The narration of Lat's early cartoons, such as "Tiga Sekawan" and "Keluarga Si Mamat", was in Malay. His later works, however, were mostly in English; "Scenes of Malaysian Life" ran only in the English-language "New Straits Times". The English idiom in his works reflects the local pidgin form—"Malglish"—containing smatterings of Malay words and a simpler grammatical structure. After a string of successful English publications, Lat worried he had neglected Malaysians who were not proficient in English. He drew "Mat Som", a story of a "kampung" boy who moved to the city to work as a writer and courted a pretty city girl. The comic was in Malay and a commercial hit; its first print of 30,000 copies sold out in three months. "Far Eastern Economic Review" journalist Suhaini Aznam remarked that Lat's strength was his ability to portray the plight of the common man in a satiric light without any form of bias.