Ladies and gentlemen:

I would like to thank the organizers of this annual dinner for inviting me to speak and to pay a tribute to this year's Victorian of the Year, Dato' Jaffar Indot. I won't repeat the citation for the award which has been reproduced in your programme, but I will touch on some of his attributes as they reflect on and relate to his school days. I am able to do that, because we were both from Pasar Road School and the Victoria Institution, at about the same time, and we more or less had the same teachers and headmasters.

I still remember my first day at Pasar Road School, sitting behind Awtar Singh, resplendent in a turban. It was the first time I saw a turban at close quarters. Since then, diversity has become the most natural thing in the world for me, and it enriches all our lives.

Jaffar came to the VI in 1947 from Pasar Road School, one of its feeder schools. After obtaining his Cambridge School Certificate in 1951, he won a scholarship to complete his A-levels at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar.

After a brief spell as development officer at the Rural Industrial Development Authority (RIDA), he joined Shell as an oil salesman in 1956. This was the beginning of a life-long relationship with the Anglo-Dutch oil company, where he displayed remarkable skills in creating and maintaining good relations with clients, building his credentials as a corporate figure par excellence, and becoming its first Asian Managing Director. Although now retired, he remains a director of Shell. This year marks his 53 years with the company, which continues to be the beneficiary of his enviable management skills.

Jaffar has also been prominent in community work, playing a leadership role in the Malaysian Alliance for Corporate Governance, the Proton Foundation, the Family Health Foundation, the Malaysian-Dutch Business Council, the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, and the Harvard Club of Malaysia. Nearer home, his monumental work as chair of the VIOBA Foundation has invigorated and strengthened it beyond recognition, multiplying its funds to RM3 million, following the generous donation of one million Brunei dollars by a VI Old Boy, His Highness the Sultan of Brunei.For all his many accomplishments, Jaffar has been honored by the Sultan of Selangor and the Yang Di Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan. But his greatest accomplishment was that he persuaded Patricia, the lovely daughter of a VI Old Boy, to marry him. This he accomplished by serenading her, when he was lead singer of the talent time-winning group, "Kool Kats". He then went on to accomplish fatherhood and grandfatherhood. As you know, he has three children and three grandchildren. So, he's a datuk many times over.

Jaffar, like each one of us, is the product of the love and care of his parents and siblings, the devotion of his teachers, and the benefits he received from those countless, nameless individuals who make up what we call society. He knows that, in return, we all have a duty and social responsibility to give something back to our families, our schools and teachers, and especially to society. He believes that if we only take from society without giving something back, its social capital will be depleted and it will eventually grow weak and drained of its ability to provide its citizens with a meaningful, healthy, peaceful life for its citizens.

Jaffar has received much from his family and the Victoria Institution, and has given back a great deal. He has shown that education is a means of developing one's unrealized potential as a human being and that, while education imparts knowledge, it should also build character and nurture creativity and natural talents.

In today's world of information technology, education has become synonymous with the dissemination of knowledge. At the same time, increasing materialism has spurred a kind of academic inflation with the achievement of high grades and multiple academic degrees, as a means of earning as much money as possible. But character building, creativity and ethical values in education are facing severe neglect.

The provision of progressive, quality education is one of the most important duties of any government, but education policy in Malaysia is in tatters. The present state of the VI, once the leading school in the country, is a good example.

Human intelligence is dynamic and school children should be encouraged to ask questions, politely contradict teachers, if necessary, expound on their original ideas, think out of the box, act out of the box, and be free spirits. So-called modern education, which is skewed to gainful employment, is in danger of squandering natural talent and stunting the capacity for creativity, innovation and independent thinking.

While there is a great need to produce competent doctors and engineers, there is a greater need to produce citizens with ethical values and a sense of social responsibility. In a plural, multicultural country like ours, we need to build national unity. If all young Malaysians went to the same type of school, it would boost unity enormously. Jaffar and I and our contemporaries went to the same schools and I think we are good examples of integrated citizens. In a globalised world, we need to be proficient in a global, universal language like English, as language is merely a tool for communication. The teaching of English need not exclude the teaching or use of Bahasa. Surely, education policy is too important to be allowed to become a political football.

Jaffar Indot is a fine product of the Victoria Institution and an education system that aimed at high academic standards and inculcated a value system that embraced diversity, tolerance, compassion, personal responsibility, discipline, respect, trustworthiness and communal solidarity. These are important values to preserve and schools are the best institutions in which to nurture them. The VI has a rich history to be proud of. We the Old Boys and Girls must ensure that the VI will continue to have a future we can all be proud of, as we are proud of our past and our Victorian of the Year, Dato Jaffar Indot.