KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 (Bernama) — Academician and social activist Prof Dr Wan Zawawi Ibrahim was laid to rest at the Bukit Kiara Muslim Cemetery, here, at about 2.17 pm today.
Earlier, the funeral prayers, led by his son Wan Hameerudin, were held at the At-Taqwa Mosque, Taman Tun Dr Ismail.
Singer, Datuk Ramli Sarip, was also present to pay his last respects to the late Wan Zawawi.
Wan Zawawi, 75, died of a heart attack at about 6.47 am today, while preparing to perform the subuh (dawn) prayers at his residence in Section 11, Petaling Jaya.
He leaves behind his wife, Noorshah Mohd Salleh and three children.
Wan Zawawi also has another son from his previous marriage to Australian, Dr Leslie O’Brien, who now lives in Sydney.
One of his good friends, editor Gareth Richard, said that Wan Zawawi pioneered the study of culture in Malaysia, as well as being an outstanding anthropologist.
“In addition, he has done a lot of work around teaching critical social sciences, apart from being an inspiring teacher as well as a scholar and writer. After he left academic life, Wan (Zawawi) was still busy writing and researching until the last few weeks,” he told Bernama.
Before retiring, Wan Zawawi was a senior professor of anthropology at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Brunei Darussalam for 10 years.
Apart from being an academic and social activist, Wan Zawawi was also a singer and songwriter who had composed several songs with poetic lyrics and humanitarian elements that were sung either by him or by other singers.
Wan Zawawi composed the song ‘Perjalanan Hidup’ made popular by Ramli Sarip.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency