...as though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death...

About lunch time, aku dapat panggilan. Ada orang inform that Loloq had already passed away. Terbodoh jap aku. Lum sempat gather my thoughts, dua lagik SMS masuk. Followed by another call. Semua memberitahu benda yang sama. Berita yang aku sungguh tak sangkakan, dan memang... mengejutkan.

Rosli Khamis, atau abang Loloq, born in Singapore to his father from Masjid Tanah, Melaka, and his mother, a Chinese-Muslim convert - a mualaf, was one of the most important people in the Malaysian music industry.

I always heard his name dulu, and bila berpeluang kenal dia, didn't really get the chance to sit down and talk to him.

The last few years, we kept bumping into each other.

And aku ingat time yang paling lama aku penah sembang ngan dia, masa soal aku kena ban over the AIM issue (please don't ask me, selak page belakang banyak banyak catch up). Dia banyak advise aku to stand my ground, and fight for what I believe in.

People like M. Nasir and him dulu scared me, because they were intelligent, thinking people, who were artistes in all essence of the word. They weren't in this line for popularity and fame, but because they were passionate. They lived and breathed music.

Abang Loloq penah nasihat aku, and bagik kata semangat. Dalam kekadang rasa fed up berada dalam industri yang kekadang ngarut ngan all these superficial things, he told me to focus on what I wanted to get across.

"Semuanya bermula ngan ko lah. Ko kena usaha sendiri, takkan nak dok ngadu nasib je kan? Kalao nak wat camtuh, then no different lah ngan orang yang nyusahkan hidup kita. So make that change la.... has to start somewhere kan."

Something like that...

And at that point - I kept fighting. Masa forum AIM, dia, abang Nasir, abang Ali Bakar, abang Farihin... semua fought for the same things I did. Not because we were rebels or tak puas ati ngan several people. Nope. Because we wanted the music industry to grow, not die. And I felt proud that I wasn't doing something stupid - and it was for the good of our future, though I had doubts before abang Loloq assured me, that there always would be a price to pay.

Masa Gemilang menang dulu pun sama. Aku tak puas ati soal lirik - walaopon takde la bombastic bahasa aku, aku rasakan lirik by Asmin Mudin, was just grammatically horrible. And it didn't really make sense. Abang Loloq was one of the only ones who had the guts to say it - when others just ngata belakang-belakang.

That was the sort of man Loloq was.

He said what he felt, he fought for what he believed in. He saw the world in all its beauty, and appreciated semua anugerah Tuhan.

And then - at 1.37pm, in the Damansara Specialist Centre, abang Loloq mengehembuskan nafas terakhir.

At 6.45pm, selepas jenazah dimandikan di Surau Al-Ikhwan, Bandar Baru Sungai Buloh, he was buried di Tanah Perkuburan Islam Bandar Baru Sungai Buloh.

I didn't cry, though a lot of people who knew him very well did.

I guess I didn't know him that well. But I did feel a loss. Loss of a modern day poet. Loss of someone who saw something in me when I fought, apart from a freak trying to cause trouble which many think I am.

Abang Loloq, rest in peace. I pray for you to be blessed for the way you've touched so many lives, through your words, whether in song as to many, or in what you've said directly, like to me.

I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you one last time at least. But I'll always remember the support and advice you gave me.

I'm not as good with words as you were, dan aku tak reti nak gambarkan betapa sedihnya industri muzik Malaysia kehilangan seorang yang begitu berharga dari segi sumbangan karya.
At least one thing made me smile today though. To see the majority of people in the industry yang menghadirkan diri to pay their last respects.

Ramai sangat.

Ni beberapa orang yang datang yang sempat aku recall. Sorry kalao tertinggal sesapa.
M. Nasir, Amy & Yazid (Search), Hattan, Misha Omar, Jaclyn Victor, Ella, Andy (Flop Poppy), Nurul, Ajai, Tam & Tony(Spider), Farhan, Mila, Haziq, Man Bai, Farihin Abdul Fatah, Zainal Abidin, Hillary Ang, Joe (Wings), Neves (Pretty Ugly), Cat Farish (The Fabulous Cats), Aidit Alfian, Mohariz Yaakup, Ad Samad, Ramli MS, Ali Bakar, Aziz Bakar, Rosyam Nor, Adlin Aman Ramlie, Afdlin Shauki, Eman Manan, Mamat Khalid, Badaruddin Hj Azmi, Marlia Musa dan ramai lagi.

Mawi berada di Syria ketika ini so understandable lah absence dia. Tapi aku sedikit terkilan ramai artis yang mencipta nama dengan jasil karya Loloq tak muncul.
Senang sangat kekadang manusia lupa.

Anyway... I can't go on and on. Here are some pictures I took today. Hope you guys say a little prayer for him, please in your own way. Nothing much more to say for now...