Malay College Class of 2004

THERE are all kinds of heroes but they have one thing in common — they have passion to fight the odds and win.

Muhammad Hafiz Othman, 31, has mastered spoken and written Japanese and is, in all likelihood, the only one in the country to play the koto, a Japanese classical instrument well enough for critical acclaim.

There’s more. He is also putting himself through the rigours of learning the intricacies and delicate steps of the Japanese tea ceremony which traditionalists in that country are struggling to keep alive.

The ceremony, he explains, "represents the essence of the Japanese people and how they treat guests in the small living space that is their common reality. The language used is poetic and exposure to it widens a learner’s grasp of its subtleties".

*Kindly extracted from Raf's E-mail

Dear all

Update on the achievements @ UIA 2007 (now the biggest school debating tournament in the country apart from Datuk Shukor; which is only for day schools):

1) BM won defeating SSP

2) Fendy won Best Speaker Overall & Best Speaker Final

3) From double octo onwards (knock out rounds), we defeated opponents with sebulat suara decision i.e. 7-0, 7-0, 9-0, 9-0 and final 9-0 - tak pernah berlaku dalam sejarah

4) The 2nd team BM yang baru first time debate ranked 7th and went straight to octo final - again x pernah berlaku

5) Aslam ranked 4th overall

6) English team ranked 1st, the only team that won all 7 debates in league rounds before knock out

7) All our English debaters were in the top 10 overall best speakers list

8) They lost to SAS at semi final, though they hd defeated SAS and all the other teams in the other semi (STAR & RMC). But they got opposition & since you depend on gov's definition for the debate, gov crappy definition pun, selebetlah sikit diorang.

9) English team is a new team, with 1st and 3rd speaker baru first time debating in this tournament. So it's beyond everyone's wildest dream to be ranked 1st and lost by a whisker sbb x de luck