One of Malaysia’s first generation of motoring journalists, Shahriza Hussein, passed away last weekend, two months short of his 67th birthday. He left us peacefully, with no pain and suffering, something which I feel is the 'reward’ a person gets for having been good during his life on earth – and Shahriza was certainly a good man, kind and fatherly to the rest of us in the fraternity.

Shah, as everyone called him, was the publisher and editor of Auto International which started in 1976 but he probably never expected to be one. His early years of working were spent in the Malaysian education service as a teacher, examinations specialist and curriculum consultant.

However, in the mid-1970s, he decided government service was not for him and moved into the private sector to start Auto International (AI), which was the second motor magazine in Malaysia after Asian Auto which had started in 1973 (the AAM magazine is 'older’ but it has been circulated only to members). Although he also had other magazines, among them one which covered his other passion – hifi audio systems – AI was the one that took up virtually all his time.

I first knew of Shah in 1977 and a friend arranged for me to be interviewed by him as I was keen to get into the line. Things didn’t work out (I think he had enough people then) and Asian Auto took me on instead. As I became editor within about six months of joining Asian Auto, Shah became a rival but we maintained cordial relations. I felt that AI had a more glamorous presentation (their pictures were always better) whereas Asian Auto took a more technical approach to reporting, so we had different audiences.

Being the oldest among us, Shah was usually regarded as the 'leader’ though he never really held such a role. I can only remember one occasion when all of us got together to tell the marketing manager of a certain company to 'mind his own business’ and we chose Shah to represent us.

Among the people in the industry, he was often 'feared’ because of his incisive manner of questioning.  No matter how well prepared they were for all sorts of questions, Shah would spring something unexpected on them! But his bark was worse than his bite, as the saying goes, and much of the time, the challenging questions he posed never actually got into the articles. I think that he simply enjoyed the debates that he often had with engineers and senior figures in the industry.

By 2005, Shah decided that it was time to retire and stepped away from an active role in producing the magazine every month. He led a quiet life at home and we occasionally talked to each other but it was somewhat difficult as his hearing slowly deteriorated. Nevertheless, thanks to e-mails circulated among the fraternity, we all 'heard’ from him on and off. He also wrote some articles for a newspaper in which he related his childhood years and that was great reading.

He mentioned that he was working on a book and I thought it would be his memoirs about his time as an editor covering the Malaysian auto industry. After all, he had begun covering it before Proton started and then he saw its development after that and personally witnessed numerous developments. But that wasn’t the sort of book he was writing; instead, it was a novel set in an earlier era called 'Legacy’.  He very kindly presented me with a complimentary copy which, with his passing, is now even more special as a token of remembrance.

Like many others who knew Shah, our deepest sympathies to his wife and children on their loss.