I really want to continue with my memoir, for whatever it is worth. I last wrote in April 2011 about my School moving to its new campus at Tiger Lane (now Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah), Ipoh and we were working very hard to prepair for the official opening and renaming ceremony in May 1958.
The School was to be renamed Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman (STAR). Tuanku Abdul Rahman was the reigningYang DiPeruan Agong (best translated as The King) of the newly independant Malaya. The opening and renaming ceremony was to be performed by no less the then Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. This led to some confusion, not without justification. Some thought the School was named after the Prime Minister. There is very little difference in their names "Tuanku" in the King's and "Tunku" in the Prime Minister's. He was also fondly referred to as "The Tengku". Tengku, Tunku and Tuanku refer to people of royal birth.
The ceremony was very grand and splendid. The Press, the radio and the Film Unit (of the Information Ministry, no television yet at that time) were there in full force covering the event. Personally it was an early high point in my life. I was interviewed by a Radio reporter and was heard all over the country. We had a lot of VIP attending the ocassion. Our School was the very first Malay Secondary School. Before this Malay students only had primary education (unless they were rich enough to go English schools). The renaming of the School as STAR in my view was a ploy by the Government to hide the fact that it is not a Malay Secondary School anymore because its medium of instruction was the English language. The Malay rakyat (people) paricularly the Malay School teachers who formed the backbone of the United Malay National Organasition (UMNO) the political party controlling the Government of the day were clamouring for a Malay Secondary School using the Malay Language as the medium of instruction. To the credit of the Government it established a Malay Medium secondary in 1958 or thereabout.
The Film Unit made a film "The Young Tigers"of the opening ceremony and of the School showing off our modern academic and sports facilicities. Not every school has a 40 acre campus with 6 hostels, a dining hall and an assembly hall. They overlooked building a swimming pool for us! The film also showed us performing our daily routine of waking up, performing our prayers having our meals attending classes and playing various games and sports. The School has facilities for all games, Rughby (by far the most popular), soccer, hockey, basketball, volley ball, tennis and table tennis. The film also showed us taking part in other co-curricular activities such as Cadets, Boys Scouts, Red Cross, St John's Ambulance Brigade. Our School must be the envy of students of other Schools.
You can say our School was on the way to become a premier and famous school in the future.
The School was to be renamed Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman (STAR). Tuanku Abdul Rahman was the reigningYang DiPeruan Agong (best translated as The King) of the newly independant Malaya. The opening and renaming ceremony was to be performed by no less the then Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. This led to some confusion, not without justification. Some thought the School was named after the Prime Minister. There is very little difference in their names "Tuanku" in the King's and "Tunku" in the Prime Minister's. He was also fondly referred to as "The Tengku". Tengku, Tunku and Tuanku refer to people of royal birth.
The ceremony was very grand and splendid. The Press, the radio and the Film Unit (of the Information Ministry, no television yet at that time) were there in full force covering the event. Personally it was an early high point in my life. I was interviewed by a Radio reporter and was heard all over the country. We had a lot of VIP attending the ocassion. Our School was the very first Malay Secondary School. Before this Malay students only had primary education (unless they were rich enough to go English schools). The renaming of the School as STAR in my view was a ploy by the Government to hide the fact that it is not a Malay Secondary School anymore because its medium of instruction was the English language. The Malay rakyat (people) paricularly the Malay School teachers who formed the backbone of the United Malay National Organasition (UMNO) the political party controlling the Government of the day were clamouring for a Malay Secondary School using the Malay Language as the medium of instruction. To the credit of the Government it established a Malay Medium secondary in 1958 or thereabout.
The Film Unit made a film "The Young Tigers"of the opening ceremony and of the School showing off our modern academic and sports facilicities. Not every school has a 40 acre campus with 6 hostels, a dining hall and an assembly hall. They overlooked building a swimming pool for us! The film also showed us performing our daily routine of waking up, performing our prayers having our meals attending classes and playing various games and sports. The School has facilities for all games, Rughby (by far the most popular), soccer, hockey, basketball, volley ball, tennis and table tennis. The film also showed us taking part in other co-curricular activities such as Cadets, Boys Scouts, Red Cross, St John's Ambulance Brigade. Our School must be the envy of students of other Schools.
You can say our School was on the way to become a premier and famous school in the future.
