Two post-graduate Malaysians and I were in the kitchen pantry of the Dalrymple Hall of Residence eating supper and chatting before retiring for more studies. We toasted bread or cooked our instant noodles when this young man from Malaysia, in his early twenties confronted me.
Our routine during term time after dinner was to have a game of darts or to play snooker for half an hour. Then we would get back to our rooms to study. At around 10.30 p.m, we would meet for supper.
It was a monk's life during term time. No girl friends as we were in foreign territory and Glasgow was not as popular as London with Malaysian and Chinese nurses studying in the United Kingdom. Female undergraduates in Glasgow or Strathclyde Universities in 1971 coming from Malaysia and Singapore were as extinct as dodos. We did not drink beer and so were not as sociable as we ought to be. Beer and girls did mix well during my time and it was a great time for British undergraduate youths living away from the eyes of spying parents.
Yet the youths of Asian and British Caucasian cultures at that time were barriers to cross-border undergraduate romance, at least in my case.
We were to study hard and make a better life for ourselves by getting a British degree. Yet here there was one Malaysian Chinese youth who wanted to commit murder by provoking me to a fight.
What provoked this young man to pick on me I don't know even some 36 years later. Did I ignore him during dinner? Our group usually sat together. The only Malaysian Chinese who ate dinner with the Caucasians was my class-mate as he could drink beer and enjoyed the company. One ought get to know the natives but then I had no social skills at the age of 21 years old.
Now, I encountered a dangerous situation my parents or teachers had not taught me how to handle. I would pay a terrible price if I mis-handled this situation. That was the price of death. And I would have missed the internet and so many advances of 2007.
It was 1971 and I was a second-year veterinary undergraduate. I stayed in Dalrymple Hall of Residence as my Colombo Plan Scholarship paid one pound a day for my food and lodging and I did not think of sharing apartments with other Malaysians.
In the Hall, breakfast and dinner were catered for and the central heating during the coldness of winter was reliable. I disliked waking up in the middle of the night to shiver as that would be in sharing apartments that had only an electric filament for heating the room.
Now, there was a challenge to a knife fight. The antagonist took out a kitchen knife and poked at me as I did not reply to his queries. He puffed his face and raised the tone of his voice. He waved the butter knife in front of my face and in the air defiantly, "I fight you with one hand tied up. Now, you go and choose your knife! You got no balls? You are so sissy swaying your hips as you walk down Saucihall Street?"
He was short broad shouldered and slightly muscular in his biceps and triceps. His face became redder as the pocked marks scarred by many pimples radiated a pinkish red glow. I really had no idea why he said I ignored him so many times. Probably, at dinner time, I chose to sit with other members of the Asian group than to sit next to him.
A youth financed by his parents to study in Glasgow University to upgrade himself and earn more after getting a degree. Now he was about to commit murder.
"Singapore student murdered in the U.K." would be the headlines if I mis-handled this situation. I had not trained in unarmed combat although I spent 9 months in the Special Constabulary as part of my national service in Singapore, before embarking to Glasgow for my veterinary studies. There was a lesson or two in unarmed combat. Useless lessons when a national serviceman of 21 years old was confronted with a raging bull.
Nobody had ever thought me how to handle such situations. All my classmates in Raffles Institution over the last 6 years of study were genteel. I did not mix with street gangs of Singapore and was not street-smart. I was a provincial guy. A bookworm. A lover rather than a street fighter.
Here was a youth ready to kill and bring shame to his own family. The dark forces had overtaken his mind. How would I respond?
He said again as he put his right hand behind his backside. "One hand tied behind his back...come...choose your knife...
I could not think clearly nor did I justified my boycott of him. One arm tied behind his back. That seemed like an advantage to me. I had two arms and he had one arm to fight.
Wow, he wanted to be the "One-armed Swordsman" --- a popular Chinese film during that period. The Swordsman had one arm hacked off but he trained hard with one arm to go after his enemies and to right injustices. Any adversary seeing his one arm sneered at him as they over confidently fought with him. They were invariably killed.
Young men are over confident. This youth offered to have one arm tied behind his back before we commenced. Would the two post-graduates obliged? They were mature men and would have not been accessories to murder.
What did I do? I ignored this chap and walked away.
Was it the pyschology books at the National Library that subconsciously taught me to walk away from a fight rather than stand up to the adversary? I don't know. I read a lot of books in the National Library during my teenaged years. They were free and answered many questions on growing up, making friends and how to behave in courting girls. Court ship knowledge was of no use as I could not put into practice as my secondary and pre-university school was an all-boys' school and the convent school girls across the road were frightening.
Now, in Britain in 1971, I had a menace more frightful than girls in blue pinafores. This Malaysian youth was more powerful than me as he had been doing body building while I did not. He would prevail over me in the fight. Probably he would stab my abdomen as his rage was out of control. A dark force overwhelmed him that winter night, asking him to kill as a "one-armed swordsman". I don't know anything about his background but he probably was involved in "staring incidents" in Malaysia.
At that time and even in 2007, male youths accused each other of staring. They would return with back up gangsters just to pick up a fight and cause grievous bodily harm. Such youths are no better than animals and all societies probably have such gangs.
Sending youthful male students overseas to study is a very worrying matter for Malaysian and Singapore parents. They don't know whether they will mis-behave now that are free from parental and societal restraints and supervision. Especially nagging mothers!
I recall sadly a case where 2 Singaporean undergraduates of New South Wales University were said to be murdered by their Singaporean flat mate in 2004. Could the murder have been prevented. What were the causes that led one flat mate to kill two?
Could there be an accumulation of tensions over some months. The accumulation of rage enable the dark forces of the mind to take one direction --- to kill the flat mates. If only the signs of rage were recognised in the 3rd flat mate, could proper advices be given to prevent the murders?
Youths sharing an apartment overseas can be easily stressed as flat mates share the common bathroom and kitchen. One party might want cleanliness of the bathroom and the other would soil it. There would be tension and nagging to convert the untidy one, without success.
I am able to write today because I was not provoked so easily during that period of time although my male hormones were raging as part of my development. Praise be to the Lord, you would say.
Or was I a coward? A lover and not a fighter? I would have been murdered, no doubt about it as this antagonist was superior in brawns than me --- a scarecrow of a youth. I still have not learn martial arts. At my age of 57 years old, yoga would probably be beneficial for me, rather than karate.
All young men must be taught to walk away from a fight. But who will teach them? By reading books. Lots of books. Pyschology books from the National Library. But Singapore youths dislike reading books. Read from the internet.
Let your parents especially your nagging mums know if you have financial or personal problems. Try not to fight for your rights by provoking your flatmates to behave. Move out. Do other things. Read books. Well, no. OK. Just go to your addictive online gaming and slay dragons! Hormonal changes and an assertion for your rights may cause you to commit murder or get murdered. Remember that your parents have limited wealth. Their life savings enable you to study overseas.
Study hard and bring glory, not shame to the family.
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