“Happy birthday, Mus”, is what I would say if I were to call him at this moment, instead of writing this and clicking on the ‘publish’ button. My best friend Mustaffa b. Dapat would have been forty seven today.
If he is still with us today, he would have been very proud to see the fruits of his handwork and passion. His ‘babies’ are now the nation’s most prized defense assets. At the time of his departure, no one in the country knows more about the DCNS made Scorpene submarines compared to him. The RMN Submarine project team was already in France. overseeing the construction then.
The first batch of Royal Malaysian Navy officers who earned their dolphins from Royal Australian Navy
He was called to be with Allah s.w.t. on 28 August 2004, two months before his 40th birthday. The cause of death is ‘Steven Johnson syndrome’ and he passed away at the ICU of a hospital in Caen. He was transefered to Caen when his condition worsened. It was the effect when doctors at Louis Pasteur Hospital in Cherbourg administered penicillin to him three and a half weeks earlier.
Needless to say, I am one of the many who still sorely miss him. We still speak very fondly of the man who was the best Navy cadet in his cohort and later to be one of the first three Malaysians to earn their dolphins from Royal Australian Navy.
At peace on eternal patrol..