Previous Unloads:

1991 May: A Visit to Langkawi, the Land of Mahsuri

1991 Aug: Study tour to Medan, Indonesia

1994 May: First Asia Pacific Chitin and Chitosan Symposium (APCCS)

1995 Dec: Revisiting SAS

1997 Dec: Rally Nationwide Vision

1998 Apr MOU and Launching of Chito-Chem (M) Sdn Bhd

1999 Sep: The Officiation of Smart Technology Centre, UKM

1999 Sep 23: A Week on Leave

1999 Dec: Study Tour to Taiwan

2000 Jul: A MiniReunion of Class of 66

2000 Dec: Just An Unlucky Day

2001 Jul: 29th Covocation of UKM

2001 Dec: Digging Deep Into the Root: SKBT Revisited

2002 Sep: A Consequential Events from Feb 2002

2003 Apr: Reminiscing the Little Boy

2003 Nov: Reunion of Class of 66

2004 May: Cameron Highland Revisited

2004 Jul: In the Heart of Two Cities

2005 Jan: SAS Re-revisited


Sekolah Alam Shah (SAS) Re-Revisited (Dated: Jan 2005) SAS 1967-1970
SAS 1995 revisit
SAS 1995-2000
SAS 2005
My last visit to my alma mater was in Dec 2000, succeeding 1995 revisit; and as I contended, I would not be visiting again for many year after that, unless if my #6son Syarbini make himself in his 2004 UPSR like his elder brother my #3son Zidni, then the transgression would happen again in 2005. Well, he made himself, and it happened to the effect, only with a slight "twist", that I had to invoke my membership number #74 of the alumni. The school, after all its deeds for forty years since 1963 was moved to its new site in Putrajaya in April 2003, bundling all its every pupil up to the principle. This year 2005 Jan, is its second batch of "pedigree" intake, the registration date being Jan 5 Wed. The pure breed "SASputran" would surface only in 2008; when it comes, the SASian may have been forgotten;
The original magnificent SAS in 1967 when I checked in on Jan 19 Thu, which in 2003 was reformed into Sekolah Menengah Sains Alam Shah (SMSAS), versus the new SAS Putrajaya 2003. As I put it in 2003, I still could not comprehend the move to leave the deedly SAS to SMSAS and rebegin a new SAS in Putrajaya; perhaps it was worked out based on laws of different physics and chemistry. Visibly, unlike SAS in Cheras, SAS Putrajaya was built on a rigid smaller space, no room to swell, in a conversely well defined compound;

Some external views of the original SAS: the field on which SASian enjoyed every minute of day-light; the hall and gymnasium combined (separated by the stage) - cum - mosque for Friday prayer (there were no congregated daily prayer);

Some external views of SAS Putrajaya: even though the middle structure was just a pavillion, it reminds every wandering minded eye of similar silhouettes of Penang Free School, Malay College Kuala Kangsar, Sultan Idris Training College, and Serdang Agriculture College; which was absent from the original SAS; the hall (it has a name: Dewan Putra Perdana) and the surau/(mosque?) are separated apparently quite far apart, paving away for two different functions (perhaps entirely of two different natures) could be running at one time uninterrupting each other;
(L-R) Jariah Hj Masud (Dr), a SASian 69-70; En Ibrahim Yahya (HM 70-71); En Mahpor Baba (HM 70); Mat Zakaria (Dr), a SASian 67-70; Ahmad Zidni Mat, a SASian 95-00; Ahmad Syarbini Mat, a SASian 05; in SAS dorm in 1996 (notice the factory-worker-type locker on the right); in SAS class in 2000;
Some views all SASian 63 would remember: the welcoming "brick guard" on returning to SAS; the recreation room where letters for the boarders were mass-delivered, usually before noon, so that after lunch on the way back to dorms we would "congregate" around the big table in case (more frequently we were expexting) any letters for us; the oneness of corridors of the hostel and classes; In the class - for the lessons, study, prep-class. We spent most of our awake hours in the class, being in the dorm only for sleep, saturday afternoon, and sunday; In the dining hall - the place we always look forward to hear to be allowed to go to. Most of the pupil did enjoyed very much the food because food is SAS were better than that at their homes. We had meat several times a week, and chicken as well, re-cooked sardine, on the plus of the fish they usually have at homes. The provision was breakfast, morning tea break, afternoon lunch, evening tea, nightfall dinner, pre-bed time supper. During my time nobody got hungry and thus no problem of "fly";
SAS Putrajaya is manned by a contract-private security guard which one had to pass through in or out (in my four years tenuare 1967-1970 in SAS Cheras, I never knew of any guard for the school - perhaps Abang Zainal was because he kept all the keys of every door in the school; he opened the office door every morning, and also the HM office; I had to ask him for the key to HB room when I checked-in in 1970 Jan 2 Fri); the pavillion may become a landmark if it is preserved unmodified, but who knows, no man knows the future, not even his own future. But it appeared that they were promoting the office frontal as the site-mark. Jan 5 2005, it was more of visiting rather than revisiting, re-revisiting was actually "irrelevant". A clear absence of mantle bond of SASians in SASputra is unambiguous. During the briefing, every office bearer had to claim that he was a SASian - if he was - an no one in the hall-full "amused" with the claim, and they further attempted with the glory of those in the high posts, simply because the audience did not know the SASian, they were waiting for the SASputran;
SAS Putrajaya is a complex-type school; a bigger hall of multifunctional; and an auditorium;
Many parts most boarders would not forget; a place to put our bikes?
With the victorian pillars in one-D, but alas, in another; exclusive facilities;
Canteen of a college cafe; plenty of built-in leisure sites;
Modern (or rather of the latest products in the market) classrooms;
Cosy hostel; spaceous dorm, single-decker; the locker of 1963-size was returned; the bath still unsmell; with some taints;
Dining hall; buffet style, and not in one shot time; and had a watching screen too;
Dining (special occasion in this case); "supplement" from the cafe (teachers dine in the "suit" with a draper curtain);
On moving in Apr 2003, SASian was bundled, including its history, to become SASputran: the 2000 logo; the HM/Principles; the Head Boys and others who had carved their names while in SAS;
The busses, presumably new one had been added; nowdays buses are token of prestige; prior to 1970, SAS only had a 16-seater coaster; SAS got its first bus in Jan 1970, its regular use was ferrying girls to-and-fro their hostel in Jalan Hale, Kg Baru, and taking a class a week in turn for Friday prayer at the National Mosque, and Sat Sun outings;
The SAS 90 WIND band who always played the same "Hawaii Five-O", "Fernando", and others in those brass band "black disc", since the mid 90; the 16th HM (now called Senior Principle), is a SASian of my batch, the third consecutive SASian who returned to their alma mater; the amazing hidden talents unleashed by the kiddos, and they really enjoyed themselves like we were (perhaps not only in SAS);
SAS 70 had a make-shift mosque out of the gymnasium and the hall; SAS 90 converted the ground floor of A-Block for the surau; but SASputra has a well defined and functional mosque;
And plenty of places to "resuscitate" during the weekends;
Perhaps the only distractor that imperfact SAS Putrajaya is the current immediate neighbour whose activities are more of technical rather than academic. At its peak, its chiller turbo fan produce a jumbo-like eerie sound swallowing all the "micro" sound in the school;
A garcinia baby I spotted planted near the entrance of C Block, near the coop shop, a rare plant for the landscaping. The wild one could grow to become a giant tree. At this spot it won't be enough room for it. See what will happen to it in five years time;
Back in the 1970's, the courtyard cum open air cinema before the basketball court was built; enjoying our own show in the hall, because parents participations were impossible due to the nature of the pupils' background-origin; the main route almost everyone passes in everyday chorus: dormitory-class-dining to-and-fro; running on the track as fast as we could;
Enjoying the school days everyday;
Leisuring on Saturdays and Sundays;
Outing together: Cameron Highlands, perhaps the most distant and over-night; a day trip to Port Dickson; a study tour visit to RRI Sg Buloh; a homeward-bound, the most looked-forward events three times a year; another study tour, to Serdang Agriculture College;
I checked-in my #6son, Syarbini, 2005 Jan 5 Wed. I met no acquaintance, perhaps they had no more young kiddos. Every office bearers were claiming that they were SASians, and no one got "amused", indicating that there was no bonds between SASians (1963-2003) and SASputrans (post 2003). Most of the new boarders were from the vicinity of KL, either the KL boys were very clever or it was a deliberate selection so that boarders would not have much travelling to do, or the deliberation was intended so that SAS would not suffer from PIBGism syndrome. Some boarders, but only a few, were marked "PK", imliciting the reminder of the pressure that SAS was intended as the most prestigious ordinary Malay school. During the check-in time, much money were flowing in many different channels, and no hitch: the various fees of PIBG, the Coop, the internal saving bank system, the complete set of "uniformed" dormitory gears; that was excluded those of school "fees" and hostel fees (paid directly via BIMB into the respective accounts), the textbooks, the uniforms, and many other personal matter items; and more are expected to come by when the schooling activites begin. That's why, from this point of view, a "PK" status was established. It mechanises into an inverted deed: that the boarders sustained SAS.
A day would come when SAS will call on the alumni. Currently, the alumni is manned by SASian 60-70 who were sustained by SAS in their own times, that's why the alumni call on SAS. The reverse will prevail, perhaps in twenty years time, when the alumni is manned by those who had sustained SAS, like those in the private schools and colleges.

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