00:00He was known as the Samurai, not in Japan, but here in Malaysia.
00:06The name followed Harbhajan Singh after a night in 1971 at Sungai Gadut near Surinban.
00:13Four robbers stormed a gambling den, armed with parangs and samurai swords.
00:17Where most would have waited for help, Harbhajan spotted the den owner's sword.
00:22In a flash, he snatched it, and charged.
00:33I asked them to surrender, and they attacked me with a samurai sword, and I countered them.
00:41I injured two, and brought down the other two, and we arrested all the four of them.
00:48From that moment, he was no longer just a policeman, he was the Samurai.
00:55It was a name built on more than one fight.
00:57Over his career, Harbhajan dismantled secret societies, chased down robbers in the streets,
01:02and recovered many firearms.
01:05To colleagues, he was steady in the face of danger.
01:08To gangsters, he was someone to be feared.
01:12The same discipline defined his years in sport.
01:15From the 1960s to the 70s, he played hockey for police, Selangor, and Negri Sambilan.
01:21His stick work cut through opposition defenses with the same precision as the blade he once
01:26swung in Sungai Gadut.
01:29I played hockey for Malaysian police, I played for Selangor, Negri, and later I took up coaching.
01:38And later, I was sent to Pakistan by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation to go for a coaching course.
01:46I became a qualified foreign-trained coach.
01:50As a coach, he brought success too, guiding Negri Sambilan to Merdeka Cup and Raza Cup victories,
01:56and later leading teams in Johor and even Thailand.
02:00That same uncompromising approach shaped not only athletes, but also young policemen.
02:07Among the cadets he once drilled was a young Sarawakian, Wanjunai Di Thwanku Jafar.
02:13In 1964, under the Commissioner's Cadet's Program, Prabhupi Jafar trained him with an unforgiving standard,
02:19punctuality, truth, discipline.
02:24Decades later, Wanjunai Di, who went on to become law minister and now governor of Sarawak,
02:30called him unforgettable, delaying the publication of his memoir, A Policeman, for 16 months until
02:36he could track down and honor his old instructor.
03:02Yet few would have guessed that the man who left such an impression came from the most
03:06modest of beginnings.
03:09Born in 1941, he is the son of a cook for Sikh policemen and later a special constable
03:15and priest.
03:17He rose from King George V school, where he was named best all-rounder to become a policeman,
03:22a coach, and a mentor whose lessons endured far beyond the parade ground.
03:28His family carries that spirit.
03:31His sons and daughter competed at elite levels in hockey and golf, while his grandson has already
03:35appeared on screen and shown promise in sport.
03:40Today at 85, Prabhupi Jafar lives quietly with his family in Samurai Villa, his home in Johorbaru.
03:47But the warrior's code he embodied remains as sharp as the sword he once held and as swift
03:51as the stick he once swung.
03:54And for many, he will always be remembered as Malaysia's samurai.
04:00Frankie D'Cruz and Danish Rajareza, FMT.
04:03FMI drafts, FMT.
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