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.

My Schooldays 1967-1968

I have delayed writing this post due to my inability to find out the name of my form teacher during my fourth form in 1967. Non of us could remember with everybody saying it was more than forty years ago and some claiming senility as an excuse. What is wrong with us that we cant even recall who our form teacher was after benefiting from his/her guidance while in school?

Actually what happened was our first form teacher in form four, a Puan Rahmah Ariffin had to be retired on medical ground. Her place was taken over by another teacher which non of us could recall for sure. It was also due to the short duration before school ends for the year that the other teacher took over. The teacher who took over didn't have much time with us to leave much impression on us as even the best brain in the class the likes of Major (R) Chong Chow Kar(Civil Engineer), Zainal Abidin Hussein(Electrical Engineer), Lim Siong Peek, Azmy Omar, Ibrahim Hussein, Ab. Rahman Ismail (Graduate Teachers), Napsah Mahmud (Administrator), Ghani Senik (Food Technologist), Ashaari Amin (Reseacher) and most others that I called can't remember. Can't blame them as like me, all of them are approaching 60 in one or two years time. Above all they may have overworked their brain so much that most of the remaining cells in their grey matter are useless already. Well even my own brain which is rarely used can't recall so no big deal OK?
Anyway Puan Rahmah Ariffin left a big impression on me. I am truly indebted to this lady. She was instrumental in getting me a Federal Minor scholarship which I received during the second half of the year in 1967. That scholarship entails me to a RM20.00 monthly allowance for the rest of my schooling days till end of 1968. It was timely as after my half brother got married and has his own family to look after he ceased to provide me with the same amount monthly.

I can still visualize the day when Puan Rahmah came to me in class with a form to apply for a scholarship which I had to fill in immediately, get it signed by my father and certified by the Penggawa (Headman) of my mukim (area). That task was no small feat for me. For one my father was living some 10 miles away in my village and it will mean a bus fare of 50 sen return. A big amount of money then.

Somehow I managed to return home only to find that father was miles away tending to the family's rubber small holding. The place was unknown to me and he will only be back by nightfall and by then the Penggawa's office would be closed. Though the Penggawa was related to me, he refused to sign it before my father put his thumb print first, saying that signing blind wasn't the right thing to do. I had to wait for my father to come back that night and get the Penggawa to witness my father's signature the next day.

My dad had to leave for the rubber small holding before daylight so I had to get his thumb print that night. It would be interesting to note how ingenious we were then as there was no inkpad whatsoever for my father to ink his thumb with. Since I had once seen other people inking their thumb using a piece of daun sireh (arecapiper) applied with a thin layer of cooking oil and exposing the oiled surface to the soot of the kerosine lamp, I decided to do the same. Presto, we had a perfect thumb print of my father's right thumb and it was countersigned by the Penggawa the next day. He testified that my father's income was no more than RM70.00 per month. I still believed that we were not far off from that figure then as the rubber small holding was still young and untappable. We lived a subsistence life by eating the rice from our own plot of padi land and on vegetables that mother planted. Our family's cash income came from the sale of 'tembakau darat' a form of local tobacco for use with palm leaf ciggarettes.
I came late to school the next day to submit the duly completed scholarship application form as my mum had to find RM3.00 to pay for my fare back to Pasir Mas and the extra will be some pocket money.
Puan Rahmah believed my explanation of why I was late.

Out of the forty pupils in my class, I was the only one given the form. How did she picked me out to be the lucky pupil? My guess was my earlier meeting with the Senior School Assistant, En. Ab.Rahman Ali to decline my appointment to the school prefect board. (En. Rahman Ali later became the Kelantan State Education Director before being transfered to Negeri Sembilan and later promoted to the post of Director of one of the departments in the Ministry of Education). I cited the inability to buy a pair of white pants which was the uniform for prefects then. En. Rahman assured me that he will look into my problem. Later he sent me to Kuan Sin Tailor in town to have my uniform measured and tailored. The two white trousers cost a total of RM40.00, a big sum by my standard.

The tailor shop remains the same till today when I went to photograpgh it.


Mr. Eng Fook Seng is now 66 years old so he must be 25 years old when he did my trousers. He said the same trousers would cost RM60.00 if he were to do it now. My neighbour Abang Lah who is his regular customer came to the shop while I was there.

It was not long after that Puan Rahmah suffered a mental disorder and she was retired on that ground. Our class was without a form teacher for quite a while. Some of us said that a Peace Corp volunteer by the name of Mr. Gerald Bax who took over from her while Ashaari Amin was later steadfast in his belief that it was our Mr. Loo Hock Guan that took over. Till this day nobody can say for sure who was our form teacher after Puan Rahmah.
Since in 1967, the teacher's union had a boycot of all extra curricular activities, there was no production of the school magazine for that year on which we could have fallen on as record.

I remember buying a pair of ready made black pant and a tailor made shirt from the first RM120 backdated scholarship. It was so much money for someone who dont even have RM5.00 to his name. For the first time in my life I made a purchase of a pair of 'Obermain' leather shoes from Golok which cost me RM12.00.Those clothes enable me to once again go out to town to meet my friends. I ceased to go out to town when a friend chided me for wearing the white school pants whenever I went out. Well that was all that I have got. Any outing activities organized by my class was off limit to me.

Form four was then considered as a honeymoon year as we will only be facing the School Certificate of Examination and the Malaysian Certificate of Examination in form five. These exams are really the same exam as the former can only be achieved if you obtain a pass in the English subject.
Some of the teachers who taught us then were Mr. Loo Hock Guan who taught us English, Puan Zaharah Zohdan who taught us Arts, Mr. Pang Chok Chu who taught us physics, Mr. Toh Kin Woon (Datuk Dr) taught us biology and chemistry, Mr. Mark Anthony taught us woodworking while Mr. Anandan took care of those who opt for metalwork. Mr. Thanda taught us English literature and till this day, I can still remember the story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Can't recall much about the rest of the teachers.
With the boycot by the teachers, 1967 was an uneventful year.

Yours truly is standing second from right. The other male prefect standing on the left is the late Rahim Jusoh who passed away recently due to colon cancer. He is survived by 3 wives and a number of children. You see we don't have a teacher in our class photograph.

The Prefect board of 1967 with the the late Mr. Yusoff Ghouse in the dark suit while the Senior Assistant En. Rahman Ali flanked the head boy Shaari Yahya fourth from right. Can you spot your's truly? He is standing behind Datuk Mustapha Muhamad the present Agriculture Minister, that is if you can recognize him.

1968 was the evenful year. With the teacher's Union problem resolved with the Ministry of Education, extra curricular activities seemed to be carried out with a vengeance. School societies were so active that every nook and corner of the school was used for activities. Even the school canteen, hostel's dining room and shade trees was not spared. The school had a double session then and without a hall, the teachers were at their wits end trying to hold activities for the societies they were in charge of.

The Class of 68 with our teachers. The form teacher was Miss Wong An Yin later Mrs. Foo Say Ghee but she remains Miss Wong to us.
Sitting: En. Ismail Mat (BM), Ustaz Nawi (Ugama) Mr. Thanda, Mr. Gerald Bax (Peace Corp) Miss Wong Ann Yin (Geography), the class monitor Mahmud Awang Kechik (Datuk Dr) Mr Pang Chok Chu (Physics) Chegu Shukri, Mr. Loo Hock Guan (English and English Literature). Yours truly is standing behind Mr. Thanda. Not in the picture is Mr. Toh Kin Woon (Datuk Dr.) who taught us Biology and Chemistry.
1968 was a significant year as this year the sixth form Malay Medium classes was started. This year the baton of the headboy was passed to the sixth form student by the name Ismail Yusoff (Dato').

The Prefect Board of 1968 with the School Board of Directors and the Honourable Minister of Education, the late Tun Khir Johari. Yours truly is the first from left in the middle row.

The late Mr. Yusoff Ghouse was our Head Master then and he was a man who made the teachers payback what they missed doing in 1967. To cap the year we had the sports day and the School Exhibiton day. The exhibition day's opening ceremony was done by the Honourable Education Minister himself. Can you guess who? The Minister was a close friend of our Head Master and hailed from Penang. He was the late En. Khir Johari (Tun).


Yours truly dressed to kill in his tailor made shirt, Obermain shoes (made in Thailand) bought with the scholarship money, white school pants (made by Kuan Sin Tailor and paid by the Parent Teachers Association fund) posing with his close friend Azmy Omar in front of the old main market. On the site of the old market is the Bangunan Serakai Mas built after the old market was gutted down by fire.
The final event of the year was the inter house debate. The final was between the Yellow House represented by Chong Chow Kar (Major Retired), Rohani Ibrahim (Dr) and another debator whom nobody could remember.
Yours truly was the proposer representing the Blue House and seconded by Alexander Chan and another third speaker which nobody can confirm but I vaguely remember a soft spoken Wee Mek Chu who could be the third speaker.
Mr. Loo Hock Guan the English teacher chaired the debate.
What about the topic? I would say the topic is pretty sensitive by today's standard.
"Houses Of Worships Are A Waste of Money". Would any teacher dare to suggest such a topic for students to debates nowadays? Well the debate went well and the students came in full force to witness the great debate. They stood there till the result came out.
Forty years later I called Major(R) Chong Chow Kar who led the oppositon team and asked him if he remembers anything about the debate. He said he can't remember much.He even enquired as to which team won the debate. He forgot that the team led by him won the debate.
1968 was memorable in that I met my future life partner. She was a newcomer to my school when she joined the form four class at Sultan Ibrahim School. She ramains my partner till this day after we got married in 1973 when I was 23 and she was 21.

The Teachers of Old - Mr. Vijaya Samaravickrama.

My earlier years of schooling began in a rural school called Sekolah Kebangsaan Kangkong, Pasir Mas, Kelantan. I was there from year one to year four. The teachers there didnt leave much impression on me except for the very nice Cikgu Aziz and the very fierce Cikgu Ramli. Cikgu Ramli never taught my class. He was teaching in another class next to mine one day and it happened that our own class teacher didnt come in at that time. Being free and not supervised, some of us went out of the class and saw many pupils in the next room were being punished by standing on their chairs by Cikgu Ramli. They immediately rushed in when Cikgu Ramli saw them outside his class. His stern look alone could scare the shit out of us. I was not in the group but out of curiousity I went out to see what was hapening in the next class. Cikgu Ramli caught the sight of me and he came after me. He gave me two whacks of the rotan. The lashes were so severe that it took the whole day for the welt to disappear. My thin shirt didnt help me much. Sympathetic class mates looked at my back and saw the two distinct parallel grooves left by the cane. From that time onwards I hate Cikgu Ramli. I felt the punishment was too severe for the offence that I made and I was physically too small to endure that two of his best strokes.

The next phase of my life involve a certain teacher by the name of Mr Vijaya Samaravickrama. To him I would like to dedicate this section.

After the 4 years stint in the Malay School I was fortunate to be accepted into a Special Malay Class in Sultan Ibrahim Primary School Pasir Mas. That was in 1961. The Special Malay Class was a two year transition program for Malay school pupils to enter the English school at standard 6. This is the earliest entry for malay school pupils to an English school. We can also enter form one in an English secondary school after completing standard six in a Malay or a Chinese school. Entry to form one was after undergoing a one year remove class.

What is special about this Special Malay Class is, it is not just for Malays. We have the Chinese and Thai pupils too but they were from Malay rural schools as well. I can remember two classmates by the name of Khoo Cheng Ho (deceased) and Foo Kheng Hwa.

Our class had a very special teacher by the name of Vijaya Samaravickrama (now Dr). He is of Sri Lankan ancestry but to our limited knowledge he was an Indian. A graduate of Kirkby Teachers Training College in England, I would consider him to be my best teacher. He was extremely tolerant of our ignorance and stupidity. The first teacher that we have in the English School whereby the teacher couldnt speak a word of Malay and the pupils couldnt speak a word of English.

The first day in class started as such:

Mr. Vijaya: Good morning children.
Pupils: Good morning children.
Mr. Viajaya: No you must answer 'good morning sir'.
Mr Vijaya: Good morning children
Pupils. Some answered Good morning sir while the rest answered good morning children.
Mr. Vijaya: Good morning children.
Pupils: Good morning sir.

At the end of the day another communication problem cropped up. Some pupils have to take the evening train. Since we were in the afternoon session, the class only ended after the time for the train to leave. These pupils asked Mr Vijaya for permission to leave early in order to catch the train. Since Mr. Vijaya couldn't understand Malay, they used all sort of gesticulations to make him understand the request. All attempts failed. Help came in the form of a senior pupil who passed by the class. He informed Mr Vijaya of their predicament and before Mr Vijaya could say yes they bolted out because the train was already hooting their horns at the station which was situated almost a kilometer from the school. The next day we heard they did manage to catch the train as the train driver saw them running after the train and he took pity upon them and delayed the train's departure.

Mr. Vijaya was a very creative teacher. What we love most about him was when he told us stories. As a dramatist, all stories came alive with not only him doing the parts but us pupils too will have to act certain parts. So not only we got to enjoy the story but also enjoyed acting. During such story telling times he would vent his frustrations with the dunces in the class. Either the dunces will be asked to act the part on a table or he will shake his/her head as a form of punishment. I guess not many of us realised that.

Art and craft is another interesting time with Mr Vijaya. He had so much to teach us and he taught us as much as he could. Thats learning and from a teacher who is so passionate about his job, we learnt alot and very fast. By the end of year one, we could understand English though speaking it is still a problem what more with our Kelantanese tounge which make our English sound with a different twang.

Our class teacher in Special Malay Two was Cikgu Hashim Mohamad. A great artist who could paint with withwater colours and produce great artwork. At least to my eyes. Unfortunately he didnt teach us art and so none of his ability rub off on us.

In year three we joined standard six. The three classes of Special Malay Class were combined with the 3 classes from standard five. The new 6 classes of standard Six were named by the letters A to E and we were streamed based on our exam result.

Again I was fortunate to have Mr. Vijaya as our English teacher of Standard Six A. A teacher who laid the base for our English education and someone whom we know, like and trust. Mr. Vijaya was also the hostel Master for the combined Secondary and Primary School. During his tenure at the primary school, he was also involved in many activities such as drama productions and other literary activities such as debates and elocutions in The Secondary School. Shakespeares plays such as MacBeth and Julius Ceasar were staged in this East Coast school during his time and if I remember it right it was carried in The Straits Times then. Later he produced Androclus And the Lion whereby he played the leading role. Unfortunately it was staged in Kota bharu and it was too faraway for me to see. As I was alwayss interested in these activities I will always snooping around to such functions. It was such experiences that helped me to create activities for my English Literary and Debating Society of which I was Chairman. This was when I was in form 5.

Mr. Vijaya was transfered out of the school in 1963. Later he lectured in UITM and the last we were in contact in 2005 he was lecturing in Taylors College. A teacher who will teach as long as he is capable to teach. To you sir, I am indebted for life.