Sukanterer and Yengko 2008: Background

Nobody can pinpoint precisely when the first time the idea was mooted. Actually nobody could be bothered to go through the thousands of e-mails in our Googlegroup to trace to the first mention of a replay of Sukantara.

But there have always been quarrels (ala ala quarrel manja2 ni, bukan style settle kat squash court sampai koyak baju macam Rifdi punya…) or cat calling among us about the results of Sports Day/Sukantara 1994 because some were controversial; some were unexpected.

Among the most popular ones:

Md Shah vs Idris

Md Shah was the top seed to become the Champion House in 1994. Mostly because the big guns of sports (e.g. Zahadin) were from Md Shah. Mostly because these people were (and ARE) the most kiasu in our batch when it comes to winning – all they care was winning. And they had won in 1992 and 1993 – with the bulk of the strength partly coming from Class of 94.

In 1994, they elected Tungkid as the house captain – a new born person, one who had demonstrated he could deliver when he put his mind to it, judging from the transformation he went through to become a model student in Form 5 (what he was before that is a different matter altogether ha ha). Plus, there was the Pavi factor. They lived in seclusion among themselves, they schemed and plotted better than most of us in Big School (a habit which they carried on until this very day, but that will be elaborated later).


On the other side of the fence was Idris, the underdog which – out of their mind – elected a fat-bellied with jumbo-edition rear side (ha ha) as the captain. Mpro was the most non-athletic of all the house captains of 94 (ha ha) and in him was finally the chance that Leman would not occupy the bottom position (again). And one should only look at the kind of Form 5 from Idris house to know that even if Leman would not beat them to avoid the last spot; Idris definitely could not win the house championship.

But we did not take into account the junior factor – Idris not only has one of the highest concentration of jambus, they also have many athletic juniors who by far were superior than the juniors from other houses! And the house championship of 94 was allegedly decided by the junior’s contribution – not among the seniors (as to what happened to Leman and Ahmad; is a different story altogether).

There must have been a sense of being robbed. Eventually this spawned into many other speculations – that Idris played dirty tricks (e.g. Mattop pushed a competitor from Md Shah during one of the events etc.) to win the house championship.

It would not be long before someone demanded for a rematch.

Leman vs Ahmad

While Idris and Md Shah were locked for the top spot, Leman and Ahmad scrambled not to be in the last position. Leman would have had some dignity to be in the final spot having occupied that position eternally ever since we knew MCKK, but it was a fall from the grace for Ahmad, having won the championship in 1990 (or was it 1991?).

Composition wise, both houses were equally strong. We in Leman had the most no. of footballers, Ahmad had an equal number for ruggers. We boasted formidable array of jambus (ha ha you may ask now what has it got anything to do with sports, but we shall show you how it makes or breaks the final tally); they also have their respectable line ups.


We had a not so formidable house captain (ha ha; his most famous policy was each one has to contribute at least 5 points for Sukantara otherwise we have to pay RM5 – to which a lot of us the Form 5; moi included; sprang up instantaneously and bought our freedom from Sukantara 1994 there and then) – they had a gorilla who attempted to hide under a bed to escape a fitness training for a captain!

It was so neck and neck – and it remained like that till the very day of the Sports Day.

Leman had an edge over Ahmad; leading by a small margin – only to lose at the end because Ahmad won the march pass by putting a jambu as a poster boy heading their contingent. That’s cheating – if we were to be beaten, it should be by athletic events; not by the march pass.

We lost by a one point lead – and I have felt a deep sense of guilt all along. If only I tried for one of the events in 94 (not that it would have much prospect); I could have been a game changing act (ha ha).


So with all the drama and requests for rematch (e.g. the high jump final between Bobo, Kandaq and Joe among others; especially now that all three can pass for 4 months pregnancy mug shot!); it wasn’t long before what started out as a joke – gained momentum to become a crazy idea that people actually bought (I shouldn’t make too much out of this; because it is nothing crazy for a bunch of crazy under achievers who are the only second MCKK batch ever to fail to obtain 100% passes in SPM – to go for crazy ideas!).

After months of joking around, the official announcement was made on 14 October 2006; about 10 months after the previous Back To School Reunion (December 2005). At that time February 2008 seemed too far ahead – but close open close open (for pejam celik pejam celik); the rest of 2006 and 2007 was filled with Sukanterer events especially the Carey Award Race that by the time we were one month away from the actual event, we had not secured any of the venues yet.

The only motivation that saved the day was the fear that we (or to be more precise, “I”) would be thrown out of the batch and my No Dobi auctioned to the public ha ha. But that’s another story.

NOTE
The above is just a dramatization of remotely connected events to justify to our spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends, little friends and pet friends why we need to waste one year of our time on this Sukanterer reunion.

Or why we need to drag them to become cameramen/-women for all the events that culminated in the last weekend's events.

Or why the KARIPAP meetings were always held at night and dragged into the wee hours, closed with a karaoke session.

Or why we have to abandon them to the side line each time we meet our batchmates and left the kids to them to care.

Or why we refuse to do things we thought embarrassing but had no qualm to join the Earth shattering stampede last weekend in Kuala Kangsar – which upon further scrutiny on the video; was the most horrid big belly movements I have seen in years.