In 1973, Lat, who was then a crime reporter at the New Straits Times, submitted his comic strip for the Hong Kong-based Asia Magazine with the traditional life culture as the main subject where he drews a cartoon and provide the dialogues about a traditional Malay Muslim ritual, the circumcision. It drews attention from the-then New Straits Times editor-in-chief, Lee Siew Yee, who later offered him a permanent column cartoonist role in the newspaper. Lat then taking that position specially created for him by the the-then newspaper's editor, Abdul Samad Ismail. This gave birth to the Scenes of Malaysian Life comic strip where his first duty is to highlighted the daily lives of Malaysian multiracial culture and current affairs.
