klpac artistic director honoured with Order of Australia award By PAUL GABRIEL

KUALA LUMPUR: There was certainly no theatrics when award winning actor-writer-producer-direc­­­­­t­­or Joe Hasham fought hard to hold back his tears at the Australian High Commissioner’s residence.

Honoured with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) by the Governor-General for his exemplary service to the performing arts, Hasham, who moved to Sydney in 1949 as an 11-month old from Lebanon, could hardly speak as he accepted the award in a solemn ceremony earlier this week.





“Nothing ever matches being honoured by your own country ... it is a feeling that I cannot describe.

“I’ve been taken in by two countries, Australia, and my adopted home, Malaysia, and I am very grateful for that,’’ he said, choking with emotion as his wife Datuk Faridah Merican and close friends watched.



Proud moment: Williams (centre) presenting the Order of Australia award to Hasham while Faridah looks on in a ceremony at the Australian High Commissioner’s residence in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week.
High Commissioner Penny Williams paid tribute to the 61-year-old who was a household name in Australia in the 1970s for his role as the iconic character Don Finlayson in Number 96 (one of the most popular series in Australian television history), describing him as “one of those rare people whom two countries would count as a living national treasure.”

“Just as importantly, Hasham has become a symbol of the forging of deep cultural ties between Australia and Malaysia.

“In fact, it is difficult to think of an individual who has made a greater contribution to the promotion of Australian performing arts in Malaysia than him.

“From Australia’s point of view, though we certainly do claim him as our own, we are prepared to share him (with Malaysia),’’ she said.

Hasham, who moved to Malaysia in 1984 to set up the country’s first privately-owned production house, is currently the artistic director of the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac).

A Permanent Resident of Malay­sia, Hasham’s love of the performing arts was nurtured in school when at the age of 14, he won the Best Actor award at the Genesian Drama Festival.