Cast From The Herd: Memories of Matriarchal Malaysia
M. Bakri Musa
Excerpt # 96: Anxiously Waiting For The Big Envelope
Back on campus a few weeks later as we were sitting for the important terminal examination, a major distraction cropped up. The big fat envelopes arrived for the lucky few. Hadi, my fellow prefect at Prep School, won a Colombo Plan scholarship for Veterinary Medicine in Australia, together with Abdul Rahman. Nik Zainal had his for Medicine at Monash, Australia. For all three, that was their first choice.
Atan had one for genetics, also in Australia. That was not his first choice; he wanted to be a doctor. In truth, had he been given the choice of medicine locally and genetics in Australia, he would have opted for the latter. The lure of going abroad was hard to resist even if it meant changing your career goals.
Those who drew blanks were disappointed. Somehow I was not. I was afraid that their disappointment would affect their performance for the rest of the terminal examination. It was for that reason that I refused to be disappointed and concocted many excuses, like the best being last. It helped that Atan assured me that I would probably end up in Britain. There the academic year would not begin until September, unlike Australia where it was February; hence the early notifications.
Atan meant well. However, if there was one place I did not want to go, it would be Britain. My preference was Canada. Mr. Norton and I had earlier discussed American universities. At that time the newspaper carried the news of a Malay boy from Singapore who had been awarded a United Nations scholarship to pursue medicine in New York. That prompted me to explore American medical schools. I discovered that medicine there was a graduate program. While it would take only four years, you must first have an undergraduate degree, making it an eight-year program, as compared to the five or six locally and elsewhere in the British Commonwealth. Also, as American degrees were then (still is) not recognized in Malaysia, I ruled out that option.
Norton dismissed the long duration. I was still young, he assured me. As for Malaysia not recognizing American degrees, he winked and said not to worry as the world would.
Canada had a similar American-style liberal education but being in the British Commonwealth, Malaysia recognized Canadian credentials. Its premed program was also shorter. Mr. Brown had earlier sold me on Canada. So please God, do not send me to Britain; there was already a glut of Malaysians there.
At last my much-anticipated fat envelope arrived. I was Canada-bound, together with three others, under the Colombo Plan scholarship. I feigned disappointment in not being sent to Britain but in my heart I was jubilant. I thanked Allah for answering my prayers.
I met Mr. Norton later in the day. He winked at me and chuckled, “Look up Osman Nor when you are up there!” I never knew Osman as he was a few years ahead of me. Norton often mentioned him in class. “The sharpest mind ever to step foot at Malay College,” was his praise of Osman.
Next Excerpt #97: Will We Ever Meet Again?
