KUALA LUMPUR: Imagine having your loved ones taken away from you and seeing them again in brief glimpses behind guarded gates for years.
This was what celebrated veteran journalist Datuk Nuraina Samad recounted in the stories involving her father, the late journalistic icon Tan Sri A. Samad Ismail, or better known as Pak Samad, in her column, "Tuesdays with Bapak".
Starting as a collection of writings on Nuraina's blog, "Tuesdays with Bapak" encapsulates how it was when Pak Samad was taken away by the police and how the family endured without him over the years.
The title of the book, "Tuesdays with Bapak", came about because the family could only meet Pak Samad at a police station on Tuesdays every week.
A towering figure in the journalism world, Pak Samad was also a political activist. He was detained in 1976 in Kuala Lumpur under the now-abolished Internal Security Act.
During his career, Pak Samad was imprisoned politically on three occasions by three different governments. His historic career spanned three countries — Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia — for nearly six decades with newspapers and universities, during which he trained countless journalists.
Nuraina said the book painted a picture of when things were simpler as the values of the nation were hammered out and tempered by millions of lives through their commitment and conviction to build the nation.
"The book captures all of that — the nation building, the man in his private and quiet moments. His adventures in journalism from the 'backstage' perspective of the family, even his flaws and fallacies, as no man is perfect," she told reporters at the launch of the book today.
Nuraina added that the book encapsulated Malaysia through the eyes of Pak Samad's children during its early days.
"The book describes how certain things were set and changed. There are wistful accounts of things that we lost and gained along the way.
"It was also a story of how our father was taken away by the police and how the family coped without him over the years, as well as how my father started his career and of his triple imprisonment by three different governments."
Nuraina said "Tuesdays with Bapak" was made possible through the encouragement of (blogger) Datuk Ahirudin Attan (Rocky Bru) after she left the "New Straits Times" (NST) in 2006.
"I was hesitant at first because it was too personal, too private. As a journalist, we write about other people, never about ourselves. I then realised that I needed to let it all out.
"The pieces written on my blogs were the prototype, an early draft if you will.
"Those pieces and new writings were then collected and rearranged into a unique and structured narrative flow according to the themes that divide the book into sections." The former NST managing editor added that it was frightening to start the book as it meant discovering and remembering the dark memories that were embedded in her head.
"As this is not a fiction or a novel, I didn't have writer's block or any such impediments. I was writing about those dark days. The memories, which were for years stored in the deep recesses of my mind, were waiting to be released.
"I was surprised that I had so much to say and that it flowed easily as I recalled what happened. I was not as vengeful as I thought I was, and I had the ability to remember details that seemed inconsequential and insignificant."
"Tuesdays with Bapak" can be purchased at bookstores, including Kinokuniya, MPH, Popular and Gerakbudaya, and online through Amazon and Kindle.