My back pages — From ‘Pop Art’ to ‘Borneo Post’

ON July 7, 2018, I had my first column published in The Borneo Post, and it was simply titled ‘Just Another Point of View’.

This week marks my 360th column in seven years – I had only missed the occasional press holidays when there were no publications, and a couple of Saturdays due to ‘indisposition’ (read medical reasons).

The very first time that something I had written saw print was when I was in Primary 5, at age 11.

I had my essay published in my school magazine ‘The Square’ (St Thomas’ Primary School).

Later that same year, in 1961, another composition came out in the annual magazine ‘The Thomian’.

When my other classmates were busy with extra-curricular activities like football, badminton, hockey and taking part in uniformed outfits like the Boy Scouts or the 3H Club; I was the nerdy bookworm being studiously at work writing, editing and taking part in debates and other ‘indoor’ interests.

I had by then joined the editorial boards of both magazines and by the time I reached my early teens, I was the editor of the periodical school magazine.

In my final two years of secondary school, I was the editor of The Thomian (1968-1969).

Not so widely known was the fact that between 1967 and 1969, when still in school, I was writing under a pseudonym for a local Sarawak English daily called ‘The Vanguard’!

Desmond Leong, its managing editor then, had invited me to do a weekly column – an entire broadsheet page – on topics and subjects that would interest the young.

I was given a free rein of whatever I had wanted to write about, from teen issues to reviews of music, movies and books, as well as on local events and even ‘gossips’ – any subject I could think of under the sun.

‘Carte blanche’ was the popular term used then.

Later on in life my mentor/friend Desmond had confided in me that he was ‘told off’ or ‘warned’ about my writings on sexual matters, which he did allow and had vetted through.

After all, none of the readers had known then that such advice was coming from a 17-year old student!

There were two reasons why I didn’t (or rather couldn’t) use my own name; one being that at 17, I was still underage – in those days, I could only sign a contract or agreement at age 21.

Secondly, I was still a student.

So I had picked the name ‘Pop Art’ and it became ‘Pop Art Column’, which had lasted for three years, after which I left school, and started work at The Borneo Company Ltd in March 1970.

Between November 1969 and March 1970, which I considered then as my ‘gap period’, I had worked full-time with Desmond at The Vanguard as a ‘cadet reporter’, and even had a dedicated photographer assigned to me whenever I was covering a news item, the gutsy and memorable Cyrus Chong!

Alas, I have completely lost touch with him!

At the same time, my dear sister Edrea (may God rest her beautiful soul) had her very own weekly column at the rival newspaper, ‘The Sarawak Tribune’. She had called it ‘Teena’s Teen Page’.

She wrote about teenage girls’ issues, their fashion and beauty care advice, their general well-being, as well as on general entertainment and the local gossip.

Her time there had paralleled mine at The Vanguard. At the time, she was only 16.

I have always loved and enjoyed writing. I don’t have to dig too deeply, neither do I search too far to discover the reason why.

At a very young age, probably around four or five, I was already being surrounded by books, magazines, and newspapers as both my mother and father were avid readers.

Mum, being an English school teacher was always encouraging and challenging; she was extremely patient with instilling in me, and later in my other siblings, the love for the written word that had lasted a lifetime.

From around the time I had learned and understood English, I was hooked. I was very lucky too that at St Thomas’ Primary School, between 1956 and 1962, I had a stream of very capable and caring teachers.

I was fortunate too that my grandfather, Ong Kwan Hin, had daily copies of The Straits Times and on weekends, the Sunday Times, and later, The Star; as well as weekly issues of Borneo Bulletin, delivered to him.

At the same time, Dad subscribed to both Sarawak Tribune and The Vanguard.

The Borneo Post was only launched on April 24, 1978.

I must have started reading my very first English newspaper at a very young age, probably at eight or nine when I could barely understand the world of politics and what made the world go round – the ‘birds and bees’ story only came around puberty!

I was a voracious reader and would read every day after school every page of the newspaper, skipping only the sports, business and stock exchange.

My entire family, from my grandfather down to my siblings, were all addicted to news, newspapers and the radio. Television did not appear till 1975, and the colour TV, only in 1978.

We are all still news addicts today.

During my early journalistic endeavours, I had to keep up to date on news from the world of entertainment; so with what I was being paid for my weekly column, I had subscribed to a number of international magazines like the UK’s New Musical Express (NME), Melody Maker and the USA’s Rolling Stone, Spin, Esquire and GQ.

In the pre-Internet days, we could only glean our news from magazines, the radio and snail mail via letters, correspondence and the telephone.

I was typing my weekly column on a light blue Imperial portable typewriter and was hand-delivering the pages a few days ahead of the publication date.

In those days, the editorial office of The Vanguard was at Jalan Padungan in Kuching, and it later shifted to Temple Street just opposite the then-Rex Cinema.

By the time I was 20 and had started my career in marketing at the Inchcape Berhad’s trading companies, I had to give up my writing.

Only very much later, sometime in the mid-2010s, I was approached by Rajah Murugaiah to write an opinion column for his online news website called The Ant Daily, which was part of the HCK (Tan Sri Clement Hii’s) stable of multi-media companies.

That had lasted briefly.

I was an early bird in joining Facebook when it opened its doors to the public on Sept 26, 2006.

I set up a personal account and was very active making posts on it. Around 10 years ago, I created a public forum and since then, it has become quite popular; today, it has 100,000 followers.

Sometime in June 2018, I was approached by The Borneo Post and Utusan Borneo general manager Phyllis Wong, to write a weekly column for the widest circulation English daily in Borneo.

I had no hesitation in accepting the offer.

So here I am, back to writing once a week, but instead of my old trusty Imperial portable typewriter, I now click on the black keyboard of my personal computer using the Word software and email it off to the editors.

And as long as you, dear readers, keep reading my weekly column on any subject that catches my fancy, I will keep typing.

Thank you for staying with us for the past seven years – and 360 pieces!

I am most humbled, and I can only attribute it all to Almighty God for His perpetual love, grace and guidance.

Praise be to God. Amen.

* The opinions expressed in this article are the columnist’s own and do not reflect the view of the newspaper.