Khalidah Adibah binti Amin, known professionally as Adibah Amin, is a Malaysian writer, columnist, teacher, translator and actress.
Biography
Born in Johor Bahru, she graduated from her English-medium secondary school and University of Malaya. From 1958 to 1961, she taught Malay and English at the Malay Girls College in Kuala Lumpur. Later she taught at the Language Institute and Alam Shah School, both in Kuala Lumpur and then became the first headmistress of Jalan Kolam Ayer School with another stint at the Language Institute before she left the education service. She worked as a journalist for the newspaper New Straits Times from 1971 to 1984 and later for The Star in the 1990s. Adibah is remembered by many English speakers as the author of the column in the New Straits Times which she wrote in the 1970s and 1980s using the pen name Sri Delima. The columns were republished in book form in 2009.
Literary career
Adibah's writing includes three novels in Malay: Bangsawan Tulen, Seroja Masih di Kolam, and Tempat Jatuh Lagi Dikenang. She has also written more than 200 radio plays and short stories. Her English novelThis End of the Rainbow was published in 2006. She collaborated with both The Star and the New Straits Times publishing articles on how to speak Malay correctly. She was also engaged in literary translations from Malay to English: "No Harvest but a Thorn" by Shahnon Ahmad and "Jungle of Hope" by Keris Mas plus works of poetry by Usman Awang. She also made appearances in three films: Adik Manja,, Hati Bukan Kristal, and Mat Som. In 2008 Adibah suffered a stroke. Though she is not paralysed, she is incapacitated enough not to be able to work any more.
Tun Razak Prize for outstanding contribution to the development of education and the establishment of mutual understanding and harmony between the national communities of Malaysia
National Translator Prize
Special journalistic award of the Press Institute of Malaysia
