PAST FORWARD

Tan Sri Nazir Razak, Jason Brooke and Dato' Zahim Albakri are turning the keys to the storied legacies of three extraordinary family homes.

- 

In a quiet studio recently, two men sat across a small table, casually swapping stories as photographers, editors, writers, stylists, and a hair and makeup team buzzed around them.

"My mother called her five sons Jib, Jo, Jam, Jim and Jay," Tan Sri Nazir Razak explains, laughing off his nickname Jay (somehow the diminutive of Nazir). Jason Brooke, grandson of the last Raja Muda of Sarawak, smiles. He too is "just Jay" to his mum.

It's barely 7am. Jason had flown in from Kuching, Sarawak just a few hours earlier, while Nazir's flight from London 48 hours before had been held in Dubai as missiles flew over the Middle East. It was a busy week to be fitting in a photo shoot.

Dato’ Zahim Albakri pushes the door open, his quizzical grin the only acknowledgement of his fashionably delayed arrival. His theatre company, Dramalab, had just wrapped the critically acclaimed Visits the weekend before, with standing ovations for the cast and director, the formidable Ida Nerina. He charmingly discusses hats with the stylist before all three, suitably suited, amble over to the seamless paper backdrop at the far end of the studio.

They are here to share plans and progress around once-private family homes. These residences—steeped in history, memory, and significance—are more than just bricks and mortar. They are vessels of culture and community, shaped by a collision—perhaps even a collusion—between ancestry and the forces of change.

As the camera shutter clicks rhythmically, what's captured is an undeniable gravitas that underscores the lightness with which all three men carry the weight of their legacies. In a world increasingly driven by social media, where privilege is often mistaken for achievement, their stories prompt a more nuanced question: Is legacy the crossover of both?