3711. Memoir

Childhood memories

2006-04-11T19:39:00.003+12:00

In 1905 my grandfather, Chin Yu, left Kwangtung province in South China because he wanted to make his fortunes in South East Asia. He heard from his Hakka friends in British North Borneo (now Sabah) that all the new immigrants from China, on arrival in Kudat, were given 25 acres of free land by the colonial government.

This land was already planted with rubber or coconut trees. If the tenant could sustain continuous production from his plot for 10 years, the East India Company promised to buy, at market value, all the rubber and cobra that the new immigrant could produce from his plot of land. After that, the land will be registered in his name under freehold title for 999 years.

first photo

Grand father therefore worked diligently to make his piece of land productive as he intended to make his home in this new land, British North Borneo and to raise a family. When he had worked the land for 10 years successfully he was indeed registered as the lawful owner. He went back to China, got married and brought his wife (Wong Siew Yin) with him to help him work the land. She bore him two sons: Voo Sang and Yet Onn (James) my father.

After finishing primary six, my father left Kudat and went to continue his secondary education at St Thomas’ School in Kuching. He passed his Junior Cambridge exams (form 3) and joined SOL*, Sarawak Oilfields Limited in Lutong as an accounts clerk. After working a few years, he had saved enough money. He returned to Jesselton, British North Borneo to find himself a Chinese Hakka wife. He brought my mother back from a small town called Kinarut**, on the narrow gauge railway line to Tenom. It was probably through a match maker that the marriage was arranged. My father originally lived in Kudat, a town situated further north at Marudu Bay which had no direct road link with Jesselton (now, Kota Kinabalu.)

After the liberation of Borneo by Allied forces at the end of World War 2, my father did not rejoin Shell. He found work with a trading company, The Borneo Company as a shipping clerk. His colleagues were Yong Jin Fook, Francis Loke, Wee Kit Chiang and Anthony Sia (hai kao yew). He worked there until 1954 when he died of cancer. I was 10 years old.

*SOL was later changed to SSOL, Sarawak Shell Oilfields Limited and again to SSB, Sarawak Shell Berhad.
**Kinarut is a small village with padi fields everywhere. Buah Munu is a mango type of local fruit.
***Shrimps for making belacan or shrimp paste, used for flavouring vegetables.

My parents

2006-03-11T19:34:00.000+13:00

mum & dad

I remember that my father was among the first person to own a motor cycle in Miri town. It was a BSA Bantam which had a single flat exhaust on the right side. Later he sold it and bought a bigger bike, a 350 cc Norton and then a 500cc BSA which had a side car attached. He used this to send the whole family to church on Sundays. My mother, Theresa Thien Nyuk Lan, was a catholic educated in the Carmelite convent in Jesselton (KK) and we, the children were all baptized at St. Joseph’s Church, Miri as little baby Catholics soon after birth.

We lived in Pujut in a small wooden house built by my father with help from friends and neighbours. I still remember that the beams holding up the roof were round timbers which were thicker at one end![1] The roof was covered with rusty galvanized iron and the walls were made from horizontal wooden planks which overlap each other. The windows were very crudely made, with hinges along the top edge and we used a stick to probe the bottom end open. Later on, my father added another building to it, the master bedroom! This time the posts were 8”x 8” belian posts salvaged from the old Miri wharf when it was demolished and replaced by a new one constructed in reinforced concrete! Thirty years later, after all the rest of our house has rotted away, these belian posts were still standing there for many more years!

We had two acres of land in Pujut, most of which was swampy ground under lalang and it was perpetually flooded. I remembered my elder sister Rose helped my mother doing chores around the house, cooking and ironing. My younger sister, Cecilia and I, simply played around the house, like most little kids did. In the beginning, we attended the Pujut Chinese primary school just across the road from our house. We went to town once a week for Sunday mass at St Joseph’s wooden church whenever we could get there. Mostly, we took the bus when my father was not around. He was seldom at home because he worked a lot of over time and went hunting for wild boar quite often with his friend, Chiew Fook Onn[2] Yong Jin Fook and Francis Loke.

After the sidecar, my father bought an old car and we became one of the very few people in Borneo to own a private motor car in the early fifties. It was an Austin 30. In order to start the car, my father had to crank it manually with a special tool. There was also an indicator arm on each side window pillar with a light bulb inside an amber coloured plastic cover. My sister, Rose and I always tried to catch it when it was erect! Mostly my father used hand signals by sticking his right arm out of the car window and making strange circular movements with his arm and sometimes holding his hand at right angle.

There was no electricity and water supply to our house in Pujut. We collected rain water from the rusty corrugated iron roof in a steel tank for cooking purposes and we used water from a shallow well for bathing and washing clothes. The water was a dark brown colour, like strong Ceylon tea. We had no washing machine and no colour TV in those days; but we did have a brand new His Master’s Voice record player. A spring had to be wound manually with a special handle each time before playing the gramophone records. All of them were heavy 78 speed vinyl records. The machine could also play 33 1/3 and 45 speed records; but we did not have any of those, only 78’s which were thick and heavy. The stylus had to be changed after playing one record. These were mainly songs of Chow Sian and Pai Kwang.

Soon afterwards, my father bought a Philips mantel radio which could receive the BBC world news on short wave. There was no local radio station on FM or medium wave. The Sarawak radio service was not established until the early 60’s. Then it was customary for us to listen to request songs from Rock Kuek on medium wave radio Sarawak, every Saturday. Favourites were Ricky Nelson, Frankie Avalon, Connie Francis and Doris Day.

My mother also had a brand new Singer sewing machine operated manually by a foot pedal. She used this to make curtains, all our school uniforms, pajamas, under wear and other street clothes for the whole family. My father however went to the tailors to make all his work shirts and pants. Ready made clothes were not yet available in the early 50’s. In high school, my school uniforms were all tailor made and I wore a neck tie! Tracy Bracken[3] taught me to tie an American knot! It was different from an English knot because it was fuller and looked nicer. However the tie must be made slightly longer to accommodate the extra turn required. Even today I could still remember how to tie this knot even in the dark. We used a charcoal fired brass iron for ironing clothes. It has a wooden handle. This had to be taken outside to fan the embers every so often to keep it hot. Then it was tested on a piece of green banana leave before using. It produced a hissing sound if it was hot enough and the wax

iron

from the surface of the leaf was transferred to the bottom of the iron, making it smooth and easy to use. The smell of burnt banana leaves still brought back nostalgic memories of early childhood for me! Our cousins, Bridget and Paul Voo had a kerosene powered iron for pressing their school uniforms. All that they needed to do was pump it up like a Tilley lamp. All our school uniforms were always starched and ironed properly with razor sharp pleats.

lamp

For lighting in the bedroom, we had a small kerosene lamp with an adjustable asbestos wig covered by a glass chimney to protect the flame from the wind.

For the sitting room and kitchen we used a Tilley lamp which has a mantle made of asbestos. It was my job to light the Tilley lamp and all the kerosene lamps every evening.

This is how it is done:
· Fill the lamp up with kerosene.
· Fill the small vessel under the mantle with methylated spirit.
· Light the spirit with a match, producing a blue flame which lasts about two minutes.
· Immediately turn the needle up to block the nozzle, close the air release valve and work the pump until the needle shows maximum pressure.
· Wait until the blue flame is just about to go out then open suddenly the needle valve. The kerosene spray vaporizes on contact with the hot metal tube and the mantle catches fire and taking up a bright incandescent yellow glow, giving brightness of a 40 watt bulb!
· The lamp’s fuel capacity should last about 5 hours. It is necessary to maintain pressure in the fuel tank every hour or so by working the manual pump.

dad

To keep away the mosquitoes, we sometimes burnt some bark of trees in a container to produce dense smoke. Later on, this was replaced by Gold fish brand mosquito coils. We also had a manual spray which used Ridsect, a smelly liquid manufactured in England. The container has drawings of marching royal guards. This mosquito repellent was very effective but expensive to use. It made my eyes water. I do not recall seeing our neighbours in Pujut using it. During the early 50’s, many of the buses in Miri were converted from old Fords, Austin or Hillman saloon cars; but with wooden slat bench seats along both sides so that four to six passengers could sit facing each other with the middle isle reserved for vegetables baskets

and other goods such as live chickens or ducks in wire cages bound for the Sunday market! There was a canopy made of canvas over a metal frame to keep out the sun and rain. The sides can be raised to let in cooler air during fine weather. The road to Miri was only a single lane dirt track, full of port holes. On both sides of the road were deep monsoon drains and beyond those on both sides were secondary jungles. Monkeys and snakes can often be seen on the roadside between Pujut corner and Charcoal plant.[4]

mum

Some times we went in our car to Tanjong Lobang beach for picnics. It was usually a whole day affair and we got sun burned every time! The waves were huge during the monsoon season and it was fun running on the beach with my sisters, Rose and Cecilia and our cousins, Paul, Bridget and Martin.

[1] Unprocessed timber straight from the jungle!
[2] Chiew Yong Ming’s grand father.
[3] He migrated with his family to England and returned 30 years later to work in SSB. Now, he called himself Patrick Bracken, not Tracy.
[4] opposite the present Petronas service station, two km from town.

My best friend Paul Voo (Min Choi)

2006-02-11T19:32:00.001+13:00

My cousin, Paul and I were very close childhood buddies and we have spent many happy times together. During our early teen age years the two of us were inseparable. During the school holidays we often went to Seria by bus to stay in the SRC bachelor flats with Peter, Paul’s eldest brother who was a surveyor. Next to the flats[1] was the SRC swimming pool where we spent all our days swimming until our finger tips looked like prunes. Peter worked in the topographical department in Brunei Shell. He gave us a lot of cash to spend on toys and other boys stuff like Roy Rogers’s comics and cow boy jeans. Paul and I were among the first to wear genuine Saddle King[2] Jeans in Miri. Levi jeans did not make an appearance until years later; maybe even after Amco. However, as we grew up, Paul and I went our separate ways. I went on to further my studies in Australia. He went into the Baram jungles to seek his fortune. He married his girl friend, Helen Lai. They had two sons and lived in the house next to our land in Pujut for a few years. Later on, under pressure from Helen, he sold this house in Pujut for 23K and bought a terrace house in Krokop. Paul was a very ambitious businessman.

He opened the first bar/night-club in Miri near Brighton beach. He made some money there. A few years later, he invested all this money in the logging and timber business and began spending a lot of time in the Baram jungle. However, if he made any money, he must have squandered it all away on the high life, gambling and fast women like everyone else in the timber industry. One of his fellow business friends was Hue Teck Seng of Pujut 4 who founded the Samling Companies in Sarawak and became very wealthy. Paul later worked for Samling in the Bintulu branch office for many years. He is now retired and sells ngao-chap min in Bintulu.

Paul’s brother, Martin Voo later married his classmate in Talipok. She was a Hakka girl, (an adopted daughter of Datuk Mustapha of Sabah!) Martin started his own insurance company with money from his father-in-law. He came to visit Peter Voo quite often and they played Mahjong in Peter's house at the Piasau camp talking about making millions! When the chief minister was toppled and replaced by Datuk Harris Salleh, Martin’s fortunes changed overnight. He fled to Hong Kong alone, leaving his wife and children in Sabah. The last we heard from him was a letter sent, care of a Pujut neighbour asking Rose for 60K USD for purchase of a new passport to flee Hong Kong!

Fr. John Dekker was a Dutch missionary from Holland. He was a very strict disciplinarian and he smoked a pipe. As little boys we were extremely afraid of him! Whenever we smell the Erinmore tobacco smoke from his pipe we became as silent as a mouse. Some of the boys were so afraid that their faces turned pale and their knees trembled! He must have wondered why the class had suddenly gone silent as he approached and how come we knew that he was around! Fr. John Dekker can speak both Iban and Foochow fluently. He learned Iban from Mrs. George Chapman.

There was also another priest in St. Joseph’s School Miri, Fr. Edmund Slowey. He was a lousy teacher but he was less fierce. He was probably a good missionary because he later on retired as a priest and went to live in Turangi, on the shores of Lake Taupo in New Zealand. I have not managed to locate him yet. There was also another priest, Fr. Holsbotch who can speak Hakka Chinese. We liked him better because he was kind to us and often rewarded us with candies, chocolates and lollies. However, he once disciplined Bridget by giving her 5 strokes of the rotan on the buttocks for going out on dates with boys and forgetting to do her home work in form 2. I have another cousin, Alice Luke. Both she and Bridget relied heavily on Rose to do their home work and school assignments for them! Neither of them finished form 5.

Alice’s father, uncle Luke Tai Chuan and Ah Yin tai-yi (my mother’s second sister) took care of my youngest sister, Cecilia for many years until she went to live in KK. Initially they lived in a rented property on Kwangtung road, Miri. Suddenly they packed their bags and went to Seria to work for Lee Tak, the wealthy Miri contractor and kapitan china. Cecilia went with them. She finished form 5 at St Angela’s and started work in BSP as a trainee typist in 1964. She continued to work in Seria and married Jeffrey Chow, a neighbour living along Jalan Perakong. Alice has a brother, Michael. He liked to spend all his time playing mahjong and sisek.[3] He went with his parents to KK; but Alice stayed in Seria where she continued to work in BSP until her early retirement when she left Seria and joined her parents in Sabah. She eventually married a carpenter, Ah Min ko in Penampang.

Michael worked for Sabah Gas, Labuan as a welder and has now retired and lives in Labuan with his family. His wife was a neighbour from Jalan Perakong in Seria. I met Michael at Albert Chow’s wedding in Bandar Seri Begawan in 1995. We have not seen each other for more than thirty years and become almost like strangers. When you are not rich, your relatives are not very keen to know you!Life has always been easy for Michael and he has aged very graciously. One of his daughters was working in a department store in Labuan. I have not seen Alice Luk for more than 45 years!

Update
Here is a recent photo taken with Alice in Penampang (March 2010)

Alice Luke

Her son and family

Cousins

2006-01-11T19:30:00.000+13:00

Brigid, Rose and Alice

In 1998, I went back for holidays in Malaysia; I went looking for my other aunt’s daughter, Brigid Voo. She was not doing well. She was very pretty and she had many suitors when she was still in school; but she chose to marry Loke King San, the most handsome but, career wise, the least successful of all her suitors. I liked Ah San-ko because in my opinion he only reacted to all her attempts to leave him! She opened a stall at the trade fair and had an affair with the organizer. Later eloping with him to KK! During this period when Bridget was in Sabah, Ah San-ko retired from Shell and was living alone in the terrace house in Krokop. He was vulnerable and lonely. He fell victim to a massage girl’s gold digging tactics. He took her on an extended holiday to Disney land and Hawaii, came back, spend more money on renovating the little house, getting ready for her to move in with her two little children!

the Thiens

When the family heard about these developments, they ganged up on this cunning woman! A plan was made by one of the children. I suspected it was Annie![1] All the children united together to invite their mother home from KK [2] to live in Krokop again. Even Johnny came home with his Indonesian wife and baby! Shirley was living alone in Bintulu. Her own marriage has failed and she came home. All of them took up residence in the renovated old terrace house to give their mother moral support! Their father knew that he has lost the battle even before it even started. His girl friend never had a chance! I heard that the old couple has patched up their differences and are together again in their twilight years.[3] I am glad to hear this bit of good news and I am really happy for them. Unfortunately, both of Bridget's brothers Paul and Martin suffered broken marriages also. Martin’s whereabouts is still unknown. Paul married a Foochow woman in Bintulu and seemed to be doing well selling ngao chap min.

mum

I am beginning to understand why life is full of conflicts and frictions. It is sad that it usually happens during the later stages of married life. Reading widely has helped me to understand why it happens; but it is not the same as preventing it happening. Everyone has to find their own way to navigate through life the best way they can. There is certainly a great deal of reinventing of the wheel involved because some things just had to be learned the hard way so that we can remember them as mistakes made first hand in our journey through life and be able to avoid making them again in the future!

After finishing primary four at the Chinese primary school in Pujut, I went to St Joseph’s school in 1952 to start primary one. My father was told by Fr. Dekker that it was time. His children must learn catechism and received Holy Communion and be confirmed in the Catholic faith. Although my father was an Anglican, when he married a Catholic girl from the convent, he became bound by the marriage contract to bring up all his children as Catholics. I remembered that he used to drop us all at St Joseph’s church on Sundays and attended St Columba’s Anglican Church in Brighton! Any way, attending an English medium school helped me to become bi-lingual in mandarin and English. My only regret was not having a stronger foundation in the

Chinese language. I cannot read Chinese very well.
My primary one teacher was Nellie Ho and I promptly fell in love with her! She has many brothers. Michael, Matthew[5], Mark, Martin and Maurice Ho. Maurice was my elder sister’s class mate in primary 3 (standard one), then my classmate and then Cecilia’s class mate! He had a speech defect and was a terrible student because of his handicap. He was stuck in standard one for many years. Finally, one day, Fr. Dekker said to him: “Maurice, no matter what happens, next year you are going on to primary four!”

Automatic promotion came in and Maurice was saved! He finally had to leave school when he failed the selection exams at the end of primary 6. Matthew Ho has a son Jeffrey Ho. He was a trainee material supervisor and my colleague in Materials dept. in SSB. When I first discovered email and the internet in NZ, he was my very first guinea pig. Those emails are now a rich source for most of my early New Zealand impressions in my book!

I heard later that in spite of his apparent low I. Q, Maurice Ho was very successful in life. He got married, raised a family and also became quite rich!

Marcus also became very rich; but he masok Islam and abandoned his Catholic faith in order to gain more favours with Abdul Rahman Yakub, our Sarawak chief minister, who was his brother in law, (they married two sisters). By turning his back on God and his catholic faith he lost the respect of many people and that of his own family, especially Mark Ho who refused to talk to him for a very long time. Perhaps Jamil should have helped his brother also to become rich! Mark was my neighbour in Lutong in 1974 when I was staying in the semi-D Shell quarters opposite the Lutong cinema. It was a semi-detached two bedroom single storey wooden bungalow. My house was 896A and Mark Ho’s was 895B.

ETB-500

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Later, in 1981 I moved into a larger house. It was a detached three bedrooms, elevated double storey, wooden bungalow, No. 500, near Lutong Bridge. My neighbours were Bong Kueh Lian, Alistair Aing, and Tan Boon Chiew. John Liaw, Yee Kow Tuck, Lau Sam Lee, Edward Lingan and Jeffrey Pasang were living in similar SSS quarters close by. When I first got married I was staying in a Shell quarter in Miri. John Liaw was my neighbour just across the road. After I moved out from Shell quarters into my own house in Pujut, John was again living across the road in his own house! Apparently we were destined to be neighbours for life! John is now helping me look after my house in Pujut, maintaining the house and looking for tenants, mowed the lawn, collecting the rents etc. I am very grateful to him. I wonder whether he has made plans to come to NZ and become my neighbour once again in Hamilton?!

896B, Lutong

During the early 60’s, there were not enough secondary schools in Sarawak and it was decided by the government that all 12 year olds should stop going to school if they were unable to pass the selection tests at the end of primary six! It was in fact a life sentence! It made the difference between wealth and a life of poverty: a steady job as a clerk with the government or working privately as a carpenter, painter, taxi driver or hawker. Many of my Pujut neighbours seem to do alright in spite of not having attended secondary school at all. This situation soon changed. Form 3 became the minimum requirement to get a job, and then form 5. Soon, every one was doing form 6 and trying to go overseas to get a university degree. Then a university degree was not quite enough. You need an MBA and a Ph. D[1]

However, a few Chinese businessmen in Miri town disagreed with this government policy which seemed like a very unfair life sentence for many people. They got together to form a committee and built the Miri Secondary School near Gilbert Estate.[2] This school was started especially to cater for the unselected pupils so that they too can continue secondary school after failing the primary six selection test. The project leader was a recent immigrant from Hong Kong. His name was Lau Siew Wai, the same contractor who planned and built Piasau Gardens and later, Hilltop Gardens and many other larger housing projects around Miri.

Kevin

The first headmaster of the school was Yee Seng Ching (lawyer Yee) He had just finished form 6 in Kuching and was doing a self study course for a law degree. He later went to England to read law and was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn after just 18 months there! He was a prominent lawyer in Miri for many years until he emigrated to Canada. Lawyer Yee had two brothers working in BSP, Sen Ching and Chip Heng. They both did very well in their careers with Shell. They retired JG4 and emigrated with fat pensions from Brunei Shell to Canada. There was also a Dr. Yee in the family and also Arthur working in accounts dept and Kit Heng, the youngest son, who also joined Shell.

I remember meeting Kit Heng on the jack-up rig Chris Segar when we were doing a well test in Central Luconia gas fields. He came on board as a new graduate, G group trainee working with the gas testers and instrument technicians from EMD/6. I was a trainee driller on the rig and I showed him around the shale shakers and the BOP stack in the moon pool. We had some trouble with the new Vam threads on the 7 inch tubings and his first job was to use a torch light and a rag to check the threads and the metal seal on every single piece of tubing before they go down the hole. Fancy studying for a degree just to operate a torch light!

Churchill memorial

New England University, Armidale

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Rose, my elder sister finished form 3 in St. Joseph’s Miri in 1958 and went on to St. Teresa’s School in Kuching to finish her secondary education. She was a boarder there for 4 years. After form 6, in 1962 Rose won a Colombo Plan scholarship to continue study in New England University, N.S.W. for a B.A. degree. She majored in English literature, graduated and then did a one year diploma in Education. Rose returned to serve her country as a teacher for over 30 years. She has now retired and lives in Kuching among her many friends, ex-students, bonsais and mongrel dogs!

London 1979

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Holland

In 1978 Rose was sent to England by the Sarawak government to do a post grad master degree in linguistics. I was attending a six weeks drilling course, sponsored by Shell, in The Hague, Holland in April 1979. After the course, I spent one week touring Europe and another week seeing London. Rose was my tour guide there! We did the usual tours of Kew gardens, Hyde Park corner, changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, madam Tussat, Big Ben, Tower bridge, river Thames cruise and also a visit to Shakespeare’s birth place, Stratford-on-Avon. Rose did Shakespeare in school. So, it was a compulsory stop for my tour guide and me. haha!

Buckingham palace

In the evenings, Rose and I went to the theatres to see The King and I starring Yul Bryner, the man himself! Also Jesus Christ, Super star. The stage effects for the death of Christ on the cross were very realistic, complete with thunder and lightning! We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast in London and every day caught the tube (underground trains) to go everywhere. Taxi cabs in London were very expensive! I had to walk great distances every day for a week! Having been brought up in a British colony and attending an English language school for twelve years meant that I know more of English history and geography than I do of China! In fact I saw London first in 1979 and only managed to visit Beijing for the first time, 22 years later, in April, 2001! I am now a confirmed capitalist and I love my Mercedes!

Big Ben

After the short holidays in London, I went back to Miri to work on the oil rigs as an assistant driller. Rose stayed on in Wales to complete her studies. She returned to Rejang Teachers’ College in Binatang with a Master degree in Linguistics and was soon promoted to head of English department. When Rancharan Agas, the headmaster, fell foul of the politicians by supporting PBDS, Rose became acting Head of the college for many years. Agas was sent to the USA to do his Masters degree. It was fashionable during that time to make any Iban dissenters disappear for a few years by awarding them a scholarship to other countries to study either for a master degree or a Ph D! Dissenting MP’s were sent overseas as Malaysian ambassadors to small insignificant countries like New Zealand! Dunstan Endowie and a few Iban politicians disappeared from the political scene after serving their terms as Malaysian ambassadors in Wellington![1] This is how the Malay government disciplined and gagged political dissenters. For other tougher political opponents like Lim Kit Siang and Annuar Ibrahim they used the ISA (Internal Security Act).

Taxi

This act of parliament had its roots during the Malayan emergencies of the 50’s. The British colonial government created ISA and used it very effectively to fight Chin Peng’s communists in the Malayan jungle. It enabled the government of the day to lock up the communists or anyone else in gaol without trial! The new villages in Kuching were the direct result of this act. In the early 60’s the Sarawak government under Stephen Kalong Ningkan was able to round up all the Chinese pepper farmers in the first division and resettled them into compounds where they are locked up after sunset. These new villages near Kuching were in fact run more like refugee camps and detention centres. The people were not all communists; but many of them were sympathisers.

Bobbies

The law of Habeas Corpus is dead in Malaysia today because this act has not been repealed and can still be used by the prime minister any time he wishes. Such extreme measures bred many abuses by the ruling political party. In Malaysia the prime minister holds also the portfolio of the Home minister and he controls internal security. He uses ISA now mostly to silence the opposition party’s voice by arresting their leader, usually just weeks before the general elections!

When the deputy prime minister, Annuar Ibrahim tried to grab power he too disappeared under the ISA! He was badly beaten while in police custody and we have not heard from him for some years! The opposition voice in Malaysia is, to say the least, a little muted at present! Mahathir Mohd is the prime minister for the last 26 years. He has achieved a great deal to improve the conditions of the people as a moderate leader. He once wrote a book: The Malay dilemma. This book has given me an insight and a better understanding of the political situation and the reasons why the

Mdm Tussat

Malays are unhappy in their own country. They are not alone! The aborigines in Australia, the red Indians in the USA, the Fijians in Fiji and the Maoris in New Zealand are just as unhappy today in their own home land for exactly the same reasons. All these indigenous peoples have lost economic and political control of their own countries and do not know how to get it back without starting a revolution like Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. [3]

pigeons

A dangerous situation exists in Fiji today. For the sake of democracy, the indigenous Fijians have again lost the majority in parliament! The Indian immigrants rule over there; mainly because they were politically more mature. The indigenous Fijians have lost both political and economic power. George Speight tried unsuccessfully to put everything right last year by overthrowing the immigrant government and he was tried for treason, convicted and sentenced to death.[4]

The mongrel mob (a bike gang in NZ) appears to have the same idea here; but they lack not only the numbers but also a strong conviction for their cause. New Zealand was a British colony right from the start. The queen of England was here for a visit recently in 2002. Perhaps just to prove this point! Who knows exactly what she was doing here? Are we still a colony or what? To create history, Helen Clark the prime minister of New Zealand was conveniently away on business travels when the queen arrived! Later, she also wore pants to meet the queen. She broke protocol for the third time by not saying grace before dinner and she sat down before the queen did at the banquet table! It was all recorded on national TV! The world is sure changing very fast now; but not fast enough for Prince Charles to make Camellia Parker Bowles the new queen of England! That would be some thing!

Thames cruise

The Chinese and Indian immigrants in Malaysia did very well in spite of the lack of government support and assistance. Together they control the country’s economy and wealth! The Malays have political power under the Barisan form of government which continue to pass more laws to help the Malays to catch up with the non-Malays. Just like the beneficiary system in NZ for the Maori, Malaysia's also did not help to promote better distribution of the country’s wealth among the Malays. The few Malays, who were already rich, grew richer!

In between all these we find the Ibans, Kelabits, Kayans, Kenyahs and Penans. They are not second class citizens like the Chinese and Indians but neither are they, first! In fact on the Sarawak census forms they are classified simply as others! Again I see the problem there but I do not have the answers. I doubt whether anyone else has either. The government must not continue to help the indigenous people in this way. It took away their pride, their fighting spirit and motivation to become independent citizens.

Piccadilly circus

Mahathir Mohamed once said on national TV: "good bye to bad rubbish!" He was referring to those of us who migrated to countries like USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand! There was even talk of freezing our assets in Malaysia and not renewing our passports. The trouble is not just the rubbish leaving Malaysia. If you call those who left the country for good, rubbish; I wonder what exactly is left (probaly some thing worse than rubbish!) Mahathir has reasons to worry because he too, does not have all the answers! It is good that he has finally resigned in 2003 and allow his deputy, Ahmad Badawi to show us what he can do.

In Malaysia, land is classified into categories: Native reserves, road reserves, crown land, national parks, agriculture, commercial, industrial, mixed zones and residential etc…The Bumiputras own mostly native reserves. This land can be sold only to another bumi or indigenous native: Iban, Murut or Kelabit. Chinese and Indians cannot buy this land. As a result there is no great demand for this category of land. The bumi ended up with most of the low value real estate in the kampongs in the outskirts of town (hence balek kampong!). The immigrants own most of the mixed zone prime land around town. The plan has back fired! During public holidays in Malaysia, only the poor balek kampong, not the immigrant Chinese or Indians who live in mansions in the towns!

Amanah Saham National [5] is another scheme started by the government to help the bumiputra grow rich! Needless to say, it also did not work. Only natives were allowed to invest money in this scheme which paid a higher interest rate than the bank. Remember that you got to have money first before you can invest in ASN. It resulted in a few rich Malays getting even richer. The majority in the kampongs and long houses continue to live in poverty!

The Mara loan scheme wasted millions of dollars of tax payers’ money with very little results to show for it. The preferential enrolment system in the country’s universities only resulted in producing poor quality Malay graduates, all illiterate in English. In spite of all this, the Chinese and Indians continue to thrive and do much better without any help from the government. They continued to attend Harvard and Cambridge. Perhaps there is a moral in all this?

Photos from Rose's album

2005-09-15T16:21:00.015+12:00

I visited Rose in Kuching in March 2010 after my trip to Sabah to visit James Chin. I used my Sony Cybershot to take photos of Rose's album photos. They turned out quite ok. This is the quickest way of making copies of Black and White Kodak photos that I know.

This was the last photo taken of my father. I was 10 years old in 1954 when he passed away, aged 40 because he has cancer of the stomach. Sarawak was a British colony until 1963. The medical services were not very good then. I do not remember whether there was a government hospital in Miri or not. He was probably treated at the Shell hospital across the river on the peninsula.

The old lady, seated in the centre of this photo is Apong. She is some how related to my mother. We addressed her as Q-po. One of her daughters was Bill Chin's mum (auntie Chong Tai). Seated on her left is auntie Ah Yin, my mum's sister. She brought up my sister, Cecilia. This photo was taken at Cecilia's wedding in Seria. She can be seen 5th from right, standing next to Jeffrey Chow. Rose and I were studying in Australia. Sadly, we could not afford the trip home for our only sister's wedding.

mum and Rose

I think this photo was taken when Rose was about 15 years old. I have no idea where but from the fact that they both had hand bags means that it could be a special occasion.

This photo was taken in a studio in Jesselton (KK). I do not know exactly why we were there; probably to register our names on the land title for Ah kung's land in Kudat. Later on, I found my IC number and name recorded some how on the title deeds. My cousin, Peter Chin gave me a copy in 1973 in Seria.

This is a very early photo of mum, Rose and Cecilia. The shape of the window indicates that it could be the old wooden church in Miri. It was later replaced by the present concrete building, the St Joseph's Cathedral.

The old lady, standing on the left was my grand mother who lived in Kinarut. Cecilia did not come with us on this trip.

Here is a rare photo of the whole family together. The photo was taken in Jesselton (KK). The rest were Chin Tet Chin's family. I believe that the couple were teachers from Chung Hwa Middle School (1950?)

Another photo taken at Cecilia's wedding in Seria. Uncle Wong Hin is on Cecilia's left.

I cannot remember what was the occasion. My sisters seldom took photos with me. Rose was always away studying in Australia or teaching in Binatang.

I am pretty sure that this photo was taken in late 1965 when Rose came back for holidays from Australia where she was studying. Cecilia came to Kuching to bid me farewell because I was going overseas to study in early 1966.

This photo was taken at our old house in Pujut. I remember the wooden fence around the back. Bridget Voo, my cousin came for a visit quite often to escape her mother's very strict control. She was not allowed to talk to boys at all.

Here she is again with another one of her many suitors. Rose and I acted often as body guards. This was the old sea jetty, on the peninsula, near the old Shell hospital.

Cecilia and Rose, around 1949 taken outside the Miri wooden church

L to R: Alice Luk, Agnes, Rose Wong, Cecilia and Peter Voo

Rose with our neighbour, Ah Foon and her sister.

My father is seated in the middle. He was the chief clerk at the Borneo Company Ltd.on River Road, Miri, 1952?

My mother dressed in samfu when she was a girl.

My father is second from right.

About me

2005-08-15T14:28:00.003+12:00

I was born and brought up in Miri an oil town in Sarawak (Borneo). I attended Pujut Chinese Primary, St. Joseph's Miri and Tanjong Lobang School. (I was at Tanjong for two years as a boarder doing 6th form, 63/64) I worked for Shell Lutong for 23 years and have lived in NZ for 15 years. I am married to Christine Wong. We have 3 grown children: Kevin, Pearl and Eugene.

I retired from full time work at age 58 in Hamilton (2002). After a few months, the prospects of looking at 20 years of annual leave got to me (I became bored with doing nothing). I enrolled as an English tutor, did a short course in Hamilton and taught English to new migrants for 3 years (2-hour/week) During this time I was also involved with working for the Salvation Army (5 hrs every morning on Mon, Tue, Wed). During this initial retirement period, I also played golf in the afternoons. There was a gap of 25 years during which time I have not touched a golf club. I took up sailing as a hobby in the early 80's and played some tennis.

Soon, in NZ I became a serious golfer again, playing 3 or more rounds a week. In the end, I found that the volunteer work interfered with my golfing schedules and it was also too warm in the afternoons to golf. I stopped doing all volunteer work in the mornings and decided to play golf full time. I found that golf was not enough to fill all my free time. I intensified sailing as a second hobby and took part in regattas every Sunday and exploring the many lakes and harbours in the North Island. When the weather was not suitable for golfing and sailing, I blog. I became a very active blogger with more than 50 blogs.

Missing the volunteer work and the human interactions, I have now replaced that with cyber volunteer work on the internet helping new bloggers all around the world. I am now a blogging guru. This work is less demanding; but just as satisfying as the previous type of volunteer work. The interactions with different bloggers was very rewarding for me and satisfy a deeper need inside all of us to make contact with other people on a common ground, blogging. I am also an active participant on the extanjong forum (human interactions) and have formed another Google group for ex-Shell employees (SSB). I am constantly looking for new ways to fill my time. I have even considered taking up photography seriously as a hobby.
Sharing my own retirement experience with you, will hopefully help some of you, who are my friends, during this difficult transition period from full time work to no work. Please remember that it is a fact that you do not need money to retire. The secret is in keeping busy and learning to phase out the extravagant life style (5 stars hotels) and begin to live within our reduced budget and accepting our new identity as a retired person.

The simple truth is this: No one is able to save enough money to maintain the same standard of living for retirement because we do not know exactly how long we will live. It is therefore impossible to plan financially for our retirement. For this same reason we must retire now, today; and not work until we die. This can happen tomorrow or even worse, tonight, while we are asleep!

David

a very retired person

(according to Chang Yi, a friend)