Nomination day, GE14

Me with Steven Sim

Nomination day today for the 14th General Election in Malaysia. Had taken a decision yesterday to locate and support my local candidates-to-be when they walk to the nomination centre at the Jit Sin High School in Bukit Mertajam.

Steven Sim with his aunties....erm, I mean, supporters.

Chong Eng, the incumbent for the Padang Lalang state constituency arrived a few minutes after me and went around to greet the Pakatan Harapan supporters. "Remember me?" I asked her. We had met at the Red Rock Hotel on the island last December when she opened the Penang Heritage City chess competition. I had mentioned then that, like her, I was a "BM lang". Not that I was a true born-and-bred BM lang but one transplanted from the island a long time ago due to circumstances.

Steven Sim Chee Keong, incumbent candidate for the Bukit Mertajam parliament seat, was the next to arrive. "Hey, Quah, sorry I couldn't reply you on facebook. Very busy nowadays," he greeted me. Never mind, lah, I'm here anyway. I managed to find the information I wanted.

Lee Khai Loon (Machang Bubuk), Steven Sim (Bukit Mertajam),
Chong Eng (Padang Lalang) and Heng Lee Lee (Berapit)

Soon later, the new hopeful for the Berapit state seat, Heng Lee Lee, arrived. First time seeing her in person, of course. Almost didn't know who that lady was. And a short while later, car horns honking loudly, Lee Khai Loon, who is defending his Machang Bubok state seat, arrived too.

The quartet having gotten themselves ready, the walk towards to nomination centre started. Around the corner we went and there we were, at the barricade set up by the Police. The Press went busy to work with their cameras. We supporters followed suit. Then the Police opened the barricade slightly to allow the quartet through together with their proposers and seconders.

A question of the Press going overboard with taking pictures?

All of us that remained behind had to wait where we were, under a sun that was getting hotter as the morning progressed. Eventually we were forced to retreat to the shades to wait for the emergence of the candidates from all the political parties who were admitted into the nomination centre.

From where we stood, I could see the supporters of the rival political parties assembled at the far distant end of the road. From a distance, there were the Barisan Nasional supporters, the Party Islam supporters, the Party Rakyat Malaysia supporters.

Seeking respite from the blazing sun

And that's how I spent my morning today. Mostly in the company of strangers. Almost all unknown to me but connected through a common bond to see our political party win in the General Election.

But it was strange that I did not see any of my friends there. Friends who had supported the same candidates five years ago. Friends who had turned up at the nomination centre then. All absent today. I wonder what's up? I wonder why?

The Kirkby-trained teachers

The following article was published in the New Straits Times on 22 September 2001 in conjunction with the Kirkby College Golden Anniversary on 15 Sep 2001. The author was Mohamed Yunus Raiss, then the Founder and Principal of Sels College, London. His curriculum vitae is long but from what I can gather from it, he is obviously an advocate of life-long learning.

New Straits Times 2* Sep 22, 2001 Opinion
The nation-makers without a peer 
By Yunus Raiss

SOME people said it was a waste of money to send Malaysians to train in England as teachers. In the early 50s such a reaction would have been exceptional, but by the 60s there were clear demands to close the two training colleges for economic reasons.

The first group of 148 students were sent in the winter of 1951 to train at an emergency teacher-training college in a tiny hamlet about six miles from the city of Liverpool, called Kirkby Fields. The place was literally farm followed by farm. It had been a munitions factory in the Second World War. They sailed on S.S. Chusan on a 21-day journey.

The selection for the two-year training course at Kirkby looked for able candidates, with the potential for a degree course, who would on their return serve as teachers in the Education Department for at least five years. 

Among those chosen were young men and women from rural areas and poor families, who could not have gone on to Higher Education unassisted. The good mix of candidates from well-off and educated families and the children of labourers and farmers produced a magical quality that benefited Malaysia in no small way.

Kirkbians can be expected to say that even God smiled on this pioneering educational programme that had a Malayan curriculum taught in England by well-qualified staff, most of whom were graduates from such universities as London, Oxford, Cambridge and Aberdeen.

The place was redolent with friendliness and open-minded discussions, high thinking and good manners. The content of the courses and the pedagogy were eye-openers for most of the trainees, who took home innovative approaches and a liberal attitude to learning. Education as a whole was elevated to a higher plane.

On Sept 15, a group of over 500 Kirkby teachers had a social get- together in Kuala Lumpur, with Tuanku Bainum, a former Kirkby teacher, as the guest of honour. It was a very happy occasion celebrating the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Kirkby.

Yet this momentous occasion seems to have passed by without some form of recognition of the invaluable service given by Kirkby (and later Brinsford Lodge) teachers towards building the nation.
The Ministry of Education seems to have regarded these teachers as sheep in sheep's-clothing with insufficient clout to be rewarded with official recognition for their service to the country.

They were not sheep. They were enthusiastic intellectual stalwarts who played a vital part in training the young to build the nation.

Until Kirkby-Brinsford Lodge started training teachers, the best schools had one or two Raffles graduates alongside the normal trained teachers. No Kampong school had a teacher who was a graduate or of near-graduate quality. Malay schools, of course, had SITC trained teachers. 

Arriving at Kirkby or Brinsford Lodge was a unique experience at a time when very few people had the opportunity to fly to England. Going to either college was an exciting experience. Some students had the opportunity to go to the University of Malaya in Singapore or Queensland but chose England because it was England.

Besides improving their knowledge and honing their pedagogical skills, they learnt to view the world in a wider perspective. They came as raw young men and women gawky in gait, and returned home polished ladies and gentlemen with savoir faire.

They left a lasting legacy of good manners and friendship with the tutors, the people around the two colleges and, of course, the schools where they taught. They were excellent diplomats for Malaya and returned to Malaya as high commissioners for the good of the land.

Any sense of inferiority they might have had wore off soon after the first year. They could see their pivotal role in a global view of Malaya as a developing nation.

Those who had never been to a museum or an art gallery, heard an opera, seen a ballet, or even heard good English, took home a wealth of knowledge and culture that made them feel competent to inspire their pupils to aim for excellence in all things and to look forward to studying and working with confidence.

They gave their pupils the opportunity to develop their minds by encouraging them to inquire and seek, as opposed to merely regurgitating facts pumped into them by their teachers. They became models for the students in dress, manners and cultivation of the mind, and they fired their imaginations to do better and better for the greater good of the nation.

Of course, there were a few who failed to make the grade. And there were those who had become Mat Sallehs who would want only fish and chips with knives and forks. But such orang puteh were a rare breed. 

It is a pity that the Ministry of Education regarded them as only slightly better than the ordinary teacher, both in terms of pay and other employment conditions. I hazard the guess that about a third of them left the profession to become lawyers, doctors, accountants, businessmen, diplomats and so on.

What a pity they were not given a better status to encourage them to stay on! If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys, as they say.

I could write a book about the educational contributions made to the nation by Kirkby-Brinsford Lodge teachers, but I must conclude my piece by one last observation that I consider has played a vital role in welding a Malaysian nation.

Raffles College and later the University of Malaya in Singapore were the only two institutions which made the students regard themselves as Malayans. Kirkby-Brinsford made every student feel, think and act as a Malayan. They were no longer Malay, Chinese, Tamil, Sikh or Eurasian. They were Malayans from a country called Malaya who presented a united front despite differences in appearance and speech.

Without the Malayan badge, there was no place for them in these institutes. They learnt one another's customs and traditions, forming an amalgam called Malaysian culture.

Creme de la Creme, they did their country proud while they were in the UK and contributed handsomely to educating the young for nation-building on their return. They were the harbingers of goodwill to all that still prevails.

Malaysian nationalism might have been at the back of their minds when the British decided to set up Malaysia Hall in London, and Kirkby College and Brinsford Lodge later. All three institutes were a counter-weight to the onslaught of the CTs.

Kirkby College and Brinsford Lodge were closed down more that three decades ago. Malaysia Hall is now sentenced to extinction in the name of economy.

Great teachers and nation makers, I salute thee on behalf of your country. You were truly the catalyst that produced Malaysia and Malaysians. You helped the country become rich and famous. Magnanimity from the Ministry of Education would have been a bright jewel in your crown.

Che sera sera!

Late notification

With the annual general meeting of The Old Frees' Association taking place on 29 Apr 2018, I'm just wondering why I have only received my copy of the notice of meeting and the annual report today. I thought that the rules of the association would require that the members be notified of the meeting at least 14 days before it is held.

One of my friends in Kuala Lumpur received the notice of meeting last Friday, which meant that the letter from the OFA travelled faster from Penang to KL than within Penang itself.

Anyhow, I wanted to check when exactly did the OFA post out the letters to the members. Even here, I drew a blank because the cancellation mark on the envelope was mysteriously missing a date. How on earth can we ascertain the date when a letter was sent when Pos Malaysia doesn't add it to their cancellation??

Who will do better for George Town?

Who do you think will do better for George Town's status as a UNESCO world heritage site? The present Penang government under Pakatan Harapan or a would-be Penang government under Barisan Nasional, if they take control of the state in the forthcoming 14th General Election (GE14)?

I read that the Penang Barisan Nasional had, on 15 April, launched its state manifesto, themed “Save Penang: Penang BN Pledges” which outlined six core pledges with 60 initiatives to be implemented if BN were to wrest Penang from the Pakatan Harapan government. Among them is a pledge on tourism and heritage which would:

• Encourage more direct flights, total stopovers of cruise ships in Penang.
• Limit sales of heritage building to foreigners.
• Preserve status of Georgetown as UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Create “Penang Food Heaven” zones and improve food tourism activities.
• Revive, upgrade “ Living Heritage”, Artisan Streets at George Town World Heritage sites
• Maintain, conserve, Penang historical buildings and create World Musical Fiesta Tour.

In response to these election promises, the DAP Penang chairman, Chow Kon Yeow, today issued this media statement below. I shall leave it to my readers to judge for themselves which side has made their point better:

George Town recognized by UNESCO as an "Good Example of Heritage City Management"

The Penang Barisan Nasional has made several promises on heritage issues in their 14th General Election Manifesto.

As the caretaker State Government, together with George Town World Heritage Incorporated (GTWHI) and Penang Island City Council we like to respond to these issues. We want to reassure Penang BN and the people that we have been recognized by UNESCO as a "Good Example of Heritage City Management" and we will surely do better than Penang BN.

1. To limit the sale of heritage building to foreigners

Data from 2008-2017 indicate that foreigners (non-Malaysians) own 194 premises or 3.5% of the 4,100 Category II heritage buildings within the George Town World Heritage Site. The statistics indicate that the ongoing drastic demographic changes do not relate to the owner’s nationality as much, but more on the attitude and appreciation of heritage property owners towards our shared heritage.

The Penang State Government mitigate these challenges by identifying the root cause, and manage the problems with the most constructive and sustainable strategies. Limiting the sale of heritage buildings to foreigners will not solve the problems as it is not a thorough approach.

In 2017, the State Government initiated the RM3 million Heritage Habitat Seed Fund for the George Town World Heritage Site as the pilot approach in mitigating the ongoing challenges. The fund aims to aid the physical restoration of heritage premises to provide relief on the restoration cost, thereby preventing an increase in the rent charges and maintaining long-term tenancy at the site.

Qualified premise owners will receive an incentive to refurbish or conserve their premises, and subsequently charge affordable rent for 10 years. Both tenants and owners shall agree to conserve the premise according to heritage regulations and will be provided with related training. The Fund provides housing for long-term tenants who have contributed to the conservation of the cultural heritage and Outstanding Universal Values of the heritage site, while ensuring that long-term tenants can remain within the site.

We believe this is a better approach to ensure conservation of heritage properties and keeping long-term tenants in the World Heritage Site.

2. To preserve the status of George Town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site

George Town and Melaka were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2008 for their remarkable examples of historic colonial towns on the Straits of Malacca that demonstrate a succession of historical and cultural influences.

Since 2008, the status of the George Town UNESCO World Heritage Site has been well maintained with the strong political commitments from the State Government. It established George Town World Heritage Incorporated in 2010 to be the one-stop site manager. George Town World Heritage Incorporated has been delivering its mandate and has proven to be one of the best site managers in Malaysia and Asia. It has been recognised by UNESCO Office Jakarta as one “Good Example of Heritage City Management” (Malay Mail Online, 1 March 2018).

The State Government has enacted the State Heritage Enactment and gazetted the Special Area Plan as the main guidelines of management. A Heritage Technical Reviews Panel (TRP) is also established in MBPP to scrutinize all development applications to ensure heritage guidelines are complied with before approvals be given.

The State Government has also engaged in several heritage conservation projects, demonstrating its strong commitment to sustain the Outstanding Universal Values of George Town.

The State Government has also collaborated with international experts in promoting and conserving artefacts and objects in Penang.

3. To revive and upgrade “the Living Heritage” and Artisan Streets in the George Town World Heritage Site

The annual George Town Heritage Celebrations conducted on 7 July has mobilised over 20 local communities to document, present and share cultural heritage topics through themes such as Living Legacies in 2014, Eat Rite: Ritual Foods of George Town in 2015, Mai Main: Traditional Sports and Games in 2016 and Walk the Talk: Oral Traditions and Expressions in 2017

The Penang State Government has initiated the Video Documentation Project on the Artisans and Practitioners of George Town (2015-2017) to document and archive the intangible cultural heritage of George Town. The ongoing Oral History Documentation from 2013 till 2018 has produced at least 111 interviews with the artisans, practitioners and long-term residents of George Town.

The Cultural Heritage Education Programme (CHEP) was launched since 2016 to promote local cultural heritage to the younger generation (aged 10 to 17) through creative educational programmes. This is the only heritage programme offered to school children in Penang and Malaysia.

George Town was also invited as a working partner by UNESCO Category II Centre: The International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (ICHCAP) under the auspices of UNESCO to collaborate on intangible cultural heritage related projects.

There are more constructive and practical initiatives to be adopted by the Penang State Government to safeguard George Town’s living heritage.

4. To maintain and conserve the historical buildings in Penang

Conservation of heritage buildings requires strong institutional commitments, sufficient resources and sustainable human capacity. Since 2013, George Town World Heritage Incorporated (GTWHI) has been conducting heritage conservation workshops for the public to enhance their knowledge and increase public capacity in conserving heritage properties using the proper methods. Through these workshops, we train heritage property owners, contractors, architects and other professional consultants on the principles and techniques of conservation, requirements and guidelines for conservation work, and the documentation needed for the restoration and renovation of heritage premises.

It has also conducted heritage building inventories throughout the state of Penang. Among the projects completed are the Inventori Warisan Ketara Pulau Pinang in 2012, Inventori Bangunan Warisan Ketara Seberang Perai Utara in 2013, Inventori Bangunan Warisan Ketara Seberang Perai Tengah in 2014 and Inventori Bangunan Warisan Ketara Seberang Perai Selatan in 2015. Penang State Government is in the process of getting the consent from heritage property owners before gazetting the property as a heritage building under the Penang State Enactment, 2011. It is only with the active participation of heritage property owners that the conservation of heritage properties in Penang can be sustainable and meaningful.

Conclusion

Since 2008, the Penang State Government and its agencies, together with the stakeholders and communities have committed to the preservation and maintenance of the World Heritage Site in accordance to the Heritage Management Plan. The various initiatives and programme carried out since 2008 has shown great success in making George Town a vibrant, lively and enchanting heritage city.

We believe we can do better for George Town.

Thank you

Reliving the Westlands days

Met up with some really old school friends for dinner last night. We go back a long way to our primary school days at the Westlands Primary School. That was from 1960 (some from 1961) to 1965. Then we went our separate ways to the Penang Free School, Westlands Secondary School and Georgetown Secondary School. But inevitably like last night, some of us have come together again to re-acquaint ourselves with one another and relive the old times.

Standing: Ewe Leong, Keng Lam and Ong Seng huat. Seated: Lim Seng Huat, Kah Kheng, Oon Hup, Chye Chye, Guan Khim, Lip Chye, myself

Ban Hin Lee Bank reunion 2018

It was quite incredible. Seventeen years on from from the takeover of Ban Hin Lee Bank (BHLB, BHLBank), we could still find about 200 former staff at the most recent reunion on 10 Mar 2018. This year would have been the 83rd year of the bank's founding in 1935 but sad to say, it lasted only until 2001.

But never mind the old history. What mattered was that there was still so much memories and enthusiasm for the old bank. We had our former chairman, Goh Eng Toon, in attendance as well as Stephen Yeap, Irene Yeap and Yeap Lam Yang all here at the City Bayview Hotel. With a well supported cast that included Tan Kuan Hai and Neoh Choo Kean who were asked to re-enact the fondly-remembered water pistol fight from very long ago. Plus some of the oldest ex-staff in Khoo Boo Hean and Tan Hun Wee who must be edging close to or past their eighties now. Nobody's getting any younger....sigh.

We all had a g.o.o.d. t.i.m.e. playing catch-up at the reunion but I won't be highlighting anyone's pictures here except to introduce my readers to this immensely talented artist. Debbie J Mcintyre was my former colleague at Ban Hin Lee Bank and ever since the bank was taken over, Debbie has found a new calling in life as an artist. But I never knew how good she is until recently.

She lives in Kuala Lumpur, does a lot of drawing professionally and there was this wonderful painting that was showcased at our reunion dinner. She had been preparing it for the occasion but left the finishing touches to be completed on that night itself. If you like Debbie's work, you can view more from her website and instagram accounts, @scribeworks.co and @artbtdebster

[Above pictures were taken by Ng Khye Wai. They originally appeared in the exBHLBankers group on facebook where you can view all the other photos by him and Peter Liew.]

PFS student leadership workshop 2018, sessions 1 and 2

My friends and I have begun the 2018 edition of the PFS Student Leadership Workshop at Penang Free School, a four-day programme for selected student leaders from the school. Like last year, we have the commitment from the Headmaster, Omar bin Abdul Rashid, to conduct the workshop not only for the Fourth and Fifth Formers but also the Sixth Formers. For the present, however, we are concentrating on the first group of boys, but we shall be holding another session later in the year when the Sixth Formers come in.

Our approach this year is slightly different from last year's. Back in January or February, one of my friends made a short presentation to the teachers to apprise them of what we do. But more important, we wanted the teachers to play a more meaningful role by selecting the potential participants themselves. We would then conduct interviews with the boys in order to know them better before the workshop. Soo Choon and I basically talked to most of the boys at the end of February, while Lean Kang and I wrapped up the interview sessions with the rest of the boys just before the workshop.

My impression was that apart from the hostel boys who were much reserved and less talkative, most probably due to their difficulties trying to converse in English with us, the bunch who attended the first interview session were quite articulate and quick on their feet. They expressed themselves well. Certainly, the teachers have done a good job in picking them for us!

Unfortunately, I could not attend the first weekend of the workshop for these Fourth and Fifth Formers because I had some other functions that weekend. Nevertheless, I've been told by my friends that the two sessions on Saturday and Sunday went well. We shall have the third and fourth sessions with them later this month. In the meantime, here are some pictures:

We had Lee Eu Beng from the Old Frees' Association coming to observe the workshop in the morning of the first day. As Eu Beng sits in the OFA management committee as a vice-president and is in charge of Alma Mater matters, this workshop was just right to interest him.

Headmaster Omar bin Abdul Rashid came by to address the boys in the morning of the first morning. You could see how supportive he was of the workshop.

Seated on the stage were Umar and Norman from last year's workshop, who had been roped in to help us. Then there was Lim Siang Jin, Loh Lean Kang, Omar bin Abdul Rashid, Prof Tan Soo Choon, Lim Teik Wah and Chegu Syed .

Rabindranath Tagore, Wu Lien-Teh commemorative mural

It was back in January that we got to learn that the Hu Yu Seah would be commissioning a painter to put up a wall mural at the association to commemorate two outstanding citizens of the world; the two personalities being Rabindranath Tagore and Wu Lien-Teh.

Why they should be so singled out for recognition was soon revealed when the committee members of the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society were invited to a press conference on 25 Jan at the Seah. We were told that both the Indian Nobel Prize laureate for Literature and our own Dr Wu had each laid foundation stones for the Hu Yu Seah buildings in the past.

On 14 Aug 1927, Tagore had visited Penang and he was invited to lay the foundation stone for the main Hu Yu Seah building. And on 25 Dec 1938, it was the turn of Wu to lay a second foundation stone for an adjacent block in the Seah premises.

Anyone travelling along Madras Lane in the subsequent weeks would not have failed to notice the British painter, Gabriel Pitcher, busily use the front of the vernacular primary school, the SJK(C) Hu Yu Seah, as his canvas. By and large, the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society was invited back to the Hu Yu Seah on 10 Mar 2018 for the official launch of the commemorative mural. Coincidentally, as the 10th of March happened to be the 139th birthday anniversary of Wu Lien-Teh himself, this was a very special occasion that pleased many of us.

For the uninitiated, Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta, India, on 7 May 1861. He was a Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist and painter who introduced the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature. He also participated in the Indian nationalist movement in his own non-sentimental and visionary way. Gandhi, the political founder of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915 but within a few years, he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India. He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice-versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th Century India. In 1913, he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. (Extracted from a Think City press statement dated 10 Mar 2018.)

Much has already been written about Dr Wu Lien-Teh in this blog but again, for the completeness of this story, I would say that he was born in Penang on 10 Mar 1879 and was educated at Penang Free School and received the prestigious Queen's Scholarship to study medicine at Cambridge University. He is celebrated as "The Plague Fighter" who saved thousands of lives in the north-eastern China in the early 1910s when an outbreak of pneumonic epidemic was successfully halted by Dr Wu, working out of the city of Harbin using new scientific approaches to prevent the spread of the killer disease. He set up the Anti-Opium Society in Malaya and fought against colonial racism. He wrote extensively and was recognised globally. In 1935, Dr Wu Lien-Teh became the first Malaysian to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine. (Also extracted from the same Think City press statement.)

The mural was painted by Gabriel Pitcher, an artist from Britain who first visited George Town in 2014 to help a friend set up a solo exhibition and was so charmed by George Town that he extended his stay till today. His work takes him all around the world but he has made Penang his base. Gabriel's work focusses on expressive figurative portraits and he has done various outdoor murals in Malaysia, Indonesia and the United States.

The Rabindranath Tagore-Dr Wu Lien-Teh mural was funded by the Hu Yu Seah in collaboration with Think City, the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society, Penang Gandhi Peace Centre, Ming Art and CanCan Public Art. (Think City is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad and is funded by Yayasan Hasanah. It is a community-focused urban regeneration body established in 2009 to help rejuvenate the heritage city of George Town. It has since established its presence in Butterworth, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru.)