Perspectives of Sarawak History

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I came across this familiar looking book in the library recently ...

It brought back memories of our history lessons in Form 2 or Form 3. I'm sure most of us went through this book during that time. I recall reading stories of exciting battles and uprisings and rebels and pirates.

Of course at that time, the White Rajahs and the British were portrayed as the good guys, and the baddies were Rentap (the Iban chief of Bukit Sadong fame), Sharif Masahor (the Melanau warrior) , Liu Shan Bang (leader of the 1857 Chinese Uprising) and Rosli Dhobi (who assasinated the second British governor Sir Duncan Stewart in 1949).

Nowadays the history books, written during a more confident Malaysian era, tell a slightly different story. The White Rajahs and British are exposed as imperialist exploiters of our innocent land and people, whilst Rentap, Masahor, Liu and Rosli Dhobi are local heroes, fighting for their people and way of life.  I found some interesting website links on Rentap , Sharif Masahor, Liu and Rosli Dhobi that you might want to check out ...

It all goes to support two important lessons that I've heard from different people: "History is written by the eventual victors" and also "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter".  Both good points to remember to give yourself greater perspective as you read about events of the past, and even as you observe current happenings around the globe.

On Sarawak history, I suppose the truth - if there's any such thing - lies somewhere in between these two extremes. Few people are really 100 percent good just as no one is ever totally evil. It's usually not a case of simply black or white, but many shades in-between.
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Mini-Tornado in Miri ?

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I was sent a couple of these photos recently. Thanks Stephen!

Interesting weather phenomena. This apparently happened on 26 April 2010. Did anyone witness this? Any damage or injuries? It looks like it was way out at sea, so unless you're an unfortunate sailor or fisherman at the wrong spot and the wrong time, I reckon it should not have caused too much havoc.

Any meteorologists or scientists out there want to explain how these things happen?
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On MOUs, Marble and Music

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The recent drought of postings was because I've been busy travelling. Back to Vietnam - two days in Hanoi, two days in Da Nang (where I am right now) and half a day stopover in HCMC.

Da Nang was the key focus of this trip. It's still one of my favourite cities in Vietnam and I've been engaging with various government agencies there for a number of years. The purpose of this trip was to oversee the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the People's Committee of Da Nang and Cisco. I had been working towards this for quite a while, and believed this to be a significant milestone in our partnership. More on this event can be read here and here and here and here.

After the official work was over, I had a chance to pay a visit to Marble Mountain, one of a cluster of five marble/limestone mountains located a few km south of Da Nang, that stretch from the coast inwards (in a westerly direction). The mountains are named after the five elements; Kim (metal), Thuy (water), Moc (wood), Hoa (fire) and Tho (earth). There are many caves and tunnels in the mountains and I read that they were used quite a bit during the Vietnam (or American, depending on which side you are on) War. The area is now famous for stone sculpture making and stone-cutting crafts.

Here's a shot of the area where the Marble Mountains are located. You can see three out of the five mountains ...

And here are some shots taken at one of the many stone sculpture shops.

So remember guys, if you want to order some marble lions or dragons or deities or nude maidens or fountains for your grand mansions, you can place an order with me. Shipment to all corners of the world provided. I'll give you some good rates. LOL

Finally after dinner last night, we went to a music lounge to enjoy some traditional Vietnamese music and modern pop hits. I was impressed by the quality of the musicians (the white-haired violinist you see in the photo is particularly good!). And of course, there was a variety of singers doing everything from Vietnamese ballads to Lionel Richie's "Say You, Say Me". Alas, none attempted "Nobody".

All the lady singers I saw had extremely BIG ......... lungs (what were you thinking?). Powerful vocals indeed, as each lass belted out soulful numbers one after the other with ease.

After I post this, I'm heading straight to Da Nang Airport, bound for HCMC. Will post further if anything relevant catches my attention ... Ciao !
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Michael Goes to London

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Firstly ....NO, this posting is not about a new music group like Michael Learns to Rock .... :-)

Instead this is a continuation from our Grand Reunion of 23 Dec 2009. On that marvellous evening, two lucky "boys" won the top prizes of Air Asia return air tickets to London - Michael Kong and Tan Yoke Hai.. This is the story of what happened next.

Michael and his family made the London trip in mid March 2010. This posting is excerpted from MK's recent email to me, describing their interesting trip ...

Photo (1): Aaron, Gabriel, Teresa and Mike at Buckingham Palace

Hi James,

How're you and your family in beautiful sunny S'pore? Wishing you all in the pink of health with the Lord's blessing as always.
 
Ben informed me to provide you some interesting news from our London stay - 15th-21st March.

Ah, where do i begin.......the british are predictable lot but the weather is not ...a normal yet memorable trip for us. Before the journey, gave Tan Yok Hai a token of appreciation for passing his share of air passage to us since the weather was too cold for his wife and the expiry date for the sponsored trip was 23/3/10.

The NST town house is very comfy to stay and is within walking distance to Oxford Street, Baker Street and Hyde/ Regent parks. Maryleborne Station is the closest tube station.

Reaching Liverpool street station around mid-nite on 15th March from Stansted airport, my family was shaken by the winter cold (previously, they never experienced any winter travel). The black London cab was the most inviting place to be on that cold nite. However, the driver was unsure of the place,Wyndham Mews, so we had to peel our sleepy eyes to help find the address, despite the jetlag. We were quite lost even on reaching the area.

Strangely when i suggested he took a u turn at the end of a block, there we saw the address sign. Feeling relieved and pleased, the driver asked for only 20 pounds even though the meter charged 26 pounds.Well, unlike in KL, where only one taxi driver(out of 6 guys we asked) knew where Jln Riong was (ie.NST office in Bangsar), we were charged rm20 for a short journey without a meter.

That London being part of the old world and able to sustain the brand of the premium tourist destination,is indeed itself a wonder.If only Malaysia could take a leaf to learn from its professionalism and commitment of the profitable tourism industry.

Londoners can be a caring lot as we crossed path with a young lady who gave my wife a pack of plasters at a tube station on seeing my wife's bleeding ankles due to walking without socks and just disappeared before we could say- thank you.

Londoners and foreign tourists like to stretch their pounds by shopping in Primark, a dept store retailing cheap ready- to-wear items from China,India,Thailand and other far-east suppliers (so-called sweat shops). The scenario was almost like a typical great sales of S'pore promotion,packed with shoppers and very stuffy inside.

About stretching the $, we ate fast food for lunch,yes,enough of Mac and Subway meals but enjoyed cooking breakfast and dinner at NST residence.

As you may have experienced, when staying abroad as a tourist, we appreciate simple meals and common sundries.Much like we are trying hard to travel as light as possible( i know, sometimes not to our liking),we could cope with a few necessities plus a lot more inconveniences like fast walking( with aching feet), hunger pangs and wearing winter clothings and looking like walking laundry bags!

So hopefully, after this trip, my two younger sons will be inspired to study harder (and smarter) after visiting London University even though i don't have a deep pocket for their full time UK education. Most of all, we as individuals,must learn to put up with any inconvenience and be brave to venture outside our comfort zone............

We are very grateful for NST's hospitality & company sponsorship of the excellent facilities, in particular, Dato' Anthony Bujang.

Many thanks to all our fellows making the Big Fifteers' memorable December evening possible...as well as to you, James, the one and only Website Jaga.

Cheers:)


Best Regards,

Michael Kong, Teresa Bong and the boys, Aaron and Gabriel


Thanks for your excellent report, Michael. We are very glad you all had an interesting trip. I now include a collection of photos you took on the trip. I won't be able to provide much commentary on them, so will leave MK and family to give their added inputs later.

Photo (2): Frontage of house they stayed at

Photo (3): Feathered friends at Hyde Park

(WJ: What an absolutely lovely shot!)

Photo (4): Baker Street - the home of Sherlock Holmes

Photo (5): MK in front of Big Ben (not Wong! :)

Photo (6): The London Eye

Photo (7): View of Westminster from the London Eye

Photo (8): In front of St Paul's Cathedral

Photo (9): Ayam Brand in the British Museum

Photo (10): Sarawak heritage at the British Museum

There are many other photos, but I thought I'd put these up first so you can enjoy them, and later this weekend I'll put up some more ...

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Pete drops by Singapore

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This week I had a chance to catch up briefly with Pete as he was in Singapore on a business visit.

We had drinks at the Ritz Carlton and chatted about business and life, Thai politics and class trips to Thailand, old times and new times ... We didn't have time to go out for crab or other local goodies as he had a tight schedule and was flying out to Oz the next day.

Anyway Pete looks good, and his architectural and design business seems to be doing very well. Watch out for the name Magnusprojects ... we'll definitely be seeing a lot more of their designs and products in luxury hotels, residences and offices around the world soon.

Remember you heard it first on this blog !  LOL.
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Old, Old Kuching - Part 5

Here's a couple of old photographs I came across recently.

The first is a very recognisable place to most of you, I'm sure ... even though the surroundings are a bit strange, the main landmark hasn't changed. This was taken in the mid-1950s.

The next one is obviously some form of amusement park. I think this one was taken around the in late 1940s or early 1950s. Does anyone know where it was located?

The next building should also be quite familiar. I think it still looks much like it did back in the 1920s when this photo was taken. Do you know what's the name of this building though?

I may put in more later if I come across any ...

I would encourage any of you who may have interesting old photos of Kuching to send me scanned softcopies for sharing with the whole group.
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Crime in Malaysia

Reports of crime in Malaysia have been in the headlines for quite a while. I'm sure you know people who have been subject to criminal acts, be it snatch thefts, robbery, break-in or vehicles stolen. Some of you might even have personal experiences of being victims of crime (though I hope these haven't been too traumatic). Many say that the problem worsened over the past ten years.

Here's a few facts about the street crime situation (taken from the government's own reports)

It is somewhat reassuring to note that one of Prime Minister Najib Razak's National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) is focused squarely on "Reducing Crime". There are specific targets like "reducing street crime by 20% by Dec 2010" and "reducing the overall reported index crime by 5% every year for the next three years". In many crime "hot spot" areas in KL, I have begun to notice a higher police presence, which is good. Recent reports seem to suggest improvements in the overall street crime situation, but I reckon the main challenge is sustaining a low crime rate.

Of course, crime is more than just street crime. The reported crime index is made up of the following categories: house break-in, motorcycle theft, car theft, lorry theft, general theft, violent crime and snatch theft.

If you are keen to read more about the Malaysian government's NKRAs, go to this website. By the way, in case you are not aware, the development of these GTP reports was spearheaded by the government agency PEMANDU (under the PM Office), the CEO of which is Senator/Minister and prominent Sarawakian, Datuk Seri Idris Jala (former CEO of Malaysian Airlines). I had a chance to meet him last month. Nice chap.

I'm particularly interested in this topic of Crime Reduction from both a personal and professional level. Personal because I still go back to Malaysia regularly (and aspire to balik kampung to retire one day), and professional because I'm leading an initiative for my company to propose technology-enabled solutions to the Malaysian leadership.

So I hope you guys won't find it too much of an intrusion if I ask you to share YOUR experiences and views on the crime situation in Malaysia (whichever cities or towns you are familiar with), where you think are the key problem areas and any interesting ideas you might have on what can be done to help reduce crime and give everyone a greater sense of security. I know some of our classmates are actively involved in neighbourhood watch programmes, and I think such activities are great as they allow private citizens to take  more proactive measures against would-be criminals.
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Happy Easter !

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Gone Fishing (Part 3)

Here's a series of photos from our buddy Lipp Kee, now living in Canada.

I don't know the details but I believe this was on a recent fishing trip that he made with his colleagues. Hey, Lipp Kee, I'll have to let you share with the rest exactly what you were up to & where you were ...

Whatever it is, it looks like fun.

Photo (1) : Your yacht, Mr Chieh?

Photo (2) : Nice picture, from this twin engine craft

Photo (3) : What a big plate of "curry fish head" this would make!

Photo (4) : Aye aye, captain!

Photo (5) : Stop being so crabby

Photo (6) : Look at this big one I caught

Photo (7) : Another one for dinner

Photo (8) : Look what my crab net brought in

Thanks for sharing the photos, CLK. Now tell us all what we missed ...

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Simon Heng (Form 5A2) Reconnected

Got a note from Alfred Wong today who bumped into Simon Heng in Sibu today ...

Simon moved to Sibu in 1977 to get married. He has 3 children, the eldest girl being 30 and just got married last year. The youngest child is in Form 4.

Simon is in the taxi services business, so if any of you have transportation requirements in or around Sibu, give our old formmate a call. He can be contacted at 016 866 3321.
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April Fool Jokes & Pranks

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Yesterday was 1st April, which most people know as April Fool's Day or All Fools' Day. The day is marked by the creation of hoaxes and other practical jokes and pranks of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on a fool's errand, the aim of which is simply to have some fun and to embarrass the gullible or unsuspecting. Most of these jokes are small but some are pretty big scale. Some can be quite hilarious (except perhaps to the victims of the prank) and still memorable after many years.

I remember one April Fool's Day back in the late 70's when I was in London, the BBC's "That's Life" program announced that a new species of creature had been discovered. They showed footage of something called the Lirpa Loof which looked somewhat like a cross between a small monkey and a koala. They even showed the stool of this strange creature to be purple in colour and glowed in the dark (making good use of colour tv technology obviously). The announcer said the creature was now in captivity at the London Zoo. As a result hundreds of people called in and crowds flocked to London Zoo hoping to catch a glimpse of the creature.

Another joke I read about was when the BBC programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, showing Italians harvesting spaghetti from trees. They had claimed that the despised pest, the spaghetti weevil, had been eradicated. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees.

Another one is about Decimal Time. This has been repeated several times in various countries. This hoax involves claiming that the time system will be changed to one in which units of time are based on powers of 10. So in the "new" system, 100 seconds will make 1 minute and 100 minutes will make 1 hour. Hmmm ... this could have interesting implications for clock & watch makers, exam-taking students or runners trying to break sporting records.

Over to you ....

Are there any good April Fool jokes you remember from your life?

Did you play any jokes yesterday and were they successful?

Did anyone get you yesterday with their April Fool prank?
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