NZ's role in helping shape international politicians, doctors and teachers

Part 1 of a series of 4 - The stories of Malaysian students who were educated 8000km away from their homes during the 1960s and 70s.

Hashim Yaacob wasn't sure what to expect when he first came to New Zealand.

"I was quite unsure what I was going into… I had never met any white people before. I came from a very poor background," he said.

"But New Zealanders, they were very friendly, beyond my expectations."

Yaacob grew up without electricity or running water in Kelantan, the Malaysian state neighbouring Thailand.

But Malaysia needed dentists, so to Otago's dentistry school he went.

Landing in the "junglish" Dunedin airport, he was reminded of his village.

"I didn't realise dentistry was an actual university course - I thought you were just a tooth puller!" he said.

Yaacob became one of more than 5000 Malaysian students who received scholarships to study at New Zealand universities during the 1960s and 70s.

Educated 8000km away from their homes, they would go on to become politicians and health and education leaders, helping shape the foundations of a newly independent Malaysia.

The Colombo Plan

After 400 years of colonisation, Malaysia achieved Merdeka independence in 1957. A decade later, there was still only one university in the country, most people just dreamed of finishing sixth form.

In the small rural village Kanowit in Sarawak, Malaysia's largest state, tucked alongside the perma-tanned Rajang River most families worked on paddies or cultivated rubber trees. Joannes Irok anak Bagong, the deputy tuai rumah of the Iban people aspired for higher education for his children.

One of the first Kanowit Iban sent to school, his son Leo Moggie, left the Rumah Nyumboh longhouse - a communal home for around 30 families - and travelled downriver to boarding school half a day away.

Upon completing sixth form in 1962, Moggie boarded a plane to the ends of the earth, Otago University.

A few years earlier, in 1950, New Zealand-alongside other Commonwealth nations-enthusiastically launched the Colombo Plan. It was "a cooperative venture for the economic and social advancement" of Southeast Asia.

Aiming to block communism's spread and foster increased living standards in developing countries, it included scholarships allocated to Malaysian high school graduates to attend university overseas. Moggie was chosen to study for a Bachelor of Arts in history and economics.

"18th February 1962 is stuck in my memory," said Moggie. "It was summer, but that first night in Wellington was the coldest night I've ever felt."

The next day, Moggie and his friends bought hot water bottles. Malaysia's average temperature is a balmy 25C, with no word for winter in Malay.

He travelled to Dunedin via ferry and train with just three others from Sarawak.

By 1966, New Zealand had contributed more than £10 million (NZ$480 million today) and had received nearly 900 trainees under the Colombo Plan. By the scheme's end in 1978, more than 5000 scholars had studied here.

Most were from Malaysia, where the Department of External Affairs said the university facilities were "not adequate to meet the great demand for higher education".

The Kiwi way

Yaacob, the dentistry student, said he felt inferior at first.

"Imagine someone coming from the jungle into the light; you can't help feeling a little low, a little down. But it changed because my friends were very friendly; it did not matter they were white and I was brown. It also helped I never came last in the examinations!"

At that time, only five foreigners were admitted into dentistry each year, and Yaacob was one of them.

A "wide-eyed girl in a new city", Nancy Ho travelled from Kota Kinabalu to Malaysia in 1968 to study pharmacy.

A key learning for Ho was the Kiwi student maxim: "At the beginning of the year when the term starts, it's too early to swat, but then the middle of the year, it's too cold to swat, then the end of the year, it's too late to swat," she said. "But the Kiwis always got excellent grades!"

Ho's biggest challenge was being apart from family. On 13 May 1969, the Race Riots occurred, which Ho said made many Malaysian students worried for their loved ones back home.

After four days of violence and looting, an estimated 600 people had been killed, primarily Chinese Malay. The catalyst was power disparities between different ethnic groups.

A concoction of Bumiputera, Chinese and Indian Malaysians make Malaysia. This ethnic diversity has defined the country's modern history, where the aspirations of uniting Malaysians as equals has often been in conflict with wanting to protect different ethnic communities.

The Colombo Plan scholarships were for any ethnicity. However, educational divides were to come later.

As the British started to depart Malaysia, leaving a guide for democracy, the Colombo Plan was a tool for New Zealand to engage with the decolonisation process in the changing post-war international landscape.

Positive press coverage of Colombo Plan students showed New Zealand citizens where government aid went. Newspapers asked Kiwis to open their homes to the students and provide board.

Blissfully ignorant of the significant foreign political motivations at play, the Malaysian students were just that - students dedicating themselves to academic pursuits; nurturing new friendships, learning the Kiwi way, and flirting with romance.

"I don't think there were any challenges living in New Zealand," Moggie said. "When you're young, you adapt quite easily and Otago has a really good student social life."

In the summer holidays, Moggie worked for extra spending money, which he used to tour the country. He fruit-picked in Onslow, learned how to farm sheep on a Taumarunui homestay, and worked as a Wellington train guard. The Colombo Plan also introduced him to his future wife.

Scholarship recipients received a "generous" stipend, which Moggie spent on the best textbooks. He loaned this wealth to a junior, Elizabeth, from Invercargill. Soon, he also invited her to try his flatmates' "reasonable" cooking on Clyde Street - "and one thing led to another".

Tan Sri Datuk Amar Leo Moggie anak Irok went on to have a career in civil service and politics, rising from assemblyman to MP, Sarawak state minister and federal cabinet minister. His last post before retirement in 2004 was Minister of Energy, Communication & Multimedia.

From Orana Hall to flatting on Castle Street, Yaacob's experience mirrored that of an Otago student today.

"Flatting was cheaper, but in the halls, it was always warm… In the flat, in the early morning, I was so scared to go to the bathroom; it was so cold."

He dined on 20-cent fish and chips wrapped in newspaper from the dental faculty's neighbour - a Chinese takeaway shop called Joe Tui - and spent $300 on a car that would be his chariot for the classic Kiwi summer roadie.

Professor Emeritus Data Dr Hashim Yaacob went on to become a pioneer of dentistry in Malaysia. Studying as a dental surgeon in the United Kingdom, he became Universiti Malaya's Dean of Dentistry in 1987. Between 2003 and 2015, he was appointed Vice Chancellor of five universities. Under his leadership, the University of Malaya became the only university in Asia to have its Bachelor of Dental Surgery recognised by the United Kingdom's Dental Council. Yaacob is also a poet.

Ho and her friend, wanting to experience "the sound of music", worked on a farm, caring for six children. One day, they made roast chicken, but no children touched it.

"We served it our way, with the neck and legs attached, and I don't think the children were used to seeing it like that," she said.

At a time when university populations lacked international diversity, the Colombo Plan students helped bridge the East and the West. Ho was enthusiastic about sharing her culture, noticing many curious questions about her culture and lifestyle among the student community.

Datuk Nancy Ho went home to become the first Malaysian pharmacist in Sabah to serve at the public hospital. She eventually became the first East Malaysian President of the National Pharmaceutical Society. She started her own community pharmacy chain and has been awarded Woman Manager of the Year and Outstanding Woman of Sabah by the state government.

*Samantha Mythen travelled to Malaysia supported by the Asia New Zealand Foundation. This is part one of a series of four. Part 2 will be published on 10 September.