It’s a long time coming

By MT Webmaster Last updated Jan 2, 2014

I strongly believed that Malaysia’s education system should be English-based. I did not support the idea of Chinese or Indian schools, or even Bahasa Malaysia for national schools. I was not just anti-Chinese or anti-Indian education. I was also anti-Malay education.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Guan Eng: Malaysian education system in crisis (READ HERE)

The Hells Angels was founded on 17th March 1948. It is an outlaw motorcycle club with the motto: “When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets.”

In 1967, we formed the Malaysian Chapter of The Hells Angels. Our motto, however, was: “If you cannot stop then smile as you go under.” And that was probably more appropriate considering that we all rode Japanese motorcycles or old British motorcycles that had no problems going fast in a straight line but were like pregnant cows on corners.

On top of that, going from zero to 100 in 10 seconds was easy. But going from 100 to zero was practically impossible with the hopeless brakes that those bikes had (we did not have disc brakes yet at that time). Hence we crashed so many times that the doctor labelled us ‘temporary citizens’ (I had 12 crashes in two years from 1967 to 1968 so it’s a wonder I am still alive).

Our Malaysian Chapter of The Hells Angels was not official, though, because we were not affiliated to the US ‘mother club’ that had 230 chapters in 27 countries. Furthermore, we did not ride Harley Davidsons, which were not being sold in Malaysia and even if they were we could not afford them. In that sense we were an illegal chapter to a club which was an outlaw club anyway — so what the hell.

The late 1960s was the era of the music revolution. The Mersey sound of Liverpool, Woodstock, Santana, Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep, Grand Funk, and many, many more were more or less our ‘religion’. It was an era of protest and defiance and opposition to wars, in particular the Vietnam War. And that was when the super-group, Crosby, Stills and Nash, was born.

So, before you read on, first listen to Crosby, Stills and Nash’s song below — “It’s a Long Time Coming” — because that is what I want to talk about today, it’s a long time coming.

I did my primary education in the Alice Smith School, a school for children of expatriates. Hence I was educated as a Christian, so to speak. We started the morning with an assembly where we uttered the Lord’s Prayer. At the end of the year we participated in concerts and pantomimes regarding The Nativity of Jesus. We also did Bible studies and by the age 12 or so I knew everything there was to know about Christianity.

But the Alice Smith School did not offer a secondary education so after standard five I had to enrol in a local school (Meru Road Primary School in Kelang) if not I would not be able to take my 11-plus exam (the standard six exam). This was what they call national type primary schools.

My, what a culture shock that was for me. In the Alice Smith School we studied English history and geography. Now I had to study Malayan history and geography plus Bahasa Melayu, sastera, and a host or many other unfamiliar and strange subjects.

Our headmaster wrote to my father to inform him that I was a hopeless case and had no chance of passing my standard six exams that was due in just a few months time. Lo and behold, much to both my father’s and my shock, I not only passed but I got A. My father could not believe it and he interrogated me as how I managed to cheat and get away with it (that was how confident he was of my academic abilities).

Because of my good grades and the fact that both my father and grandfather had gone to the Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCCK), I was admitted into that most prestigious and elite school. It was an all-Malay school where you had to fast and go for Friday prayers at the mosque and attend Quran classes and whatnot.

I stayed in the MCKK for just over two years and halfway through form three I left for the Victoria Institution (VI) where I could, again, be amongst ‘kafir’ friends of Chinese and Indian ethnicities. Now I was at home in an environment I could tolerate, at least to some extent.

I, again, passed my LCE exam a few months later, much to my father’s surprise (yet again) considering I never touched my textbooks. Even more surprising was the fact that I got A. Two more years in the VI and in 1967 we sat for our MCE exam. And then I called it quits. I had had enough of what I considered a ‘Malay’ education.

In 1968, my contemporaries went on to form six for two years and in 1970 most of them went to university — University Malaya or a university in the UK. I spent 1968 and 1969 racing my motorcycle all over the streets of Kuala Lumpur and even entered the Malaysian Grand Prix (where I crashed and ended up in the University Hospital in 1968).

That was also the era of Malaysia’s political turmoil and May 13 and so on.

Anyway, the long and short of it all is that Malaysia’s ‘Malay’ education did not impress me or motivate me one bit. I was ‘English’ educated and to be forced to adapt and reorient myself to a ‘Malay’ education was not my cup of tea. I chose to drop out rather than endure the torture of an education that just did not appeal to me.

What further upset me was when they started Malaysianising even the road signs in Malaysia. Batu Road became Jalan Batu and then Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. Mountbatten Road became Jalan Mountbatten and then Jalan Tun Perak. And so on and so forth. I felt like an Englishman lost in a society that was fast turning into a Malay society.

Do you know that in the beginning the road signs in Kuala Lumpur were in both English and Bahasa Malaysia? Jalan Pantai was at the top with Pantai Road at the bottom on the same road sign. Then the University of Malaya students went around town to paint out the English part of the road sign with red paint. They wanted the English part to be totally removed and for the road signs to no longer be dual language but only in Malay.

Yes, and Anwar Ibrahim was this student leader who campaigned for English to be totally eliminated from Malaysia, even from the road signs.

That was more than 50 years ago and more than 50 years ago I already had strong opinions regarding Malaysia’s bad education policies. I was so opposed to the education system that I refused to continue my education after form five. I told my father I would only continue my education if he sent me to England. If not then it ends there, in 1967.

My late father, who was a barrister, wanted me to go to Lincolns Inn just like him. But he knew that if he had sent me to England in 1968 I would have just joined the Rockers, England’s version of The Hells Angels. Britain, too, was suffering the problem of outlaw bikers and he knew that the only reason I wanted to go to England was to become an outlaw biker.

Hence my father thought it would be safer that I stayed home where I could stay out of trouble (not that I did stay out of trouble as he later discovered).

Today, the opposition wants to call for a special sitting of Parliament to discuss what it calls ‘an emergency’ regarding Malaysia’s so-called ‘education crisis’. What ‘emergency’? What ‘education crisis’. This is a 50-year-old problem that over time became worse and worse.

For 50 years the Chinese fought for Chinese education. For 50 years the Indians fought for Indian education. For 50 years the Malays fought for Malay education. For 50 years I said that education should be in English. And now these same people want to discuss ‘an emergency’ regarding Malay’s ‘education crisis’ that was caused by them in the first place.

What bullshit is this? As Crosby, Stills and Nash said, “It’s a Long Time Coming”. Yes, it was a long time coming. 50 years long. And finally it is here. So can all of you who are the cause of the problem stop pretending that you are the solution to the problem.