My Oldest Memorabilia

And the award goes to my “Birth Certificate”. As far as I’m concerned, this extremely fragile slip of paper is the oldest piece of personal belonging I have to date. Safely tucked inside a see through plastic pocket, this testimony of my grand entrance into this wonderful world has all the little details related to my birth. Apart from the usual information like my name, place of birth, address where I was born and my parents’ details, it also contains other trivia like the dates of all my immunisation shots and the date when I was registered for primary school on 20 Jan 1977 (one year before starting school). Glad to know I got all my shots.....the fact that the certificate clearly states that failure to do so would have resulted in my parents being fined $25 (“RM “ was still not used at that time obviously) might have something to do with that I assume.

The certificate is known as “Borang A – Negeri2 Tanah Melayu Perakuan Beranak”. The spelling and terminologies used are of the bygone days; “kechil”, “Umor”, Lain2”, “Chatitan”, “Sekshen”, “sa-bagai” just to name a few. I am sure this delicate almost 40-year-old certificate will not survive being taken out of its plastic pocket. The pocket still holds for now but I imagine I will eventually have to figure out something in order to preserve this vital document once the plastic starts to disintegrate.

It’s been a long while since I last look at my Birth Certificate. I was forced to rummage through my important document storage to look for it last Monday as it was needed in order for me to register for a “new” Birth Certificate at Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara. Older members of the Armed Forces....and yes, I’m in that category.....who still do not possess a 12-digit “civilian” IC Number are required to register with JPN and within 2 weeks after doing so, we will be issued with a “new” Birth Certificate bearing a revised IC Number. How fun...I’ll get to hang out with the younger dudes.....Man, my IC Number is not A XXXXXXX anymore, it’s now XXXXXX-XX-XXXX. We can be buddies then!!!! The good news is that I’ll get to keep the old Birth Certificate even after I’ve been issued with a new one.

While looking for my Birth Certificate, I accidently stumbled upon another important archive; my Primary School Report Card known as “Lapuran Kemajuan Murid”. This document really struck me deep in my heart knowing some of the historical data about me was inked more than 30 years ago. I found out I was only 40 lbs (18.14kg) at 3’8” (111.76cm) after 6 months in primary school. I continued to be a little midget throughout the 6 years in Primary School and my maximum dimensions when I graduated measured at mere 38kg in weight and 151cm in height.  I also saw that my weight and height were already measured in Metric in 1981 although Malaysia only officially migrated from Imperial to Metric on 1 January 1982.   Hahahaha....had to Wiki that info to make this utterly useless comparison:).

I was a quite a bright student in Primary School. My report card indicates that I alternately finished as the top or the second in my entire class for the first three years, and finally emerged as the most dominant student academically in the final 3 years. My average mark for the whole 6 years was 90.8. My highest single year average was in Standard 2 when I scored 97.7.  Hmmmm......

Students were divided into 3 classrooms (if I’m not mistaken it was Bendahara, Laksamana & Temenggong), with the total number rising from 113 when we started in 1978 to 120 in 1983. My best attendance was in my 5th year in 1982 as I only missed 2 days of school. Understandably that was a very important year when I sat for the Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (Primary School Assessment) examination. Funny enough, I was also assessed for my “Kebersihan” (Cleanliness) and aren’t I glad to discover I was given straight A’s every time!!! Don’t really want know what it meant to be given less than that.....

A trip down the Primary School memory lane also took me to the back of the report card which outlines some useful information for parents. The language used makes me smile, so for those of you who can understand this, enjoy......... (this is verbatim to the last dash and space):

1. Kedatangan anak-anak kesekolah patutlah di beratkan termasuk kelas-kelas bimbingan dan kegiatan kumpulan diwaktu petang.

2. Yuran-yuran yang ditetapkan oleh Jumaah Pengurus bagi tiap-tiap murid membayar-nya tolonglah jelaskan dalam penggal 1 tiap-tiap tahun.

3. Kemajuan dan kejayaan anak-anak tuan/puan tergantong diatas kerjasama tuan/puan bagi membantu pelajarannya di rumah. Tuan/puan mustahak sangat berikhtiar menambahkan lagi buku-buku pelajaran dan bacaan kepada anak-anak selain daripada buku-buku sekolah.

The two important documents tell a lot of stories about me. I am glad I took the time to reminisce the early days of my being through their windows. As I look back, I know despite the many ups and downs I have endured throughout my almost 40-year existence, I can take comfort in the fact that my early days were adorned with many beautiful memories, and some of the vary foundation and principles I hold dear to until today were conceived way back in those days. Syukur Alhamdulillah.