Page 24: The E.N.D.

This post is not to tell you about The Black Eyed Peas' new album (which includes the cool first single Boom Boom Pow) but about something else.

Saturday, June 20, witnessed the retirement of the last Brother Principal of a La Sallian school in Malaysia, Bro Paul Ho. His retirement marks the end of an era of Malaysian education where the numerous La Sallian schools in Malaysia have been headed by a Christian Brother as the principal. With the retirement of the principal of St Xavier's Institution (SXI) in Penang, all the La Sallian schools in Malaysia will see a civil servant in the principal's seat. Some of you have come from La Sallian schools and some of you are not. Here's a little bit of the history of the La Sallian Brothers in Malaysia, as information I thought I will share as tribute to all their work for the past 157 years.

The La Salle Brothers' work in Malaysia has come full circle after 157 years. It was not plain sailing throughout. They overcame the odds, the result of which was setting up more than 60 Brothers' schools which benefited countless Malaysians.

The story of La Sallian education in Malaysia began with the daunting sea journey of 6 La Salle Brothers. They boarded the Le Julie in the River Scheldt on 8 December 1851 to set sail to the Far East at the persistent request of Father Jean-Marie Beurel, a Catholic priest who, for a very long time, was a an admirer of the Christian Brothers' School in France. Father Beurel began writing to the Superior General of the Christian Brothers as early as 1844. In his letter dated 3 November 1845, he begged the Superior General to help the children of the East & concluded: “I hope that through the grace of God I shall have the ineffable consolation of seeing before my death the Brothers of the Christian Schools on the soil of Malaya.”

The Le Julie reached Singapore on 29 March 1852. Three of the six Brothers stayed on in the island while the other three travelled to Penang, reaching the British colony on a fair morning in April 1852. They inherited the existing parish school which then had no more than 80 students. Their hard work resulted in the establishment of the first La Sallian school in the country: St Xavier’s Institution, Penang.

The early & mid 1900’s were boom years as the Brothers opened up schools in the key towns one after another. Soon, the Brothers’ schools proliferated throughout the country with no less than 60 schools established, among which are: St Xavier’s Institution, Penang; St George’s, Taiping; St Michael’s, Ipoh; St John’s, Kuala Lumpur; St Paul’s, Seremban; St Francis, Melaka & La Salle Sacred Heart, Kota Kinabalu. Many of their students go on to become leaders in the government as cabinet ministers & administrative heads & as captains of industries in the private sector. The Brothers commanded great respect from the government, teachers, students & their parents.

As a testimony to their contributions, the Official Year Book of the Federation of Malaya 1967, when reporting the quality of education in schools run by the Christian bodies stated: “... the Mission schools, particular those under the direction of the Roman Catholic Christian Brothers & the American Methodist Church were chiefly responsible for the rapid advancement in English education. And by 1914, some three-fourths of the boys receiving education were in those schools... It is a striking tribute to the selflessness of these men & women that they should have gained the ready confidence & affection of both parents & teachers despite differences in religion & culture...”

However, it was not plain sailing over the years. The building-up was a struggle & painful at times. Funding posed a great obstacle. This was overcome through hard work of the fore-fathers and the generosities of philanthropic well-wishers.

The war years of 1941-45 were particularly difficult as they caused massive disruptions. A number of schools were either destroyed, or used by the occupation force as imperial army head quarters or simply stopped operating. It was mainly due to true grit & determination of the Brothers that the La Sallian schools were “revived” and brought to greater heights after the war.

That was a brief history of how it all started in Malaysia, covering only the early years of La Sallian history in Malaysia. There's much more in the history of the La Sallian education in Malaysia but I will not write it here as it might bore people to death.

The retirement of Bro Paul does not mean that there are no more La Salle Brothers in Malaysia. The Brothers are still here, albeit not as the principals of the schools.

The statue of St John Baptiste de La Salle, Patron Saint of Teachers, in the grounds of SXI

Hence, we can say that this is the E.N.D. of an era, but the Energy Never Dies as the legacy of the La Salle Brothers will be in every student that has ever studied under them.