Poem earns Stimol a Hungary invite
Published on: Friday, October 21, 2016
Penampang: Twelve lines of poem titled "Kahagaasan" or freedom in Kadazan written in 1966 by a Radio Sabah programmer cum singer/songwriter and published in a red book "Gloria Victis 1956", remained in the hearts of the Hungarian people 50 years later.Today, that folk singer, now Datuk Justin Stimol and Datin, are travelling to Hungary to be at Kossuth Square, Budapest as guests of the country to witness the anniversary of the Revolution and Freedom Fight of 1956, fully borne by the Hungarian Government.The letter of invitation by a government commissioner from Budapest stated that in 1956 about 200,000 of their citizens were forced to leave their homeland because only by forced emigration can they escape from communist dictatorship. ADVERTISEMENT The letter, signed by Prof. Maria Schmidt, said the celebration will be on Oct 23 and the international guests invited were those who supported the emigrants of 1956.When asked for his recollection of how he wrote a poem for the Hungarians, Justin said he was asked by his superior the late Datuk Fred Sinidol at the radio station for a poem in Kadazan with an English translation. He was told the request came via another government officer, Simon Sipaun (now Tan Sri), whose friend was a Hungarian working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and only known as "Tutor Martin" in 1966. Justin remembered that anything to do with Kadazans from the Government seemed to be referred to the Kadazan section of Radio Sabah as it was then known.ADVERTISEMENT He wrote the poem and submitted it and the last he could remember was receiving a copy of a red book with his poem published on page 294 amongst hundreds of other poems from all over the world. His poem was the only one from Malaysia and he insisted he never considered himself a poet.When Simon was asked about his recollection of mysterious "Tutor Martin", his fond memories were aplenty.
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"I will never forget 1966 as the year I married and met Tutor Martin. I don't remember his first name but he was a tutor at the hospital most probably in nursing and he was a Hungarian. I met him in the process of my work as Assistant Training Officer under the Chief Minister's Department, planning the training needs for the next four years," he said.Simon also recalled being invited by Tutor Martin and his newly wedded wife at his government quarters for dinner and vividly remembered they kept a pet cat called "Simon"!He said it could be during this social meeting that Martin requested for a poem in the local language and the only person I know who could write was Justin.I contacted Justin directly because we were very close friends in those days with Justin riding his big motorbike and me riding pillion on another friend's bike, he said.Hence I was simply the middleman in this historical poem collecting the manuscript from Justin and giving it to Martin, he concluded.Regarding the poem, Justin, when met just before leaving for Hungary, said he wrote based on the beauty of nature as he could see in Penampang and related them to freedom. On line seven and eight the rough translation said, "The threats from the most vicious eagle, to the small creatures have gone." The poem was translated into the Hungarian language of Magyar by Tollas Tibor like all the other poems with foreign language on one page and a Magyar translation on the other.Justin was flabbergasted when told that the eagle was the symbol of power for Germany even during the Nazi period when they conquered and mistreated European countries including Hungary.Last month, Justin and family were invited for a pre-visit at the Hungarian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, met senior officials and given a brief of the country's fight for independence. They were told that after the second world war, the Hungarian only had a few days of joy thinking that Nazi Germany was driven out with the help of the Russians. Later, the Russian tanks rolled in and shot everything, they remembered. Meanwhile, the countries around the land-locked Hungary started to help themselves on their land along the borders, they explained.Hungary never really tasted freedom until Mikhail Gorbachev introduced his "perestroika" (restructuring or reform) in 1987. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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However, they considered the year 1956 as the beginning of their fight for independence.Hence, with 12 lines of poem, Datuk and Datin Justin became the only Malaysians to celebrate with the Hungarians their 60th anniversary of their Freedom.