New Zealand-educated Malaysian students transform newly independent country

Part 2 of a series of 4 - The stories of Malaysian students who were educated 8000km away from their homes during the 1960s and 70s.

Otago University graduate Leo Moggie's first job in Malaysia was as the face of government, a district officer.

"I had no idea what the job was about. I had no training, but I was learning on the job."

It was his New Zealand university degree that qualified him. He felt obligated to come back to Malaysia.

"I was sent to New Zealand with a purpose to learn - and to bring those learnings home."

The Cold War imposed its shadow on Asia as decolonisation took hold in the 1950s.

Newly independent Malaysia toddled along, endeavouring to read the democratic rulebooks left behind by the British. Its goal: to transform the economy and make a positive name for itself on the world stage.

The Colombo Plan scholarship recipients had a role to play. They were required to take their newfound knowledge back home and dedicate their lives to Malaysia's development.

A turn to politics

Moggie never intended to go into politics but soon believed it could change society.

"When I became a district officer almost immediately, which is quite a high-ranking position, I thought it was a great thing," he said. "But after a while, you see things around you that weren't quite right. My interest has always been, how does the rural community in Sarawak, my ethnic grouping, how do they fare?"

The colonial legacy meant the wealth gap between those in the cities and those living rurally continued to widen. There was also belief among Iban civil servants that discriminatory policies meant Malay had better chances of promotion compared to non-Malays.

Increasingly critical of those in power, he and two others from rural backgrounds joined the opposition in the 1974 election.

"We all thought to ourselves, we are the first of our ethnic grouping to have this opportunity of a university education… Maybe we had a role to do something," he said. "Things may not turn out how you hope it will be, but at least we tried."

He was among the first Iban to have graduated from university.

Stan Yee, a Wellington political science student, worked in government until his retirement. He served under five chief ministers. Yee's first job was handling the allocation of Colombo scholarships.

"Most of the people who received scholarships were school leavers who had never travelled before, so there was a lot of organising to get people on board the plane," he said. "It was a worthy cause."

In 1967, the British officials were leaving "one by one, so the important jobs were left to be filled by the locals".

Yee was transferred to the chief minister's department, working as a press secretary and "backroom boy." Anything that involved writing they passed to Yee.

"Speeches after speech after speech. Either they could find no one else to do the job, or they found me particularly good at it, I don't know which!"

Writing speeches inevitably involves policy matters, he said.

"Now, the boss doesn't always tell you what to write, and sometimes you think hard about policy matters and put that down on paper. If the boss accepts the speech, he commits himself to a policy decision you put down. That gave me a lot of satisfaction."

A man of humble spirit, he didn't reveal much but did cheekily add as an off-hand comment, an asterisk at the end of a page - "I thought it would be a good idea for every child to receive a free carton of milk at school so I wrote that into a speech," he said.

"And the speech was read out, so the policy was put into place."

At that time, Malaysia was in a transitional period from colonial government to independence.

"We didn't have much experience on government matters; we were used to looking up to the British, and we had to study the files and see how they did things," Yee said.

"So we spent much of our time learning. I was lucky that there were still some British officers in Sabah after I graduated, and I picked up bits and pieces from them. But other than that, we had to become independent; we had to learn to do things our way."

Malaysia inherited the parliamentary system from the British. Yee said the British left them with general orders of how government runs, with treasury instructions and administrative regulations.

"Local culture plays a part in the sentiment of the people, in the way they think, but when it comes to the mechanical technicality of the government, we go by the book."

He said his studies helped him to understand how to apply these rules and regulations.

"They made me see options. Knowledge of different systems grants you a vision of what can be done, areas where you can modify things."

Careers in health

After completing her pharmaceutical registration at Princess Alexandra Hospital and Wellington Public Hospital, Otago University graduate Nancy Ho was excited to bring the knowledge and practical skills of patient care home to Malaysia.

"Always, it's the human factor that is most challenging. We have to offer a high standard of service. I'm glad my training in the two hospitals was very good; it was very strict, and I brought that discipline back."

Pharmacy was in its infancy in the 1970s. Ho put Sabah's pharmaceutical experience on the Malaysian map, eventually becoming president of the Pharmacist Society - the first national president from outside the Peninsular.

Ho said it was stereotyped that East Malaysian people were "swinging from tree to tree", a backhand slight to the orangutan native to her island.

During her eight years as president, she campaigned for Sabah pharmacists to be represented on the pharmacy board at the national level "because sometimes Sabah can be a forgotten place. But leaders in Kuala Lumpur recognised us and saw that we were pharmacists to learn from".

Ho also worked on new pharmacy registration legislation and changed pharmacy laws.

"I was very blessed to have this vocation because it was a career, not just a job. And I found many times it was a platform to serve."

Ho said her time in New Zealand taught her the ability to understand different cultures.

"Humans are the same; we all suffer the same diseases and have the same insecurities and uncertainties. Yes, we can be culturally different, but we are very much on the same human landscape."

She also founded the Sabah Women Entrepreneurs and Professionals Association, encouraging women to widen their career choices. She dedicated her life to campaigning for Malaysian women to receive the same opportunities for development as men.

"Without that education in NZ, I would be a very different person," she said.

Education - 'The field was wide open'

After Kamal Quadra's grades came in - and they were acceptable - he had one week to get a passport, a suit, and some suitable clothing. Then he was on a flight to New Zealand, arriving in 1967 to study education. He was immediately appointed a teacher upon returning to Malaysia. There were many opportunities at that time - "the field was wide open."

The future educators of Malaysia, taught abroad, would help Sabah reach a stage where it could better provide its own staff to the schools.

Sabah State Secretary John Dusing said they get their degrees overseas, and then "we want them back as soon as possible; we have jobs for all of them".

Quadra said your school qualifications would determine your future and status in society. After serving just four terms as a teacher, he was appointed secondary school principal.

"I went to appeal, telling the guy, 'Look, I've only just become a teacher!' The guy looked at me and said: 'You are a Masters graduate; you go and take up that post. No discussion'," he said. "I was an obedient government servant. So I went."

"Coming from my background - it was a tremendous achievement to be one of the most educated people at a time when the Sabah we see today was forming."

In 1960 Malaysia, 22.3 percent of the population was literate (Malaysia Ministry of Education report) compared to 99 percent in New Zealand.

Quadra said people never talked about university. The focus was finishing school and applying for jobs.

"But having had the opportunity to continue my education opened a world of opportunities. And when you mentioned, hey, I've got the degree from NZ. It's a different ball game."

Quadra became Sabah State Education Director.

"And it goes back to those first steps… getting a good degree from New Zealand," he said.

Like other Colombo Plan graduates, Quadra was awarded honorifics by the state governments.

"It was something we could never even dream about."

'You're a better candidate from going overseas'

Canterbury University graduate Tan Sri Hamid Bugo was sent to a teaching position in Sarawak's Miri in 1970, where he was invited to lunch with the current chief minister.

"Our community at that time was very small. Everybody knows who you are and what you've done if you had been overseas - especially politicians. The chief minister asked me what I was doing in Miri. I replied, I'm teaching. And that was the conversation."

A week later, the deputy state secretary called to offer him a job. So Bugo left teaching and never went back. He was 23 years old. His New Zealand degree had just opened the door to the rest of his life.

"It's biased, but you're a better candidate from going overseas rather than just staying… you can't practice what you've never experienced."

Sarawak's first university only opened in 1993.

After several years of working in the scholarship department, Bugo was headhunted by the Petronas subsidiary Malaysia Liquefied Natual Gas.

"It was a very lucrative job… the contract was the biggest single contract in the world at that time," he said. "And it only grew."

"When we started, it was only one million cubic meters of gas per year; now we've got 10 million cubic meters, so it's huge,"

Bugo said the Twin Tower Petronas - Kuala Lumpur's most famous landmark - would not exist without the Malaysia LNG project.

Bugo has also worked as CEO for a land development authority setting up palm oil plantations throughout the state and is currently chairman of Petros, Sarawak's state-owned oil and gas company. From 1992 to 2000, he was Sarawak's State Secretary.

In July, Bugo was appointed New Zealand Honorary Consul in Sarawak, continuing to strengthen the ties between Aotearoa and Malaysia.

* Samantha Mythen travelled to Malaysia supported by the Asia New Zealand Foundation. This is part two of a series of four. Part 3 will be published on 11 September.