The 1977 Riot

It was an event every citizen of the school then wished never happened, but the fact was that it happened and there was no way it could be undone :-(

When did it happen and how did it happen? Nobody except those involved directly could really answer the question.

This is a very sensitive story/event/issue, whatever you want to call it. I will try my best not to be biased towards anybody, and what I am going to write is only based on what I heard, saw and gathered, from my limited resources.

I remember that it happened during the weekend, because that night (when it happened), we had visitors from SMS T Ahmad Shah, Gambang!! They came for a friendly visit (I am not sure, but I think it was their prefects and/or sixth formers). I think we had some friendly games with them, apart from their mandatory visits to the shopping places in Kelantan (I think they visited Rantau Panjang too). Their guys were given one of the dormitories on the top most floor of Block B. They must be very scared when they heard all the noices of boys screaming, shouting, breaking window panes, etc... What I remember was that, the following morning, the visitors packed their things and went home (or rather "checked out") much earlier than planned!

Now, let's get back to the stories before the riot! At that time, certain quarters of the students had some problems with one of the wardens. These groups of students consisted of mainly sportsmen, who had to practice for their games almost everyday. [in those days we were great teams for almost all the main games - soccer, hockey, netball, athletics. And we were there for both the Under-15 and Under-18 categories]. Being school kids, at that time of the year (early in the year when we concentrated more on the games than on our studies!!) games were paramount. These great players had supporters and admirers too! (hey, this is off the topic! :))
Anyway, their supporters would "cover" them for their minor wrong-doings, such as not being ready for the evening prayers (maghrib), or coming late to dining hall for dinner.

Anyway, there were some of the boys who were caught with some of these minor disciplinary problems. It's so happened that there was this "orang luar" warden (who's a six-footer! To me looked more like a commando than a teacher), who was just doing his duty when he caught these students..However, maybe he used certain words or style that "challenged" the students' patience - only God knows!!

What we know was that, that night this warden (let me name him Warden X) called some of the students to the warden's room (which was on the first floor of Block A, and from my bed, though far, I can see clearly the door to the room!). What happened there I don't know really know, but I was told later that the warden caught the wrong boy, and also for many times had been accusing the wrong boys for the wrong thing... Only God knows the truth...

I think after that the boys had gone back to their dorms soon after (not sure...), but what I know was that suddenly there was a group of boys calling Warden X by names, and wanting to break the door to the Warden's room!!! Cikgu Baha, who was a warden too, came out, blocked the door with his body and pleaded the boys to calm down. Cikgu Baha was very well loved by most students then, so the boys didn't harm him at all. However, the small-sized Cikgu Baha had a hard time trying to stop the boys from breaking the door and getting to Warden X, though he succeeded. Cikgu Baha even said things like, "if you want to harm him, harm me first". There were also boys who climbed to the other side of the block, and tried to get to the warden through the window! Honestly, the image of cikgu bahar pleading to them is still fresh in my head!!

Soon, other boys broke loose. Boys were shouting, screaming, and breaking window panes. Though they didn't attack the warden directly, they were seen harming themselves, in their attempt to control their anger and disappointment. One of them actually cut himself with the broken window pane, I was told. There was a water well between the boys block and the dining hall, and I could see boys around that area crying, screaming and getting hurt! Later I was told that some of the boys went "iseng" (went beserked, due to out of control emotional outburst, but somehow related to their self-defence "silat" practise!?!).

Before we can understand why they behaved that way, we need to know the situation then. At that time we had just lost our first principal, Cikgu Mahadzir, whom many of us hated when he was around, but was greatly missed by most students when he was gone!! Cikgu was transfered back to his homestate, Kedah and he was replaced by a FEMALE principal who's a Kelantanese but was formerly the principal of another boarding school, Tunku Kurshiah College. Obviously, most students found it difficult to adjust to her style, and her contant comparisons to TKC, definitely didn't help. I still remember how she would say in the assembly (or even during the prefect's meeting), "In TKC.... we blah..bla..bla....". After the first two words, most of us just shut our ears!! Her intention was good, but for most of us, we just hated the idea of transforming us to be like another "rival" school!

Back to that night.... I remember Ustaz Alwi (the deputy principal then) came and tried to calm the boys, but failed. Dr Wan Azman Wan Ahmad, the headboy then, who was also very much liked and respected by most students, too failed to calm the marauding boys, and lastly the principal too came, and to no vain.

The "rioting" went on until late at night. The last resort was to call the neighbouring FRU (Federal Reserve Unit, who normally handles riots) , who came in 2 trucks!! They went in to the warden's room, formed a body shield around Warden X and escorted him to the FRU camp!

During the days that follow, the student's morale was at all time low... Even the prefects felt the same way. We (the prefects) were summoned by the principal, and we got a real bashing from both principal and her deputy. We were accused of not being effective in curbing the disciplinary problems. We were very disappointed - at one end the students expected us to fight for their cause and at the other end the school treated us just like their police. We preferred to be "students leaders" but nobody bothered to listen to ou own woes.

At one point, Wan Azman (head boy) called all the prefects. He said that he was not effective in doing his duty, and being in form 6 Upper, he also had to concentrate on his studies (for his HSC - STPM now). Obviously, he was very disappointed with the school management who failed to listen to the students' woes that he relayed to them. On top of that, he personally was scolded too, I think... All the prefects "pujuk" him not do to do so (tried to talk him out of the idea) . That was the time I saw many boy prefects broke down and cry, out of desperation!! Eventually, all of us decided that if we can't voice out our feelings and opinions, then we will all go to the principal office and resign from our posts!! Let the school management choose whom they like to be THEIR prefects!!

A group of the senior prefects went to see the pricipal and tendered our resignation EN MASS!!!
Now, has any one of you heard of the prefect board resigning en mass?? It only happened in 1977!! If the school management thought we were just too emotional and not serious about it, they were very wrong!!

The next day, the school management had a shock!! None of the prefects wore his/her prefect attire (light blue) - we had to borrow ordinary school uniforms from friends!! The whole school and hostel went quite haywire. No morning inspection, no bell ringing to alert the students to go to school, nobody to ensure order in the dining hall, nobody to recite the doa before meals, nobody to collect the students' mail from the office, nobody to run the normal errands given by the school to the prefects, nothing at all!! In a way, we had "a good time" being just students ;-)

Realising that they could not function with our help, the school agreed to consider our requests and proposals, and the resignation was turned down. To me, it was ONE GREAT VICTORY to us and the students!!

Now back to Warden X. He never came back into the school compound. He stayed in the FRU camp for a week before he was transferred to Kedah (i heard he was sent to Langkawi- then, it was considered very remote/ulu!!).

To some of the prefects (girl prefects too), he was a nice warden (ignore what he did/said to the boys that sparked the riot). So, before he was sent back to Kedah, some of us managed to visit him. It was a very emotional meet. He looked shocked - maybe he never expected what he did could cause such uproar!! Lesson of the day? Never under-estimate the Kelantanese!

Footnote:
You may want to read another account of this event by Amran (one of the pioneer students) here.