Inception and early history
Scrabble was a very popular social pastime in the fifties, sixties and seventies but it was only sometime in the 1980s that Malaysians were introduced to competitive scrabble.
A small group of scrabble enthusiasts – Mohammad Ali Ismail, Haji Abdul Majid, Mohd Idrus Ismail and Raja Fuadin – started weekly scrabble meets to play against each other in their homes and at the Kuala Lumpur YMCA. They played almost every day – and night, and when they learned about the inaugural World Scrabble Championship (WSC) from a newspaper article, they promptly organised a tournament to select a candidate to represent Malaysia in London. In 1991, the first National Scrabble Tournament was held at Bukit Bintang Shopping Complex. Ali won, edging out the late Scrabble whiz John Tan in a thrilling final game, and became Malaysia’s first representative at a WSC.
The Malaysian Scrabble Association (MSA) was born in 1991 by that small core of scrabble enthusiasts with Ali as its pro-tem president and Abu Bakar Samat as the pro-tem secretary. MSA would not be formally registered until 1994 but this did not deter its band of dedicated committee members from plunging headfirst into a whirl of activities to promote Scrabble.
Through the good offices of Puan Mahani, the P.R. Manager of Park Royal Hotel, the MSA was given a regular meeting place on the mezzanine floor of the Hotel. Many exciting tournaments were held in the basement of the Hotel during the next few years.
MSA’s first annual general meeting was eventually held in 1995. YB Dato’ Dr. Abdullah Fadzil Che Wan was elected as the first president of MSA and Dato’ Haji Matshah Safuan as the deputy president. In 1997, Brother Michael Wong became the second president of MSA with Raja Fuadin as the deputy president. Two vice-presidents were also elected – Leon Rethual and Tengku Asri.
MSA Committee 2022/23
President – Chang Ching Wei
Vice President 1 – Mohammad Ali bin Ismail
Vice President 2 – Kong Chock Heng
Secretary – Beverley Hon
Treasurer – Khoo Beng Way
Committee Members
- K Sundraraj
- Alex Tan Ken Seng
- Adham Abdullah
- Lee Pao Hsien
- Mathan Raj Amjad Beg