Two
THE BETTER ELEMENT
(cont'd - 2)
Page 1
The first Rotary clubs in this country were founded in 1929 (i.e. organization date), four in all, the first being Penang (12/08/29), followed by Seremban (20/09/29), Kuala Lumpur a week later (27/09/29) and Ipoh (11/10/29) respectively. ** But Kuala Lumpur was the real leader as its Charter members were almost twice the number of Penang's and more than double those of the other two. By 1941 there were eight Rotary clubs in the Federation of Malaya.
**However if one takes, as Rotary International does, the Admission date as marking the birth date of any given club, Seremban comes first (04/12/29), followed by Kuala Lumpur (15/01/30), Ipoh (18/01/30) and Penang last (08/10/30). In fact, Penang was also beaten to the post by the Rotary clubs of Malacca (organization date 08/07/30; admission date 08/09/30) and Klang/Port Swettenham (organization date 07/05/30; admission date 08/08/30). By 1941 two other clubs had been established in Malaysia, namely those of Taiping and Kuching (both on the same day in 1936).
Because the rise and expansion of Rotary International took place so smoothly and apparently so effortlessly, one tends to take it all very much for granted. But some explanation for this phenomenon is called for. Within the United States themselves, clubs and clubbing, no doubt, evoke an immediate response from the American psyche - what one (American) writer has described as that 'curious blend of business and social intercourse, of comradeship, and an eye to "contacts".' Comradeship, or the need for it, was clearly an important element in the motives that inspired Paul Harris, and is, of course, reflected in the first rukun of Rotary that asserts 'the development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service'. But this alone surely cannot explain why a movement launched by four rather obscure middle class persons in Chicago should catch on so rapidly and widely in the world at large. Obviously there was something more in the Rotary message which had not merely an American but a universal appeal, and which also had much to do with the personality and ideals of its founder.
Bearing in mind just how lofty those ideals are and the high ethical standards that Rotary demands and expects from its members, it comes as something of a relief to discover that Paul Percy Harris himself was neither immaculately conceived nor a model of propriety and obedience in his youth. His childhood was happy, so he has told us, but he was brought up by his grandparents, having been handed over to their care at the tender age of three by his 'improvident and flighty' parents (to quote Harris yet again), when his father's business collapsed. He went to school in the normal way, but was expelled from two academic institutions - from a high school 'for his pranks', and subsequently from the University of Vermont for 'disruptive behaviour'.* In other words he had a mind of his own and was no conformist. However, he did succeed in obtaining a law degree from the State University of Iowa two years later (in 1891).
*In 1919, by which time Harris had become the world-renowned president of Rotary International, he was awarded retroactively from 1899 a Ph.D. by the Board of Trustees of the University of Vermont.
In the meantime the restlessness continued. Over the next five years Paul Harris moved like the proverbial rolling stone through a series of vocations, though contrary to proverbial wisdom, gathering a lot of moss along the way. During this period he was in succession a newspaper reporter, a teacher (in a Los Angeles business college), an actor, a fruit picker, a stockboy on a cattleboat on the Atlantic crossing, and a salesman for a marble and granite company, a job that took him to England. Finally, in 1896, he returned to Chicago and went into legal practice, but hardly settled down. He was still a bachelor and, in his own words, 'desperately lonely' - changing his lodgings on an average of twice a year over fourteen years. The restlessness was only brought to an end in 1910 by marriage at the ripe age of forty-two.
That was the year of the formation of the National Association of Rotary Clubs, of which he became the first president. By this time Rotary had become his life, and into its development he poured all the wealth of his wisdom and experience gained from his earlier years. He has been described as the 'quintessential Rotarian', for the twin principles of Rotary, fellowship and service, and all that they stand for were reflected in his character and his lifestyle. That fellowship was a projection of his own gregariousness and love of good company; the service a manifestation of his own deep but liberal religious convictions and strong sense of civic consciousness. And the unspoken refusal by Rotary as an organization to take cognizance of differences of religion and race were equally surely a product of his own cosmopolitan experience.
These twin Rotary ideals had a special meaning for the Malaysians of Petaling Jaya. Gregariousness and socializing are a natural part of the general Malaysian way of life, but in the conditions of a new town whose inhabitants were all new-comers and starting out in a new and fast-changing world, there was a crying need for an organization which could bring them together with a common purpose. This need was particularly felt amongst the upper echelons of PJ society - 'the better element' - who were in frequent contact with one another in their daily affairs because of their positions, and who, despite their different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, had much in common by virtue of being leaders in their respective fields and pace-setters in the nation-building process.
Page 1
