Last Friday (7th June) was the Malam Wartawan Negara 2024 Award Ceremony that saw many talented and hardworking journalists in attendance. One of the highlights of the night was to honour veteran journalist Khalidah Adibah Amin, famously known as Adibah Amin with the Tokoh Wartawan Negara Award (National Journalism Laureate) for her contribution to the world of journalism.
Adibah’s nomination as the first woman to receive the honour was proposed by the Malaysian Women Journalists Association (Pertama), however, due to health reasons, she sadly could not attend the event that evening. Instead, her younger sister Fadzilah Amin, accompanied by close family members accepted the award, presented by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, on her behalf.
“On my sister’s behalf, I would like to thank the Malaysian Press Institute for this honour given to her and the Malaysian Women Journalists Association (PERTAMA) for nominating her. Adibah is too frail to speak much, but I am sure she is especially proud to be given this recognition by fellow journalists,” Fadzilah Amin told us. Let’s take a look back at some of the icon’s milestones.
Adibah Amin, who is the daughter of politician, educator and independence fighter Tan Sri Zainon, or Ibu Zain, started her career in journalism in 1971 for News Straits Times and in 1983, became the first woman to be appointed as an editor of Berita Harian. Throughout her career, she has received multiple recognition including the SEA Write Award (1983), the Outstanding Journalist of the Country by the Malaysian Union of Journalists (1996) and the Tun Razak Prize (1998) for her outstanding contribution to the development of education.
She is renowned for her excellence in not only journalism but also literature, having written three Malay novels and produced over 200 radio dramas. Among her most famous works in writing, editing and translating were “Glimpses: cameos of Malaysian Life” (2008), “As I Was Passing” (2006) and “As I Was Passing II” (2007). In 2006, she published her first English novel titled, “This End Of The Rainbow”. In 2022, the “Adik Manja” star received the National Translation Personality Award.
Speaking of the 1980 movie “Adik Manja”, Adibah also bagged the award for Best Supporting Actress at the first-ever Malaysian Film Festival for her iconic role as Cikgu Bedah. Her last on-camera performance was for an educational English-learning CD for kids titled “Adibah & Gang” back in the early 2000s, a personal project she worked on with her family. Honestly, we could go on about all the milestones Adibah Amin has achieved but we’ve already covered much of it in another article which you can read about here.
Although she’s no longer active in literature or journalism, her tremendous work will always be remembered by Malaysians and she will forever remain an icon.
Source: TheStar
