Awang Goneng is in town

Awang Goneng was born at an early age in the house where he grew up in Kuala Trengganu. He was pushed into Sekolah Melayu Ladang where his father’s teacher friend rather than his so called precociousness got him a place as an underage pupil. This experience aged him quickly in time for proper school, first at the Sultan Sulaiman Primary School (SSPS) – where he nearly burned his class and classmates while trying to do a magic trick involving a box of Swedish tandstickor that were on sale in Trengganu at that time – an then later at the SSSecondaryS.

Then his parents moved to Kuala Lumpur and he to another school known as Victoria Institution where he and a school friend (who later became a judge in Singapore) involuntarily the school’s medium record while fleeing a gang from a rival school near the Merdeka Stadium.

With this newfound talent for power running, Awang Goneng proceeded swiftly into subsequent chapters of his life: first through the doors of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where he took a Law degree (from the Academic Registrar’s office on night when the door was left open), and then through an academic career (briefly) and journalism (less briefly) during which time he interviewed, among others, Anthony Burgess, Barbara Cartland and Adnan Khashoggi.

He now lives in London as a freelance writer.

Extracted from: Growing up in Trengganu.

I recently had the opportunity to meet this great man not once but twice over sumptuous authentic Trengganu delicacies, most of which mentioned in his book, courtesy of TPR. A humble individual, soft spoken and we share the same passion about the heritage and culture of Terengganu.





Among others his comment on culture and heritage (which I think Terengganu leaders and general population should consider) is:

“I am into community in a big way and I am sure you are as well. A place without community is nothing. My approach into planning would first look at the community. What would happen to the people? Why don’t you provide housing for them in the area where they have been for generations? Wooden house is sufficient. Nice modern wooden houses. That will show Terengganu is different..... “

“If you look at any act of genocide the first thing they do is - demolish memories. This is what the Israelis are doing in Palestine. They are destroying all the memories of Palestine. So that the people will have no history because they know that history is important. If you have a history you are a people, you have a past. People who have no history, has no future. They have no identity. That’s what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians.”