St Joseph Miri - Class 5C Year 1993

Among the best years of my life that I remember is during the school days. I never had a chance of staying in one school for many years and due to the short of time dwelling at one place, I had a problem of recalling much of the memories and even trying to recall my friend's name. But there is only one particular time that I've always remember (which now its getting harder to recalled it due to age factor) that is when I started schooling in St Joseph Miri from 1991 to 1993 (Form 3 to 5).

It all started yesterday when I decided to search on FaceBook and trying so hard to retrieve every last pieces of my memory recalling back all of my friends' name. To be honest, it is quite difficult task. But then, once I found one of them, things are much easier to search thereafter.

WHY 1991 - 1993?

Those years are so significant as in 1991 I sit for SRP (now re-branded as PMR) and in 1993 I sit for SPM. I've just moved out from Limbang in 1991 and at first I was sent to class 3C. If am not mistaken, I sit just next to Tan Keng Hiong. Just 1 week after that, I was directed to transferred to class 3B where I meet up with few of my "best" friends. Catching up with new slang of Miri language is not that hard as previously, from 1989 to 1990 I was in Kuching.

What I like about St Joseph Miri is that, though we are all from different races, our class especially had this really strong knots of friendship. I still remember that our class were so impressive until we almost win every competition in school. Be it drama, be it sports or any kind of activities. Among teachers, our 5C class is branded as the best in terms of co-operation in every activities.

In my class, we have all sorts of races. You name it, we have it. Chinese we have, Indian we have, Malays we have, Semenanjung Malay also we have, Iban we have, Melanau we have and even Singh. Though we have all sorts of different faith, mother-tongue and races, but we are so close to each other and we even fight with our own school teacher as if our class is a Mafia Gang or somethin'. Hahahahah!

Anyway, it has been 16 years that I've lost contact to almost everybody from my class and only yesterday I managed to find some of them on FB. I took the above photo downloaded from my friend's FB and it does cast some good old flash back in my memories. Before I started to forget their names again, I think it is wise to list them down :-

Sitting from left to right

1. Noor Azalina
2. Cecelia Kueh
3. Ivy Yap (heard she in Singapore)
4. Florence Kong (heard she is in Miri)
5. Donald Eldred (residing in Miri)
6. Kok Pei Lin
7. Amelia Henry (residing in Miri)
8. Suraya Morshidi (last I heard she is in Bintulu)

Standing 2nd row from the left

1. Angela Agan (residing in Miri)
2. Chia Ya Sing (last met in KL in 2001)
3. Christina Laing (teaching in Sri Aman)
4. Kok Wan Nyuk
5. Teo Siaw Ling
6. Wee See Ing
7. Yong Nyuk Hiong
8. Su Li Na (residing in Miri)
9. Liew Ah Jon
10. Shanta (residing in Miri)
11. Jagwant Kaur
12. Jasmine Chong (residing in Miri and married recently)
13. Belinda Yong (last I met her in 1994 in KL)
14. Raine Junang (residing in Miri)
15. Jean Lo
16. Chai Siew Mui
17. Jasmine Yeo (last met in KL in 1994)

Back row from the left

1. Philip Tan (residing in Miri)
2. Hamdan Nayan (working in Kuching)
3. Ahjaman Rozali
4. Tan Gung Menang
5. Wong Yi Wen
6. Mohammad Farzilla
7. Christopher Mok (last met in KL in 1994)
8. Me (am in Kuching)
9. Eddy Lai (in KL)
10. Ian David Brodie (currently in Miri)
11. Andy Richard
12. Huong Min Hin
13. Christopher Tinkai (residing in Miri)
14. Jason Heng Domingo (Vancouver, Canada)
15. Ahmadi Khan (residing in Kuala Lumpur)

Browsing through my friends FB, they all sound like wanna have a reunion of our class. Most of our classmate now are all over the world, some in Aussie, some in KL, some in Singapore and most of it scattered all over Sarawak. It makes me wonder, how possible will it be to do reunion??

To all of my ex-classmate of 5C St Joseph Miri year 1993, if you are reading this, just remember that all of our classmate do cherish our time during those years and all of them now are eyeing for having our reunion. So guys :-

WHAT SAY YOU ALL?

Kelak Kakak Beli

Selipar

Aku : Kak, ney selipar Papa?

Elisa : Sik tauk.

Aku : Dah hilang selipar Papa. Kesian Papa.

Elisa : Kelak Kakak Beli baru Pa ah....

Susu Dedek

Aku : Kak, susu Dedek dah abis. Kesian Dedek sik dapat nenen.

Elisa : Kelak Kakak Beli baru Pa ah....

Baju

Aku : Kesian Papa balit-balit pakey baju sama hari-hari. Papa dah sikda baju baru.

Elisa : Kelak Kakak Beli baru Pa ah....

Sunquick

Aku : Aduh, dah abis SunQuick. Sik dapat Papa minum gik eh.

Elisa : Kelak Kakak Beli baru Pa ah....

I dont know whether she really meant it or just  merely saying it for fun. Either way, she looks sincere when uttering the said words.

Last night on the road.

Aku : Kak, tengok bas ya. Ada TV dalamnya. Best eh!!

Elisa : Ney? Ney?

Aku : Nun... depan ya bah....

Elisa : Kelak Kakak Beli baru Pa ah....

Chief Justice

Back before 80's, all judges in court were wearing white long haired wig. Imagine a tanned skin asian guy wearing a wig. Am sure, nowadays it does look weird.. or even funny to some.

Last night, my wife took one disposable diaper and put it on my 5 months old boy's head. What do you know... he does look like this :-

We all laughed last night and now I addressed my son as "Your Lordship".

Weirdo

I had this habit of letting my Messenger on my laptop on Online all the time while I am in the office. Normally, I will not reply to any spam or to any unknown person(s) that might goofing around on to my Messenger chat box. But yesterday, out of my curiosity, I replied to one unknown person's message which I found it really weird.

Unknown Guy : Hi there! I am you from the future and I bear a good news!

Boy From Limbang : I already knew my future.

Unknown Guy : Cool! ...... Who are you?

Boy From Limbang : I am "you" from your past. (He should know this what!!! He is the one who said that he is me from the future....!)

Unknown Guy : How far you are from my past? Is it like yesterday or 10 years ago?

Boy From Limbang : As far as you are to my future. (Obviously, since he is me in the future)

WEIRDO!

Accident

1. Aku duduk depan TV malam tadi pukul 8pm tengok Buletin Utama. Berita mula-mula pasal eksiden bas tu.
2. Lepas tu aku dengar ada mamat tu cakap lepas ni kerajaan akan buat satu kajian pasal eksiden ni. Depa nak check dan buat kajian tang mana pagar besi kat highway tu tak kuat yang antara lain penyebab kematian.
3. Yang ni aku tak puas hati. Lain punya pasal, lain yang nak buat kajian. Yang dok sibuk buak kajian pagar besi tu nak buat apa??? Apsal tak buat kajian atas besi apa bas tu diperbuat? Kenapa tak buat kajian yang macam mana bas tu terlalu berat untuk di tahan oleh pagar besi tu? Buat kajian tentang berat badan penumpang ke? Aisehmen....
4. Sometimes I did not get it. Things happen because of other reason. But people always wants to point out other things for excuses which sometimes, does not make any sense or at all.
5. The accident were caused by human factor (ie. the driver himself). Without the negligence of the driver, none of these things happen. 
6. Lucky the bus hits the iron road divider. Imagine the bus hits the hill side. Do the authority dare to conduct research on why the soil on the hill side is so dangerous that can cause death?

Aku Ada Seorang Kawan...

Aku ada seorang kawan, baru je datang KL time aku study kat uni dulu. Macam biasa, gua mau tunjuk terer yang gua dah tau semua tempat happening kat KL. Apalagi.... gua ajak sekali pegi KL la tunggu bas mini kaler pink. 

Macam biasa, Bas Mini mesti laa penuh macam tin sadin. Gua dengan member gua masuk dalam berhimpit pasal lagi banyak orang nak masuk. memandangkan masih ramai lagi nak masuk, sorang minah ni cakap kat kawan aku ni "Alo mamat! Buleh masuk dalam sikit tak?".

Tekejut beruk kawan aku ni bila minah tu cakap cam tu. Macam ter konpius pun ada gak. Belakang dia cakap kat minah tu balik:-

"Eh... aku bukan Mamat laaa!"

Eh.. betul apa! Nama dia bukan Mamat la. Mesti kawan aku tu ingat minah tu salah orang. Hahaha

Going Through Hurdles

I never thought of being a person to practise law. Thats the last thing on my mind at certain point of my early life reason being that its kinda of hard for me to read Law during my studies in university. Perhaps, reading Laws courses is exposing myself to law books, law journals, articles, books, philosophy and other documents that all written in "ENGLISH". Frankly speaking, I am not good in English during school days.

For first year in Law courses, it took me forever to understand the Law jargons and terms used. Not only that, its kind of difficult for me to condoned an idea of "there is no right and wrong answer" kind of thinking as in Law Student. During school days, we are taught of what is right and what is wrong. We were never being exposed of any "grey" area... let alone on how to deal with it. To be honest, during my university time, I know "nuts" about the whole concept of taking law subject except on how to pass its exam.

However, I have to admit that reading Laws in english sometimes interesting. We learned a lot of new words everyday, new phrase and of course new way of thinking. But the thing is that most of our Law in Malaysia were adopted from Indian Law (being colonial states like us too). Even most of our lecturer in university are from India or within the same region of countries.

Being a naive person I am of not really understand of most of the subjects, I normally just keep myself busy writing down notes of whatever the lecturer said in his or her lecture. I had this one scenario happened during my 2nd year of reading Laws. I went to my Law of Tort class which the lecturer is from Pakistan. Being a person from Pakistan, he had Pakistani accent and some of the English pronounce word are different. First few days of lecture, he always tell us story of cases and he normally starts with :-

Lecturer : The platipus in this case.......

At first most of us thought that it was a terms "platipus" that he use in his lecture. So we tried our best to presumed on how to spell "platipus" for our handwritten notes. No one seems dare to ask what he actually meant by "platipus". Everyone seems satisfy or understand what "platipus" means.

After few days lecturing, one of my classmate raised his hand and asked, what actually he meant by "platipus". The lecturer just smiled then he said :-

Lecturer : Mind my accent, OK I write on the board.

Then he wrote the word "Plaintiffs" on the board and says :-

 "this is what I meant. Its platipus!"

After the explanation, reading Laws are far more interesting than before.... and I went through all the way.

Other's Opinion

I like what this guy says about PPSMI. I got it from other blog. Read it :-

Recently there is a lot of support calling for the reversal of teaching math and science in English. 

Much of these support comes of intellectual who has never studied any form of science or math in their respective college or University. 

Take for example the recent PPSMI forum which was supposed to be attended by Anwar Ibrahim but was replaced by Syed Husin ALi. 

Syed Husin Ali is a Professor of Anthropology and Sociology from University Malaya. What science or mathematics is there? In fact I had to look at the dictionary to understand the meaning of Anthropology.

The anthropologist Eric Wolf once described anthropology as "the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences."

Zaidel describes Anthropology as a major you take in Uni if you can't do Math well but want to seem smart by having fancy words on your degree. 

And Anwar Ibrahim? Degree in Malay Studies, Oiyoooo the only Math they have in Malay Studies is to calculate the amount of credit you take per semester which isn't much of a problem for Anwar because during his Uni days he spent most of them shouting slogans on the street and getting angry for no apparent reason. 

Why I say getting angry for no apparent reason? Because later he Joined UMNO!! 

Back to thw reason why I support the damn thing. 

I came from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and trust me when I say this that a few years back this was the most Bahasa Kebangsaan University than any other local universities combined. Let's just say the first 3 years of my Engineering days were filled with Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu jargons. Just to show you what I mean take a look at some of these examples..

Engineering Term 

Capacitor - Pemuat

Resistor - Perintang

Impedance - Galangan

Current - Arus

Others include : Momen Lentur, Tegasan, Terikan, Pepejal, Dinamik Haba and etc... 

I mean those Engineering Lecturer took the extra mile to translate every single damn thing into Malay and I greatly respect this. As oppose to my sociology lecturers who like to screw up the Malay Language by prostituting English words into BM. 

Take for example this term "Dekadensi Moral" When I first saw that term I was thinking what the hell is dekadensi moral, a type of resistor or something? Turns out Dekadensi comes from the English word Decadence. Dekadensi Moral means Moral Decadence direct translation where as you can simply translate it into "Kemerosotan Akhlak/Moral" which is much more clear. But NOOOO he had to use dekadensi so that he would seem smart and people won't question his Associate Professorship. Then you would have other words like kompak, visi, misi, infotainment, naratif kecil, naratif besar and penkek. 

At first the Lecturers (Engineering) seemed to get it all good, they managed to translate the English term to BM very well and with very clear meaning. Then Things started to change as the subject get's more complex and you get newer terms. Take for example this Subject..

"Motorolla 68000 Microprocessor"

Which translates to Mikro Pemproses Motorolla 68000" 

Sounds fine....

But then as you go deeper into the subject you will find more interesting terms. For instance

Timer - The clock cycle chip you use to send timing signals to the processors. It acts like a stopwatch to the processor. 

BM Translation - Pemasa. Which is fine.

Then we have things like this - 

Bistable Multivibrator - Dwimantap Penggetar Pelbagai. Apo Kobondo tu Jang? 

Then in microprocessor you have this term call "Interrupt" and like it's name it means to interrupt the normal cycle of the processor and tell it to focus to doing something else. Kinda like the phone rings when you are cooking, you stop cooking and answer the phone. 

The Malay Jargon Interrupt would be Sampukan. Interrupt Pin - Pin Sampukan.

Sampukan? Sampuk ke? Sejak bila Mikropemproses ada pocong atau Jembalang dalam dia? Ini Electrical Engineering ka Bomoh Engineering? 

Masked Interrupt - Sampukan Bertopeng. 

Handshake Interrupt - Sampukan Jabat Tangan. Ko salam dengan dia lepas tu ko kena sampuk, kira dia ni macam santau laa. 

Then you have this thing called "Latch" which is an output chip. 

Latch in Malay is Selak. 

Selak as in Selak pintu, Selak Pagar or Selak pintu Jamban.

Mula-mula baca dulu saya ingat Selak dalam erti kata Selak Kain. 

Contoh - Angin bertiup kencang lalu baju kurung Fasha Sanda pun selak sikit lalu Zaidel pun telah menerima ganguan emosi akibat dari kejadian itu. 

Naah see,

And it gets interesting when it comes to "Electrical Power" Subject. In there there is this chapter where they talk about CoEnergy in power transmission. Coenergy in malay is translated to Kotenaga.

Which is why when he gave the lecture my lecturer would loudly proclaim KOtenaga compare to the students who prefer to pronounce it as KOTEnaga. 

3 phase Coenergy in power transmission would then become

KoteNaga 3 fasa dalam penghantaran kuasa. OIYOOOOOO, kalah Anakonda! 

Just for fun here are some other Technical Jargons you can play with...

Transformer - Pengubah

Decoder - Penyahkod (Mak Nyah kot)

Multiplexer - Pemultiplex

Polarity - Kutub

Instruction Set - Set Suruhan

Components - Peranti (I bet you didn't know that) 

Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) - Penghantar Penerima Pemasa Serentak Am 

Now try translating this

Connect Your Joy Stick into the server Port, you should find little problem with the Joystick as the server has Plug and Play mode. 

Masukkan Kayu Ria anda ke dalam lubang pelayan, anda sepatutnya tidak mempunyai banyak masaalah dalam memasukkan kayu ria anda kerana pelayan ini mempunyai fungsi masuk dan main. 

Hambik kau! 

Tu belum dia kena sampuk ke selak ke nak nak pulak ada kotenaga. 

By the time I was in my 4th year,

Everything was taught in English.... SENANG!

PS:- Kalau betul nak buang PPMSI, aku nak propose buat mata pelajaran sekolah ikut bahasa Sarawak pulak!