This was probably in 1981. I was probably in Form 4 if memory serves.
I got caught smoking a cigarette just a few metres outside of school.
My dad used to travel a lot for business those days. Every time he came back, he would have duty free items like cigarettes and alcohol. Not for own consumption but to give away as gifts. You’ve got to understand that in those days Not Everyone Can Fly.
It was customary to bring back “ole-ole” from whichever country you went to and also for closer friends and imprortant clients, alcohol and cigarettes were the norm for “ole-ole”.
So that was where I had procured the illicit item. From my dad’s stash of duty free cigarettes.
And in those days, if you could get your hands on illicit items and bring to school, you were basically, in today’s terms, Aura Farming.
So on the day of the “crime”, i had brought a packet of cigarettes to school. After letting a few friends know, we agreed to meet behind the boy’s toilet at an opportune time and sample the goods. I recall it wasn’t that great an experience. I didn’t know how to inhale properly and the smoke smelled bad. But we managed to sample the goods without being found out and all felt proud that we had tasted something adult, something illicit.
I then went on to play some football and it was after this that things turned for the worse. After the match, I was with a friend just outside of school, walking along the Dah Yeh villa road towards Tuaran main road. Emboldened by our earlier experience, my friend and I decided to light one up while walking towards the bus stop. We weren’t in uniform and it was closer to 5 pm. We thought that anyone related to school, would be home or far away from the school by that time.
Boy, were we wrong.
About 200 metres from the school gate, I noticed a white car slow down and then pull closer to us on the sidewalk. Before I could turn around and figure out what was what, I heard the voice of our principal, Chang Yu On, calling my name, sternly. What a chilling experience that was! We were caught rd handed by our principal, smoking in public.
We were told to walk back to school and wait for him at his office. We could have run, but that would have made things worse. He had already identified me and no matter where I run to today, I would still need to show up in school, if not today, tomorrow or the day after.
That was a long 200 metre walk back to the school as we contemplated the type of punishment we would be receiving and how we would be facing our parents after this.
After a short wait outside the principal’s, the principal arrived and instructed us to enter. To face the music. After the preliminary tongue lashing, how we should have known better, how it was a bad image for the school, yadda yadda, he then moved on to the punishment. Informing our parents. We had to give up our home phone numbers, he called the number, introduced himself and then related the crime, in my case, to my mother.
Shortly after that, I was released from his office and made my way home. That was another long bus ride and walk home.
When I got home, I remember walking into the dining area with my father and mother seated at the dining table. Much like walking into a court of law or inquisition.
First came the talking to. The lecture of discipline, morals and health. “Don’t you know that cigarettes are bad for you?” Then came the inquisition. “Who gave the cigarettes to you? Where did you get it? How many did you have?”
But here is where things turned in my favour.
When my mother heard that the cigarretes came from my Dad’s duty free stash, she started to turn on my father. “Ah itulah, tiap tiap kali beli cigarette.” (Ah, you see, buying cigarettes all the time.)
My mother started laying into my dad about his duty free purchases, that it was excessive, that luckily i hadn’t taken the alcohol. My dad then started to defend his reasons for buying the items and this went back and forth for a while. The more they argued, the more invisible I became and my crime somehow started to become a non-issue in their arguments.
After what felt like an eternity to me, my dad turns to me and says “Don’t do this again and go to your room.”
And that is how I got away from being punished for smoking.
