Yayasan Tun Hamdan

It was on Sunday Sept 13 and around 1 pm - as schedulled - when Rostam came over and fetched me from the house. We then drove up to Taman Greenwood to pick up Anoair Jalil, a pre-arrangement that Rostam had made prior to the trip to Ipoh. From Taman Greenwood we then proceeded to Taman Bolton to pick up the consignment - the dates - that was pre-booked by Anoair, to be brought along to Ipoh. We were on the way for the much anticipated 'Majlis Penyampaian Bantuan Kewangan Yayasan Tun Hamdan'. STAR was to play host for this meaningful event.

The journey to Ipoh was a pleasant one -not many traffic on the road - understanable since it was Sunday and majority of us, Malaysians reserving the journey till the next weekend - for the Hari Raya journey - back to kampong!. Since we didnot stop at the R&R (fasting ma!), we arrived in Ipoh as planned and went straight to Tiger Lane. Anoair insisted of going straight to Hotel STAR (what a name, what a place it was!), from where he was supposed to hand over those dates to the waiting group, for the dates to be repackaged and to be distributed later during the ceremony itself.

When Anoair insisted upon us to go to Hotel STAR, we thought that he meant the students' hostel. No, we guessed it wrongly!. In fact he did mean Hotel STAR!. Yes, the school do have its own hotel known as Hotel STAR, located just opposite to the old industrial arts block. The hotel though has only one room - one large fully-aircond-room - with a double decker bed and a huge bathroom/toilet. Anoair preferred to stay there, easy for him to get things organise for the event on Monday.

We went to Hotel Sri Malaysia to break fast with Fathil Sharif and wife. Stayed there until 8.45 pm before we rushed off to Medan Gopeng, looking for some cenderahati for Toh Puan. Then it was len chee kang's time. A must for Rostam!. As before, Ah Seng was there to serve us and his len chee kang still the same as before!

We left Hotel Seri Malaysia at 10 o'clock the next day and by Rostam's standard it was rather early!!. Since we were early, we had the chance to mingle with some of the invited guests. Among the dignitaries who were there were - Tan Sri Alimuddin, the DG of Education and former Headmaster of STAR himself, En. Adinan Maning - the GM cum MD of Bank Simpanan Nasional , Dato Pajri (old boy and the organiser), Perak CPO Deputy Comm Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah (junior from Green House), former HM, Mohd. Khalid Khalim (Dato') was there and so did Pak Lau and Tan Teng Leong. Fellow STAROBAns who attended were Syed Nazri, Midzor Hilal, Raja Ramli, Mohamad Taib (Batch 72) just to name a few. Wan Husin and Md Ali also came. So did Ahmad Hamdan (junior and Partner of Hisham Sobri - legal firm). And there were others whom I didnot recognised but the gestures and acknowledgements enough to denote and convet the feelings that most of us were there for the simple reason - to honour a great person - the late Tun Hamdan Sheikh Tahir.

It was a simple ceremony and but it was rather an emotional one for me especially when singing the national anthem and the school song. Well, I had sung it before but to sing the songs again inside the school hall after all those years, brought back all the memories.., 'suka duka' in STAR - joining at the school the tender age of 13 years ., aah those years!

After the doa, reciting of the Qoran and speeches by Dato Tajri (as the organiser), by HM Guffuri (as the host), by Tan Sri Alimuddin (DG, Min of Education) and eventually by our own Dato Dr Awang Adek Husin (as the Pengerusi fo YTH), came the handing over ceremony. There were 32 recepients - 10 students each from STAR and Sek Men Kebangsaan Iskandar Shah, Parit and 13 students from Sek Men Keb Clifford, Kuala Kangsar. Apart from STAR, the late Tun had served the 2 schools thus their inclusion for the bantuan kewangan ceremony. It was specially witnessed by Toh Puan Hajah Siti Zainab.

What an ocassion to honour a person who had devoted his life towards the betterment of the education system especially to help rural and needy students. I guessed the whole afternoon was best described and summed up by the poetry by Usman Awang ..,

Jika hari ini seorang Perdana Menteri berkuasa

Jika hari ini seorang Raja menaiki takhta

Jika hari ini seorang Presiden sebuah negara

Jika hari ini seorang ulama yang mulia

Jika hari ini seorang peguam menang bicara

Jika hari ini seorang penulis terkemuka

Jika hari ini siapa sahaja menjadi dewasa;

Sejarahnya dimulakan oleh seorang guru biasa

Dengan lembut sabarnya mengajar tulis-baca.

An excerpt from Usman Awang ... Guru O Guru (1979)