Kwai Choong and Piang Fah
Phang Piang Fah
Continued with scouting in MBSKL after the second world and rekindled the scouting spirit in MBSKL. During his tenure as Group Scoutmaster, 10th KL was merged with 15th KL to form the enlarged 10th Kuala Lumpur Air Scout Group.
His nurture of the boys produced the successors of many scout leaders in 10th Group.
MBSKL “lost” Piang Fah to the Jalan Kuantan School on his promotion as headmaster to that school. His love was still for 10th Group where he returned often and delivered many a yarns to the younger generations.
Piang Fah did us proud when he was appointed the Camp Chief of Selangor.
Piang Fah went home on 2006.
Liu Kwai Choong
Succeeded Piang Fah as Group Scout Master in 1962 whilst a teacher in the MBS primary school and continued on when transferred to the secondary school. Many years of MBS scouts benefitted from his training, camps and journeys he initiated.
Kwai Choong is best remembered for giving birth to the idea of 10th Group’s den. He is credited with raising the clarion call to his peers and charges for a permanent home for 10th Group.
With his leadership, permission was granted by the school authorities for the site. The fund raising led by Kwai Choong raised more than RM150,000 to build the den.
10th Group is proud to name the den after our GSM who has spent more than 50 years with the group.
Organising Committee:
- Captain (R) Ho Fooi
- Fong Yuen Hoe
- Ho Chee Wah
- Wan Heng Yuen
- Dr. Wong Tuck Meng
- Low Kong Ming
- Tam Chee Keong
- Dr. Anthony Foong
- Chan Mei Fui
- Choo Chon Ming
- Gary Lee
- Yap Hoy Hoong
- Charlie Ng
- Wong Hsien Loong
- Richard Kong
- Hooi Weng Cheong
Logbook
The event started off with flag break like what we do during our regular scout meetings. Captain (R) Ho Fooi, the organizing chairman of this event welcomed the guests and the investiture of honorary scouts is started.
The purpose of this investiture is to welcome the honorary scouts into the brotherhood of scouting. They have been obeying the scout laws, joining the scouts for activities like camps and hikes. For a myriad of reasons, they did not get a chance to be a scout. The idea of this investiture is originated from Mr. Liu Kwai Choong, the key person of this event.
The Group Scoutmaster Wan Heng Yuen conducted the investiture by reciting the scout promise which is followed by the honorary scouts. The 10th KL scarves are then put on the honorary scouts and the Tenderfoot Badge (Lencana Keahlian) pinned on their shirt.
Dedication speeches are given by Captain (R) Ho Fooi, Mr. Chu Tham Sang, Mr. Charlie Choong and Dr. Wong Tuck Meng. All of them talked about the leadership, commitment and contributions of Mr. Liu Kwai Choong to the group. Mr. Liu Kwai Choong is the one who came out with the idea to build the Scout Den, now known as Kwai Choong Den with the main activity hall, Piang Fah Hall, named after late Mr. Phang Piang Fah.
Days before this event, Mr. Liu Kwai Choong was interviewed by the New Straits Times to profile him in the newspaper. It was published on the 6th of December. The story of Mr. Liu Kwai Choong is available here. This online pages do not carry all the photographs. The original pages in the newspaper are here: page 1 page 2.
Several old scouts gave testimonials on Mr. Phang and Mr. Liu.
After that, this event is continued by acceptance speeches by Mr. Liu and Ms. Phang, followed by unveiling the plaques symbolizing the dedication ceremony of the Scout Den and the main activity hall as completed. Last but not least, dinner was served to the guests to warm their stomachs.
The organizing committee would like to acknowledge to all who helped out in this event full heartedly and of course thanks to the guests who attended.
Photos of this event are available in the gallery here.
