Down Memory Lane

I came across this article from "The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas", compiled and published under the aegis of the Chinese Heritage Centre which was set up in Singapore in 1995. I had borrowed this encyclopedia from the National Library.

I was "proud" to learn I had shared the same alma mater, St Thomas's Secondary School with the late Mr Wee Kheng Chiang, reputedly the richest man in Sarawak, if not the region, in his lifetime. I remembered my uncle mentioning his name to me, as a child, when we passed by his mansion, sited on top of a hill in Kuching.

I remember my primary and secondary school with much fondness. Unfortunately, during my latter years in St Thomas's Secondary School, the standard of education dropped drastically when it became politically imperative for the principals of government and government-aided schools in Malaysia to be a bumiputera under the New Economic Policy, introduced in the aftermath of the May 13 1969 racial riots in Malaysia. I still remember the expat principal Mr Nigel Heyward from New Zealand (or was it Tasmania?) who had served the school with distinction.

I was much heartened when one of my best friends and classmate, Chee Sun, assured me that the high standard has been restored since then, and St Thomas's Secondary School is again a premier school in Sarawak. :)