Friends Of STAR

A school like STAR, one which can stand side by side with the like of MCKK, TKC, STF and SDAR, has long been regarded as one of the elite schools in the country. Academic excellence and prowess in sports arena are two areas where these schools earned their reputation. It comes as no surprise, when years after the students left their alma mater, many continue to excel in business, politics and professions of their choice. At the very least, all have benefited from sense of indepence and self confidence which they gained from being associated with 'Sekolah Asrama Penuh'.

MCOBA, TKCOGA, STAROBA, STFOGA, and SDARA, are acronyms which bond the alumni from these respective schools. They are the associations of the Old Boys, or Girls as the case may be.

Perhaps the most prominent amongst the lot is MCOBA, with their name hanging tall on their old building along the Federal Highway from many years ago. It is also widely known that members of MCOBA have been (I wonder if they still do!) wearing their school necktie to work on a certain day of the week. Such has been their loyalty and pride to belong!

The last time I checked, before the recent hotly discussed AGM, I was a member of STAROBA! The last time I visited the yahoogroup forum where STAR Old Boys hang out and exchange views, I could not but notice a peculiar thing. Members of STAROBA are still searching and debating what the roles of the Od Boys Association should be?

What then should be the roles of STAROBA? We are talking about a registered association, for which members pay membership fees, and for which there are constitution and elected AJK. Even more compelling, members of this Association spent the prime of our youth together, as brothers! For reference, there are peer groups such as MCOBA, SERIKANDI, TKCOGA, and SDARA to learn from and compare to.

How and why we are in this situation, all fazed and confused, perhaps say something about the quality of our members, I included, and also the quality of the association's leadership.

Of late, prior to the AGM, there have been a scurry of activities: Mentoring programme - in academic and sporting fields, Inter house football competition, and a real effort to elevate STAR to a higher level in how it physically look, and also in its academic records and its achievement in sports. "Success breeds success, and enthusiasm is known to be contagious!" Like a forest fire, the interest in STAR and STAROBA catches the heart and mind of Old Boys from every part of the earth, in and outside of Malaysia. Without taking away credits from the organizing committee for a wonderful job done in attracting attendance, I also attribute the big turn out of more than 500 old boys for the OBW2010 to the activities done over the last twelve months and the role of this website before it changed its role into 'Friends of STAR' as the catalysts.

I for one, was woken up from my slumber of indifference, after being connected to this website! In a way, I am currently feeling like a jilted lover who has been wooed and left in the cold - abandoned. Where is everyone? What has happened? What wrong have I or others like me done, that we are now no longer on talking term here?

Question remains, what is the role of STAROBA?

Surely, it is not to burn bridges.

It can't be to isolate some for whatever personal differences of a few.

Could it be a flatform for personal gain? I doubt that members of STAROBA would succumbed to such falacy. Surely, an association of Old Boys has to focus on GIVING and NOT TAKING.

My fire of enthusiasm is still burning, but slowly simmering into a heap of hot charcoal. Have all the pledges of brotherhood also evaporated like a whole lot of hot air...dissappearing as each of us mounts our own horse into the far away horizon?

I may not have the answer to the question of what STAROBA roles should be, but I know I am feeling disillusioned. Perhaps, when I thought I belonged and I have found my 'brothers' here, I was wrong. Perhaps, I have misunderstood the call sign of 'Brotherhood'. Perhaps, a few friends who share a common objective of being 'Friends of STAR', without a huge ambition, and lesser bravado is what this is all about. Perhaps, the one role that I wish to see STAROBA play is to bring 'us, the old boys, the brothers of yesteryears' together.

I have been looking forward to visit STAR during my two weeks vacation in the next few days. I was excited! I have called a couple of 're-united' friends to meet up! Yet, sitting here in Jeddah tonight with less than 48 hours to my flight home, I am having a strange feeling - a little sadness creeps into my heart. It is a similar feeling that I felt in 1975 when I boarded the famous school bus heading for the Ipoh train station for my final exit! Tears, know no age...the same few drops which wet my adolescent cheeks then, are trickling down my weathered face as I am typing this.

STAR, I left you but, for better or for worse, you have never left me!

Ariffin

Batch 1975.