Cast From The Herd: Memories of Matriarchal Malaysia
M. Bakri Musa
Excerpt # 86: Stunting Young Malay Minds
This myopic intellectual outlook was expressed in other more profound and destructive ways. In September of my first year I was stunned that the top student in the Upper Six Science class would be leaving for further studies in England. Normally that would be a cause for celebration, except that he would be attending Brighton Technical College under the National Electricity Board (NEB) scholarship. Both Mr. Norton and Mr. Malhotra begged Ahmad Said not to abandon his Sixth Form. He was only a few months away from his Higher School Certificate examination, and from there he could go on to a “real” university instead of settling for a provincial British technical college. As Norton pointed out, Ahmad Said should instead aspire for MIT or Imperial College. He was diligent and intelligent.
Mr. Norton literally cried when he failed to dissuade Ahmad. In desperation, Norton then approached Abu Hassan and me to try and change Ahmad Said’s decision. Abu Hassan and Ahmad Said were both from Melaka and aspiring engineers. Why I too was included I did not know. Perhaps because Abu Hassan and I frequently studied together and behaved in atypical college style. Both of us, like Ahmad Said, joined the college at Lower Six.
Abu Hassan and I came out straight, telling Ahmad that he was being stupid. We were not the persuasive type, and that did not go well with him. He started to brag about how he was personally sought out by the head of the National Electricity Board (NEB), one Tan Sri Abu Zarim, and that he was invited on a special trip to Kuala Lumpur to meet this top honcho. We were not at all impressed and told Ahmad that. Apparently, the certainty of going abroad now and not a year later was too great a temptation for him.
A year later my classmate Mat Lias also fell for the same trap. He too aspired to be an engineer but did not take physics because he “could not stand Malhotra.” By taking the NEB scholarship, also to Brighton, Lias could achieve his dream and at the same time thumb his nose at Malhotra.
Malhotra was aware of that, and like Norton earlier with Ahmad Said, asked Abu Hassan, Mohammad Yusof, and me to dissuade Mat Lias. We were again unsuccessful, and devastated by his decision. What a waste of talent!
Ahmad Said’s classmate Noramly Muslim too was similarly tempted to abandon his Sixth Form. He was recruited to be among the first group of Malay Cadet Planters by the British-owned Golden Plantations. However, Norton and Headmaster Ryan refused to sign Noramly’s application, and Noramly’s aspiration was aborted. Imagine, it took two non-Malaysian expatriate teachers to save a smart young Malay from wasting his talent. Noramly did complete his Sixth Form and later excelled, obtaining an Australian PhD and becoming Dean of Science at the National University followed by being the first director of the Tun Ismail Atomic Research Center (PUSPATI).
Later in the year I read NEB’s Annual Report. Its chairman, the same Abu Zarim, an “old boy” who also went to Brighton, bragged of his “successes” in recruiting bright young Malay boys like Ahmad Said and Mat Lias to go to Brighton. That was the prevailing intellectual milieu and academic culture at Malay College then where acceptance into a provincial British technical college was the highest academic aspiration. Few thought to aspire higher. As for Abu Zarim’s motive? Kickbacks from Brighton? Latent insecurity in seeing bright young Malays possibly exceeding him in achievements? That is, dimming future bright candles to ensure that yours would still be seen as dazzling? As for the latter, my heart breaks on seeing so many sparkling Malay minds being wasted at such campuses as Ulu Oklahoma State U. No wonder they have a warped impression of America.
Ahmad Said’s tragedy did not end there. Two decades later he killed himself by jumping off LLN’s Tower (successor to the National Electricity Board).
The irony does not escape me. Malhotra, Norton, and Ryan were non-Malays and foreigners to boot, yet they did more to nurture Malay talents. Abu Zarim on the other hand was a fellow native (he was from my state of Negri Sembilan) but he destroyed more Malay talents or made them underachievers, yet he was lauded with a Tan Sri. Malhotra’s later plea to me of “What’s wrong with your people?” again raising its ugly specter.
Neither the irony nor the tragedy ended there. Fast forward to a decade and a half later, as a young surgeon in Malaysia I saw so many young Malay talents stunted in their professional development because they were seduced into accepting glorified administrative positions at the expense of their professional expertise.
That is the microcosm of the so-called Malay problem. It was true then and much more so today, only the scale a quantum leap worse. Today Malay leaders think that they are helping the community by selling state land to their family members at deeply discounted prices as the Chief Minister of Terengganu did recently. Even when they sport engineering PhDs they are still dumb, or think the masses are dumb. Others are busy fighting such futile causes as wanting Penang to be returned to Kedah without thinking how would that help the rice farmers in Kubang Pasu.
Next: Excerpt # 87: Bucking The Entrenched Trend
