MENTION Air Itam and what comes to mind is the famed Kek Lok Si temple, the Penang Hill railway, the State Mosque or Masjid Negeri, nutmegs and laksa asam.

The Kek Lok Si has become even grander with its 30.2m-high bronze Goddess of Mercy statue, making it the largest Buddhist temple in the region.

The same cannot be said about Penang Hill, which has lost much of its ambience and even cool breeze, while the funicular railway breaks down too many times.

I was born at 89, King’s Street in George Town, but was fortunate enough to grow up in a new 1960s suburb in Jalan Kampung Melayu, Air Itam.

My father, who made a small fortune from the rubber boom, bought a double-storey terrace house at the once leafy neighbourhood.There were plenty of swaying coconut trees and even rambutan trees, which grew in the compounds of our neighbours, for the plucking.

But the best part of my teenage years in Kampung Melayu was spending time at a river nearby which was abundant with peacock fish, or more precisely guppies, and also the occasional catfish or two.

Every Penangite is aware that the catfish that we love in our curries are the sea variety while those from the rivers tend to have a muddy taste.

But for teenagers, hunting catfish in the river can be quite an adventure. All you needed was a stick with a pointed end and as you walk along the river, you look out for one in the nooks and crannies and take a stab at it. This was when the principle of refraction in water that we learned in Science class came in handy.

Of course, one had to be extra careful and watch out for snakes in the water.

Although Air Itam means black water, the tributary that ran through Kampung Melayu was clear and clean. My parents did not worry about me suffering from skin problems.

Although they feared that we would get bitten by snakes, they were just as excited to see what my brothers and I collected from the river.

My parents, now in their 80s, still live in the house they bought. The coconut and rambutan trees are gone though.

Dr Faridah Abdul Rashid, who wrote a book on Malay doctors in early Malaya and Singapore, said Kampung Melayu “is possibly the only British-created Malay reserve on Penang island, and which had survived till today”.

Quoting local historian Abdur Razzaq Lubis, she wrote that in 1933, the Penang Malay Association (Persatuan Melayu Pulau Pinang) submitted a memorandum to the Colonial Office in London, for the creation of a Malay reserve in Air Itam.

“The memorandum was drafted by Dr Kamil Mohamed Arif, Captain Mohamad Nor Mohamad and Captain Syed Salleh Alsagoff. A piece of land in Air Hitam costing RM40,000 was purchased for the purpose and the settlement became known as Kampung Melayu, Air Itam, the one and only Malay reserve in the Straits Settlement.”

But there are more historic gems. The mausoleum of Sheikh Omar Bashir is in Kampung Melayu but many, including residents, would not be aware of its location, let alone its signifance.

Nestled among some kampung houses, the mausoleum of Sheik Omar Basheer is a Moorish-style shrine with a white exterior.

Sheik Omar Basheer Al-Khalidi was a highly regarded imam at the Acheen Street Mosque and trusted by the British during the famous Penang riot in 1867.

It had been written that the head of Malay families were made to swear in front of Sheik Omar Basheer that they did not support the secret societies of Hai San and Ghee Hin in 1867.

According to the Streets of George Town, he settled in Kampung Melayu at the invitation of his sufi disciple Syed Hassan Al-Haru, the founder of the original Air Itam mosque. Syed Hassan had inherited the land from his adopted father, who worked with Captain Francis Light.

Not far from Kampung Melayu are the foothills of Penang Hill, where Light set out the island’s agriculture hub, growing vegetables, flowers, nutmeg and pepper.

In fact, Australian-based historian Marcus Langdon has even claimed that the first botanic garden was set up in the middle of Air Itam valley in 1794.

He said Irish botanist Christopher Smith set up a small garden on a 10.5ha plot in the valley, adding that Smith later set up another garden in Sungai Keluang in Bayan Lepas on a 158ha site.

Langdon, who specialises in Penang’s early history under the East India Company from 1786 to 1858, said Smith chose Penang to be the nursery for thousands of nutmeg and clove plants brought in from the Molucca Island (Maluku Islands) in Indonesia over a six-year period.

“The responsibility of breaking the monopoly of the Dutch on the highly valuable nutmegs and cloves, as well as delivering a new source of revenue to the East India Company fell almost solely on Christopher Smith,” he reportedly said.

According to reports on the Internet, the Maluku Islands, located between Sulawesi and New Guinea, were commonly referred to as Spice Islands and was once the only source of mace and nutmeg.

The Penang Botanic Gardens in Jalan Kebun Bunga were established in 1884 from an old quarry site under the supervision of Charles Curtis, who became its first superintendent.

Today, I still make it a point to visit my parents in Kampung Melayu, at least once every month, making my food pilgrimage to my favourite eating spots.

Topping the list has to be the country’s best nasi kandar stall at the low-cost flats, the Teochew braised duck rice at the annex of the Air Itam wet market and, of course, the duck roll rice noodles or koay chiap at the Wah Meng café, near the Paya Terubong bridge, where the best coffee is served.

An elderly couple still sell curry mee, where the aroma-rich soup is kept boiling over hot charcoal, and their customers have to sit on stools.

At the Reservoir Garden-Air Itam road junction, where the Keat Seng coffeeshop still exists, I remember the char koay teow came with crab meat and bamboo mussels, besides prawns and cockles! Of course, no one cooks like this any more.

But there are plenty of historical facts that will be lost if we do not share them with the next generation. Near the market, opposite the police station, it used to be a tram stop. In 1906, trams connected the General Post Office in George Town and Air Itam, with eight cars operating.

The trams were replaced in 1935 by trolley buses, which operated through the war years until they were replaced by diesel buses, according to reports.

The late tycoon, Lim Goh Tong, had his earliest break when he was given a contract in the construction of the Ayer Itam dam, the first time where a local contractor was given a project of such magnitude.

The old Air Itam market area remains almost as it used to be decades ago with the vegetable sellers fighting any plans to move them away from this over-congested area.

Not bad for a small village that once consisted only of attap-roofed homes, which were razed to the ground in 1934 on Chinese New Year’s Eve.

And as fate would have it, my wife is also from Air Itam. She grew up at a simple zinc-roofed home opposite the police station and going home for Chinese New Year, thankfully, has never been a difficult issue, as with many couples who come from different states.

Readers write

Reader Klang Boy emailed: “I often go to Padang Brown, where the food stalls, are located. The best popiah and Chinese-style pasembor, I swear, are there but can you shed some light on who is Brown? I also see a memorial there.

Chun Wai: To younger Penangites, the playing field opposite Convent Datuk Kramat is simply Padang Datuk Kramat, named after an ascetic of Tamil and possibly Acehnese origin, of the 18th century, according to history books. To the Chinese, the area is called kam mah hui or orange groves. But older Penangites call the field Padang Brown, after David Brown, who was a business partner of Captain Francis Light. The other partner was James Scott. Brown was a lawyer from Edinburgh before making his way to Penang. As the largest landowner in Penang in his time, he had property in Glugor. He was rich enough to donate his land for the construction of the Snake Temple and Sungai Glugor Mosque, according to Khoo Salma Nasution.

Reader George Loh said he is a regular visitor to Kimberley Street but has no idea who is this man.

Chun Wai: The road is named after the Earl of Kimberley, who was Secretary of State for the Colonies in the 1870s. In short, he was a very powerful British official. To the local Hokkiens, the road is called sua thow kay or Swatow, a port city in Guangdong, southern China. It is very much part of Chinatown with its predominantly Chinese working-class population. Some of the best street food can be found there.

Reader James Kay wants to know more about Macalister, after whom another road is named.

Chun Wai: The road is in honour of Colonel Norman Macalister, who was the Colonel Commander of the Artillery Department and a close friend of Captain Francis Light. Another influential British official, he went on to become a Governor of Penang from 1807 to 1811.

LOOKING at the heavy flow of traffic along Jalan Dr Lim Chwee Leong and Carnarvon Street today, not many would recall it was once a huge swamp area with a canal where boats and junks could sail in.

Carnarvon Street — the street of undertakers, coffin-makers, joss stick shops and school textbook shops — has long been known to older Penangites as lam chan ngah, which means swampy rice fields, in the early days of Penang.

It was a marshland with a Malay settlement and the adjoining Carnarvon Lane was known as kam kong lai or Malay village.

The street was named after the 4th Earl of Carnarvon, Henry Herbert. He was the secretary of the State of Colonies, or simply the British official in charge of the colonies from 1866 to 1867.

The town and county of Carnarvon Street were located in the principality of Wales. He was also a prominent member of the Conservative Party.

Prangin Road — now renamed Jalan Dr Lim Chwee Leong — used to have a huge canal and until the 1940s, boats used to carry goods from the seafront all the way inland along the Prangin Canal.

The old market area, Prangin Market, was called Sia Boey or end of the town, by the Hokkiens. There were also vegetable farms in that area, where produce were uploaded on these boats.

When the Komtar building was being built, excavation works carried out in that area found evidence of coins, chinaware and other utensils, believed to have been thrown into the canal by Chinese sailors. Many of these historical items are now being stored at the state museum.

By the time I was a schoolboy, the Prangin Canal had turned into a big smelly drain. It used to be a bus stop for the privately-run Lim Seng Seng buses.

The bus operator was efficient but the conductors, including the women, were rude, tough and even nasty. They had no qualms about kicking out, literally, any student who attempted to shove his way into an overly crowded bus.

A few were sheer bullies — students not in uniform were charged the full fare and it was pointless to offer any explanation as to why we were not in uniform. Perhaps, they got commission from the sale of tickets, I suspected.

Waiting by the stinking canal or drain, no one told me it used to be a river which marked the borders of early 19th century George Town or that the name of the road had gone from Prangin River to Prangin Creek to Prangin Canal and then a huge drain.

According to Khoo Salma Nasution, early pictures showed bullock carts parked along the canal, which was lined with casuarinas, hence the Malay name then, pokok rhu.

Today, the drain is buried. But on reflection, the city fathers had lost an opportunity to transform the dirty canal into a lovely promenade in the city.

Instead, in the name of urban renewal, this became the site for the Komtar building. Hundreds of pre-war houses were demolished to make way for the 65-storey building, which began construction in 1974.

Today, the building, which houses mostly government offices with little interest from the private sector, looks like a sore thumb in the midst of the surviving heritage houses, which everyone wants to preserve and protect.

When the construction started, the museum officials called me and my colleague, Ronald Bryne, to have a look at the large number of coins and broken pieces of porcelain they found at the canal and its vicinity. It marked my earliest interest in the history of the canal.

Prangin Road is today known as Dr Lim Chwee Leong — the father of Chong Eu. Chwee Leong was just 22 years old when he graduated and decided to move from his hometown of Singapore to settle in Penang.

The paediatrician held several community positions, including being the president of the Hu Yew Seah and the Straits Chinese British Association.

He set up his clinic, known as the Soo Beng Dispensary, near the Prangin Market, and the heritage building still remains.

The website, www.penang-traveltips.com describes the building as built “in the art deco style of the 1920s and finished in Shanghai plaster”.

Chwee Leong was a brilliant medical student at the King Edward VII College in 1909. He was a top student and was awarded the Lim Boon Keng Medal when he graduated in 1913.

It is said that for a short period of time, he worked as assistant surgeon for the Government District Hospital before starting his own practice in 1914.

The dispensary he opened was named after Soo Beng, his native village in Fujian province in southern China.

The website said it was here that Chwee Leong set up the People’s Clinic dispensing free medicine to the poor, greatly endearing himself to the locals.

The Edinburgh-trained Chong Eu, in fact, practised at the dispensary in 1947 when he returned from China after helping in the reconstruction of post-war China.

It is well documented that as a young medical student in Scotland, the Gerakan founder and president was one of the members of the London-based United Kingdom and Eire Chinese Students’ Association, which actively rallied support for China’s fight against the Japanese occupation.

The area surrounding the Soo Beng building can be spruced up further as it sits on a prime commercial area.

Readers write

Reader Joseph Kay e-mailed to ask whether it is true that Anna Leonowens, played by Jodie Foster in the movie Anna and the King, is buried at the Protestant cemetery at Farquhar Street.

Chun Wai: The answer is no but her husband, Thomas Leonowens, is. According to known records on various websites, Leonowens was a young army officer who died of malaria at the age of 31, leaving Anna as a young widow. Penniless and jobless, Anna decided to travel to Thailand, then known as Siam, to be a teacher and subsequently wrote about her experience in the royal court. The memoir reportedly received scant attention but decades later became a popular book for schoolgirls. It became a Broadway hit before hitting the big screen as The King and I in 1946 with Yul Brynner in the lead. The version with Jodie Foster also starred Chow Yuen Fatt. It was filmed primarily in Malaysia, mainly in Ipoh, but with some street scenes in Penang. However, there is another version about the Leonowens based on a book published in 2008. According to author Susan Morgan in Bombay Anna: The Real Story and Remarkable Adventures of The King and I Governess, Thomas was actually a hotel keeper in Penang and had died of apoplexy.

Captain Francis Light, the founder of Penang, is also buried at the same cemetery. His trading partners, James Scott, David Brown and James Richardson Logan are also buried there. The famous Padang Brown at Datuk Keramat and Logan Road are named as such to commerorate the two men. Quintin Dick Thomas, the brother-in-law of Stamford Raffles, lies buried there as well. Raffles, who founded Singapore, worked briefly in Penang at the government house, now part of the Convent Light Street’s premises.

If you have queries on the streets of Penang, or your own stories, kindly email to mystory@thestar.com.my

ASK any older Penangite — that is anyone who is above 50 years old – and he will tell you that the Gurney Drive today is quite different from his childhood days.

The present state of affairs is simply deplorable. It has been rotting over the past 10 years as more restaurants and eateries, not to mention the many high-rise developments that have replaced quaint bungalows, take over this stretch of road and its vicinity.

And it doesn’t look like there will be improvements with the daily traffic congestion.

Land reclamation at one end of Gurney Drive has been blamed for causing the flow of water into the shores.

But for many of us who grew up in Penang, there was once a beach along this stretch where we could pick up seashells, which were abundant then.

We could also dig up siput remis or small mussels, which we took home by the pails to be cooked!

Pollution-free Gurney Drive was also the venue of the annual dragon boat races from 1960s to 1980s. That kind of excitement is now lost, much like the lovely beach and clear waters.

We could actually swim at Gurney Drive and it was a joy to watch the fishermen, who moored their boats at the beach, returning with their catches. It was common, in fact, to actually fish for king crabs along the shore back then.

But that’s all gone now. It will never come back and for older Penangites, we must be thankful we got to experience such beauty.

Still, Gurney Drive, for all its imperfections, is home to some of the most expensive properties in the state. The many luxury condominiums, especially those with a view of the sea, can command a price of more than RM2,000 psf.

Hotels and modern shopping centres have now taken over the places of many majestic pre-war houses and the College General complex, which was once used to train Catholic priests in Thailand, India, China, Japan and Myanmar.

But more importantly, Malaysians, especially Penangites, who still take their evening strolls along the promenade must know who Sir Henry Lovell Goldsworthy Gurney was as the road is named after him.

Gurney was the High Commissioner for Malaya between 1948 and 1951, who was murdered on Oct 6, 1951, on the way up to Fraser’s Hill.

The communists had ambushed his Rolls Royce during the Malayan Emergency without realising he was inside the car. In short, the ambush was accidental and the communists only learned it was Gurney — the most senior colonial official in Malaya — was dead from news reports later.

In his memoir, My Side of History, Chin Peng wrote that he was 35 miles away across the highlands in Bentong when the assassination took place.

“It was not until the next day, while tuned to the early news on Radio Malaya that I first learned we had killed the High Commissioner,” he wrote.

Sitting with his fellow CPM leaders, he wrote “I recall very clearly the silence of amazement that briefly followed. It then dissipated to shouts of incredulity.”

In his book, he wrote the ambush was the work of “comrade Siew Ma and 36 guerrilas who had been lying in ambush two days along the winding Gap road” leading to Fraser’s Hill.

Today, tourists driving up Fraser’s Hill can see a sign at the spot where Gurney was killed. He is buried at the Cheras Christian cemetery.

Retired Bernama journalist Syed Imran Ahmad, who has carried out extensive research, wrote that when New Coast Road was renamed Gurney Drive, there was a debate over why the road should be called “drive” — which meant a road for driving in, especially a private carriageway to a house.

“The development of national forces in the country and the political revolution of the fifties manifested itself in a small way, when one Municipal Commissioner suggested in 1956 that Gurney Drive should be named Pantai Merdeka.

“This matter was taken up in council and it was decided on Aug 21, 1956 that, with effect from Aug 31, 1957, the road would be known as Merdeka Drive and that the circus at the end of Pangkor Road be named Gurney Circus.

“A bust or statue of the late Sir Henry was to be constructed. The then Settlement Secretary refused to write to Lady Gurney regarding this and so the Municipal Commissio-ners wrote direct to Lady Gurney.

“She took the change very bravely and even offered to help with regard to the statue or bust. There were negotiations with a sculptor in London, David McFall, who agreed to do the job for 500 guineas or $4,500,” Syed Imran wrote.

But thank God, common sense finally prevailed. When the recommendation for the provision of $6,000 for bust came up before the Finance Committee, it was decided not only to defer the provision of a bust but also that the drive should continue be called Gurney Drive.

If Malaysians think there are plenty of comic politicians now, there was no shortage of them then.

Wrote Syed Imran: “In 1962, a councillor reportedly suggested, while on the topic of beautifying Penang through landscaping, that the double rows of Casuarina trees be planted at Gurney Drive, urged the council to consider renaming Gurney Drive to “Casuarina Drive” and “Casuarina Beach.”

For all the changes throughout the decades, whether good or otherwise, Gurney Drive continues to be an attraction.

Readers write

Reader Adam Zachariah wants to know about Hutton Lane where Penang’s famed band, The Alleycats, was formed, and Jalan P. Ramlee.

Chun Wai: Growing up as a young man in Penang, the most happening place was Carmen’s Inn at the old Hotel Merlin, now known as the City Bayview Hotel. Beside Alleycats, the other big name was the Sweet September. Just a stone’s throw away was the Unit One disco at Hotel Malaya. But it is Datuk David Arumugam and his brothers who made us proud until today. The band members grew up in Hutton Lane — named after the earliest known doctor who arrived in Penang with two assistants in 1805. There were certainly plenty of alleys in the area where they grew up.

Jalan P. Ramlee is, of course, named after our most loved actor-singer-musician. Also known as Teuku Zakariah, he was the son of Acehnese Teuku Nyak Puteh. He attended a Malay school in Kampong Jawa and later, Penang Free School.

Another reader enquired about Aboo Siti Lane and Drury Lane.

Chun Wai: According to Khoo Salma Nasution, Aboo Siti was also known as Mamak Pushi. He was regarded as the father of Bangsawan, a form of Malay musical which originated from Penang in the 1870s. Aboo Siti started a local company called Kumpulan Pusi Indera Bangsawan in the 1890s which toured Malaya and Indonesia. Bangsawan was popular not only among the Malays but also the Chinese and Indians.

Drury Lane is named after the West End theatre district in London. Adjoining Kuala Kangsar Road, near the Penang Road area, the local Hokkeins called the road sin hi tai or new theatre appropriately.

> If you have queries on the streets of Penang, or your own stories, kindly email to mystory@thestar.com.my

IT IS impossible to write about the history of my alma mater, St Xavier’s Institution (Penang’s History, My Story, The Star on Jan 26), and to risk the wrath of my readers, especially Penangites, by ignoring rivals Penang Free School (PFS).

The irony is that we were once neighbours along Farquhar Street. PFS was founded by Anglican chaplain Rev Spark Hutchings in 1816. Hutchings School, where PFS had its beginnings, is located next to the state museum, which is just steps away from SXI.

Hutchings also founded the St George’s Church in Farquhar Street, the oldest Anglican church in South-East Asia.

PFS was the first English medium school in the country, and also in South-East Asia. Many thought “free” means free from fees, but actually, the “free” means the school is “open to all”. Unlike missionary schools such as SXI, care was taken in providing secular education.

It was only in 1928 that PFS moved to Green Lane — now renamed Jalan Masjid Negeri — and has remained until today.

When we talk about rivalry between SXI and PFS, it was so strong at one time that fistfights used to break out between schoolboys at sport matches. Police had been known to be called in to stop these squabbles.

Each time the teams met, the supporters will be out in full force, and many creative sports chants have been heard through the years. Even in defeat, we could be creative. I remember one time, when the Saints had lost a hockey match, the disappointed supporters were still able to sing (to the tune of Give Peace a Chance) – “Call us the Saints… we gave them a chance!”

This writer himself has turned up at such games, especially football and hockey matches, to support my school in “enemy territory”, the very huge field that fronts the school building.

The Frees shudder when they are told to run round the field as punishment, because one full round is not 400m but close to a mile. And another interesting aspect of this school is that surrounding the field are residential houses that are much sought-after by the upper middle class.

Previously, the headmasters would stay in the two-storey Straits-style bungalow next to the pavilion but after being empty for some years, it was recently refurbished and turned into a hostel and homestay programme.

Both SXI and PFS, as premier schools then, also had boarding accommodation for out-of-state students, and both definitely had good sport facilities as well as other extra-curricular activities.

They were also elitist in nature with the Western teachers running the schools the way it was done in England. The first headmaster was James Cox and until 1963, when Datuk Tan Boon Lin became the first homegrown Malaysian headmaster, all previous headmasters were Westerners.

Expectedly, three roads in the vicinity of PFS have been named in honour of three PFS headmasters — William Hargreaves (1891-1904), Ralph Henry Pinhorn (1904-1925) and William Hamilton (1925-1926).

There is also another road nearby named Cheeseman Road, after Harold Ambrose Robinson Cheeseman, a PFS teacher who started the scouting movement in Penang in 1915.

The school has honoured all four by naming sport houses after them. Another two houses were named after two famous alumni — the first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman and legendary plague fighter Dr Wu Lien Teh. In 2009, headmaster Ramli Din increased the sport houses to eight by including the Raja of Perlis Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail and Tan Sri P. Ramlee.

Let me share a bit about Pinhorn. According to various documents and reports, Pinhorn was the old, stern English principal that we often see in the movies.

“The most obvious feature of his character was his stern discipline and he was very much loved and respected by the pupils and teachers as well,” one website recorded.

“His circle of friends greatly admired him for his geniality, modesty and humility. Dignified in appearance, his capacity to act in full awareness of the great question that was all meant by education, took a heavy toll of his time and energy.”

It was reported that “the school’s management to treasure Pinhorn’s loving memory as a great headmaster, had set up several memorials, namely school prizes in English Language and Literature, History and the School House in games and the Library. The local council had fittingly named a road Pinhorn Road.

Pinhorn retired in 1924 and reportedly after spending some years in happy retirement, he passed away peacefully in England in 1938.

Old Frees are fond of relating the many ghost stories related to some of the headmasters, in particular Pinhorn.

A colleague told me how students who stayed back to study late into the night would hear footsteps along the corridors, which many believe were those of Pinhorn.

But Pinhorn was in the news more recently because the Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is now staying at a rented bungalow at Pinhorn Road instead of the official residence, Sri Teratai, at Macalister Road, opposite the St George’s Girls’ School, where Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil was once a student.

Interestingly, Guan Eng has decided to send his son to study at SXI despite staying at a road named after a PFS headmaster.

Apart from their legacy, the good thing about these two schools is that they still kept their Latin mottos. For the Saints, it is Labor Omnia Vincit (Labour Conquers All). And for the Frees, Fortis Atque Fidelis (Strong and Faithful).

Readers write

Reader SL Wong, who stays in Air Itam, wants to know about the origins of Zoo Road.

Chun Wai: There indeed was a zoo in that location. According to reports, a flamboyant monk by the name of Fa Kong, which purportedly means “Empty Dharma”, had built a zoo at the foothills of Penang hill. He was said to be a practitioner of Zen Buddhism. Except for the name of the road, there is no evidence that the zoo was located at the actual road itself but it is accepted that he kept the animals at the foothills. Well, Zoo Road is at the foothills.

Email from Roger Scott Lewis in Toronto, Canada : Just read your very interesting article about historical George Town. However, I want to just bring one small error to your attention. Technically, Convent Light Street was not the first girls’ school in town. Martina Rozells, the wife of Captain Francis Light, had a small thatched nipah hut built along King Street, somwhere between Church Street and Bishop Street. It shows up on the oldest map of George Town and was written in French as “Ecole des Jeune Filles” (Why in French? I’m not sure) It was supposed to be for girls and/or orphan girls, I believe.

Chun Wai: Thank you for this bit of information. It is always good to learn something new. The Convent Light Street was founded by three French nuns namely Sister Gaetau, Sister Appolinaire and Sister Gregoire who arrived in Penang in 1852.

> If you have queries on the streets of Penang, or your own stories, kindly email to mystory@thestar.com.my