The Penang Free School Foundation

This was a story about the Penang Free School Foundation, written by Mohamad Ismail bin Ibramsa (Headmaster of Penang Free School, 1993-2000) that had appeared in FIDELIS, the commemorative coffee table book of The Old Frees' Association in 2012.

I was given the unenviable task to be the headmaster of the Grand Old Lady in 1993. The education fraternity then was talking about “The Effective School Movement” and “Schooling with Character”. Also, globalisation was a buzzword then. It has been said that arguing against globalisation was like arguing against the laws of gravity. How could we then enjoin these movements effectively for the school without the availability of sufficient funds? 

Indeed, money, we did not have much. It was embarrassing and frustrating, for example, to see our school band being unable to be in the forefront of the bands of a few other premier schools. A neighbouring school band received an allocation of RM240,000 from their Parents-Teachers’ Association. To stage a musical drama, to send our boys to play friendly games against established schools outside Penang, we needed monetary support from the PTA, Board of Governors and all the Old Frees’ Associations. In 1995, the Penang Free School returned the visit of the Togi High School hockey team from Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. The OFAs came to the aid the school and brought in the Rotary Club to send the school hockey team to Ishikawa Prefecture to play friendly hockey matches with Togi High, renowned for producing junior Olympic players. The parents of the players paid the other half of the expenditure. This was only one instance of support from the Old Frees and the PFS had more than 40 sporting clubs and societies!

The final draft manuals of the Education Act, 1996 were in circulation then. Sections 59-63 of Chapter 11 of the Act dealt with the “Dissolution of Board of Governors of Government or Government-Aided Schools.” As the headmaster, I was concerned that down the line, one of my successors, maybe an over-enthusiastic Pengetua of SMK Penang Free, might opt to dissolve the Board of Governors. We realised that we had to be pro-active as we envisaged that it would be too cumbersome to ‘douse the fire’ later. We were all aware that the BOG has been an integral part of the Grand Old Lady. Members of the BOG in the full tradition of the Penang Free School used to welcome the Resident General or the Commissioner before Merdeka and now His Excellency Tuan Yang Terutama to grace our Speech Day without fail on every 21st of October. 

I went into deep thought and dreamt of schemes that were solidifying in my mind but when I tried to share them with a few Old Frees initially, it was just like gathering clouds. Eventually, I came up with the idea of the PFS Foundation. Sometime in 1995, I held informal meetings with some senior Old Frees among the teachers: Khoo Poh Keng, Kong Fun Chong, Tan Chong Eng, Ch’ng Gim Leang and Mrs Ruby M Janet. These stalwarts, together with Puan Balkis, put my ideas into a concept paper. The dream was now unfolding into a vision, so to speak. Excerpts from the concept paper were presented to Yeoh Poh Seng and Datuk Dr Ong Hean Tee who were then the chairman of the Board of Governors and the president of The Old Frees’ Association respectively. The two Senior Assistants and I then had two rounds of preliminary discussion with Tan Sri Dato’ Mohd Sheriff bin Kassim, the president of the Old Frees’ Association Kuala Lumpur & Selangor at the KL Merlin Hotel.

Foo Say Keow, an Old Free and a lawyer, took up the challenge of drafting the Constitution of the PFS Foundation. A pro-tem committee comprising representatives from the Board of Governors, the Parents-Teachers’ Association, the Penang Free School Board of Trustees, The Old Frees’ Association, the Old Frees’ Association Kuala Lumpur & Selangor and the Old Frees’ Association Singapore was then formed. The Headmaster took up the position of the secretary.

With much enthusiasm, Yeoh led his Board of Governors, well supported by the three OFAs, to hold an inaugural General Meeting of the Foundation at the Merlin Hotel, Penang on 14 January 1996. Dato’ Anwar Fazal Mohamad was elected one of the three committee members. Foo, meanwhile, persevered on with the Constitution. Subsequently, the PFS Foundation was officially registered on 19 April 1996. Unfortunately, much of the details leading to the registration of the PFS Foundation have not been objectively and systematically documented. 

At a subsequent meeting, the Foundation allocated an initial sum of RM29,000 for the school to spend on academic excellence (15%), sporting excellence (15%), leadership excellence (15%), professional excellence (15%), youth development (15%), school occasions and tradition (15%) and physical and heritage (10%). 

The school experienced a very busy schedule in 1996 due to the celebration of the 180th anniversary, coupled with the historical visit of the late JMB Hughes on the 11th of March, the annual sports meet and the Speech Day, all carried out without compromising the academic standard of the students. A month before the official launch of the PFS Foundation, the Old Frees’ Association Kuala Lumpur & Selangor played host to a National Convention on the Seventh Malaysia Plan and raised RM153,000. 

The PFS Foundation was launched officially on 15 September 1996 by the Deputy Prime Minister who was then Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Among the 350 guests who attended the official function were Mohd Sheriff who was by now also the first president of the PFS Foundation, Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, then the Chief Minister of Penang, Tengku Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Ahmad Rithauddeen, Tan Sri Dato’ Elias Omar and Dato’ Mohamed Zain Mohamed Yusuf. The accumulated capital fund then stood at RM675,000.

In the years after the launch, the PFS Foundation and the school embarked on a project to produce the Old Frees Networking Directory. The driving force behind it was Anwar Fazal. Since then, this great Old Free has been striding selflessly to promote the Foundation through the series of Putra Lectures.  

In 2010, further donations increased the accumulated capital fund to RM1,060,000. But is this enough? For that, I shall leave it to you to ponder. Let us put our shoulders to the wheel to bring the total to RM5 million, the original sum that we dreamt about in 1996.

It matters neither how strait the gate,
Nor how charged with dangers the goal,
Let the tempest rage and fell odds inflate,
We'll to it with heart and soul.

FORTIS ATQUE FIDELIS