The Roman God Janus had 2 faces - one to see behind and one to look forward

The Roman God Janus had 2 faces - one to see behind and one to look forward. In this first piece I'll begin with the former. It will be a very personal view. For Janus read Paddy.

When that young, innocent and completely untraveled lass from Lancashire came out here, it was on an Aerwork plane, held together, I'll swear, by chewing gum. We emplaned at Blackbush Airport in Britain, where they weighed you as well as the luggage, and publicly announced the result - humiliating. It took all of 3.1/2 days to Singapore with a 1.1/2 day stopover in Mrs. Minnewallah's "Grand Hotel" in Karachi. It wasn't "grand", it wasn't a "hotel" - not even a motel, and it wasn't in Karachi, but in the desert. You needed a fast camel to get to civilization. No wonder most people in those days traveled by ship, to say nothing of the ideal opportunity for shipboard romances (the girls were coming out looking for husbands).

The local library back home hadn't told me much about Singapore. I expected to be very large and very white, with happy little brown skinned natives, disporting themselves on the shore, amidst the palm trees. It is true there were palm trees. The rest was a fairly well developed city even then, even with high rise. The 7"' Storey was the civic pride like the Twin Towers are today here, a Millennium later. It was still Colonial days. The pillar boxes were red, the traffic drove on the left and English was spoken. It all had a comforting familiarity.

Malaysia and Singapore were regarded as one, - Singalasia, Siamese twins joined at the hip (the Causeway, no controversial bridge) Whole families straddled the two (still do) inextricably bound by race, culture, tradition and commerce. There was one university for both territories. That is how I first became the corporate freak that was to become a permanent feature of my career. I taught in the Law Faculty without being a lawyer. That took some doing. Tommy Koh was in the first batch and Minister Jaya Kumar of Singapore. I taught our present Malaysian Chief Justice and many other now distinguished members of the legal fraternity. If I ever commit murder, I will have a stout Alumni to defend me and half the judges will have to recuse themselves. Trouble is I don't recognise those eager young students from my tutorials who are now middle aged, balding or grey haired, all too often paunchy, but with a new gravitas. One I didn't teach but remember from that time. The University Oratory Prize was always carried off by a final year Law Student invariably Singaporean. The year I left, to everyone's amazement it was by a freshman - from across the Causeway, a Malay to boot. His name was Rais Yatim.

Trade followed the Flag courtesy of the merchants of the Honorable East India Company via Calcutta. Unilever, Shell, Price Waterhouse - it was as if I had never left home. HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank were ensconced. My money would be safe. But there was one variation unique to the Malayan commercial scenario - the Agency Houses. These survive to this day but have long been taken over by Malaysian interests. Before it was the era of rugged individual capitalists. There was presumably, a Mr. Guthrie, a Mr. Harrison, a Mr. Crossfield and I can vouch for no less than three Mr. Simes and one Mr. Darby.

We were sheltered by the comforting umbrella of the Raj. No work permits required. Problems with the authorities i.e. the Colonial Administration could be ironed out in the Long Bar of the Cricket Club over a beer at lunch time. Especially if the officer was wearing your old school tie.

The Matrons of the Colony vetted the young chokras who were sent out and presided over their morals.

You were not allowed to marry on your first tour of duty (4 years in those days) but you were permitted local mistresses provided you didn't marry them. The first home leave would be your opportunity, albeit somewhat rushed, to acquire the specification British wife i.e. suitable to be a "Mem" short for the Colonial "Memsahib". Expatriate social life revolved around the club especially the Selangor Club known as the Spotted Dog attributed to an English Mem who frequented the Club (for long hours) and left her Dalmatian hitched to the posts outside. Today this is commemorated by the picture of a Dalmatian hanging in the Grill Room. The latter is where you went for Sunday Tiffin - invariably curry and rice. On formal occasions it was always black tie despite the sweltering heat. No air-conditioning in those days. Expat ladies always wore hat and gloves to Church or to daytime functions. They were not allowed in the Long Bar. I once forgot and took a short cut through there that nearly gave one of the male diner's apoplexy.

Only Public School accents could be heard - that is until the Scots came to intrude what was no doubt first received as their barbaric and rather incomprehensible tongue.

The latter day influx were mainly planters with names like Neil, Jock and Archie. Their estates had nostalgic names like Graigie Lee, Highlands & Lowlands. They left their mark on the hill stations - Cameron Highlands, Maxwell Hill, Fraser's Hill. I remember once when entertaining a trade mission from Strathclyde and Tan Sri Leo Moggie suddenly startled us by bursting into song, until we realized it was his old school song from Kuching but set by some homesick Scottish Colonial Officer to the tune of the Road to the Isles. For St. Andrew's Night they introduced haggis to the club. The Chinese chefs not knowing what to do with this alien substance served it up as a sandwich. The planters would come down to Kuala Lumpur for recreation to the Coliseum. During the Emergency, they would sling their guns over to the bar and set to on the sizzling steaks. The menu is unchanged - as are the boys i.e. The Chinese waiters - no longer "boys" but ancients.

Alongside the expatriate community were their Malayan counterparts. Kuala Lumpur was originally a Chinese enclave. The name means "At the mouth of the muddy river". It had been founded by the Chinese migrants operating in the lower reaches of Ampang - an unruly tin mining community known as the Wild East. These were the Sinkeys - who had migrated to every corner of South East Asia, fleeing poverty and the tyranny of the War Lords in China. They arrived in their unseaworthy craft without kith or kin, education or money - seeking their fortune. They were looked after by their clan associations around Market Square. The British having allowed them in to develop the tin and rubber industries then left them alone. They had to impose their own law and order, under their Capitan China - in the case of Kuala Lumpur - Yap Ah Loy.
From this source sprang the Chinese family businesses. Lim Goh Thong drove a road up to Genting (in two attempts) and established his casino. Yong Poh Kong's grandfather started the Selangor Pewter business to which Yong has stuck to the last. YTL's first ancestor here was a timber merchant. There are scores of others. Finding themselves in an alien land they sought their security and protection in material wealth. But to begin with they did not build their palatial homes in Ampang. They deposited their wealth in a clonking great diamond on their wife's finger - i.e. portable property if they were required to leave in a hurry. But having stayed the course, they became the backbone of the local economy.


The essential Malayan diversity was visibly demonstrated in the old centre of KL. There was the ubiquitous Asian Padang - product of an open air outdoor community, courtesy of the climate. On one side were those splendid Moorish buildings facing a somewhat incongruous, mock Tudor English Cricket Club.

On further inspection what looked like the legacy of some Mogul Emperor turned out to include, of all prosaic things - a railway station - but a railway station looking like something out of the Arabian Nights. Mind you the inside would still rival Crewe.


Meanwhile the British Administration symbolized by Carcosa Seri Negara, the Governor's house presiding majestically over the Lake Gardens, concentrated on the Malays, as the indigenous people, grooming them for eventual succession on the British template. The elite Malay College was modeled on Eton. There was also the Military College, The Malay regiment and the Civil Service to which they recruited in the ratio of 3 Malays to every 1 non Malay. The latter were needed (for the Ministry of Works). There were then no Malay engineers to be had. The first Malayans to go abroad for education were almost all Royal to a man and all went to the one University - Nottingham which produced at least 2 of our subsequent Kings HH Negri and HH Perak.

The tradition continues in our present Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib and for that matter his daughter. A later generation when they introduced the Queen's Scholarships all went to Cambridge and all did Law at Trinity Hall. We can blame this inexplicable preference for the light blue over the dark blue on some biased Colonial Education officer favoring his alma mater.

The main signature of the "Before" generation was the traditional Malay Rulers. The word for Government in Malaysia is "Kerajaan" in the middle of which is the word "raja" taken from the Indian equivalent "Maharaja". The first kingdoms were brought here by Hindu traders. Behind the facade of British Rule was the very real, almost feudal loyalty to the Rulers with their palatial Istanas, the plethora of royal and civil titles, and a whole etiquette of polite forms, ceremonies and protocol. Malaysia according to the scholar Hodstedt has the highest power distance in the world - the status and deference gap between the high from the law. Not class distinction and snobbery as we know it in UK but a social hierarchy with the Sultan at the apex of the pyramid complete with an elaborate social code especially at State level where the two poles to existence are the Palace and the Mosque.

But times were changing. The Independence movement was spreading from India. The first political Party was formed in 1946 - the United Malay National Organization. The Malays regarded themselves as the most patriotic of the Malayan peoples. Malaya after all meant "Land of the Malays"

They were about to take back their birthright.