MAHSOPA AGM 2022 NOTICE

MAHSOPA will be holding the biannual AGM on Saturday,24th. September 2022.

The notice of this AGM is below.

Dear MAHSOPA Members,

Good evening.

MAHSOPA will be having our 2022 Annual General Meeting on Saturday, 24-Sept-2022 at 3.00pm

Please find the Notice for MAHSOPA AGM 2022 for your reference in the attachment.

Should you have any queries or require clarification, please contact the following:-

President - Dr Leo Ann Mean _ 012-606 8265

Vice President - Dato' Kapt. Abdul Rahim Abd Aziz _ 012-494 9626

Secretary - Wong Wee Loke _ 016-216 3817

Asst Secretary - Dr Dianne Cheong _ 016-6504649.

Looking forward to see you soon in our MAHSOPA AGM.

Stay safe and keep healthy.

Thank you and warm regards.

Wong Wee Loke _ 016-216 3817.

Secretary.

MAHSOPA _ 2021-2022.

ROBERT LIM PASSED AWAY. ( 1954-2022 )

Robert Lim, an active committee member of MAHSOPA passed away on 20th. August 2022. 

Our deepest condolences to his family.

He helped in organising a number of MAHSOPA Annual dinners in Kuala Lumpur over the years.

MAHSOPA expressed their deepest condolences and contributed a wreath. 

2026 MAHSOPA MEMBERS BY 2026

In 2026, MAHSOPA will celebrate her 50 years Anniversary. MAHSOPA was founded in 1976.

Currently,  our life membership stands about 543 members.

Let us target to get 2026 members by 2026 or earlier. All current members can assist in lifting our membership. 

We should have younger members. Our life membership is only RM 50.00

Benefits by joining include :

Listed in our MAHSOPA life membership list. 

Join in MAHSOPA activities like reunion dinners, outdoor activities,  friendship gatherings and many more. 

There was a call to MAHSOPA committee to enlist privately owned businesses to provide discounts to our members. Life membership has her living benefits besides reunions, gathering etc. 

We can also set up MAHSOPA Chapters around the globe. With Internet connection like Facebook, WhatApps, email and other social media, all of us can re-connect. 

Currently,  MAHSOPA has a Singapore and Hong Kong Chapters. Why not new Chapters in China, Australia, UK and USA?

Food for thought. 

PAST ICON OF MAHSOPA

BIOGRAPHY OF TUN ABDULLAH SALLEH (1926-2006)

EARLY YEARS

Tun Abdullah Salleh was born on 24^th. June 1926 at Kampung Padang Sebang, Alor Gajah in Melaka against the backdrop of a country under colonial rule and where poverty and deprivation were the order of the day. Abdullah survived extremely severe circumstances, seemingly against all odds. Seven of his younger siblings had died of diphtheria, his mother died during a typhoid epidemic when he was only in Standard 5, but nothing was to deter him from pursuing his ambition to go for higher studies to obtain a then rare university degree, not even a world war which came to the country’s shores from 1941-1945.

EDUCATION

His primary school education started when he enrolled at Bandar Hilir English School (BHES) ran by the British in Melaka Town. He was the only Malay at the school – commuting daily by train from Gadek and then walking part of the way. He was made to pay the school fees of $2.50 a month when his father was earning only $ 26.00 a month. As he excelled in his studies in the first year, he secured a free place. Ln the second year, he topped the class and was given a scholarship of $ 9.00 a month.

During his secondary education, Abdullah continued with his schooling at the Melaka High School, which he once described as “one of the best schools in the country”. In Standard 7 while waiting to be promoted to Standard 8, the Second World War broke up. He witnessed the arrival of the Japanese army and the fall of Singapore.

In August 1945 when the war ended with the Japanese surrender, he resumed his interrupted schooling. Then over 18 years old, he by-passed Standard 8 to gain a direct entry into Standard  9. He sat for the School Certificate Examination in 1946.

But that year, disaster struck. “I found out that I had tuberculosis,’ he once told Khidmat, the quarterly magazine of the Malaysian Civil Service. He was hospitalised for three months and although his sputum test proved negative, the side-effects appeared a few months later when water began to develop in his lungs.

“I thought I would die, it was that bad. The water had to be pumped out twice a week.” he recalled.

Abdullah was hospitalised for a massive two-and-a-half years and after being discharged, he went back to school after missing the 1946 examination.

But he told the magazine that the headmaster refused to admit him because he was over-aged and only relented after persuasion by a teacher who had once taught him.

So, he joined Standard 9 at an old age of 22 in a class among 17 and 18 year old boys. Again, he excelled by scoring six distinctions in the School Certificate examinations.

(Tun was the classmate to Mr. Kang Weng Piew from Standard 3 at BHES, then to MHS until 1941 interrupted by the Japanese Occupation. Mr. Kang recollected his fond memories of Tun since their childhood days at BHES and MHS as classmates.)

HIGHER EDUCATION

He joined the prestigious Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) for Form 6 and later the University of Malaya while still in poor health, and in fact suffered a relapse while at the university. Although Abdullah was hospitalised for a further two-and-a-half months and later was confined to the students’ sick bay and had to miss his lectures for five months, he still managed to graduate from the university with a BA (Hons) in Geography.

HIS CAREER

He started his career in the Johor Civil Service because he had to serve out his Johor scholarship bond, his first job being the secretary of the organising committee for the 50^th. Anniversary  of the reign of the ruler of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim.

From 1959 to 1961, he was private secretary to the first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Then came his posting to the Public Service Commission with a directive to ensure fair apportionment of scholarships and Division One appoints to Malay candidates. This was followed by his appointment as Under-Secretary to the Cabinet.

Abdullah, together with Justice Hashim Sani drew up the National Language Act 1967, which provided for Bahasa Malaysia to be the main medium of instruction in schools.

HIS CONTRIBUTIONS IN SOCIETY

First Registrar of University Kebangsaan Malaysia : Appointed First Registrar of UKM in 1967.

After the 1974 general election, Abdullah was made Director-General of the Public Services Department (PSD).

In May 1976 after Tun Razak died, he succeeded Tan Sri Kadir Shamsuddin as Chief Secretary to the Government.

At the end 1978 upon retiring from the civil service, then prime minister Tun Hussein Onn made him the 2^nd. Chairman and Chief Executive of Petronas. Much of the developments of Petronas, then with a staff of 600-700, was still in the planning stage and Abdullah’s   job was to set up the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant in Bintulu and to get Japanese power and utility companies to take up the LNG production.

Abdullah also set up the Petronas refinery in Kertih in Trengganu followed by another refinery in Melaka.

He gave priority to the training of Malaysians who in later years were to take over the running of the refineries from foreign management  teams.

From 1979 to 2006, Abdullah became the 2^nd. Chairman  of MAHSOPA, KL/Selangor Chapter of Malacca High School Old Pupils Association. MAHSOPA raised funds for the construction of the Malacca HIgh School Hall which opened in 1981.

Tan Sri Abdullah Salleh Education Fund for needy pupils of Malacca High School was also set up in his honour.

From 1989 to 2005, he was chairman of the Tun Razak Foundation. In 2003, Abdullah was bestowed the Seri Setia Mahkota (SSM) which carries the title “Tun”, the highest federal award, and became the first and only former Chief Secretary to the Government to receive the title.

Tun with his classmate,  Mr.  Kang Weng Piew at MHS dinner in 2001.

                   

 

MAHSOPA SIGNS MOU WITH MAHKOTA MEDICAL CENTRE IN MALACCA

Recently,  MAHSOPA has signed an agreement with Mahkota Medical Center in Malacca. 

Verified Members of MAHSOPA are entitled to discounted price on their medical procedures at Mahkota Medical. 

MALACCA PIONEERS IN 20TH. CENTURY

 

DATO' RASTAM ABDUL HADI (1931-2020)

Selected News on Dato’ Rastam Abdul Hadi (1931 – 2020)

“If you do not cultivate your life’s environment, you will not captivate the worlds enlightenment.”

And often times, it is easy to go with the flow and forget one’s potential. I have always been interested with the concept of A Hundred Men (and Women) of Malay College. I did talk to some at MCOBA back in 2004 but did not follow it through. Its raison d’etre was not clear. And it would have been hard to go to 30. Arbitrary decisions some may say, of who should form the 100. The 100 would have served to inspire and shown the way for MCOBs. Ah, I was defeated, it seemed before I got started.

Yesterday, news broke to me: "Dato Rastam Hadi passed away this morning. Pls upload on MCOBA appropriately." And seriously, Dato’ Rastam was quite ahead of my adult life, so please forgive me for not catching on quickly.  Google, and connectivity, told me fairly much about Dato’ Rastam, and I feel that most MCOBs are not acquainted with Dato’ Rastam, and those who had, are slowly losing their recollections of him. And easily, he is one of those A Hundred Men (and Women) of Malay College.

Orang Melaka is a proud people. And for good reason, they were more urban than the rest of Malaysia, as Melaka had been a city from way in the 1400s. And as far as MCOBs go, a fair number of illustrious ones hailed from Melaka, but Dato’ Rastam is rare, of Bertam Malim rather than of the Merlimau/Jasin or Masjid Tanah, born 22nd May 1931.

Quite obviously, he took the genes of his parents, his father was a contemporary of Za’aba at Sultan Idris Training College. Abdul Hadi Abdul Hassan was the author of three volume Sejarah Alam Melayu (1920s).

Much information I share here is from an article by Datin Ragayah Eusoff (Jurnal Biografi Malaysia, Journal of Malaysian Biographies (2005) pp 53 to 72.)

Dato’ Rastam went to MCKK in 1950 (to 1952) to sit in Form 6 class, having spent four years in Malacca High School, obtaining double promotion every year from Standard Four to Form Three (including at Bandar Hilir Primary). His contemporary at MCKK included Tan Sri Jamil Jan and Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin (our former MCOBA President).

Dato’ Rastam pursued and obtained Bsc (Hons) in Mathematics at University of Malaya Singapore, another rarity.

He joined the civil service in 1958 at the Ministry of Finance, until 1969 when he joined the Ministry of Defence. Tun Ismail Ali claimed that he saw Dato’ Rastam in a vision after an evening prayer and requested him from Tun Razak, to make Dato’ Rastam Deputy Governor of Bank Negara 1972-1974. In 1974, Dato’ Rastam joined Tunku Razaleigh at Petronas, as its first managing director.

I take this opportunity to share a few references in written form I managed to get my hands on.

1. Long after he left Petronas (1989), an op-ed New Straits Times (20 October 2017, “More money, better quality grads?”) still made Dato’ Rastam a reference point.

"Employers, too, should not spend their time just lamenting the state of our graduates. They should do more. They should take some responsibility to train fresh graduates by sponsoring employability skills development programmes. Or, better still, they should follow the philosophy of former Petronas managing director Datuk Rastam Hadi by hiring as many graduates as they can afford to be mentored, even if they are not needed now. This is laying the human capital pipeline for the future. Call it compassionate capitalism, but it is one of the many strategies that has made Petronas the only Malaysian Fortune 500 company."

(https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/leaders/2017/10/292989/more-money-better-quality-grads)

2. Tun Hussein Onn wrote to Dato’ Rastam (10 January 1989)

"You have been with PETRONAS from its inception. It has grown up big, strong, clean and efficient. You have been one of those who have greatly contributed to this. Whenever PETRONAS is mentioned, your good name will always be associated with it. Your service to PETRONAS is priceless."

3. In building Petronas, it is my belief, that the toughest was getting the business away from the multinationals. And Dato’ Rastam was the brains:

"But behind the flurry of activities in Petronas, one man stands out. He is seldom mentioned in the news papers but Encik Rastam Abdul Hadi, the managing director, is the “brain” behind the company’s series with international giants like Shell, Esson and Mitsubishi.

While he may not have sat in all the negotiations, his advice and opinions are constantly sought. Together with other senior officials, he decides whether terms offered by oil companies are acceptable or not. He is well-known for driving a hard bargain in the national interest.

It is also quite well known that he treats oil companies with a certain measure of suspicion. It is not that he distrusts them, but more because he wants to guard against mistakes. He is fully aware of the position of Petronas as a young and inexperienced oil company.

By any yardstick, Encik Rastam is a meticulous but imaginative executive.
…..
He feels strongly that conservation of resources and environment should be part and parcel of any oil deal."

(Business Times 5 August 1978)

If any reader is interested, he should get a copy of the article by Datin Ragayah. She attributed the exit of Dato’ Rastam from Petronas to being a “milking cow, as was evident in the bailing out in 1984 of Bank Bumiputra”.

Clearly, Petronas was built on the shoulders of these special “confident nationalists”, and the good work was continued by other fine men and women after Tengku Razaleigh and Dato Rastam.

Dato Rastam lived away from the limelight. Dato’ Rastam Abdul Hadi passed away at 3.20 am Saturday 9 May 2020 (16 Ramadan 1441).

Our nation has lost its son.

Takziah to the family of Allahyarham Dato Rastam Abdul Hadi, Datin Rafiah, his four daughters and son.

Al Fatihah.

- And as for us MCOBs, it is a good reminder of how much earlier MCOBs have put into this country. And that it is an inspiration to all of us to #keluarmembimbingnegara. We share this privilege with Malacca High! Let Wisdom Reign

By Hamdi Abdullah
Acting Chairman PTA MCKK
Honorary Secretary MCOBA
10 May 2020.