One with the boys

A look back into time. I came across this excerpt of a speech that the Tunku made some 45 years ago. The speech shed a little light on the privileges of being a little prince in those Old Malaya days.

"I take pride in being an Old Boy of the school. It is not because the Penang Free School is the oldest school in Malaysia, but because it provided me with the right type of training. It goes for other schools as well. It is for their own old boys to sing the praises of their schools. As for me, I sing the praises of my old school, the Penang Free School.

"It was here that I learnt my lessons. It was here that I learnt scouting. It was here, too, that I learnt to mix freely with the other boys - rich and poor alike. I became one of them. When I attended the Government English School in Alor Star (now the Sultan Abdul Hamid College), no teacher dared raise his voice to me. In the Malay school that I attended, I did not sit with the boys but occupied the same desk as the head teacher. In Bangkok, in the Theb Surin School, I was again accorded special treatment. 

"But here in the Penang Free School, I was one with the boys, learnt with them, played with them and fought with them. At home, it is said, a boy learns only what is taught to him. At school, he learns also from what is taught to others. This I found to be true, and the lesson has proved a valuable asset  to me in later years and in my present job."

(Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, speaking at the Sesquicentenary Speech Day of the Penang Free School on 21 Oct 1966)