The Charms of Ole' Penang.....

Pakdokter took the chance from the 'Balik Kampung Hari Raya' trip to re-visit Penang. We chose the E&O Hotel for its 'old world' charm as well as for its convenient location from where we could set out on foot to explore the heritage sites of Penang.

Kudos to the Penangites! With this part of Penang being now declared a world heritage site, hopefully many of the old and pretty buildings will be restored to its former glorious looks....

Below are some of the picture-shots pakdokter managed to capture during the short 2-day break in Penang.

many of these old shops are now occupied by law-firms....

restaurants and bars....

the old Wearne Brothers motor-car showroom is now a small mall

and entertainment and food court...

called the 'Garage'...

the Cheong Sze Fatt Mansion.....some 16 rooms are available for an experience

of staying in an old Kongsi House....

an old Chinese temple...

refurbished old shops.....

the Convent Light Street...

St. Francis's Church?....

old Indian grocery shop....

More on pakdokter's mother and father.....

Last year, pakdokter had posted short write-ups on pakdokter's mother as well as on pakdokter's father in conjunction with the 'Mother's Day' and the Father's Day' respectively. Being the youngest son ( the 10th from 11 siblings) and having lost both parents quite young in pakdokter's life, pakdokter actually knew quite little about them.

The recent Hari Raya gatherings provided pakdokter the opportunity to meet up with some of the elder siblings and a chance to enquire some facts about pakdokter's parents.

Pakdokter's mother was the youngest child, coming from a family in the Bukit Merah/Gunung Semanggol district of Northern Perak. Pakdokter is not quite sure how many siblings she had. Her mother died during childbirth, and her step-mother treated her badly that her aunt had to adopt her to be spared from the ill treatment. This was the aunt that pakdokter remembers living with us in Petaling Jaya when pakdokter was small and who pakdokter addressed as "Nek" ( grandma).

Pakdokter's maternal grand-father was of the Banjar clan, a community originating from ?Banjarmasin in Indonesian Borneo and pakdokter's maternal grand-mother was of Thai origin, coming from the district of Pattani in Southern Thailand.

"Nek" had one son who worked as an aircraft technician at the Singapore airport. "Nek" lived in the kampung with pakdokter's eldest sister until pakdokter's mother brought her down to live with the family in Petaling Jaya as she became older and started to suffer 'senile dementia'. She shared the bedroom with pakdokter and an elder brother, and although pakdokter could not remember much of that time, pakdokter was told that "Nek" was quite a difficult person to look after in her old age. She was always asking to be sent to her own son in Singapore and finally pakdokter's parents consented to her wish and drove her to be with his son in Singapore where she died quite soon after that.

Pakdokter's mother died of Breast Cancer when pakdokter was in Form 2 at a boarding school in Ipoh.

pakdokter's mother, Jamiah Ali.......


pakdokter's "Nek", the grandma who was actually a

grand-aunt who adopted pakdokter's mother to spare

her from ill-treatment by her step-mother...

Pakdokter's father came from Kampung Kedah, Parit Buntar, also in Northern Perak. This is the 'kampung' which pakdokter's family considers as our 'kampung'. Pakdokter's paternal grand-father was of the Bugis extract (originating from the Indonesian island of Moluccas) and the paternal grandmother's side was of the Banjar extract.

In the write-up last year, pakdokter had written that pakdokter thought that pakdokter's father did not have much schooling. How wrong was pakdokter actually. Pakdokter's brother told pakdokter that he had completed Malay primary schooling and went on, after that, to a 'trade school' in Taiping where he learnt 'topographical survey'. He worked with British surveyors, plotting and drawing maps of different districts of the country which at different times took him away from the family for a period of time.

And some time during his career with the Survey Department, he was even awarded a 'Colombo Plan' scholarship for a short training in Topographical Survey in New Zealand where he had even invested in and bought a piece land!

During the times when he was posted for work in Perlis and later also in Brunei, he had apparently married a local lady at each location respectively. The wife in Perlis was divorced after he completed his rounds there and he probably did the same to his wife in Brunei. He did not have any children with both these two wives and these two ladies have also passed away many years ago.

These facts came into light when pakdokter's elder brother had to manage his estates after his death and all these infromation was given to pakdokter's brother to ensure that he did not miss out on any half-siblings who would rightly deserve a share of the estate.

Pakdokter's father suffered from Brochial Asthma, and he died from Brocho-pneumonia just a few weeks before pakdokter's university convocation. At least he knew that pakdokter was successful in becoming a doctor!

He was about 7o years old when he died.

pakdokter' father, Man@ Othman@ Che Man bin Din ...

pakdokter's father in his 60's....

pakdokter's father's office staff...

the Topographical Survey Department was

located in a block at Jalan Gurney where the Felda Complex is now...

pakdokter's father, sitting at extreme right....

a close-up of pakdokter's father.....

another office photograph....

pakdokter's father is sitting in the centre...

Abang, pakdokter's eldest brother.....

Pakdokter's eldest brother, Radzi, is 75 years old. All of pakdokter's siblings except the two eldest ones have worked, retired and settled down in Kuala Lumpur. Pakdokter's eldest sister settled down in the 'kampung' and pakdokter's eldest brother, Radzi, settled down at Permatang Batu near Bukit Mertajam where his late wife's family left them with the family's estate.

Pakdokter has very little memory of the times with pakdokter's eldest brother, Radzi. And as such there is very little too, on what pakdokter could write about him. During the trip to 'balik kampung' this time, pakdokter managed to catch him at his home. Pakdokter in fact got lost in Bukit Mertajam, and had to be rescued by one of his son-in-laws who came to pick us up at one of the city's Petronas petrol station. That was proof of how long it was the last time pakdokter had visited him!

Pakdokter wished that pakdokter had more time to chat him up and unravel some of the family's history. Hopefully another trip soon in the not too distant future.....

Pakdokter was surprised to discover that in pakdokter's collection there was one picture of Abang's class at the Parit Buntar English School. What year it was, pakdokter could not determine. Looking at the pupils size and appearence, they look adult enough to be in the secondary school. So pakdokter assumed that Abang must have schooled up to a secondary level.

Pakdokter remembers vaguely that he had worked for a short while in Kota Baharu, Kelantan, in the Department of Agriculture. But somehow and somewhat later, he switched job to become a telephone operator, a job he kept until he retired. Abang can speak a fairly good amount of English, must be the result of having attended an English School.

Abang's class at the Parit Buntar English School....

Abang at extreme right, standing.....



a close-up of the young Abang....

Pakdokter remembers hearing this story ( probably narrated by Kak, pakdokter's eldest sister) on how pakdokter's mother went about looking for a 'bride' for Abang. And this story was interesting enough to put on record here.

Abang married after Kak. And, it was a common practice those days that marriages were on an 'arranged basis' and the responsibility of seeking out suitable matches for the son was shouldered by the mother. Of course close relatives and friends would also be informed of the intention and so the 'scouting' and 'recommendations' would take place.

Upon a recommendation, attempts would now be made to investigate the background of the prospective candidate and whenever possible a 'close encounter' would also be executed. Pakdokter remembers the story of how pakdokter's mother, accompanied by a relative, had spied on a recommended candidate by following her on the bus as she rode it to school, only to reject her because she was found to be too 'talkative'!!.....Pakdokter wonders what other criteria were on the list in order to fulfil the KPI......( Key Performance Indices...)

Any way in the end, a bride was found for Abang, the only child and daughter of a distant relative of pakdokter's mother, who lived in Bukit Gantang, near Taiping.

Pakdokter can remember Bukit Gantang somewhat vividly. Pakdokter can remember the 'clear stream' where the water was cool and refreshing. But what pakdokter dreaded was the 'pacat' - the blood-sucking leeches that prey on your legs!...

And pakdokter cannot forget the 'nights' when pakdokter can hear the beat of the drums in the 'distant' hilly surroundings, and on one night pakdokter was taken along to witness what turned out to be some youths practising the 'silat' within a square court accompanied by this 'melodic' drum-beats of a drummer at the side. It would have been a great cinematic 'shot'..... Pakdokter wonders if such a 'sport' is still practiced in the 'interior' these days....

And who can forget Bukit Gantang for its durians.......

Azizah, or Kak Chak, as we normally addressed her, was a fair-skinned and pretty lass whose parents were a much respected and religious family in their 'kampung'. Kak Chak's father, Haji Kassim, lived in Mecca, for some years, studying and teaching Islamic Knowledge. On Abang's wall of his house, pakdokter saw a family photograph of Kak Chak's father and could not help but take that picture to be posted here.

Kak Chak's family ( having come from one side of pakdokter's mother's family) were originally from Pattani, Southern Thailand. Pakdokter remembers that some of these folks spoke in a 'lingo' that sounded very much like the present day Kelantan accent.....

Of Abang's wedding, pakdokter cannot remember anything at all........

Abang and Kak Chak have 8 children ( pakdokter must admit that this has to be verified). Sadly Kak Chak suddenly passed away about 18 months ago probably from a heart attack or a stroke. Abang now lives with one of his children.
(pakdokter must try to get a picture of Kak Chak, one of these days....)

Kak Chak's father's family...
Kak Chak's father, Hj Kassim, standing at extreme right..
to his left, his brother, Hj Salleh,
whose house in Bukit Gantang, pakdokter remembers visiting often...






a closer view of the above picture...
the ladies were probably the gentlemen's respective spouses......

Abang, in his 50's maybe....

pakdokter and Abang during the Hari Raya visit recently.....

and hopefully pakdokter will not match Abang's waist-line in the future....

'Kak' , Pakdokter's eldest sister.....

Pakdokter has 11 siblings!....including a pair of twins. The twins, a pair of a boy and a girl by the name of Zainul and Zainab died at around the age of 2, from what sounded like a bout of intestinal diarhoea. Another sister, Fauziah, also died at around the age of 2 for probably the same reason. The 3 deceased siblings were the 7th to the 9th in the family. Pakdokter is the 10th child and the youngest of the eleventh is a sister.

This post is dedicated to pakdokter's eldest sister, Fatimah, who is the second eldest in the family, who everybody fondly addresses her as 'Kak' for short. Kak is now 73 years old and her husband, Bang Lid ( Cikgu Khalid Abdul Hamid) who was actually a first cousin, died just over a year ago. Kak kas 3 children, all of them boys, the youngest of whom was born with Mongolism, which pakdokter am sure is a result of the cousin-marriage. The youngest son, Feisol, (whose name was later changed to Aziz, in the hope that it would cure him of the Mongolism that afflicted him..) died in his teens. The other 2 sons, Fakhruddin and Fakhrulrazi, have both become adults with their own families. Fakhrulrazi today lives with Kak in the 'kampung' which pakdokter had visited a few days after the recent Hari Raya.

Meeting up with some of pakdokter's siblings during the festive days allowed pakdokter to find out about them which pakdokter realised that pakdokter actually knew very little indeed.

Kak had spent her childhood days in Brickfields actually. She went to a Malay school in Batu 3 Jalan Klang Lama, some-place where today would probably be the Seputeh area. Pakdokter's third eldest sibling, Hanip, told pakdokter that Kak used to be caned for refusing to go to school. Initially pakdokter thought that it was pakdokter's father who had enforced that punishment, but on asking Kak during the Hari Raya visit, pakdokter was told that it was pakdokter's mother who did the caning. She said that it was a hassle to go to school then. She had to take a bus from Brickfields to Jalan Klang Lama which was quite a distance then. Pakdokter remembered that during one of pakdokter's earlier visit many years ago, Kak had expressed her regret for not taking her schooling seriously. All the other siblings had completed school at least up to the secondary level and had managed to secure jobs and earn their own income.

Hanip, pakdokter's brother, remembered that one of the Indian boys who was our immediate neighbour in Brickfields had shown an interest in Kak. During this visit, even without pakdokter asking her about it, Kak somehow spoke about this Indian boy. Without clearly stating that the boy had shown an interest in her,Kak told pakdokter that the Indian boy had often told her that he wanted to become a Muslim. Kak said the Indian boy went to Singapore to study medicine and she could not understand why he was always returning home ever so often and kept telling here that he wanted to become a Muslim!.....

Kak said that the boy's wish to become a Muslim was finally fulfilled when he married the daughter of a distant relative of pakdokter. This daughter was a Chinese girl adopted from birth by the family. And this boy is today a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, many many years senior to pakdokter. If pakdokter were to get a chance to meet him, perhaps pakdokter may try to tickle his memories of the days growing up in Brickfields.

Kak married a first cousin, Khalid, who was a teacher, trained at the Sultan Idris Training College in Tanjong Malim. Pakdokter can vaguely remember that wedding. Pakdokter must be just about 4 or 5 years old then.

The wedding was held at the very house where Kak now lives in. It was a very 'grand' wedding, by the standards of those days. A few cows were slaughtered and probably countless numbers of chicken too. The wedding celebration lasted for at least 2 days. The food was cooked on the grounds of the house by the village folks. Every household from the whole village streamed in for lunch and for dinner. There was a stage where a 'ghazal party' performed throughout the night. Pakdokter cannot remember what kind of music was played or what kind of dances were performed! And there was probably a 'boria' troupe as well...

Pakdokter cannot remember anybody coming with wedding gifts those days. What pakdokter remembers, the folks would donate sacks fo rice which, pakdokter imagines, would help subsidise the cost of the feasts. And the cooking, as pakdokter had already mentioned,was done by the men-folks, in the spirit of 'gotong-royong'.

Those were the days......

Pakdokter managed to capture a collection of photo-potraits of Kak from her albums during the visit. Judging from the collection of photos, pakdokter knows that Bang Lid must have really loved Kak very much. Bang Lid passed away in August 2008.....

Fakhruddin, Kak with Feisol on her lap, Fakhrulrazi and Bang Lid standing....

Feisol being held by Fakhrulrazi and Kak at the side....

Bang Lid and Kak.....

Kak at 73, Hari Raya September 2009.....

Balik kampung...

Whenever some of pakdokter's friends at the golf club or pakdokter's clients at the clinic ( many of whom were quite of the inquisitive type) asked pakdokter whether pakdokter would go back to the kampung for the Hari Raya, pakdokter would generally answer them in the negative. Pakdokter would tell them that pakdokter's kampung is actually at the Brickfields! This is quite true to some extent. Pakdokter was born in Brickfields, grew up and schooled in Kuala Lumpur ( except for the 8-year stretch of secondary boarding school in Ipoh) and even went to the medical school in KL to become one of the Made-in-Malaysia doctors! So, 'kampung' to pakdokter is 'Kuala Lumpur'.

pakdokter was born at the second house from the left

of the row of link houses in Brickfields popularly known as 'Seratus Pintu'...

pakdokter's current residence is on the 30th floor of the brown tower

behind that row of the old house....

But pakdokter's parents came from up North. Pakdokter's father originated from Kampung Kedah in Parit Buntar, Perak, and pakdokter's mother came from the nearby Gunung Semanggul district. As a little boy pakdokter used to travel with pakdokter's parents back to the kampung, and that kampung was always the kampung in Kampung Kedah, Parit Buntar, where pakdokter's father owned several plots of residential land, several acres of paddy field and a few acres of durian orchards in the hinterland.

That kampung was named 'Kampung Kedah' because its settlers were mostly of folks from Kedah who had to flee the state from the invasion of the Siamese army.

'Balik kampung' those days would mean a day-long drive along the Federal Route 1. Pakdokter remembers we would leave home very early, drive up the narrow, winding and dark road through the Templer's Park. For some reason it is etched in pakdokter's memory that driving through this part of the road would put ourselves at the risk of being pounced upon by 'tigers'. Perhaps this was just pakdokter's parents' way of making us behave at the back of the car, or maybe it was true that that region then was really infested with wild tigers....

Then somewhere along the stretch near the present Rawang and later after Tanjung Malim and a few other spots like Slim River, Sungkai and Sungai Siput, , the car would be stopped at military or police road blocks whose personnel would search and examine the boot and the inside of the car.

Of course after pakdokter learned how to read and became slightly intelligent and was able to read history, pakdokter now understood that these road-blocks were there to check that no 'sympathisers of the communists' would be able to provide 'supplies' like rice and sugar to the 'insurgents'!

Recollecting the trips to 'balik kampung' in the 50's was like watching an epic movie in 'black-and-white' actually.....

Today, only pakdokter's eldest sister still lives in the kampung house. And pakdokter must admit that pakdokter did not make the regular 'pilgrimage' back to the 'kampung' like most city dwellers do faithfully during every Hari Raya these days. Come to think of it pakdokter had actually mostly used the Hari Raya holidays to make trips overseas......

Scouring the collection of old photographs, the last time pakdokter 'balik kampung' must have been 6 or 7 years ago because pakdokter had brought along 'Dad', pakdokter's late father-in-law. And pakdokter's children, Rastam and Raena were not yet living overseas......so they were with us in the 'balik kampung' trip too. It must have been during a 'Hari Raya' period, based on the jars of cookies served on the dining table.

the 'kampung' house.....circa 2003 or so...

pakdokter's brother-in-law was a senior official of the Islamic Party

note the party's 'full-moon' logo at the door-step.....

pakdokter's family and pakdokter's sister's family....




Fakhrulrazi ( pakdokter's nephew), Kak (pakdokter's sister) and
Bang Lid, pakdokter's brother-in-law....

Dad (pakdokter's father-in-law) and Bang Lid (pakdokter's brother-in-law)

This year pakdokter and partner decided to make that 'balik kampung' trip again. Both our children could not come back for the festive holidays. We left a few days after the Hari Raya to avoid the mad rush and the traffic.

'Dad' has passed on about 5 years ago and Bang Lid ( Cikgu Haji Khalid Abd Hamid), pakdokter's brother-in-law has also passed away just over a year ago. There was only pakdokter's sister to visit whose younger of her two surviving son's and his family now occupy the family home with her.

the 'kampung house' today.....

Pakdokter's sister who is now 73 years old seemed to have come to terms with the departure of her late husband but age is definitely catching up with her. She is troubled with osteoarthritis which limited her mobility, but apart from this she is generally healthy for her age.

The political struggle of her late husband has been carried on by her younger son, Fakhrulrazi, who is a passionate activist of the Islamic Party in the kampung. And the pictures below are testimony of his activism.

The house is the centre of regional political activities of the party and many of the 'political ceramahs' by notables like Ustaz Nik Aziz and Haji Hadi Awang had been held there!

the'kampung house' decorated with PAS flags all around the perimeter...




PAS's interpretation of 1Malaysia.....

Kak, pakdokter and Fakhrulrazi.....

Sekolah Umum Gombak Lane and Dr Tom Dooley....

SEKOLAH UMUM GOMBAK LANE

Having written about pakdokter's childhood days in the last blog entitled '1958-1963...', pakdokter decided to google on a few topics that pakdokter had written in that blog. The internet is indeed an amazing tool. Voila.....there was the homepage of Sekolah Kebangsaan Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Kuala Lumpur, the new school that replaced the Sekolah Umum Gombak Lane where pakdokter schooled for 4 years.

This school was established in 1888 from a donation by a Malay millionaire of those days by the name of Nakhoda Yusof. The original school was located on Malay Street on the lot where the Wisma Yakin is currently situated. It was then named Sekolah Kampung Melayu.

In 1896, the school was shifted to Jalan Store (Jalan Raja) and was renamed Sekolah Umum Gombak Lane. In 1963 a new school was built on Jalan Swettenham ( opposite the Bank Negara Malaysia building) and was renamed Sekolah Hisamuddin Alam Shah.

The school started with 60 pupils in 1888, had 150 pupils by 1906 and about 600 pupils by the time pakdokter went there in 1958 to 1961. Originally the pupils were all boys, and when girls were first admitted to the school, the girls had their hair cut short and made to dress up in boys clothes as their parents were not comfortable to have their daughters sit side by side with the boys!

Many of the pupils were children of police officers from Jalan Bluff and Jalan Birch. Others were children from Kampung Melaka ( Melaka Street), Kampung Semarang ( where the brand new Menara CIMB and SOGO Dept Store are now located) and Kampung Jawa ( Jalan Tun Perak).

Come to think of it, pakdokter can now remember some of pakdokter's classmates whose fathers were policemen. And pakdokter had visited their homes at the police quarters along Birch Road fronting the Merdeka Stadium. The multi-storeyed police quarters are still there, if pakdokter is right, but they are no longer occupied by anyone.

Below is a picture of the Sekolah Umum Gombak Lane drawn out from the school's web-site.

DR TOM DOOLEY 1927-1961

Pakdokter had written that one of pakdokter's elder brothers was helped by one Dr Tom Dooley to go to the UCLA to pursue a course in Medical Engineering to enable him to become a qualfied 'renal hemodialysis technician. Pakdokter google-searched Dr Tom Dooley and made quite a lot of surprising findings!

But before that, pakdokter has to make some clarifications, after having spoken to pakdokter's brother about this matter. Pakdokter's brother was a dresser/medical assistant serving the folks in the district of Kuala Lipis. His work, apart from hospital duties included rounds to the villages and the orang asli settlements. It was in Kuala Lipis that pakdokter's brother came into contact with a group of Peace Corp medicos and nurses who were based across the river which happens to be in Gua Musang.

They became friends with pakdokter's brother, helped by the fact that pakdokter's brother was conversant in the English language. These Peace Corp workers would regularly cross the Pahang River by boat to Kuala Lipis and have parties at the Kuala Lipis Hospital. They would regularly sing the famous 'Tom Dooley' song and claimed that that song represented the group that they worked for and that their chief was one Dr Tom Dooley. It was these medicos who introduced the information and idea about 'hemodialysis' to pakdokter's brother, 'hemodialysis' being a very new technology then.

It so happened that a few months later pakdokter's brother received a letter from the Ministry of Health inviting applicants for a course in 'hemodialysis'. As pakdokter's brother had already had some idea and knowledge about this technology from these Peace Corp workers, he applied for the training and was awarded a Fullbright Scholarship to do the course at the UCLA. The Ministry of Health gave pakdokter's brother a no-pay study leave.......How generous!

Whether the Peace Corp workers had any influence in the Fulbright Award was anybody's guess.....

But here is another interesting anecdote. At one of the regular parties, one of the medicos was somewhat drunk and had told pakdokter's brother in 'confidence' that they were actually carrying out regular air-borne operations from Kuala Lipis/Gua Musang area into Cambodia and Laos providing medical and surgical services to the US soldiers injured in the Vietnam War! And they had in fact offerred pakdokter's brother to join them in one of these operations which he did not take up.

The life of Dr Thomas Anthony Dooley made an equally interesting reading. Dr Tom Dooley , graduated from the St Louis University School of Medicine in 1953 and served as Navy Medical Officer on U.S.S. Montague involved in the evacuation of 600,000 refugees from North Vietnam to the South during the Vietnam War. Shocked by the sufferring of the people and saddened by the inadequacies of health-care services in the Indo-Chinese region, he returned to Laos and Cambodia after his service with the Navy came to an end ( although a book alleged that he was dismissed because of homosexuality) , and helped establish small clinics and hospitals in Laos for the benefit of the local folks.

He died very young at the age of 34 in New York, from Malignant Melanoma, a very aggressive cancer of the skin. For his social work Dr Tom Dooley was regarded a hero and higly honoured by his friends and colleagues.

But there are also detractors of Dr Tom Dooley. In one book he was alleged to be a CIA plant scouting the area for the military. There are apparently 500 documents detailing his communication with the Chief of the CIA in Vietnam. Some even blamed Tom Dooley for initiating America's involvement in South East Asia and ultimately in the tragic Vietnam War!

So were the Peace Corp medicos and nurses CIA operatives based in Kuala Lipis and Gua Musang during the Vietnam War days........?

There were also slanderous rumours that he was a homosexual. They based this on his sympathy for those who were gays, and the fact that he was never married and was always successful at recruting young men at to become doctors.

He was also a poet and this one was written by him....

Listen to the agony of mankind

I who am fed, who never yet went hungry for a day,

I see the dead, the children starved for lack of bread.

I see and try to pray.

Listen to the agony of mankind

I who am warm, who never have yet lacked a sheltering home,

In dull alarm, the dispossessed of hut and farm

Aimless and transient roam.

Listen to the agony of mankind

I who am strong, with health and love and laughter in my soul,

I see a throng of stunted children reared in the wrong

And wish to make them whole.

Listen to the agony of mankind

And know full well that not until I share their bitter cry,

Their pain and hell, can God within my spirit dwell

And bring America's blessings nigh.

Dr Tom Dooley