I grew up in a rubber estate in Kedah

MEMORIES: A British security consultant returns to a small town in Kedah to look for the house he used to live in when he was a child. Predeep Nambiar has the story

WHO would've thought that a "Mat Salleh" from East Sussex, England, would have such a detailed memory of his childhood in Kedah, despite an absence of more than 40 years?

Meet James Malcom Alexander Justice, 58, who remembers his hometown, Junun in Gurun (now Jenun, part of the Pendang district), Kedah, so well that he can still drive there without the aid of a map or a satellite navigation device.

The New Sunday Times caught up with him during his month-long holiday in Penang recently.

Justice last came to Penang in 2005, after an absence of 40 years, for an International School of Penang (Uplands) alumni gathering. That was when he decided to venture to his kampung in Kedah.

"As soon as I landed at the Penang International Airport, I surprised myself by giving my friends directions to town. Somehow, I could remember everything," said the retired engineer, who was born at Penang Maternity Hospital in 1955.

Justice said he rented a car and used his instincts to navigate across to the mainland in search of the house built by his late father, Major James Malcom Justice Sr, at the Bukit Genting Estate, Jenun, near the present-day Kampung Ayer Putih, Pendang, in 1949.

Justice Sr worked as a solicitor's clerk before serving in the British and Indian Armies from 1939 to 1948, where he spent two years in Malaya.

During his military service he was streamed into the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and other military colleges to learn mechanical engineering.

He then saw the end of his career in the army after the independence of India in 1947.

Justice Sr, who was then 31, applied to be a planter at the Kulim Rubber Company and rose to be an estate manager years later.

At that time, he took the first surrender at the height of the Japanese Occupation during World War 2.

Justice Sr managed a 810ha estate with 400 workers and was instrumental in developing the estate and taking care of the workers, effectively serving the role of a community leader.

He also chaired numerous committees and was president of the United Kedah Planting Association.

For his services, Justice Sr was bestowed a Medal for Meritorious Service to the State and a Justice of Peace award in 1964 by the Sultan of Kedah, who is currently the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, becoming the first European to be bestowed the title then.

Justice Sr was also a good friend of our first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Justice Sr died in England in 1985 at the age of 67.

As a young boy, Justice Jr remembers Tunku often visiting their estate home, adding that he always carried a jade stone with him.

"I remember he used to drop by at our home... And because I was so fond of this green stone that he played with, he eventually gave it to me."

He then turned the piece of jade into a pendant which he still wears around his neck.

"Tunku also presented me with a Siamese cat named Peter Kin, who was always jumping around and actively guarding our home back in the day."

On how he managed to find his way to the old estate after being away for decades, Justice Jr said it was relatively easy to find the old town.

"Jenun was pretty much the same as it was decades ago. The buildings were the same with corrugated tin roofs.

"There were the traffic lights built into 45-gallon oil drums and the familiar railway line by the road."

Unfortunately, he could not locate the house his father had built.

The father of two boys, aged 25 and 26, came back in 2007, determined to find the house. This time, he was armed with some old army maps that he found.

"I fed the coordinates into my global positioning system device and, voila, I found it."

He noticed a familiar landmark near his home, the Mariamman Hindu temple that his father had built for the estate workers. There were also some of the rubber and oil palm trees which were planted around it.

But he could barely recognise his old home as it was in shambles -- an empty house with wild trees growing in the yard. He had lived in the house for 11 years, when his father was the estate manager.

"I must thank my wife Pauline for pointing the house out to me. I remembered the roof was of a bright green shade, but now it was all black from years of neglect."

Justice remembered the floor plan as he entered his old home.

"I told my wife, go up one floor and you will see my mum's bath with the blue tiles on one end and dad's with the yellow tiles on the other. And I was right."

Justice said most of the fittings, especially in the bathrooms, had been removed.

"I guess they removed all the fittings so that they could place them at the public toilet of the Jenun railway station," he joked.

Justice approached the land owners to buy the house, but they instead offered to sell him the entire estate.

"The price was astronomical. I just wanted 2ha, including the house, not 30ha!"

He also recalled his days at the International School of Penang, back on Penang Hill.

He remembers fondly the time when his parents took him and his brother, Jeremy, to the Odeon Cinema at Penang Road to catch the latest movies.

"I remember watching Walt Disney films with my parents at the theatre. It's our favourite thing to do as a family."

Justice also recalled the Whiteaways Arcade in Beach Street (now Lebuh Pantai), where he used to go shopping for school uniforms.

"It was the place to shop back then. We went for brown shorts and green-chequered white shirts as required by the Uplands School."

He also recalled the Bata shoe shop in Penang Road. He was surprised to see the sign still painted on the wall.

"I remember buying my flip-flops from the Bata shop.

"There is a shoe shop there today but I doubt it is the same brand."

He also remembered driving through the winding roads heading to Batu Ferringhi and Teluk Bahang.

"It was then just a single-track road. There was a giant padang (field) stretching from the present-day Golden Sands Resort to the Lone Pine Hotel.

"There would be people playing rugby, football and hockey then."

Justice lamented that there were too many coffee shops and fast food outlets sprouting in Penang, especially in the George Town area. He felt this was going against what the island was famous for -- its hawker food.

"I am afraid that in another 50 years, Penang will only be famous for its fast food, and hawker food will virtually be extinct."

Justice also fervently hoped that the town planners would not turn Penang into another skyscraper-filled island like Singapore.

"The Pearl of the Orient should retain its originality, which I hope lasts forever."

Justices’ family cook (right) and Justice Jr (second from right) with his mother Violet taking a stroll in the park at their home in Jenun, Kedah.

New Straits Time 7 April,2013.

Che'Yahya Che'Soh

Principal SMKSB@STAR

Kuala Lumpur.

Sunday 7 April,2013.