The Legendary Jaafar Taib and his Mentee

A year ago I put in a post about this talented individual.
http://maine-ideas.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html

And boy, how time flies!

We were at the KL International Book Fair again last weekend. From a distance we observed him and the body signals that he was sending was totally different than last year. What was evident was his renewed self-confidence.

Exactly a year ago we met him, he was initially very reserved, wearing a cap pulled way down and seemed very uncomfortable to be in the public. This was consistent with his recluse behaviour for all these years with all the problems of the world resting heavily on his shoulders. But now he was happily chatting with his fans and even dancing while being photographed.

With a movie in the pipeline, animated cartoon series in production and a reprint of past works in demand, you have certainly got your groove back, Ujang!

Jaafar Taib

What was really interesting was that we finally meet his guru- the legendary Jaafar Taib. This is the man who I would I say had pioneered the cartoon industry in Malaysia and had single handedly held the fort for the past thirty years. He is the only Malaysian artist/cartoonist versatile and consistent enough to produce both lifelike paintings and cartoons for such an incredible time span.

He was totally the opposite of what we had envisioned him to be as an artist- deep in thought, recluse and an introvert. On the contrary, he had an air of a very distinguished and learned gentleman and reminded me those post colonial malays, not unlike Kam Raslan’s ficticious Dato’ Abdul Hamid.

I told him that I first discovered his works when I bought my first Gila-Gila magazine waaaaaaaay back in November 1979. I was only seven years old then but I vividly remembered his painting on the cover - a man sleeping under a coconut tree with his goat eating the grass around him to the shape of the GG logo. So you can imagine that interviewing the man after reading and admiring his works after that fateful day, twenty eight years ago is so surreal!

Painting and drawing to Jaafar Taib has always a labour of love. In the span of thirty years he has painted on numerous subjects. For example, his Sang Kancil series took him five years to complete. And that consisted of five hundred paintings (that’s about 2 paintings a week for five years, wow!) on top of managing Creative Enterprise (CESB). In addition, he is also discussing with parties to do animation series on past GG works and plans to exhibit his paintings on Malaysian birds in the near future.

Jaafar Taib with Ujang in the background

Not many individuals are lucky enough to do what they love for a living. These are individuals with character that has stood the test of time. Only if we look and seek hard enough, these gems are still abundant, steadfast, as always.

In our screwed up world of reality SMS TV, Chicken Coop Parliament and Pyongyang styled media, shallow icons and worse still, brainless followers with their herd mentality, it is very reassuring to note that there is still some hope for Malaysia.

The funny thing was when I came back later to the booth to take more photos, Ujang told him that I was actually Poncho and he was like:

“ Laaa……you ke Poncho? Yes, yes…. I read about the blog”

I told him that Maine Ideas was actually Maine (who at that moment was at another booth). What was really funny was when he then said:

“So Maine is your younger sister?”

“Errr…..nooo….she’s my wife and she’s actually 32 years old”

Hai….kembang ler Mrs. Maine……

Life is getting more and more interesting every day.

Ponchoman