Bilik 6 Wira Cina? Apa ini? Well, simply the direct English translation is Room of 6 of Heroes of China. Muddle-headed?The exact explanation is the Chinese Heroes in Room 6.
Why is it so special amongst these Chinese Heroes? Are they as strong and powerful as the heroes in the Water Margin? Or are they possessed with extra-ordinary and supernatural powers? As i elicit further, you will realise the solidarity of a genuine MCA (Malayan Chinese Association).
This was the first room which i was posted to in the camp. The design of this dormitory room is very simple. It looks similar to a well-to-do kampong zinc-roofed house which surprisingly housed around 40 odds Chinese individuals, coming from various schooling background and various places of Johor. The interior is ordinary and plain (still homesick about my bedroom i guess). Greeting me was 2 neat columns of beds with still a reasonable spacious central walking aisle - long enough for us to do catwalking - and the hanging ceiling fans and the fluorescent lamps. One look can tell that the dormitory rooms were not ready. It seeming looked like a make-shift room which is made an emergency to house an influx of Tsunami victims.
No choice, bear with it...not as that bad as it might seem to be since i have been through school camps and the conditions though slightly better, were comparable with this room. This was the mental thought which was psyching me to put up a brave front; else i would become a laughing stock of a city mouse which a little bit of hardship also could not undertake. Successfully, i managed to convince myself about this plight i was in. Instead of being my mental burden, i put this thought behind and soon, i started to initiate friendship with the surrounding neighbours. The first few people i befriended in the room were Ah1 Gui4 and 2 Zhi4 Jian4 s (one from Kluang and the other from JB).
I also befriended a couple more of Chinese in the room and astonishingly, i realised that the majority occupants were of Chinese descent and only about less than 10, probably 6 were the Bumiputras. The Chinese domineering effect in the room soon caused the pathetic non-Chinese to vacate Room 6 within a week.
Every Chinese in this Room 6 was friendly and amicable. Most of them were of my age...meaning they are like me - serving the honourable (NS) National Sentence (not qualified enough to be National Service) - after a year of deferment. Initially i was still wondering if i were going to be the oldest trainee in the camp. Heng...all the silly thoughts were redundant.
Definitely, we as Johoreans are also different. We belong to various districts and areas and it seemed like we belong to various clan-like community; nevertheless, we are united and gung-ho in helping one another Chinese. Because of them, i was able to understand what the main lingua franca is about. Conversational vocabulary still boleh, tapi tak guat! When the topic became formalised, the serious tone and the "chim-mer" level of Malay was beyond my grasp. I still remembered one of the Jurulatihs, nicknamed the country mouse, favorite line - " Ini lah, sikap anda, SIKAP!" So chim, i don't understand myself since the body of his speech i was unable to pay attention to at all. Cikgu, anda chakap apa, saya tak faham leh! What can i do? I only sat down there and pretend to be listening. Smog my way through...
About 2 weeks of fun and laughter in the room soon came to an end. The management realised that Room 6 was purely populated by the Ah Tiongs descendents and the sight was unbearable and unjustifiable of the mission of multi-racial harmonious living. Soon, as we were from 4 different platoons, we soon have to be re-assigned to new rooms.
Though we had shifted out to various room, our camaraderie and friendship still existed as we still had time together during meal times, free times, and other occasions and opportunites. Banyat sia! No worries at all. We have alot of free time in the camp to campur, campur and campur...Haha...
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