News
Letter from Pulau
Tikus
|
News
Letter from Pulau
Tikus |
| Lim Huck Aik
LIM HUCK AIK has died at the age of 97. He had an excellent memory and could recall past events as if it were only yesterday. Even at 90, he managed to smoke an inch of Cuba cigar every day, though he had to give up whisky. In his last years he became rather hard of hearing which condition restricted his TV viewing to Hong Kong kung fu movies, where the action and not the words matter. Huck Aik, a Baba, came from a super rich family. His grandfather Lim Mah Chye, was the stuff of legend. It was said that he ate off gold plates, rode in a coach and four with gold lamps, and employed an English coachman, all of which wasn't true at all. His father, Lim Chin Guan, owned Eastern Shipping. Its 40 ships dominated the seas (the English were then not in the shipping business). Huck Aik went to Christ College, Cambridge, recommended by another Christ man, Leong Ying Khean (1908), whose house at No 32 Northam Road is now an office and restaurant. He was a muncipal councillor, Straits Settlements councillor and, just before Merdeka, a member of the Federal Legislative Council. He was a good friend of our first PM who failed to have him appointed a judge. Instead he was nominated Universiti Sains's first pro-Chancellor and a director of the national bank. He was a trustee of the Chinese Town Hall and of the Lim Kongsi (association of Lims). Penang has roads named after him, his father and grandfather. He was president of the Turf Club from 1958 to 1982. Huck Aik was Penang High Society. He was the last of men about town. click here for the Huck Aik story HUCK AIK Cheng Beng Cheng Beng has come and gone again. This solar occasion which corresponds in time to Easter is the Clear and Bright festival when graves are cleaned and prayers are offered to one parents and grandparents. This is the time when housewives work overtime to cook for the family ceremonies. The cooking list is intimidating: Hoo p'io t'ng (fish air bladder soup), kiarm ch'ai ar t'ng (duck soup with pig's trotters and salted mustard green), too tor t'ng (pig's tripe soup), poorut ikan (picked fish tripe curry), curry chicken, curry kapitan (a type of chicken curry), curry tumis (fish curry), joo hoo ch'ar (fried cuttle fish and vegetables), hoo ch'ee ch'ar (fried sharks fin), pnee hoo ch'ar ( fried dried sole with vegetables), archart hoo, archart timbun and archart arwark (pickled fish , cucumber and mixed vegetable, respectively), hong bar, too k'ar ch'or, lor bar, ing chiang, too knua kian (all pork dishes). But the housewife's practice is to confine the offering to three, four or five different dishes served in 6, 8, 10 or 12 bowls, one of which is a stalk of spring onion in hot water. Other bowls contain food garnished with spring onion cut in 1" lengths. If the grave is visited the offerings are carried in tiffin carriers. The 11th general election The 11th general election has also come and gone. The Democratic Action Party, founded by the gauleiters of the Singapore People's Action Party, demonstrated its pitiful condition by two full-paged adverts in the papers. One said, "Respected Prime Minister, True Steel Fears Not the Furnace, Don't Make a Clean Sweep, Let Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh Enter Parliament. There They will Expose Bad Things that Even You are Not Aware of." The other advert read, "Elect Barisan but Don't Let Them have Everything. Parliament Must Hear the Voice of the Opposition. Support Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh and Fong Po Sun and all DAP Candidates. We Don't Want PAS" (Barisan is the coalition of the three ruling parties. PAS is the Islamic party that rules the two northern states of Kelantan and Trengganu) A party that once sang lustily now begs to be sent to parliament. And what is more astonishing, it wants to help the PM "wipe out corruption". The war museum The so-called War Museum at Batu Maung (also called Bukit Punjab) is worth visiting. Hypnotised by the events of the first world war, the British command reasoned that because in 1916 a German raider, the "Emden", had sneaked into Penang Harbour and sunk the Russian cruiser, "Zhemchug", this time too the Japanese would attack Penang from the sea. 
So it came about that this monument to the stupidity of the British generals was built in Batu Maung. The Fort is a series of tunnels spread across 20 acres of land. It was equipped with two large 6 inch coastal gun batteries. In addition there was one firing range observation tower, four anti-aircraft gun pits with underground tunnels, one searchlight battery, logistic centres, halls, offices, ventilation shafts, sleeping quarters, cook houses, a medical infirmary as well as a lock up. Several pillboxes faced projected sea landings. The fort was large enough to accommodate one regiment. Under the command of Brigadier C.A. Lyon. was the Penang Signal Section, Royal Corps of Signals, the 8th Heavy Battery HKSRA 36th Fortress Company, the Royal Engineers, 5/14th Punjab Regiment 3rd Battalion, The Straits Settlements Volunteer Force (Penang and Province Wellesley). The force numbered 500 untrained troops. We now know, with the wisdom of history, that the disobliging Japanese instead came down from the north, from Thailand, then shot their way down south, bypassing Ppenang. On December 11, and again on the 12th 1941, Japanese planes bombed Penang and the British evacuated in panic and in secrecy. On December 17, the Japanese entered Penang. In 2002 the Penang state government restored the complex. It is now privately run by a husband and wife team. The nuclear link When the US president accused the SCOMI Precision Engineering (SCOPE) factory of being a link in the black market international trade in nuclear weaponry there was excitement all round. Why? because the prime minister's son controls SCOMI. The story was an unexpected boost for Abdullah Badawi bashing. But his critics forgot to mention that the factory was built in 2001, long before his appointment as prime minister. It was a first class thriller, that story was; among its sinister characters: the top nuclear scientist of Pakistan and a mysterious Sri Lanka businessman and money launderer married to the daughter of an ex-Malaysian diplomat. But even if the American propaganda were true, what wrong did SCOMI do? None at all if one does not support the "Israel only" nuclear policy of the USA. |
| School bullies The beating to death of a 16 year-old student of a religious school in Negeri Sembilan by his schoolmates has provoked righteous outcries from all round. A minister declared: "I want gangsterism among students to be contained and eliminated at its root immediately." We recall that the minister before him had said that his ministry would set up a task force to monitor the problem of gangsterism among students on learning that 20 students in an Ipoh school had set up a high council for gangster activities. But is it just a question of naughty school kids? If football hooliganism coincided with the rise of Thatcherism, has the spreading school ruffianism to do with the 20 years and more of the Mahathir regime? A metaphor of the Mahathir times must surely be Anwar's black eye. It is common knowledge that criminal suspects are knocked about. But that a VIP was the victim of a near fatal blow while in custody shocked the country. Just look at the news. They tell us of "trigger happy" police "shooting it out with criminals." The lawyer Raja Aziz Addruse has also spoken about "longstanding concerns" over allegations of ''trigger happy'' officers who shoot to kill rather than make arrests. He said more than 50 suspected armed robbers had been killed between September 1995 and April 1998. In 1999, the then deputy minister for home affairs admitted that for the past 10 years, a total of 635 people had been killed, i.e., an average of 1.3 persons per week. This compares with New Zealand's 18 in the 61 years from 1940 to 2001. The instances of shooting is disquieting. The victims were members of MIC on their way to a meeting, a pregnant woman, surau committee member in an anti-vice raid, a man suspected of khalwat, a car turning into a no-entry road, suspected robbers, suspected drug trafficker, a "serial rapist", a man escaping from a "vice raid", an "errant" lorry driver. Many of those shot did not have criminal records. Is it any wonder that there is a growing suspicion that there exists an unofficial "shoot to kill" policy?. Violence also infected Customs officers who have started shooting too Equally disquieting is the number of unexplained deaths in police custody. To take one example.On August 22, 2002, 27 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and political parties, accompanied by the families of S Tharma Rajen, 19, M Ragupathy and Vivashanu Pillai, both aged 24, who had died in mysterious circumstances handed a letter to chief justice Dzaiddin calling for an inquest on their deaths. R Chelvarajah, then chairman of the Bar Council, said he was alarmed about the ''rising number of assaults, abuses and deaths'' in police detention.. ''I dare say custodial violence or abuse of police power has been a disturbing factor in this country,'' the former attorney general Abu Talib Othman has been reported as saying. The Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations has also called for investigations. In Novermber 2000, the then deputy PM said that the Human Rights Commission should investigate allegations of police brutality and vandalism at the peaceful gathering at Kesas Highway on November 5, 2000. Unpunished violence by the police force only encourages police superiority. And nauseating is the attitude of the public prosecutor who has charged a lawyer for insulting a policeman. And the insult? "Hoi! Pekak kah?" The politicians are not helpful at all. It will be recalled that the UMNO Youth went on the rampage at the Second Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET II) at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur in 1996, breaking down a door, and assaulting and abusing the participants. And what did the UMNO Youth Deputy chief of the time, Hishammuddin Hussein, tell the newspapers? “We are proud of their bravery and maturity…” Again, in the year 2000, the same organisation threatened to break down the door of the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall because they did not like the petition of the Malaysian Chinese Oranganisations Appeals Committee which had been received by the prime minister only a year before wihout protest. Reporters and photographers were manhandled and abused in the demonstration, no doubt in a "brave and mature" fashion. During the November 1999 general elections, the BA candidate Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, who challenged the incumbent in Sungai Siput, lodged several police reports alleging that about 15 gangsters invaded his operations room and threatened his election helpers with broken bottles. And we learn that the MCA has a rich history of the “samseng” culture. Last year, MCA Youth leader, Datuk Ong Tee Keat, revealed triad infiltration and influence in top MCA circles. Tthe MCA Gurney Drive branch chief in Penang, Ong King Ee, better known as ‘Jackie Chan’ was arrested by the police for alleged secret society activities under the Emergency Ordinance. Although he received a pardon and was released, his close relations with the MCA president is still the subject of gossip. In spite of the recent arrest of a top-ranking Labuan MCA official by police, the second involving a party leader during the crackdown of illegal gaming and vice-syndicates, the MCA president has said that the MCA will not go out of its way to screen its members for evidence of a criminal background or triad involvement. A culture of boasting, swagger, the fist and illiteracy has marked the past two decades. The latest catalogue is depressing: assault on an NS trainee by trainees and trainers, the attack on an NS trainee with a rod, a knife used in a school quarrel? The picture is emerging of the swaggering bully who is Malaysia Boleh. K L Chai |
Friends of the
Penang Botanic Gardens
Tel 227 9915
|
| ______ INDEX Point to the article that you want to read, and CLICK Index page Baba words Book
review Contempt Food guide
Letter to the editor Lim Huck Aik
Pulau Tikus letter PoW Gazette Road
names |
_____________________ The Penang File Issue 34 |