Marina to quit as AIDS chief

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: After more than a decade at the helm of the Malaysian AIDS Council and being at the forefront of the crusade to promote safe sex and change public prejudices against HIV+ people, Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir is calling it a day.
Marina will step down as council president on Jan 1.
“I feel it is high time that I relinquish the post and all the obligations that come with it. But I am not leaving the AIDS field. It’s just that I will get to choose which areas to go into. For the past 12 years, I have been talking about every single aspect including science, politics, economics and women. Now I will concentrate on gender and Islam.”
Marina will also quit her post as chairman of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation, a position she took on in 1993, but will still be coordinating next year’s Red Ribbon Gala.
“It is time to refocus. And the little one is growing up so fast,” she said referring to her youngest daughter Shaista who begins Year One next year.
Eldest daughter Ineza, 18, plans to continue her studies in Melbourne, while son Haga, 17, is studying in Jakarta. Marina is married to professional photographer Tara Sosrowardoyo.
Asked if the work to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS in Malaysia would be affected by her stepping down, Marina said: “I will always, always be linked to it but the problem is too big to be associated with one individual. I want people to support the cause not because of me but because it is an important issue.”
She said that it took her a long while to realise that people do recognise her on the streets.
“I always thought that I have an ordinary face and I blend in with people.”
She related the story of how, when shopping with a friend in Singapore, a man from two aisles away shouted at her: “Aren’t you Marina Mahathir?”
“I just said no!” she said.
In the course of her work to promote safe sex, she had to put up with brickbats. For example, a person remarked that she should be shot because she advocated condom usage, and therefore “immorality”.
“Someone in a mosque said it after a ceramah on social ills. And what upset me more was that the person who related the incident mentioned it in front of my mother. And I do not like her getting upset,” said the daughter of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali.
Apart from continuing her work in the HIV/AIDS field, which will also see her speak at Princeton University next year and being the liaison person for the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), Marina is helping her father with his memoirs, planning new directions for the award-winning TV3 women’s programme 3R as executive producer, and looking for movie scripts after Gol&Gincu in which she was co-executive producer.
Marina also operates her own public relations and publishing firm called Mosaique Communications, and writes the fortnightly Musings column in The Star.
“It has been an adventure working on AIDS issues, an enriching experience and I do not wish for life to be any different. It has changed me and made me a better person. It enabled me to see a side of life I would not have seen coming from a protected, middle-class family,” she said.
Her proudest moment, she said, was organising the 5th ICAAP here in 1999 because it had gone on so well and saw issues such as compulsory licensing and advocacy talked about besides changing public view and perception of HIV/ AIDS.
Marina said the most important change to take place in Malaysia was the decision to implement the harm reduction programme, which she describes as “landmark”.
“My greatest frustration is that 12 years later, there are still people talking about isolating people with HIV/AIDS or having mandatory testing as if that is the answer to the problem. And while the public is aware of AIDS, they still think it will not happen to them. And Malaysians do not want to take responsibility for themselves,” she added.