FOR retired teacher Rohaya Shaari, a recent reunion with her former student Steven Sim Chee Keong – now a Cabinet minister – brought back memories beyond the classroom.
She vividly recalled how Sim and several classmates once visited her home during Hari Raya Aidilfitri while they were still in secondary school.
“There was heavy rain and flooding in my housing area that day, so everything was chaotic,” she said with a laugh.
But amid the commotion, one thing about the young Sim stood out clearly to her even then – his character.
“I knew Sim Chee Keong as a very polite and respectful student.
“He respected his teachers and friends, and was always obliging whenever help was needed.”
Those qualities were among the reasons teachers appointed him class monitor during his schooldays, said Rohaya who was his Form Five class teacher.
“I dealt with him often on class matters because he was responsible and dependable,” said Rohaya, who taught Sim Mathematics in Form Four and Form Five at Bukit Mertajam High School.
The reunion became even more meaningful as it coincided with Teachers Day celebration, allowing Rohaya and several former teachers to reconnect not only with Sim, but also many of their former students from his Form Five class.
For Rohaya, who has four children and four grandchildren, the gathering also turned into a nostalgic reunion with old friends and former colleagues from the school, where she began teaching in 1987.
“It was very emotional meeting old friends again after so many years,” she said, adding that the teachers also received special souvenirs from Sim as a token of appreciation.
Rohaya played a key role in contacting many of Sim’s former teachers to attend the gathering.
Her last post before retiring was at SMK Bukit Mertajam in 2017.
Sim’s special officer Rosly Yusof, who was organising committee chairman, said the event in Bandar Perda was fully sponsored by Sim.
A total of nine former teachers from SK Stowell and 17 former teachers from BM High School, aged between 60 and 85, attended the gathering.
Rosly said the idea for the event stemmed from Sim’s close bond with Rohaya and other teachers including Cikgu Zaniyah, who taught him Bahasa Melayu in Year One.
The event also featured a lucky draw with an umrah package for a teacher and spouse offered as the grand prize.
Rosly said Zaniyah also helped Sim reconnect with many of his former teachers.
Sim, in a Facebook post, said that although more than three decades had passed, the faces and contributions of the teachers who once guided him remained vividly etched in his memory.
He said they had played an important role in shaping the course of his life.
Besides expressing gratitude to Zaniyah, whom he described as the first person to teach him Bahasa Malaysia, Sim also fondly recalled his former SK Stowell headmaster Cikgu Idris Ibrahim, the elder brother of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“Every time I walked past his office, I would try to avoid running into him.
“But despite my best efforts, one day we still bumped into each other and he ended up pulling my sideburns because my hair was slightly too long.”
