Happy New Year 2012

                                                         
                                           Wishing All Foyers and Viewers
                                      A Happy New Year for 2012!

Christmas 2011

My family celebrates Christmas with friends and relatives every year. We had an Australian friend who was our Santa Claus. The kids loved him for he brought presents to them. Instead of riding his reindeer sledge and coming from the sky, he came down from upstairs carrying a heavy load of presents for everyone. After Santa Claus had settled comfortably on a chair, he dipped his hand into the bag to fish out a  present. Everybody was looking at him anxiously hoping his/her name would be the first to be called. When a name was announced there was acclamations and cheers. The person went promptly to Santa to claim the present. In the end, each of us got about half a dozen presents but the kids got more.

Next it was time for Christmas carol. We had a pianist to provide the music. Song sheets were distributed and the singing began. After singing until our voice hoarse it was time for dinner. We had an arrary of Christmas food such as roast turkey, honey baked ham, baked salmon etc.

Tomorrow is Christmas day. We shall be going to church for Christmas service and Christmas celebration with the family. The Aussie Santa Claus had gone home and we shall have a new Santa Claus.

Seasons' Greetngs

Time for new PAP story

The Straits Times on Monday 5 December 2011 published an article Time for new PAP story.

Paragraph 3 said: "Every politcal party needs a story. A set of belief about what would lead to a better world, convictions that will draw man and women to stake their futures on the party".                           

Above statement reminds me of the PAP in the early 1960s. The party believed that the only way for Singapore to get independent from the British was through merger with Malaysia. The opposition Barisan Socialis thought otherwise. The PAP worked very hard to win the hearts and minds of the people for merger with Malaysia. The then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew gave a series of talk through radio broadcast as well as rallies which were held till very late at night.

I could see he was very tired but it was very crucial for him and the PAP. I kept the little book

"THE BATTLE FOR MERGER" for more than half a century. It consists of a series of talk broadcast by then Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew over radio Singapore between September 16 1961 and  October 9 1961. At that time the domino theory of communism coming from China was very real. North Vietnam had already fallen to the Vietmin communists in 1954 and the war was on the way down towards the south. Fortunately, the US and its allies stopped communism's southward march until the Vietnam War ended in 1975 or the domino theory could have come to pass.  

During the referendum majority of the people in Singapore voted for merger with Malaysia. When Singapore left Malaysia in 1965 I was surprised to see in the television that Lee Kuan Yew cried. He wanted Singapore to be an independant country but thought that the British would not let it.

However, he made Singapore's independent a sovereign country, not directly from the British but by a roundabout way.

 Many thought Singapore was surely doom but thanks to the PAP Singapore 'Boleh'.

Remembering My Teachers

I was a student at Telok Kurau English School (TKES) from 1945 to 1950. The primary education system then was seven years starting from primary one to two and standard one to five. Because of the war I was overage for school and had to start from primary two. I had a few form teachers but three of them were unique  and I remembered them all the time.

Miss Boey was my form teacher in standard one. She was in her late twenties and a very dedicated teacher. She took home our exercise books for marking when she could not finished marking them in class. There was a student in the class who came from a poor family. His grade in class was very bad. Miss Boey did her best to teach him. She always spent more time with the backward students. One morning she returned our excercise books after marking. The last book belonged to the poor student. He went to her but remained standing by her side. I was sitting at the front row and I saw many red ink circles and crosses in his book. Miss Boey went through the exercises in the book with him over and over again but he did not reponse. Finally I saw her broke down and cried. There were tears on her pretty face. It must be very stressful to teach such students. When I was in the secondary school, one of my school-mate who was her cousin told me that she had passed away. As the saying goes "the good dies young".
                                                   

Mr Lee Keng Yew - Our paths first crossed during the Japanese Occupation. He was teaching Japanese in Choon Guan School aka Presbeterian Boys School and I was his student. Every morning he arrived in school dressed in all white. He went to the wash room to wash his hands each time after writing on the blackboard. He went there to wash away the chalks in his hands. So during his lesson he could visit the wash room more than once. He also washed his hands after handling school fees.

Our paths crossed the second time after the war when I attended the Telok Kurau English School. He was my form teacher in Standard III. As usual he put on white shirt and white trousers everyday to school. Again I noticed his peculiar habits of washing his hands. Then I realised that he paid special attention to personal hygiene. He owned a car Austin A40 S6002 which was parked in the void deck under the school office.

During our August school holidays in TKES he took his class students to Botanical Garden for an outing. His wife and a son were with us. The class excursion was his own idea and at his expense as it was not part of the school curriculum.

In the early 1960s he was the Principal of Haig Boys School. My wife, then my fiancé was one of his school staff. I saw him in his school as well as at public places and it was always the same Mr Lee Keng Yew.

Mr Marica aka Taraboosh was an Indian Muslim teacher. He was my form teacher in standard four and five. He came to school always wearing on his head a red cap with black tassel or taraboosh. We nick named him 'Taraboosh'. He never put it on his head when teaching in class. When we saw him approaching the class, some of the boys would shout 'taraboosh! taraboosh!' and the class was quickly in order as everybody was in at his desk. Towards midday he would feel sleepy and dozed off. It was beyond his control. I observed a few times that he tried to wake up but in vain. We took this opportunity play and whisper but always on the look out in case he woke up. Except for his habit to doze off, he was a good teacher. He too became the principal of a primary school.