DON'T FORGET!

Amal said this at the dining table while having lunch : "When the Japanese were here in Malaysia (she meant The Japanese Occupation of Malaysia) my teacher said families had to dig a big hole in their house. So that when they hear the Japanese soldiers coming, they all hide inside the hole especially the girls. Otherwise the Japanese soldiers would take the girls away." Then she asked me, "Nek Ngah, when you were small, did you have to do that?" Immediately I replied, "Oh no, Nek Ngah was not even born then, thank goodness! I was born after they lost the war." Amal smiled happily.

Come to think of it, I don't remember much about the politics of the past. Take the question of independence. In 1957, the year of independence, I was 11 years of age and in Std. 6. I was so naive! I didn't understand what all the excitement was all about then. I remember being in a parade with the rest of my school-mates the night before 31st August, holding a beautiful green and blue lantern, parading around the Coronation Park (now extinct) in Banda Hilir. Everybody was very happy as far as I can remember. And then the year before that, I remember a motorcade bringing the First Prime Minister of Malaysia, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, driving past my father's shop at Riverside. Now only do I know that the entourage was from the airport at Batu Berendam on its way to the Banda Hilir Padang (field) where the Tunku would announce the date of Malaya's independence. I remember very well, amidst the hustle bustle and the crowd, the Tunku stopped before my father's shop to get a 'songkok' (Malay head-gear) because apparently he forgot to bring one. I remember my father wanting to give him the songkok as a present but the gracious Tunku said he would pay for it. And he did. Those were exciting moments in history!!