I Missed Two Events.

Could it be me when I was young?

Upon reflection I found that I missed another two events in 1968 that is worthy of mention. Infact its exclusion makes the write up fatally flawed. Adding the events in the previous post will only make you lose precious time as you may have to read up the whole post all over again.

Public caning was a rare happening in our school. During my five years at Sultan Ibrahim Secondary School Pasir Mas, I can only recall this one occasion when 3 of my classmates were caned in front of the school assembly. It is common for us to be caned in class but not in front of the full school assembly. It really reflected the severity of the offense for one to be so punished. It will of course leave an indelible mark on the mind of those so penalised. Since I was the one who was directly involved in their getting caned, it affected me too.I spent many months of fearful existence from being accosted in the street as a tit for tat by those being caned. Due to that I spent most of the time to the school fenced up compound as I was a hostelites living within the compound of the school. Fortunately the guys that were caned must have realized it was their mistake and their foolishness of being caught doing the wrong deed made them feel that I wasn't really the cause of their misery and shame.

It is the best kept secret as only myself and another two classmates who know of how the misdeed was brought to the attention of the teacher concerned. Now it is 40 years down the line, only the three of us know about it. Even the teacher doesn't know who actually saw them did it.

You must be wondering what the heck was the reason for the caning? I will not hold the suspense any longer as I too need to proceed with the other event to complete this blog.

Being a small school with a small library, we have this precious set of encyclopaedia called the Enclyclopaedia Brittainica. It was the only set and I cant really recall how many volumes there were in the set. They were definitely more than 10 thick volumes including the index. These encylopaedias was most sought after as a reference material. They were reference books and so they were never allowed to be borrowed. The library was being opened from 3.00 PM to 5.00 PM being operated by volunteer student librarians with me being the head librarian. The library occupies a class room and thus was quite crampy. During my tenure as the head librarian I had proposed a few suggestions to the library master on how to improve and maximise space in the library. One of them was to remove the doors to all the cabinets holding the book and as a measure for security, all the windows of the library be fitted with BRC (2 inch square wire mesh). When we received new paperbacks from United States Information Services (USIS), I suggested that they be covered with plastic covers to ensure longevity and to create space for them, more shelves were constructed on the walls without the need for additional cupboard which was the practice before then. All of these suggestions were accepted by the library master by the name of J N Anardhanan. The cupboards were arranged in such a way almost resembling a maze to improve space. It was at one such corners that these three students had used to tear off pages from the encyclopardia to take home to read.

Always remember that when you are doing something clandestine, the walls have eyes and ears. There were no hidden cameras or microphones then to do a soi lek (too bad if you don't know what I mean) but there were human eyes who could see. The trio were assuming that this person didn' t see what they were doing and even if he did, he wouldn't tell on them. That was their mistake. The information was passed on to another friend and through him to me as the head librarian. I had to do what I had to do and reported the 'crime' to the Library Master complete with the details of the time and names of the students involved.

It didn't take long for the Library Master to extract a confession from the trio and they returned the torn pages which was the absolute evidence necessary to nail them. Ah how I wish our police force are as effective as my Library Master when extracting confession from the real criminals.

The next school assembly was on a Sunday. It was held in the afternoon after classes were over as the afternoon session needs to be present too. Thus at the school assembly both the morning sessions and the afternoon sessions for the lower forms were present. The three guilty students were called to the front of the assembly and the Headmaster En. Yusoff Ghouse (the father of lawyer Marina Yusoff) read out the offense and announced they were to be punished with public caning. The whole assembly comprising of about 1300 students fell to a pin drop silence. Only the sound of passing cars along the road nearby was audible. The trio came prepared. When the first stroke was struck with the full might of a man's swing by the disciplinary teacher by the name of En. Nik Alwi, there was a hollow sound emanating from the strike. True to his suspicion, En. Nik Alwi pulled out an excercise bookfrom the inside of the student's short. The other two were compelled to remove their padding too before their punishment was meted out.

It was not the pain of the caning that made the punishment unbearable, it was the shame that made it hurt the most. To be caned infront of a school assembly is an experience one will not want to experience. It was a lesson well learn't by the other students.

When we grew into adulthood, what happened during the school days were presumed forgotten and we are the best of friends again. Two of the trio suffered a stroke and one recovered quite well. With a group of other classmates, we visited him on 29th October and he was in great mood though his left arm and leg were almost crippled.

After 40 years the secret remains a secret. It is the best kept secret. I wonder if the secret should remain a secret?

Another event that I missed mentioning was the 'Malam Seribu Bintang' (Night of A Thousand Stars). Our class of Form 5A was tasked with the making of the stage under the able stewardship of Mr. Mark Anthony the wood work teacher. It was a stage show staged over two nights.

It must have been En. Rahman Ali's brainchild as he wanted to showcase his student band called 'Kostrad Pelajar' with Suhaimi Hussin on lead, Fauzan Omar on rythm, Azmi Omar on bass, Mohamd Jusoh on drums and Aziz Awang Hamat as the lead singer as well as on tambourine. (If the name Fauzan Omar rings a bell, yes he is the famous artist/lecturer at UITM).

Cikgu Rahman Ali and his bandboys 'Kostrad Pelajar'

On the night of the show the band couldn't get the bass guitar which was supposed to be lent by the local band known as The Wheels. Che Gu Rahman was so incensed that he straight away bought a new guitar for RM180 which was a big sum of money back then.

A singing contest was also held and Shamsiah Abdullah walked away with the first prize after delivering the catchy song 'Luna Lunera' with the additional accompaniment of the bongo played by who else but Chegu Rahman Ali.

Shamsiah took the first prize by singing Luna Lunera.

The hostelite was given a slot to perform. We opted for the dance drama which we concocted ourselves after getting the idea from the film 'West Side Story'. The dance drama was titled The Fight In Golden Sand played to the accompaniment of For A Fistful of Dollars Since the idea came from me, of course I put myself in one of the main roles. The story revolved around two gamblers one of whom cheated the other which led to a gangfight. The fight between the gang leaders ensued. The gang leaders were played by Mahmud Awang Kechil(Datuk Dr) and Ashaari Haji Amin. The original line was supposed to end with Ashaari being killed by a stab of the knife. Unfortunately we were using real sharp knife and it nicked the thigh of Ashaari Amin and blood oozed out from the wound dripping to the floor. The audience was unaware that real knife was used until Mahmud dropped the knife and the sharp knife stuck upright with the tip embedded on the wooden floor. The show went on umimpeded but after the show, Ashaari was rushed to the clinic to have the wound sutured.

The next day we were allowed to perform on the express condition that no real knife ever be used. We bought a plastic knife for replacement. I can't remember who replaced Ashaari Amin for the second night, could it be the late Abbas Akbar?.

The school choir performed and it was a haunting song which I can't remember the title.

The school choir.

It was a night worth remembering. It was the pinnacle of our student life as many parents were in the audience. Me, I had my girlfriend in the audience.