download - Malaysian Thoracic Society

AnnuAl Congress of MAlAysiAysi
An ThorAC
iC soCieTy
anniversary
MALAYSIAN THORACIC SOCIETY
Advancing Thoracic Medicine in Malaysia for 25 years
HONORARY MEMBER OF MTS
TAN SRI DATO’ SERI ARSHAD AYUB
Citation
By dato’
dr Zainudin Md Zin
Arshad Ayub was born on 15 th November 1928. The eldest of five siblings,
he was raised in an environment of hardship and poverty, constantly exposed
to infectious diseases, not by choice but by circumstances beyond his control.
Being the eldest, he had to look after his siblings, especially when his parents
died one after another due to illness caused by abject poverty.
Poverty was not a barrier for Arshad to color his life and the future. Poverty had
made Arshad resolved to change his fate and that of his family, especially to
help and give back to his mom and dad. Arshad had never been ashamed of his
background. Neither did he regard it as a setback. He accepted his roots and the modest way in which he and
his family lived helped him cultivate an intrinsic sense of humility, a personal quality he carried into his adult
working and family life.
Arshad had to go through a lot of hardship in his younger days. His education was interrupted by the outbreak
of the Second World War and he almost dropped out of school due to an infectious disease. The Japanese
occupation added more pain to Arshad’s life. His beloved father died of dysentery and that forced him to drop
studying to seek ways of helping his family survive. Having no professional training or education, Arshad was
only able to get odd jobs. These included peddling a three wheeled trishaw, selling coconuts, carrying and
selling firewood and, later, working as a laborer with the Forestry Department.
Arshad always believe that education is the main tool for the poor to advance themselves. He made use
of every educational opportunity that came his way to advance and improve his position in life. 1951 was
a historic year for Arshad. He began his career as an Assistant Rural Development Officer in RIDA. Later,
he was sent to further his education in College of Agriculture in Serdang. In September 1954 with a scholarship
in hand, he left the country by boat to pursue a Degree in Economic and Statistics at the University College
of Wales, Aberystwyth. Arshad felt that this was the most important milestone in his life, to have been given
a second chance to make something of himself, which he did. In 1963, Arshad was sent by the government
to do a management programme in business administration at IMEDE (Management Development Institute)
in Lausanne, Switzerland. Later, he also attended management courses in Harvard Institute of Educational
Management Programme, and INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.
After two years of being Principal of Maktab MARA College, Arshad was appointed as the First Director of
Institute Technology MARA (ITM) now known as UiTM in 1967, and was ripe and ready to make good of his
destiny. ITM was Arshad’s gauntlet. He put his heart and soul into its beginnings, nurturing it with concepts
and programmes then unknown and unexplored in the higher education sector. Arshad ruled with visions
and made long lasting decisions that affected the lives of thousands of Bumiputras and inspired the staff
regardless of ethnic background, gender, race or religion with high teaching morale, commitment and work
ethics. Arshad has deservedly been given the place of honour as the ‘father of development’ of ITM. He not
only laid the academic groundwork for several new courses and related programmes to suit a growing student
population but also ensured that ITM delivered its objectives, namely, to provide professional education to as
many Bumiputras as possible.
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