Amran's Reminiscence (Episodes 5-7)

Peaceful Easy Feeling (EPISODE 5: THE DARK NIGHT WE WENT ON RIOT)

Before I proceed may I say that since we left school, there has been no more hard feelings amongst those involved in that incident. I was once told by my group that the teacher and some of the students concerned had met up to forgive and forget. For whatever reason, we shouldn't have rioted! However, I will still write about it so that all of us know what filled up those 30years of our school history. Mind you, this is my own account of the incident and sincerely hope that others join in and correct me if I'm wrong..

Here it goes.......

A few important events closely related to our batch (73) had taken place. Cik gu Rashidi, regarded as our first mentor during our testing year in SMIP, was transferred in 1974. We were then taken care by our wardens cikgu Baha and Cikgu Mat Nor (they're friendly and fair to us). However, we turned more to Cik gu Ashaari to fill up that gap left by Cik gu Rashidi. I mean he'd be the one whom most of batch 73 students would confide in, joked with, and listened to. We felt that he was a very caring and understanding person. He had that natural charm written over his face, had he not? Furthermore, he was with us right from the very first day in SMIP too. By now, more batches came into the school and I think we were a bit intimidated by some of you guys about who should be in control cos we always feel special about being the pioneer and had endured a lot of hardships. As such we were very sensitive towards anything that touched anybody from our batch. (biasalah a! t that age, a person tends to look for a comrade in place of one's parents).

Our charismatic principal Mr. Mahadzir also left us. In came Pn. Rahmah Hussein (she had two cute daughters in the school as well) from TKC. This handsome man Mahadzir, such a fierce, no nonsense, difficult to smile, he could nag us for hours ( a couple of students collapsed during assembly), he'd make the teachers and us waited for an hour in the assembly hall while he took the longest route via every dorm before reaching the hall......nobody moved...we sang Negara ku and Selamat Sultan and he didn't say a single word.......assembly finished. Just like that. He was very outspoken.............we were like timid rat with him around. ONLY when he left that we realised how he has managed to change our mind set for excellence. He was actually firm but fair. He put television sets for us to watch Muhamad Ali vs Joe Bugner in KL. He even went to see them before the fight and came back telling us highly about Muhammad Ali's excellence. Suddenly we felt the empt! iness when he left us. I personally feel that he played a big role in psyching us to excel in the school's LCE exam.

After our success in the LCE exam in 1975, we spent a lot of time playing and fooling around cos MCE was still far away and our new warden was a hell of a tough sportsman. Our school excelled in various fields especially in debate, games and sports even at the national level. One boy stood out among us ----ROSLI HUSAIN (we called him Pak Da). He was made the first School Games Captain for his flair in almost every sports he played...and he could play almost everything....He's even good at debate, study, music, comedy....he was really an outstanding boy. He never walked alone. We looked up to him not only for his size but also for his leadership. He was popular with everybody. I was indebted to him because he always put me on the bus to watch away football games.

So, it was not a surprise when one night after the prep hour, we were shocked to learn that a group of batch 73 were rounded up by this new warden for an alleged indiscipline and among them was Rosli Husain.

Some of us started to loiter below the warden's room waiting anxiously, not knowing why they were still detained by the warden for so long... the crowd was getting bigger including some seniors and juniors.

Suddenly, someone heard a commotion and heard someone screaming "PAK Da kena pukul ke cikgu....". All hell broke loose.. some ran upstairs and tried to break into the room while others pelted the windows with bricks. More joined in, screaming and running around, smashing things in anger for the warden refused to come out.....who would dare? I remember the owner of the house just outside our kitchen fence shouted at us and was shut up immediately with rude remarks from some of us.

Everything was in chaos....tension was running very high.....people from the surrounding started coming in. It made us madder........of course in that situation more students became hysterical especially those who learned silat. So almost everybody's running around attacking the warden's room as well as comforting the hysterical students........ISIN was the word! These silat batin group was difficult to control except for one guy who looked very much in trance (ISIN) until his sarong terlondeh and he quickly pulled it up...well too late, we looked at him in disgust and left him alone....tipu punya isin!

Joked aside, by 2am, some parents and more people came and tried to console us ---- no chance. Mr. Mahadzir is no longer there, remember? Then.... the nearby Pasukan Polis Hutan came in with their guns pointed. There was a long queue of police trucks in the school area till the main gate. Some of us were still uncontrollable, chasing the police car which was supposed to ferry out the warden. The shouting and running continued. Eventually at almost 4am, we were all squatting in the area between the two hostel blocks staring at the mouth of the police rifles pointed at us (just like the immigrants you see in the newspaper nowadays). We cooled down and listened to a few comforting words from some of our favorite teachers.........

The next day was a gloomy day as we become the talk of the town. Words spread fast up to Gua Musang even though there wasn't any hanphone then. It became worse day after day when the dust settled down cos it was time to face the music. Some of us was penalised and so on.......... Of course nobody won, we were all losers. We shouldn't have done it but it was on impulse, I would say. Luckily there was no casualty though it could have easily been...

I'M SURE NONE OF US IS PROUD OF THE INCIDENT BUT IT'S BEEN AN EPISODE DURING OUR TIME IN SMSKelantan......

Amran Mohd Nor (batch 73-78)

Lumut Perak

famili95@tm.net.my
31 January 2003


PEACEFUL EASY FEELINGS! -- (Episode 6 - Bell Bottom Years)

The pioneers came to SMS during the hippies' era -- side burns (belum tumbuh misai tapi cikgu ramai yg. pasang sideburn like Cikgu Abu Bakar, Cikgu Razak, Cikgu Syed Abd. Hamid, Cikgu Tg. Aziz etc.), bell bottoms (wow! imagine groups of boys sweeping the school ground with their bell bottoms.)

Those years were also about being cool in faded jeans. Wranglers, Levis and Lee. anything less were not cool! Unfaded? NOT COOL! The boys used to buy a new Wranglers or Levis and beat them mad on the bathroom floor after soaking with chlorox to fade it ---- COOL! Faded and torn-out jeas (especially at the knees) were in demand. Nobody could beat Azlan Dato' Ariffin for that. Not much for him being COOL but more so because the jean was handed down from his eldest brother via many other brothers in his family. Remember him wearing that torn-out Crocodile T'shirt with the Eric Clapton face on his chest? COOL!!. By the way he's a good Guitarist and his music was considered advanced (at least for me -- cos I only began to love Eric Clapton while at the Univ.).

Talking about music, the dorms were filled up with D Lloyds, Rod Stewarts, Bad Company, Eagles, and many other great songs day and night. 1973 was the year P.Ramlee passed away--- luckily we had Jazuli to sing all the songs by heart ---- day and night!

Amran
2 July 2003

Peaceful Easy Feeling (Episode 7: Our Bus Is Here!!!)
Remember my first story about the long march from wakaf mek zainab to Pengkalan Chepa? Poor kids. We wouldn't have to walk if we had our school bus then.

It was in 1974, returning to the dorm after our lunch. The sun was shining outside. The after lunch noise was always a welcome sound. Why not? We had finished the day's boring hours in the classroom, had just filled up our hungry stomach at the dining hall.....so it was time to relax before the 'horizontal hour'. Remember the usual scenario in the dorm at that time? Some of us would be singing at the top of their voices, laughters filled the air, boys jumping onto one another in their bed (just doing decent hugging, nothing fishy about it!), sound of slippers slapping the corridor floors to the bathroom and the sight of boys wrapped in towel walking or running along the corridors of all floors and blocks. Some were grouping at the corridors shouting at other groups in the other block..... And in the bathroom? More singing, right? Shower room doors are knocked to irritate the occupant. A lot of fun but it was still another routine afternoon in SMSK.......

I was about to go to the toilet when some alien sound caught my attention. It was a continuous sound of car horns and the continuous pip..pip..pip..pip..pip..of motorcycles.Some of us looked out of the window and saw a procession of some of our teachers' cars and vespas ---- Cikgu Razak, Cikgu Syed Abd. Hamid and a few others. They were sounding the horns continuosly and their faces were beaming with wide smiles waving towards us and pointing towards the school gate, as if to show us something. We didn't have to wonder too long because within seconds we saw a shining creamy yellow long bus entering the gate. Then we saw it ---- SEKOLAH MENENGAH SAINS KELANTAN ! By now, the blaring horns was accompanied by our cheering and clappings. OH ! BAS KITA SUDAH SAMPAI or rather OIII ! BAH KITO SAPA DAH! BAH KITA ! BAH KITA! We ran downstairs and crowded the bus. A tall dark man with a hunch came down from the bus and was welcomed by us all. As we know that! man was PAK CIK HAMID, a name synonimous with us. He later became one of us, live his life and shared the bitter sweet memories with us........

Pak Cik Hamid and his bus had taken us to various places. I'm sure each and everyone has their own story to tell. My memorable one was the trip to the PPM in STF Johor Bahru in 1976. We came back at night on a high note after securing a place into the debate final. . We were passing by the jungle of Rompin when some guys wanted to stop for a pee. That was the time when Zawawi Husin came up with an eerie ghost story. I remembered the guys had to bear with the erection (pardon me) until we reached a kampong in Terengganu before they went down desperately looking for a toilet in the wee hour of the morning....

.........well, the bus! OUR BUS! In those days, you couldn't see many buses other than the SKMK. So, this bus is special, it's ours! No wonder the teachers who were speeding home for their lunch, turned back to lead the bus to us. They seemed to be as excited as we were. Had it arrived a year earlier, my friends and I wouldn't have to experience the symbolic long walk from wakaf mek zainab. But then, I wouldn't have that story to tell you.

Amran

73-78
8 August 2003

NB: Pl. forgive me for any inaccuracies. Please recall the event and add on to this story.