Archive: 18th Merdeka team chess championship

There was a time in the distant past when the Penang Chess Association used to sweep the top honours at the annual Merdeka team chess championship in Kuala Lumpur. Later, this event was assimilated into the Malaysia Chess Festival and the tournament thrown open to all teams regardless of whether they were local, foreign or mix teams. In a way, it debased the original objective of the Malaysian Chess Federation which was to offer the Deputy Prime Minister's challenge trophy to the best state team in the country./p>

Recently, I unearthed these pictures which were taken during the 18th Merdeka team chess championship. The event was played at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur from the 29th till the 31st of August, 1999.

The Putra World Trade Centre was a sprawling venue and going to the toilets would require a long walk from the playing hall. Cheating and coaching often took place in the toilets. I remember on one occasion - not necessarily at this particular event - I caught a player receiving tips from his father in the toilet. I wasn't an arbiter in the tournament and so, the only thing I could do was to inform one of the arbiters after trailing the player back to his seat. Unfortunately, I cannot recall what had happened next.

The Penang State team with the Deputy Prime Minister's trophy

Lim Chuin Hoong checks his time in the crucial match with Perak in the final round

Ng Tze Han and his opponent agreeing to the draw in the last game of the match with Perak

The Penang State team

The Penang Youth team

The Penang Girls team

Why I resigned from Southern Bank

Twenty years. It has been 20 years since June 2001 when I decided to sever all employment ties with Southern Bank and exit the banking industry. It has also been 20 years of keeping quiet about this. But 20 years is a good time to reflect. Time does help to tone down your verbal delivery a little. 

At the end of that month in 2001, I threw in my letter of resignation and left the Kulim branch immediately as I had accumulated more than enough annual leave. I didn't have any regrets leaving Southern Bank but I did agonise leaving the rest of my colleagues at the branch with no notice at all and having to carry on with the burden of running the Deposits Department there.

But it had to be done. I had reached a point where I could no longer tolerate working in an environment antithema to everything we built at Ban Hin Lee Bank, the entity that Southern Bank swallowed up in a grand national banking consolidation plan envisioned by the federal government. Maybe it was a good thing altogether but in this particular case, the process was carried out very inefficiently. 

For one thing, the work culture in these two organisations, central to one of the 10 mergers he banking industry, were worlds apart and very little was done to assimilate the two cultures. It was a matter of take it or leave it as far as Southern Bank was concerned. (See note below.) The working condition at Ban Hin Lee Bank was excellent and as much as we respected our customers, we paid equal attention to the staff and their welfare. 

Facilities were excellent too. Ban Hin Lee Bank had one of the most advanced computerised systems in the country to serve their their customers at the front end. Not so the antiquated system from Southern Bank which the merged entity had to adopt and adapt. It was like a step backwards into the stone age. During the six months until 30 Jun 2001, I recall only one one-hour briefing session to inform the Deposits Departmental heads on their expectations when the Southern Bank system would replace the Ban Hin Lee Bank Branchview system in totality.

Imagine the groping around the dark when 1 July 2001 arrived. Everyone at the former Ban Hin Lee Bank branches were unprepared and they floundered. Service slowed down to a snail's pace. The situation at the beginning of the month did not help. This was normally the busiest time for any Ban Hin Lee Bank branch but customers would be cleared off efficiently. Now, with an inept computer system, the queues at the counters led beyond the doors of the branches. Staff had to forego their lunch and continue attending to the customers. Not only that, closing up the branch turned later and later and it was not uncommon to reach home way after 9pm.

This situation did not improve for months -- definitely more than a year -- and at the end of each day, the daily accounting and trial balancing of the banking operations became messier and messier. Accounts could not balance and Suspense entries had to be passed almost every day. Reconciliation of these unbalanced entries would be attempted another day when time permitted. 

Faced with this seemingly unsolvable problems, anyone would feel discouraged. I was greatly discouraged and by May, I had decided to find an alternative employment. One opportunity came along in the middle of June and by 1 July 2001, I had assumed the position of Content Manager at JobStreet.com

Note: When the two organisations were merged into one, almost all the senior management personnel from the Head Office of Ban Hin Lee Bank were offered correspondingly senior management positions at the merged Southern Bank head office but one by one within a year or two, many of them had resigned. The question remained whether they would have left if they had been treated as well as they should. 

An unwanted milestone

Penang attained an unwanted milestone on 7 June 2021: the total cumulative Covid-19 deaths in the state reached 100 (and hardly anyone noticed). 😢

Other statistics released by the Health Department in Penang on the same day:

• Total number of cumulative cases in Penang: 30,906
• Current active cases in Penang: 2,049
• Total number of discharged cases in Penang: 28,757

Digging in a bit further, these are the incidents of Covid-19 infections per 1,000 residents in each of the five districts in Penang. The South-West and Province Wellesley Central districts are the most badly affected with almost three persons out of each thousand residents having been tested positive for the coronavirus since tracking began on the 18th of March last year:

• North East - 1.38 infections per 1,000 residents
• South West - 2.95 infections per 1,000 residents
• Province Wellesley North - 1.05 infections per 1,000 residents
• Province Wellesley Central - 2.88 infections per 1,000 residents
• Province Wellesley South - 1.75 infections per 1,000 residents

Remembering Larry Parr

It has been 10 years since the passing of Larry Parr, a very good friend of Malaysian chess. In the later part of his life, this renown, sometimes dogmatic but always true to his own beliefs, American chess journalist had lived his life in Malaysia, effectively working as a researcher and author. In fact, Parr was the main person working on Dato' Tan Chin Nam's memoirs that was published in 2006 to commemorate the latter's 80th birthday. Whenever I could, I would see him in Kuala Lumpur for a rewarding conversation but unfortunately, whatever time spent was never long enough for me. This was my tribute to him in my chess column of 8th April 2011.

Draughts board

For the past months I have been going through my storeroom and cupboards, trying to clean out the unnecessary stuff -- books, magazines and chess tournament bulletins -- but finding it almost impossible. Too much clinging to my material belongings although I know that I do not need them any more. They are no longer of any practical use to me but the very thought of throwing or giving them away pains me to no end. So back into the cupboard or storeroom from where they had emerged.

One item uncovered in the last few days was a homemade board of 64 squares. I posted the picture of it to a few chat groups. I mentioned that this was my very first chessboard and it could have been made in 1968 or 1969. Now, I'm not even sure that it is a chessboard. It could have been a draughts board. It would have also measured 8x8, the same as a chessboard.

Now, if it was a homemade draughts board, it could have been made even earlier than 1968. Possibly 1965 when I was still in Primary school. Chess was still far away from my mind but we kids were playing draughts (or dum-dum) during recess time or after school while waiting to be picked up by our parents or a school taxi driver or trishaw man. 

The game of draughts was all the rage. No need for sophisticated pieces. No horse head, no castle, no peculiar everything else. All that was needed were 24 bottle caps. And here, the type of bottle caps you owned probably hinted a lot at your social standing too. If your caps came from a brewery, you stood well above your friends who owned caps from soft drink bottles. Me? My caps were a mixture of everything, picked up from the coffee shop behind my home in Seang Tek Road in those days. But I proudly owned a homemade foldable draughts board...THIS draughts board.

The necessity of money

The first chapter of Herbert M Casson's old book, How to get and use money, Indian edition published in 1969 by DB Taraporevala Sons & Co Private Ltd of Bombay contained some basic truths about money and living life properly. I wonder whether the book is still in print?

I'll summarise Casson's basic truths about money in case the image can't be read properly:

• Three ways of getting money: inherit it, marry it, earn it
• Three things we must have: food, clothing, shelter
• Right policy regarding money: get all you can, save all you can, give all you can
• Three duties of business: to its shareholders, to its employees, to the public.

All these truths still apply today.

Penang's coronavirus deaths

I've been collecting data on the coronavirus infections in Malaysia ever since the country went into its first lockdown on the 18th of March last year. It is now 440 days and although we have gone through various stages of lockdowns ever since, there is no sign of the situation improving in the country.

Indeed, with the inept leadership and level of competency shown at federal level, the concern is getting from bad to worse One statistic that stood out from my database is the total number of Covid-19 deaths in Penang since the first day. Little has been said about this but I would want to highlight it now.

It should be a big concern to everyone that the number of deaths has been increasing exponentially in the past two weeks. Right until 17 May 2021, the death toll stood at 42 casualties. That was spread over 426 days.

Immediately after that, more people had died in the next 14 days that in all the preceding 426 days. From 42 deaths on 17 May 2021, the tally on 31 May 2021 rose steeply to 82 deaths: an almost 100 percent increase in numbers. But I guess this is a trend that is reflected across the whole country and not for Penang alone.

Folks, we simply need to keep our guard up. It is solely up to us, whether we like it or not. The coronavirus is an invisible enemy and it cuts across all races and ethnicity. The virus doesn't rest for faith and politicking. It doesn't rest at 8pm when all business activities are required to stop according to government regulations. Covid-19 does not stop at all.

First jab (with Sinovac)

My wife and I have had our anti-coronavirus vaccination on Thursday at the Kepala Batas Hospital. We were in the last of their batch to receive the first dose of the vaccine. After that, the hospital would administer the second dose to those that got the first doses from them. So we shall be in their last batch to get the second dose too. 

By the way, we were given Sinovac. I was surprised because I had thought that we would get the Pfizer. Apparently, not. A doctor there said Pfizer was being phased out already, not only in the hospital but across the nation too. And as an aside, told me quietly that most of the people requested for Sinovac. But in a confident tone, he said their observations showed Sinovac had less side-effects. Those with more chronic diseases would be given Pfizer. I'm not in that category yet, thank goodness. 

So far, so good. This is the third day since the injection. Arm at the area of the jab felt a little sore towards the night of the first day but by yesterday, that feeling had disappeared. It's back to normal although it is still very important to keep our guards up. That means, wearing masks properly, keeping our distance, washing our hands and generally maintaining our hygiene standards.

On the matter of wearing masks, this doctor noted that I was wearing two layers of surgical masks and told me that I shouldn't be wearing them that way. The correct way, he said, was to wear a cloth mask over a piece of surgical mask. That would be sufficient and much better, he said. 

Anyway, the people at the hospital were courteous towards all the people that turned up for their injections. A cross-section of the community. Went from one section to another, having to scan the QR codes in the MySejahtera app when needed. Blood pressure taken before and after the jab, including a measurement of our blood oxygen levels. And finally, a 15-minute wait before we departed. My next appointment will be on the 17th of June. I shall have to cross districts again to go to Kepala Batas but surprisingly, there were no road blocks last Thursday.

Ten Thousand Prosperities (萬興利) - Part 5

Yes, Ten Thousand Prosperities: The Story of Ban Hin Lee Bank is ready, finally!

It's fresh off the press and I went to collect my own 10 copies directly from the printing plant in the Prai industrial zone. As far as I'm aware, the rest of the consignment hasn't been delivered to the publishing house yet and so, I'm quite thrilled at being able to have this copy in my hands to feel. And touch. And hold. 

I don't have any idea when the book will be released for sale in the country yet. It's all up to the publishers tp decide and they'll have all the arrangements to make this title available at the bookstores as well as on their own online platform.

The book's jacket design came all the way from New York. The credit goes to Daryl Yeap. She's one of the great-granddaughters of the bank's founder, Yeap Chor Ee, of which I've got a picture of him in the book. I had very little input in deciding the cover but I'm very much impressed by the effort that Daryl had put into it. Imagine all the meticulous detail that went into drawing the building. 

Trust also Yeap Chor Ee to pick a name for his original trading firm that almost defied translation. It was practically impossible to translate 萬興利 or Ban Hin Lee (in the Hokkien dialect) correctly into the English language. Ten Thousand Prosperities is the literal meaning of the bank's name that was agreed upon subsequently. This in itself may not be the most definitive too. Close enough but still not exact. Wrongly translated, all the nuances of the original Hokkien may be lost. 

For a short while, even Unlimited Prosperity, Bountiful Prosperity and Boundless Prosperity were bandied with but those names were dropped. Eventually, we decided on using Ten Thousand Prosperities because after all, that's what 萬 means: ten thousand. And that was what we, working in the bank then, were grappling with all that time.

My earlier stories on the publication of this book:
Click here for Ten Thousand Prosperities (萬興利) - Part 4
Click here for Ten Thousand Prosperities (萬興利) - Part 3
Click here for Ten Thousand Prosperities (萬興利) - Part 2
Click here for Ten Thousand Prosperities (萬興利) - Part 1
Click here for Boundless Prosperity

George Town, 53 years apart

This is a picture of George Town in 1968, taken from Penang Hill and attributed to a photographer named Philip Tracy. I took it from the Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) Discussions page on facebook. 

The city was relatively flat in 1968 with very few tall buildings jutting out from the uniformity of the old pre-war houses. The Customs clock tower stood out prominently against the waters of the Channel. The KOMTAR tower was more than a dream away because the general election was still unheld and Penang hadn't been captured by Lim Chong Eu's Gerakan party yet. More significantly, the mainland side of the state was greened by large tracts of padi fields except for the strip along the coastal area occupied by Butterworth. 

Compare the above picture with a more recent picture (below) from about a lookout point on Jalan Tuanku Yahya Petra in Penang Hill. I had taken this picture on the 21st of April - last month - when I enjoyed an overnight stay at the Bellevue Hotel. The KOMTAR tower juts out prominently from the high-rise buildings below it, and there are many! All haphazardly built in whatever fashion and in whatever way. That's development for us and we shall have to live with it. Because of all these developments, the Customs clock tower is no longer a prominent landmark and has blended into the mess that's called George Town today. Butterworth is now significantly developed and the North Butterworth Container Terminal occupies the mainland side of the Channel.

I might as well complete this story with a picture of the city at night. Taken from the Bellevue Hotel at about 11 o'clock at night, much of the city lights were already switched off. However, the KOMTAR tower was bathed in glowing red to reflect that Penang was in a red zone during this coronavirus pandemic.

Silent killer

Over the past week or so, I have been rocked by reports from my friends of people they know who have succumbed to the dreaded coronavirus. I've lost count of the number but it must be five or six within the week. Of these victims of covid-19, one was known to me as he had not only been an Old Free, four years my junior in school, but he had also been an ex-colleague of mine in two organisations: National Echo (earlier known as Straits Echo Press) and Ban Hin Lee Bank. 

I worked at the National Echo for only six months from December 1976 till May 1977, and this friend had joined maybe in April or May of 1977. After I left to join the bank, I was pleasantly surprised to see him join the same bank in 1979. I can't remember the month he joined though. Later, I learnt that he did leave the National Echo to join The Star newspaper. My unnamed friend was afflicted by the coronavirus around Chinese New Year but whilst in the hospital, he suffered two heart attacks. He had clung on until the 13th of May.

I won't be saying anything else about the other cases because the victims were not known to me personally. But I shall say that I am still sad about their passing; knowing so many people have died in the past 10 days means that the danger from this invisible enemy is not decreasing. It's the opposite! In Penang alone, the accumulated death toll from the coronavirus had risen from 28 at the end of April to 50 on the 20th of May. That's an increase of 22 deaths in 20 days alone in Penang. (eight deaths recorded for 17 May and seven deaths on 20 May.)

A few days ago, I heard this now famous rant on Whatsapp which complained of the government giving short shrift to the aged care homes of senior citizens around the country. Although they had registered to be vaccinated under the government's nationwide covid-19 vaccination programme, the homes had been practically ignored. This public complaint was a catalyst before the government was jolted into promising that the senior citizens in these homes would be vaccinated soon. 

The other catalyst was the devastating news of an old folks home in Katz Street getting affected by the virus. A 68-year-old man who worked at the home was identified as the index case. Subsequently, 36 inmates of the home were confirmed affected. Not only was this home closed, two other related homes where this index case also worked were closed off.  

Then came news of several infections that caused temporary closures for cleansing and sanitisation: the Bagan Ajam market in Butterworth, the Jelutong market in George Town, the Batu Lanchang food court and the Super Tanker hawker food centre on the island. Several weeks or months earlier the Pulau Tikus market had been temporarily closed too. I believe all these would not have happened if the traders, hawkers and customers had taken more precautions with the SOPs. By that, would include keeping a safe social distance from one another of at least a metre apart but that would be practically impossible in a market, wearing suitable face masks and washing hands regularly. 

To add to these, I would also say bathing and changing clothes after visiting the markets, which suggests that one shouldn't visit the markets every day if one can help it. Stock up the perishables in your refrigerator for at least a week if possible. Personally, my wife and I are taking 1000mg of Vitamin C everyday while a pharmacist friend has also recommended zinc and Vitamin D3 supplements too. 

I've also resorted to wearing double surgical face masks when I visit the market, and encouraging others to follow suit. It is still comfortable enough to wear two face masks. Breathing is still easy also although I wouldn't recommend exercising in them. But for everyday mundane use outside the house and visiting crowded places, I recommend this. Some people like to use cloth masks but I think they are not as effective as the surgical face masks.

Unfortunately, there are still people flouting this face mask SOP. Yesterday at the Kampong Baru market in Bukit Mertajam, although regulations have been tightened on allowing the number of people to enter the market, I found several traders openly miswearing their masks below their noses for whatever reasons. They might as well not wear one at all if they do not want to cover their noses. A covid-19 accident is waiting to happen at this market place.

Getting vaccinated

This is the vaccination centre in Sungai Jawi, Province Wellesley South. It's housed in the public multi-purpose hall over there. Very spacious interior. I had gone there with my mother-in-law on the 10th of this month, for her scheduled first jab of the Pfizer vaccine. Mine was still a long way off, by the way. So I filled up the form on her behalf and then took her through all the stations before ending up at Room D to await her turn. Finally, there was a 15-minute wait for observation before I took her home again in Bandar Tasek Mutiara. All in, a rather bloodless and painless 45-minute process, and she's still feeling all right today. 

PS. Contrary to all the rumours of people being offered a jab if they turn up without notice, no-one offered me a chance to take my first vaccine jab for accompanying my mother-in-law to the centre. I would have refused anyway because I'd rather have the vaccination together with my wife. 

Connecting the dots: Jiang Ziya

This story was originally scheduled to appear on this blog on 20 June 2017 but somehow, I decided to save it for a later day. As things went, I totally forgot about it until today when I went through all my drafts that did not see the light of day. Well, this one will see the light of day: today, (four years later 😉)! So read on....

----start----

20 June 2017

It was actually quite accidental that I came across the film, Xuan Zang (大唐玄奘), which I wrote about a few days ago. It was days after I had returned from Sitiawan in Perak that I had wanted to know more about the Tua Pek Kong temple there. Remember too that I had written very briefly about the statue of Jiang Ziya (姜子牙) in the pond behind the temple building.

I had long been intrigued by Jiang Ziya and seeing that statue at the temple simply increased my curiosity about one of ancient China's military strategists. Jiang Ziya was also known by several other names: Jiang Shang (姜尚), Lü Shang (呂尚) and Jiang Taigong (姜太公), among others more. He was a Chinese noble who was hired by King Wen (周文王) and later helped his son, King Wu (周武王), of the Zhou Dynasty (周朝) overthrow the Shang Dynasty (商朝) in the 11th Century BC. 

In popular culture, Jiang Ziya is portrayed as an old man sitting by a riverside and patiently fishing with a baitless or hookless fishing rod. His contention was that when the fish was ready, it would swim to meet him. One day, King Wen saw him fishing thus and began engaging him in conversation. King Wen was convinced that he was a military strategist and made him his Prime Minister. Jiang's treatise on military strategy, Six Secret Teachings (太公六韜), is considered one of the Seven Military Classics of Ancient China.

I did a search on for the Internet for Jiang Ziya and among many things, learnt that in 2016, someone had made a film where Jiang Ziya was one of the main characters. The blockbuster show was called League of Gods (封神榜) and starring heavyweight actors like Jet Li. A name among the other cast members stood out: that of Huang Xiaoming.

Huang Xiaoming. At first, the name had sounded vaguely familiar to me. Then I remembered that he had starred opposite Donnie Yen in Ip Man 2. So naturally, I did a search on his name as well and Huang Xiaoming's name appeared as the main actor in the film, Xuan Zang (大唐玄奘). Now, I did know that Hsuan Tsang (玄奘) was the real-life pilgrim monk who went to India in search of Buddhist scriptures. He underwent lots of personal perils but none of which were even distantly close to those depicted in the various fantasy film versions of Journey to the West.

In those fantasy film versions, Hsuan Tsang would be protected by the divine powers of Sun Wukong (孫悟空), Zhu Bajie (豬八戒) and Sha Wujing (沙悟淨), which brings me full circle back to the Tua Pek Kong temple in Sitiawan where these four stone statues were located. Fascinating connections, aren't they?

----end----

As an afterword, I must add that there are currently some flicks about Jiang Ziya in the past few years. Other than League of Gods in 2016, there are now New Seal God Jiang Ziya in 2019 while the fully animated Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deitification came out in 2020. As I've yet to watch them, I can't comment anything on these three films. But for sure, they'll be on my list to watch. [UPDATE (22 May 2021): I laboured to watch New Seal God Jiang Ziya and can summarise my review in six words: "Don't waste your time on it."] [UPDATE (4 June 2021): For a Jet Li film, the action scenes in League of Gods lacked excitement, perhaps too much CGI, that couldn't make me grip my seat. Nevertheless, a film that can be enjoyed once and never again.] 

I must also mention something else. In 2013, I wrote in this blog that according to a newspaper story in The Straits Times of Singapore in the 1990s, some of Jiang Ziya's descendants had adopted Ke (柯) as their surname. It's difficult to prove or disprove this sort of claim.

Definitely NOT a mission school

I received a short message from Anwar Fazal yesterday. "Was PFS started as a mission school?" he asked. And he sent me an accompanying story from a recent Aliran newsletter with the title Mission schools contributed immensely to Malaysia’s education system. Buried within the story was a paragraph that read: "One of the earliest mission schools in Malaya was the Penang Free School, established in 1816, by Rev Robert Hutchings of the Anglican Church." 

After some discussions with Anwar Fazal, I decided to write a response to the Aliran story with the intention of clearing the air about the original - and present - status of Penang Free School. My stand is that Penang Free School was never envisioned as a mission school in the eyes of the founder, Robert Sparke Hutchings. He was a clergyman from the Anglican Church, that was true, but there was as far as his clerical duties went. He never proposed the Prince of Wales' Island Free School to be part of the Anglican Church movement. In fact, he was not even on the island when the school opened in a Love Lane house on 21 Oct 1816.

My letter to Aliran appears below, addressed to their President, Anil Netto. My request is simple enough: either make the correction in their story to reflect the true status of Penang Free School as a public school or remove it entirely. I don't want people to make use of the Aliran story to perpetuate a wrong view of the school. Let's see how they respond.

[UPDATE: Before I proceed to my letter, let me insert this update to say that I got through to Anil himself today (21 May 2021). We spoke of many things but at the end of which the conversation turned back to their mission school story. He agreed to amend their story and I'm glad to say that the picture of the school gate and all references to Penang Free School have been removed. Thank you, Anil.]

Dear Anil Netto,

SS Quah here. I am glad to learn that you are now the President of Aliran. Congratulations! The reason for this email is to refer you to an Aliran story "Mission schools contributed immensely to Malaysia's education system," written by Mr Benedict Lopez and dated 15 May 2021.

When Penang Free School celebrated its Bicentenary in 2016, I was commissioned to research and write a book on the history of the school. This, I managed to complete in 30 months and the book, "Let the Aisles Proclaim," was subsequently launched by the Raja of Perlis on 21st October 2016.  

In the sixth paragraph of the Aliran story, the writer claimed that "one of the earliest mission schools in Malaya was the Penang Free School, established in 1816, by Rev Robert Hutchings of the Anglican Church."

Unless Mr Lopez has concrete proof that Penang Free School was a mission school, I would like to present you with some facts to show why his viewpoint is flawed. But first, some background information.

Hutchings arrived in the Prince of Wales' Island in 1814 and took it upon himself to propose at a Council meeting on 6th Jan 1816 to set up a Native School which would be "open to all children regardless of class or race." In response, Governor William Petrie appointed a committee consisting of Hutchings as chairman and proposer, Robert Ibbetson, Capt John Monckton Coombs, Capt John MacInnes, James Carnegy, David Brown and Richard Caunter. The committee's detailed report was subsequently incorporated into the document known as the Original Plan of the Establishment of Prince of Wales' Island Free School. (Please see the attachment which is reproduced from Let the Aisles Proclaim.)

• It is important to note that Point #3 of the Original Plan mentioned the first object of the school would include implanting in the children "the early habits of Industry, Order and Good Conduct."
• Point #7 said the children may be "instructed in reading and writing English, and in the common rules of Arithmetic."
• Point #8 further said that at a proper age, the children may be "instructed in useful Employments as Carpenters, Smiths, Shoe-makers, Taylors, Book-Binders, &c"
• But more importantly, Point #9 stressed that "great care be taken that the prejudices of Parents averse to the Christian Religion be not by any means violated."

It is quite clear from these four Points alone that Penang Free School was never meant to be a mission school. Indeed, at the school's first annual meeting on 22nd Oct 1817, Capt Coombs presented a report on behalf of the School Committee - comprising  the six abovenamed gentlemen - that described the Free School as a "Public School." (Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India, 1805-1830, Volume 2, pp 232-38, Marcus Langdon)

I can go on with more evidence but I wish to end by saying that right from the Free School's establishment in 1816, the headmasters had either been men of commerce, military men or (British or Malaysian) civil servants. No man of the cloth has ever been appointed to this important position in the school.

Anil, if you find my argument compelling enough, I hope you will take the effort to either correct the story by Mr Lopez or remove it entirely. I hope you can understand my reservation that if other people start quoting Aliran as a reference point, it may create more misinformation about the correct history of Penang Free School. 

By the way, if Aliran wants to purchase a copy of Let the Aisles Proclaim, the book is available from Areca Books, Gerakbudaya (in Beach Street) or the Penang House of Music.

Warm regards

SS Quah

Penang, Malaysia

P.S. This email is carbon-copied to Dato' Seri Anwar Fazal who first brought Mr Lopez's story to my attention and Mr Andrew Lim who is the President of The Old Frees' Association to keep them in the loop. Thank you.

 

State Chinese (Penang) Association

Jack Ong had been my colleague in Ban Hin Lee Bank way back in the late 1990s. That was before the bank was swallowed up by Southern Bank at the start of the present millennium. Although so many years had passed by since the initial consolidation of the banking industry, we had on occasions bumped into one another. We generally kept in touch through social media but once in while, face-to-face until the pandemic brought all such latter activities to a near standstill.

Last night, I received a message from him urging me to look at a video he had produced in conjunction with the centenary celebrations of the State Chinese (Penang) Association. The intention to set up this association was voiced in 1920 and it was first mooted as the Penang branch of the Straits Chinese British Association of Singapore in November of that year. 

But in January 1921, the association in Penang declared itself to be independent of their Singapore counterparts. "It is stated on the best authority," reported the Malaya Tribune in their copy of 5 January 1921, "that it has now been definitely laid down that the Straits Chinese British Association is not....to be described or regarded as a branch of the Straits Chinese British Association of Singapore, but as a sister-association affiliated with that in Singapore, enjoying exactly the same status and rights, and in no way dependent upon Singapore." Blah, blah, blah, as can be ascertained from the first illustration on the right. (Note: This was originally a Straits Echo story, as can be seen from the "S.E." initials at the end of the news item.)

The Straits Chinese British Association (SCBA) was very influential politically and had a powerful voice in society. Its membership was made up of well-known members of the Chinese community in Penang. The first president was a prominent businessman, Lim Eu Toh, one of those rare breeds who had studied in both Penang Free School and St Xavier's Institution, and thus was eligible to join both The Old Frees' Association and Old Xavierians' Association when the two Old Boys associations were established. If I'm not mistaken, he could be a member of Penang Free School's management committee but that would need further investigation.

The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, in its copy of 26 June 1930, printed a story about an SCBA committee meeting. One item caught my eye: the association had decided to make representations to the Director of Education on the "subject of constant changes in the personnel of the senior staff of the Penang Free School." That the SCBA would interest itself in the affairs of the Free School was very interesting but understandably, it could be nothing unusual if the majority of the committee members were the Penang babas who had studied in this premier school.

This issue definitely alluded to the frequent movements of the school's headmasters. Ever since Ralph Henry Pinhorn retired as the headmaster in 1925, there had been no less than four persons appointed to this important role by the time this SCBA meeting was held: William Hamilton from 1925, David Swaine from 1927 and Leslie Arnold briefly in early 1929 until replaced by DW McLeod later in that year. Understandably, this was because the colonial British government had taken control over Penang Free School in January 1920. Pinhorn stood tall among his peers and was regarded as untouchable but once he was gone, the appointment of headmasters was left to the mercy of the British civil servants in control of Education. And there were many Directors of Education and Acting Directors of Education that came and went away.

Despite the SCBA's representations in 1930, the rapid transfers of Penang Free School's headmasters continued unabated until 1934. McLeod lasted as headmaster until 1931. Edgar Stowell crossed over from Bukit Mertajam High School temporarily for a few months in 1931, and then he was replaced by MR Holgate later in the year. J Bain came along in 1933 and finally, Arnold returned this time as a long-term headmaster in 1934 until the onset of the Japanese Occupation when the British community quietly evacuated to Singapore in the still of the night and left Penang as an open town. I won't elaborate more as this story about the headmasters' musical chairs was already detailed on Pages 132 and 133 of my book, Let the Aisles Proclaim.

On 14 January 1964, the SCBA formally changed its name to State Chinese (Penang) Association (SCPA) and threw its membership open to all Malaysian citizens of Chinese origin.

Meanwhile, back to my original intention of writing this story, which was to bring attention to this message from Jack Ong. In order to promote the SCPA centenary last year, the association had held an international colloquium earlier in 2021 with various online talks organised on the Penang baba nyonya community and culture. This first video has now been posted to YouTube. It is very informative and a way forward to lure every baba and nyonya with origins in Penang back to their roots. However, if you were to subscribe to their YouTube channel, there are more videos of similar nature to watch.

Red Cliff

After years of procrastination, we have finally spent the last week watching those two Ang Woo epic films, Red Cliff and Red Cliff II. One of the things that had pulled me back from watching these films were their lengths. Together, they took up more than four and a half hours on the couch, and we normally watched only about an hour on television every day. Okay, perhaps I do watch more than an hour daily but with my wife, it's only an hour of telly together-time. The rest of the time, I watch other man-cave shows on Youtube and the like.

So there we were, watching Red Cliff and Red Cliff II. The second film was, however, too absorbing to stop and we continued watching till the end. Red Cliff came out in 2008 and Red Cliff II was released in 2009. Interestingly enough, the real Battle of Red Cliffs in China took place near Chibi on the Yangtze River in 208 and 209 AD. But the actual location remains disputed until today,

If the lengths of the two films had been a dissuasive reason for watching them, then the persuading reason must be the constant urgings to watch this epic by various metaphysics practitioners. Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) was the man to watch out for, they kept insisting, because he was a master of Chinese divination, the art of Qimen Dunjia (奇門遁甲). 

But what is Qimen Dunjia? According to wikipedia, it is an ancient Chinese form of divination which was originally devised to help form military strategy and tactics. It is very difficult to translate the meaning of this term into English but I would cautiously venture to say that 奇門遁甲 means the technique of transiting through mysterious doorways. Doorways can mean practically anything!

When watching the two films, I could see why the technique of harnessing the knowledge of the environment - wind, water and fire - to one's advantage would be so appealing to the metaphysics practitioners. This fits in very well with the five elements of fengshui (風水) or Chinese geomancy: metal, earth, fire, water and wood.

Chinese scholars believe that Qimen Dunjia was used at the Battle of Red Cliffs to defeat Cao Cao's ship-borne army. Over the centuries of Chinese history, Qimen Dunjia grew in popularity and expanded to include a number of other types of divination, including medical divination, matchmaking, childbirth, travel and personal fortunes. Today, it includes contemporary applications, most notably in business and finance. 

Quite possibly because of people's constant search for instant self-gratification and growing rich quickly, the practice of Qimen Dunjia keeps growing and is especially popular in Malaysia, Singapore and other nations of South-east Asia. 

Covid-19 trend in Malaysia

This is my chart of covid-19 infections in Malaysia from the first day (18 Mar 2020) until yesterday (13 May 2021). The y-axis indicates the number of daily infections while the x-axis indicates the day since the data was first published by the Ministry of Health, Malaysia. It is a worrying trend especially since it is known that the Indian variant has been found in the country. Our only hope is to get vaccinated fast but is the government doing enough? In the meantime, it is up to us to guard against this invisible enemy. Follow the SOPs, mask up, keep your distance from others and avoid enclosures, especially air-conditioned areas. 

Kubbel

Leonid Ivanovich Kubbel, born either at the end of 1891 or the beginning of 1892, was a Russian composer of chess problem and endgame studies. His compositions numbered more than 1500 and many were awarded first prizes in competitions. Kubbel died in 1942 from hunger. Recently, I came across one of his endgame studies in an old copy of 64 magazine. 

This 64 is, of course, the name of the now defunct fortnightly chess magazine from the Soviet Union. The copy I have at hand was the first issue of 1980. Anatoly Karpov was then the world chess champion and having him as the editor gave the magazine an immense prestige. Unfortunately, 64 was all in the Russian language and it was impossible to make head or tail of the chess stories. Luckily, it doesn't take much effort to enjoy the chess games or positions in the magazine. Chess speaks to its adherents in a common, universal language. So let me delve into this chess composition from Kubbel.

This study dated from 1925. Apart from the queens and knights, Black had two pawns on the board and can be considered to be having a great advantage if not for the fact that the next move belonged to White. But for White to win. his next few moves must all be forcing moves that win the game through checkmate or winning overwhelming material. 

The obvious move for White is to reveal the discovered check but where should his knight be placed? If you had chosen 1.Ne3+, then you are correct. Other squares for the knight - h2, f2, e5, f6 and h6 - do not work. After 1. Ne3+, Black is faced with a dilemma of moving his king. 1....Kh4 loses immediately to 2.Qg4 mate, while 1...Kh2 loses to 2.Qf2+ Kh3 3.Qg2+ Kh4 4. Qg4 mate.

Thus the only square remaining for Black is 1,,,Kg3. But then comes 2. Qg4+ Kf2 3. Qf4+ Ke2 4. Qf1+. The white knight is taboo because 4...Kxe3 loses to 5. Qe1+ and the black queen is lost to a skewer. So the only move for Black is 4....Kd2 after which comes 5.Qd1+ with the same recurring theme if the knight is captured. After 5....Kc3 comes 6. Qc2+. Black is forced to play 6....Kb4 because 6....Kd4 loses his queen to the knight fork 7.Nf5+.

After 7.Qb2+, Black has two choices. The first is 7....Ka5 which loses to 8.Nc4+ Ka6 9.Qb6 mate. The second is to block the check with 7....Nb3 but it still fails to a white queen sacrifice 8.Qa3+ Kxa3 and 9.Nc2 mate. Brilliant endgame study, isn't it?

The significance of today

It happened exactly 194 years ago today...

Phenomenal pandemonium of a pandemic

I've never seen one of my friends, a private medical practitioner in Penang, feeling so emotional before but I don't blame him at all. We are living in extraordinary times and any right-thinking man would feel this way too. In a Whatsapp message to my schoolmates, he said, 

"India is facing the 3Ps, Phenomenal Pandemonium of a deadly 2nd wave Covid-19 Pandemic. From a drop of Covid-19 cases from Oct 2020 till Jan 2021 there was a lull before a storm when thereafter emerges a massive unprecedented surge of sick Covid-19 patients and deaths till now.

There was basically ignorance, over-confidence and poor, lackadaisical attitude towards proper basic SOP of social distancing, wearing masks and sanitisation. There was utter callousness with over-excited religious congregations, election rallies, big farmers' protests being allowed publicly. Caution was thrown to the wind and this disaster most probably culminated with a new Covid-19 virulent variant.

Is this familiar with Malaysia, letting loose and letting her guard down in Ramadan, impending GE15, emergence of new Covid-19 variants thereby triggering a fourth wave of 3Ps like India?? Scary even just thinking about it...."