Book honouring Penang’s La Salle Brothers launched
GEORGE TOWN: Malaysia’s largest literary event, the George Town Literary Festival, opened on Thursday with a slew of activities and book launches over this weekend.
On Thursday, a book honouring the legacy of the La Salle Brothers in Penang’s education journey was launched.
The Xaverian Journey: The Story of a Lasallian School in
Penang, Malaysia 1787-2019 was unveiled at the Karpal Singh Hall in St Xavier’s Institution here by the school’s retiring principal, Dr Sim Hock Keat. The book was authored by three Xaverian alumnae — Dr Francis K.W. Loh, Dr Cecilia Ng and La Salle Brother Anthony Rogers.
“The Xaverian Journey is a chronicle of the founding, growth and progress of a Lasallian school in Penang,” said Chin Saik Yoon, the book’s publisher and the school’s former student.
“The first period of growth occurred in the 1920s and 1930s and St Xavier’s became one of the top schools in then British Malaya.
“Its students were among those who won the coveted Queen’s Scholarship to study in Oxford, Cambridge and London. Using St Xavier’s and Penang as their regional base, the La Salle Brothers spread and founded schools throughout the Malayan peninsula and in East Asia.
“This progress was interrupted by the outbreak of World War 2, and the entire school was destroyed in an Allied air raid on Penang in 1945.
“Hence when the war ended and schooling resumed, teaching was conducted in attap huts in St Xavier’s field. After nine years and several fundraising efforts, St Xavier’s was rebuilt.”
Regeneration and a second round of growth occurred due to Independence in 1957, the formation of Malaysia in 1963, and a general demand for education.
“Amidst this growth, the absorption of SXI and other mission schools into the National Education System occurred. The book discusses not only the growth but also how the Brothers and St Xavier’s adapted to these challenges, the loss of autonomy and a burgeoning sense of a loss of identity in following decades.
“This book honours those Brothers, lay teachers and students who served the school.”
The school, which is located in Lebuh Farquhar and has its history dating back to 1787, is the oldest Catholic Lasallian school in Malaysia. Its students, who are colloquially known as ‘Xavierians’ or ‘La Sallians’ include notables like Penang’s first chief minister the late Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee, former lawyer and top opposition leader the late Karpal Singh, Malaysian film director Saw Teong Hin, Eurasian jazz musician and composer Jimmy Boyle, Singapore’s former finance minister the late Hon Sui Sen and mayor of Kapiti Coast New Zealand, K. Gurunathan.
The book will be available at major bookstores next month.