Tan Sri Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad or better known by the moniker Za'aba, was a Malaysian writer and linguist. He modernised the Malay language with the publication of a series of grammar books entitled Pelita Bahasa in 1936 at the Sultan Idris Training College. The book contained guidelines in modernising the structure of classical Malay, transforming it into the language that is in use today: the most significant change was the switch from the conventional passive to the modern active form of syntax.

Sultan Idris Education University is a public university in the town of Tanjung Malim, Perak in Malaysia. First established in 1922 as a teachers college, it is one of the oldest functioning institutions of higher learning in Malaysia.