Pakdokter's late eldest sister, Kak, as we used to address her, lived in Kampong Kedah, a village in north Perak bordering Penang. Her late husband, who also happened to be pakdokter's first cousin, was a Sultan Idris College trained teacher and was at the height of his political career, a State Commisioner of the Islamic Party. Although we did not share the same political convictions, we had great mutual respect for one another. Both he and pakdokter's sister have passed away, leaving their two sons and grandchildren behind. This is the first time that pakdokter made a visit to see how these young families are doing. It was pakdokter's habit to regularly make small contribution to Kak and her family and since her passing away, that sense of responsibility still prevails. As pakdokter had recently received a small inheritance following the demise of another sister some years ago - pakdokter wanted to see if any of these grand-nephews or grand-neices would be in need of help - for vocational or tertiary education for instance.
The kampong house still looked the same and from the bright green flags and banners decorating the compound, pakdokter was glad that Bang Lid's struggles with his Islamic ideology has been taken over by his younger son, Fakhrulrazi. Zi and his wife was not home when pakdokter arrived - his son who was there told pakdokter that they had gone to pick up their guest speakers from Kedah as there would be a political ceramah there that night. Zi's two children are doing OK - the one who received us is gainfully employed with Celcom and the other is pursuing a course in Health Sciences in the East Coast. Pakdokter left behind the contributions and donations that pakdokter had intended to make when pakdokter initially decided to make this trip back to the 'kampong'....
chairs all in rows for the night ceramah...
