A brief recollection by Toman Mamora
Tan Sri Datuk Anar Dr James Jemut Masing
The Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Ports Development has returned home to be with the Lord early Sunday morning.
The breaking news on Sunday came as a shock to many who knew him since school days when he was the boarding student who hailed from the longhouse in Baleh in Upper Rajang. He was one of the few rural Iban boys from the Rajang basin identified by the Methodist Mission as having the potential to excel academically and deserving of help and encouragement till the completion of his university education.
I join the alumni of the Methodist School Sibu in extending our heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family. Dr Masing was a student at Methodist School Sibu from Form 1 to Form 6, after transferring from Methodist Primary School Kapit. After Methodist School Sibu, he pursued his university education in Wellington, New Zealand on a Methodist Mission scholarship and later completed his PhD in Anthropology at the Australian National University.
I remember he was in the school’s St Mark’s House whilst I was in St John’s. I can still recall he was active in sports, debate, drama and the Methodist Youth Fellowship. Happy was the time when on several occasions, we shared the stage and performed in some of the musicals and Shakespeare’s plays along with schoolmates Maimunah Nazarene, Norliza Zulaikha, Ali Hj Sophii Nawi, Ading Kendawang, Gupie Saban, Alice Mai and a host of other schoolmates.
That was the time when Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh just joined the school after graduating from Australia and he taught Physical Geography to Form 6 class.
Class photo Masing (seventh right), Toman (fifth left) and Soon Koh (seated fifth left).
He was an excellent teacher who was clear in his delivery of information and opinions about the subject that he taught and he took kindly to interactive discourse in the class. The majority of the other Form 6 teachers were English missionary teachers.
Fast forward to recent years, when politics raised its ugly head. It gave rise to friction and fraction, defying the virtues and moral values which had been instilled in us during the many years in the mission school. Notwithstanding, Dr Masing still had high regard and respect for Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh, his former teacher and this was conveyed to me in his Whatsapp message. He knew when and where to draw the line between the unbroken teacher-student bond and politics.
During a private conversation over coffee at the patio of his house about two years ago, he remarked to me: “Tom, politics is not everything”.
“I just want to fight the good fight and keep the faith till I finish the race when I shall then face my Lord and Saviour.”
Masing (left) taking part in a Musical, The Salad days, in his school days.
For a moment I was stunned but pleasantly surprised and moved by the reaffirmation of his faith when he quoted the Biblical verse taken from 2 Timothy 4:7.
That was the time when signs of ill health were beginning to show. He spoke of prayers and useful Biblical verses to me via WhatsApp when he was first warded at GH about six months ago.
This was the private side of Dr Masing that many may not know. May God in His mercy raise Dr Masing in glory in the company of heavenly angels.
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