Ignatius Stephen was the owner of a 24-hour cafe right smack on Jalan Sultan called Cafe De Royalle. It was a cafe primarily targeted for tourists. He had the walls covered with pictures of a Proboscis monkey, familiar green scenery with young and attractive Bruneians. Outside he positioned his waitresses to patrol the sidewalks, where they cajoled anyone with whom they made eye contact. They smile and wave menus at you to have a seat on one of the leopard print chairs outside on the pavement, or the less ostentatious chairs inside where there's air-conditioning, CNN and newspapers. Almost everyone who works in town has sat in those chairs during lunch hour. Office workers, bankers, insurance agents and contractors, all types. Tourists in shorts and flip-flops, red-faced and unaccustomed to our weather, sit and drink ice lemon tea watching the locals walk by, or drive pass. People with a story to tell or looking for one to hear. And if he was around, there were rarely days he wasn't, you would have seen a man, always impeccably dressed, with shiny cheeks and mischievous eyes, inviting you in to have a cuppa.
Ignatius passed away last Thursday. Not only was he a cafe owner he was also a local media institution. He was a reporter for the Borneo Bulletin from the 60s, making a name for himself at the age of 26 fearlessly reporting on the 1962 revolt.
From then on he had a long-lived career. I am certain most Bruneians have a favourite Ignatius story. I for one have written to him to voice my concerns over how he handled a particular one. I recall a decade ago a public and at times unsavory spat between him and the now defunct News Express, one that he certainly outlasted.
In his later years he wrote for the Borneo Bulletin as a freelancer, where his articles were sometimes personal, sometimes a rambling, but always about Brunei. Not only were his articles published here, as a stringer for international wire services like Reuters, he brought our stories out into the world like no other individual in Brunei.
It was no secret who was behind Brunei's most frequently visited website brudirect.com Ignatius was also our first Internet entrepreneur. He started a website containing news about Brunei and monetized it. For a while you could not distinguish between the Borneo Bulletin and Ignatius Stephen. I did not realize that the Borneo Bulletin had its own website until quite recently. He was, despite cashing in on ad revenues, "old school" and it showed on his website. Alongside complaints of how long it took the front page of Brudirect to load, it was more the vitriolic incendiary comments about everyone and anyone found in the forums of Brudirect that caused many to enter and many more to leave the site.
He was a man who inspired strong emotions in those who came across him, which caused him to be liked and disliked in equal measures. He was also fearless, a necessity for a true journalist and the reason for such strong emotions. But at the end of the day, it is the nature of the job and journalism was the undertaking that he did effectively and for a long time.
And towards the end, he appeared to be living a contented and full-filled life, writing his weekly column and minding his cafe. Meeting people and engaging them in lively debate, his 24-hour cafe the warm heart of the old town, a hundred meters from the river.
@emmagoodegg
Illustration by Cuboi Art.
For the edited online version click here.
Well written. May he be remembered.
Posted by: BruneiTweet | Monday, 20 June 2011 at 11:13 AM