Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 01-07-12 20:25
My Family in the British Colonial Malaya - 1858 to 1960 (5)
099. I begin to learn English - 1953
讀得書多勝大坵,---Du2 de2 shu duo sheng da4 qiu,
不須耕種自然收.---Bu4 xu geng zhong4 zi4 ran2 shou.
Studying is better than a big plot of land,
One does not have to till the land to earn a living.
A Chinese proverb
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Finally, after seven years, even though with the interruptions of long hours
of curfew and the gunfight between the Hill People (armed Communists) and
the British, I had completed my standard six Chinese primary education.
I had the intention of continuing my Chinese education in Ipoh. However,
First Uncle told me that he would give him five cents pocket money every
school day if I were to go and learn English in the private English school
in Batu Gajah. The school was called Royal English School (RES) [Now it
had been demolished to make way for a row of shophouses on the site which
was just right opposite the Batu Gajah Post Office and behind which was
the Malay School, formerly Batu Gajah Government English School]. This school
was established by a very kind Indian lady, who had the respect of all the
students, for those overage students who wanted to study English, after
their Chinese education. It was great for me because I would travel to school
by bus and would be given five cents pocket money. I was not given any pocket
money while I was studying at the Pusing Chinese Primary School called Yi
Zhi (布先益智華僑小學). Due to my age I was put in year five which was called
Standard Five. I was allocated in the afternoon session that was in an afternoon
class because the school was a five classroom school and was too crowded
for morning classes. The afternoon classes began at 1. pm and finished off
at 5.30. pm.
Third Elder Brother was learning how to drive as he agreed to learn from
Father how to become a tin miner. The previous year Father bought a car,
Austin Forty with the registration number A2489, when he and his two friends,
Hu Zu (胡祖) and Zhang Bao (張保), were operating a tin mine near the town
of Tanjong Tualang, about ten miles south of Pusing. He also made a bit
money from the mine in Menglembu. Three months later Third Elder Brother
obtained his driving licence and became Father's driver as well. Father
leased a block of mining land of about five acres which was about a mile
from Siputeh near the road to Tronoh.
By using the equipment that was originally used in the mine in Menglembu,
Father began to mine for tin ore. The curfew was still on from dusk to dawn,
that was from 7. pm to 6.am, the next day. Food was restricted. Father set
up the mine's kitchen in the shophouse in Siputeh. Those workers from Pusing
had to cycle to Siputeh, 3 miles away, after 6.am, to have their breakfast
in the shophouse before they went to the mine. They cycled back to Siputeh
for lunch. They also had their dinner at Siputeh before they cycled home.
It was rather inconvenient but, under the Emergency Regulations, that was
the only way for all the tin mine workers throughout the country.
Third Elder Brother was learning hard of how to run a tin mine and he learned
well from the Kepala (工頭 the foreman of the workers) how to direct the
workers to do various kind of jobs in a mine.
Father was the treasurer as well as one of the trustees of the two Chinese
schools in Pusing. He was also responsible to pay the teachers from the
two schools. The British Colonial Authorities never subsidized a cent in
administering the two Chinese schools. It was the donations by the Chinese
community and the small amount of school fees from the students to keep
the schools going. At that time the British Colonial Authorities did not
support the Chinese schools throughout Malaya. The British left the Chinese
Community to run the Chinese schools. The expenses of Chinese schools were
depending on the donations by the Chinese community[*1A].
As the previous English language teacher Mr Wu had lost his voice by the
fright of the killing of teacher Mr Liu Jihong, the school recruited an
English language teacher from Ipoh. His name was Yao Xinhua (姚新華) and
he was also the supervisor of the afternoon section of the Anglo Chinese
School (ACS) in Ipoh. Mr Yao had a big family to support. So in the morning
he taught at Pusing until 11.30.am and then he rushed to ACS to teach in
the afternoon session. Pusing was about nine English miles from Ipoh. Mr
Yao Had arranged with Father to pay him on the 15th and the end of each
month. It was how he managed his family's expenses.
One morning, in mid 1953, Father told me to take the half monthly pay to
Mr Yao at the Yit Zhi Primary Chinese School, my former school. Mr Yao was
surprised to see me not attending school like all other children did. He
asked me why I did not go to school. I replied that I was attending an afternoon
school in Batu Gajah. Mr Yao told me to go and study in his school in Ipoh
the following year. He also told me that it was called Anglo-Chinese School
the afternoon session. It was a very big school with more than one thousand
students.
I went home and told Father what Mr Yao had told Me. First Uncle promised
to give me fifteen cents pocket money per school day if I were to study
at ACS in Ipoh. I was very happy because fifteen cents a day was a lot of
money for me at that time. Besides I was only given five cents a day. I
was looking forward for the next year to come.
[*1A]
From Hakka Forum by KM Hew, a retired practicing medical doctor.
The British established trading posts in Prince of Wales Island (Penang)
in 1786, in Malacca in 1795 and in Singapore in 1819 to form the crown colony
of the Straits Settlements.When the Governor in Singapore requested approval
from higher authorities in London to intervene in the Malay states he was
given the doctrine developed in London for his guidance. It was:
(1) to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Malay Sultans,
(2) to recognize the "special rights" of the bumiputras (sons of the soil
or indigenous people namely the Malays.)
The British were to be in the Malay states to trade only and, if need be,
to protect their trading interests .Thus the British had a paternalistic
interest in promoting education for the Malays. They felt no duty to provide
education, a non-profit exercise, for the children of the Chinese and Indian
immigrants. It was up to the Chinese and Indian communities to establish
schools to teach their own vernacular languages. It was left to the Missionaries
to introduce English schools for the education of all children irrespective
of religion, race or creed.
The British established Malay schools in the rural centers where the Malays
predominate. The Malay schools provided free education for 6 years at the
primary level. Beyond that the Sultan Idris Training College located in
Tanjong Malim provided post-primary education for teachers and Inspectors
of Malay Schools. The colonial government was structured in three levels.
The top level was the Malayan Civil Service which was exclusively British.
The second level was the Malay Administrative Service which was exclusively
Malay. Where there was a British District Officer there was a Malay Assistant
District Officer. The third level was the General Clerical Service (GCS)
which was open to Indians, Chinese and others. The GCS was dominated by
Indians and Ceylonese (Sri Lankans) who were ahead of Malaya in colonization
and who were recruited to start up the Railway, Postal and the clerical
services in the Malay states. The Chinese were poorly represented and in
any case prefer to make money on their own in business.
Accordingly the British made a late start in establishing English schools
to produce English educated Malays to serve the needs of the colonial government.
The King Edward VII School was started in the state capital of Perak, Taiping
(太平 Great Peace, later in 1937 the State Capital was transferred to Ipoh),
the Govrnment English School of Batu Gajah (later renamed Sultan Yusuf School)
was built in the district capital Batu Gajah (stone elephant) and Government
English Schools were started in the district centers of Tapah and Telok
Anson. The Big Hakka Town Ipoh was neither the state capital nor the district
capital but it was too big to ignore as it was the commercial center of
the state. So Ipoh had its Anderson School. The school was named after John
Anderson who was the Secretary to the Penang government. He was sent to
'sell' the benefits of the Pangkor Treaty to the Malay Chiefs. The Pangkor
Treaty in 1874 led to British intervention in the Malay states. The first
British Resident (de facto administrator) James Birch sent to implement the
terms of the Treaty was insensitive to the feudal powers and dignities of
the Malay Chiefs and antagonized the Malay Chiefs by imposing his rule over
them resulting in his assassination by the disaffected Malay Chiefs. The
turmoil was quelled by "gunboat diplomacy" in 1876, reminiscent of the Opium
War in China in 1839. After the dust had settled John Anderson was given
the unenviable task of once more coaxing the Malay Chiefs to sell the idea
that British intervention was good medicine - bitter but good for health.
He succeeded so well that a major arterial road in Ipoh was named after
him, Anderson Road. At the end of the road the biggest English School was
named Anderson School. In contrast James Birch was remembered by Birch Street
a short street tucked away in an obscure corner of the Old Town.
From the inception the enrolment of Anderson School was predominantly Malay.
Chinese and Indian students were taken in to make up the numbers as there
were not enough Malay students to fill the classes. But as the Malays lived
in the rural areas which were too far for them to attend school as day boys,
a Hostel was built to accommodate the Malay students.The Malay students
not only received free education they were also given an allowance to defray
the other costs of schooling such as school books, uniform, pocket money
and travelling expenses to and from home during the school holidays. From
the generous allowance the thrifty Malay boys were even able to "subsidize"
their parents for the loss of their sons labour in the rice-field. Anderson
School soon became the incubator of candidates for the Malay civil service,
judiciary, customs service, police, army and the other government agencies.
After Malaya achieved Merdeka (Independence) in 1957 and the British bureaucrats
were "malayanised" Malay Old Andersonians filled the top posts in the administration,
army and police forces.The Indian and Chinese Old Andersonians made their
mark elsewhere in the profession and in business.
Posted to Overseas Chinese Forum at asiawind.com
By CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
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