A Series of Blurry Photos

Bucks (Class of 2006) was in action in the national level final of the English Speaking Union Malaysia Public Speaking Competition at Eastin Hotel this morning. I felt it was something that we should be quite proud of considering:

1) The 12 finalists were selected from 700+ participants from all over Malaysia
2) Bucks was the only Malay boy (in fact the only non "mud-blood" Malay ha ha considering the other girl was a mixed)
3) Koleq had been sending the only Malay boy representation in the grand final for the past 3 years

I never expected any of the boys to win, especially since it was open for students in the age bracket of 16 to 19. Bucks was one of the four participants still in school, the others are already in college. On top of that, it was not really our "turf", so what matters most was to be able to give an equal fight and stand side by side with other participants as far as performance and maturity was concerned.

And Bucks did well. He of course did not get to be the top two speakers to represent Malaysia to the international competition, but he did give a good performance worthy of MCKK. His argument during the speech was up to standard, though he could have given a better reply during the cross examination by the panel of judges.

As usual there was a series of SMS going to and fro with Sherry (who couldn't make it) during the competition:

Coach 1:
"Bucks dah habis deliver his speech. He came a long way frm d small kid i knew 3 yrs ago but cannot win la. His answer was bad but his main speech delivery was gud. He ll survive d world outside la. Dat s my only concern with d kids ha ha"

Teacher 1:
"Three yrs in a row masuk final... tapi tak menang menang.. we'll try again until we win. Thanx 4 yr support"

Coach 1:
"Difficult 2 win ever until ***** n *****'s time ie kids who speak perfect n accented english coz other contestants r like dat. But we ve been holding d fort s d only rep 4 malay boy 4 d last 3 yrs. So it s not our turf. I feel we need 2 b proud of being able 2 compete at par or better in other ppl's turf"

Teacher 1:
"its only when d boys compete in competitions like esum dat they see how other stdnts r faring n how much harder they hav 2 work 2 do better. Sometimes i think our boys r too selesa kat mckk..."

Coach 1:
"In fact bucks is d only malay bcos d other malay girl is mixed ha ha. Such is malaysia we live in 2 parallel worlds. So long our boys can compete in both worlds, we ve done our job"

Footnote

A series of photos taken from the camera phone (hampehhh):

Lunch with Fazurin & Canoe (started out as simple lunch since Fazurin had just came back from jogging, ended up in GE Mall with Fazurin hiding his bulu ketiak

Twister Club March 2006 - Memang laa nampak muka

MC-RMC Weekend 2006

ESUM National Level Final 2006 - The picture immediately above was taken during Bucks' speech (tapi memang nampak laa Bucks kan)

Review: Lessons In Life

Someone went to watch our boys in a debate against St Michael's Ipoh, for Taylors College debating competition. When we enrolled the boys, we did tell them not to expect to win regardless of how good they are, because chances are Taylors would want to use this as a marketing tool - so only those who would consider going to Taylors seriously who might get to win. Malay kids, from Malay College Kuala Kangsar, most probably do not fall into that category.

So I had intended the whole thing as part of their learning process. The problem with some of our Malay students in SBP is they are too confined to the superficial world of SBPs. Sometimes they are oblivious to the great competition outside, especially from the non-Malays. So encounters like this can open up their eyes to the reality of the world.

I also wanted to expose them to the ugly side of Malaysian culture, which has become a permanent facet in our society - racism.

From the reports I received, the competition definitely met all the objectives. I just hope the kids grow more conscious of all these issues - it should make them more matured and better.

Anyway enjoy the abridged report from our very own Karam Singh Walia in Ipoh.

"...

Match started at 2:40pm. ended around 4pm. Judges (all ladies, 2 indians 1 melayu pakai scarf) took world-record time of 45 mins to confer and deliberate. Our boys kept their speeches within the time limit (7 mins, 6 mins, 6 mins and 5mins for reply). SMI boys (all F4 students, 2 cinggam 1 kling) all on average exceeded their time by 1 minute plus. SMI debaters were Brian Hew, Jonathan Doyou and Jon Selindra.

Performance: All SMI boys started their speech with quotes like "i came, i saw, i conquer" (our boys then refer them as Shakespeare 1, 2 instead of Prime Minister or Deputy PM). All of them (SMI) read from notes tak ingat dunia, yang sorang tu siap bow-bow 4-5 kali masa rebuttal, dia ingat ni stage play kot. Yang aku menyampah sikit SMI ni diorang repeatedly said,"I'm telling this to your face, sir!' kurang ajar gile. lagi satu cilakanye SMI ni masa POI, took very long time (dekat 40 seconds) to pose the question.

aku tak ingat sangat apa SMI nye points, because it was so tak clear apa diorang argue. I just remember their 1 point on beauty shldnt be evaluated by contest. Their definitions pun , alahai, tak tau nak kata, macam nak tak nak je define. Beauty is defined as attractive body figure. The rest of debate they kept harping about poor fat women, they felt insulted because tak lawa hence tak boleh masuk beauty contests.

our boys: i did find it difficult to catch what ****** was saying (partly because microphone sound system tak bagus) and also, well the way ******** speaks. ******* was very very eager to go on stage, (according to Sherry he had prepared a long text speech filled with funny anecdotes and examples) but unfortunately, he ran out of time because he:

1) spent so much time to rebut at the beginning,
2) took 2 POIs at the beginning and again lost time to wait for SMI pose the qns and then nak menjawab.

****** just had 1 minute at end to deliver the 3rd point, no examples not much kupasan.

Oh yeah, our points we

1) evolution of beauty pageant to include intelligence & charisma
2) society perception
3) tak ingat.

Our re-definition of the motion also was good, on beauty = to include inner beauty but maybe is was ******, so tak clear sgt the delivery.

******, well, cocky and agak rude as usual on stage (repeatedly buat muka and gestures every time SMI speaks, and the way ****** cut off masa SMI bagi POI (cos took so long) agak kasar " yeah, yeah, sir, i know what u want to say". noted he was pissed off by the time he speaks, but he needs to contain his anger and remain professional la kot till the end.

alamak..dah 11:30...so, in the end, koleq kalah. but obvious bias gile lah.

the chief judge straight away jumpa SMI HM bagi tips n tricks, ignoring Sherry who was nearby!! chief judge kata kononnye it was a very close decision..ya haa...aku ngan sherry mati mati ingat koleq wallop SMI.

The chief judge bagi debrief abt judging, looked entirely kat our boys je..BOLEH!!

anyway, she said judges marked koleq down because our boys reading text too much, pronounciation and diction tak clear, takde manners pasal conferring with teammates masa SMI bercakap, tak confident pasal we gave speach from back of stage instead of infront.

Judge kata debate is abt public speaking, so content and points only constitute 7% of the markings. 52% on eye contact ngan audience 41% on pronounciation. oh yeah, another comment about koleq tak elaborate on points. just a statement and example.

tahlaa..fed-up aku dgn judges bias bangan camni.

Sherry was fed-up and angry too. She said kalau camni gaya bias nak menjatuhkan malay boys, next year dia tak nak join lagi dah taylors debate.

...."

Well this is the country we live in. We don't reward those who deserve - everyone (and by that I mean the Malays, Chinese and Indians and all the rest) practiced racism to the core and the people who are most vocal to claim themselves as victims of racism unconsciously or consciously practised it all the time.

We could not have a talent competition without racism getting in the way, we definitely cannot have a debating competition for our kids without racism dictating the day too.

Malaysia Boleh!

Linked: Class of 75

We are officially linked to Class of 75.

Welcome to koleq world on the cyber space (ha ha pandai2 nak welcome orang, ntah2 abang2 aji kite dah lagi advance dari kite).

PS

Someone sent me this reminder - "Better buruk sebab over use then better buruk tergantung", referring to the you-know-what balls. So I give a similar reminder to those still bujang trang tang tang among us ha ha (I am going for a completely overhaul check pretty soon).

Fire Drill: "Bapak Kau Setan"

KNO recalled our first encounter with fire drill and how the relief of finally getting out of the Common Room, turned into a nightmare in front of the TAR Hall.

Fire drill was nasty, but I was never bitter about it. I maintained that those prefects who went physical crossed the line and should have been reprimanded, for they should never be any body contact. Torture us to make a thousand lap until we fall or do a "half way up" until we get muscle spasm (not the kind of pleasureable muscle spasm that most people are more used to nowadays ha ha), I consider that fair - but don't ever slap or kick us.

Of course many crossed the line in their naivete and lack of understanding of the magnitude of their actions - however most of them were nothing more than a child back then, and children do get carried away.

Anyway, one of my most memorable fire drills was the one that originated from the surau. I couldn't remember the details of the torture, suffice to say it was hell.

But I did remember the surprise and annoyance when we finally found out the grave sin we had committed that sent us to the gallows (so to speak) that night.

Two or three kids (I will not disclose their names here for they had become good friends over the year), in our first few weeks in koleq, were fighting for the best spot under the fan in surau one evening. I guess it must have been so hot then because that erupted into a shouting match (some pushing had apparently taken place before).

What was shouted was the reason we suffered fire drills that night.

(Reconstruction)

Preppie A: Bapak kau setan.....
Preppie B: Bapak kau lagi setan...
Preppie A: Bapak kau memang setan....

It went on for a while without them realising one of the prefects was standing at the back, fuming with anger that their iron fisted rule over us had come to this this early in the year. What was even more insulting to them I suppose was that both were the sons of old boys who (the old boys) were contemporaries in college, and one of them was actually the younger brother of the Head of Prep School prefects that year (aaaaaa I gave it away, didn't I?)

For many years to come, when the stress of life got to us, this "bapak kau setan" episode never fail to produce an eruption of laughter.

I felt that that was the gravest injustice ever committed against us - "yang setannya bapak diorang, kita pulak yang kena". And as a good friend always keen to point out "patut ****l pun kena sekali laa sebab bapak dia yang setan, bukan bapak aku".

PS

* To Preppie A and B, do not take this personally. You two provided a memory that is everlasting
** One of the fathers that got involved in the shouting match had passed away a few years back - Al-Fatihah.

More Additions - Special Edition Class of 2005

I realised that each time a batch had just left koleq after SPM, there will be a sudden surge of MCKK-related websites - most of the new ones contributed by the new old boys group.

My guess is it takes a while for kids to overcome the withdrawal syndrome after the years in koleq, and with all the free time in their hands after SPM, they find solace in blogging and internet. The challenge is to remain steadfast and consistent when they eventually resume their studies after SPM results.

Withdrawal syndrome after (or during) koleq years was particularly a nasty one. By the time I was in Form 4, I could barely communicate with my siblings or my parents. During the few school holidays which I had to come back (no good excuse to stay back in Kuala), I spent most my time locked in the room - even at a time when Internet was not around. The good thing about this was I actually did my study mostly during school holidays - the revisions, exercises etc. because I just didn't have anything else to do and unlike the present where you have the leisure of Astro, Internet etc. to keep yourself busy - it was either exercises and readings. I did more readings and exercises during those holidays than all the time spent in koleq combined.

But to the parents of MCKK boys reading this, do not be alarmed. The withdrawal syndrome, bad as it is initially, will create a sense of vacuum and awakening in these boys that in the end they will go back to their parents and siblings, and try to make up for the lost time. At least that was what I went through.

After 5 years in MC, I had to leave for education abroad barely one month after sitting for my SPM - so the days after SPM was so hectic. The next thing I knew I was already in the UK and had to fend for myself. Loneliness was the biggest challenge and as much as you write to your batchmates or juniors in koleq - there were only two groups who would reply to you without fail. Your family and your teachers. Plus you could always make a reverse charge to your parents, but not your friends.

From a distance, many of us had to patch up the gap we created ourselves because of the time we spent in boarding school - but boys are boys and I think the realisation of how much quality time you have lost and taken away from your family, makes you appreciate them so much more.

Anyway, that's not the subject of this entry.

Blogs from the Class of 2005 had sprung up lately and they are mostly of commendable qualities. If only koleq boys have the facilities and freedom to voice up opinions through blogs when they were still in koleq (and not after they have left), perhaps we can take more comfort that future generations will be as wacko and vocal as we were - after all that was partly the beauty of a Malay College upbringing.

To the Class of 2005, welcome.

To the Class of 94, these kids still wet their pants when we suffered our fire drills. We are officially ancient (since 3-4 years ago pun, just reiterating the point).

Izham.com (Class of 2005)
reflections (Class of 2005)
the ninetyseven innuendos (Class of 2005)
A Glimpse (Class of 2005)
Khalis (Class of 2005)
Ince Inc (Class of 2005)

Fivean Scholarship: Class of 94

We have started giving "scholarship" or "bursaries" to needy and excellent students in koleq beginning last year (from zakat and sadaqah contribution from batch members).

The scholarship is for two years, with the receipients selected by koleq in F4. They shall receive RM750 per annum for F4 and F5, with the scholarship disbursed in 2 tranches (in January and June each year). It might not be much, but it's the least we could do.

The receipients for this year are:

Form 5

Mohd Ikhwan Zaki
Muhammad Azizuddin Mohd Haris
Zul Husni Mohd Noor

Form 4

Adnan Hanapai
Muhammad Hariez Mohd Yazri
Mohd Faris Fikri Mohd Sholeh

We actually write to them once in a while, usually giving the obligatory reminders to work hard and find a balance in life. I don't know how much it might touch their life, but we hope it does somehow.

To the contributors, thank you so much. To would be contributors, you can always get in touch with Rough for next year's contribution.

Notes

I notice that the socio-economic background of the receipients is quite different from what it would have been during our time. Nowadays, sons of goverment or private sector's employees still qualify for scholarships, indicating how much the cost of living has increased - pushing the bar higher and higher. What 10 years ago a middle class family, may no longer be the case nowadays.