I DON'T DO THIS OFTEN....BUT I TIP MY HAT TO ALL THE TONYs WHO TOUCHED MY LIFE.

Let me be very upfront. My Bahasa Malaysia will not save my live....pasar malay may. And that was one reason why I left what I loved very much.....teaching, because I could not handle Bahasa Malaysia when it became a compulsory medium of instruction in schools. My handling of it was such that I was not up to it and I am not proud of this as a true-blue Malaysian that I stake a claim on. If I am disqualified then just accept me as an ordinary Malaysian who would do anything to preserve and protect this beloved country that I was born in and would end my life for. Hold it....I know some of you will say....get to it old man.....what's your beef today.....who are you clobbling? Zaid Ibrahim for his handling of the Media Freedom ? No that is for tomorrow.

I cannot explain this but all the TONY(s) in my life have been extraordinary people. You young people out there expecting and already confirmed through scanning that you are gonna have a boy.....name him Anthony or Tony.....betcha you will not go wrong......your Tony will be a credit to all the Tony's I know.

I will not go into details but just skim the surface...

The first Anthony to come into my life was Uncle Tony Fong, a Special Branch officer whose name was on the Communist Party of Malaya's hit list. His hit man shadowed him and learnt about him. When the time and the circumstance was right, the hit man could not pull the trigger. His target was too good a man to waste a bullet on. Don't ask me how I know, because I know......even then.

The second Tony in my life was a boarder that I met when I was Boarding Master in a boarding school in Singapore's St Pat's. Anthony Chan from Miri was a born leader, although I don't lay claim to have nurtured him to be one. I couldn't straighten out some errant kids and I had to recruit Anthony Chan to help me out there. The word peer-pressure was not coined yet I am pretty sure. That was in the early 60s.We corresponded when he studied overseas but, purely my fault, I got distracted by other things and lost touch with many, I lost touch with Anthony Chan. I hope he is well.

The third Tony in my life was Tony Gayandato, a student of mine. He is four feet something or five feet nothing.....but he packs a good wallop, in all capacities, mouth, hands, feet and down there.This is way back in the mid to late 60's. He played football for me and was damn good in the subtle art of getting off the hook (line and sinker). This is the guy, when confronted with the fact that he was without an essay assignment that he had to pass up wrote this one-liner on "The Football Match"......BIG STORM, MATCH POSTPONED! Now you tell me how could I clobber a smart-ass kid like Tony. Today, we still knock glasses together and it was he who told me that I should start a blog of my own when I voiced my anger at Rocky and Jeff being sued by NST. Thanks Tony I owe you.


The fourth Tony in my life was the late Tony Petrus, OCPD Petaling Jaya. I dedicated a blog posting to him here.


The most recent Tony in my life is Tony 'McGyver' Yew, blogger-buddy, whom I met in early 2007, It has just been a year since we bonded but he is like a son, bodyguard, companion, minder, yes and transport-executive(!) whenever I had to indulge in my nocturnal spiritual habits.......at the Press Club or at the Wharf. But last night I watched RTM1 which I have never watched since the late 60s. Tony Yew of YewTube was on prime time TV. After the Media Freedom do at the NPC, Dave, Daniel, Stephen, Gus and I had primed him for his 8.40 prime time with RTM "BLOG" program. At 8.30pm I put my palms together, which is not very often, and hoped that Tony will not go into his Manglish or Italian mode. My haphazard prayers were answered. He performed admirably. Of course I did not know what he was saying (in Bahasa) but he had all the ingredients I was looking for. Tony had PRESENCE. (of course Tony's good looks helped. When you have that presence, you are already making a STATEMENT. That presence and statement were reinforced with an excellent display of non-verbal communications (his hands were in sync with what he was saying), TONY WAS A NATURAL, and even PASQUAL said so this afternoon when we met at Cheers. Tony, I am proud to be your friend and am blessed that you accepted me as your friend.