Malaysia Has Lost A Wonderful Creative Talent In Mansor Puteh

 Malaysia Has Lost A Wonderful Creative Talent In Mansor Puteh

(To Allah we belong and to Him shall we return!)

 

July 7, 2024

I am saddened by the sudden unexpected death of filmmaker Mansor Puteh from a single motor vehicle accident early Sunday morning July 7, 2024. He was 77 years old.

 

            Mansor came into my world in December 2005 although I would never meet him till over a decade later in 2017 on the occasion of the launching the Malaysian edition of my Liberating The Malay Mind in Shah Alam.

 

            I was very much touched by his personal story of having miraculously survived a lethal bone cancer diagnosed when he was studying at Columbia University. I penned an article on his battle that appeared in The Sundaily, Sunday edition, on December 9, 2005 (pasted below).

 

            Since returning to Malaysia, sans his graduate degree in Fine Arts (Filmmaking), he had become a regular blood donor. Many had benefited from his literal gift of life. Perhaps that was his way of repaying his gratitude for having survived his cancer.

 

            Over the years he had kindly kept me up to date on his work, often sending me clips of his films. I am also grateful for his many kind and penetrating comments on my articles, always perceptive and also always courteous. He never hesitated in pointing out my misinformation and countering my arguments when he disagreed with me, and did so ever so gently and politely.

 

            Most of all I treasured his many anecdotes he had of our first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, as his family was close to him. He released a documentary, “The Residency Years,” about the Tunku. I was thrilled when he gave me a copy of it.

 

            Mansor was very much aware that he was a medical miracle, or more correctly, God’s. Bone cancer is a lethal disease more so back then. He had led a full life, contributing to his art and more to the hundreds who had benefited from his gift of regular blood donations. 

 

            I last heard from him just a month ago commenting on one of my articles. His sharp critical sense was very much in evidence. His e-mail in part reads:

 

            “I lodged a complaint with JPA who oversees all government agencies and told them why all officials of Finas are those who are not qualified in film. They say they are investigating the matter. I also lodged a complaint with Kementerian Kewangan and asked them how they just give Finas grants every year without knowing if the officials in the film agency are qualified.

 

            Finas is given RM30 million a year for the 300-400 staff and other expenses, yet the only known official duty they are doing is to disburse RM20 million in grants to film producers. This can be done by any bank.”

 

            That was Mansor Puteh. Always sharp, always critical, and always unafraid to voice his views. The nation has lost a great and creative talent! May Allah bless his soul!

. 

 

 

Persistence Personified–Mansor Puteh

M. Bakri Musa

SunDaily Weekend Edition Dec 9, 2005.

 

This spring [2006], author and filmmaker Mansor Puteh will be returning to Columbia University to present his portfolio in fulfilment of his Masters In Fine Arts (MFA) degree. There is nothing newsworthy there, except for the fact that the last time that Mansor was on campus was over two decades ago.

 

            Students do drop out of universities even at the Ivy Leagues, as Bill Gates did at Harvard and Vice President Richard Cheney at Yale. That did not seem to interfere with their subsequent careers. Taking time out either between high school and college or between undergraduate studies and graduate school is quite common for American students. If he were an American, Mansur would be in good company. For a Malaysian however, his decision to leave his studies two decades ago just shy of his graduation for his MFA must have caused his family severe anguish. I can imagine the scene when he returned home! He certainly would have been branded–and made to feel–a failure.

 

            Mansor did complete his studies except for the formality of his thesis project. He submitted this later from Malaysia, but thanks to the reliability of the local Postal Service, it never reached his supervisor in New York.

 

            Talent, like water, has a way of finding its own level. Meanwhile Mansor has written 57 books; he intends to make that 60. He also has scores of movies and television dramas to his credit. Impressive!

 

            Mansoor does not need his MFA; his accomplishments speak for themselves. The fact that Columbia willingly accepted him back revealed the flexibility of American universities. I cannot imagine a local university entertaining such a request.

 

            For his dissertation, Mansor will present his forthcoming film, Malaysian Snow, based on his novel. It is about two young men from a kampung who attended the same American college. One , an albino, decided to stay back and passed himself as a Caucasian; the other returned home. Years later, their paths again crossed  As for the ending, read the book or wait for the movie!

 

            Mansor’s personal story is both illustrative and instructive. The fact that he pursued the Fine Arts was itself unusual. That choice is not usually on the radar screen of Malaysians. It is drilled by parents and teachers that our young should pursue “real” degrees, meaning, those that would assure them a good job. To Malaysians, music and the fine arts are frivolous subjects. Fortunately MARA Institute of Technology had a program in Fine Arts. There, Mansor’s American lecturers recognized his talent and encouraged him to pursue his studies.

 

            His acceptance to Columbia should have been a cause for celebration and pride for MARA considering that it was a young institution and eager to highlight the achievements of its graduates. No such luck!

 

            Nor were the authorities eager to fund him. At a time when the government was sending thousands of Malaysian students to third rate universities abroad, one would have thought that someone admitted to the graduate program at an Ivy League institution would have grabbed the attention of the authorities.

 

            The number of Malaysians, especially Malays, accepted to elite universities is miniscule. That being the case we should shower those select few with offers of scholarships. That this was not so is a sad commentary on how we treat talent. 

 

            A few years ago a young Malay lawyer was accepted to Harvard’s prestigious LLM program. MARA’s excuse for not giving him a scholarship was that Malaysia does not recognize the American legal system, and thus its degree and training! Obviously the authorities do not value superior education.

 

            Mansor suffered through the usual culture shock of being in graduate school and living in New York. That his classmates represented the best of America and indeed the world only increased the challenge and anxiety. The reward for him was that the luminaries in the field of filmmaking taught him well.

 

            An unfortunate illness rather than academic difficulty caused him to disrupt his studies. It is an enduring tribute to the strength of the human spirt that despite the bleak prognosis of his bone cancer hanging over him, Mansor was able to lead a productive and creative life.

 

            Faced with a harrowing personal dilemma two decades ago, Mansor rightly put his physical health ahead of his studies. He overcame that considerable obstacle; this second hurdle of submitting his thesis project was but a mere bump on the road. Mansor’s story is an inspiration for us to pursue our dreams despite the barriers.