In times when unity among Malaysians of varying races and religion is constantly being questioned, this is a story of 5 Malaysians, who possibly reflect the core diversity of Malaysians as they are today. This actual recent account of a 5- friend expedition up to Mt Kinabalu; two Malays, an Indian, a Chinese and a Eurasian, bears testimony that there are still many Malaysians of various walks of life who can still unite as one truly Malaysian community.
Azman
___________________________________________________________________________________
Azman
“Why don’t we do something extra special together this year”, voiced out Rodney over his usual teh tarek during one of our regular makan sessions after squash.
“After all, we meet often enough each Wednesday for squash, why don’t we take up something else together?” were his exact words.
Wednesday evenings after work, is our usual weekly squash get-together at the Jalan Duta Squash Centre. We normally end by 8.30pm before proceeding to hang out at restaurants in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, to catch up over everyday stuff (which includes reminiscing over the good old school days) before calling it a night.
We had been bouncing around ideas of picking up another hobby or two together. After all, we’ve kept in touch over the years mainly through squash and occasional old boys get-togethers. What about scuba diving? Or even cycling? We finally decided on going together on an expedition up Mt Kinabalu. We believed we should achieve something more challenging physically. After all, we considered ourselves physically fit, belting out squash sessions each week. Such a feat would be something to boost the mid-life ego too.
We belong to the Johannians Class of 1981. For those of you who may be unfamiliar, Johannians refer to old boys of St John’s Institution Kuala Lumpur.
The five of us, Rodney, Fitri, Andrew, Ronald and the writer, Azman, completed our 5th form in 1981, before heading out on our directions in pursuit of education and careers. We’ve kept in touch over the years and like many others, find good reasons to meet up every now and then.
Today, Rodney Michael is a leading entertainment industry voice talent who’s regularly heard over most Astro commercials and corporate advertisements. Mohamed Fitri Abdullah is Vice President and Head of Enterprise Business of Maxis Communications, Andrew Chan is an entrepreneur, having previously made his name with CSA Technologies, Ronald Pickering is Regional Head of CSR Australia, now based in Hong Kong, whereas the writer, Mohd Azman Sulaiman is the CEO of MAVTRAC, a member of the UEM Group.
All of us turned 44 this year, have growing families and lead reasonably comfortable professional lives.
What possibly strikes many as seeing something different when we are playing squash or crowding around our makan-makan sessions is that we look different as a group of 2 Malays, an Indian, a Chinese and a “lain-lain” (Eurasian) with common interests and lifelong friendship. We joke, we rib each other, and we share stories, laugh and argue just as we always have. During our school days at St John’s during the late 70’s and early 80’s, we were among many other such mixed groups who grew up together into young men. Sadly today, such social interactions appear to be few and far between.
Our greatest concern today is that our children are growing up in an environment which is continuing to harp on racial and religious differences, whereas we thought we had passed that social concern last century.
Most importantly, we have respect for each other. Yes, our table talk does sometimes extend to particular differences among our religion and race, but more from the viewpoint of common respect and appreciation of similarities that bring us together. We often enough do rib each other, jokingly making references to “macha”, “china-man”, “malay fella” and “lain-lain” but it’s all in zest and fun, and that’s as far as it goes.
Now getting back to our Mt Kinabalu expedition, as expected, whilst the idea was tossed up among the many, when it came down to the organizing, they left it to me to decide on a date and travel arrangements. One plus point was that at the time, Malaysia Airlines had just launched its “Zero Fare” campaign so we managed to reserve flight seats for free, to and fro KL-KK, and given ample time, we were able to coincide available expedition dates close to the 51st Merdeka celebrations.
We couldn’t find a good enough excuse to tell our wives why on earth do we want to go on such an expedition, until we realized that 1964 was the year that the town of Jesselton was re-named Kota Kinabalu to commemorate Mt Kinabalu’s recognition as a “World Heritage Site”. Hence the chosen name of our expedition, “Jesselton 1964”.
In the 3 months leading up to our expedition, we spent many weekends in training, tackling nearby Lake Gardens, Kemensah Heights/Genting Ridge, Gg Nuang and Genting Highlands. Fortunately we also had sound advice from experienced mountaineers; one to make special mention of is, Thomas Simon, on the needed preparations for such an expedition.
As the date of our expedition approached, as a team, we also prudently purchased the appropriate equipment from haversacks, to walking poles, to clothing, to wet wear, always comparing prices to ensure we secured good value for money (or in other words, as “kedekut” as possible!).
Come the date of travel, Ronald joined us from Hong Kong as we made our way out to Kota Kinabalu from Kuala Lumpur.
We spent the first night at Kinabalu Park before commencing the climb through the Mesilau Gate at 9.30am the following morning. What was thought to be the more scenic and pleasurable route, turned out to be 3km longer and it took us 9 hours to reach Laban Rata, long after dark. What made the trek more concerning was that the writer suffered severe cramps (sometimes termed “Frozen Muscle”) half-way up the route and at one point a decision was taken to abort the climb at Layang-Layang. However with perseverance, all of us made it safely to Laban Rata that night to put up at the Gunting Lagadan resthouse.
It had been raining the prior few days, but luck would have it that on the following morning of our final summit ascent, the dark skies were brightened with glittering stars as we made our way up the remaining 2.5 km trek under torchlight to the peak, starting 3am in the morning.
By 5.45am, the dawning sun had cast its early light on Lowe’s Peak as we enjoyed the beautifully majestic yet cold view from the top of Mt Kinabalu.
A sense of common fulfillment and togetherness prevailed as we realized all the sacrifice and pain was all worthwhile. We share with you one of many snapshots we took as we posed time and again to capture this memorable moment.
We are also the beneficiaries of two certificates, one of which also recognizes our ascent up Mt Kinabalu through the more challenging Mesilau Summit Trail.
Much has been written about personal experiences of even more challenging expeditions, so the writer need not elaborate more.
What we believe is most unique about this particular experience and the story that we wish to share, is that, whilst there appears to be a current scrutiny of growing differences between the various ethnicities and religions among Malaysians, unity still prevails. Ours is such an example.
We recognise that our story is ironic not from the view point of the expedition itself, but from the viewpoint that we really are a bunch of old buddies, who happen to be of differing race origins, religion and professional interests, yet never take notice of such differences in our day to day interactions. We also trust that such commonalities are prevalent among the Malaysian community in general and will continue to be the uniqueness and strength of the majority of Malaysians in the generations to come.
On a final note, as we descended down from Mt Kinabalu that day, we crossed paths with a young Japanese boy who was on his own, trekking up the mountain. After exchanging greetings, he obviously noticed we each looked different, and naturally in turn, asked the five of us where we were from. We heartedly replied,
“After all, we meet often enough each Wednesday for squash, why don’t we take up something else together?” were his exact words.
Wednesday evenings after work, is our usual weekly squash get-together at the Jalan Duta Squash Centre. We normally end by 8.30pm before proceeding to hang out at restaurants in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, to catch up over everyday stuff (which includes reminiscing over the good old school days) before calling it a night.
We had been bouncing around ideas of picking up another hobby or two together. After all, we’ve kept in touch over the years mainly through squash and occasional old boys get-togethers. What about scuba diving? Or even cycling? We finally decided on going together on an expedition up Mt Kinabalu. We believed we should achieve something more challenging physically. After all, we considered ourselves physically fit, belting out squash sessions each week. Such a feat would be something to boost the mid-life ego too.
We belong to the Johannians Class of 1981. For those of you who may be unfamiliar, Johannians refer to old boys of St John’s Institution Kuala Lumpur.
The five of us, Rodney, Fitri, Andrew, Ronald and the writer, Azman, completed our 5th form in 1981, before heading out on our directions in pursuit of education and careers. We’ve kept in touch over the years and like many others, find good reasons to meet up every now and then.
Today, Rodney Michael is a leading entertainment industry voice talent who’s regularly heard over most Astro commercials and corporate advertisements. Mohamed Fitri Abdullah is Vice President and Head of Enterprise Business of Maxis Communications, Andrew Chan is an entrepreneur, having previously made his name with CSA Technologies, Ronald Pickering is Regional Head of CSR Australia, now based in Hong Kong, whereas the writer, Mohd Azman Sulaiman is the CEO of MAVTRAC, a member of the UEM Group.
All of us turned 44 this year, have growing families and lead reasonably comfortable professional lives.
What possibly strikes many as seeing something different when we are playing squash or crowding around our makan-makan sessions is that we look different as a group of 2 Malays, an Indian, a Chinese and a “lain-lain” (Eurasian) with common interests and lifelong friendship. We joke, we rib each other, and we share stories, laugh and argue just as we always have. During our school days at St John’s during the late 70’s and early 80’s, we were among many other such mixed groups who grew up together into young men. Sadly today, such social interactions appear to be few and far between.
Our greatest concern today is that our children are growing up in an environment which is continuing to harp on racial and religious differences, whereas we thought we had passed that social concern last century.
Most importantly, we have respect for each other. Yes, our table talk does sometimes extend to particular differences among our religion and race, but more from the viewpoint of common respect and appreciation of similarities that bring us together. We often enough do rib each other, jokingly making references to “macha”, “china-man”, “malay fella” and “lain-lain” but it’s all in zest and fun, and that’s as far as it goes.
Now getting back to our Mt Kinabalu expedition, as expected, whilst the idea was tossed up among the many, when it came down to the organizing, they left it to me to decide on a date and travel arrangements. One plus point was that at the time, Malaysia Airlines had just launched its “Zero Fare” campaign so we managed to reserve flight seats for free, to and fro KL-KK, and given ample time, we were able to coincide available expedition dates close to the 51st Merdeka celebrations.
We couldn’t find a good enough excuse to tell our wives why on earth do we want to go on such an expedition, until we realized that 1964 was the year that the town of Jesselton was re-named Kota Kinabalu to commemorate Mt Kinabalu’s recognition as a “World Heritage Site”. Hence the chosen name of our expedition, “Jesselton 1964”.
In the 3 months leading up to our expedition, we spent many weekends in training, tackling nearby Lake Gardens, Kemensah Heights/Genting Ridge, Gg Nuang and Genting Highlands. Fortunately we also had sound advice from experienced mountaineers; one to make special mention of is, Thomas Simon, on the needed preparations for such an expedition.
As the date of our expedition approached, as a team, we also prudently purchased the appropriate equipment from haversacks, to walking poles, to clothing, to wet wear, always comparing prices to ensure we secured good value for money (or in other words, as “kedekut” as possible!).
Come the date of travel, Ronald joined us from Hong Kong as we made our way out to Kota Kinabalu from Kuala Lumpur.
We spent the first night at Kinabalu Park before commencing the climb through the Mesilau Gate at 9.30am the following morning. What was thought to be the more scenic and pleasurable route, turned out to be 3km longer and it took us 9 hours to reach Laban Rata, long after dark. What made the trek more concerning was that the writer suffered severe cramps (sometimes termed “Frozen Muscle”) half-way up the route and at one point a decision was taken to abort the climb at Layang-Layang. However with perseverance, all of us made it safely to Laban Rata that night to put up at the Gunting Lagadan resthouse.
It had been raining the prior few days, but luck would have it that on the following morning of our final summit ascent, the dark skies were brightened with glittering stars as we made our way up the remaining 2.5 km trek under torchlight to the peak, starting 3am in the morning.
By 5.45am, the dawning sun had cast its early light on Lowe’s Peak as we enjoyed the beautifully majestic yet cold view from the top of Mt Kinabalu.
A sense of common fulfillment and togetherness prevailed as we realized all the sacrifice and pain was all worthwhile. We share with you one of many snapshots we took as we posed time and again to capture this memorable moment.
We are also the beneficiaries of two certificates, one of which also recognizes our ascent up Mt Kinabalu through the more challenging Mesilau Summit Trail.
Much has been written about personal experiences of even more challenging expeditions, so the writer need not elaborate more.
What we believe is most unique about this particular experience and the story that we wish to share, is that, whilst there appears to be a current scrutiny of growing differences between the various ethnicities and religions among Malaysians, unity still prevails. Ours is such an example.
We recognise that our story is ironic not from the view point of the expedition itself, but from the viewpoint that we really are a bunch of old buddies, who happen to be of differing race origins, religion and professional interests, yet never take notice of such differences in our day to day interactions. We also trust that such commonalities are prevalent among the Malaysian community in general and will continue to be the uniqueness and strength of the majority of Malaysians in the generations to come.
On a final note, as we descended down from Mt Kinabalu that day, we crossed paths with a young Japanese boy who was on his own, trekking up the mountain. After exchanging greetings, he obviously noticed we each looked different, and naturally in turn, asked the five of us where we were from. We heartedly replied,
“We are from MALAYSIA”.
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