Sara and the Towkay

Manicasothy Saravanamuttu was a Ceylonese who arrived in Penang to become the editor of the Straits Echo newspaper in 1931. He lived an extraordinary life and suffered the Japanese Occupation of Penang personally. His experiences during the War years and beyond were documented in his memoir, The Sara Saga, which was originally published by Cathay Printers in 1970. I recall that the former Chief Reporter of Straits Echo in the 1970s, G Ratnam, used to mention a lot about Saravanamuttu. The out-of-print book was reprinted by Areca Books in 2010 and it can still be purchased from the Areca Books website. Price is only RM40, which I consider to be very good value for a precious re-print.

I can't remember when I purchased a copy of this book: it could have been soon after the reprint became available but like many other books I own, they normally ended up in the cupboard unread until I really have a use for them. So it was with The Sara Saga. Recently, I brought it out for some air because I had to refer to the chapters on the Japanese occupancy of Penang, this year being the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Penang.

There's also a chapter on Penang's personalities, another area of history that continues to intrigue me. Turning to page 78, my attention was immediately rivetted to the picture of Towkay Yeap Chor Ee and Malcolm MacDonald. Now recently, Yeap Chor Ee had been a subject of interest to me as he was the founder of Ban Hin Lee Bank. 

I thought that I had already known quite a bit about him from public records, private conversations and also from the book, The King's Chinese, which was authored by one of the Towkay's great-granddaughters, Daryl Yeap. However, I discovered that Saravanamuttu's memoir also contained some details of Yeap Chor Ee's generosity that was unknown to me earlier. It was this generosity which made Yeap Chor Ee so well-known in Penang even decades after his death in 1952. 

Below, I reproduce an excerpt from the Saravanamuttu memoir that dealt with Yeap Chor Ee. But overall, The Sara Saga is a most interesting book on many important periods of Penang's past and a must for any student of local history to own. Click here to visit the Areca Books website.

Perhaps the most outstanding Chinese in Penang in those days was Towkay Yeap Chor Ee, who came to Penang as a penniless orphan at the age of 18. He was in his fifties when I arrived in Penang, and he was already the richest man in the settlement. His wealth was acquired by hard work, thrift and a fair share of good luck.

He first started with a small shop in Prangin Road, which was stocked with goods on consignment supplied through the good office of the compradore of one of the leading British importing houses of Penang. Young Yeap Chor Ee kept the accounts scrupulously and settled with his patron without fail at the end of each month. In this manner he built up a small capital. At that time Caledonia Estate in Province Wellesley was a sugarcane plantation and produced crude sugar. Yeap Chor Ee purchased stocks of this crude sugar and sent them to the refineries of the famous Java Sugar King, Oei Tjiong Ham, at Sourabaya, and sold the refined sugar in Penang at a substantial profit.

The story is told that Oei, sensing that the young man in Penang was likely to become a rival to him, did not submit the bills for the refining for an extended period. But Yeap Chor Ee, with that strict honesty which was an integral part of his make-up, deposited the cost of refining from the profits of his sales in the bank instead of, as in the accepted manner, reinvesting it to make more profit and thereby run the risk of losing it. Thus, the Sugar King suddenly presented a bill for some $2 million, expecting to find the young Penang businessman unable to pay and thereby take over his business. To his surprise, the full bill was promptly settled. Oei Tjiong Ham at once came to Penang to call on this remarkable young businessman and a friendship was established which culminated in two of his daughters marrying two of Yeap Chor Ee's sons. Another justification of the old adage: "Honesty is the best policy"!

Then came the rubber boom of the 1910s in which Yeap Chor Ee speculated with outstanding success and was soon acknowledged as one of the leading businessmen in Penang. He acquired considerable property following the old Chinese belief that land was the safest investment and was justified when after his death some of his lands fetched over a thousand times what he had paid for them.

He showed his faith in the future of Penang by putting up the magnificent Ban Hin Lee Bank building during the days of the "Great Slump" in the early 1930s. Another notable action of his in those days was when the tin price hit the bottom. He continued to buy on the falling market and at one time held as much as 2,000 tons of tin in his godown. When the price of tin began to rise after hitting the bottom at £170, he sold in small parcels at a time. It is said that he cleared nearly $2 million on this transaction alone.

Till the time of his death Towkay Yeap Chor Ee could not speak English and I remember when, in recognition for his donation of $10,000 to the Silver Jubilee Fund, I tried to secure for him naturalisation papers as a British subject but failed owing to his lack of knowledge of English. By that time, he had established his own bank and was one of the largest property owners in Penang.

My first contact with him was in 1932, soon after the Japanese invaded China. Some of his jealous business rivals started a story that he was a Taiwanese (native of Taiwan or Formosa, which was then under Japanese rule) and there was a movement to boycott his business. As editor of the local paper I was invited to call on him and when I went to his bank he threw his Chinese passport at me. It showed that he was born in Fukien Province. Taiwan was part of Fukien Province before the Japanese took it over and this was made the basis for the false report.

I asked Towkay Yeap to give me his passport, made a block of the page giving his place of birth and printed the picture in the Straits Echo the next day without any further comment. Many Chinese thought that, in the accepted Chinese custom, I had received a handsome present for doing this but I did it merely as a piece of truthful reporting. I think it was this that won me his confidence and he used to consult me often after that whenever he was in doubt over a public matter.

Later I was able to persuade him to give a donation of $100,000, which he later increased to $250,000, for the Chinese section of the library of the University of Malaya in Singapore, now renamed the Singapore University, a proposal that was attractive to him as a non-English speaking Chinese.

The story behind this donation bears repeating. The Resident Commissioner of Penang, i.e. the Head of Administration, was Arthur Aston, an Oxford contemporary of mine and a typical old colonial type. When the appeal for donations to the proposed University in Singapore came out in 1948 Aston sent for Towkay Yeap and blandly suggested he should give a donation of a million dollars! (Incidentally, one of his sons, Dato Yeap Hock Hoe, later donated a million dollars to the Penang University College). When Towkay Yeap made a counter offer of $10,000, Aston was very rude to him and told him he was not going to carry all his millions with him to his grave; all he would get was a stone over his head. Now to speak of his death to an old Chinese (Yeap Chor Ee was over 70 at the time) is considered very bad luck.

The old man sent for me and told me the story. I was very angry and offered to go and scold Aston. His reaction was typical of the old Malayan Chinese. He said, "Don't do that. He may get annoyed, but you can tell him that I was very hurt." Then he went on to say that the biggest donation for the University so far was $50,000 by Lee Kong Chian, a Singapore millionaire, and he was willing to cap it with a donation of $75,000. On the spur of the moment I replied, "Towkay, 10,000, 50,000 and 75,000 are all five figures. Why not be the first to give a six-figure donation?" The old man twigged it at once and readily consented. Remembering his lack of knowledge of English, I suggested that he should specify his donation be utilised for books for the Chinese section of the University Library and a plaque placed to perpetuate his name. This pleased him immensely. So I went over Aston's head and made the offer direct to Malcolm MacDonald, who was Chairman of the Donations Committee. The latter came down to Penang to accept the cheque personally from Towkay Yeap. And I made Aston sanction the grant of a private burial ground for Towkay Yeap and his family, which could be done only for outstanding public service, When he died in 1952, he was buried on this plot on a hill in his Green Lane Estate from where he could look down on the bank he established.

• Quah Seng Sun is one of three people who manage this WPS blogsite. Read more about him here.

The Japanese invasion of Malaya, 1941

In December 1941, the darkest days in Penang's history unfolded. Days after the Japanese military had begun their invasion of Malaya through Kota Bharu, there was widespread mayhem and destruction in George Town when Japanese bombs were dropped amidst simultaneous heavy machine-gun fire on the local population. 

I guess we shall never know today what happened to Westlands School during the war - the people who could remember that period may be too old or no longer around - but in 1965 when my friends in this blog were in the final year of our primary school education there, it was only 20 years since the Japanese surrendered control of the land back to the British. Although we boys missed the trauma of the war years, our parents did not. They went through much suffering, and life in the 1950s and 1960s was still difficult enough for most of them. And while it impacted us as young boys, we ourselves didn't know better due to our own childhood ignorance. In our own ways though, we remained resourceful. Left to our devices, we fell back on traditional children's games to entertain ourselves.

These are the five stories I wrote elsewhere to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Japanese invasion of Malaya in 1941.

80th anniversary (1): Japanese invasion

Today, 08 December 2021, marks the 80th anniversary of a very significant event in Malaysia's history. At 00:30 (that is, 30 minutes past midnight) on the eighth of December 1941, Japan launched their offensive on the Malayan peninsula. This was the beginning of almost four full years of hellish dark days of the Japanese Occupation from 19 December 1941 till their surrender on 02 September 1945. Earlier, they had sailed from southern Indo-China and their fleet of warships dropped anchor 3km from the coast of Kota Bharu.  Read more here.

80th anniversary (2): The bombing of George Town

Previously, I had related how George Town had awoken on 08 December 1941 to the first sounds of Japanese enemy aircraft flying over the town. Three days later on the 11th of December 1941, terror rained down on the inhabitants of George Town. Terror in the shape of bullets and bombs. It was truly a rain of terror. Not yet a reign of terror, no, it had yet to begin, but literally, a rain of terror. Without warning, the Japanese aircraft dropped their bombs and trained their machineguns on the people who congregated in the Chinese quarter of the Beach Street area. Read more here.

80th anniversary (3): Silent evacuation

On the 13th of December 1941, the first of four quiet evacuations of the British from Penang soil took place. Although not apparent at that time, these evacuations also signalled that the British Empire itself could be unravelling in South-east Asia. Never mind that Britain came back to administer Malaya after Japan had surrendered in Penang on 02 September 1945, it was never to be the same again. The seeds of nationalism planted, a movement for Independence and self-governance began taking root. Read more here.

80th anniversary (4): White flag

Eighty years ago on the 16th of December 1941, the Japanese military invaded Malaya and bombed Penang. It is quite safe to say that many families in Penang, if not all, were affected by the atrocities. I know that mine were displaced. On my maternal side, my grandparents fled to the hills, the chau huan that I had mentioned in Part 2. My paternal grandparents probably did the same too and they never really recovered after the Occupation was over. My father continued with his education at Penang Free School after the War but because of the pressing economic circumstances, he had to quit within the year to find work and support the family (at that time, comprising his parents and a sister.) Such sacrifices were not uncommon as the local population tried everything to rebuild. Read more here.

80th anniversary (5): From the Japanese perspective

At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 19th of December 1941, the first Japanese troops landed on Penang island. This was a result of Penang surrendering after nine days of continuous bombardment by Japanese enemy aircraft and the quiet evacuation of the British military garrison and European civilians. With the island now totally defenceless, it fell upon the local civilians to fly the white flag to signify Penang's surrender to the Japanese military. In today's 80th anniversary story, the last of my five-part commemoration of the sad occasion, I shall reproduce two stories from The Syonan Shinbum newspaper. Read more here.

© Quah Seng Sun

‘Give back to our children the spirit of adventure’

By Quah Seng Sun

WOULD YOU allow your son or daughter to take part in wholesome outdoor school activities like Scouting and Guiding? During our time, it would be an unqualified “Yes”! Today, it is a rhetorical question. 

Molly Ooi, who taught at Penang Free School in the 1980s and was Group Scout Leader (GSL) of 8th Georgetown (South) Sea Scouts Group and also Ranger Guider, laments that these activities have lost their shine.

“It’s such a shame that camping is now confined to the school field and not many students want to be Scouts anymore. The Scouting light doesn’t shine brightly anymore and Coronation and Jubilee Camps are both gone. Scouting and Guiding are both internationally recognised uniformed movements which prepare young people holistically for their futures.” 

Molly Ooi with the Sea Scouts of Penang Free School
in the 1980s

Together with her husband, David Hwang Hong Shi, who himself taught at Westlands Primary School in the 1950s and Penang Free School in the 1960s, she tries to burn the torch for these activities: “Parents should encourage their wards to participate. Don’t make them lose their sense of adventure.” 

Molly’s accounts highlight a few differences between then and now. One is the change in attitude, a sharp turn towards taking less risk among all the parties involved. Another is the diminished trust among students, teachers, parents and the various levels of administration. 

“Malaysian kids today have lost their sense of adventure. Many prefer to be hooked to their handphones. Parents are too worried about letting them out even for a nature walk. Teachers are afraid of taking them out in case accidents happen and parents sue them. And principals don’t want the hassle of paperwork and answering to the Education authorities in case something happens. Kids get to camp in the school field only when they can get a teacher to stay with them at nights — which is rare,” she says.

Molly Ooi with the Rangers of Penang Free School

“When I was young, we cycled everywhere and our teachers took us for all kinds of hikes and excursions. We visited factories and ate cookies, chocs and got other goodies, went to tin mines, all kinds of estates, farms and orchards (again free vegetables and fruits there), got special passes for movies like The Sound of Music and other interesting children’s literature and lots more. We had no handphones but we had fun outdoors with our wonderful, caring teachers whom our parents trusted.”

Molly’s own adventure with Scouting started in the 1970s. In a recent posting on her Facebook, she wrote that she had taken her Woodbadge Course while teaching in Malacca during those years. She became a Sea Scout Leader of the Open Sea Scouts troop there which comprised both Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. There were camping and canoeing at Tanjong Keling Beach. Today, there are no more stretches of clean white sand as the beach has been obliterated by hotels and apartments.

When she was transferred to Penang Free School, she became the warranted Group Scout Leader (GSL) of 8th Georgetown (South) Sea Scouts Group and also Ranger Guider. “Those were interesting years of camping at Camp Coronation, numerous hikes to Muka Head and Gertak Sanggul, over the Ayer Itam hill to Balik Pulau, Penang Hill and other adventurous activities and combined training camps together with 1st Georgetown (South) GSL Mr Khoo Poh Kheng and 7th Georgetown (South) Rover Scout Leaders (RSLs).

She offered two Internet links to Scouting: Importance of Scouting and Guiding in Schools and Scouting and World Development.

• Quah Seng Sun is one of three people who maintain this WPS blogsite. Recently he authored two books, Let the Aisles Proclaim: The First Two Hundred Years of Penang Free School 1816-2016 and Ten Thousand Prosperities: The Story of Ban Hin Lee Bank. Read more about him here.

ADDENDUM

A comment on facebook put the picture as taken after the PFS Scout Show in 1984. "It was one of those rare occasions that the Sea Scouts were in uniform (white shirt and navy blue pants). The whites were outstanding but the Scout Commissioner wasn't too pleased as this was against the norm. But somehow we survived," the writer* recollected as a response to this story.

He continued, "Sadly, those were the transition times from camping in the wild to camping in school, and the beginning of parental consent and the fear of the dangers of sea activities. We chose the former and at the end, our numbers were whittled down to what you see in the picture. Most of the time - practically every Saturday - that bunch of nutcase Sea Scouts were either at Pantai Keracut or Muka Head or canoeing round the island. We rowed canvas canoes. They were like bloody logs in the water!!! But with the choppy currents around Muka Head, it was a blessing.

"Those were the days... camping, backwoodsman, odd-job weeks, washing cars, cutting hedges for funds, Scout shows, Scout car racing, naval training, whacking our own paths to Pantai Acheh, licking limestones at Muka Head because we ran out of water, night hikes to Pantai Keracut, caught by the Police for sleeping in the cemetery with parangs after tiring out trying to grab the best bamboos, transporting 15-feet bamboos tied to two bicycles, and dragonboats. Camping at Youth Park was considered degrading to us. Yes, those were the days."

* The writer wished not to be named.

Straits Echo

THIS IS quite a well-known picture, a three-storey building that once housed the venerated Straits Echo Press newspaper. I have no idea when the newspaper located its operations here but very long ago, it used to operate from a shophouse in Beach Street. In the 1960s, I do remember seeing the building at this spot – the corner of Penang Road and Dato Koyah Road – but never in my wildest dreams then could I foresee that one day in the 1970s, I would have this newspaper as my first employer, albeit only for a short six-month stint.

I said venerated because where the Press was concerned, this English language daily was the pride of Penang. Often, it carried news that the more national-level The Straits Times, with its headquarters in Singapore, was unable to report first-hand. Before the Second World War, The Straits Times occasionally had to rely on re-printing news that had earlier appeared in the Straits Echo. Thus in a way, the latter, despite its regional coverage, was seen as an ultimate source of authority for news about Penang.

Like The Straits Times, the Straits Echo newspaper was a broadsheet which was a large format and somewhat unwieldy to hold. To keep up with the times, but more to challenge The Star newspaper which hit the streets in 1971, the Straits Echo transformed into a tabloid in the 1970s. With it came a new name, The National Echo, and blue was adopted as its colour for the masthead in contrast to The Star’s red. The competition with The Star was keen and at one stage, an evening edition – the so-called street edition – of the newspaper was introduced so that readers could read that day’s news on the same day. Later, The National Echo opened an office in Kuala Lumpur and shifted its centre of operations there. Unfortunately, it could not compete with the likes of New Straits Times, The Malay Mail and The Star, and The National Echo folded in 1986.

When I worked there in the 1970s, the newspaper was owned by someone named KK Liew. The editor was a Eurasian named Wilson de Souza while the senior editors were Cheah Cheong Lin and Sunny Tan. The chief reporter was a very loud man named G Ratnam. Among my peers were people like Kee Thuan Chye, Ung Mah Pheng, Ong Thean Seang and Ooi Kee Beng. The last named is now the Executive Director of Penang Institute.

© Quah Seng Sun

Updates and add-ons:

Lim Siang Jin: 

• My great grandfather, Lim Cheng How, used to manage the company that owned the Straits Echo. This is from my grandfather’s memoirs: “Attached to the Criterion Press, Ltd, former proprietors of the Straits Echo, the premises of which were at Nos 226 and 228 Beach Street, presumably as an assistant, my father rose to the appointment of manager with, I believe, a salary of $100/- pm which was then considered excellent pay having regard to the fact that the cost of living was cheap”.
• In the mid-1980s, the late Soo Ewe Jin (later one of the Deputy Executive Editors of The Star)  and I were approached to come up with a plan to revive The National Echo, perhaps take it back to Penang and focus on news from the north again. We were both working for ISIS Malaysia then. Both from Penang, we were quite excited about the project, however, nothing came out of it.

Resilience

THIS WAS a story from The Star newspaper last Wednesday, the 25th of August. Although it correctly stated that Hwang Hong Shi taught at the Westlands School, the translation into SMK Westlands was wrong. SMK Westlands is Westlands Secondary School which opened in 1957. Westlands School was the primary school which is today the Westlands Centre for Sports Excellence, the premises still located in Victoria Green Road. But Master Hwang did indeed teach at both schools: Westlands School in the 1950s and Westlands Secondary School in the 1970s.

GEORGE TOWN: Having hid in the jungles of Sitiawan, Perak, as a child over four long years during the Japanese occupation, octogenarian Hwang Hong Shi has cherished every day of his life since.

Recalling the dark chapter, the 87-year-old retired teacher said he was only eight when he fled into the wilderness with his family.

“We heard they were beheading Chinese school teachers, and both my parents were teachers.

“They weren’t very good at farming and being the eldest, I had to help out as much as I could.

“My father would dig up the ground and I would plant paddy seeds.

“I also learnt to fish in the river,” he said, adding that the family lived in fear inside a hut they had built.

Hwang said there was often not enough food for the family of five.

“We had to make do with what we could get our hands on, like sweet potatoes, tapioca and plain rice to stay alive,” he said at his home in Taman Sri Nibong.

He said he could never forget his anxiety back then.

“The times we sneaked into the neighbouring towns fearing execution, to the times we ate tree roots out of hunger – we had to be resilient to be able to survive,” he said, adding that these were the qualities he applied in his daily life throughout his career as a teacher, then a general manager.

Hwang said that when the British took over, things improved.

“I began my schooling, but it still felt like we were living under someone else’s roof. Our future was uncertain,” he said.

He was a 23-year-old teacher in 1957 when Merdeka was declared.

“I did not know much about national affairs then, so I didn’t understand the political aspect of it, but to me, Independence meant better opportunities for all and freedom from conflict,” he said.

Born in Sungai Siput, the Perakian dedicated 37 years of his life to teaching in several schools, including the then Westland School (now SMK Westlands), Sekolah Umum Permatang Pasir in Seberang Prai, Penang Free School and the International School of Penang (Uplands).

Ten Thousand Prosperities

HOW MANY Old Westlanders from both the primary and secondary schools were customers of Ban Hin Lee Bank (or BHL Bank) in the past? I guess many of us were. To a great extent, BHL Bank was part of our daily lives: we either borrowed money from the bank or deposited our money with it. Then there were the coinboxes. Too many to mention but all have become collectors’ items. 

At the height of its banking business in the 1990s, its visibility among the local community was considered second to none. Among my batch of primary schoolmates (Class of 1965), I know of only two – Khoo Kay Liang and myself – who were in the bank’s employment. We joined in the mid-1970s and continued until BHL Bank was merged into Southern Bank in 2000. A total of 23 years in my case, a very long time indeed. I wouldn’t have stayed if working conditions and social activities were not right in this One Big Harmonious Family. In the 1980s and 1990s, many of the staff that joined were barely out from their school uniforms. The bank took them in if their Form Six academic results were good enough but many were also selected for their sport prowess. 

Today, more than 20 years have passed since the merger. With the passing of time, the memories that my friends and former colleagues harbour of the bank are at risk of being forgotten. Recognising that more memories could be lost in the future, I had embarked on a project two years ago to collect a verbal history of BHL Bank’s halcyon days. Penang’s most loved home-grown bank is now remembered in this book which I’ve aptly called “Ten Thousand Prosperities: The Story of Ban Hin Lee Bank.” The “ten thousand prosperities” in the title comes from the literal translation of the bank’s name in Hokkien: 萬興利  

The video below gives a quick flip through my old memories. A small slice of Penang's history. Hope you enjoy it. 

© Quah Seng Sun

Flash back to school

TEOH SOONG KEE is a specialist doctor – an obstetrician – working in a private hospital in Ipoh. He has been there for decades, and often taking pride in the fact that some of the babies that he delivered were now grown-ups and turning to him to deliver their own. But Soong Kee, for all his settling down in Perak, was a product of three schools in Penang: Wellesley School, Westlands School and Penang Free School. Several years ago, he wrote a book, Young Emotion, in which he recalled his schooldays through poems, articles and short stories. Here is one of them.

Both my parents came from China. My father had three years of schooling and could just read the newspapers while my mother was illiterate. I never attended any kindergarten. Yet, schooling in Penang, especially in the Penang Free School, gave me a strong foundation for the years ahead.

Wellesley — Good conduct? 

When I went to Primary One in Wellesley School in 1953, I could not speak more than three words in English. The first words we had to learn were “Teacher excuse me” when I wanted to go to the toilet. However, I was good in arithmetic, perhaps from my coffee shop environment. Within a week, I was given some sums to do, and then I was transferred to Class 1D which was a double-promotion class. We had to do three years work in two. Not surprisingly, I was in 26th position in the first year, but I managed to rise to 10th position in the second year.

I still remember some of my classmates like Tan Poh Seng, Lim Eng Hong, Lee Chaing Hin and Chew Gim Hye. Later I found out that Teh-Tiong Sa was also my classmate then. I nearly got the prize for Best Conduct, but it went to Lim Say Kwee, whom I believed was the nephew to the headmaster. Our class teacher was a Eurasian, Mr Johnson. My mum would give me a raisin bun, a milk drink and ten cents for refreshments during recess. I remembered envying the other schoolmates who could go inside the tuck shop for noodles and ice-cream. Occasionally, a school boy would sell me his coupon for ten cents. It was a treat for me!

Each week, the dental nurses would come to our class to check our teeth. Unlike most pupils, I looked forward to the trip to the dental clinic as I had a pretty-looking dental nurse attending to me. I had not reached puberty yet so there was no erotic fixation! She did an excellent job and kept most of my teeth intact (with the black mercury fillings) till today.

Westlands — General knowledge prize! 

After two years, all of us were transferred to the feeder schools such as Westlands, Francis Light and Hutchings schools. While Wellesley School was only a five-minute walk from my rented room in Swatow Lane (famous for the New World Park ice kacang), I had to sit in a trishaw for a 20-minute ride to Westlands School. The fare was only $3 per month, but sometimes we had to cram six children in the trishaw. 

Since we were from the express class, we went straight into standard 4E. I had chicken pox during the mid-year test and attained 24th position in the class, but fortunately I improved to 5th place by the end of the year. I did better in the next two years, achieving within the top three positions. In Standard Five, I obtained 100 marks in four subjects, and that was in the days when it was not common to get such high marks. There was a special General Knowledge test in which I managed to win the prize. I chose a book titled “100 Great Lives” which is still in my possession. We had to sit for a statewide Form One entrance exam to stream the students to the secondary schools. The top 200 boys would enter Penang Free School. I managed to be the top student from Westlands but was beaten by a few others from Francis Light School including Dennis Lee. 

I was among the shortest kids in the standard. However it was an advantage for me as the children were grouped in four classes within the games houses according to height and not to age. So even when I was in Standard Six, I was placed in Class III, mixing with the younger students. I was even made Captain of the Class I football team! In Standard Five, I was called up to see the headmaster, once for talking during assembly and on another occasion for “fighting”! I remembered that I was in the same group with Oh Siew Leng while Ong Tat Teik was in the rival group. 

We used to have drama lessons every other week. I was rather enthusiastic and remembered how melodramatic I would be, playing the different roles in the sketches. In 1957, the year of our Independence, I was selected to be the voice of one of the characters in a puppet show at the combined schools concert. I acted as a Malay boy and I had to shout “Merdeka” three times in the closing scene. 

Penang Free School

I entered PFS in 1958 in Form 1A under Goh Teong Chye as our form teacher. He would ask all the students to contribute 20 cents per month to buy the daily newspaper, which he would read first. The next day he passed the papers to us to cut out the highlighted news for display on the notice board. I nearly won the prize for National Language (Malay language for the non-Malays).

The Malay boys were not eligible as they had to sit for the Bahasa Melayu test. However, Jammal claimed to be eligible, being an lndian Muslim, and he beat me by two marks for the National Language prize. One morning at the end of the year, there was singing in the class. I remembered singing a Russ Hamilton song “Tip Toe through the Tulips”, but received a lot of laughter. I had mispronounced the words as “Chip Choe through the Chulips”! The best singer that day was Ong Hean Beng. 

The next year in Form 2A, we were under Mr Cheng Hin who had just returned from Brinsford Lodge Teachers College in UK the year before. He was very enthusiastic. At the beginning of the year, he announced that the class project would be to produce a magazine. This was unheard of for such a junior class. However, we did produce the cyclostyled magazine and sold it for 20 cents. In the magazine, there was a quiz which we could send in the answers to him during the school holidays. I got the prize, as apparently I was the only one to mail in the answers. Knowing my interest on the stars, he gave me a book on Astronomy. I managed to achieve 4th position in the whole form, but the Form Teacher’s remarks on my report card were “good but rather playful at times!” 

Somehow I did not remember much about my Form 3 year except that we all had to study hard for our LCE (Lower Certificate of Education). In those days, with an LCE, one could join the government service as a policeman. I was second in the form for the school exam and obtained five As and two Bs in the LCE. 

With my marks, I was placed in the Form 4 Science class. Usually the top 40 students were streamed into the Science class but there were a few top students like Iyer (now Sulaiman) who did not like Science and went to Form 5A. We had to study three science subjects and two mathematics papers. We were glad that History was dropped. Dennis came to 5 Science but was allowed to sit for two science subjects as he took music as an examination subject. Several of us would cycle to Dennis home in Mt Erskine, especially when the rambutans in his garden were ripe. We produced a class magazine which we called “The Mad Mosquitoes”, an unusual name with no apparent reason! 

I managed to do well in Forms 4 and 5, being in 3rd and 5th in the forms respectively. For my Cambridge School Certificate (sometimes called Senior Cambridge) I obtained seven As out of eight, together with Tan Poh Hwa and Koe Chong Aun. I only got a Credit for my English Language but got a distinction A1 in English Literature! Thanks to Mr Bennet who helped us enjoy English poetry written by Keats, Shelley and Byron and even Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. “If music is the food of love, play on!” We just have to pass the national language to qualify for the Malaysia Certificate of Education (MCE). We had to sit for the Sixth Form Entrance exam for eligibility to enter Form Six in January, as the SC Exam results would only come out by March. I was thrilled that I obtained the second highest marks in the state.

Tuition 

I never had tuition in all my school years. My parents could not afford the fees even though they were just about ten to 20 dollars a month. It was a credit to our teachers who taught so well, that tuition was unnecessary. Perhaps our parents were not so kiasu then. The only time when I needed extra help was in Bahasa Kebangsaan. So in Form Five, I enrolled in the evening classes held at Hu Yu Seah night school for just three dollars a month. We were even given a certificate after attending the weekly classes for one year. 

Some of us would meet in one of the homes to study together. More often, especially for those of us who lived in crowded homes, we cycled to the Penang public library to study and consult the reference books such as the Encyclopedia Britannica. We did not have internet Google then!

Teachers 

We still remembered some quirks among our teachers. Lee San Hoe was very superstitious and would become very angry when he saw two white chalks upright on the table. Another teacher Tan Ah Fee would sing out loud “la la la Speedy Gonzales”. Captain Mohd Noor (who used to be in the army) would ask us “how many gantang” when we returned from the toilet. His favourite suit was pink in colour. He also kept his shoes shining bright – some claimed that he would place his shoes under a lady’s skirt! He was particularly stern with the Malay boys. Another Malay teacher, Iskandar, was rotund in size but was very kind and friendly, offering to give free tuition in his home. Our first Malay language teacher was actually a Chinese, Beh Teik Chooi, who had remarried to a Malay lady. He was fond of telling us stories from the Japanese occupation. One teacher would teach us by making us spend the whole period, copying notes which he wrote on the notice board. Ambrose was the earliest to arrive in the school and the first to make announcement during the Monday school assembly. Our Form 4 PE teacher, Teh Keng Chooi, did the unusual, by getting our class photograph taken without our shirts, exposing our scrawny chests! 

Another teacher Khoo Tiang Lim claimed that he did not use soap for bathing, as it might wash away our natural body oil. KTL said to Wee Kyam Hooi, who often made humorous remarks in class, “you are allowed only one joke a year!” Our Biology teacher, Lee Eng Leong, corrected us when we used the word “hole” for the female organ. He insisted it was a “slit”. There was a very fierce teacher Teoh Cheng Hai nicknamed “bulldog”, but he was actually quite pleasant if we worked in his craft class on Saturdays. There were very kind teachers, but there were some who would throw chalks or even the wooden black board dusters at us. We also had our first lady teacher, who came as Miss Tan Cheng Ee, but later disappointed some of us when she became Mrs Oh Eu Kok. We used to make fun of her by sighing “OOOOOh...” Then we had an English retired army major, Edwards, who taught us Physics. His army discipline included a long ruler but tempered with gentle “Oh dear dear dear...” when we gave the wrong answers. 

One type of punishment imposed by many teachers in the lower forms was to make us write repeatedly, for example “I must not eat in class” or “I must not be late for school”. If we were asked to write 10 pages, our writing would be extra large but if we were to write the same sentence 100 times, we would squeeze the 100 lines on one page. On one occasion, we were asked to write the sentence “I must put a full-stop at the end of the sentence.” But a number of us forgot to put the punctuation at the end of some of the lines! C Ponniah would punish by asking the student, in his shrill Tamil accent, “Be mounted”, that is, to stand on the chair. 

Sports 

There were many opportunities to take part in sports and games. Every student learned how to play football, cricket, hockey, badminton and rugby, in rotation throughout the year. Tennis was more for the richer kids. We even had Additional Sports Day where every student had to take part in the  100 yards, 400 yards, high jump and long jump. Points were given for each student who achieve the qualifying standard that was decided according to the age group. I was able to get all the four points, just managing to clear the qualifying standards. One year, I was sick and could not take part. My house (Pinhorn, blue colour) lost the championship by two points! If I had been well, Pinhorn would have won! I was not good in sports but managed to represent my House in football, cricket (but never scored a run) and debate. 

School activities 

In the upper forms, we had to come back to school twice a week for two lessons, followed by extra-curricular activities which could be scouting, cadets, or band followed by games. There were many clubs and societies to join, from Science and History to Music and Drama, Photography, Gardening and Art and Craft classes. There were no religious or cultural societies then, although there was an informal gathering of Christians during the recess once a week in one of the teacher’s houses in the school compound. Dennis used to invite me to join them. On other days, a group of us grouped together during recess to share Smarties sweets, to be purchased by one boy in rotation. 

I took part in the Stamp Club, Craft Class, Science Society and the Music and Drama Society, Historical Society (it made interesting trips) and the National Language Society. For one whole year I was forced to join the Scouts, but I was not interested. I did not wear the scout uniform. However, I passed the Tenderfoot test and enjoyed the camping and hiking trips. 

In Form Lower Six, I was Science Editor for the Outlook magazine but in the following year I was asked to be sub-editor of the School Magazine by Yeo Guan Teik. In those days, we had to type the articles on the typewriter, and the printer used individual metal letters to set the pages. We often had to check the proofs again and again till the wee hours of the night. Even though I was a novice photographer, I managed to capture some images of memorable events, which were included in the school magazine. We started the first PFS Newsletter, a bi-monthly newspaper, but were asked by the headmaster to hand over to another editorial board headed by Srinivasa Iyer. 

The Sixth Form Recreational Activities (SFRA) was formed for those Six Formers who were not involved in any uniformed group or school sports teams. We played the miscellaneous games such as netball (the boys enjoyed playing with the girls, much to the horror of Ambrose), volleyball, table tennis and folk-dance! As chairman of SFRA, I was given the privilege to learn the new game of softball and even became an instructor (at least on the theoretical aspects). 

When we went into Form Six, we faced a different world. There were girls admitted to our class. There were not so many in the Science classes as in the Arts classes, but least most of the Science girls wanted to do Biology rather than Mathematics. The boys had to learn to restrain their pranks and jokes and show chivalry. At the end of the year concert, our Form 6 Sc Class entered a team of four boys and four girls called “Battle of the Sexes”. They sang a couple of humorous songs, (with lyrics adapted by me) entitled ”Woman is Fickle” against ”Man is Flirtatious”. One of the memorable lines was Poh Hwa who sang, “When will you be mine” and Ee Looi replied, “If you got the money, honey, I’ve got the time”! We won the Prize for best group performance!

Veteran scouts

THIS STORY appeared in the Metro North section of The Star newspaper on 23 Apr 2019. It is time again to applaud our old Westlands Primary School senior, Datuk Khoo Yeoh Gan Hong, for his scouting achievements. If you peek closer at the picture, you’ll see Ong Seng Huat there too. He’s the current vice-president of the Penang headquarters of the Scouts Association of Malaysia. For those who are unable to read the small print in the newspaper story, it is reproduced here below:

OCTOGENARIAN Khoo Poh Sen was the only woman who received a service medal during the Scouts Service Award ceremony at the Scouts Association of Malaysia’s Penang headquarters in Jalan Scotland.

“I became a Scouts in 1964, and back then my focus was grooming the younger Scouts in schools. I have never felt out of place with Scouts. We were always focused on the activities and projects we were doing together as Scouts,” said the former secondary school teacher after receiving her service medal.

The 83-year-old said she spent the best part of her life providing services to the community through the scouting movement. Khoo, who retired from the movement in 2015, was among 14 Scouts who received medals for their long service.

The oldest recipient was Datuk Khoo Yeoh Gan Hong, who was all smiles when he recalled his days as a Scout. “Once a Scout, always a Scout,” the former Penang Scout commissioner said when receiving his medal for 51 years of service. The 91-year-old has dedicated most of his life providing services to others through the scouting movement which he first joined in 1937.

“I was just nine years old then. It was a simple start, and everything that came later is history. Being a Scout, I realise that I cannot stop just yet, as there are always more inspiring things to do and more people to help,” he said.

National Scout chief Tan Sri Shafie Mohd Salleh, who presented the medals to the recipients recently, said he was touched by the services of the veteran Scouts.

“All of us are very proud of the icons and veterans who have been there with us, and for us. As Scouts, I believe the veterans and previous Scout members will always be close to us even after they have left their posts. We are humbled and appreciative of all the years they have put in as Scouts. We hope the younger Scouts will be able to learn from them,” he said in his speech.

An express lane for the intelligent

AT THE tender age of seven, did you feel more intelligent that the boy sitting next to you in school? Whether you did or not, there was an attempt in the 1960s to push the more intelligent ones – or the pupils perceived to be more intelligent – more quickly through their primary education. A development arising from the Rahman Talib Report was the concept of express classes “for more intelligent children to complete their primary education in five years instead of six.” (The Straits Times, 14 January 1962) A Unesco paper in 1973, titled “The educational statistics system of Malaysia 1972”, gave more information:

At the beginning of the second year in a large primary school, the more intelligent pupils are placed in the express class based on their performance in the previous year, the recommendation of their class teachers and the approval of the parents concerned. They will remain in such class until they complete the remaining part of the primary education in the next four years thereby completing the primary education in five years instead of six. Prior approval of the Chief Education Officer must be sought whenever a Head of School wishes to start an express class. Express classes exist in a number of large primary schools and statistics on them are regularly collected. In 1971, the number of Express classes in West Malaysia was 98 classes with 3,835 pupils.

The pioneering Standard Two Express class
at Westlands School in 1962.

Thus in 1962, an express class was introduced into Standard Two in Westlands School. Ironically, many of my friends who were streamed into the first Standard Two Express simply had no idea why we had been so chosen. Guinea pigs, we turned out to be. Or whether our parents had been informed at the very least. Were we really that more intelligent that the rest of our classmates who did not go into the express class? On what basis were we chosen? Even the old teachers that we spoke to could not recall the criteria of selection. If I could remember correctly, one told me recently, each class in Standard One in 1961 were requested to pick their five best pupils to go to the express class the following year.

(As a footnote, perhaps I WAS a wee bit more intelligent at my young age after all. I do remember that in 1964, the school introduced an Intelligence Test for the first time in its history. Everyone took the test and to my surprise, I scored the highest marks among my peers, not only in the class but in the whole of Standard Five. But no prize was forthcoming for me, unfortunately. The school offered no prize for this test. Darn. The very first and only time I ever came out tops among the boys in any test and I got no prize, no recognition. Ha ha... 😜)

I have no idea how long the original Standard Two express classes lasted in the Malaysian education system. Contrary to the Unesco report I mentioned earlier, it was suggested in an academic paper, “The identification of gifted and talented students” by Siti Fatimah Mohd Yassin, Noriah Mohd Ishak, Melor Mohd Yunus and Rosadah Abd Majid, published in 2012, that the programme ended in 1970. I have also seen a short report in The Straits Times of 26 July 1968 that the Minister of Education, Mohammed Khir Johari, had wanted the express classes to be discontinued from 1969. The system was not good enough, he had felt. There were varying standards in different schools and he claimed that the pupils were admitted to express classes at the discretion of teachers and headmaster only.

Neither was this the only experimentation by the Ministry of Education. According to Abu Yazid bin Abu Bakar from the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, the Ministry of Education had intermittently introduced such express class programmes for pupils with high academic potential over a period of three decades (1960s through 1990s). In his paper, “Developing gifted and talented education program: The Malaysian experience” published in Jan 2017, he wrote that the express classes in 1962 gave such pupils the opportunity to accelerate their elementary education. “Likewise,” he added, “the Level One Assessment System in 1996 was a similar acceleration effort to shorten the elementary education of academically talented pupils. However, all these transformational efforts to develop programmes specifically tailored for gifted and talented pupils were short-lived due to factors such as lack of instructions, training, leadership and resources.”

© Quah Seng Sun

Pursuing unity through education

PRIMARY education in this country has changed a fair bit. Two major reports, the Razak Report (1956) and the Rahman Talib Report (1960), resulted in two pieces of legislation that, amongst other aims, made education a primary tool to foster national unity. As a means of unifying the country, their main focus was on making Malay the national language and English a lingua franca. The laws were also aimed at streamlining the school system.

Prior to the re-organisation from January 1957, there were two stages in a child's primary education, where teaching in the English language was concerned. First, he would have to undergo a basic elementary education for two years before he could move on to a primary school for the next four years. The smarter ones would then progress to the secondary school stage after overcoming some Government examinations along the way. Double promotions were already not unheard of, while there were many reported instances of over-aged pupils too. Too many, in fact.

A few primary schools were already considered as the feeder schools to Penang Free School. First, there was the Northam Road Government School which operated from 1922 to 1933. Hutchings School came into existence in 1928 after the Free School relocated to newer premises in Green Lane and the old premises in Farquhar Street was converted into the primary school. Then there was Francis Light School which was established two years later in 1930 and finally, Westlands School followed in 1935.

These non-missionary schools provided primary education in English from Standard Three onwards till Standard Six. So what about Standards One and Two? For these two years, a child would have to enrol in elementary schools such as the Hillview Government English School that was set up in 1924 (and which later became the Wellesley School in 1936).

When I was trying to get confirmation from a few people who were senior to me in age that this was their primary school experience in the 1950s, I learnt that they had indeed studied at Wellesley School for their first two years of education. After that, their parents had applied for them to continue with their primary school education, Standards Three to Six, at the Francis Light, Hutchings or Westlands Schools.

All this changed at the start of the school year in January 1957 as a result of the implementation of a new education policy. In May 1956, the Federal Legislative Council had debated and unanimously adopted a new 10-year education plan, called the Razak Report, which was proposed by the then Minister of Education, Abdul Razak Hussein. The following excerpt is extracted from The Straits Times of 17 May 1956:

“I ask the council to endorse the policy in this report so that with the dawning of merdeka we can provide a happy and glorious future for every child born in Malaya,” he said. “No member will blink the fact that our educational plan is ambitious, a challenge to the skill and resources of the Government machinery. The country is going through a period of political transition. Political freedom and full nationhood are round the corner. Therefore, as Malaya enters this new era in her history, let us give our children ideals and loyalties to which they can stretch their hands and which can promise them a happy and contented future. This report lays the foundation of a national system of education on which a united Malayan nation will be born and grow into a happy and stately manhood. I am grateful to the public for having received the report with understanding and support,” he added.

“Strangely enough,” he continued, “the little opposition there has been came from the Malays whom the report is intended to benefit. The Minister referred to a headline in a Malay newspaper which said: "The education report eliminates the Malay language. It gives statutory recognition to English and other languages...”

He commented: “Can a sane and sensible person honestly believe that this report has the effect of eliminating the Malay language when its main recommendation is to enlarge and enrich the Malay language and uphold and uplift Malay education? The report is centred on a policy to make Malay the national language of the country and to raise the standard and the status of the Malay language. In formulating the new education policy, the committee tried to meet the various viewpoints as far as it could. We could not meet fully all the viewpoints expressed (but we are under no delusion that we would have pleased everyone with this report. We would consider ourselves extremely lucky if we had pleased the majority of the people.”

Razak said that the committee had borne in mind the importance of bringing children of all races under a national system of education, and recommended that there should be a uniformity of conditions and a common content of syllabuses. “We strongly believe that one of the essential elements in the building of a united Malayan nation is that children of all races should learn the same things in the same way at school,” he said. “They may not initially learn them through the same language but so long as they learn the same things about Malaya we consider this country will have gone a long way towards establishing a national system of education. This as stated in our terms of reference, ‘would satisfy the need of the people and promote their cultural, social, economic and political development as a nation’.”

The report recommended that there should be a variety of primary schools falling into two broad types – standard primary schools with Malay, the national language, as the medium of instruction, and standard-type primary schools in which the medium of instruction may be Kuo Yu or Tamil or English. In the standard primary schools English will be a compulsory subject, and Kuo Yu or Tamil will be taught if there are 15 or more children whose parents want them to learn these languages. Malay and English will be compulsory in standard-type primary schools. There will be established one type of national secondary school where the pupils work towards a common syllabus and to the same final examination. Malay and English will be compulsory.

Razak said: “English is still essential for use, particularly for dealing with the outside world. Therefore, the report recommends that English should be compulsory.”

On the development of the Malay language, the Minister said: “As Malaya grows into a nation, it is desirable that there should be a national language which can serve as a medium of communication among the people of all races domiciled here. Having accepted Malay as the national language, it is the duty of the Government and the people of the country, not only Malays but of all races, to do all we can to develop, enrich and enlarge that language so that it will be able to give expressions to our thought and ideas on science, economics, philosophy and the like. I can assure this council and the country generally that there is a field of opportunities in this work. the establishment of a literature agency is well in hand. This agency will be entrusted with the main task of producing books of literature in Malay not only for schools but for the general public. The report recommends as a matter of urgency the establishment of a language institute which will, in the main, train teachers for teaching Malay.”

The Rahman Talib Report of 1960, which was incorporated into the Education Act 1961, went further to speed up the process of national integration and unity through education. This 1960 report fine-tuned the proposals made in the earlier Razak Report and among the recommendations made were to make the Malay language the main language in schools, the Government providing free primary school education and automatic promotion till Form Three, an emphasis on religious and moral education, stressing on Membaca, Menulis dan Mengira (reading, writing and arithmetic) as fundamental education skills, stressing on a Malayan curriculum, providing an opportunity to continue education from nine years to 11 years, and streaming upper secondary education into either academic or vocational depending on the pupil's aptitude,

A consequence of this 1960 report, approved by Parliament in August that year, was that there would be universal free primary education in all fully-assisted schools as from January 1962. I remember being told by the class teacher that school fees would no longer be collected at Westlands School. I also remember that when I was in Standard One, I had to bring $2.50 to school at the start of every month and the money was carefully tied up in the corner of a handkerchief so that I wouldn't lose it. Another result of the implementation of this report was that the “standard” and “standard-type” schools would henceforth be known as “national (kebangsaan)” and “national-type (jenis kebangsaan)” primary and secondary schools.

Abdul Rahman Talib was appointed Minister of Education in January 1960, taking over from Razak. One of his first tasks was to send a message to all schools calling on the pupils to study the National Language. This was in conjunction with the country's first National Language Week. A month later, he chaired the Education Review Committee that had been formed to consider, among other things, the financial implications of introducing free primary education in Malaya.

The committee’s report was published on 3 Aug 1960 and predictably faced objections from Chinese language educators in the country who charged that “Chinese secondary education would be eliminated and that denial of public examinations in Chinese amounted to ousting the Chinese language from the education system.” But in reality, for the first time in the country, free primary education in Chinese - and also in English and Tamil – was to be available to all who wanted it. There were specific provisions for the study of the Chinese language and literature at both primary and secondary levels in the fully-assisted schools. And there was nothing to prevent the establishment of independent schools teaching in whatever medium they chose. (The Straits Times, 8 Nov 1960)

As a footnote, I had also touched briefly on the Razak Report in Let the Aisles Proclaim:

In September 1955, the Government appointed the then Minister of Education, Dato’ Abdul Razak bin Hussain, to head a committee to examine the existing education policy in the Federation and recommend a new national education policy which would be acceptable to the people. The committee’s terms of reference were to “satisfy their needs and promote their cultural, social, economic and political development as a nation, having regard to the intention to make Malay the national language of the country whilst preserving and sustaining the growth of the language and culture of other communities living in the country.” Between September 1955 and April 1956, eight meetings were held before the Report of the Education Committee 1956 was released in May.

The main principle of this Razak Report, implemented by means of the Education Ordinance 1957, was not new. Education as the instrument of nation-building was already the basis of the Barnes Report and the Education Ordinance of 1952. But where the Razak Report differed was the elevation of the Malay language to the dominant position in the education system. Ultimately, the Malay language would be the main medium of instruction in schools but in the meantime, the report provided for Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil schools to continue at the primary school level, and Malay and English schools at the secondary school level. The Malay-medium schools would be known as “national schools” while the others were “national-type schools.” All schools would be funded by the Government and use a common national curriculum. Among the other recommendations in the report were that Malay and English should be compulsory subjects in all primary and secondary schools; instruction in Kuo-Yu and Tamil should be taught in all aided primary schools when needed; the Lower Certificate of Education and the Federation of Malaya Certificate of Education would be introduced for candidates from all secondary schools, and a Board of Governors would be established in schools.

Reference: Quah Seng Sun. Let the Aisles Proclaim, pp.200-201. Publisher: The Penang Free School Foundation (2016)

© Quah Seng Sun

A treasure I cherish

ROSELY AHMAD is someone we bumped into in the Down Memory Lane (DML) group on Facebook. Like our merry band of former schoolmates, he is a child of the 1960s. We were amazed by his fantastic recollection of a particularly memorable incident that occurred to him during his schooldays at Westlands School. He said we could use it in this blog and thus, here it is:

A TREASURE I CHERISH by Rosely Ahmad 

I got this when I won a “Pop Quiz”
contest in Primary 6 @ Westlands Primary School in Penang during the School Concert Day.

There were only four contestants representing the smartest from each class and Std 6 had four classes... A, B, C and D. I belonged to Std 6D. I wasn't the smartest kid in 6D however, but I was not the dumbest either (although I was among those few from my class running for that dreaded title). I was forced to enter the contest because the smartest kid in my class suddenly got food poisoning, and at that time I happened to be on stage.

There I was on stage with the other contestants and still wearing a “gown” (if you all remember, in those days girls loved to wear gowns. If you guys are wondering why I was wearing a “gown”, it was because we had just finished an act titled “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and I was that kid that couldn't play the part of any of the seven dwarfs. Westlands was an “only boys” school.) 

Each one of us was given a question to answer, failing which he would be eliminated and the question passed to the other kid.

The teacher might have thought I would be eliminated in the first round, and yet I managed to survive till only two of us were left (me and the smartest kid of class 6A). 

I still remember the winning question. The teacher asked that kid. “Cassius Clay (at that time he wasn't called Muhammad Ali yet) is well known for boxing. What is the Malay word for boxing?”. When the “smartest kid” of 6A couldn't answer, the “not so smart kid” of 6D created history 😁

Anyway I got that book as a prize and the One Dollar note was from my dad. It still looks brand new.

Never caught

I HAVE a confession. I’ve been holding a little secret for more than 50 years. But it’s time for me to disclose it and get the incident off my chest.

Do you know that around the present-day fenced perimeter of the Westlands Centre for Sports Excellence is a 10 feet-wide tarred walkway? It wasn’t always tarred in the past. In fact, prior to 1963, the Westlands Primary School fence was right up till the edge of the drain that ran along Victoria Green Road and Khaw Sim Bee Road.

Then at the end of 1962, the Public Works Department called a tender to construct a walkway. In the process, the school’s perimeter fence was moved inwards.

The construction of the walkway began in January 1963. At that time, I was in Standard Four and I would be walking home every day after school. All the way from Westlands School to Seang Tek Road. Every day, I could see workers constructing the walkway, dumping gravel and then finally pouring a layer of asphalt before a mini-roller was used to compress and flatten it. A nice, dark, flattened surface around the school.

And there I was, daily, digging the heels of my shoes into the still-soft asphalt when I felt that no-one was watching. A long line of holes in the asphalt, several feet apart. The next day, the holes would have been repaired and I took delight in digging in my shoes’ heels again. This went on for days and miraculously, nobody caught on that it was little me, little 10-year-old innocent me, that was the culprit.

Then Chinese New Year arrived on the 25th of January. The school closed for several days. When I returned after the holiday break, I found that the asphalt had hardened. I could no longer make holes in the walkway. Oh well, end of my little pleasure. And that is my little secret of 55 years, now revealed. What a naughty boy.

@ Quah Seng Sun 2018

Westlands’ Northam Road connection

LET ME relate to you the story of the Northam Road Government English School and how Westlands School could trace its roots to this government English school and inter alia, to the much respected Harold Cheeseman after whom the Cheeseman Hall at Westlands was named.

For a long while, I had just a passing interest in this government school. The only information I had previously was that it was located at 11 Northam Road, Penang. However, right after my friends and I began this blog on Westlands School, I realised the historical connection between the two institutions. I needed to find out where exactly was this Number 11 Northam Road, especially since it didn't show at all in the present maps of George Town.

The Northam Road Government English School (NRGES, left), with 400 students, was run by Harold Cheeseman for a few months in 1922 before he became Penang's Inspector of Schools. It operated for slightly over a decade after that. In 1933-34, the students were moved to Hutchings School before ending up in the new Westlands School in 1935. The premises of the NRGES were occupied by the Shih Chung Branch School from 1938. It is now in a dilapidated state (right) awaiting its next renewal.

I started searching elsewhere and Hey Presto! guess what, here it is. Number 11 Northam Road is now where the Shih Chung Branch School once operated from. Realising that it was once the Shih Chung Branch School stirred in me an old memory. I remember that 10 years ago, I had written something about this school in my personal blog. I had even mentioned in passing that it was also used as a government English school. But it escaped me that it was THE Northam Road Government English School. It is only lately that I've managed to tie almost all the loose ends together.

What more do we know about this building? Its history is known but it is incomplete. Originally belonging to the two Cheah brothers, Tek Soon and Tek Thye, the building was bought up by Tye Kee Yoon. Between 1908 and 1920, the building was used for various purposes. At the start, it was used as the Chinese Consulate but later, the Tye family leased it out for use as the Bellevue Boarding House. In 1910, RN Brunel-Norman took over the boarding house and called it as Raffles-by-the-Sea, or simply Raffles for short. However, due to constant confusion arising from the hotel bearing a name similar to that of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, Brunel-Norman was forced to re-name his establishment as Hotel Norman in Sept 1912. He was to continue the hotel business for another two years. By Dec 1914, having made up his mind to leave Penang, he put up his hotel under the auctioneer's hammer. Maybe Brunel-Norman was not able to find a buyer because within a few months, that is, in 1915, the building had entered a new phase as the P'i Joo Girls School until 1920.

According to Dr Kim Phaik Lah, former Associate Professor at the School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang: “P’i Joo Girls School was a pioneer Chinese girls school in Penang. Established in 1915, its three principals were educators from China. At its height, there were more than 250 students. The school, however, closed down in 1920. The same year, Fuchien Girls School (now Bin Hua or Penang Chinese Girls High School), was founded. Mdm Chee Yuet Wah, the first principal of Fuchien Girls, was a student of P'i Joo Girls.”

This report below comes from the Penang Heritage Trust website:

The once-stately mansion of Goh Chan Lau, which means “Five-Storey Villa”, was built by the brothers Cheah Tek Soon (Xie Deshun) and Cheah Tek Thye (Xie Detai). Cheah Tek Soon’s daughter Cheah Liew Bee (Xie Liumei) was married to Goh Say Eng (Wu Shirong), a fervent supporter of Sun Yat Sen. It was said that Goh Say Eng had persuaded the Cheah family to sell off the villa to financially fuel the revolutionary activities of Sun Yat Sen.

In 1908, the villa passed into the hands of Tye Kee Yoon (Dai Xiyun), the Chinese Consul in Penang, who turned it into the Chinese Consulate. After the 1911 Revolution, his son Tye Phey Yuen (Dai Shuyuan) became the first Consul of Republican of China in Penang.

In 1915, the brothers Leong Eng Kean (Liang Enquan) and Leong Yin Kean (Liang Yingquan) rented the upper floor of the bungalow as the premises for the P’i Joo Girls’ School, which was forced to shut down when the Education Bill of 1920 was put into effect.

The Shih Chung Branch School, founded in 1938, occupied these premises until 1994.

I shall now attempt to fill in this blank with the unknown history of Goh Chan Lau from 1920 to 1938 but first, I shall reproduce this excerpt from a news report in The Straits Times of 19 Aug 1922:

PENANG SCHOOLS: Solving the Accommodation Difficulty

The Government has now taken over the fine-looking and commodious building, No 11 Northam Road, that was formerly the Hotel Norman and more recently, a Chinese Girls' School, on a three years' lease, in order to provide accommodation for children for whom no room can be found in the other schools at the present time. This arrangement, we are informed, is only a temporary one pending erection of permanent Government buildings.

This new establishment which is styled "Government English School" has accommodation for 600 children if necessary, but if that number is admitted arrangements will have to be made for extra teachers, etc. At present the number in attendance totals about 400 and there is, we hear, accommodation for 30 or 40 more children. The boys are all in the primary classes and under the charge of Mr HR Cheeseman, formerly of the Free School, who is as everyone knows a fine disciplinarian, and keen sportsman and indefatigable volunteer. The site and building are admirably suited to the purpose, indeed a better location in Town could not have been selected. The house stands in a large compound, one side of which is sufficiently spacious for drilling and even a football match.

The Towkays from whom the place is leased to Government are Messrs Thye Chee Tean and Tye Shook Yuen, the executors of the estate of the late Mr Tye Kee Yoon, Chinese Consul in Penang. In his will the late Mr Tye Kee Yoon bequeathed certain sums for charitable and other purposes. The executors of his estate have consequently been able kindly to promise to subscribe $50 a month towards the school funds as long as the Government holds a lease from them, as a token of respect for the memory of the late Chinese Consul and in accordance with his wishes.

The Government, we learn, intends to erect new school buildings in Green Lane, and when these have been completed, in about a couple of years' time, the older boys in the Free School will be transferred to them, leaving the present buildings (i.e. the Free School) in Farquhar Street for the elementary classes. It is also under contemplation to erect a new school in Perak Road about a year hence which will also be devoted to elementary education. There will be sufficient playgrounds at these schools for the boys' recreation.

So you can see here the connection of Harold Cheeseman with the Northam Road Government English School. However, Cheeseman stayed with the school for just a mere five months as he was soon transferred to become the Settlement's Inspector of Schools. The Government English School used the 11 Northam Road premises right until the end of 1933. On 11 Dec 1933, the school organised its last annual prize giving ceremony, which was reported thus in the Malaya Tribune of 14 Dec 1933:

The Government English School, Northam Road, held its annual prize giving on Monday when a very creditable entertainment was staged by the pupils. 

Mrs O'Sullivan gave away the prizes, and was thanked by Mr Hamid Khan, the headmaster, who said that during the year work had commenced on a new school to be built at Westlands to take the place of the present school and it would be ready for occupation next year.

Besides recitations and action songs, Mr Tan Thean Seng's squad gave a fine exhibition of ju-jitsu and boxing. Five second-year Malay boys appeared in a short play entitled "Ja'afar and The Thief" and acquitted themselves with distinction, their enunciation being exceptionally good.

Despite Hamid Khan's confidence about the Westlands School being ready for occupation in 1934, we now know that the intake of new boys into Westlands School only began in 1935. During the one-year interim period between the Northam Road Government School closing at the end of 1933 and the Westlands School opening in 1935, the boys were transferred to Hutchings School to continue their education. This short news item in the Singapore Free Press And Mercantile Advertiser of 10 Mar 1934 related what happened:

NEW ENGLISH SCHOOL: $50,000 Scheme Launched in Penang

The Government are building a new Elementary English School at Westland (sic), Burmah Road. The approximate cost is to be $50,000. Work has been started and is expected to be finished by the end of December next. The school will have accommodation for 600 pupils. A cricket pitch, tennis courts, badminton courts, etc, will be laid on the site, which is seven and a half acres.

The new school will replace the Government English School at Northam Road, which is now empty, as the boys are transferred to Hutchings school.

After the Northam Road Government English School moved out, it was not known what exactly had become of the building in the next few years except that the executors of the estate of Tye Kee Yoon would have retaken control of the premises.

In Oct 1937, it was reported by the Malaya Tribune that the building was under-going demolition. Actually, the five-storey building was not being demolished but just under-going renovation work in preparation for its next phase as the premises of the new Shih Chung Branch School which was established in 1938. The Shih Chung Branch School has an equally interesting history but researching this must be someone else's project, not mine. I won't cover it here.

Below is the earliest image of the Westlands School that I could find, taken in February 1935:

© Quah Seng Sun 2018