Lim Lian Geok - National Unity and Chinese Schools

I exploded in anger yesterday over a friend's casual comment in facebook. It wasn't anything personal, and my wife couldn't quite understand why should I lose my cool. I am not a cool type of person, but I seldom lose my temper. Over the course of the day, I realize how little people know about Chinese schools in Malaysia, even parents who send their kids there. This is probably because firstly, the government does not want us to know the truth, and secondly, the best sources of information are not in English. I would do the Chinese schools a small service in translating some of these.



I believe no single person personifies the spirit of the Chinese schools better than Lim Lian Geok (林连玉). Born as Lin Cai Ju (林采居) in Yong Chun, Fujian (永春， 福建), China, in 19th August 1901, he grew up in Xiamen (夏门). He graduated in Jimei Teachers College (集美师范学校) in Xiamen as the top student in Humanities in 1924 and was invited to stay back as a lecturer. He left China and came to Southeast Asia in 1927 when the school was closed by the clashes with Chinese Nationalist Party. He taught in Air Tawar, Perak, and in Java, Indonesia. He was vocal against Dutch colonial rule of Indonesia and had to flee to Malaya in 1931 when the Dutch went after him. He taught in various schools when he arrived in Malaya and changed his name to Lim Lian Geok, a name that he used until he died. In 1935 he joined Confucian Private High School in Kuala Lumpur as the primary school supervisor.

During the Second World War, he was a stretcher bearer for the Allied Commonwealth army and was wounded in action. After the surrender of the British army in Singapore, he slipped back to Malaya and worked as a pig farmer. After the war, he sold his pigs to raise fund to reopen Confucian High School and resumed teaching there in 1945. In 1949, he helped founded Kuala Lumpur Chinese Schools Teachers Association, and became its chairman in November the next year.

The Barnes' Education Report in 1951 called for the abolishment of Chinese and Tamil schools in Malaya, a proposal which he and many in the community opposed. He called for the founding of the United Chinese School Teachers Association of Malaysia (Jiao Zhong, one half of Dong Jiao Zhong) in the same year. He went on to become its chairman in 1953 - 1961. He declared in 1951, "Malaya is a country where different races live, it is a melting pot of Eastern and Western culture ... only if we live and let live, can we have the best of both worlds, and in the process give birth to a unique Malayan culture. If one race takes a superior position and discriminates and destroys the culture of the other races, including their mother tongues ... it will only lead to a break up of the country." How true and prophetic his words are today!

He also advocated the independence of Malaya from British colonial rule and encouraged local Chinese to take up Malayan citizenship. Partly through his effort, the number of Chinese granted Malayan citizenship jumped from 120 000 to 700 000 before the independence. Most of the Chinese then came to Malaya to earn a fortune and then to return to China. They regarded China and not Malaya as home. He told the Chinese community, "The hills and shores of Malaya are imprinted with our (Chinese) footprints. The trees and the grass are the results of our (Chinese) hard work. We might come from China, China might have given us birth, but we are inseparable from Malaya. We are only seeking our own ruin if we are not loyal to Malaya. Therefore, we must love Malaya, we must give our utmost to Malaya, and help build this country with the other races in Malaya."

In 1952, he advocated that the Chinese school curriculum be changed to focus on Malaya instead of China. He reasoned, "... we should reform the text books ... to prove that our young people are imbued with a sense of loyalty to Malaya."

In 1954, he said, "What it means to be a Malayan citizen is to be loyal and do our utmost for the country". In November the same year, he enlisted Tan Chen Lock's help to establish English classes in Chinese schools.

In 1956, he wrote in Utusan Melayu in support of Bahasa Melayu being the official language of Malaya even though he fought for Chinese to be included as one of the official languages of Malaya earlier on.

In 1956, he fought for the rights of Chinese to be granted citizenship in Malaya. He declared to the Chinese community the same year, "We must tell our children to be loyal to Malaya. We must tell them, Malaya is our home. The people of different races in Malaya are our brothers and sister. If Malaya should be unfortunate as to face an enemy one day, they must stand up and fight for Malaya. No matter who the enemy is, and where they come from, they must fight on the side of Malaya", hinting that Chinese in Malaya should shift their loyalty from China to Malaya.

In 1960, he opposed the Rahman Taib's Education Report which sought to abolish Chinese secondary schools. In an attempt to silent him, the Home Ministry stripped him of his citizenship, and later the same year canceled his teacher permit.

He continue his fight for the right of Chinese to learn their mother tongue even after that. In 1985, in an interview with the Star, Tunku Abdul Rahman said that the United Chinese School Teachers Association opposed the formation of the Federation of Malaysia. He replied Tunku in public, pointing out his error. Unfortunately, none of the government controlled newspapers was willing to publish his letter.

Lim Lian Geok died of a chest infection in 18th December 1985. His funeral was one of the largest ever held in Kuala Lumpur. His funeral cortege was more than a mile long. The Chinese community, especially the Chinese school teachers, regards him as the "soul" of Malaysian Chinese.

Friendship

Just last year my daughter managed to trace down a dear family friend that we lost touch with for over 15 years. Through facebook, of course.

And today, I "bumped" into a friend on facebook. Didn't know he has come thousands of kilometres away from where we worked together to the same city I now live in.

Facebook is a very interesting phenomenon. It has helped me to find friends, some long lost, some I would not expect to see or hear from ever again. In all this, it has never failed to bring me joy. It is a marvelous thing to catch up with long lost friends.

I guess this is because in many ways friendship is such beautiful thing. Friendship seems to multiply the joy of good time, and portion out the burden of sorrow in bad. It gives us strength in tough time, and courage in the face of death. Many war time soldiers would recount that their heroic acts were not inspired by patriotism or philosophical conviction, but to stick it out for their mates.

I enjoy friendship greatly. Yet sadly there are people whom we just can't be great friends with. I often wonder why. They are great people, nice people. But somehow somewhere something is not right. It is not even their or our doing.

I grew up in a small town where more than 80% of the people there were Malays. So, not surprisingly, many of my good friends were Malays. Though I have not met almost all of them for over 20 years, I still count some of them as my best friends.

That contrasts greatly with many of the Malay friends I know later. They are not any less nice. In fact, they are probably nicer and kinder than many of my good friends. Yet there seems to be a barrier somewhere, somehow.

They have done me no wrong; in fact they have done me a lot of good.

I have done them no wrong, too; at least not that I can recall.

The 64 000 dollars question is, why? I often wonder.

Is it envy? That richer people qualifies for financial privileges just on the basis of race, and we being poorer has to pay for this privilege with our tax?

Is it anger? That kids with poorer results are given better position in universities than our kids who do better at school?

Is it jealousy? That people who are not performing as well as us are promoted to be our bosses?

Is it dissatisfaction? That our tax money is being squandered to destroy meritocracy?

Is it fear? That somehow we have believe in a religion that has been battered and slandered even in high school text books, and the next target would be ourselves, the believers?

Is it sorrow? That the friendship I treasure is being poisoned by racist policies and corrupt government?

Or is it me? That I fail to see through the mist of misinformation and subtle psychological subversion and succumb to the poison served up by corrupt politicians looking to consolidate power by whipping up racial strife?

I can only pray that I will see the beauty of God's image in every one of his children and love them as Jesus called us to.

Wars and Poems

I have been free and idle for the last couple of months. What started off as my annual leave has degenerated into a forced holiday waiting for the power-to-be to process my registration etc. Talk about bureaucracy. In my spare time, I borrowed some books from the local library on the two world wars. What truly appalled me was the number of death. Hundreds of thousands of lives were sacrificed on the altar of war senselessly, sometimes in just a single battle. At the end of each world war, there were tens of million of death.

There are a couple of poems written during the first world war that are particularly poignant and famous. The first was written by a Canadian field doctor, Lieutenant Colonel Dr. John McCrae, In Flanders Field:

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt down, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrels with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders Fields.

The second was longer, written by Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen. Some of the stanzas are:

.....

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, or the years contemn.

At the going of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingled not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

.....

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

Bread

The first time I got really excited about baking bread was more than 20 years ago. Back in the 80s bread making machine was a rarity. I visited my friend's house one day and saw that they had such a machine. I was totally fascinated, not only by the idea that you can bake bread at home, but also because a freshly baked loaf of bread smells and tastes so much better.

As soon I started work and saved up enough money, I bought my first (and only) very own bread making machine. Back in the 90s bread maker was very expensive, but I enjoyed making my own bread and eating them. The problems with bread maker though, is that the machine is quite fussy. Unless you get everything right, the bread will not turn up right. Even old flour and room temperature variation affect the quality of bread.

Then my bread maker broke, and I was too busy to bake any bread, until we moved over here. With more time at hand, I started baking bread again, and this time, without a bread maker. I find that kneading the dough by hand and baking it in a conventional oven give me far more control over the process, and hence more leeway, and more opportunity to correct any variation.

Still, home baked bread does not taste as smooth and soft as commercially baked bread. The secret - well emulsifier and conditioner.

This is my simple bread recipe, and it tastes just as nice as the one bought in the shop.

Ingredient:
2 cups of high protein/bread flour
1 - 1.5 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of bread improver (optional)
1.5 teaspoon of yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of butter/vegetable shortening/oil
1 cup of water

Mix in dry ingredient, stir in oil and water.
Knead till smooth (about 10 - 20 minutes).
Optional: you can roll in any added ingredient, such as dry fruit, raisin, chocolate chips here.
Place in oiled bowl, cover with gladwrap or wet towel, let rise for an hour.
Punch down, shape and place in oiled baking pan, let rise till it is about twice the original size.
Bake in 150-180 degrees Celsius for 30 - 35 minutes
Cool on wire rake before cutting.

Bon appetit.

Spring

Spring is finally here.

This is the season that I have been waiting for the whole year.

We arrived here in the dark, gloom and doom of August last year. We went through challenging time over the past 12 months. Now, finally, the light at the end of the tunnel.

Just received an email from the College - finally, they will give me the paper - and back to being neurologist again!

But it doesn't get any easier from here. Thank God that the hospital I worked in is asking me back as a consultant. The problem is, almost every consultant here works part time, and they can only offer me part time. Well, at least it's a starter and it will bring home the bacon.

The next step is to look for private job, or setting up my own. That's the challenging part. There's just too much to learn, to much to do, to much to know. I was totally overwhelmed. After much prayer, I guess the best way is to take a step at a time. I will start with a multiple sclerosis clinic in one of the major centres here first. At least that gives me some exposure of private work, or MS work, and a taste of practice management.

The rest, a step at a time.

In the mean time, I have a 2 months break - September and October.

And I am spending it enjoying the flowers in my garden ....

Happy birthday, Daniel!

I have a little nephew. He is an intelligent, fun loving guy. He loves computer games.

We recently celebrated his 6th birthday. It was a wonderful get together. It was also great to catch up with friends, family and relatives.

His birthday last year was one of the first social event we had when we first arrived. And now, it's another birthday. Time indeed flies.

Spring is late

Went to Canberra to renew the passports for the family. The weather was beautiful. And we just chanced upon the annual flower exhibition - the Floriade, outside Canberra. Took some pictures. It was a beautiful show. Came back totally exhausted - woke up at 4 am in the morning to catch the plane and rushed back straight after getting the passport done.

It was an interesting experience. Canberra is very very quiet compared to Melbourne or Sydney; or even to Perth. But the capital city is well laid out with broad roads, little traffic and generally fantastic people. Unlike the big cities, it is less metropolitan. But as soon as we stepped into the Malaysian High Commission, it felt like being back in Malaysia! Even the way they arranged the cubicles, the counter, and everything inside, look so Malaysian. The staff, though, is more helpful than those in Malaysia. The weather, though, was fantastic. We had beautiful sunshine with a top of 20. Couldn't be better.

Arrived back in Melbourne at night and we were immediately greeted by Melbourne's cold, wet winter. Seems that Spring has forgotten about us.

Having my 2 months break after a year of registrar call. I am relishing and enjoying it at the moment before I get bored! Still there are a lot of paper work and things to do to get started for next year.