MCOBA Dinner at Seri Menanti

Last night was my first MCOBA Dinner. My batch went in two cars – Wariz, Faiz, Shazwi, Firr, Meenon, Hammet and myself. Hafiz joined the journey back. The photos are here.

This was the first MCOBA Dinner outside KL, in Istana Besar Seri Menanti, Negeri Sembilan. The funny thing was, none of us actually knew where Seri Menanti was. We assumed it wasn’t too far from Seremban. We didn’t know that it was 40 km away, in the district of Kuala Pilah and after the winding roads of Bukit Putus!

And so we arrived in the banquet hall a good half an hour after the royal VIP! That was certainly being unfashionably late.

But it was a good event. I must say the MCKK wind orchestra performed very well (a radical improvement compared to my time!). The play started off rather meekly, but it warmed up pretty well into the second scene into the typical MCOBA political satire:

There is a change in the administration, in the School. The new Headmaster has his own style of getting things done which is totally opposite from the previous Headmaster. There is a need of assurance amidst the turmoil environment of the School. He seeks advise of his personal consultant who willfully guides him of the Do’s and Don’t's. He is hounded and tormented by individuals and the relevancy of the School needs to prevail.

The old headmaster confronted the new headmaster for canceling his pet projects and for forging a ‘friendlier’ relationship with the neighbouring school.

The personal consultant, who wielded a broom throughout, was chided for “sapu aje semua”!

Hafiz was impressed at the subversive nature of the MCOBA play, and the fact it was presented in front of the Yang Dipertuan Besar and MB of Negeri Sembilan – but rest assured, it’s a time honoured tradition of the performance at MCOBA dinners!

I managed to meet the rest of the Old Boys including Hishamuddin Rais, Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad, Ishak Ariffin and the Project Sayong team!

Note to self: the next time I’m going to a place I don’t know like Seri Menanti, I should assume that none of friends have done any research and find out about it myself!

I forgot to ask my father – one of his first postings in the early 1960s was in the Negeri Sembilan state civil service and he had to handle the coronation of Tuanku Munawir at Seri Menanti.