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Photo: Cecil Rajendra in relaxed mode

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IN the seventies the world of Bayan Lepas was turned upside down. The village had been a picture postcard beauty:  attap houses on stilts scattered among fresh green paddy fields; elegant coconut trees obligingly swaying in syncopated rhythm with the tossing heads of rice. A line of low lying hills of reticent shade formed the background. It was a classic that drew water colour artists as bees to honey. But the bulldozers appeared, concrete buried the paddy, and Penang's silicon valley took shape and spread its shadow over the land. Thousands of young people, mainly girls, were recruited from the surrounding villages much loved by the artist Abdullah Ariff, to make microchips and semi-conductors to feed the hungry new technologies of  Japan and the USA. 

THE growing free trade zone was also union free, a requirement of the foreign investor. Deprived of unions, the recruits of the new age turned to V Alfred, a young social worker and his two farmer friends  - Arumugam and Abdul Rahim bin Jaafar. To these three friends they confided their worries about jobs and accommodation.  Alfred called in Cecil Rajendra, known as the poet with an abiding compassion for the deprived and the oppressed and in 1980 the four met in a small coffee shop in the village. Subject of discussion:  how to better bring legal aid to those rural folk who could not afford a lawyer. 

AT first cases were dealt with on an ad hoc basis in that same coffee shop on the main road. But as callers increased, a more permanent station was needed. Arumugam and Pak Leh - for that was the name they preferred to call Abdul Rahim , finally found a ramshackle wooden shed with a leaky zinc roof, also along the main road. The dilapidation would have discouraged others less dedicated but the location and, most importantly, the rent was right, and the four were very determined persons. Arumugam and Pak Leh put down the deposit of RM80. Cecil roped in his more affluent clients to repair the roof, renovate the place, donate a typewriter, table, chairs, and filing cabinet - and the Penang Legal Advisory Centre was born.

V. ALFRED signed on as the first paralegal at the centre, and so did Abdul Rahim and Arumugam Palan  - "The dawn of barefoot lawyering in Malaysia" was how the late Tan Sri Dr Tan Chee Khoon described it in his column in The Star newspaper "Without Fear or Favour." Then the lawyer volunteers from Georgetown descended on the boondocks of Bayan Lepas, and Legal Aid has never looked back. 

IT was Cecil who  pioneered the  idea of on-the-job training of paralegals. This regime has now been recommended by the Commonwealth Law Centre and introduced to the countries of Africa and the Caribbean 

IT speaks well of the tough independence of the PLAC that it received no start-up funding from any body, political party, government source or foundation. Unlike most consumer organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGO's), the PLAC, in its 20 years of existence has relied entirely on the contributions of lawyers and civic conscious Penangites for its survival. Practising lawyers regulate the PLAC, ensuring that it remains a truly independent body acting without fear of favour on behalf of the less privileged members of society. The achievement is unique and Cecil is proud that it is the only one of its kind in the world.

AT the beginning the PLAC handled mostly employment, domestic and eviction matters but today its growing panel of lawyers tackles every type of case which satisfies the means and merits test. In 20 years the total number of matters receiving attention has reached 20,000; the yearly average is now 1000 cases.

IN addition to providing free legal aid and advice, the PLAC has also embarked on legal literacy drives and legal awareness campaigns. It has organised ceramahs in far flung rural areas such as Batu Kawan, Tempoyak, Gertak Sanggul, Balik Pulau etc. It has helped rural folk set up fishing and cattle-rearing co-operatives and it has provided training for former victims. It has taken up public interest matters as well as pursued class actions in court.

TODAY there are paralegals in Bukit Mertajam, Bukit Tambun and Permatang Damar Laut, centres in Butterworth and in Georgetown and clinics in Bukit Tambun and Permatang Damar Laut. But never satisfied, the PLAC hopes to open more rural legal aid clinics as well as to organise more ceramahs and law awareness campaigns in kampungs, low-cost housing estates and supermarkets. PLAC hopes to be able this year to introduce mobile legal aid clinics and a novel out-reach concept that will take lawyers to where the community is or gathers e.g. pasar malam venues and week-end markets.

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***  IT was two years later that the Bar Council set up a legal aid centre in Kuala Lumpur. Ipoh, and Johore Bahru soon followed with their legal aid centres. Today the Bar Council has legal aid centres in every State in the country run on lines similar to the PLAC.

*** PLAC is now known as the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre.

*** CECIL Rajendra still does time at the Centre and is its honorary consultant. Cecil is also a member of the Bar Council's National Legal Aid Committee after having served several terms as National Legal Aid Chairman. He presented a seminal paper - "Legal Aid and the Protection of Rights: How Effective are Domestic Legal Aid Programmes? Are There New Dimensions?" - at the 12th Commonwealth Law Conference in 1999.

*** V. Alfred  went on to read law at the University of Birmingham. He is now a full-time lawyer working with the trade unions.

*** ABDUL Rahim and Arumugam Palan still serve as paralegals at the Centre's Permatang Damar Laut clinic in Bayan Lepas. They are the longest serving paralegals in the country.

Music Makers

THE concert in May at the Dewan Sri was the  highlight of the month. Young players from Taiping and Penang formed ad hoc orchestra to perform on Chinese instruments.  The standard was high despite the lack of rehearsal time. This explains why there were three conductors at the concert: Chou Ching Hao (Cheng Keng How), the well known Singapore conductor as well as Hwang Shih Kwang (Ng Su Kuang) and Wu Wei Shen (Ng Jooi Sim). The star attraction was the great master of er hu, Su Pai Yung who came from Hong Kong and demonstrated the er hu's ability to display a wide range of emotions. The locals were astonishing: Lai Ah Lai on gu heng as well as playing flute, Wu Wei Ch'en (Ng Jooi Seah) the brother of Wu We Shen on the suona, the flute of Turkish origin which leads the ensemble in Chinese opera and sounds like a trumpet, convincingly proved that there is great musical talent in this country. It has to be mentioned that an unnamed member of the charity orchestra displayed considerable skill on the temple blocks, the tock tock tock, which sounds the tension in Chinese opera. 

CANTONESE MUSIC
 

The Amateur Musical Society is 60 years old and had a celebration. It is mainly devoted to playing Cantonese music once popular in the 50s and 60s with Great World crowds and often broadcast over Radio Malaysia