He was an erstwhile village youth from Yan, Kedah, who was familiar with only debit and credit.
But 92-year-old Tan Sri Hanafiah Hussain made good of the opportunity offered by the state government to succeed in life.
Despite a smattering of English, Hanafiah defied all odds to become Malaysia’s first Malay chartered accountant seven decades ago. He even went on to own the Southern Cross chartered airline in the 1970s.
The schoolmate of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at Sultan Abdul Hamid College recalled his childhood days: “I remember life during World War 2 and the Japanese occupation of Malaya. At that time, I was placed at a pondok school to pursue religious studies.
“We also attended ‘underground’ classes to learn English via the BBC radio, which was prohibited by the Japanese soldiers.
“It helped shape people like me and Dr Mahathir in our careers later on.
“I took up accountancy in England and Dr Mahathir went to Singapore to study medicine,” said Hanafiah, who turned 92 on April 16.
Hanafiah’s parents, Nyak Hussain Nyak Ahmad, and his wife, Nyak Siti Hawa Nyak Hasan, were migrants from Aceh, north Sumatra.
Despite his age, he is still full of gusto and has weekly rounds of golf at the Royal Selangor Golf Club.
He has repaid society by being instrumental in the localisation of public practice for the accountancy profession in the 1970s.
HIS EARLY DAYS
Hanafiah was thrown into the world of accountancy by chance.
Kedah was in dire need of financial officers and there was no one suitable. Owing to his excellent Senior Cambridge (equivalent to Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) examination results in 1947, he was awarded a state scholarship to pursue accountancy in England.
His journey began as an undergraduate in commerce with the University of Victoria in Manchester in 1948.
“I had to study subjects like Statistics and Applied Economics, which were so esoteric in Malaya then.
“My poor English did not help, either,” he said.
But his resilience to succeed did not deter him.
“After lectures, I would proceed to the library with the jotted notes to refer to journals to get a better understanding of what was taught.
“I did this for the whole of the first year. Slowly, I began to grasp the bigger picture of business,” he said.
Hanafiah eventually passed 15 papers in three years. Although they were not honours, they were credible passes nevertheless.
Upon graduation, Hanafiah soon sought accreditation with the Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) to be recognised as a chartered accountant.
Thanks to his credible degree, Hanafiah earned an exemption for preliminary and intermediate papers to sit for his ICAEW examination.
Even his articleship period was reduced from five to three years. About 57 years later, Hanafiah was awarded ICAEW’s lifetime achievement award in 2007.
He recalled hearing the citation at the award ceremony: “We can think of no better recipient than Hanafiah.”
START OF CAREER
Upon obtaining his ICAEW accreditation, Hanafiah sailed home in December 1956.
“I met with (then Kedah ruler) Sultan Badlishah Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, who told me there was no suitable vacancy in the state as I was overqualified.
“His majesty advised me to proceed to Kuala Lumpur as there were better opportunities there.
“And sure enough, the British administration was in need of talented officers and I was absorbed immediately to begin my illustrious career with the federal civil service,” said Hanafiah.
He added that he was entrusted with formulating programmes in founding, leading and managing socio-economic restructuring initiatives.
“These were plans to uplift the rural poor and kickstart national development,” he said.
Hanafiah was one of the handful of local chartered accountants during that era whose financial management and administrative skills were much sought after.
His advice for organisations is to know how to manage their finances to run their business well.
“And they should hire proper accountants who are trained to do their jobs professionally,” said Hanafiah.
He attributes his success to being productive, resilient, having good principles, sound ethics and intrinsic values.
“Earn a decent living through honest means and thank the Almighty for whatever blessings he has showered upon you.
“During my days, corruption and bribery were never thought of as a means to enrich oneself, despite the lax laws.
“Integrity meant a lot towards nation-building,” he said.
He called on parents to offer their children the best education possible and set a benchmark to emulate success stories.
THE CHALLENGE
In pre-independence Malaya, the accountancy and audit landscape was dominated by foreign owned firms which controlled a lion’s share of the market.
“To create a balance, the government encouraged qualified local accountants to establish their own firms,” said Hanafiah.
It led to him setting up the first local accounting firm, Hanafiah, Raslan and Mohamad (HRM), in 1964.
“It was a daunting task as we had to compete with established firms like Peat Marwick and Price Waterhouse, which were household brands.
“Clients were reluctant to change their auditors in favour of a new, unproven firm,” said Hanafiah.
He recalled how HRM’s investment capital of RM30,000 was dangerously diminishing.
“That was when we re-tweaked our strategy and I used my political and government connections to open doors to agencies like Mara (Majlis Amanah Rakyat) and the National Electricity Board (now Tenaga Nasional Bhd).
“Soon, others obliged when HRM managed to persuade them to switch from colonial auditors to us,” said Hanafiah, who was then an active Umno member.
He was thankful to the then finance minister Tun Tan Siew Sin and former deputy prime minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman for their invaluable support.
Hanafiah, however, said it initially took them a lot of effort to convince the then deputy Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tun Ismail Mohd Ali to let HRM audit banks and finance companies.
HRM eventually merged with Ernst and Young in 2002, after proving its mettle.
ESTABLISHING FELDA, FAMA AND TABUNG HAJI
He was one of the stalwarts who helped establish a young nation’s foundation and guided its nascent development from an agrarian nation to an industrialised one.
Hanafiah played a crucial role in the establishment of several agencies to uplift the socio-economy of the rural poor, especially the Malays.
He said the country’s first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, and later his successor, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, gave their full blessings for him to initiate the reforms.
Hanafiah was instrumental in the rebranding of the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) in 1957 and the establishment of the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) in 1965. These agencies were crucial towards providing a better livelihood for the rural poor.
“I began my task by first approaching those without land to cultivate in Kedah, Perlis and Kelantan, and resettling them into Felda schemes.
“I remember the first such initiative was at Air Lanas in Jeli, Kelantan,” said Hanafiah, who served Felda until 1962, eventually resulting in 32 such successful schemes.
He added that Razak then requested him to form Fama to be rid of the “leeches” (middlemen) who were “sucking the blood of farmers” in Kedah.
“At that time, there existed 33 large padi mill owners who were oppressing local farmers. The mill owners handed out RM200 loans, only to seize the padi farmer’s entire crop as repayment.
“The padi was then sold in pikul and not metric tonnes like today. Such was the scenario where the mill owners reaped huge profits at the expense of the poor farmers,” said Hanafiah.
He said the process was repeated even though the farmers knew they were being victimised, but there was no other option.
“I was given up to three years by Razak to rid such a draconian system and ensure the farmers sold their crops directly to Fama.
“Fama, thus, had its own warehouse to stock the farmers’ crops and then package the padi to be systematically sold.
“Hence, padi farmers stopped taking loans from mill owners and enjoyed better prices when they sold their crops directly to Fama.
“It eventually brought an end to the middlemen, whose businesses folded.
“The farmers were no longer entrapped with the vicious debt-cycle of the middlemen,” said Hanafiah.
Later, he was entrusted to establish the Tabung Haji pilgrimage fund, to assist Felda settlers and farmers to travel to Makkah, without having to sell off their properties.
These measures, he added, were pertinent to prevent the poor from being victimised for generations.
“If it was not done, many farmers would not have had the chance to prosper and uplift their socio-economy, thus, remaining in the doldrums,” he said.
POLITICAL LIFE
Hanafiah became a member of Saberkas (Syarikat Bekerjasama Am Saiburi, or Saiburi General Cooperative Union) as early as 1946.
Saberkas was originally an underground Malay nationalist movement in Thai-occupied Kedah (known as Saiburi in the Thai language). It was legalised as a political organisation in 1945 just prior to the return of Kedah to the British authorities in 1946.
Saberkas joined the Pan-Malayan Labour Party in 1952 and was eventually merged with the other component parties to form the Labour Party of Malaya in 1954. Hanafiah later joined Umno to be actively involved in politics. He went on to serve as Jerai member of parliament in Kedah for two five-year terms from 1964.
He was awarded the Panglima Mangku Negara, which carries the “Tan Sri” title, by the king in 2001.
Facts on Tan Sri Hanafiah Hussain
BORN in Yan, Kedah, on April 16, 1927.
FOURTH child in a family of eight to Nyak Hussain Nyak Ahmad and his wife, Nyak Siti Hawa Nyak Hasan.
THREE children with Puan Sri Mimi Abdullah.
ALUMNI of Sultan Abdul Hamid College in Alor Star.
GRADUATED with an accountancy degree from University of Victoria in Manchester in 1953, followed by professional qualification from the Association of Chartered Accountants and later as an Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) Fellow.
SERVED as Felda’s first general manager in 1957 and then as its chief executive officer until 1963.
1964-65: First managing director of Tabung Haji.
1965-67: Chairman of Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority.
1964-86: Malaysia Building Society Bhd director.
1965-70: Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee chairman.
1990-92: Bank Bumiputera Malaysia Bhd executive chairman and South East Asian Bank Limited, Mauritius chairman.
1966-70: President of Malay Chamber of Commerce.
1969: President of Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
1964-74: Member of parliament for Jerai, Kedah.
1965-70: Umno Supreme Council member and treasurer.
1986-90: Malaysia’s ambassador to Taiwan and Malaysian Friendship and Trade Centre president in Taipei.
2007: Lifetime achievement award from ICAEW.
2017: Lifetime achievement award from the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and awarded Anugerah Tokoh Melayu Terbilang at Umno’s 71st anniversary.
SERVES as Labuan-based offshore City Credit Investment Bank Ltd chairman.