Stamford Alumni Reunion – 28 November 2025

Reunions happen because of the collective desire of friends, and once again, Reginald Pereira made it happen.

This was a meeting of mainly former colleagues from Stamford’s Hospitality School. It is a special group of former colleagues that has taken the effort over the years to stay connected. They are the pioneers of hospitality education in this country who opened new avenues for meaningful careers to generations of students. In the process, they raised hospitality education to the level of traditional disciplines offered in higher education institutions.

On 28 November 2025, eleven former Stamford staff gathered at Bala’s 02 Pub in Petaling Jaya.

The bond was Stamford College, though, sadly, the institution itself is no longer there. Around the table, shades of grey marked the years, yet laughter and stories proved that friendships outlast time and corporate bodies alike.

Dinner was hearty — Vindaloo, cooked by Kumar Menon, eaten with platefuls of toasted bread, Hokkien Mee, and more — accompanied by Brenda Lee’s music in the background. Conversations rambled freely, not about work or lectures, but about everything and nothing. Just being together for a few hours was all that mattered. The drinks flowed, with bottles brought by Sumita and Jeya.

 

Reunions remind us that while bodies change, bonds endure. Even as the night ended, plans for the next gathering were already underway.

Present were Alex Abraham, Kumar Menon, V Jeya Kumar, S Suresh, Deebha, Jacinta Ramiah, Sumitra Chan, Susan Verghese, Sumita S, Leslie Pereira and Reginald T Pereira.

A Ship Worth Building, But Not For The Romans

Photo - Christoph Swoboda, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons 

A history professor from one of our universities recently claimed that it was Malay shipbuilders who taught the Romans how to build ships. The claim, made, no doubt, to establish Malay prominence in maritime history, has been met with derision, from historians to the man in the street. Myth, the critics say, must not be passed off as history.

But the deeper question is not whether such a story is true. It is why we feel compelled to reach for dubious fragments of the past to prove racial or national pride, when the present offers us a far more urgent calling.

History, whether glorious or contested, cannot redeem us. Whatever happened to the Maya Civilisation, the Khmer Empire and the Indus Valley Civilisation?

Even if Malays did teach shipbuilding to the Romans, why was that skill not passed down over the centuries to make this a shipbuilding nation? The original basic structure of the ship is what makes it rule the waves even today.

In any case, from our perspective today, that achievement must surely pale beside the challenges that face us today: challenges such as the plight of the poor, the state of our education, and the divisions that still fracture our communities. Greatness is not found in the recesses of history but in the courage to confront the conditions in which we live.

What we should be teaching, even if not to the world, is how to live together without hostility to our neighbours, and how to be responsible to those unable to help themselves. The lesson is not about the building of ships, but about the building of a nation where dignity is shared, diversity is embraced, and justice is a lived reality.

And let us not forget the irony: ships have not only carried knowledge and trade, but also colonisers who plundered our lands. If we did indeed teach the Romans to build ships, it is a lesson history must teach us to regret.

Ships have been a burden on this country for another reason. From the Scorpene submarine deal to the Littoral Combat Ship fiasco, vessels intended to protect our sovereignty have become symbols of corruption and treachery. These are not ships of honour, but ships of shame.

What the good professor and our universities must do is to build a ship to keep afloat the hopes and potential of a people—a ship that will last longer than the destructive galleons and will not fall prey to the corruption of transactions. It is such a ship that will glorify the nation and all its people. That is the vessel we must build together: strong enough to weather storms, generous enough to carry all, and enduring enough to outlast the myths of history.

This article was first published in Aliran  - https://m.aliran.com/thinking-allowed-online/a-ship-worth-building-but-not-for-the-romans