A friend indeed: Vincent Lim Ewe Tee, 1953-2022

By Lim Siang Jin

EWE TEE was my class monitor in Standard IC, Westlands Primary School, in 1960. We got on quite well and have been very good friends ever since. He lived a few roads from my home so it was very convenient to meet and play. And play we did! Like all other innocent and curious youngsters our age.

At his place, No 19 Birch Road, I remember going up to his room to spend time; it opened to a small verandah facing Gurney Drive. The bungalow was on the land where the 24-storey Sunrise@Gurney stands. Aunty, his mum, was a caring soul. She made sure I had enough to eat and drink while we played. I also remember his soft-spoken dad with a very kind face. He would drop me back home once in a while in their light-coloured car, probably a Hillman Minx. Uncle unfortunately passed away when we were at a tender age.

The Gurney Drive beach front in the 1930s.
Source: Aliran

The centre of activities, from 1964 onwards, was our area —  at the junction-enclave of Gurney Drive and Cantonment Road. Ewe Tee was part of our “gang” there. About 20-strong, we engaged in various formal games — badminton, football, rounders, table tennis, etc, many adapted to the environment we found ourselves. We also followed the annual calendar of state-wide youth activities involving marbles, kites, tops and cards. 

Numerically, we were big enough to play chiak bak, mata chat and kham bak chieu – so they became part of our repertoire of activities, many a time with creative variations, like hide-and-seek in the dark of the night (read more about these games here). And I would never forget how we stood under the scorching sun at the mouth of the big drain that ran the length of Cantonment Road — to catch measly catfish and chwee chiam (mini swordfish). The four acres we had access to, plus the beachfront, was a haven for children growing up. 

Ewe Tee was a good story teller too. Two of them remain etched in my memory. The first was his 1963 description of how he and his tent-mates probably encountered the lantern lady at Jubilee Camp, replete with details like a light moving outside their tent and raincoat dripping with red liquid the next day. My guess is that it was one of the scout masters making sure the boys remained in their tents! The second, in 1965, was an animated account of the second encounter between Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali) and Sonny Liston, where the latter was KOed in the first round with a controversial “phantom punch”. The former had used a secretly-learnt karate chop, Ewe Tee insisted.

Ewe Tee, a school prefect at Westlands Primary School in 1965, was seated next to the form
teacher, Mr Teoh Chye Teik. For the caption and more photos of that year, click here 

In 2018, I asked if he remembered them. He chuckled and said no. Such are the strange ways our memories work.

I remember there was some healthy rivalry between us too. In 1965, both of us were appointed scout patrol leaders. We had to name our patrols after animals. I decided on the cobra saying it was versatile with a strong ability to protect itself, and attack if necessary. After some thought, Ewe Tee decided on the mongoose, telling me it was deft enough to defeat the cobra. I refused to believe that then, however in later years I found out that the mongoose indeed won up to 80 per cent of its encounters with the snake. 

Come Job Week, we would go jobbing together, going door-to-door to do odd jobs and collect money for the scouting movement. Focussed on the vicinity of Birch Road and places near the school, we learnt a fair bit about the places and its people — from the scrooge who squeezed the most out of his or her one dollar to the generous who gave us two and hot drinks to boot, and sent us off without lifting a finger.

Our friendship extended into Free School. Every school day in 1967-68, we would go to school together with Ooi Teong Siew and Ooi Peng Huat. Driven by Ah Eu, the family driver, every journey was filled with hilarity, usually derived from harmless pranks and disturbing girls along the way.

From the WPS Camaraderie page, 23 Feb 2018:
Farewell lunch for Ewe Tee (left) at Oriental
Pavilion Restaurant, Jaya 33, Petaling Jaya.
Click here for more

We lost touch for a number of years after PFS and caught up again in the late 1980s when he moved back to Penang with his lovely wife Kym. At the time, he was running a personal tour guide business and their son, Matthew, was born in our home state. In 1997, they moved back to England. After that we stayed in touch close enough for me and my family to visit his home in north London in the early 2000s.

He was very proud of and loved his family deeply. He spoke highly of his wife Kym, a Londoner who teaches children with special needs. Ewe Tee once said I could learn a thing or two from her if I ever wanted to do anything in the area. I was then exploring the possibility of coaching people to care for the aged. Matthew, their son, did very well in his studies scoring first class honours in mechanical engineering from the University of Nottingham and is now working in consulting for a technology company in London. It was very clear from our conversations that he was the apple of his eye. 

In the last 15 years or so, Ewe Tee would come back frequently to visit his mum, sisters Dawn and Grace, and close relatives. We caught up each time he came back and our friendship deepened further. 

During my last visit to London in 2018, knowing I would be alone, he meticulously advised me about the Oyster Card, places to avoid (“because you might get mugged”), the London Tube app, etc. I had wished to visit Kings Place, office of The Guardian newspaper, so he, Kym and I decided to meet there. After that we took a double decker down to Soho where we visited Liberty London and had dinner at The Real Greek. The day before I left, he came to Central London again and we spent many hours talking at a pub in Queensway. All these made my trip so much more memorable.

At the Real Greek restaurant, Soho, London, in April 2018, with Kym and Matthew

That was not to be the last time I met him. In late 2019, his mother passed away in Subang Jaya. He and Kym came back. Seng Oo and I, among others, met them at the funeral. Little did I know then it would be the last time I saw him in person.

During the Covid outbreak we spoke now and then, dwelling mainly on subject matters we agreed on and avoiding areas of contention — our political views had diverged over the years but that, we felt, should not come in the way of our friendship. My last series of contact with him was in end-August 2022, a week before his diagnosis. We shared our new-found interests. In the summer, the first in three years that was not snarled by Covid, he took a liking to lawn-bowling and had engaged in it many times a week, making new friends. On my part, I told him about my upcoming art exhibition, hoping he would be able to make it back in time. He mentioned he was looking forward to coming back to see his sisters in November-December 2022 after three long years.

That he would fall sick and pass away in three short months came as a complete shock to me. RIP Ewe Tee. We will miss you.

Mighty Bee

By Yong Soo Heong

NG BOON BEE was already a big name in the badminton world and synonymous with Tan Yee Khan when I was trying to make a mark in the sport in the late 1960s. Their successful partnership with relentless and powerful smashes was always imprinted in  my mind.

Somehow, I didn’t make it into ‘Big Time’ because of two primary reasons: my  journalism career got in my way (which is a good thing as I look back to those years)  and my belief that I could be a good player if I had perfected my strokes well enough.

Childhood friends Ng Boon Bee (right) and Tan Yee Khan in a buoyant mood
when they last met at Pangkor in mid 2022 – Tan Yee Khan pic reproduced
from FMT with permission

On this second point, how silly and mistaken I was. The game of badminton necessitates one to have match experience in order to excel as no one player is the same. I fault myself for not listening to my dad in this department. No point crying over spilt milk now, as they say.

Back to Boon Bee. One day at the tender age of 16-going-on-17 in 1971, I found myself in the company of the great man himself and his doubles partner, Punch Gunalan, in Ipoh. I was sent to compete in the Perak Open as the then President and Honorary Secretary of the Penang BA, the late Mr Gan Chin Huat and the late Mr Tan Lee Sin, had always wanted to give young players all the exposure to prove themselves.

Somehow, I lost in the early rounds to better opponents. I wasn’t tenacious enough or out of depth, to be frank. But my legs were already wobbly when I saw the two badminton luminaries listed down to play in the same tournament! I told myself how could I stand a chance when these two greats were around!

In between matches, I “bumped” into them at the Perak government chalet along Jalan Tambun where we were accommodated. I was with some of my senior team-mates from Penang who apparently knew Boon Bee and Punch better, when we saw the pair  resting in one of the rooms.

I too made a beeline to see what these two greats had to say as they had months earlier returned triumphantly with the coveted All-England men’s doubles title, beating Rudy Hartono and the late Indra Gunawan (who later went on to coach the Malaysian  team).

I peered from the door. Punch was munching on an apple while Boon Bee was relaxing on the bed. We made small talk. Can’t remember what we spoke as it was more my senior team-mates who did most of the talking while I was just a wallflower in the company of our country’s badminton kingpins. It was a scene I can never forget.

Back in those days when there was no “live” television to follow important badminton matches, Radio Malaysia was the only source of exciting sporting action. I would often  preen my ears to “live” radio commentaries and follow the blow-by-blow accounts on  Radio Malaysia.

Datuk Ng Boon Bee: Jumping into the air
was always an SOP – BAM Facebook pic

Radio Malaysia’s then sports presenter supremo, R. Jeyanathan, was often drumming  it into me with his trademark commentaries. I still remember his colorful description  which would sound like this: “Boon Bee leaps into the air and smashes, but it is well taken by Indonesia’s Indra Gunawan.

“Boon Bee springs into the air again and smashes but Hartono defends it well. Yee Khan smashes this time, and the shot is returned fast and furious.

“Wow! Boon Bee leaps up and chops the shot into the middle of the court. It catches  the Indonesians off-guard and yes!…Malaysia marches forward with another point.”

Boon Bee jumping into the air was always an SOP…standard operating procedure. That was his trademark as he possessed strong muscles in his thighs, which sometimes, to me, looked like that of a powerful frog.

That was why Boon Bee, an ex-pupil of St Michael’s Institution, Ipoh, could excel in  many sports because he could either outrun his opponents or be speedy about things.

He was even a prolific footballer representing Malaysia in the Merdeka Football tournaments in 1958 and again in 1959 when Malaysia were champions. This was the  premier tournament in Asia from the late 1950s to the late 1970s.

N. Thanabalan, an international footballer, recalls: “I had the privilege of playing  alongside Boon Bee for our employers, the National Electricity Board. He was a very  good teammate who was jovial and very highly motivated.”

Boon Bee was a very talented sportsman, who also excelled in athletics, rugby, and even tennis at state level.

But it was badminton that propelled him into the world stage and got him the most headlines and accolades.

During his prime in the mid-1960s till the early 1970s, he would travel in a quartet with his doubles partner Yee Khan, Yew Cheng Hoe and Tan Aik Huang as they took on the world.

Boon Bee and Yee Khan developed into a formidable pair, raking in title after title wherever they competed.

Yee Khan, who was devastated by the recent death of his doubles partner, said they had built up a formidable combination to be the best men’s doubles pair in the world  at one time because of their attitude towards the game.

They had one simple strategy or game plan: always analyzing their opponents game,  whether in defeat or victory.

“Whenever we won or lost, we would discuss how we could improve our game and tactics. We would always discuss before the game on what went wrong or what went right the day before. That was how we adapted well to each other by forging a good  understanding on what we should be doing and what we should not do when on the  court.”

On how he came to form a triumphant partnership with Boon Bee, Yee Khan says: “I was in Form 4 when I started playing together with Boon Bee. I was from Yuk Choy, a  Chinese school, but was subsequently enrolled at St Michael’s Institution where the then Brother Director Pius Kelly asked me to team up with Boon Bee. From there, it was the start of our successful partnership.”

Between 1960 and 1969, both Boon Bee and Yee Khan won some 20 prestigious titles together, including the All-England, US Open, Canadian Open, Denmark Open,  Singapore Open, Malaysian Open, Asian Championships, Asian Games and the  South-East Asia Peninsula Games.

The pair’s highest distinction was the Malaysian victory in the Thomas Cup in 1967,  gained in the teeth of a hostile crowd in Jakarta which was disruptive in behaviour  aimed at heading off a Malaysian triumph that Yee Khan’s and Boon Bee’s exploits in the doubles guaranteed.

The victorious Malaysian 1967 Thomas Cup team (from left) Yew Cheng Hoe, Tan Aik Huang,
Teh Kew San, BAM president Mohd Khir Johari, Ng Boon Bee, Tan Yee Khan and Billy Ng
– Tan Yee Khan pic reproduced from FMT with permission

Boon Bee, together with Yee Khan, starred with captain Teh Kew San, Tan Aik Huang, Yew Cheng Hoe and Billy Ng in the team that brought home the prestigious trophy in that series.

The Thomas Cup triumph was the capstone of a decade of distinction for the doubles pair.

Cheng Hoe recalls: “He earned my respect as our leader for he was a warm, caring and friendly person. It was always good to talk to him. He  would often ask about our well-being during our tours. With him around, it was like family.”

Sylvia Ng, Malaysia’s number one women’s shuttler at one time, also remembers Boon Bee as a friendly person. He proved to be an adaptable partner when he and Sylvia  teamed up to capture the 1970 Asian Games mixed-doubles title.

“We got on very well. Boon Bee was always easy to talk to,” she said. ”I shall definitely  miss him.”

Both Cheng Hoe and Sylvia agreed that it was Boon Bee’s physical adaptability to emerge as one of Malaysia’s greatest sportsmen as he subsequently found success with the late Gunalan after his regular partner Yee Khan retired from competitive badminton because of a serious head injury. This was after Yee Khan had a fall while jogging during training for the Rangoon (now Yangon) SEAP Games in 1969.

One of Boon Bee’s best performances was with Gunalan in the 1971 All-England final when they defeated Indonesia’s top pair of Rudy Hartono/Indra Gunawan. They also  won the Bangkok Asian Games and Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, both in  1970.

“He was without a doubt not only a great player but the best doubles player during my time,” said Rudy Hartono, the seven-time All England singles champion in Jakarta.

“Rest in eternal peace my dear friend. Bless you.”

Fast forward to late 2019, I was in the company of ex-Uber Cupper Sylvia, former Thomas Cupper Saw Swee Leong and former Asian junior champion, the late Tan Aik  Mong. We were on a road trip to look for Boon Bee in Ipoh as Aik Mong said he had lost contact with him for quite a while.

We managed to track him down after going through several phone numbers. It was finally via Boon Bee’s wife, Tong Ee Cheng’s handphone! We met for coffee in a shopping mall. It was a great reunion among those big-time shuttlers and they reminisced about the good old times. Their camaraderieship was something to behold.

When Swee Leong volunteered to say that I was playing competitive badminton with him as well as the likes of James Selvaraj, Phua Ah Hua and Razif Sidek back in the 1970s, Boon Bee let out a bewildered response: “You must be joking!”

And that came from the man whom I held in awe. I can’t fault him for his sharp reaction or observation for I have ballooned into a 150kg sumo wrestler’s frame.

• This story, originally published in mysportsflame.com, is republished with the permission of the author. Read the original here. Read more about the writer here.

Noel Tan Inn Su (1954-2022)

Noel Tan was our schoolmate at Westlands Primary in Standard 6 Red in 1965. He later went on to Penang Free School. We will expand on this obituary later, when we get more information. 
 

Losing a ‘new found’ friend in Aik Mong

Tan Aik Mong (left) with Yong at their last meeting.

By Yong Soo Heong

SHUTTLER Tan Aik Mong’s sudden demise in the evening of May 31, 2020 was indeed shocking, to say the least, for me.

One of my Penang badminton contemporaries, Lim Teong Khoon, had forewarned fellow members of our group chat to brace for something depressing as he disseminated the information. I sat stunned in my car after receiving the sad news.

Stunned and sad because it was just 10 days earlier that Aik Mong had shown how fighting fit he was by mowing the lawn of his Bukit Jelutong home. Later, he was seen strolling the greens at Kelab Golf Negara Subang for his second favourite game – golf – to the cheers of his many friends and club members.

Aik Mong was well-liked and had many friends as he was a good conversationalist although he may have had some unorthodox ideas on certain issues. He was open, opinionated but yet not offensive.

“Mahaguru” Tan Aik Mong (1950-2020): 
Open, opinionated but yet not offensive

But as they say, life is unpredictable. And I was devastated to learn that Aik Mong, 70, had finally succumbed to liver cancer which he fought for many years without the aid of chemotherapy on that fateful Sunday as I was beginning to get used to being a good friend to him.

I was comforted that he had Irene Ch’ng, his confidante of 22 years, by his bedside as he breathed his last breath. His son and family in Singapore were affected by the MCO restrictions then in place but they subsequently came in time for the funeral.

Irene had said that Aik Mong knew the end was near about three days before he was to go and did everything to set everything straight. In other words, he had fulfilled what he had set out to do and was able to let go of the material world towards the end. He was at peace with the world.

Earlier, Aik Mong in fact had planned to go to Johor just after Chinese New Year (CNY) with me and two other more accomplished shuttlers, Thomas Cupper Saw Swee Leong and six-time national champion Sylvia Ng. Besides wanting to sample the glorious food in Johor, he had wanted to meet two other badminton legends, Roland Ng and Billy Ng, elder brothers of Sylvia, and also a mutual friend, Albert Goh Teong Hoe, who had built a 19-court badminton complex in Johor Bahru. (Incidentally Roland died a few days later on June 10 at the age of 89). Ever since Aik Mong left his second Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) coaching stint abruptly in 2013, he had always wanted to find ways to contribute towards coaching the young. The Penangite, who was once BAM coaching chairman in the mid-80s, thought he had some interesting ideas to be put across to Teong Hoe in JB.

These thoughts actually germinated last November when the four of us – Aik Mong, Swee Leong, Sylvia and myself – had gone to Penang on a food extravaganza! But the MCO curtailed our movements this year and now Aik Mong, whom we affectionately called “Mahaguru” (Master) because of his deep and profound thoughts, is no more with us.

I had actually “known” (note the inverted commas) Aik Mong since the late 60s. “Known” is actually a safer word for I hadn’t got close to him due to our age gap although we passed each other almost every other day as we cycled to school in opposite directions – me to Westlands Secondary School and him to Methodist Boys School in Penang. He’d always nod his head in my direction. I reckoned he may have seen me practising at the Penang Chinese Girls High School Hall, then one of the nurseries of Penang’s many badminton players.

Source: mysportsflame.com

While I was a small fry, Aik Mong was already in the Big League then as he was a Thomas Cupper and played in the SEAP and Asian Games. He had already wrestled for individual honours with then Indonesian maestros like Muljadi (Ang Tjin Siang) and Iie Sumirat. His best achievements was winning the 1971 Asian championship in Jakarta when he beat then Japanese star, Junji Honma. Three years earlier, he had also beaten Honma for the Asian schoolboys’ title in Tokyo.

Aik Mong in training as a teenager:
Source: @aikmong on Twitter

In fact, Aik Mong played one of his best matches in the semi-finals of the Singapore Open in April 1969 when he beat Dhamardi (Wong Pek Shen) of Indonesia, who had just won that year’s All England men’s singles title about a month earlier, in a three-game thriller of 14-17, 15-14 and 18-14 lasting 69 minutes! Aik Mong, as a thinking player that he was, was observed to have changed tactics by placing many of his shots far to the baseline to thwart Dhamardi’s fast pace game.

Incidentally Aik Mong also partnered his elder brother, Aik Huang (best known for his 1966 All-England men’s singles triumph in 1966) to gun for honours in the men’s doubles event. As a pair, they had even beaten the top doubles combination comprising the late Punch Gunalan and Ng Boon Bee in the 1972 Singapore Open! In the same year, they had advanced to the final of the Indonesian Open but only to lose to the crack Indonesian pair of Ade Chandra and Christian Hadinata in another three-game thriller.

When Aik Mong was 24 years old and working as a computer analyst for Malaysia Airlines in 1975, he announced his retirement from competitive badminton. In citing his reasons, he said that demands were too great for him and that badminton at the national level was not a part-time thing or a pastime because the game was becoming more scientific and demanded a lot in terms of stamina or fitness, court-craft and strategic thinking.

“You have to do so much training and play to stay at the top. No, I don’t want to play badminton all my life. It’s not my whole life.

“I enjoyed playing badminton because it was good for me and good for my country. But when the demands are so great as they are today and the going is tough, it is no longer a joy to continue playing.

“But somehow I had the satisfaction of being among the respected players in international tournaments. I couldn’t ask for more,” said Aik Mong then.

During the course of my career as a journalist in the 1980s, I had actually stumbled into Aik Mong’s office at Kumpulan Guthrie in Damansara Heights for a news story totally unrelated to badminton. It was for a business story and I was referred to him as he was then the group’s top computer analyst and had been successful in laying the foundation to clinching many top-level computer-based government contracts for his employers.

After a long absence, I got “re-connected” with Aik Mong sometime in 2012 at the annual CNY dinners thrown by Teong Hoe at Restoran Oversea in Jalan Imbi, KL. And Aik Mong was always careful with what he ate because of his medical condition.

Somehow, I got along well with him as I was able to respond to what he had to say, no matter how bizarre or twistingly philosophical the topic may be. In 2015, we got closer as I was involved in the publicity part of a birthday bash for Teh Kew San, skipper of the victorious 1967 Thomas Cup team in Penang. We continued to stay in touch via WhatsApp and we would meet occasionally whenever he had an idea to discuss as I’d happily go along as I had nothing to lose by listening to his interesting insights.

But it was in 2019 when we got really closer as Aik Mong had planned to visit another badminton great, Ng Boon Bee, in Ipoh. Boon Bee was off the radar when he retired from a coaching position at the Royal Ipoh Club. At the same time, we were also going to see Swee Leong as he had bought a gated dwelling in Ipoh and was extolling the virtues of food served in the Perak state capital. For a Penangite to sing praises of Ipoh food, we thought we had to find out.

Aik Mong with Ng Boon Bee at Tesco Ipoh

While in Ipoh, Aik Mong tried connecting with Boon Bee from two telephone numbers that he had gotten from another badminton legend, Tan Yee Khan, in Pulau Pangkor, whom he had met about two months earlier. Aik Mong struck gold when the second number was answered by Boon Bee’s wife. And we got connected with Boon Bee at Tesco Ipoh.

An amusing incident happened at the shopping mall. As I momentarily left the group while the former national team-mates caught up with old-time reminisces, it seemed that Boon Bee had asked the trio — Aik Mong, Swee Leong and Sylvia — how on earth did they get associated with a burly guy like me whom he hadn’t known at all. (Like I said, being a small fry in a big pond, I did manage to speak to Boon Bee in Ipoh at the Perak Open in 1972 but how could he, as an already famous player then, remember me, either as a player, fan or human being?)

When told that I used to play competitive badminton with Swee Leong, Boon Bee said they must be joking as I was more suited for sumo wrestling!

They all didn’t tell me this until we were in the car on our way to KL. As Aik Mong related this conversation to me, he guffawed loudly in the trademark style of his father, Cheng Hoe, a noted football and badminton official in Penang in the 1950s and 1960s.

Aik Mong and I got along even better after that Ipoh trip. We would go for occasional lunches and at one instance, we even visited Lee Guan Chong, a noted badminton player and coach from Selangor, when he was hospitalised for a heart attack at PJ’s University Hospital in early November 2019.

Sylvia Ng, Saw Swee Leong and the writer on 
KTM’s Electric Train Service (ETS)

Aik Mong, Swee Leong, Sylvia and myself had some of our best times together when we went to Penang later that month. We had travelled on the speedy Electric Train Service (ETS) operated by KTM (Malayan Railway) to Butterworth from KL Sentral and later hopped on a pre-booked taxi that took us to all the popular eating joints in Malaysia’s island food paradise. Aik Mong had joked that I needed to buy two ETS seats in view of my girth. So, two seats were bought in my name but somehow Swee Leong could squeeze in the seat next to me as he came on board from Ipoh to Butterworth. (So I wasn’t that huge after all!)

Upon reaching Penang in the late afternoon, we soon “attacked” a coffee shop in Pulau Tikus known for its sizzling mamak mee goreng (Indian Moslem fried egg noodles) and mee rebus (egg noodles cooked in spicy gravy) in Bangkok Lane. In the evening, we “cornered” another coffee shop known for char koay teow (flattened rice noodles in fish sauce fried with bean sprouts, garlic and prawns), sotong kangkong (steamed cuttlefish & water spinach mixed with sweet chilly sauce), lor bak (Chinese meat rolls) and other local goodies.

Aik Mong, Saw Swee Leong and Sylvia Ng:
Outside Jin Hoe Cafe, Aik Mong’s secret
hideout for Chinese-styled nasi lemak

We were again in Pulau Tikus at sunrise for more good stuff – this time for heh mee or prawn noodles (egg and rice noodles, bean sprouts and water spinach cooked in spicy prawn & meat broth) and apong (fermented rice pancake cooked with coconut milk) at a popular coffee shop opposite the long-standing police station. Later Aik Mong took us to his secret hideout of a coffee shop at Jalan Cantonment (also in Pulau Tikus) only known to locals for its Chinese-styled nasi lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk and served with fried fish & pawns with a dollop of pounded red chillies mixed with prawn paste) as well as otak-otak (steamed spicy fish custard wrapped in banana leaves). They certainly brought back memories of yesteryears. Over the next two days, it was the same story – food, food, food.

But of significance was a dinner on Nov 18 where the thoughtfulness and diplomacy of Aik Mong shone through. He had wanted to throw a dinner party that included Kew San, affectionately known as “Ah Peh” (Old Man), among Penang’s close-knit badminton fraternity. Teong Khoon had picked Nov 18. Little did we know that it was also the date of his wedding anniversary.

Aik Mong ordered a cake for the occasion but soon sensed something wasn’t right as it turned out that Teong Khoon’s daughter from his first marriage had also wanted to attend the party. This definitely put Aik Mong in a tight spot.

Sylvia Ng, Aik Mong and Rosalind Singha Ang:
Three-in-one occasion – party for Teh Kew San, 
birthday for Rosalind and wedding anniversary
for Lim Teong Khoon

Amazingly he soon had a brainwave when he discovered that very day was also the birthday of Rosalind Singha Ang, another badminton great who coming all the way from Alor Setar, for the dinner. So, Rosalind got to blow the candles, then Aik Mong also announced that it was also Teong Khoon’s wedding anniversary and asked him to kiss his wife! A sticky situation was averted.

His wry sense of humour and a caring attitude will be sorely missed. Our “fireside chats” at the Jalan Macalister Airbnb late into the night about life in general and badminton specifically turned out to be some of the best times for our reflection. Aik Mong had also spoken of his rather short stint as a coach with BAM, how he had struggled to juggle between his studies and competitive badminton, and how he was living life then.

We did broach on the interesting subject on how the next Malaysian badminton great could be produced. Aik Mong’s views came in a roundabout way as he also spoke of Lee Chong Wei, Malaysia’s star player in the first two decades of the 21st century, and what he had done to achieve fame and glory. Aik Mong conceded that they came with a great price of sacrifice and sheer commitment that included long hours of toil at the gym and on-the-court training.

To put it simply, he was of the firm view that fitness is key to today’s fast-paced game. Without that, a player can’t go far because of the scoring system. We asked him how best one should attain that.

Aik Mong coolly said that if a player could skip 5,000 times a day as part of his or her training regime, then he or she would be on to something. The strokes and strategies can come later. Those words sounded like those of our Penang state schools badminton coach in the 1970s — Lawrence Barbosa!

His confidante Irene recalled that Aik Mong always took on a positive attitude all his life and emphasised that one should always look on the bright side and be happy. For instance, Aik Mong, being the doting grandfather that he was to his grandchildren in Singapore, they would always look forward to his visits because while he was there, there was no curtailment on wi-fi data or gadgets!

Aik Mong also used to say – “live life well and in the most humble way for only God is greater than us. We men are all equals.”

According to Irene, Aik Mong had confided in her that he was concerned for my well-being, especially my weight, as he felt that the demise of my wife, Amy, had affected me somewhat and hoped that I could move on. Such was the kind of concern of Aik Mong for the people he cared for.

I remember one amusing incident when I was sitting alone in a Penang cuisine restaurant in a Petaling Jaya shopping mall and was gorging myself silly over a bowl of spicy noodle soup: Aik Mong spotted me, came over to the open-style restaurant and bellowed from the aisle,”You shouldn’t be eating that!” And he laughingly cautioned me on my food intake.

I shall certainly miss Aik Mong’s sense of humour and his stimulating conversations, especially the cosy “fireside chats”. You were truly a Mahaguru, my friend. Rest well, my champ! 

• This story, originally published in mysportsflame.com, is republished with the permission of the author. Read the original here. Read more about the writer here. All photos, unless otherwise stated, are by the writer.

Khoo Chuan Keat, RIP

ONE OF our schoolmates from Westlands Primary School, Khoo Chuan Keat, passed away last week on 20 February 2019. Only last December, he had observed his 64th birthday, as had all his friends who were born in 1954. Some of us will have known him since Standard One in Westlands Primary School and some others will recall knowing him from Standard Two or even later. Many would have even carried the friendship over to secondary school days and even after retirement but no matter when it was that we first met him, we are all agreed that Chuan Keat was a staunch friend.

Chuan Keat in Standard 1B, 1961. He was standing in the back row, second from left.

Teoh Chye Teik, RIP

IT IS WITH sadness that we report the passing of one of the former teachers of Westlands Primary School and Penang Free School. Mr Teoh Chye Teik was 83 years old when he died in Singapore yesterday. For many of my old schoolmates from Primary school, he was the Class Teacher of Standard 6 Red in 1965.

Teoh Chye Teik was an Old Free and he was selected by the then Headmaster of Penang Free School to join the teaching staff there in the late 1960s. He excelled in playing Cricket and Tennis, and had represented Penang and Malaysia in Cricket. At the Free School, he taught Mathematics.

Teoh Chye Teik attended the Bicentenary dinner of
Penang Free School in Oct 2016

One of our schoolmates, Siang Jin, penned this fitting eulogy to our old school master today:

“I remember Mr Teoh Chye Teik for a number of things:

(1) When a visiting West Indies cricket team played Penang during the time he was captain of the state team, he mentioned that he was blue and black all over and could hardly see the ball when the fast bowlers were fielded. The Penang side nevertheless tried to play their best against the Windies.

(2) Dato Tan Boon Lin mentioned recently that he specially selected many teachers for Penang Free School to beef up teaching and co-curricular quality. Mr Teoh was one of the hand-picked few.

From the 1971 issue of the
Penang Free School Magazine

 (3) He taught General Mathematics in the Arts stream and, according to Sukumaran, our classmate, he had a methodical way of solving matters like "plan and elevation". I remember that very well. That gave us a fighting chance against the Science boys.

(4) His sternness, which is appreciated by those who learned under him, is legendary. On his first day in Form 4A in 1969, he asked Michael Sak and me, with two others, to stand up and warned us that we should behave -- which we did. Subsequently, everything was OK.

(5) He was a dedicated teacher and coach.”

Tribute to Soo Ewe Jin by a fellow journalist

This tribute is published in the above handbook. See notes below
for more information on the Soo Ewe Jin Scholarship Award.

By Lim Siang Jin 

EWE JIN had been a dear friend since 1979 when he joined The Malay Mail a few months after I did. We got on very well quickly even though a six-year age difference separated us. He was 20 and I, 26. Being similarly from Penang and Penang Free School helped to bolster the friendship that lasted 37 years.

A bit insecure then, but well-read, and full of ideas and initiative, he was quickly recognised as a strong potential to move up the ranks. His early skills as a writer and sub-editor had been honed at the now-defunct The Straits Echo. However, his interest in communications, journalism in particular, was a life-long one. Few children in our days, for example, read the newspapers every day. Few of us, on our own, developed an interest in current affairs. He did, and it showed in his work.    

We spoke a lot during those years at The Mail — about work, how to deal with life, and just about anything else that came to mind. His insecurity started to disappear later when he found the two rocks of his life: God and his wife, Angeline Lim. After Ewe Jin and Angie met, I observed a special glow in them and thought they had found a perfect match. Their faith in Christ became the bedrock upon which their lives together was built.

There were times, I thought, that the decisions Ewe Jin made could put them in financial straits. However, each time I advised him to take the path of greater “security”, he would tell me God would provide, and He did! What flowed from his faith to him and his family were gushes of abundance, not so much in material terms but the stuff of everyone’s life dreams — loving family[1] and friends, welcome acts of generosity and the reciprocity of others, respect and admiration as an example and mentor, very focussed missions in life, and a deep sense of reason and compassion.

I could always count on Ewe Jin for help at various stages of my own development: At The Malay Mail, I started to read his mannerisms. Whenever something was amiss, he would come over, with a face slightly twisted and a “tsk, tsk” at the tip of his tongue, to tell me or one of the other approachable seniors.[2]  After we revamped Malaysian Business from a monthly to a bimonthly in 1984, he was still at The Malay Mail. He would volunteer to sub and write part-time for us whenever we were short-handed — which was very often. The late Shaik Osman, the editor then, was very grateful for his help.  

This book is a compilation of
one of the best-read columns
in The Sunday Star. See Note [3]
below for more info.

In 1985, I decided to exit the NST Group and take up Dr Noordin Sopiee’s offer to join the publications unit of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia. “Doc” favoured communicators in his team because they are trained to be doers as well as thinkers. 

As ISIS started to play a bigger part in national affairs, I thought Ewe Jin would be a great asset to our team. At ISIS, our publications team, at various times, included the late Salim Abdul Rahim Kajai (former editor of Berita Harian, fondly known as Pak Salim), the late Chew Lay See (former journalist from The Malay Mail) and Dorothy Teoh (from The Star who later became editor-in-chief of The Edge). Knowing the team he was to work with and the aspirations of the organisation, Ewe Jin decided to join us.

As expected, he injected news and human interest into our work, most notably interviewing celebrities who passed through ISIS. He spoke, for example, to Oscar-winning Killing Fields actor Haing S Ngor who was later shot dead in Los Angeles in 1996. 

Little known to others, during our ISIS days and in the early 1990s, Ewe Jin and I (with Tan Boon Kean on two occasions) were approached by people to initiate or revamp a number of publishing projects. One was to try to revive The Straits Echo. Another was to start a political weekly with the support of people like Tan Chee Khoon. The third was to start a business weekly. The first two didn’t get past a few meetings. The third resulted in the formation of The Edge.

In 1992, after I had left ISIS, Tong Kooi Ong wanted to start a weekly newspaper expressly to provide more information on the capital markets in Malaysia. This would help in their development. Three of us, Boon Kean, Ewe Jin and myself, were tasked to produce a concept paper. Boon Kean drew up the business plan while Ewe Jin and I worked on the editorial processes, production and design.

When the time came to present the paper, Ewe Jin, with a full-time job then, declined to join us. Ipso facto, he was not offered a directorship of The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd when we started. However, when the The Edge was launched in September 1994, I managed to persuade Angie and Ewe Jin to join us. He spent two years with us, and at the time he left, he was our Executive Editor.

Ewe Jin subsequently joined The Star. On reflection, it was one of his best moves. It was there that he managed to find his true calling — to be confidante of the likes of Wong Chun Wai and Wong Sulong, both of whom have high regard for him; to meet and cultivate the friendship of people of influence; to continue to counsel the younger journalists; and to write a column that would be widely-read and highly-impactful.[3] It was also The Star that provided for him not only in his early years there but also in his times of greatest need — throughout his entire journey with cancer.

To be struck with cancer at 40 was a big blow to him. On reflection again, and bearing in mind acutely the pain and suffering he and his family went through, I think his life’s mission was galvanised by this disease. It was his Cross to bear and he bore it with bravery without losing sight of the need to serve with compassion — setting an example for the rest of us on how to suffer yet cherish life; sharing his journey (via a book that was published six times)[4] so that others, sufferers and care-givers, can draw inspiration from it; and loving life for the small things it offers. It is the life of a true Christian.

• This tribute is published in “A handbook for recipients of the Soo Ewe Jin Scholarship Award”. According to The Star, April 7, 2017: “With [Angeline] Lim serving as benefactor, the Soo Ewe Jin (SEJ) Scholarship has been set up under the umbrella of the Star Education Fund and the Yayasan Universiti Sains Malaysia. It will sponsor one undergraduate every year pursuing a Bachelor in Communications (Journalism) degree at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), which is renowned for producing top-notch journalists. A Trust Deed for setting up the scholarship was signed by Star Media Group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai, USM Vice Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Asma Ismail and Lim at Menara Star” on Friday, April 7, 2017.

[1] The Soos, Ewe Jin and Angie, are blessed with two children, Kevin and Timothy. Kevin, born 1987, is doing his doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He is married to Evelyn Yarzebinski. Tim, born 1990, has a Master of Arts from Macquarie University in Sydney. He works at an advertising agency in Kuala Lumpur.

[2] The approachable seniors included KC Boey (chief sub-editor then, who later became editor of The Malay Mail and Malaysian Business before leaving for Australia), Chua Bok Chye (assistant chief sub-editor) and Monica Moey (senior sub-editor). He was, at that time, terrified of The Mail’s fierce editor Chua Huck Cheng. They have since become quite close.

[3] His column, “Sunday Starters”, has been published in a book, Soo Ewe Jin: Sunday Starters: Reflections on Life, paperback, 360 pages, Star Media Group, 2015.

[4] Soo Ewe Jin & Angeline Lim: Face-to-face with cancer: Four journeys… God always present, paperback, 97 pages, published by the authors, 2012 (sixth edition). 12,000 copies of the book have been printed since April 1999, when Ewe Jin first discovered he had nasal cancer. In this difficult journey that took 17 years, he encountered the disease four times. First diagnosed and treated in 1999, he later found a malignant lump in his lymph nodes in 2006 and suffered from a relapse of nose cancer in March 2011. Ewe Jin’s final confrontation with the disease was in 2015-16. He passed away on November 17, 2016.

• Lim Siang Jin is one of three people who manage this WPS blogsite. Read more about him here.