He never came home from the walk

New Straits Times

By Lee Siew Lian and Dennis Wong

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2: In a Chinese cemetery just outside Yong Peng, Johor, is an empty tomb.

Retired contractor Tan Sue Yong had bought the burial plot and built the tomb some 20 years ago, in the cemetery somewhere along the road to Paloh.

Preparing for the inevitable is a common practice among older Chinese folk, especially those who came here from China to seek a better life, and Tan would stop by the tomb once in a while to clean it up.

Five years ago, the elderly 83-year-old went for a walk and did not come home. His family first searched along his usual route, then around the town, and eventually nationwide.

Neighbours, MCA branch members, the police, Rela volunteers, many people tried to help. His family put advertisements in the newspapers, but he could not be found.

Tan is still missing today. He would be 88 this year.

His family is still grappling with the consequences of not knowing where he is, or what happened to him, and whether he is still alive.

"It’s a terrible feeling, not knowing. There’s no closure," said his younger son, Roger.

Frustration and uncertainty have left lasting marks on the family.

Roger’s 81-year-old mother, Swee Mei, has recurring dreams about him. So does Roger and his other children, and grandchildren.

When they see him in their dreams, they beg him over and over again: "Tell us where you are."

And always, they wake up just as it seems he is about to speak.

A month ago, Roger’s niece had the same dream. And earlier this week, Roger’s nine-year-old daughter told him she dreamed of Ah Kung again.

"I told her I dreamed of him, too," said Roger, a faraway look in his eyes.

Tan Sue YongTan first came here to work in 1937. He returned home to Fuzhou province four years later, and finally in 1947, he left China for good and settled in Selangor with his wife.

Life was hard for the family, which remained poor for many years. Slowly, he saved enough money to buy some land to plant rubber, and another piece to build a house for his wife and six children.

Roger, 43, is his second youngest child. He has another older son and four daughters.

Even after Tan retired as a land-clearing contractor, he remained fiercely independent, walking some 10km every day to check on his small estate on the Yong Peng-Paloh road.

That was where he wanted to go two days before he went missing.

Roger, who had popped home to visit his parents, persuaded him to be driven there. Returning home, however, his father insisted on walking.

"So I had to follow behind him in the car until we reached home," he said. That was the last time Roger saw his father.

Speaking of his father makes Roger visibly emotional. His voice thickens and his eyes glisten with tears as he tells how his father remained fiercely independent even as he aged.

Roger, a lawyer, said his family is trying to be realistic, and to move on.

"He was suffering from dementia and his age is advanced. No one is looking after him. It’s difficult to see how an old man like that could survive."

Roger said his mother appears to have accepted that her husband may have died. He himself thinks it unlikely that his father is still alive.

But his heart finds it hard to accept what his mind has reasoned out.

"Something inside tells you: Don’t give up even that little hope that you harbour," he said.

Last month, his mother and his siblings decided to consult a feng sui master for advice on what next to do.

The man conducted a few rites, and then told them they would dream of him over the next few nights. Then they would know either where he is, or that he was no longer alive.

In the end, it was Roger who dreamt about his father speaking.

Roger is the only Christian in the family, and does not subscribe to traditional beliefs.

But he is the one his father loved the most, and the most determined to keep looking.

"In the dream, he said he is in Kuala Terengganu."

Now, the family is struggling with another dilemma. Where do they start? Who do they call?

If he was not coming home, the feng sui master said, the family should put a few of his things and his clothes into the tomb, and conduct the last rites.

That this is all they can do for the man who did so much for them, eats away at Roger, who has paid a moving tribute to his father on the website www.missingourdad.com.

"After all he has done with his life, for us, to have an ending like this. This is the most agonising part."

Lawyers involved in scuffle to face action

New Straits Times
By Neville Spykerman

JOHOR BAHRU, Thurs. - The Johor Bar Committee today said that the scuffle during its elections last Saturday had tarnished the image of the profession and has been referred to the Disciplinary Board.

Johor Bar Committee representative to the Bar Council Roger Tan said such conduct and behaviour could not be tolerated.

The New Straits Times on Monday reported that a verbal dispute between lawyers R.R. Mahendran and S. Gunapati became physical during nominations for the post of the Bar Committee chairman.

"The committee deplores the incident and has resolved that the matter be immediately referred to the Disciplinary Board for further actions pursuant to Section 99(3) of the Legal Profession Act 1976," he said.

Tan said the decision was taken in view of the seriousness of the matter.

The drama on Saturday unfolded when Mahendran addressed the floor and asked whether a lawyer who had been "convicted" and fined RM10,000 by the Disciplinary Board was qualified to stand for State Bar committee chairman.

It was reported that S. Gunapati took offence to Mahendran's query, and a heated verbal exchange erupted.

Mahendran claimed that Gunapati, one of the two candidates nominated for the post of Chairman, then struck him on the head from behind.

Gunapati denied the allegation, and said he had been going up to speak at the podium when Mahendran deliberately tripped him.

On the trail of UA3B

Do you know where your classmates from more than two decades ago are right now? The guys and gals from TAR College’s Upper Arts Class 3B can actually answer with a resounding ‘yes!’ HOOI YOU CHING of THE SUNDAY STAR speaks to a class that managed to get almost everyone together after 24 years.

DON’T you just hate class reunions? It’s more likely to be a walk down agony lane rather than memory lane as we despair over expanded waistlines and receding hairlines while convincing ourselves that we’re not as successful as we should be at this stage in our lives?.

Janet Tai, however, doesn’t feel like that at all. The forty something former student of TAR College was diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago, and that gave her a different perspective on reunions: “It’s wonderful meeting old friends again. It reminds you that life is beautiful.”

Tai’s classmates from Upper Arts Class 3B (UA3B) are like her. Rather unusually, they thought that the idea of getting together after 24 years was a great one. In fact, they were ecstatic during the reunion dinner that was held on Nov 20 in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Upper Arts Class 3B, class of 1980, at their reunion dinner that was the result of an epic search for lost classmates.

Not for them the pangs of insecurity. As Sally Ong put it that night, they should all “look at what’s inside” and be proud of who they’ve become – and that she had not agonised over her wardrobe or signed up with Marie France just to prepare for the night!

The way these people interacted that night, it was obvious that they had been a particularly close bunch back in college. So it wasn’t surprising that those classmates in Kuala Lumpur that had remained in touch had long had the idea of organising a reunion. When they realised that most of them were more or less settled with family and work now, they thought this year would be THE year to do it.

They were going to track down 40 people who had scattered, for all they knew, to the four quarters of the earth?. And, impressively, they accounted for every one in the end!

It began with appointing Roger Tan as their point man – he used to be the student representative at TAR College, so everyone agreed he was the right man for the job. Of course, Tan didn’t work alone. He mobilised old comrades like Tai, Andy Chee, Michael Goh, Chin Seow Ping, Cheam Toon Tong, Fong Poh Leng, Chow Novah and Christina Ang to track down the rest of the gang.

Tan, a lawyer, set up a website, ua3b.com, to keep everyone updated on the search results. And search engines like Google and Yahoo! helped re-establish lost contacts scattered all over Malaysia and the world.

Tan when he was a student representative at TAR College in 1980.

Where technological means failed, conventional legwork was used. From cyberspace, the “troops” took their mission into the field as they scoured states like Penang, Perak, Johor, Pahang, Malacca and Selangor. The first leads came from their school year book, which contained home addresses. Of course, these were mostly old addresses, but, sometimes, there were forwarding addresses that led them further down the trail.

According to Tai, the guys were located early on and the manhunt became more of a “woman” hunt. There were only 11 boys in the class, so this is not surprising. Also, perhaps the fact that some women adopt their husbands’ names when they get married made it more difficult to trace them. Angela Low, for instance, used to be Angela Chan while Christina Philippose became Christian Ang after she married.

College sweethearts Cheam Toon Tong (right) and Fong Poh Leng grew up and actually got married!

Undaunted, the “search party” combed the length and breadth of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. “One lead which started in Rawang, Selangor, ended up in Australia,” says Tai.

For this college “Freshie Queen”, the virtual conversations exchanged over the Internet not only rekindled long-forgotten friendships but lifted her spirits too: “Every time someone was found, it was like hitting the jackpot! It was extremely therapeutic reading the e-mails that kept pouring in on a daily basis. Their e-mails helped me cope after I’d undergone a mastectomy.”

Sheer determination drove the group to reach out in various directions. They exhausted their social networks and contacts in community services and several private companies. For example, they solicited the help of embassies, a publishing house, an airline company, a Catholic church and other organisations, using all sorts of methods that Tan refuses to divulge – though he assures us they were all legal!

Even a neighbourhood garbage collector was roped in to assist with the search! One of Tan’s clients was a garbage collection company operating in Seremban. When asked about a classmate whose last known address was in Seremban, the company’s boss obligingly sent out his staff to make inquiries – which were successful in tracing the lost classmate to KL.

Janet Tai found great solace in the growing network revealed as the search progressed.

On many occasions, the search was made more difficult by people suspicious about the group’s intentions. A friend’s relative was so cautious that he returned Tan’s call from a public phone booth!

“We had a good laugh when my friend (Suguneswary) told me her father-in-law was pretty curious about a mysterious Chinese guy looking for her,” he chuckles.

The group braved massive traffic jams in KL, followed on foot a cyclist who claimed she knew a classmate’s whereabouts, and searched within squatter settlements in Lorong Sentul Pasar. They only abandoned their search when they felt the situation had become too dangerous. There was, for instance, that rather hostile youth who was strangely insistent Andy Chee and Tan, who were searching the area, believe his claim that the shop house a friend used to live in had now been converted into a warehouse.

There were creepy encounters as well, as related by Agnes Yee in the online forum. The search for a house on Jalan Morib off Old Klang Road in KL led Yee up a steep, winding road. When she reached the top, all she saw were demolished houses and land that was overgrown with shrubs and lallang.

“Later, I found out from a neighbour who lived at the bottom of the hill that the area has been deserted for 10 years. That hardly anyone goes up there,” she writes. In the end, and very impressively, all 40 classmates were accounted for. One had died, and two others have not been contacted although their whereabouts – one is in Japan, the other, Hong Kong – are known. Of the 37 located, 22 made it to the dinner.

Not bad at all after 24 years of separation. Tan and his cohorts could have second careers as detectives!

A night to cherish

Michael Goh, the Class Monitor then.

SO, after 24 years, and an arduous search, they were together again. And that search for TAR College’s Upper Arts Class 3B 1980 yielded a fine crop of classmates. Let’s see, there were lawyers, bankers, teachers, entrepreneurs, homemakers, a senior federal counsel in the prosecution division of the Attorney General’s Chambers, marketing manager, school administrator and a chef, to name just a few occupations. Not only physical appearances had changed, even personalities had done a 180° turn. Introverts had become extroverts. The serious youngster was now a funny adult.

Sally Ong

Members of UA3b share their recollections and feelings on the night of the great reunion on Nov 20:

Cheam Toon Tong, general manager: “I can recognise everyone here! Even their voices have stayed the same. Chin Yuen Kong is still a jolly person after 24 years!”

Janet Tai, school administrator: “My friends say I’m still the same. Michael (Goh) has changed in terms of personality. He was such a shy boy then, now he’s so full of humour!”

Shanti

Michael Goh, senior manager: “Christina Ang used to walk around in college wearing magnifying glasses until contacts transformed her into a petite and pretty lady. She has since blossomed into a preacher with a PhD. She’s like our chilli padi behind the pulpit.”

Thangavellu

Roger Tan, lawyer: “Everyone expected me to be a lawyer, and that’s what I did. They also thought that I was going to be a politician because I used to a student rep. But when I got married, my wife asked me to promise that I would never enter politics.”

Sally Ong, freelance writer: “Andy (Chee) used to be such a gentlemen and still is. He is the ladies’ vote for The Most Dependable Classmate of UA3B, then and now.”

Shanti Purushothman, teacher:“When Roger told me about the reunion, I immediately confirmed my attendance. I’m really impressed by how he managed to track down so many of us within such a short time. He’s a super-sleuth!”

Thangavelu Suppiah, senior federal counsel: “Two weeks before I received the call from Roger about the reunion, I was actually looking through our old class photos. Imagine my surprise when I heard from him.”

Charity firm recovers land in law suit

New Straits Times

JOHOR BARU, Mon. - Al-Yatama Bhd, which runs nine orphanages in Johor, won over RM64 million in a law suit on Friday, but the charity-based company
is not expecting a single sen.

Polarcity Bhd, which was ordered to pay the amount to Al-Yatama, was wound up last year.

The management of Al-Yatama was, however, glad that the court had ordered that their land be returned. The land had been tied up over the past four years due to litigation with Polarcity.

Al-Yatama chairman Abdul Rahman Abbah said the land could now be utilised for economic activities to generate more income for the orphanages.

"Even though we will not receive the money granted by the court, we are glad that we now have the land back."

Al-Yatama manages two orphanages in Johor Baru, and one each in Pontian, Batu Pahat, Muar, Segamat, Kluang, Kota Tinggi, and Mersing.

The company looks after more than 900 orphans in its orphanages and provides financial assistance of RM100 each every year to over 5,000 who live with their relatives.

"We are very grateful to lawyers Roger Tan and Easter Chik for representing us free of charge in the case," said Al-Yatama director Sulaiman Hassan.

In the case against Polarcity, Al-Yatama had applied for a joint-venture agreement dated June 16, 1992 to be rescinded, and a lease dated March 29, 1996 cancelled, on the grounds that these were obtained by fraud or misrepresentation.

Al-Yatama was given 2,700 acres of land in Mukim Ulu, Sg Sedili Besar in Kota Tinggi, Johor, on May 4, 1988.

Due to lack of experience and inability to develop the land, they signed a joint-venture agreement with Polarcity, which planned to develop the area into both a palm oil estate and a health and recreation centre.

Al-Yatama was supposed to receive 30 per cent of the income once the area had been fully developed.

Polarcity which failed to pay up a premium of RM2,381,252 for the development of the centre later decided to change its plans.

Polarcity was sued in December 1999.

High Court judge Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail yesterday ordered that the joint-venture be rescinded and the land lease returned to Al-Yatama Bhd.