Six year old and thirteen days...............................
1952 - Standard 1 Malay school, Kampong Bikam. I walked across the railway bridge over Sungai Bikam to school. I only carried a small black board (papan hitam) and a small bottle of water as an eraser. There was no text or exercise book then. Either my Grandmother or my Grandfather would accompany and fetched me to/from school. The danger was when crossing the railway bridge; the pedestrian walkway was too narrow and at anytime the train might pass through. Standard 1 had no desk and chair, so we sat cross legged on the wooden floor.
1953 –The school was demolished and shifted to a temporary cow shed like building within the kampong nearer to the present main road. The Government in the meantime was building a new Malay School complex nearby. All the classes in the temporary cow shed building were under one single “attap” roofing and you can imagine the noise from within the classes. The school was shifted in tandem with shifting the surrounding residents to a new settlement (kampong baru) due to the Emergency and Parti Komunis Malaya was creating havoc. One fine day, a Red Cross Land Rover with two European Nurses came to the school to inoculate the school children. I was scared stiff of an injection needle and refused to be inoculated.
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1954 – By now, my father was transferred to Ipoh as Penghulu of Ulu Kinta. Term holidays I normally stay with my parents. Beginning of the yearly school term, my father did not send me home to the kampong, instead he purposely admitted me to a Malay School Conollay Road in Ipoh in Standard 3. It lasted only for three (3) days as I was kidnapped by my grandparents during the school interval and huddled back to the kampong. There was a tussle between my father and my grandparents. My father was furious and giving ultimatum that I should go to an English School. My grandparent abided and I was then enrolled to Standard English Primary School in Bidor, back to Standard 1. Therefore I wasted two (2) schooling years.
Early morning I walked to the main road about a kilometer away from home and waited for the Sungkai/Bidor bus. My grandfather accompanied me half way as he had to detour to a rubber smallholding to tap rubber. I had a cultural shock when I entered English School because I did not know any word of English. Mr. Tan Chin Guan was my first non Malay Teacher.
1955 – Standard 2 in English School in Bidor. The routine was all the same. Before going to school I dipped into the cold river water to have my bath. I did not have toothbrush and tooth paste instead I used coconut husk and charcoal. I had only one pair of white “Fung Keong” rubber shoe for a year. My school uniform would be starched and charcoal ironed. Sometimes when I walked through muddy patches, I had to take off my shoe. When my pencil became short, my grandfather extended it with bamboo. Kerosene lamp lighted my night.
1956 – Standard 3. I topped the class together with Hew Kin Sun (now a prominent Doctor in Kuantan). I got a mini bicycle as a present and my grandparents bought it all the way from Kampar. I now cycled to the main road, left it under lock and key at one of the Teacher’s house at the Malay School compound. I was very comfortable moving around the kampong with the mini bicycle.
1957 – Standard 4. Malaya got its independence on 31 August 1957. Merdeka. I attended the celebration in Ipoh. There was a big celebration where the night was lighted up with decorated float parade and the streets filled with neon lights. At the end of the year, I was second in the class; I trailed behind Hew Kin Sun. Not too bad for a kampong boy who initially did not know any word of English.
1958 – Standard 5. My grading kept on dropping in class and I was third. There was always a tussle between Hew Kin Sun, Tan Kin Peng and me. Perhaps I spent too much playing around and jumping into the river too often with my kampong mates. I love the yearly flood where I could swim freely right under the stilt house and maneuvered the sampan or self made bamboo raft from one house to another.
1959 – Standard 6. I sat for the Secondary School Entrance exam. That was the first important examination in my life. However at the normal yearly class examination I dropped to 6th and for the first time for the past three years I did not walked up the rostrum to receive any present during the last day of the year school term. I had nobody to blame except myself. I dropped behind due to Arithmetic of which I was very poor at. I could not keep abreast with the Chinese boys. Later I came to know the Chinese boys attended Chinese school in the afternoon. I had no one to tutor me on Arithmetic.
At the end of the year when the result was announced I did score and I remember I scored 417 marks out of 500 and one of the top 40 to be placed in Form 1A at a Secondary School.
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During the long term holidays I attended an interview accompanied by my father for the entrance to Malay College Kuala Kangsar at the former State Secretariat Office in Ipoh. I was confident that I would get a place as my two (2) elder brothers were already studying there. However, to my disappointment I was rejected and adding salt to injury my cousin Aminurrashid Zain secured a place. That was the biggest disappointment I ever went through at a very young age. I remember, I cried. Up to this day, I always wonder what I would be if I gained admission to Malay College Kuala Kangsar. If there was a foul play on any party, I will not forgive him or her. See you at thereafter.
1960 – Form 1A Government English Secondary English School, Tapah. I have new sets of friends from the various Primary Schools in the District. During the first term, I travelled by bus from Kampong Bikam to Tapah. My travelling mileage was extended and I reached home much later in the afternoon compared to my tenure in Primary school, Bidor. My father sensed that I was frustrated for not getting into Malay College and the long day I had. He quietly arranged with my Uncle to admit me into the School Hostel. From the second school term onward I got a place in the School Hostel and I became a boarder. I was now free from the kampong life.
Living with my Grandparents wasn’t that easy, sometimes a nightmare. I had to do the household chores like replenished the kitchen water from the well, ensuring enough fire woods for the fireplace, filled up the kerosene lamps and closed all the house windows late evening. Before dark I must be at home otherwise the rattan would sprang. At last I was free. Merdeka at last!!!
At the end of every month, I got to travel meeting my Uncle in Sungkai to collect my monthly allowances to pay the hostel fees and my monthly pocket money. The Hostel fees were RM 17 monthly. How my father reimbursed him I did not know. I had to beg for a living at a young age, theoretically.
In the Class of Form 1A, I befriended a Chinese boy, Leong Peng Yoon and we remain friends till to date. Final term exam, Leong Peng Yoon and me maintained top 40 and the subsequent year to Form 2A.
1961 – I was in form 2A. Leong Peng Yoon (later he became an Automobile Engineer with Volvo) remained my best friend. We became good buddies and often fooled around, very mischievous lot. During the final yearly Examination, Mathematics pulled me down and I was around number 50 in the Form and downgraded to B Class the subsequent year. Leong Peng Yoon also joined me and I forgot which subject pulled him down. Too late to correct our mistakes!!!
1962 – Form 3B. When the school term started I was not surprised to see a few other guys also joined me in 3B Class. I have the Joker, Lope Othman and we always played prank in the class. I remember during a Science class I was chased out by the Science Teacher, Mr Koh Sekh Koon. I detested his statement that I could not do two things simultaneously. I told him I could urinate and brushed my teeth simultaneously. The whole class laughed and he got wild, ultimately he chased me out. That was fun. Another incident, I purposely spoke with Mr. Paul Raj the English Language Teacher in broken English and he promised me to give a watch if I ever passed my English Language. To name a few of my clique in Form 3B, the rascal lot was Leong Peng Yoon, Lope Othman, Jamil Ariff (late) and Sidambaram.
Form 3, final term was no more a honeymoon period for me and so as the rascals. I have to sit for Lower secondary Exam (LCE) in order to be promoted to Upper Secondary.
One week before the Exam I burnt the midnight candle and did my revision. I had a lot to catch up. I sat for the LCE Exam and confidently would pass through.
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LONG TERM HOLIDAYS – the LCE Results was announced and both Leong Peng Yoon and me scored with FULL promotion came with several A’s. Incidentally, all the rascals as mentioned earlier also went through the LCE. We celebrated at Tapah famous Hong Kee “Ice kacang” stall. We laughed at what we did in Form 3B. The girls were always our victim. Both of us sat down and applied for an admission to Technical Institute, Penang. We hope for the best. I did not tell anybody, even my parents and grandparents did not know about my application.
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1963 – I was back to the same school and Hostel. Those few who crossed the LCE hurdle was also back in the Hostel. I was allocated to Form 4 Arts stream. I could not enter Science stream as my Mathematics was B. I did confront Mr. Paul Raj and claimed for the watch but I never got it. Leong Peng Yoon went to Science stream and I was a loner in Form 4 Arts. I was not really happy studying in the same school as some of my friends had moved over to continue Form 4 at better schools in Ipoh. I was contemplating my next move.
Sometimes during the first week, Leong Peng Yoon cycled excitedly to the Hostel, looking for me and gladly informed that he had received a confirmation letter that he obtained a place in Technical Institute in Penang. I had not got mine and my forwarding address was in Ipoh. Confidently I went to see the Hostel Master, Mr. Thambiarajah and requested to be excused for a day or two to go back to Ipoh hoping for a reply for my application. True enough, I too got a place. My father was stunned and I stubbornly insisted that I should take up the offer. I knew at that time, the family budget was strained but that was me……….stubborn, as usual.
Finally my father gave in and we drove to Tapah to get my school leaving certificate and packed up all my things from the Hostel. I dropped by at my grandparent’s house requesting for financial assistance but I was disappointed. Never mind. Anyway, the following day, my father drove me to Penang and got myself admitted to Technical Institute Penang. My father who only had a Morris Minor then, switched car with a family friend, Cik Gu Hassan Basri with an Austin 7.
Today…………come to think about it, I am really sorry I put my father into such a predicament then but I know finally I did not disappoint him even though I really did not become really successful and become somebody.
TO BE CONTINUED…………………………..
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