Contributions

Dato Lat with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

Dato Lat with the manager of Air Asia

Lat's works have been used in academic studies—the fields of which are diverse, spanning law, urban planning, and diets.The academics use his drawings to help them illustrate their points in a humorous yet educational manner. Foreign embassy officials have sought Lat for his insight into the cultures of their societies. They have invited him to tour their countries, in the hope that he will record his experiences in cartoon form to share with the world. The first country to do so was the United States, followed by others such as Australia, Germany, and Japan. In 1998, Lat became the first cartoonist to be made an Eisenhower Fellow and revisited the United States; his research programme was the study of relationships among the many races in United States society. In 2007, the National University of Malaysia awarded him an Honorary Doctoratein Anthropology and Sociology. Lat's works are recognised as visual records of Malaysia's cultural history; he was awarded a Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2002 for preserving Malay rural culture in his works.

In 1986, Lat became the first cartoonist to exhibit his work at the National Museum in Kuala Lumpur; the event drew a record number of 600,000 visitors in two months. He is treated as a celebrity, and his cartoon characters decorate stamps, financial guides, and aeroplanes. When Reader's Digest asked Malaysians in 2010 to rank which of 50 local personalities was most worthy of trust, Lat was returned fourth on the list. According to Jaafar, "100% of Malaysians respect and admire Lat, and see a Malaysian truth, whether he is drawing a policeman, teachers, or hookers."

This video shows the Lat's drawing, he teach Indian student to draw.