Meeting Sir Peter Mooney

Dato' Dr Sir Peter Mooney and me

Yesterday, I had the honour of meeting and having lunch with Dato’ Dr Sir Peter Mooney. My father and I were very keen on meeting Sir Peter, especially after reading his book, “A Servant of Sarawak: Reminiscences of a Crown Counsel in 1950s Borneo”, a fascinating book about Sir Peter’s journey and life in Borneo. I will share a little more about the book later. My good friend, Catherine Eu (former Executive Director of the Bar Council) put me in touch with Sir Peter and we set a date for lunch at the Chinese Restaurant located at the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur.

Sir Peter Mooney autographing his book

Now, you may be curious to know who exactly is this person, Sir Peter Mooney? Dato’ Dr Sir Peter Mooney is an illustrious lawyer being the co-founder of Skrine, one of Malaysia’s leading law firms and had served as the Attorney General of Sarawak in the 1950s. Sir Peter Mooney hailed from Ireland but was educated largely in Scotland. Being a brilliant student, he literally sailed through his education on scholarships  based on merit. Sir Peter Mooney had his first taste of Far East when he fought in one of the toughest battle in World War II in Burma. Sir Peter Mooney fought with the British Fourteenth Army under the command of General Sir William Slim (who incidentally became the Governor-General of Australia in 1953). After the war, Sir Peter Mooney continued his education and subsequently was called to the Scottish Bar. Sir Peter Mooney practised law for a short while in Scotland until he was appointed as a Crown Counsel for Sarawak by the Secretary of State for the Colonies in the United Kingdom. Being a linguist, Sir Peter Mooney managed to pick up the local languages such as Malay, Iban and Mandarin rather quickly. Sir Peter Mooney was subsequently appointed as the Attorney General of Sarawak and had faced many legendary opponents (Defense Counsels) such as David Marshall and Lee Kuan Yew. Many of the notable names which we frequently come across in history books such as Sir Malcolm MacDonald and Sir Anthony Abell were people that Sir Peter had worked with and were colleagues of Sir Peter.

Sir Peter's book - a good read

I found Sir Peter Mooney’s book, “A Servant of Sarawak: Reminiscences of a Crown Counsel in 1950s Borneo” a rather good read. The author’s style of relating his experiences and the thorough and vivid description of how the lifestyle of the people in Borneo at that time gives you a feel of the 1950s in “wild Borneo”. The readers could actually feel and see the things that Sir Peter had gone through in those years (perhaps not the same experiences he had but you get an idea). The author shared some interesting cases which he handled and made it even more interesting by adding some anecdotes here and there. The book is written in a simple style and easy to understand. This book is highly recommended for those who wants to know about the colonial times.

Dato' Manan listening attentively to Sir Peter's experiences in Borneo

With Datuk Mahadev Shankar (former Court of Appeal Judge)

The lunch was marvelous. I ordered a number of dishes consisting mainly of vegetables as Sir Peter is more keen on vegetables compared to meat. Joining us for lunch was my dad, Dato’ Abdul Manan Othman (former Cabinet Minister), Catherine Eu (former Executive Director of Bar Council)  and Puan Hendon Mohamed (former President of the Malaysian Bar). I have also invited Lim Chee Wee (current President of the Malaysian Bar) but he sent his apologies. During lunch, we bumped into Datuk Mahadev Shankar (former Court of Appeal Judge), we shared some jokes and had a few laughs and he had to go on his way to another function.

Sir Peter Mooney with a copy of my book

I brought along a copy of Sir Peter’s book and requested for his autograph which he obliged. After that, I presented Sir Peter an autographed copy of “Mediation Skills and Techniques” and a few memorabilia. Sir Peter Mooney is a great man and I must say that it is indeed an honour and privilege to meet you, Sir Peter (if you are reading this post) and hope to catch up with you again!

Sydney - here we come!

Robert Yap and Mok Singh helping to us to remove the door

My father taking a break near the patio

Mok and Douglas checking their facebook

Gary "the kampung boy" Wilson and me

My "twin" brother and I

G’day from Sydney, Australia! I am currently typing this from our new home in Chatswood. My family and I are still adjusting and settling down here in Sydney. We have got a lot of things done over the past few days. The number one priority was to enroll our children, Ashley and Douglas in the local schools here and thankfully, that have been taken care of. We also have some banking matters to deal with and that too have been accomplished. We also got some basic furnishings for our house such as sofa beds, refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, microwave, etc. Thankfully, my father, my brother Clarence, my good friend Mok Singh and my new friend, Gary Wilson came down from the Gold Coast to help us. Not forgetting also, our friend from Klang, Robert Yap who is currently residing in Cherrybrooke who came and helped us to fix up a few things. Jennifer’s sister, Dr Penny Lim who is a dermatologist here in Sydney came and picked us up from the airport. She and her family have been a wonderful help to us. My cousin, Molly (Arnyi) has been a tremendous help in assisting us to choose furnitures and getting us around. To all of you, we salute you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

A nice home cooked meal - Thank you, Mr & Mrs Arul

A wonderful spread of home cooked meal!

Mr. Arul with my parents

Mr and Mrs Arul with my dad

Catching up on old times

Mrs Arul with my mum

Mr. Arul shared with us a useful paper cutting

This afternoon, my father’s former classmate and family friend, Mr. G Arulanathan and his lovely wife invited us over to their place for lunch. They heard that my family and I would be leaving for Sydney soon and therefore, wanted to give us a home cooked farewell lunch in their home. My children, Ashley and Douglas did not attend as they have exams tomorrow. My parents, Jennifer and me attended the wonderful lunch.

We had a home cooked meal of fish head curry (Mrs. Arul’s specialty), basmati rice (brought all the way from Australia as their son, Balan lives there), indian “yong tau foo”, mutton varuval, dried indian fish flake, drumstick dried curry, green “kampung” chicken curry and “pappadam”. We also had “murruku” and “fried dried bittergourd” on the side. As for dessert, we had fresh mangoes and coffee. It was a very hearty and nice meal. Thank you to Mr & Mrs Arul for that lovely lunch!

Mohd Zain Bin Ahmad - the Man instrumental in setting up the first Malaysian container terminal

(From left to right) - Mohd Zain Ahmad, Yahya Ghani (first General Manager of Johor Port)

 and the writer

Note: This article was written in 2012 by my father, David Tan as a tribute to his good friend, En Mohd  Zain Bin Ahmad. Sadly, En. Zain passed away on 4th April 2017.

These days, we have many container ports in Malaysia such as Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas, North Port, Penang Port and West Port. However, very few people realised that Port Klang was the first container port in South East Asia. As a matter of fact, Port Klang was at one time even ahead of Singapore, though Singapore did subsequently become the No. 1 port in the world.

This was all due to one man by the name of Haji Mohd Zain Bin Ahmad or affectionately known as Che Zain. Che Zain was one of the early Malayan graduates from the London School of Economics and had created history as the first Malaysian General Manager of Port Klang Authority (Lembaga Pelabuhan Klang). I could still vividly recall many years ago, Che Zain who was then my neighbour came to my house and told me that Tun Abdul Razak (later became the Prime Minister of Malaysia) who was then the Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee asked him to set up the first container terminal in Malaysia (later to be known as Klang Container Terminal (KCT) and subsequently changed to Northport (Malaysia)). Sitting with Tun Abdul Razak in the Committee was the then Minister of Finance, Tun Tan Siew Sin who was known to be very careful and thrifty when it came to spending taxpayers' money. I was told that initially, Tun Tan Siew Sin refused to approve the project as there were no commitments from major container shipping lines to use the proposed terminal in Port Klang, therefore this posed to be huge risk to the country. Those of us who are familiar with the shipping industry in the 1960s would know that the major player at that time was a container line consortium known as “Trio Group” which consisted of Overseas Container Line, NYK and another. Che Zain being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport (by the way FCIT was earned by him and not given as an honorary title!) played a major role to convince the Committee on the importance of the proposed container terminal. Needless to say the Committee was convinced and decided to take that risk by approving the project. I was told that the project cost a sum of RM45 Million which was a lot of money back in 1967-68. For an approval to be given for such an amount would mean great expectation from the Government. Che Zain literally told me that he was placing his “head on the chopping block”. He knew that any failure or mistake on his part in carrying out this project would mean a major dent to his reputation. Anybody who knows Che Zain would know him as a selfless man of great integrity, honesty and willing to shoulder the heavy responsibility in carrying out the task. His no nonsense approach and his excellent knowledge in managing ports served him well in carrying out the project.

The first person appointed to head the container terminal was Mr. Chung Kek Choo. Prior to that appointment, Kek Choo was the Traffic Manager of Klang Port Authority (LPK). Kek Choo was later sent to the United States of America to study the operations of container ports. Sadly after acquiring the knowledge in operating container ports, Kek Choo left Malaysia for Singapore in 1969.

Kek Choo was hired by Mr. Howe Yoon Chong who was then the Chairman of Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) (later became Head of Singapore’s Civil Service and subsequently Singapore’s Minister of Defence). In those days, Singapore’s PSA was not allowed to employ non-Singaporeans to work in the port. Therefore to avoid this direct ruling, Kek Choo was brought in under the guise of “Special Assistant”. Subsequently, Kek Choo went on to become a consultant with the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

As you can see, Malaysia was a pioneer in setting up a container terminal in this region and all of this largely owed to my old and very dear friend, Che Zain. I could write a lot of things about Che Zain as he is truly a man that is admired by many. Even though, Che Zain has served the country well but unfortunately being a quiet and private man, he was never given any due recognition by the country he loves so much. A lot of things stated in this article could be verified by one of LPK’s illustrious former employee, Dato’ Abdul Manan Othman (later became a Cabinet Minister under Tun Hussein Onn’s administration) during Che Zain’s tenure as the General Manager. There were many illustrious personalities that had served under Che Zain such as Datuk Harun Din, En. Hashir Abdullah and Datuk M. Rajasingam.

So, where is En Zain today? En Zain who is now in his 80s is living a quiet life in Subang Jaya.

The Launching of Lee Hwa Beng's book -"PKFZ - A Nation's Trust Betrayed"

On 17^th April 2012, I attended the launching of Dato’ Lee Hwa Beng book's called “PKFZ: A Nation’s Trust Betrayed” at 1Utama, Bandar Utama. The book was co-authored by Ms Lee Siew Lian who is a former journalist. The book is published by The Malaysian Insider.

The book launch was an intimate affair held in one of the cafes at 1Utama and was classified as a “Private Function”. As expected in all “Private Functions”, the attendees were all invited guests. Initially, there was a bit of concern that the book launch may not go on due to “interference” from outside and the rumor of a Court injunction that would have prevented the launch from happening. Luckily, the book launch went on smoothly without any hindrance.

As the title says, the book is about the Port Klang Free Zone scandal that costs taxpayers up to RM12.5 billion. When Lee Hwa Beng was the chairman of the Port Klang Authority (PKA), he suggested independent investigations be carried out which ruffled the feathers of certain personalities. In his book, Lee Hwa Beng chronicles the story of PKFZ and shared his insights when he was the Chairman of PKA.

There were quite a number of personalities who attended the book launch which include, R. Nadeswaran (Citizen Nades from The Sun), Datuk M Rajasingam (formerly General Manager of LPK who served with distinction and later on became a Board Member of LPK when Lee Hwa Beng was Chairman), our very own Senior Member of the Bar, Haji Sulaiman Abdullah and not forgetting the avid reader and Most Active Borrower of Books for 2011, National Library, David Tan Tai Kim.

The book was launched by Dato’ Seri Ong Tee Keat and Saudara Lim Kit Siang who are both Members of Parliament. Lee Hwa Beng told the guests that he wanted someone from Barisan Nasional (ruling party) and someone from the Opposition (Pakatan Rakyat) to launch the book as the book is above politics and PKFZ is a national interest and concern. Lee Hwa Beng then turned to Ong Tee Keat and asked him in jest, “You are still in BN, right?” Ong Tee Keat gave a big smile without giving a definite answer. Everyone is left guessing……….

I thought Lee Hwa Beng gave a nice informal speech – brief, simple and sweet just like the man. Saudara Lim Kit Siang gave a speech with hints of political remarks here and there. He ended his speech by saying that if Pakatan takes over the Government, they would form a Royal Commission to investigate the scandal. As for Ong Tee Keat, he is an eloquent speaker but I found his speech was a bit too long and after a while it gets a bit tiring. We have to remember we are in a book launch and not a seminar. Overall, the speeches were okay.

After the launch, the organizers had 100 “special commemorative” books for sale. Each of the“special commemorative” book is autographed by the author Lee Hwa Beng, Ong Tee Keat and Lim Kit Siang. For some reason, I find it rather strange why they did not invite Siew Lian who is the co-author to autograph the book as well. The "special commemorative" book was selling at RM100.00 a copy. As for the normal book, it is retailing at RM28.90. If you go to the KL International Book (which will end on 6th May 2012), you can get it at 20% less. It is a good book and worth checking it out.

I had a chat with my fellow author, Lee Hwa Beng and invited him to my book launch on 14th May 2012. Unfortunately, he would be in overseas at that time otherwise, it would be nice if he could come and see for himself how Mediation can work effectively in bridging communication and getting matters resolved. Can the PKFZ fiasco benefit from Mediation? Sure, it can. Mediation can certainly get things moving quicker and the best place to vent and find closure.

Congratulations to my father!

My father, David Tan Tai Kim is an avid reader. He loves reading books relating to current affairs, local interests, history (World War II, the Emergency period, etc) and biographies. Besides reading books, he surfs the internet and reads all of the newspapers from cover to cover. It was no surprise that on 23rd April 2012, in conjunction with World Book Day, he was given a Certificate of Recognition for being the Most Active National Library's book borrower in 2011. He received the Certificate of Recognition, book vouchers and more books(!) from the Director General of the National Library, Datuk Roslin Abu Bakar (New Straits Times, 24th April, 2012). Not bad for a  person who just turned 77 years young last February. Everyone should make attempts to read and increase their general knowledge. We need to go beyond the text books given in school. Take the initiative and make it a habit to read! 

Readers may want to ask, has my father read my book Mediation Skills and Techniques? Good question. For that, you need to ask him!