Bahá’í World/Volume 20/Yan Kee Leong
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YAN KEE LEONG
18994986
On 19 December 1953, a Malayan Chinese artist named Yan Kee Leong signed a card of acceptance of Bahá’u’lláh. Possibly the only person aware of the historical significance of that moment was Shirin Fozdar, the pioneer who had handed him the card which made him the first believer in Malaya Peninsula. That simple act heralded the biith of a new era not only in his life, but in the life of his country.
Yan Kee Leong was born in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, on 19 November 1899, the fourth child of a poor migrant couple who had come from a Village in China to seek a living from the tin mines of Malaya. Extreme poverty caused him to be given up for temporary adoption, and his foster parent gave him the name Kee Leong. His family name was Yan, and according to Chinese tradition, the family name precedes a personal name resulting in the name Yan Kee Leong, which was shortened to “Yankee” by which he was later known to everyone.
His father died When he was very young and his mother struggled amidst great hardship to bring up the family. Yankee was sent from one school to another in the care of relatives and friends, until he was fina11y enrolled in a Catholic institution of good standing.
His sensitive nature responded to the scripture study, and he was moved to accept the Catholic faith. For his baptism he chose to be named after Saint Paul, and his greatest wish as he grew older was to be a priest. Later he concentrated on his favourite hobby, art, eventually becoming a talented cartoonist for the local newspapers, Where he proved himself a crusader and a reformer. He involved himself in several humanitarian movements and was consumed with the pursuit of truth and the meaning of life.
Slowly he began to see that the Catholic Church was not the perfect answer to his quest, and he pondered on the divisions and
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IN MEMORIAM
subdivisions in Christianity. He studied Hindu and Buddhist teachings, investigated the Rosicrucian Movement, and joined a philanthropic body called the Pure Life Society. He also became an active Theosophist in his never—ending search. None of these organizations, however, provided him with a satisfactory answer to his search for spiritual unity.
One evening, in a moment of inspiration, he outlined a scheme to draw men of all creeds, nations and colours into a lasting bond of Universal Brotherhood. In spite of enthusiastic support from some quarters, the Universal Brotherhood Movement failed to get official recognition as a registered society. Yankee was bitterly disappointed. He was unaware that God had bigger plans for him.
By this time Yankee had married Chi Lye Eng, a Malaysian Chinese woman from Malacca, and raised a family of one son and four daughters, who grew up as dedicated Catholics. They Viewed their father’s non—Christian activities with vehement disapproval.
Yankee’s Bahá’í life began in the town of Shantiniketan in India in 1949 during a World Pacifist Conference to which he was invited as the Malaysian Chinese delegate. Chance would have Yankee seated next to a petite Persian lady who introduced herself as Shirin Fozdar, representing the Bahá’í Religion. Yankee pricked up his ears. Bahá’í? It was new to him. When the lady addressed the delegates, he was beside himself with excitement, because the principles of her Faith were similar to the ones he had tried to formulate in his Universal Brotherhood Movement. He immediately suggested that she Visit Malaya and lecture on her Faith, but she was then unable to do so.
In 1952 Yankee was once again a Elelegate from Malaya to an international gathering, the World Federalist Government Conference in Japan. His colleague was Tunku Abdul Rahman, later to become the first Prime Minister of Malaysia. At this conference, fate placed Yankee next to
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Yan Kee Leong
another distinguished Bahá’í pioneer, Agnes Alexander, afterward named a Hand of the Cause of God, with whom he kept up a correspondence.
It was only in late 1953 that Shirin Fozdar was finally able to accept Yankee’s invitation to Visit Malaya. She and her husband, Dr. K.M. Fozdar, had left India in 1950 in answer to a call for pioneers for South East Asia, and they had settled in Singapore as the first Bahá’ís of that area. Yankee arranged for a series of talks by Mrs. Fozdar in Malacca, Seremban, and Kuala Lumpur. By the end of that tour, in December 1953, he had signed himself into history as the first Bahá’í of Malaya.
This was only the beginning of an impressive list of “firsts” in Yankee’s life. He dedicated himself increasingly to the promotion of the Faith, and within a few months, at Riḍván 1954, there were sufficient Bahá’ís for the first Local Spiritual Assembly in Malaya to be elected. It was the Assembly in Seremban, Yankee’s hometown. This was followed the next year by the election of the neighbouring Assemblies
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of Malacca, and the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, where Yankee and other Bahá’ís had immediately begun teaching activities.
In 1957, the Regional Spiritual Assembly of South East Asia was appointed, with jurisdiction over Malaysia and six other countries in the region. It was based in Indonesia, and Yankee was privileged to serve on that body.
He was the first Bahá’í from Malaya to teach in the neighbouring countries of Brunei and Sarawak, travelling at the invitation of John and Minoo Fozdar, sons of Dr. and Mrs. KM. Fozdar. He began mass-teaching among the indigenous people of the area. He was also the first to take the Faith to the Aslis, the aboriginals of Malaya.
His fondest memory was of a time when the first Asli Village accepted Bahá’u’lláh in 1959. This achievement is all the more remarkable when one realises that Yankee was then 60, and the Malaysian jungle is thick With undergrowth, criss-crossed with rivers, and filled with leeches. Youths, a good 40 years younger than Yankee, who accompanied him on subsequent trips, report lagging behind the indefatigable Yankee. He ate with the Aslis of their tapioca and often rancid preserved meat; he slept on hardwood floors in their longhouses at the mercy of mosquitoes; he travelled the deep fast rivers, keeping immobile lest the small boat should capsize, for Yankee had never learned to swim. He walked briskly up and down hills in remote tribal areas in Thailand and Burma and Laos, endearing himself to the simple Villagers everywhere with his humble loving manner.
In 1964, the first National Spiritual Assembly of Malaysia came into being, and Yankee was elected its secretary. The next year he was appointed Auxiliary Board
member for the Bahá’ís of Malaysia, and'
together with fellow Board member Leong Tat Chee, he Visited Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, becoming the first Malaysian Bahá’ís to travel and teach the Chinese there.
THE Bahá’í WORLD
In 1966, at the request of the Hand of the Cause of God Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir, Yankee went to the Philippines and had the boundless joy of bringing into the Faith the first Chinese there. He was also privileged to guide the first Chinese Bahá’ís of Burma into the Faith. In 1968, he was appointed a member of the first Continental Board of Counsellors for the South East Asian Zone.
When help was needed in Singapore, prior to the establishment of its first National Spiritual Assembly in 1972, Yankee and Leong Tat Chee spent some months there laying the groundwork for the election. Yankee then had the great bounty of witnessing the raising of this new administrative institution to which his daughter, Rose, was elected chairman and his grandson Henry Ong served as a member.
Two years later it was Hong Kong’s turn to elect its first National Spiritual Assembly, and once again Yankee was there to assist in the preparations.
At a time When men are starting to waste away, Yankee, though frail of body, was able to summon his high spirits, and travel to near or distant lands, wherever there was a call for Chinese teaching. Even as his health was slowing him down, he went to far-away Mauritius, and in the last years of his life, he travelled to teach for a month in the crowded and difficult city of Calcutta, where most of the «Chinese in India reside.
During his 33 years as a Bahá’í, Yankee received numerous communications, but the one he cherished most was a letter from the beloved Guardian assuring him of prayers for a long life of dedication and service.
Yankee’s life was indeed a fulfillment of the Guardian’s prayer. His every thought was one of encouragement and praise for the believers through letters or in person. His overflowing love was also expressed through long hours of intense private prayer and. supplication, on behalf of friends and their personal problems.
Only a few weeks before his passing, and With his lungs partly collapsed, Yankee
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IN MEMORIAM
made a supreme effort to be present at the annua1 Bahá’í Convention of Malaysia in 1986. Here he bid farewell to the spiritual children he had lovingly nurtured over the years. Significanfly, the Convention was for the first time held at the newly constructed Balakong Bahá’í Institute located close to the Village in which Yankee was born at the turn of the century. This building has since been named the Yan Kee Leong Institute.
Yankee died in Ipoh on 17 June 1986 at the age of 86. Just before he breathed his last, he suddenly lifted his frail emaciated arms in a gesture of praise, and called out “Alláh’u’Abhá”, then took his flight to the Abhá Kingdom. Baha’u’llah had blessed him richly, for he lived to see his country become a bastion of the Faith, and his children and grandchildren active in service, with. two daughters Auxiliary Board members and one daughter a Counseflor.
His funeral was attended by about 600 believers from all parts of the country. The people in Ipoh watched in amazement as the long procession of Chinese, Indian, and Caucasian friends walked behind the hearse in solemn dignity, without the banner—carriers and professional weepers who usually fo1low a Chinese funeral.
None but the Bahá’ís were aware of the unique station of the man for whom they were mourning. Their sorrowing hearts were uplifted by the following beautifu1 cable from the Universal House of Justice on 19 June 1986:
EXPRESS HEARTFELT SYMPATHY WITH BE LOVED FRIENDS MALAYSIA PASSING YAN KEE
LEONG WHO WILL EVER BE REMEMBERED As
FIRST ENLIGHTENED SOUL TO ACCEPT FAITH
WITHIN COUNTRY. AS DEDICATED SERVANT
BLESSED BEAUTY HE PROMOTED LIFE GIVING
MESSAGE BAHA’U’LLAH, ESTABLISHEIS HIS
SHELTERING INSTITUTIONS, INSPIRED HIS
LOVING FOLLOWERS AND SET EXAMPLE FOR
THE FRIENDS BELONGING TO THE GREAT
CHINESE RACE BY RAISING FOUNDATION DI VINE CIVILIZATION ON EARTH. HIS UNTIRING
MANIFOLD SERVICES IN SOUTH EAST ASIA
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UNFORGETTABLE. ADVISE HOLD BEFITTING MEMORIAL GATHERINGS IN MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE. ASSURE DISTINGUISHED RELATIVES, FRIENDS LOVING PRAYERS PROGRESS SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.
SHANTHA SUNDRAM