Piala Perdana Menteri(PPM) 1976

The PPM is the debate competition that started in 1974, as a competition among the elite boarding schools. They were later joined by several SMS (Sekolah Menengah Sains). There are two streams of the competition - in English and in Bahasa Malaysia.

During my days in the school wew were never that good in the English debate, but we first made it great in the Bahasa Malaysia section 1976 when we managed to be in the final. Amran, my senior of 2 years wrote about it in his reminiscense, which I published in my blog here.

The final was held in the Auditorium Besar Angkasapuri, during the long school holidays at the end of the year. Our debating team consisted of Wan Azman Wan Ahmad (Dr, now a medical professor in Universiti Malaya), Razali Mat Zin (Dr, now an academic in a university in Riyadh), the late Mr Abdul Hamid and Khalid Ibrahim (Dr, now the head of Sg Buluh Hospital) with the debating teacher, the late Cikgu Yusoff Ali were given the honour to FLY from Kota Bharu to Kuala Lumpur while a full bus load of supporters went by road. I was lucky to be among the supporters!!

Travelling from Kota Bharu in the 1970s was not as straight forward as it now is. WE had to go to Kuala Terengganu first, then Kuantan, before we headed to Luala Lumpur. The journey took more than 14 hours, compared to an average of 6-7 hours now!!

We bunked up in SMS Selangor, while our debators stayed in a hotel (was in Majestic Hotel?- now known as Carcosa Seri Negara).

The following morning (the day of the debate), we were so excited to see articles and pictures of our debators (and their opponents from Kolej Islam Klang) occupied the main page 2-page3!! Our seniors managed to buy all main newspapers - The New Straits Times, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian. With pride, we read every article about them!!

While in SMSS, we befriended some Sixth Formers from the school, who agreed to have a pix taken with us (click on the pix for a bigger image):



While waiting for the night, we managed to have a quick visit to the National Museum. Our bus was actually parked right in front of the entrance of the museum!
(click on the pix for a bigger image):


When the night came, we headed for Auditorium Besar Angkasapuri.
WE were among the early ones to enter the auditorium, and took our seats (click on the pix for a bigger image):

There were some MCKK boys behind us.

Soon our debators came out to take their seats and somebody took this pix (which became a top-selling photo later when we got back to school!) (click on the pix for a bigger image):

The pride of our school taking their seats - Razali, Wan Azman, (the late) Hamid

Unfortunately we lost the debate. However, our debator, Razali Mat Zin (who's now an assoc prof in King Fahd's University) was chosen to be the Best Debator!! Well... we didn't really leave the place empty handed.. By the way, Wan Azman is now a professor in University Malaya.

to be continued!