2014-08-31 Why are we still quarreling? We are one people. We are 1 Malaysia.

By Lintang Bob Yong

Malaya got its independent in 1957 and is now 57 years old. Let’s stop for a moment and learn from history; lest we forget the sacrifices of our forefathers.

The Emergency declared in 1948 by the British Administration (BA) was to combat the armed struggle by Chin Peng’s Malayan Communist Party (MCP). I was aware of the Malayan Emergency Period during my school days. I was in Standard 3. Perhaps I was then not old enough to understand the significance of the political unrest in Malaya after the Japanese Forces surrendered in 1945.

What I cannot forget was the hardship people had endured during the era of Emergency, staying in new villages where freedom of movement was curtailed. People were forced to move into new and hastily established villages with fenced-in barked wire. This was an attempt to stop people from providing assistance to MCP which was fighting the colonial masters for independence. Curfew was imposed from dust to dawn (6.00 pm to 6.00 am) by BA. My father’s family, like many others had experienced these sufferings of the curfew which lasted for a long five years from 1950. The curfew was lifted in 1955 and I stayed on in Salak South New Village until my marriage in 1968.

Click the link below and watch these documentaries to learn more about our history. Malaysians who are borne after the Emergency Period can get a good insight of it.

The Undeclared War (Malayan Emergency-1948-1960)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJy6aG45CvE

It is also fair to listen to Chin Peng’s side of story. Click this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBRMRf0JVJc

 

 

2014-04-28 When was your last bus ride?

By Lintang Bob Yong

I needed to service my car and the service centre is about 5 kilometres from my house. It was a major service plus replacing some worn-out parts. The car could only be ready a day after I sent it in. Didn’t feel like troubling anyone for a lift, I decided to take a bus to get back home.

It was 9.45 in the morning. I waited for the bus at a bust stop for more than half an hour under the hot weather. I felt restless and appeared like a lost child. It was a long time ago since I last took a bus ride. When the bus finally arrived, I got into the bus and noticed that there were only 2 passengers. This made me think, perhaps there are more car owners than bus passengers.

I paid RM 1.90 for the fare and a ticket was issued to me. The bus fare was 15 cents when I was a school boy. I used the bus to travel from Salak South to a school in Kuala Lumpur.

This bus ride brought back a lot of memories to the days when I was a school boy using the bus as transportation to school. The bus ride to school was full of fun in those school days. I could remember how many bumps and pot holes the bus had to go through on the road and the number of bus stops along the way before reaching home. We used to drop pieces of paper through the bus windows just to watch and had fun seeing papers flying around, inside and outside of the bus. Our action was harmless but mischievous. Of course, we got scolded by the bus conductor each time we did that.

Go take a bus ride for a drive down in memory lane.