The Final Story I Heard From My Taiko

I went to visit my taiko [my eldest brother] early in the morning on 11th December of 2007. We had a short chat. He told me a story he read from newspaper. That evening he departed after a severe heart attack at around 11 pm. The story he narrated that morning became the final story I heard from him. Below is the story I wish to share with you.

"Once upon a time, there was a miser by the name Chee Lo Pak. He wanted to buy a pair of wooden sandals [木屐, Muji] for himself.

He went to a stall in the town to try out several pairs of the wooden sandals and found one pair to be very fitting and comfortable. However, on finding out from the vendor that all the sandals are of the same price irrespective of their sizes, he changed his mind like a flash. He thought it would be more economical and to his advantage as a buyer to get a bigger and longer pair of sandals.

After a bitter round of bargaining of prices with the vendor, he paid the money and put on the sandals immediately.

As the sandals were bigger in size, the wooden portions were protruding from his heels by inches. It looked awkward to others. But to him it was considered a good buy.

On the way home he met an old friend who invited him to have a chat at a nearby eating stall. His friend gave him a treat with some dumplings and steamed buns and a pot of Chinese tea. They had a good chat while enjoying the food.

Time flied as the minute hand made several rotations. When it was time for them to depart, there remained some food uneaten. Our friend, Chee Lo Pak, under the pretext of not wanting to waste the food unnecessary, readily wrapped up the food with a piece of paper to bring home for his son to consume. This again would save him some money on that day’s expenditure.

After walking for some distance, he felt uncomfortable with his stomach. He needed to ease himself. He wasted no time to look for a nearby toilet to answer nature’s call. He squatted in the toilet to do his business. As his sandals were protruding, substantial amount of his shit fell on the tail ends of his sandals.

He contemplated that it would be a waste just to ward off the shit from his sandals. He might as well use it to feed the fish in the pond behind his house.

He carefully scooped the shit that had stuck on his sandals with his fingers and placed it on another piece of paper, and wrapped it up properly before putting it into his pocket.

Now, he had two packets of ‘foods’ in his pocket. He walked home gracefully, humming softly to himself in a lively mood.

On reaching home, he threw one packet of food into the fish pond before he entered his house. He left the other packet on the dining table, anticipating his son to be back for lunch very soon.

In the end, it turned out to be the fish were enjoying the delicious food once in a life time while his son was very annoying and cursing his father for creating such a mischief on him."

The moral value of this story, in my opinion, is to impart the message that no matter how much we plan for our future, the ultimate end results may not turn up to be what we expected [人算不如天算].

Could there be any other hidden moral values which my taiko wished to highlight? I am not sure. Maybe you can enlighten me on this, why not?

A Tale of Two Schools: Two Defiant Subordinates

Scene One: At Convent School

Miss Patima was a lecturer at a teacher's training college on the outskirts of Bukit Mertajam before she was promoted to be the Principal of my school early in the year 2001. She did not have any administrative experience at all before assuming the post.

Like the other Principals before her, I had arranged 6 periods per week of a lesser important subject for her to teach, that is, Form 3 Moral Education ,knowing fully well that she would be more preoccupied with school administrative work.

On the first day she reported to the school, she already wanted me to change her timetable. She hoped to teach 2 periods of Malay Language from each of the 3 classes in Form 4. Those 6 periods had to be blocked so that in case she could not enter a class on any particular day, the other teacher who was sharing the class with her had to enter on her behalf.

I told her that it was not possible to get the timetable changed instantly as it would involve changing the timetable for the rest of the teaching staff. Anybody with the slightest knowledge of preparing a school timetable would be aware of this. It took me about 72 solid hours to prepare a reasonable timetable and I usually did it outside my school hours. I told her that I could only do it during the next round of reshuffling of the timetable. This was how I defied my boss on the first day itself.

Later, I did change the timetable to meet her request. However, the other teachers sharing the classes with her privately complained to me that it was unfair to them. Most of the time the Principal would be out of the school to attend meetings. They had to enter the classes on her behalf. When it came to examinations, the Principal needn't have to mark any scripts as she was just ‘a minority shareholder’ in the classes she taught.


Once, while I was teaching in a class, the Principal sent for me. She directed me to attend the open ceremony of MSSPP [Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Pulau Pinang] Sports Meet at Bertam, a distance of about 40 km from the school. According to her, she had totally forgotten about the event. She said she would be late if she was to travel there by car, and it would be faster for me to go there by motorbike. I told her that I only rode the motorbike within the town area and for any long distance travel I still had to use a car. If she could not make it on time, neither could I do so unless I was the Seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher in the making. This made her sore again.

This repeated defiance could be the reason for my sudden and surprise transfer to Berapit School as Afternoon Supervisor by the year end of 2001. It was a second shock to me as well as to others following the 911 incident three months ago.

Later, during a farewell gathering given to me by the school, she openly denied in her speech that she had a hand in my transfer from the school. Only her God and my Gods would know the truth.


Scene Two: At Berapit School


Whist Miss Patima had me as a defiant subordinate in the Convent School; I too had a defiant subordinate in my new school at Berapit.

He was Mr. Sehari. He was teaching the subject of Living Skills at Form 2 level. He made life difficult for me in monitoring him as he would punch card at his whims and fancies; sometimes he punched, sometimes not. To keep track on his existence in school, I had to go down daily to the workshop to check on him. If he was absent, I would instruct my assistant to prepare a relief timetable to relieve him.

Sometimes, when a relief timetable was already prepared for him, he would appear from somewhere. This again would upset the original relief timetable as it had to be redone afresh.

On many occasions he would leave the school for outside activities organized by either the District Educational Office or the State Educational Department without informing the school. I had to make phone calls to ascertain his whereabouts and what he was doing.

Another headache he posed was that he was reluctant to produce medical chits for his medical leave. It would take him weeks to hand them to the office after he had been repeatedly chased after by me and the school clerk.

The climax occurred when my school was hosting a State Inter-School Basketball Competition. All the matches were scheduled in the afternoon. Some brilliant teachers of mine took the advantage of skipping lessons by sending their pupils down to the basketball courts to watch the matches. They would be enjoying themselves elsewhere with a remote control.

After receiving numerous complaints from discipline masters, I had to come out with a circular for all the teachers, to warn them not to allow students to watch the basketball matches during lesson time.

Mr. Sehari still defied the order. He kept on sending his pupils to the basketball courts to watch the matches. I was cornered with no alternative but to issue him a show-cause letter. This was done with the consent of my Principal. The hero did not bother to reply my letter. Instead, he went on to circulate copies of his poison letter to certain quarters, a copy of which was given to my Principal, accusing me to be an anti-Melayu element, targeting at him in particular.

With this hard core defiant subordinate around the school whom I had no way to turn him around, I decided to throw the towel as the Afternoon Supervisor and got my transfer to another school in the following year as an ordinary teacher whereas this defiant subordinate was undeterred at all and still remained as solid as a statue in the same school until his retirement recently.

In either case, whether I was a defiant subordinate in one school or a duty-bound supervisor in another school, in the end I was fated to leave both schools.

The ‘Water Villages’ of Penang Island

On the 7th September, 2008, I attended the Damn Shiok Media Workshop on website publishing organized by the SUARAM Penang. As part of the activities, the participants were told to write a news story based on the observation made in the neighborhood.

From the location at our workshop, we walked across Weld Quay to take a look at the Clan Jetties.

A Clan Jetty is actually a village built on stilts by some pioneer Chinese immigrants. Each jetty comprises of row of houses on stilts joined by wooden walkways over the water. These ‘water villages’, set up more than a century ago, house the descendants from Fukien Province in China, who shared common historical, geographical and clan origins. They left their motherland in droves as the Manchu rulers of China lost their grip on power, and widespread poverty, famine and hardship became the order of the day. They are the anchor for newly arrived immigrants who, through kinship ties, were able to find jobs as stevedores and cross -channel ferry boatman in the bustling port of Penang to stake their survival in the new land.' [http://discoverpenang.evomediatech.com/chewjetty/home.html]

I met a tourist from Kuala Lumpur who was very amazed to see these Clan Jetties, to watch people staying in the wooden shacks or houses built on stilts on the waterfront of the channel. I shared his sentiment too. It crossed my mind to wonder whether the last Tsunami on December 26, 2004 has had any effects on the jetties.

The residents settled down at the jetties according to their last name(sir name,姓氏) At the moment there remains seven clan jetties, namely, Ong Jetty, Lim Jetty, Chew Jetty, Tan Jetty, Lee Jetty, Yeoh Jetty and Chap Seh Keo (杂姓挢，mixed surnames jetty). It is estimated that there are a total of 3,000 residents staying around here. All the residents of the clan jetties still preserve their Chinese tradition and cultures. They are either being employed as workers or shop attendants, or they are self employed doing small time business as hawkers in the neighborhood operating either coffee or food stalls, or grocery shops.

According to a middle aged resident of Lee Jetty, Lee Jetty was a newer jetty rebuilt 40 years ago. As a result, the wooden houses at Lee Jetty were neatly erected on both sides of the walkway as compared to the other jetties. The residents at Lee Jetty were relocated from elsewhere.

Jokingly he said, “I like to stay here. I have a world class swimming pool beneath my house!”

He told us that the oldest pier settlement here is Chew Jetty which is more than 100 years old. It is an old Chinese waterfront settlement, the largest and the liveliest jetty at the end of Gat Lebuh Armenian. The Chews were originated from the south-eastern coast of China - from Tung Aun District, Xin Lin She Village, and Quan Zhou Prefecture of Fujian Province. They were maritime clan communities in China. Thus when they emigrated, they also built homes for themselves at the waterfront. The Chew Jetty settlement has grown from about 10 families back in the 1920s to over 1,500 residents today.

Among the remaining jetties, only the Chew Jetty continues to have any clan-related activity - the once a year annual worship of its Temple Deity and "Tee Kong" (God of Heaven or Sky-God, 天公). The event takes place on the 9th of Chinese New Year (Lunar Calendar) annually. This distinctive and grand event attracts throngs of people to Chew Jetty to enjoy lion dance and dragon dances. On that day, residents place the worship food on the long altar table for praying.

Lee Choon Har of Chew Jetty resident said she was glad that her wooden house in Weld Quay was now part of Penang's tourism attractions. “This is a very nice and lively place to live in. Now we no longer have to worry that our houses will be torn down,” she said.

Next time if you happen to come to Penang Island, do not forget to visit Madam Lee Choon Har, to see for yourself the Clan Jetties, which is a pride of Penang Heritage.

Should National Service be scraped?

Recently, my niece, Yin, was very upset as she was ‘too lucky’ to be chosen through a computerized process to attend a 3 month National Service program, failing to attend it would subject her to a fine of up to but not exceeding RM3000, and/or up to six months of jail.

It was estimated that, for every ten persons of 18 year old youth listed on a national database registered with Malaysian ID cards, two conscripts would be picked for National Service.

If given a choice, Yin would choose not to attend it.

She said, “I’m against it as I heard in the news that many people died.”

Her fear was not unfounded. Until June, 2008, there were already 16 cases of death. Yet, it is believed that no proper inquiry was conducted and measures taken to rectify any flaws in the system of conducting the National Service. It is learnt that the program has been plagued with claims of poor management right from its inception. If it was for the Singapore government, action would have been taken long ago to re-structure the national service.

Many parents would like to see that this program scraped or at least suspended until its weaknesses are overcome. If not they had to undergo three months' trauma of worrying about their children’s safety during the training period.

The Penang's Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, urged the Federal Government to abolish the National Service program as the program had not proven its effectiveness but instead caused the deaths of so many students who had been forced to attend the program. The selected National Service trainees should have been given a choice to either participate or back down from the program if the Government cannot ensure the safety of the participants, as said by the Chief Minister. If this was implemented, then the parents of those students who died at the National Service camps would not be able to blame the Government as they had agreed to have their children attend the camp. But since all parents had no choice but to send their children as required by law then the Government has to bear full responsibility and the parents of those dead students should sue the Government for their children's death at the camp. (Star online, Monday, May 12, 2008)

Dr. Azly Rahman, a University lecturer, even went further to suggest that the national service to be stopped immediately and the project should be modified and run by the universities, specifically, by the schools of education and/or schools which deal with the development of youth cultures. (http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/7291/84/ )

Other main controversy issue of Malaysian National Service includes the selection system where the government computer database system picks up the trainees randomly without even knowing about their social status. Some cases include poor teenagers who need to work for their living and young mothers with newborn babies who were selected for the program, which are considered as inhumane. However, selected trainees for more recent sessions with special cases can send letters of appeal to be exempted from the training and will usually be approved.

One other issue is that most parents as well as the public are skeptical that a short period of National Service program can do any good to instill any patriotism or national integration. If eleven years of education in school is not enough to teach our young about moral values, patriotism and tolerance, then what is three months of National Service can achieve? Further more, if the problem of racial polarization was found to pervade educational institutions in Malaysia, then efforts should be taken to address its root cause by overhauling the whole educational system instead.

With so many issues clustering around National Service unresolved, effort to address and resolve the core issue of either scraping or retaining our National Service should be given the utmost priority.