By Niza Shimi
If you went to an elite boarding school like the Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK), you will hold on to you school necktie as a symbol of being a member of the old boy network. The tie would be taken out, spiffed up and donned for every old boys gathering.
I happen to know because my uncle and brother were both old boys of the elite boy’s college. It was unthinkable to discard their precious MCKK necktie as I almost did, much to my brother’s chagrin. Heck, it’s just an old tie, or so I thought.
The MCKK was established on January 2, 1905 by the British colonial administration as a full residential school for Malay boys. Sometimes dubbed “the Eton of the East”, it is a premier residential school in Malaysia and is under the royal patronage of the Conference of Rulers.
Remembering my late uncle and my brother, these old boys are fiercely proud of their college. My brother was very much into the MCKK traditions, strict English formality and the rugby mindset, causing great alarm to my father as his son often came home with various injuries.
Anyway, back to the neck ties, it is encouraged to keep the tradition according to a tweet from the Malay College Old Boys Association (MCOBA) @mymcoba in 2013, “MCKK Old Boys- Wear your stripe tie every Wednesday 'The tie that bonds and the bonds that ties' FSV - Jan 17, 2013.
Now that I think about it, I vaguely remember seeing some top brass at one media company wearing this old school tie and an editor, obviously not an MCKK old boy, whispering, “Don’t you know that tie? It’s the old boy’s network.”
The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the old boy network as an informal system in which wealthy men with the same social and educational background help each other. The MCKK alumni lists prominent figures among royalty, business, politics and other spheres of life.
The old boy’s in the current Unity Government includes Anwar (the 10th PM), Minister of International Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad and Minister of Economy Rafizi Ramli.
So, it comes as a big surprise that the new Unity Government has decided to discard the neck tie in their recent “no tie” photo sessions.
A recent attempt by world leaders at the 48th G7 summit to go tie-less at a gathering in Germany prompted the United Kingdom-based newspaper The Independent to label them as “sloppy”.
Perhaps PM10 was going for the James Bond 007 look as he jokingly referred to himself as “James Anwar” when accused of being a foreign “agent”.
Will this spell the end of the tie that binds male necks? Will it cause tie industry to be up in arms the way the school shoe industry did when shoes were changed from white to black under the previous PH government?
Perhaps the necktie will soon be housed in the museum dedicated to it in Switzerland, the Borje’s Tie Museum with more 9,000 ties on display. PM10 could start a global trend.
Niza Shimi is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.
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