Nak Masuk ITM - Part I (Application into ITM)

After the MCE results were announced in 1974 (for the MCE exam taken in 1973), I wanted to further my studies. As most Universities are expensive to go into and my family cannot afford to spend much money, I decided to only apply to ITM; as somehow or rather ITM appeals to me for the place to further my studies. At that time, I was spending my after MCE holidays in Kuala Pilah. So I applied, filling all the necessary forms for application for the Diploma in Business Studies course.

As Abah Rahman has a relative in ITM; that was Encik T.... M....., the Timbalan Pengarah (2nd highest ranking) of ITM then, he suggested that we go and see him if he could 'assist' me to gain entry into ITM. After all I scored Grade II in the MCE exam (which was quite rare at that time as Bahasa Malaysia became a compulsory subject for purposes of calculating our aggregates). My aggregate was 33, 1 before being thrown into Grade III. So we called and arranged with another relative, Abang Jaafar; who knows how to get around in KL and Shah alam and off we went to Encik T.... M....'s house in Shah Alam.

We took the bus from Kampong Senaling to Kuala Pilah, from Kuala Pilah to Seremban and from Seremban to Kuala Lumpur. We then took the local bus to Jayapuri (now PJ Hilton). At Jayapuri, abang Jaafar picked us up and took us to his house where we stayed the night. The next morning, Abang Jaafar drove us to Encik T.... M....'s house in Section 4, Shah Alam - which was a weekend.

As we sat down for coffee, Abah Rahman spoke of my desire to join ITM and have applied for it. Abah Rahman asked if he could help me get into ITM as competition was already great then, even though I scored Grade II in MCE. However Encik T.... M.... subtly said, "apply laah..." and that was it. I was holding a copy of my application. It broke my heart. After travelling on 'bas loncat' all the way from Kampong Senaling to Shah alam, looks like he is not going to do anything to my application into ITM. As the case may be, no string pulling; nevertheless, I was heart broken and deep in my heart I felt that my chances of continuing my studies in ITM comes to nought. And it was true. I never got accepted into ITM that July 1974 intake. Maybe my MCE results were not good enough to qualify to enter ITM then anyway.

I went to work!