My biological clock in my head sounded at 6.30am that morning. It was time for me to get up and get ready for another day of road journey from Bandar Puteri to Batu Gajah, Perak. Greeted Jane and Santokh that morning and noted that Jane was getting ready to go to school. I have known Jane since our teaching college days and she is still a fine looking woman and truly a lovely person. Smiling, warm and vibrant – that’s Jane. I am very grateful for her hospitality and great kindness extended to me. So grateful and thankful to be able to eat and spend a night at their home.
That morning, Santokh took me for breakfast at the nearby Indian shop and I got my awesome fix of roti canai and teh tarik. I got myself the roti canai banjir la…..what a way to start the day! We headed home and after clearing up my stuff and getting our stuff in the car, Santokh bade farewell to his girls and we hit the road to Batu Gajah. Along the way, I filled up the car with fuel and started out our journey. It was raining that morning and Santokh reminded me with extreme caution that I was to be absolutely concentrating on the road and observing the traffic rules on the road. Like I said, the KL drivers are hell drivers and at one of the road junction near Santokh’s housing estate, he was already in his element of flowery language as our car was trying to make a right turn at the junction of a busy street. This was a good start, indeed! I love it! A courageous way to exercise our vocal chords in the early morning! I joined in too from time to time as these leaky brains motorists made their way around the roads and highway. Afterall, I also need to practice my vocal chords pitches and excellent amalgamation of flowery nouns and verbs to my wording vocabulary as prescribed by the doctors. It doesn’t matter if it was in Hainanese, Hokkien or Cantonese for that matter. The most important part was to propel and articulate the words clearly, precisely and in great intonation! For starters, I would use phrases like “tuna fish mother”which is appropriate for certain motorists of “complete bebalness”.
Anyway, despite these initial expressions of intonation and words, we arrived in Batu Gajah, Perak at about 11.30am , Friday, 22nd April, 2022. Using Waze application and calls, we landed ourselves at the home of Sagayaraj @ Raj & Suma Devi’s home. It is a quaint double storey simple house in a quiet housing estate. As both Raj & Suma were in school, we waited for Raj’s arrival. A few minutes later, Raj arrived and we exchanged hugs and some nice slaps on the backs. Here is Raj, handsome Indian fella who had survived a heart attack, recovered and playing the best golf in his life. Except for some white streaks of his hair, he looked awesome and fit as a fiddle. After exchanging some pleasantries, Suma came back and she was the same too. Athletic, cheerful, smiley and a wonderful personality. We unloaded our stuff from the car and put our things on the 2nd floor. We even met with their grown up daughter and exchanged pleasantries. Raj & Suma took us for some nice tasting Indian food at a food court in Batu Gajah. In between meals, we catch up on things that had happened in our lives and when we learned that Suma’s family had uprooted and migrated from Johor Baru to Batu Gajah, we had to meet the family. Afterall, Santokh and I had been eager to meet with Mr. Sathasivam, Suma’s dad. You see, we have heard of him and we had imagined that this was a burly , muscular and sporty man. Instead, we found a small size but muscular , rather fair Indian man with a lot of working experience under his belt. He is pleasant, honorable, spoke well and truly looked as one seasoned man indeed. It was an honour to meet him, Suma’s mom and Suma’s sisters in that beautifully built house of theirs. The wooden roofing interiors were a great architectural design and truly unique in many ways. Incidentally, they were just back from a sight seeing trip in Penang. I could not help noticing the beautiful vegetable plots and plants, fruit trees such as papayas, lemons and some herb plants. I guess, their lands are fertile and ready as there was plenty of cow dung fertilizers around which could be used as fertilizers for the plants and trees.
We took photographs with Suma’s dad and visited Raj’s sister before departing for Raj’s home to send Suma and daughter home as we had another destination to go to that is Sitiawan. We were also shown the ample land available around Batu Gajah area and at affordable prices too. Certainly their plots are truly big and spacious too. So, we were off to Batu Gajah to visit our college friend, Rajeswaran, a quiet and lovely fella in our class in those days. Incidentally, Rajeswaran is the good friend of our late Iswaran. I guess, it must have been devastating got him to lose a friend in Iswaran.
It had got to our attention that Rajeswaran is single and stayed in a 2 ½ storey house in Manjung, Sitiawan. He was looking forward to meet us that day. When we actually met up that day, he was the most passionate greeter I’ve ever seen in my life. We shook hands and hugged each other. He was that happy to meet us and we were also very happy to see him. As usual, we asked about him and how he is coping with his school work and so on. The floodgates of emotions and passion flowed out and I really felt for him. 13 years in a Chinese school and a single person handling the SPBT section does take a great toll on a really great person like him. I could not help feeling very sorry for him for what the school had done to him. It was pure abuse and unkindness at the highest level. This is a truly soft spoken man and a good person genuinely. To see him in a state of unwanted stress and fatigue was heartbreaking. I could not help releasing some flowery words at these people who had caused much distress to this friend of mine. This is one lovely individual who just loves to teach but ended up doing works and responsibilities that aren’t associated with teaching in the first place. I guess, his grouses are indeed valid.
Being a former teacher, every teacher that I had meet in schools had lamented on the non-teaching responsibilities that are taking a big toll on their lives and hence, the high volume of optional retirement. The strain on their mental side is unbearable and confusing. But alas, the numb skulls and dimwits in Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia are as guilty as hell as every program implemented was to benefit certain people and made certain promotions! Shame on you, KPM for your lousy treatment on teachers and you still ask the bloody questions on why the high volume of optional retirement? Shame on you too, NUTP for not taking care of teachers better and just playing along for some bloody pingat pinned on your bloody coat and ass sucking ways at the expense and blood of teachers around this country. Stop procrastinating and help these teachers. Stop playing politics and do some actual work! The teachers are drowning and in great distress. The teachers are frustrated and very tired of this yearly charade of wayang kulit plays! The teachers are tired and sick of idiots who are not working at all are promoted while the genuine ones are being tortured and abused at every level in school because of your racialistic, unfair and unrealistic treatment. Look around you, good teachers with honorable degrees are being pushed down, moved about with reckless duties and responsibilities, heckled and frustrated to their core due to non-recognition and couldn’t care less attitude! The education system in this country is flawed and a big disgrace! If no one dares to say it, let me say it out loud and clear – This education system has FAILED the people in this country and also the TEACHERS...genuine ones!
If you , the Minister of Education and your cohorts, the KPM is serious about a revamp of this education system or even have any balls at all between your legs , then, TALK/Go to the teachers at the ground themselves, ask them to speak freely without action being taken, speak without prejudice or fear and see for yourself how the education system had failed this nation and for the next few generations to come. Speak without prejudice or fear, stand for revamp , lessen the load of genuine teachers and get rid of “operasi isi penuh” mentality and create jobs simply for the unqualified and unwanted. Don’t ask opinions and views from those at the top who are only interested in the KPIs and their ass at the seat they sit. Go to the genuine teachers at the ground and talk to them. I bet, you’ll get some pretty nice tongue lashing and ideas from them too.
Every government servant is at the mercy of their top authority or people above them as each of them paints a rosy picture only to cover their ass and their rice bowl. If you only want to listen to what you want to listen, then, I regretfully tell you, Mr. Minister that you are going to have a brain drain in education system and this nation is heading towards damnation and destruction just like the economy of our country. BTW, If you and your fellow ministers plus the high ranking officials in the ministry are sending your children to overseas for their education, doesn’t it simply signifies that this system is way warped and failed? I remembered a long time ago, I, together with good batches and thousands of aspiring young teachers a long time ago had promised to be good educators but the administrative system and the unwanted /unnecessary paper work of the education system failed me and failed miserably because of racism, unfairness and religious fanaticsm. The rot started long time ago from the school system and it had not stop till today. A great teacher once said to me that racism starts from the school education system and school today are the breeding ground of racialistic minds! Take a good hard look at the mirror and say that you are not the product of it! Hmmmnnnnnnnn……..interestingly that teachers are dying out there doing their jobs while administrators and people of the higher level of the system are still dining and siphoning off these teachers. Have some balls if you have any in the first place and do the right thing la........people are drowning and dying out there....
Anyway, what do I know, I am just an ex-teacher visiting a friend in Manjung, right?
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