Casr From The Herd Excerpt #91: A New Breed of Malay College Students

 Cast From The Herd:  Memories of Matriarchal Malaysia

M. Bakri Musa

Excerpt # 91:  A New Breed of Malay College Students

As a prefect I was assigned to Prep School, a smaller two-storey complex at the opposite corner of the campus, far away from Big School, the main dormitory block. Prep school had its own dining facility. The approximately one hundred pupils who entered at Form One would spend their first year there, separated and protected from the rest of the school. 

            The other prefects there with me were Hadi Hashim, my classmate; Mohammad Omar, a year behind me; and Mat Yusof, two years behind. Except for Hadi, we were all rookie prefects. All of us except for Mat Yusof were in the science stream. Mat was a star soccer player, and like Hadi, hailed from Kelantan. Unlike Hadi who was an aristocrat (his father was then Kelantan’s State Secretary, the highest civil servant in the state), Mat was like me, from a kampung. He dawdled when he walked; hence his nickname, Mat Gajah (Mat The Elephant). He however assured me that his nickname arose because a part of his anatomy hung prominently, like an elephant’s trunk. The other prefect, Mohammad Omar, had an older brother who was at that time Selangor’s State Secretary. 

            The sentiment among the prefects generally was that being assigned to prep school was akin to being banished to Timbuktu. Perverse it may have seemed, that was the reason I welcomed it. I wanted to be as far away from the pernicious and regressive culture of Big School. 

            My Idris House dorm was the smallest physically. It was so small that my cubicle was in the adjacent Ahmad House dorm. It did not take me long to appreciate the many unanticipated benefits of being at Prep School. The food was far tastier. When you have to cook for only a hundred instead of six hundred, the results showed. As the food was geared for growing eleven- and twelve-year-olds, there were extra supplements and special treats like Magnolia chocolate milkshake, my favorite. 

            Most of all I liked the early “lights out” at nine. At Big School it was ten for everyone except Sixth Formers; for them, an hour later. Thus here I had a long evening of uninterrupted study in the privacy of my cubicle. That was my most precious privilege. 

            That year (1962) was the first time entry into the college at Form One was based strictly on merit, a significant milestone. There had been earlier and limited attempts, as with the college having its own admission examinations. That was not available widely. Besides, scores alone would not guarantee admission, as attested to by my brother Sharif’s earlier experience. 

            By 1960 every pupil in the country had to sit for the national examination at the end of their sixth school year. The college thus had a nation-wide pool of applicants. The results showed. With the notable exception of two pupils (and both “stood out”), the rest were top scorers. 

            I enjoyed many impromptu discussions with these bright First Formers. They were assertive, passionate, and well informed. The debates were intellectually far more stimulating than the many I had in the Sixth Form dorm. These youngsters had not yet been corrupted by the college’s anti-intellectual culture. 

            Once, I had an unusually vigorous discussion with them when Mat Gajah passed by. He shook his head and stomped away. Later he complained to me that those kids were rude, brash, and impertinent. They seemed fine to me. 

            The two notable exceptions I mentioned earlier were the son of the King and that of the Member of Parliament (MP) representing my district. They might have been above average in their previous school, but among that select crowd they were simply out-classed. I tried to engage the two, but would get only duds for responses. I could excuse the prince; after all Prince Charles did not get into Cambridge based on his A-level scores or Jack Kennedy into Harvard his SAT scores. My MP’s son however, confounded me. Malaysia of the 1960s was not yet blighted with corruption, cronyism, or nepotism. 

            I later discovered that all save those two had perfect scores in their Year-Six Examination. I did not need to know that; their performances spoke loud and clear. I felt sorry for the pair; they were out of their league, two sluggish minnows trailing the main school. The subsequent career trajectories of the others bore out my early observations. They included a future first Malaysian chief executive of a major multinational corporation (Megat Zaharuddin, Shell Oil Malaysia), a noted cell biologist (Noor Embi), immunologist (Ghazzali Ismail), engineering PhD (Ahmad Ibrahim), the highly respected jurist and fierce defender of judicial independence (Hishamuddin Yunos), two medical school deans (Tahir Azhar and Saidi Hashim), and countless other medical specialists as well as PhDs in the sciences. Quite a sparkling collection!

Excerpt # 92:  Duties of a Prefect