: Salam Malaysians, When I earned good results for the SRP exams (last batch) in 1993, I received a placement at a government full-boarding school where I and many others met and got to know Syed Azmi as a person. Let me tell you briefly about Sekolah Menengah Sains Selangor, the said school that Syed Azmi, I and many other friends on my list spent at least two years intermingling and learning about and from each other. Located in Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras, it was neither the topmost school, nor the worst, although ironically it was, in fact, neighboring one of the topmost schools on the country (Sekolah Alam Shah) and one of the worst (Sekolah Menengah Teknik) around the time we were in Sains Selangor. It wasnt considered a prestigious school by any measure, as most, but not all of the students consisted of good-performing children from underpriviledged families, on full scholarship. It was quite the honor for me to have studied with them and I knew it even then, though certainly not as fully as I do now. And I remember experiencing a very long drawn-out sense of emptiness and longing to remain in SMSS with all my schoolmates (totally illogical, I know) after we all left, having sat for SPM, ready to proceed to tertiary education. It really was one of the best times of my life, and I have had many. Alhamdulillah. While most of the students were Malay, it was open to all and we had friends from many different ethnicities and religion from all over Malaysia, including Sabah and Sarawak (of course). I have kept track with some over the decades (I was there in 1993-1994), and all of them seem to have set good lives for themselves. Some went abroad to Japan, the UK and elsewhere to further their studies, and some are currently living and working abroad with successful careers and families of their own. All of us are naturally grateful for the opportunity we were given during this time in our youth, with very few exceptions. This is the point I am trying to make in order to explain, as I see it, the crucial factors that influenced Syed Azmi to be the kind of person that he is: he has felt the suffering of having less than more, and he has personally witnessed it for the greater part of his formative years. He knows what the government has done for him and his amazing family through the educational programs we went through together. Today, he is a pharmacist by profession, and he and many ex-SMSSians myself included recognize that in short, the Program Sekolah Berasrama Penuh at Sekolah Menengah Sains Selangor, with few real lackings, is a success story, as today it is recognized as one of Malaysias Smart Schools, and I will bear witness that this is not an empty honor. For this beautiful gift during our youth, Syed Azmi and many of us like him feel very strongly about giving back to society in order to complement what is lacking in existing charitable programs, seeking out those somehow left behind and ensuring that their welfare is also taken care of at the very least. This is why Syed Azmi is the way he is today. And he is doing all that he is doing with very limited and stretched resources. Syed Azmi is not a conspiracy. He wants to embody sincere giving, and bridging differences. Naïve, perhaps. But it breaks me when he is accused of things he never deserves to be accused of, much less to be threatened, life and limb. At this point as I write this, I cannot hold back my tears. I think I have said enough. I leave the rest to Gods protection, for God is Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. [For the sake of space and privacy, I have kept the names of my former schoolmates tagged along the post, and not within. Apologies if I missed anyone. You may tag yourselves if you wish.] Salam everyone. :|
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 09:53:27 +0000