Pak Idrus's Blog

In this posting I want to talk about Flags. I was born in 1939 and grew up during the Japanese occupation of Malaya from 1941 to 1945. So the first flag I saw was the Japanese flag, the white flag with the red circle in the centre. With the return of the British authority the Union Jack was again flown everywhere. With the defeat of the Japanese and the return of the British authority in Malaya the school was reopened. Except for the Japanese school all other schools was closed during the Japanese occupation. In January 1946 I start schooling. I remember my father took me to Sekolah Melayu Teruntun at Jalan Gambut in Kuantan. From the shop-house at Wall Street [now Jalan Mahkota] where we live we walk across the Padang, then follow the path across the grassland behind the Kuantan District Office to the school. The school is across the road with a few Pokok Kelapa Bali planted in front near the roadside. Kelapa Bali is what the Oil Palm is now known. It was at the school tha...

I grew up watching this flag until the Japanese was defeated in 1945. All my senior went to Japanese school. I did not. I start schooling at a Malay School when the school was reopen after the war in 1946..  Before this during the war and during the British colonisation we would watch the Union Jack every morning and sing God save the King. There was no Malaya then; all the states in the Persekutuan Tanah Tanah Melayu have their own flags and state anthems. In the state of Pahang where I was born and goes to school there was already the Pahang state flag; the Black and White flag. It was only after the war and the Federation of Malaya was formed that we have a flag, the Jalur Gemilang with the eleven pointed star and the eleven white and red strips as seen in the Malaysian flag today where the pointed stars are now  fourteens and the strips are of the same numbers as well.  Anyway up until the declaration of Independence on August 31, 195...

Both my parents were illiterate and yet they send their children to school. Until this day I could remember that day in January 1946 when I went to school when the school was reopening after the war. I remember vividly my father holding my hand and walk me to the Malay School [Sekolah Melayu Teruntun] at Jalan Gambut, Kuantan. From the shop at Wall Street [Now Jalan Mahkota] we walk across the Padang. Then along the path near the Government Office buildings and the patch of grassland to reach the school. I was then seven years old and excited and happy.  When I was registered as a student my name was written as Idrus bin Abu Bakar. I was sort of shock and wondering for a while; why they did not write my name as Awang. All the while I was call Awang and never heard of the name Idrus. Then the teacher explain that my registered name is Idrus. It takes a while before I could get used to been call Idrus. In those days kids never get to see their Birth Certificate so I was totally lo...

Woke up to a beautiful Sunday in June. I could hear the birds chirping and singing merrily in my Little Garden.  The happening in my Little Garden brought back memory of my days while camping in the woods during my scouting days. With that memory I thought that I would just write about me been a Boy Scout in my teen during my schooling days. I join the Boy Scout Movement as soon as I am eligible to do so. I registered myself as a scout by joining the Abdullah School Scout Troop; the 1st Kuantan Scout Troop. That began a journey of adventure until I left school after completing the Form V extermination in 1957. I never missed any of the activities of the Scout troop like going on camping and hiking. In scouting we learn about every aspect of leadership and many skills that would eventually help me greatly in my career in the government.  I took test to qualified myself to be a Queen Scout and in mid-1957 just before the countr...