Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body...

I have just finished reading Kam Raslan's Confession of An Old Boy which surprisingly took only seven days of delivery by ordinary air mail to Japan (bought it online from Selects Books, Singapore..). The author has successfully relinquished the untold story of a fictional character named Dato' Hamid (DH), an anglophile budak koleq and a humble MCS officer back in the old Malaya. I am sorry to say but rigid minded people may look this piece as a full 7 chapter of book telling how typical a Malay Collegian could possibly be by always in love with sports (for DH it's hockey... and not to mention long lists of old boys heading the national sport's association and mere example of my 9701 brothers, always crazy about football and nonetheless, play rugby for MCOBA), hot girls (in DH case, it's always foreign beauties..in our naive years, girls from Tkc and Stf..later Sri Aman, TTDI, Subang and Assunta) and wine (no comment).

I, however..being characteristically analytical in my points of view and always try to see things from a different angle found out that this book have successfully revealed some important distinctive qualities that a true Malaysian or Malayan (as per described by the author) possessed but now had lost over the time. Malayans at that time are people with full of adventure (as per potrayed in Tun M's poem 'Perjuangan Belum Selesai')...who is at young age travel far either for knowledge or complacency...a Malayan is always a charm little Asian gentleman who will never forget to tell about sunlight and palm trees, endless empty beaches and the dense jungle lair of tigers and elephant of his lovely country as part of an introduction to himself..DH in this story is nevertheless a student cum traveler, playing drums in nightclubs with his Kelantanese friend, Nik during summer holidays..but never forget to come back home to Malaya..maybe you said that you have been chosen among thousands of applicants to undergo apprenticeship in PWC London straight after graduation but please do remember that at one point after your long years of climb towards the uphill track to be a chartered accountant, you must later go back to serve your country, your people in whatever means you could...I have personally seen students graduated from Japan who seems forgetting their roots...never mind their hair colours and style.....never mind their weird Malay accents..just please come back to serve your people when you already get what you wish for...stop trying to be somebody else...especially when your source of scholarship is related to the pile of taxpayer's money in EPF or whichever other Fund it may be derived from...

DH also faced a tough time to reject 'duit kopi' when it is the only way to fulfill his Anglophilic desires beyond his pay as a government servant...Borrowing Kam's word....What do you do when your tastes have been conditioned to be expensively international, but your training is to be a government functionary? Cynical to the present situation, Malayan at that time were Anglophilic but Malaysians currently are becoming Anglicized, proved by the increasing rate of shopping visits to London.

Go grab this book if you love nostalgic memories and would like to learn from history. Maybe I should stop now and figure out what happen to my order via Dawama for two books on two prominent leaders of ours.. Dato Onn Jaafar and Tunku Abdul Rahman...it has been 2 weeks since my third mail of ordering..no wonder Malay Language progressed so slow..just look at the efficiency of the guarding entity and its marketing agent..Just wonder how long it will take for the books to find its way here...

Let us learn a lot...and make no more repetitive mistakes..

Proclaim (Read) ! In the name of thy Lord & Cherisher,Who Created..
Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood...
Read ! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,-
He Who taught (the use of) the Pen, Taught man that which he knew not...

(Surah Iqra/Al A'laq)

*If any abbreviations in this article is not fully understood. Kindly post a question in the commentary section about it. I will attend to it shortly.