Haji Nordin kadir & Hjh Miah Jaudin-Part 5

Atok Masuk Askar

Atok enlisted on 24 August 1948 in the Askar Melayu. His contract was for 7 years of service and 5 years of reserve (ie. optional). Starting salary was 45 ringgit and he was stationed in PD for 6 months. He was then posted to the 3rd Batalion C Company in Pengkalan Chepa Kelantan. Later on he would be rotated within the platoons which took him to Pahang, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Johor. Until 1950, there were only 3 battalions in Askar Melayu.

Marriage

Atok and Wan married on 24/4/48. It was the second marriage for both where the earlier marriages ended in divorce. Atok was first married to Hafsah Lajan and they had a son who later died. Wan married Dolah Bin Omar.
Mak Jo was born on 7 Nov 1949 in Kg Kuala Sungkak. Only after she was 25 days old, would Atok get to see her for the first time.

Life In the Army

At Sg Ruan Pahang Atok had his first encounter with the Communist.His other encounter was at Mawai Johor when his lorry was ambushed by them in 1952. On both occasions, the Communists were hiding in trenches, yet after a short exchange of gunfire, they retreated very quickly into the jungle.

Wan and Maj Jo lived in Pengkalan Chepa for slightly over a year before calling it quits and moved back to the kampung. Wan couln't stand having an absentee husband.

INn 1951, during a 3-month operation between Batu Melenting near Gua Musang to Grik Perak to accompany English and Australina foreign surveyors to survey the land for the future highway decades later, the entire platoon almost starved. Every 4 days, food was airlifted by an army plane and dropped to the platoon in the dense jungle. Once it happened that there was a dense fog and the helicopter couldn't locate the men. For 4 days they were without food. After they had build a fire huge enough for it to been seen, would they get their food. During this operation, they also captured a woman communist who surrendered without a fight.

Atok and his Army buddies in mentakab Pahang



I may be biased but with those killer looks, he should try his luck in films rather than the army.

Haji Nordin kadir & Hjh Miah Jaudin-Part 4

Life under the Japanese Occupation and Bintang 3

Atok

I remember Atok's mother, Wei Ngkak or Eyam vaguely. Those times when we visited her in Sungkak, she always had wajid although most time it was moldy. I liked her wajid whenever it wasn't moldy.

Eyam was a smart woman. Whereas many people went hungry and died during the occupation, Eyam managed to feed her children rice most days which was a luxury not many could afford.
Most people survived on tapioca which made parts of their bodies, limbs and faces swollen.**

Eyam had build a kolah which was where she kept her money and the rice. She had been widowed in 1939 but she managed to save some money which she rolled tightly and put in a tin can and placed in the kolah. She cleverly put some planks over and camouflaged it as a stove complete with charred wood, ashes and burnt stones. Every so often she would put a periok with warm food over the stove to fool any visiting Japanese soldiers.

Bintang 3

After the Japanese surrendered, and before the British secured the whole of the countryside, the vacuum was filled by the notorious Bintang 3. This was for a period of 2 weeks.

One of the Commies in the village was called Udin and his sidekick was
Ah Lok. Ah Lok used to be Atok's playmate since they were about the same age and attended the same school. He threatened Eyam,that the commies would imprison Atok since he was working for the Japanese in Singapore. Ah Lok wanted "100 Ringgit Duit British" in return for Atok's freedom. Eyam bargained down to 50 ringgit.

Atok and his family survived by planting rice and tapping rubber. Eyam died in September 1986, probably surpassing the 100-year mark.

Wan

Women's quota for rice was 80 gantang per year and children's quota was 40 gantang. What this meant was whatever extra your rice fields produced, went to the Japanese. Pak Jo's father, Idris, who was also Siah's nephew whom she called Mat Hilir, was the "pembanci" for the Japanese. He helped Siah by suggesting that she hide 3 bags of rice in the chicken coop under the kampung house, before he comes to 'banci' their household.
So Siah's household also did not have to rely on a tapioca diet all the time since they have some hidden rice.

There were no shops selling kain or garam. They would use whatever clothes they had until tattered and torn. Some people had no more clothes left, they used guni for clothes. There was no salt although funnily enough, there was kicap to flavour their food. When people died, some dikapankan dengar tikar.

Abu,Wan's eldest brother, was accused by some people to be a communist sympathizer. He was sent to a Japanese prison in Seremban. As part of his torture routine, he was force fed soap water lying down. Then the prison guards would put a plank of wood on his upper body and some of them will simultaneously jump onto the plank. Bloody water would ooze out of every orifice in his body. He survived the ordeal although with many broken ribs as a testament to the barbaric treatment at the hands of the Japanese. He died 3 months after he was released from prison.

Siah died on 24.8. 1945 when the Japanese were about to surrender. Thankfully she was 'dikapankan dengan kain batik baru'.

The Con

A Chinese man from Juasseh came to Wan's house the day before the Japanese surrendered. He asked Wan if she wants to convert her ringgit into Japanese money (duit cap pisang they call it) at an unbelievably attractive conversion rate. So Wan gave him 40 ringgit and got 4000 duit Jepun! Day after, it became worthless. He went on to con a few other people.

The Putar Belit of Siah's Land

After Siah died, Wan Atik, her sister then came to live in the kampung house. The land the kampung house sits on was slightly more than 1 acre. Her other piece of bebun property is 2 acres. Rightfully, after Siah died, these properties would be passed on to Wan.

Since these lands are Malay Reserve lands, the administration, came under the jurisdiction of the Lembaga.

Wan Atik with the help of Kerani Bador, a pegawai tadbir tanah managed to cast doubts with the Lembaga,on Wan's status with respect to the suku. For an adopted child be be given the full status of the Suku Seri Lemak Minangkabau, she or he must be 'dikhadimkan by the Lembaga'. Dikhadimkan means diiktirafkan. I can only guess that to 'khadimkan' someone is probably inviting the Lembaga to a kenduri and baca doa.

Because of the khadim issue, Wan was bequeathed only half share of the kampung land. The other half went to Wan Atik and another sister Lamah. When both wan Atik and Lamah died, this half went to Wan Atik's daughter.

Wan Atik and Kerani Bador were in-laws.

Abu, Wan's brother, had the foresight to safeguard Siah's kebun land. He reassigned the kebun to his friend with specific instructions to transfer it to Wan after Siah's death. His honest friend did just that.

** Tapioca contains toxic cyanogenic glucosides. Too much consumption, as in this case, can result in acute cyanide intoxication and goiters.

Haji Nordin Kadir & Hjh Miah Jaudin-Part 3

Atok's Education

He went to Sekolah Sungai Dua, a Malay school for standard 1-5. Students who did well after Std 5 were selected for further training for 3 years after which they could enroll as guru pelatih. Some, after, std 5, went for Special Malay Class (now Remove Class) to learn English. Atok's father refused to allow Atok to attend SMC for fear of "masuk api neraka" for learning English.

When he was in the second year of the 3-year further training, the Japanese landed. It was 1941. Being one of the better students, he was picked by the Japanese to train for 3 years in Singapore. The place was called Kaigun Kokusho, a aircraft training facility in Seletar. After 3 years training at the facility, students became pilots I suppose. They were given uniforms and accomodation.

These were turbulent times with Allied B29s zooming past and running to take cover. In 1944, after the second bombing of Seletar, Atok and a friend from Rasah negeri Sembilan, evacuated the centre and hitched a ride in a cargo train back to Gemas. He was around 17 years of age at that time. His nascent pilot training died a premature death with that fateful train ride.

3812 is significant to him and many others who lived through the Japanese occupation. 3 years, 8 months and 12 days-that was the length of the Japanese occupation of this country.

n.b. A wikipedia search showed that Kaigun Kokusho is also the name of the Japanese naval fighterplane. Although it was adequately designed it lacked the climb-rate and high altitude performance to successfully intercept the American-made B29s.

Wan's Education

She went to sekolah kebangsaan until Std 5.The Japanese came when she was in Std 5. Her teacher would teach the students how to greet the Japanese when they came. Wan was big for her age so her teacher advised her to stop schooling since the Japanese were going to take away the bigger girls to turn into concubines.

She was also a good student at school. After she stopped schooling, in the mornings she would climb up a tall langsat tree behind the kampung house which allowed her to see the students lining up for their classes.

She and her mother Siah tilled the padi fields and to supplement their income, she picked daun rumbia to weave into atap roofs which she sold for 20 sen apiece. Siah also had 2 acres of land with rubber trees.

Hj Nordin Kadir & Hjh Miah Jaudin - Part 2

The Early Years

On their ICs, their dates of birth are 15/11/28 and 30/4/28 for Atok and Wan respectively. Of course, we should give a wide margin of error for these dates.

Atok's Family

Atok was born to Eyam Bt Mangkas and Kadir bin Subuh bin Salam bin Sapi-e in Kg Kuala Sungkak. He was their fifth child. The siblings are Uncit (Rashid), Atin, Yusuf,Moktar, Nordin and Timah. Moktar died young while the rest except Uncit are still living.

Atok's father taught agama lessons to the villagers and was later appointed to teach at Istana Sri Menanti by the then Yam DiPertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan, Tuanku Abdul Rahman. Tuanku later became Malaysia's first Agong. The appointment letter to your great grandfather is attached. He died in Sept 1939.

Wan's Family

Wan's parents were Siah Bt Sahak and Jaudin bin Kulup. Her two older brothers were Abu and Mahat. Abu was a penghulu and Mahat was a "pegawai engineer" with the then Malay Service Commission now, the PTD. She remembers Abu fondly but not so much Mahat since he didn't quite treat her like a sister.

Siah was relatively wealthy with several lots of kebun and sawah. She remembers she was very manja with her father Jaudin. At bath times he would carry her on his shoulders. He died when Wan was about 6 years old.

Chinese Connection

Siah never mentioned that Wan was adopted. It came from Wei Bong's husband (neighbour). Kaya Amus, Wei Bong's husband, told Wan that she was adopted from a Chinese family in Kuala Pilah. Later on when Mak Jo was still a toddler, they and a family friend, carpenter Kaya's grandfather, went to a Chinese goldsmith shop in Kuala Pilah to meet her brother. He gave them the cold shoulder. Then as a token acknowledgment, he gave Mak Jo a "loket buah kemunting".

There were a few more occasions when she would pass by the shop and she and her 'brother' would both curtly nod to each other. The Chinese family later left Kuala Pilah.

This is the 75-year-old appointment letter to Kadir bin Subuh. It was dated 21 April 1936. On the right hand corner it was signed Abdul Rahman, the Yam Tuan himself.

Haji Nordin Kadir & Hjh Miah Jaudin Part 1

Introduction

Salam sejahtera to everyone reading this which would be my children and hopefully my nephews and nieces.

My parents have been very fortunate to have been blessed with good health, mobility and a lucid mind when most of their contemporaries have either long passed on, or are incapacitated from some age related diseases. At 83, they live on their own, visit their three daughters whenever they like, spend time at their local surau, fight with each other frequently, pop a myriad of pills for sustenance and generally do as they please.

Everyone has a story to tell; some, more fascinating than others. Nevertheless everyone has a story. With this in mind and for posterity's sake I've decided to record my parents' story. I write this with their ten grandchildren in mind.

"Before" Picture Taken on 30/8/55



It's a recollection of their childhood, the Japanese occupation, the Askar Melayu years, the ADP years in Singapore, and finally the KL years. It's not much but a series of short essays only.

The objective is to record their story. I don't think there are many octogenarians around to tell first hand their experience. Hence I feel that it's a privilege not many people get and I feel responsible to do it.
I will inform you guys when I publish the first few posts.

"After" Picture Taken on 29/1/2011 on Along's Wedding Day