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Apa Kabar Apa Kabar Apa Kabar Apa Kabar Squeaks From the Chair
By
Barry Morris, President FoM
The Friends of Malaysia has recently opted to go with a
new website design. In recent years, we haven’t been
able to update the group’s website very much after the
death of the website manager, Tony Lin. The website
was originally written in computer code which is no
longer in use at the present time. It was felt by the board
that a new website which could be more easily changed
would be in order. The new website address is:
www.friendsofmalaysia.net. Our old website is still
available www.friendsofmalaysia.org. It has links to
several other websites which are useful for former Peace
Corps Volunteers seeking information about Malaysia.
The new website has a number of features that we
haven’t had before including drop-down menus, an `In
Memoriam’ section for Malaysian Peace Corps
Volunteers who have passed away, a link to the Peace
Corps Malaysia Facebook page, general information
about the history of the group and awards we have
received, and a slideshow of pictures taken in Malaysia.
The new website will allow us to update information and
add sections to the site over time. This time, we would
like to include more pictures of Peace Corps Volunteers
at the time they were working in Malaysia. If you have
any and would like to have them included, please send
them to me at [email protected]. Also, if you
have ideas for things that can be added to the website,
just let me know and we’ll see if they can be included.
I’m also planning a more in-depth section on the various
financial donations and other involve- (Continued p.2)
Table of Contents
Squeaks From the Chair...……………………….……..P. 1
History………………………………………………….……….P. 1
Malaya VII Reunion…………………………….…………P. 2
Education Changes………………………………………..P. 3
Reuniting Peace Corps Friends……………………….P. 5
US Ambassador……………………………………………..P. 6
Limbang Rebellion………………………………………….P. 6
A Memorial……………………………………………………P. 6
Thanks to Malaysia Peace Corps…………………….P. 7
Our Business Stuff…………………………………………P. 8
A Little History, Jungle PeopleBy
Karen McClay-Flolid
Sarawak Peace Corps Doctor Daniel Kok and his wife
Liz (Malaysia XI) were actively involved in the
welfare of Borneo’s orang utans. As Malaysia XII
Peace Corps volunteers in Sarawak, Karen and John
McClay babysat Bangan and Bullet while Danny and
Liz went on vacation. Since they were orphans they
needed to be taught life skills, including to build
their nests each night. We found them to be quick
learners, very intelligent, playful, curious, and well
behaved. Their antics brought joy to our lives while
serving in the Peace Corps. We are ever thankful for
Danny and Liz’s commitment to the preservation of
these incredible creatures. As a result of their
concern, the first preserve was established outside
of Kuching, Sarawak..(Continued P. 2)
Fall 2014 Edited by Thaine H. Allison, Jr.
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Karen McKlay-Flolid nurtures orangutan orphans at the
Kok’s home compound Kuching, Sarawak
(Continued from P. 1) ments we have had in Malaysia in
recent years and suggestions for new material will be
greatly appreciated. Happy holidays from the Friends of
Malaysia Board of Directors.
Malaya VII 50th Anniversary reunion 2014 group photo,
Austin, Texas, October 2014
Malaya VII Austin ReunionBy
Sue HowesOur hair is grayer, our bodies less trim and our
youthful enthusiasm somewhat dimmed yet our group
met for our eighth reunion in Austin, Texas in this
September. It is amazing that we were together for
only three months in training - two at Northern Illinois
University and one month in Hilo and Waipio Valley –
and friendships have lasted so long and continue to be
strong to this day. Each time we meet the beat goes
on.
To date, we have met all over the country and out of it
– Harrisburg, PA, Orkney Springs, VA, Milwaukee WI,
San Francisco, CA, Penn Yann, NY, Prince Edward
Island, Rapid City, SD, Portland, OR and Austin, TX.
There was also the 50th Peace Corps anniversary in
Washington DC. Three years hence we plan to be
either in New Orleans, LA or Nashville, TN.
A volume of personal biographies has been collected
and distributed to group members so those that were
unable to attend can also share in the heritage and
history of the individuals they knew so long ago. It is
wonderful to read the impact that this Peace Corps
experience has had on all of us, our work and our
families. Many continue to be international travelers
and our children have served in the Corps or in other
altruistic international experiences. Upon our return
most of us continued on in higher education, leading
to long careers in fields such as business, academia,
engineering, teaching and health care. And we have
one vintner that has resulted in some terrific wines at
our reunions!
To be sure, America has reaped a huge profit from the
investment made in us fifty years ago. We began with
102 trainees; 50 were age 20-22; 35 from 23-25; 10
from 26-28; 3 from 29-30. Elders were one at 39, one
at 43, one at 60+ and one at 66. While several of the
oldest group made it through training, they all
ultimately did not finish their term.
Many of the same volunteers return for the reunions;
there are some that are never heard from even
though they receive all of our emails. Others have just
disappeared. I would say we run about a 50%
participation rate, give or take the year and location.
(Continued P. 3)
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(Continued From P. 2) We have 58 members on our email
list. This is our main source of communication. News of
Malaysia is shared when it comes available, happenings
within the group are also circulated. Only a few do not
have access to the internet.
Of the 102 invitees 15 did not make it to Malaysia or
through training and there are 13 that we know are
deceased. A few dropped out or were sent home for
illnesses once in the host country.
We did consider returning to Malaysia for our 40th or 45
reunion and attempts were made to do so but for one
reason or another, it didn't come off, much as we would
have liked it. That being said, many have returned, some
more frequently than others. They return to their posting
and are joyously welcomed. We also have several
volunteers that married Malaysians and they return home
to visit parents and grandparents. Some members have
also either described or written about their former
students and how successful they have been in Malaysia.
That is always good to learn. Editors Note: Thanks to Sue
Hawes for this contribution. Malaya VII is the group that
replaced my group North Borneo/Sarawak I.
Peace Corps teachers to work on improving the
English being taught in public primary schools. I
extended for a third year and was fortunate to find
myself a unique placement in Kuala Lumpur that
allowed me to use my journalism degree and
newspaper experience. I was assigned to the
Southeast Asia Press Center, which was a new
regional journalism training institute under the
Malaysian Ministry of Information. (It later evolved
into the Malaysian Press Institute.)
I had a very rewarding experience serving as
assistant to the director and helping out on various
training programs for journalists already employed
in the local media. Again wisely, the Malaysian
government and newspaper and broadcast
managers and editors and founders of Bernama, the
new national news agency, realized that the
developing nation needed more and better trained
professional journalists. The Press Center position
gave me a chance to meet the country’s leading
publishers and editors and work with an impressive
group of young, eager, ethnically diverse reporters
who had to work in a rather restricted environment
since the country still had many of the press
controls, such as licensing, and the sedition act that
the British had imposed.
One of the highlights of my Kuala Lumpur
assignment was the chance to be part of a team
which developed Malaysia’s first university-level
mass communication program. Up until the early
1970s, Malaysia did not have an American-style,
university-level journalism or mass communication
degree program, and many journalists did not have
degrees. Malaysian academics and journalists at the
time were still heavily influenced by London’s “Fleet
Street” and the British education system, which felt
journalism was a trade that you learned on-the-job
rather than an academic program at a university.
The stuffy University of Malaya, which dominated
higher education at the time, was very British-
curriculum focused and wouldn’t dare offer a
degree in something like journalism. Fortunately, a
few Malaysian educators and planners realized that
a mass communication program designed to
prepare media practitioners through both liberal
arts and skills courses was needed. (Continued P. 4)
Observing Education Changes in MalaysiaBy
Michael H. Anderson
As a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1968-71, when Malaysia
was still very young as an independent nation, I was
privileged to see – up-close and personal – several aspects
of the country’s post-colonial education system evolve and
grow.
For two years, I taught English in a “sekolah kebangsaan,” a
Malay medium national school, in a rice and rubber
growing part of Kedah between Alor Star to the north and
Penang to the south. That experience, including living in a
kampong on the outskirts of Sungei Patani, taught me
about small town life and about teaching in a majority-
Malay school, where English standards were low, especially
compared to the “convent” and other private schools in
town. The English teachers in our Group XX were brought
in around the time English-medium schools were being
phased out and the national language, Bahasa Malaysia,
was being actively promoted to increase national unity.
The government wisely recognized the importance of
English as an international language and warmly welcomed
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(Continued From P. 3) So when the University Science
Malaysia (Universiti Sains Malaysia) was established in
Penang in 1970 as a new, innovative university on the
sprawling grounds of Minden Barracks, the old British
military facility, its founders wisely included a School of
Humanities. The School’s first dean was an American,
Dr. Robert Van Niel, a Southeast Asian history professor
from the University of Hawaii, and he oversaw the start
of a university degree program in mass communication.
I was lucky to be part of the first team of several part-
time expatriate teachers who would travel to Penang to
do the initial teaching before the university had its own
qualified Malaysian academic staff. The first batch of
students were bright and enthusiastic, and many went
on to find good jobs in media and other fields, like
public relations and advertising, which were starting to
boom as Malaysia developed. At least three of the first
batch of my students went on to earn PhDs from
American universities. I am proud that two of them
returned to the university in Penang and became well-
established mass communication faculty members. In
March, during a visit to the Penang campus, I had a
wonderful reunion with both of them (see photo). I
was pleased to learn that the USM mass comm
program has been a success, and a number of other
media-related programs have started up in various
Malaysian institutions.
Many thousands of Malaysian young people have by
now studied in America, but back when the Peace
Corps was in Malaysia, it was unusual to hear of a
Malaysian going to a U.S. university. Anyone bright
or rich enough to study abroad went to the UK, or
Singapore, or perhaps Australia. Over the years that
situation dramatically changed as Malaysia has
jumped aboard the “internationalization of
education” bandwagon. Today, not only is Malaysia
sending many of its best scholars abroad, but it also
is trying to attract international students to its
growing number of both public and private
universities. Some 40,000 foreigners from about
100 countries, including the U.S., are studying on
Malaysian campuses. They are drawn to the country
for many reasons --- its welcoming people, cultural
diversity, English and other language skills, diversity
of educational institutions, low cost of living, etc.
The latest data on the number of Malaysian students
studying in the U.S. show that in the last academic
year 6,822 Malaysians were on American campuses,
and they contributed $218 million to the U.S.
economy. The number of Malaysian students has
been relatively flat for the last three years and is
small when compared with huge numbers from
places like China, India and South Korea. But still the
Malaysian total is not insignificant, and U.S. higher
education is undeniably highly regarded in Malaysia.
(The number of Malaysian students in the U.S.
peaked at 9,074 in 1999-2000, and since then has
been affected by a number of factors – increased
competition from closer places like Australia; the
perception that getting a student visa in post-9/11
America is difficult; increasing costs of U.S. high
education; and the rise of ”twinning programs” and
foreign university branch campus opportunities right
in Malaysia.)
The number of Americans studying in Malaysia has
improved, although the numbers are small and
growing slowly. In 2012-2013, only 237 Americans
were studying in Malaysian universities, and this
means that Malaysia is not even in the top 25
countries as a leading destination of U.S. students.
But a very encouraging sign is the growth of the U.S.
English Teaching Assistants (ETA) program, which is
part of the prestigious Fulbright exchange program
in Malaysia. (Continued P. 5)
Two of RPCV Mike Anderson's first mass comm students
in 1971 pose at Universiti Sains Malaysia front gate in
Penang. Dr Mansor Ahmad (left) and Dr Hamima Dona
(right) both went on to get PhDs in the U.S. and then
return to teach in Penang. Mike had a reunion with the
two on campus in Penang last March.
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(Continued from P. 4) Not too unlike my old Peace Corps
English teaching program, today’s ETAs are energetic,
young graduates of American universities who come to
Malaysia for an academic year, live in local communities
and make friends for the U.S. They are assigned as native
English speakers to work in primary or secondary schools
in six states – Terengganu, Pahang, Johor, Perak, Sabah
and Sarawak.
The popular ETA program started nine years ago and has
grown -- with the personal encouragement of both
President Obama and Prime Minister Najib -- to 100
participants. It is jointly funded by the two governments
and administered by the Malaysian-American
Commission on Education Exchanges (MACEE) in Kuala
Lumpur. According to U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Joe
Yun, “As this program continues to expand, the bonds
and friendships the ETAs make will help us better
understand each other.”
Malaysia faces many challenges, but it has come a long
way in education and other areas of progress since the
Peace Corps concluded its programs there in 1983 after
21 years. Today, relations between the U.S. and Malaysia
arguably are the best they have ever been, and continued
warm memories of the Peace Corps plus active programs
like the Fulbright ETAs and other educational exchanges
play a role in sustaining friendship and building mutual
understanding. More can and should be done to bring
Malaysians and Americans closer together, but the
foundations for both an enduring bond and greater
cooperation are firm.
Reuniting Peace Corps FriendsBy
Barry Morris President FoM
Some years ago I wondered if I could re-
establish contact with former Peace Corps
Volunteers that I had trained with in
Malaysia. I had a few email addresses for
some of them and found a few more by
searching the Web. Here is the first
message that I sent them:
Hello Warren, Mike, Tom, Mimi, Linda, I
scrounged around the Internet and found
some email addresses for our Peace Corps
group and I think some of you have heard
from other former members of our group
such as Alice Keeling and Karl Schwalm.
Would any of you be interested in a sort of
round robin newsletter about the group -
where we would write some news about
ourselves and then pass it on to the others
and add other former group members to the
group as we can? Lets get back in touch while
we still hopefully have our mental faculties!
Barry Morris
That’s all it took to get the group back
together. A blog was put together and two or
more members took it on themselves to
locate former members. Dr. Karl Schwalm
and Linda Burgher both enjoyed being
detectives and trying to find out where
everyone was these days. Everyone was
found and most have participated in one way
or another. Several send biographical
information to be published on the group’s
blog. We have since we were organized had
two reunions: one in Chicago and one in
Malaysia. Of course, not quite everyone has
participated, but I think those that have have
been glad we were able to reunite and
reconnect us to what was an important part
of our past.
(Mike Anderson is a member of the board of the
Friends of Malaysia Board and a retired U.S. diplomat
who resides in the Washington, D.C. area.)
Recent Books of Interest
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U.S. Ambassador Promotes Closer Ties to
Malaysia
U.S. Ambassador Joe Yun (left) spoke on U.S.-Malaysia
relations at a recent Malaysia-America Society (MAS)
program at American University in Washington, DC. MAS
President Lynn Juhl (right), who is an RPCV Malaysia and
an FOM Board member, presented the new Ambassador
with an MAS souvenir cup at the conclusion of the
program. Ambassador Yun is a strong supporter of groups
like MAS and FOM which promote closer people-to-people
ties between our two countries. He replaced Ambassador
Paul W. Jones, who led efforts to celebrate the 50th
anniversary (1962-2012) of Peace Corps Malaysia. Two
other former Malaysia Volunteers, Paul Murphy and Mike
Anderson, also serve on both the MAS and the FOM
Boards.
A Memorial to Malaysia Peace Corps
Volunteers Who Have Passed Away
Charles R. Backus, 7/12/14
Faith Berglund, 8/8/13
Irving Randell Borden, 1933- 2013; 12/9/13
Kirk Bunnell,1/20/14
Michael Cook, 9/21/13
Nikki Drossel, 12/17/13
Ernest G. Eichler, 12/17/13
Larry Engstrom, 6/9/14
Jeffrey Ersoff, 4/16/13
Darlene Ann `Dolly' Fellows, 6/13/14
Valerie Granstra, 9/12/14
Carl J. Homan,11/27/13
Daniel Jones, 1/18/13
Sister Laura Ann King, 7/8/14
Kevin McCarthy, 7/8/13
Daniel Alan Montgomery, 3/15/13
Kathleen Murray, 5/10/14
Robert Pastor, 1/8/13
David S. Patz, 2/23/13
Gilda Emery Samuels, 7/31/13
John Davis Schnebly 8/15/14
Richard Straw, 10/14/12
Unfortunately we have no way of knowing when
these volunteers served or what programs they
were affiliated with. The board regularly talks
about the shrinking number of RPCVs that served in
Malaysia. If you know of others to add to the list
please pass them along to the editor.
Remembering Limbang, Sarawak Rebellion
By
Thaine H. Allison, Jr.
Today is December 12, 52 years ago today Fritz Klatenhoff
a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sarawak, a British Colony, was
captured by rebels in the Brunei Revolt at Limbang. He
was eventually rescued by British Royal Marines along
with an Australian couple and two Dutch priests. Five
Royal Marines died in the rescue efforts. These events
were documented in a film several years ago, Return to
Limbang, that I was featured in. This last year the
daughter of the Australian couple wrote a detailed book
Limbang Rebellion by Eileen Chanin, available from your
friendly online book store. She was recently honored with
the Royal Marines Historical Society Literary Award She
documents the events and references the role of
Peace Corps Volunteers in those years. Take a
moment to remember those brave marines who
died that night and the tenacity of Peace Corps
Volunteers who serve in difficult and sometimes
dangerous situations. Thaine H. Allison, Jr. VP
Programs Friends of Malaysia Borneo I 1962-64
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/newsevents/news/newsrec
ords/2014/November/Eileen-Chanin-wins-
Literary-Award.aspx
7
Thanks to Peace Corps and Malaysia
By
Rod Zwirner
Dec.1964--About four days after descending onto the
very hot K.L. airport tarmac, we were ushered into Tun
Razak's office for an official welcome. Out came his Red
Book that delineated development projects and we
knew we were into some serious nation building. A
week later I was assigned to Dragon School, 24 miles
from Sarawak's capital--Kuching. There was a real
insurgency going on and I was lucky to have served 3
years in the US Army in Germany(serving with Elvis gave
me some prestige with the students who had seen GI
Blues) just because I was used to having multinational
armed forces around.
While focusing on the Sarawak Jr. and Cambridge
curricula I gradually absorbed what the multiethnic
student body needed to master. Confrontation and
7pm curfew became a fact of life. While I saw masked
terrorists kill 2 government servants in Kuching's open
market, the main incident for our school community
was the murder of two students's parents in our nearby
bazaar when local communists and Indonesian troops
came looking for "spies". Apparently, they had slept in
nearby caves where I had taken students for a hike not
too long before.
I mention all this because in facing students daily one
needed to think about making things relevant to their
political context. It was a steep learning curve for me
and the students helped by explaining things. For
instance, when the CID asked for the scorebook as I
coached the basketball team, they informed me that the
bazaar teams were often a recruiting mechanism for the
Communists. So my first major gift from Malaysia was
that I had to think through what is a nation and the
impact of the transition from colonialism in a multiethnic
society. I learned a lot about how the USA was put
together by teaching in Sarawak.
A second gift was having to focus on food production in
a developing global economy. In 1966 I volunteered to
teach Form One husbandry as an add on to my schedule.
Luckily, there was an Ag Experimental station not too far
away. For my third year I transferred to teach Kapit's
first exam class where I got to know the Methodist
agricultural mission personnel.
They had brought the first IR8 miracle rice to
Sarawak and were trying to lessen the dependence
on hill rice growing. Importing technology, whether
seeds or animals, is very tricky and trial and error
was necessary. Fast forward almost 40 years when
we caught a ride with a vehicle supplying a road
crew near the Bakun dam--they were delivering rice
from Vietnam, chicken from North Carolina,fish
from a Filipino-manned trawler and beef from
Australia. The second gift from my time in Malaysia
was the help in understanding the Global Economy
with its major changes and corruption.
A third gift was a better understanding of striking a
balance between family, tribe/clan, nation and
beyond. The complexity of choosing values,
technology, and a pattern of governance where all
can thrive, can take a toll on the planet and human
patience. Need, not greed, should take precedence.
This is why my retirement life is centered on helping
keep the earth healthy for future generations.
I grew up in New Jersey, the Garden State, but when
we returned(I married a PCV while training
volunteers in Kuching during 1969-1971) farms had
turned into houses, so we settled in rural New
Hampshire where local communities were more like
Malaysia. While I am a retired teacher and rural
mail carrier, peace building is always in my life. How
do people adjust to and create change that
improves life for all? This brings me to a fourth gift
from Malaysia--greater sensitivity to spiritual values
that can evolve, not be stuck in the past, but able to
deal with realities--political, economic, natural, etc.
Since my students were exposed to so many
traditions--several Christian missions, Islam, Hindu,
Taoist, etc--one gets asked a lot of questions. For
instance, why don't the "hantus" bother you when
they are so close in our dorm OR why are some
Christians(SDA) not allowed to eat pork. My Peace
Corps trainees experienced these traditions so they
could better understand their students.(I once had a
Form III science student whose family were spirit
mediums). Peace is not just the absence of war, but
a set of conditions that allows mutual acceptance
and sharing of experiences that lead to a form of
unity. Again, when greed takes over, things fall
apart.
Of course, we all have many stories (Continued P. 8)
8
(Continued From P. 7) like my Kapit Boy Scouts who
were the first to bike from Sibu on the new, rough
road(1967) to see the capital(Kuching) despite about
20 flat tires. However, nostalgia is one thing, but the
realities we have to face today are more important.
Sometimes I am sad about what goes on in the USA
and Malaysia, but the complexities we face must be
met with shared responsibility and goodwill. My five
years in Malaysia made that very clear and I am
thankful.
Friends of Malaysia Board Members
http://FriendsofMalaysia.net
President: Barry Morris VP of Programs: Thaine H. Allison, Jr. VP of Membership: Paul Murphy Treasurer: Paul Murphy Secretary: Ruth Zwirner Newsletter: vacant Board Members: Rod Zwirner
Lynn Juhl Michael H. Anderson
Karen McClay Flolid Marjorie Harrison
Bob Cricenti
Join Friends of Malaysia
Membership gives you access to our latest newsletter and your
membership fee is used to help us make contributions to
charities in Malaysia
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Mail to: Paul Murphy, 510 Little John Hill, Sherwood Forest,
MD 21405 Terima kaseh, lah
Learn more about the friends of Malaysia at our web site:: http://friendsofMalaysia.net Contribute to Apa Kabar: [email protected]
National Peace Corps Association
http://PeaceCorpsConnect.org
Group 28 Blog - PCVs who served in Malaysia from
1970-1973
http://peacecorpsmalaysia.wordpress.com
Peace Corps Malaysia on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/201309356552
602/
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ation
We Get Letters
Do you recognize these volunteers? A former
student, Maria Sandra Sho, is looking to reconnect
with Joan Rominski Paparigian in Semporna 1970.
Also Kamarudin Mohamamad from Muar,
Jahore is looking for Sharon Shaackleford Who
taught High School Mathematics in 1966.
Joanne Fox was adopted in Sarawak in 1964 by
peace Corps Director Gay and Joseph Fox. She
is looking for volunteers that knew them.Saw
Tan (Tony) is looking for Larry and Lassie Orlin/
Olin. They were in Sungai Patani , Kedah mid to
late 1970’s. Let me know if you can help out.
We always contact the volunteer, make sure
he/she wants to correspond with the requestor
and if so pass along the contact information to
the volunteer and let them make the final
connection. [email protected]