The Chronicle of Me: Part 2

The Formative/Looking For Identity Years (1987 - 1997)



My notorierity seemed to mellow down towards the end of my early years. As I have said before this I excelled academically and secured a place in a boarding school to continue my secondary education. I spent 3 years in MRSM Kerteh, Terengganu until my SRP exam. Since my scholl was considered as mini-MRSM, so by the end of the 3rd year all of us were re-distributed to the main-MRSMs. I was sent to MRSM Pengkalan Chepa, Kota Bharu, which I regard as being the worst period of schooling due to the bullish seniors and the sweet-extra sugar-take on everything that I eat. Fortunately it was only a short encounter as I was again transferred to MRSM Kulim, Kedah.



It was another 2 years in Kulim until the SPM exam. I guessed this period had in a way exposed me to more than just the academics and somewhat had paved the way or for the first time influenced the direction that I had taken in my future life. MRSM Kulim is different from the other MRSMs as it is also a matriculation centre for UPM, UKM, UUM and USMs for ex-MRSM students. On top of that, there were like only 108 of us in my batch doing upper secondary. So and so, most of the time we mingled among those university-bound students that ranges from the most pious and the most "samseng" one. I had my first encounter with Islamic movements while my stay here....I guess it was that time of Islamic revival among the students. So there was this Arqam group (way before they got banned) whose members have specific penchant to the colour green, as well as to PAS-influenced establishment. Being a happy-go-lucky type of person then, I did not really get myself involved.

Talking about life in late mid 80's to early 90's it reminds me of the "Malay Rock" era. I personally think that no one that had passed through this period of time had not been affected by this phenomenon. The uniqueness of "Malay Rock" is that, on the contrary of the "rock" theme, the songs are pretty much melancholic or in Malay...mendayu-dayu or meleleh beb......most often the songs that topped the chart those days were from these music genre...the more meleleh the song....the higher chance of it to be the favourite among fans. So we have the likes of Search, Wings, MAY, De Fabians, OLAN, Rusty Blade, Junction, Sofea, BPR, Crossfire, Desire (this was an odd one as they hailed from Kelantan as oppose to many others from the Johor) and the list goes on dominating the music scene. Honestly! most of these groups did not fit to be called rock groups except for a few maybe. Besides their appearances (i.e. long hair, leather pants, catchy calling names as well as "thought-provoking" group names) the music was actually a blend of pop (a lot) and rock (very little and only obvius during the electric guitar "goreng" sequence) elements. Songs like "Cinta Bandar Tasik Selatan", "Taman Rashidah Utama", "Realiti & Fantasi", "Isabella", "Untukmu Sayang", "Sketsa Sebuah Cinta", "Intanku Kesepian" and "Bunga Padang Pasir" had become the staple of the music industry.......of which are not rock songs but a desperate and deliberate effort of camouflaging a pop music with an electric guitar sequence so as to capitalise the popularity of these alleged rock groups. Another glaring trait of the so-called rock songs was that 99.9999% dealt with the theme "cinta"....it could be cinta terhalang, cinta tak kesampaian, cinta monyet etc. etc. Having said all of these, I have to admit that I was once being sucked up by the music (which I so despise today).....probably because it was the most natural thing to do back then and there was no time for us to be critical anyway.

Along with their "tangkap leleh" songs, these rock groups also responsible for trendsetting styles. Everyone of us would have recalled when the trend "seluar kaki kecik/seluar ketat" was the most in thing among the youngsters and it is not too extreme that it literally swept the nation by storm. Everything from the jeans, school pants and even Baju Melayu pants had to be altered so as to qualify as being a seluar ketat. I would say that things had become out of control to the extent that the school had devised a clever way to measure the "kecikness" of the students' pants by inserting a glass bottle through the "kaki seluar"......if the bottle passed through then you are safe otherwise your pant would be scissored so as to allow the bottle to pass through it.

Ok enough about that. I had to mention it anyway as I felt that it somewhat affected my of us, when everybody was behaving like a rocker. However, the effect was waned down as time progresses.....there were more important stuffs that I had to ponder such as the SPM. So whay was SPM so big of an issue. While it was important as it would determine your next course of academic path, being where I was (i.e. MRSM Kulim), the pressure had been quadrapled! Why? Maybe some of you that happen to read this blog would know, my school was a special project school where the cream of the crops from all MRSM who had achieved the best of SRP results were put together and undergone a somewhat different curriculum. The objective was to produce the best and most integrated Malay students who are bound for academic excellence. So......for us...to obtain Grade 1 was not an aspiration.....it was considered given!

To cut the story short, after SPM, which I did quite respectably.....but not really astounding as what my other friends had achieved....bolehlah..and good enough to secure me a scholarship with Telekom Malaysia (TM) to do A-Level. As my SPM results were so-so....so I didn't get to fly off to the UK for my A-Level, instead I took my A-Level in MSM Cheras for 2 years before I was off to UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology) to do electronic engineering for another 3 years (1994-1997). It was during this period I got re-acquainted with the Islamic-movement ...specifically the PAS-influenced one and really got myself involved. Frankly, being involved with the group had opened my eyes to other aspects of life besides academic excellence. It certainly had thought and exposed me to many other matters that obviously not covered by the mainstreams publications and text books. I made friends who had guided me to become a better Muslim and I am so thankful to them until this day. On contrary to the popular belief, while being active with the movement, I graduated with the highest honours....Alhamdulillah and I was then ready to comeback to Malaysia and enter the "exciting" working world.

.........to be continued ......final chapter....."The Working Years"