Excerpts from Royal Military College - The Port Dickson Years 1952 - 1961

by OP Muhammad Shuhud Saaid

"At the sound of reveille - 0600 hrs - the boys had to make sure their beds were properly made after they had had their bath. The more conscientious among them would insert cardboards under the bed sheet to create the illusion that their matresses were perfectly flat and that the sides were dead straight. They also had to make sure the communal ablution and latrines - they were not called lavatories in those days - were spotlessly clean. To be on the latrine detail was something every boy tried to avoid".

I was made to understand the budak boys these days don't even use kiwi to shine their shoes. The use of toyo (instant self-shine applicant for shoes) has been authorized. The bathrooms are now cleaned by subcontractors. The basic responsibility of keeping one's coy (company) line is already delegated to strangers - how do you expect these boys to "serve to lead". Forget shining the 'pili paip bomba' (fire water faucet) on each coy line. What I was told by one senior RMC instructor is that "the boys should be concentrating on academics on sports, not slaving to clean". This is coming from a former Budak Boy who went through the same system of rigor and toughness.