Arena Wati
Malaysian writer
Muhammad Dahlan Abdul Baing (or Andi Mohammad Dahlan Andi Buyung) (30 July 1925 – 25 January 2009), whose pseudonym was Arena Wati, was a Malaysian writer. He was declared as the Malaysian National Laureate in 1988. His writings were in the Malay language. He also known as Duta Muda dan Patria.
Life
He was born in Jeneponto, Makassar, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Arena received his early education in Dutch schools, Hollands Indische School, before the outbreak of World War II. During World War II, at the age of 18, Arena Wati became a seaman. His experience in this field improve his skills in writing and produce a good novel. He completed his secondary education at Makassar in 1953. After graduating from school, Arena Wati became a journalist and work with publishing company in Singapore, and then to Johor Bahru and Brunei. During this period, he has become a citizen of Malaysia and between 1962 and 1974, and later served as the editor of Pustaka Antara.
“Arena Wati” enters the record as malaysian writer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Arena, Wati and Malaysian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Arena Wati” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Arena, Wati and Malaysian provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4069002. VIAF identifies the subject as 48110304. The Library of Congress control number is n82090308. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 2009, 1988 and 1953.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Arena Wati”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Arena Wati primary sources, Arena Wati archive and Arena research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Arena Wati”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Arena Wati” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.