New Dato' on the Block

(fom left) Ahmad Fakri, Fadzil Khir and Mat Taib

This picture was taken in 1967 showing three of my classmates when we first joined a residential school in Ipoh. Yes, we wore short and fitting t-shirts too in those days but we didn't flash any belly buttons. Only skinny kneecaps. Some of us made it good like the trio in the picture; Fakri is teaching Engineering at UiTM, Fadzil is in Town Planning and Mat Taib is a big-shot motivational speaker in Shah Alam. Some didn't, like yours truly. But I blog and they don't. (Hey, that accounts for something, right?)

Most of us were kampung kids coming from rural Malay schools and we had to study in 'Remove' classes for a year to prepare us for an all-English curriculum for the coming three (if you didn't make it past LCE) or five (if you did) years. Well, almost all-English except in Agama and Bahasa Melayu. Heck, sometimes even Bahasa was taught in English by Mr Kamaruddin, the BM teacher. He preferred to be addressed as 'Mr' instead of 'Encik' and he would rather explain the nuances of Bahasa Melayu grammar to us, in English. I guess it was because everyone in the staff room spoke English and he needed somebody to practise his command of the language. It was fun though.

Back to the picture. The lanky kid in the centre is Fadzil Khir of Kulim, now officially Dato' Mohd Fadzil bin Mohd Khir. He was conferred the title by HRH the Sultan of Kedah during the Sultan's birthday celebrations in Alor Star recently. I know it is kind of belated, but here's my heartiest congratulations to you, Dato'. Addressing your old classmates as Dato' is going to take some getting used to.

As for me, my eldest son has just broken off with his girlfriend. So, there goes my only chance of being a datuk.