Blackwaters Secondary School

Blackwaters Secondary School was the first school I was posted to in the year 1976. The name of the school in English was translated literally by me from its name in the Malay language which was Sekolah Menengah Ayer Hitam ; just as Sekolah Tinggi Bukit Mertajam was translated directly from English, the Bukit Mertajam High School. However, like most people do, I am still puzzled and I cannot comprehend why it takes so long a time even until now that the “Penang Free School still remains Penang Free School”. Why is it that it cannot be changed, like other schools do, to either ‘Sekolah Percuma Pulau Pinang ‘ or ‘Sekolah Bebas Pulau Pinang’? Hopefully someday somebody would enlighten me on this matter. And hopefully I need not have to wait that long until I have to hear it from the other world. (Hee!Hee!)

Blackwaters Secondary School is located 14 miles north of Alor Setar, the state capital of Kedah. It is situated on the roadside of the main trunk road from Alor Setar to Kangar.

It was built on what were once padi fields as most of the inhabitants here were predominantly Malay peasants with some Chinese families integrating at the neighbouring small towns of Ayer Hitam and Kerpan doing small-time businesses.

In those days, the teachers irrespective of race were highly respected by the parents and the pupils alike,especially so in the rural areas. Generally speaking, the discipline was not a major problem during those days except that there might be a few minor cases of indiscipline committed by a handful of notorious pupils. But the wrong doers then would accept the punishment submissively without resorting to radical vindictiveness.

For the first two years of my teaching in the school, a colleague of mine and I rented a room from a Chinese family across the road opposite the school. As we were staying within walking distance from the school, the sound of first bell from the school became our wait-up call in the morning for us to start the day’s work.



In the evening, playing ping pong with pupils in the school and playing basketball with the village folk in a neighbouring primary school were the only pastime in this part of the world.



During our stay in the village, there was a water ration in the area. Although the neighbourhood was supplied with water pipes, hardly one could see water flowing out from them, especially during the dry season. Water was provided to the villagers from a water tank carried by a lorry once every few days from Alor Setar. The water containers of the village folk had to be lined up along both the roadsides waiting for their turn to be filled up. The water collected was just sufficient for drinking. To bathe we had to use the water carried from the canal in front of the house.

Once, during the Annual General Meeting of the Parents-Teachers Association, a Cabinet minister came to officiate the meeting. During the meeting a parent brought up the issue of the water problem to the minister. The reply he got from the minister sounded something like this, “The people here should be grateful and thankful to the Almighty God for having pipes though without water. We have to pity those less fortunate fellows who have neither the pipes nor the water to spare.”

Whether the villagers were easily convinced or satisfied with the answer given or not, I had not the slightest idea. But the fact remained that the water rationing continued with the problem of the water supply unresolved even after we had left the village to stay in Alor Setar two years later.

The Hot Spring Park at Changkat Jering

The hot spring is one of the alternatives to modern-day spa centres. Spas have become one of the attractions in many hotels and resorts in this region. Many believed that the natural hot springs have healing properties that would help to heal and detoxify toxins from our bodies. Those with stiff muscles, stiff joints, rheumatism, spinal injuries, insomnia and skin-related problems should consider soaking themselves at a hot spring.

I was introduced to the Hot Spring Park at Changkat Jering by my former colleague, Madam Lim Gim Seok, in 2007. She told me that her colleague, Miss Pak Giam Heong, used to go Changkat Jering on Saturdays for a dip in a small pool of hot mineral water pumped from underground. On her way back, she would buy some fresh fish and prawns from a fisherman of Kuala Sepetang (formerly known as Port Weld) to be shared among her acquaintances. After frequenting the hot spring numerous times, the pain in her legs was relieved and she could go on tour to Cambodia the following year.

This news invigorated my wife with great interest and enthusiasm as she was plagued by her persistent knee pain since our last hike at Taman Negara in 2004. It could be due to poor blood circulation on the portion around her swollen and stiff knees. In the past she had tried various methods of treatment but to no avail.

We decided to give it a try. In the subsequent months of 2007, we made regular trips to the Changkat Jering Hot Spring Park during the weekends. Sometimes we went there twice a week. Each of us booked a bathroom with a bath tub filled with hot water pumped from underground. Every time, we would immerse ourselves in the water for about ten to fifteen minutes.

The cost for the use of a bath room with a bath tub was only two ringgit for a shallower tub and three ringgit for a deeper one. In fact, the travelling expenses for each trip to the Hot Spring Park were far more than the cost of soaking ourselves in the hot-watered tub. The to and fro toll from Juru to Changkat Jering was twenty-one Malaysian ringgit. Almost an equal amount of money was used for petrol consumption for the journey by car. In other words, a dip in the hot water for merely fifteen minutes or so would cost us around fifty Malaysian ringgit, and to travel a distance of about 200 kilometers for the duration of two hours as well.

One might ask, “Is it worthwhile doing so?”

For me I did not notice any significant changes in me after dipping in the hot spring for a couple of times. I was told that frequent submersion in the hot water would render me impotent to father a child. How far this is true is yet to be proven, either by me or by the scientists.

As for my wife, in her own testimony, she claimed that soaking in the hot spring was very effective in reducing her weight from 72 kilograms to 65 kilograms over a number of weeks. Reduction in her body weight has lessened the burden on her knees considerably. The other benefit that she has reaped was a sound sleep in the evening after a dip in the hot-spring water during the day.

With our frequent visits to the Hot Spring Park at Changkat Jering, we have become close friends with the Malay family operating the hot spring park. We were welcomed amiably by them as we were offered a VIP car park lot for our old junk.

The family venture is run by En.Samsudin Hj.Ahmad on his ancestor land which is blessed with the hot spring from underground. He is a retired bank officer. After his retirement, he personally managed the family enterprise. Over the past few years, he has developed the facility in the vicinity of the Hot Spring Park by adding and upgrading more sheds, pools and bathrooms to cater for the increasing number of the visitors.

According to En.Samsudin, the Hot Spring Park is open daily from morning till midnight. Business is better during weekends as busloads of visitors throng the place as it is regarded as a great weekend getaway or a picnic spot for the family!

A Letter from a ‘Brother’

Brother Lim Poh Keng is my former colleague at Air Hitam Secondary School in the outskirts of Alor Setar, Kedah. We were in the same school for about 5 years since my first posting in the year 1976.

Brother Lim graduated from the prestigious University of Malaya(UM) in the year 1970 and he was posted to the school to teach the English language as his major subject.

He was a well-disciplined perfectionist. Whatever task he did he would perform it to the best of his ability. Teaching was no exception to him.

It was very hard for me to keep up with his pace and standard in terms of work or learning ability whether in quality or in quantity.

To me, he was a scholar living the life of a hermit. Even if you confined him in a prison within four walls, he would still find it a heaven as he could 'bury himself in the mountain of books' and 'surf in the ocean of music' for days without seeing people.

We maintained a sincere and cordial relationship as we were both colleagues in school and committee members in the Kedah Buddhist Association Youth Circle(English Section). Together we had participated in a number of Buddhist retreats at Petaling Jaya and Malacca.

Twice a week in the evenings prior to the Malay Language Papers of the Malaysian Certificate of Education (MCE) July Paper Examination, I used to ferry him on my motorbike to a tuition class at Alor Setar to brush up our command of the language to prepare us to obtain a credit at the MCE level as it was a requisite for the confirmation of our posts in the teaching profession of the Government Service.

After I had left the school in 1981, we seldom met each other again.

Recently, I met him and Brother Yeap Tor Hor at the MPH Bookstore at Gurney Plaza in Penang.

Days later, I sent him a write-up on my blog to get his comments. Not long after that, I got back from him by mail the corrected script of my write-up with an accompanying letter as follows:

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8 May 2009



Dear Bro. Sin Kong,
Greetings.
Thank you for sending me your blog for my perusal.
On the whole it was quite interesting and it was a very good effort on your part.
However, I decided to edit it to make it more readable since you requested for my comments. Except for some grammatical errors, I have taken the liberty to improve on the choice of certain words used. Overall, there is really little open for criticism. Keep up the good work. Continue writing. On the other hand I must say that my usage of the English language has ‘eroded’ as I have not taught English for over twelve years or thereabouts ever since I retired. Do pardon me should I misread you or inadvertently commit errors myself in my appraisal of your piece of creative writing.

I do not write much meaning composing new works such as essays, poems, short stories and so on. I do a lot of transcribing rather, especially diary entries; making notes from various reading materials, e.g. health, religion. Presently I am still doing my Sanskrit script exercises from the Bhagavad Gita. I can now read and write the Sanskrit(Devanagari) script. Given the opportunity I would like to teach the writing of the Sanskrit script as well. It is a very complicating script and very challenging to learn it. I learned to write it by myself. Are you game to learn to write it? It is excellent to activate your brain(mind), especially for elderly people like us.
Stopping here for the present. Do keep in touch.

Metta,



………….
(Bro.Lim Poh Keng)


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The Lady by the Lake

After reading the book Perfect Hostage, I wrote ..

A lady at the age of forty-one flew back from London to tend her ailing mother at Rangoon General Hospital on 2nd April 1988.

This trip had become a journey of no-return to her family in England. Since then she had to part with her husband, Dr. Michael Aris, and her two sons, Alexander and Kim. She had set her priority to stay back in her homeland to fight the junta to gain a ‘second independence’ for her people than to live a comfortable family life in England. “It is my aim,” she said, “to help the people in Burma attain democracy without further violence or loss of life.”What was offensive to her was the military regime’s denial of ‘the full enjoyment of human rights’, which undermined any notion of ‘full independence’. [Page 279, Perfect Hostage]

This lady is Aung San Suu Kyi( her name means ‘Strange Collection of Bright Victories’ in Burmese language). She is the daughter of the Independent fighter of Burma, General Aung San. General Aung San was assassinated with thirteen bullets of gunshot on 19th July 1947. In the space of thirty seconds, he and his four other ministers were killed immediately on the spot while they were having a meeting at the Secretariat in the government building at Rangoon.

Suu Kyi became the icon of Burma’s opposition to the Draconian rule of the military regime since General Ne Win assumed power on 2nd March 1962.

In the year 1990, her political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), had won with a huge majority in the first ever held General Election since the junta took over the reign of Burma in 1962.Out of a total of 485 constituencies, the NLD captured a staggering 392 seats. The magnitude of the NLD’s success was not just a landslide, it was a nationwide earthquake despite of the fact that Suu Kyi was under house arrest several months before the election was conducted. But the junta refused to honour the outcome of the election. Those elected opposition members from the NLD were intimidated, put into jails, or bought over. With this the junta hoped to make the NLD a spent force with Suu Kyi reduced to a general without soldiers.

Suu Kyi was under house arrest for three times with an accumulated duration of more than 6 years in her house at 54, University Avenue,Rangoon, near the Lake Inya(formerly known as Rangoon’s Lake Victoria). Utterance of her name was not encouraged and it could be an offence as the junta tried to erase her from the national consciousness. The people in Burma, out of respect for her, generally addressed her as ‘The Lady’ or ‘The Lady by the Lake’. Suu Kyi has become an eyesore as well as a pain in the neck for the junta as long as she remains in Burma as she has established herself as the de facto opposition leader of Burma. The junta cannot end her life with a bullet in the head or incarcerate her in the notorious Insein prison as she is the offspring of Burma’s National Hero, General Aung San, the architect of Burmese independence. The only way the junta could do was to provide Suu Kyi a one-way ticket to leave Burma which she refused to accept. At the time of her husband’s demise in the year 1999, the Burmese government allowed Suu Kyi to attend the funeral in England with the condition that she could not return to Burma after that. She again turned down the offer as she wanted to remain in the country to fight for her nation’s human rights and democracy.

It is not that Suu Kyi does not want to devote her time and her love for her family, it is rather her strong conviction to serve her country that she puts it in a simple statement, ‘I dream about my family all the time, but there are a lot of people here who need to be cared about and loved and looked after. They’ve become my second family.’

For Suu Kyi the struggle is a persistent and ongoing process until Burma becomes a truly democratic nation.

Another ‘Forty Years Later…’

This was yet another ‘Forty Years Later…’

Forty years later on May 3, 2009, I met some of my former classmates from the Technical Institute of Penang whom I have never met again since we left school.

This was during the banquet at the Berjaya Georgetown Penang hosted by my classmate, Mr.Tan Tick Lay, on the occasion of the wedding of his daughter, Ai Li.

It was very kind of Tick Lay to invite a few of us for the dinner. It was also very kind of Ah Chow, my fellow classmate residing at Bukit Mertajam to fetch me and my wife to attend the function.

Although Ah Chow and I are residing in the same neighbourhood at Bukit Mertajam for umpteen years, we seldom see each other. Only for a couple of times we bumped into each other when we went out for evening exercises; I was cycling and he was jogging.

Ah Chow is well remembered for his love of soccer during the school years at the Technical Institute. He represented our class in the inter-class soccer tournament for two subsequent years. I supposed he must have aspired to be a state soccer player but he ended up as an ‘estate’ player at Butterworth.

Even though Ah Chow failed to make it to Manchester United as a professional footballer, nevertheless he was successful in his career after he had left secondary school in 1970. At first he joined Malayawata Steel Factory at Prai. According to him, he had hopped six times before ending up as an executive factory manager before his retirement in the year 2007 earning a five-figure salary.

In my case, I ‘hopped’ and sometimes ‘was forced to hop’ from one school to another with an equal number of times as Ah Chow. But,with those subsequent hops that I had, I was eventually downgraded from a senior assistant to an ordinary teacher. This was how I usually joked with my friends, “If I ever get another transfer of school, most likely I shall end up as a ‘runner’, as a school office peon posting letters and collecting mail from the District Educational Office.”

At the wedding dinner, I met with ‘half a table’ of my classmates of the year of 1968 while the other half of the table was occupied by ‘our other halves’.

Cheng Liang emerged our ‘idol’ of the evening when we learnt that he ran two senior veteran marathons in the past few years. He has registered to run for two more marathons this year.It only occurred to us that we could only run a marathon in our dreams as anything insurmountable in real life would be made possible in slumber land.

Cheng Hock was another successful ‘turncoat’ when he opted from the teaching profession to become the director of a trading and transport company.

Jokingly, Cheng Hock was telling us, “At this very age of ours, there remain two roads for us to choose; one is heading to Kubang Saman for the bungalow lots while the other one is leading to Berapit for condominium units. Either place would be our future burial ground.”

So, it is better that we make hay while the sun shines; to chat over jugs of beer occasionally while we are still alive and kicking, than to become quiet and indifferent neighbours at those bungalow lots or condominium units later on.

The dinner was a great reunion of our classmates of 1968. This was made possible by our dear super-scale headmaster of DG 52, Mr.Tan Tick Lay; without his kindness and generosity we might have to wait for another forty years for us to catch up with one another. This dinner had made major inroads to our future get-together.