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.