with a self-confessed control freak as the museum’s royal patron, perhaps they have not always had much choice!

This is also where a royal consort has work to do. Alongside the Sultan’s responsibilities, there is a contribution we can make through supporting our heritage, encouraging its practitioners and helping ensure that what we have inherited reaches another generation.

For me, that work comes from love. Patronage means taking an interest, listening, learning and being willing to sit with the people doing the work. Sometimes, quite literally, on the floor.

To everyone who has helped this museum reach its Golden Jubilee, thank you.

I must also confess that I feel rather humbled standing before so many distinguished scholars, each a master in his or her field.

And yes, a little nervous.

This is a subject about which many of you have spent your professional lives thinking and writing. I come before you with my own experience, my research and a great love for what I have been studying.

I have also realised that this seminar is being conducted in Malay, and I have prepared my keynote in English.

I do have a Malay translation. But I find that the English version allows me to express some of these thoughts more naturally.

Dato’ Farid once told me, “Tuanku, speak in your mother tongue.”

I told him, “Yes, that is exactly what I am doing. My mother is English!”

There are thoughts that come to me more readily in English, and others that find their expression in Malay. So please allow me to speak in the language in which I can best share these reflections with you. And if some Malay finds its way in, that too is part of how I think.

This seminar has a very special place in my heart because it concerns a subject that has become so important to me: the Hukum Kanun of the Malay world, our Laws.

Through the Hukum Kanun Pahang, I discovered history. But I also discovered something within myself.

It challenged me, gave direction to my curiosity and helped me recognise what I was capable of achieving through study. For me, the work I have done on the Hukum Kanun Pahang is my greatest personal achievement.

It has changed the way I see things.

These days, whatever I am watching, reading or discussing, I seem to find myself comparing it with the Hukum Kanun Pahang. My family must sometimes wonder whether I can still have a conversation without bringing it into the discussion.

But that is what happens when a subject takes hold of your mind and your heart. You begin to recognise connections you had not seen before.

I thank Allah for leading me to that discovery, and for the opportunity to learn from it.

The keynote I am about to share grew from one such connection.

Before Tun Abdul Razak Hussein became Prime Minister, he was already a Shahbandar.

Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah holds a master’s degree from the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC), International Islamic University Malaysia, and is currently a PhD candidate at ISTAC-IIUM.

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