It is said, “What’s in a name; that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet?” I am not a true Shakespearean and therefore I will claim the popular heritage of this idea and ideal.
This same rose however is on the cover of the first book that I am publishing, consisting of about 40 columns of mine related to the lack of good governance over the ‘Allah’ issue in Malaysia. The actual title of the book can be the subject of another column, so I will not reveal it yet.
But, after March 1 (i.e. my wife’s birthday) the book is ready for sale at the publishers, SIRD in Petaling Jaya. I will make no profits from this print-run; while the publisher only seeks to cover his costs.
So, what is in this name called ‘El Putera’, which was originally and initially spelt El Putra? Actually, one among us, Ahmad Abdullah of A Company, whom by nickname we call AA of A coined the phrase some years ago at one of our wedding gatherings. It stands for Enam Lima Putera, and not 65Putra.
The Putra would have set us apart as the royalty of Malaysia; but, really we are all ordinary kampung boys from all corners of Malaysia (except Sabah and Sarawak, but inclusive of three Singaporeans) who were recruited to join the Federation Military College (FMC), and then the Royal Military College (RMC) of Malaysia.
The college originally founded in 1952 started taking in boys into Boys Wing of the Malay Regiment in order to ‘train leaders for the future of independent Malaya’. The founders of the FMC/RMC were Gerald Templer, the General Officer Commanding of British Forces in Malaya under the colonial rule and the then-defence minister, Abdul Razak Hussein and the father of the present prime minister and our second one of similar fame.
In 1966, at our passing out Parade for the Enam Lima Intake, the government officially announced that then Federation Military College or FMC of Sungai Besi would be renamed the Royal Military College. Since its inception in 1971, after a number of false starts, the RMC Old Boys or Alumni also became called Old Puteras, as meaning old boys of the Boys Wing, or the now renamed Putera Wing of the RMC.
Our 50th or golden anniversary
Between March 3 and 5, 2015, at the Swiss Garden Resort in Lumut, Perak we are coming together again as Old Puteras who will henceforth be called El Putera, a brand name of our own. Including spouses, and two widows, we will be almost 80 of us.
We will be two ex-Judges of the High Court, at least 10 medical doctors of various specialisations and some very senior Administrative and Diplomatic Service (PTD) officers, many private sector captains, even a dentist, and many military Officers, whether Army, Navy or Air Force. We also managed to get two widows to attend with us, in memory of their beloved husbands and our classmates.
The series of golden anniversary celebrations was started by intake 1957, on the occasion of the 50 years of Malaysian Merdeka. On July 7, 2007, that vintage gathered and if I am not mistaken there were at 600 Old Puteras at their gathering to celebrate the RMC as one institution of import. We came together at the same place where the old college started in 1952, in Port Dickson.
Some notable graduates of that intake came together and made significant contributions for their grand gala event. These were Ling Liong Sik, Radzi Sheikh Ahmad ( right ) and G Gnanalingam. Two of them finally became ministers, and the other remains owner of Wesports Malaysia.
We were all trained within the motto to, ‘Serve to Lead’. We were always reminded there is no leading without serving and all three of them learned to serve before they began leading. Two are former presidents of the Old Putera Association (OPA). My only unanswered question remains: ‘But whom do we really serve?’
The national or public interest
Groups or communities who have a very high sense of camaraderie may often feel they are really great and fantastic with their culture and way of life; and that they truly are, and we should all be able to celebrate that spirit of ‘common unity’. But, surely, no such group, or groups of groups, or any confederation of all such groups should think, or feel, that they define the world for views with their worldviews. East or West; what really is best?
Too often in the older era politics, the ‘so-called political leaders’ define what is good or bad for the public interest premised upon their personal or community interests; which should and can never be the case in a real or true democracy. Democracy a rule of the people, by the people, and for the people! Therefore, when such views are no more representative of the interests of the common and public good; all such leadership must be completely rejected.
Consequently, one of the greatest challenges I faced in my doctoral thesis related to how to define ‘dignity in the workplace’. Most respondents concluded: “What dignity?”
Therefore, how does one define dignity in our lived or community space or place; if one cannot even define it in the workspace? That was my challenge. I had to struggle and think through the challenges between the two extremes of personal interest and the organisational interests; at every work space or place.
If every individual has a God-given dignity, the question that arises is, when does the organisation insist that blind compliance to its values and ethics is always in the larger interest and therefore seek to ‘dictate that’ as the common good.
Therefore, this challenge of defining the nation’s public interest on any given issue is always the challenge of public policy problem definition and policy formulation. Can public policies really be made based on the whims and fancies of planners, or so-called leaders of particular policies or programmes, if we cannot ‘sell these same values and ideas’ to the common interests of the ordinary man?
To serve and to lead
This column is however dedicated to one of my classmate of 50 years, whom we will not see, meet, and greet this week in Lumut. The reason is simple. He is committed to being a loving care-giver to an aunt who presumably stays with them. While we are all given God’s image and consequent human dignity to choose to do what is right regardless of circumstances, and regardless of who is watching; not all of us choose to serve to lead the way this friend does.
I salute this dear friend, who served on our committee and did his part but missed out on all the fun. We will really miss you, bro! Not all of us are always able to put what is right before the convenient and simpler. May such truth matters be our intake’s benchmark for posterity, and the rest of our lives.
