Muslim Students in Tanjong Lobang School 1967

This photo is courtesy of Prof Emeritus Haji Mohammad Abdul Majid.

And he can remember most of the names.....Thanks Uchak.

Photo of Muslim students at TLS in 1967.

1. Hamdan (Bintulu)
2. Dr Ismawi
3. Mahmud Yusuf (Gomen Inspector)
4. ?
5. Haidar khan
6. Zainuddin
7. ?
8. Robert Vatsaloo
9. Abg Hj Kassim
10. Brother of Turkey Hamzah (Bintulu)
11. Sharkawi Bohari?
12. Azmi Bintulu
13. Anuar Khan
14. Azmi Bintulu
15. He married Aminah Lampam
16. Bintulu boy
17. ?
18. ?
19. Maybe Late Ibrahim Shah
20. Awg Rahim Bintulu
21. ?
22. Late Aminuddin
23. Abdullah Sani
24. Mahani Omar
25. Sukinam Domo
26. Cikgu Sepawi
27. Hamzah?
28. Kushairi Suut
29. Mohidin Ishak
30. Amin Sahmat
31. Abu Bakar Matassan
32. Awg Zaini
33. Abdul Hamid (Mayor of Kuching)
34. Fatonah Rashid
35. Saadiah
36. THE GREAT CHIEF COOK: PACIK HAMDAN
37. ZENORAI THE GREAT
38. Abdullah Awg nassar
39. Zainal Abidin
40. ?
41. Yusuf Nassar
42. ASFIA AWG NASSAR
43. ?
44. Wan ali Yubi
45. ?
46. THE GREAT DATO TALIP ZULPHILIP!
47. Zakaria Kawi
48. Wan Muhammad Yubi
49. Ali Junaidi
50. ZAM THE MAGNIFICENT
51. Abdullah Mohd Noor
52. Abdullah ali (famous for jumping down from heights)
53. ?
54. Salomon Tatau
55. From Niah or Sibuti



I apologise for not being able to remember all the names. It was 40 years ago.(Haji)

I thank Haji for the photo and the names...hope others can help us complete the name list!!

Robert Madang and Haji Mohammad

Robert Madang receiving "allowance increment" from the Prime Minister.


Robert left school to join the Army.



This is our learned professor Emeritus Dato Haji Mohammad.



This is one of the rare black and white photographs which come back to me via the Internet. My group of former school mates have helped a lot by sharing their photos. Mine were mostly burnt in a fire that razed my longhouse many years ago.

A pity then. But now I realise how technology can help us. I am slowly making a small collection of 1959 to 1968 photos.

I used to enjoy printing the old style photos in the school lab. I suppose I can still "develop" photographs today if I have a chance from scratch.

Robert today is a retired Colonel and is an author of two books with more coming. He is a poet too. Haji is Professor Emeritus from MU.

Our struggles as survivors then were all worth it. But friendship is supreme.


thanks uchaks.

Drinking Horlicks and Milo in the Boarding School

I was once asked by my children what was the most painful part of my student life -

There were many but flippantly I told them this story which still brings a small pain to my stomach these days.

Food in the refrectory was fine and we had the honour of "dining" with Mr. Robert N and Miss McKonkey and other staff members.

Our school mates behaved very well at the "feast". The Muslim students and the Non Muslim students were all together in the refrectory and that was really nice.

Food was very basic. And we even had our own vegetables which we grew next to our hostel.

But at night when it was about 10 we the native students would feel very hungry. There was no supper at all.

Perhaps Alec Kaboy had a few dollars left after his uncle's visit and we could share a packet of dry noodels. Perhaps some one had just come back from the villages and had brought some extra biscuits.

But what we had every night was the sound of the Chinese students like Ang Boon Sian who was a towkay's son who made his Milo or Horlicks without fail.

We could hear the noise of his spoon stirring the hot milo in his tin cup.

And because the milo was hot he would slurp very loudly.

Whether he consciously knew he was doing all these we would never know. But next door to him we the native boys could hear his milo making noises and slurping very clearly through the thin wooden walls.

We could never afford the Milo nor the Horlicks during our student days.....My father did send me money like $15 whenever he sold his rubber in those days which was about three times a year. But that princely sum had to go for a new school shirt or a new exercise books and may be some pencils. (By the way Freda Kedung was rich then and I was one of her beneficiaries - we often received one or two used pencils some her. )

Those images were the most painful.

Chinese Radish and the Late Mr. James Foh

I am definitely growing to become a little more sentimental these days.

Every bowl of lobak or Chinese radish soup would remind me of the special teacher who taught us how to grow vegetables in our school. The Late Mr. James Foh.


Imagine 1960's Tanjong Lobang School - a school on a promontory washed by the sea on the west and blown by cold sea winds at night. those of us having a thin blankiet could only shiver and think of warm blankets. Electric blanket was not even in the books! I would wear an extra cotton shirt to sleep in. And the mosquito net probably helped many to be jnst a little warmer.

And more often than not as we got awakened by loud snoring around us we could even hear our friends' stomach rumbling. We could be really hungry in those days.

Thus in the day time you could see us working extra hard to bring extra vegetables to our dining table.

This photo I copied from the Internet could be a likely scene of our dear Tanjong Lobang of the 50's and 60's.


We used to work like this under the mentorship of the late Mr. James Foh. He was the one who taught us to grow vegetables the Chinese way. (or the proper way)


In my blurring memories probably all my friends and I grew our vegetables as beautifully as these. Many of my dear Tanjong Lobang photos were burnt in the fire that razed my longhouse in 1983.


This was the favourite and easiest to grow radish or lobak.



Thanks Mr. James Foh!!