A Polished Practitioner of Pragmatic Diplomacy Passes On.

Dato' Dali Mahmud Hashim, Retired Ambassador(25.12. 1940- 9.10. 2022)

One of the finest recruits of the Malaysian Foreign Service of the early 1960s, Dato’ Dali Mahmud Hashim passed away peacefully at a private medical facility in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, October 9, after a brief hospital stay.

Dato’ Dali Mahmud Hashim had joined the Foreign Service a month before the formation of Malaysia. In his three and a half decades in the Foreign Service, he served with distinction in various capacities both at the headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and in several Asian and European capitals. He was ambassador to a number of countries including Pakistan, Sweden, the Soviet Union, Belgium/the EU, Indonesia, and the United States of America. Dali achieved much diplomatic success with his unassuming, personable ways and professionalism. He was eminently equipped temperamentally for diplomatic work with his flair for learning languages, his respect, and understanding of other cultures, and an innate capacity to engage and entertain his acquaintances. With these qualities, he was highly successful in gaining friends for Malaysia.

Notably, Dali did not subscribe to the politically driven megaphone diplomacy of the 1980s and 1990s of attack being the proffered strategy. Rather, he opted to work with his colleagues in Wismaputra to pursue diplomatic objectives in a low-key, reasoned, professional and polite manner. That way, Malaysia’s vital interests were well safeguarded by the professional corps within the country's Foreign Service.

He was one of the country’s pioneer diplomats in Beijing, working with Malaysia’s first ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Dato Hashim Sultan. Subsequently, he served with another Foreign Service pioneer, Tan Sri Lim Taik Choon in Tokyo. Earlier he had had a brief stint in Ottawa and had interestingly worked closely with almost all the pioneer luminaries of the Foreign Service- Tunku Yaacob Sultan Abdul Hamid, Tun M Ghazali Shafie and the Tan Sris- Zaiton Ibrahim, Zakaria Hj Mohd Ali and Zainal Abidin Sulong.

Dali was a soft-spoken gentleman who carried himself with quiet dignity and was noted for his composure, competence, and circumspection. He was well-regarded for his scholarship and diplomatic skills.

His forte was in the area of enhancing bilateral ties to enhance mutually beneficial relations with friendly nations. As head of the administration department in WIsmaputra in the late 1980s, he was known for his keen sense of integrity, fairness, kindness, and acute concern for the wellbeing of his officers.

Together with his wife, he kept a well-appointed home and entertained graciously with a generous spread of Malaysian and Western cuisine.

Following his retirement from the Foreign Service, he served the private sector briefly as a board member.

In more ways, than one Dali personified passionately the lofty ideals of his G-25 movement as an enlightened, erudite, balanced, and sensitive advocate of a well-governed just, peaceful, plural, and united Malaysia.

He is survived by his wife, Datin Asmara Laini Abdullah, a son, a daughter, and several grandchildren.

M. Santhananaban

43000 Kajang.

October 11, 2022