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The Spirit of ECOBA (Will Save Malaysia)

For the 6th year in a row, my ECOBA (English College Old Boys Association) brothers and I had a Buka Puasa gathering here in KL. And the turnout was good as usual, as about 30 of us from KL, PJ and JB congregated at Enak Restaurant at the swanky Starhill mall.

And the mood, as always, was cheery and fun. Even when we’re taking jabs at each other’s appearance (not everyone can look as good as me at our age – ahem), it’s done in the spirit of brotherhood. And having gone through everything imaginable together over the years, that’s basically how we regard each other – as brothers, and not just old school friends.


I mean, how can it not be that way when some of the sweetest memories in our lives were shared during those wonder years of high school? We played together, kena rotan together and even discovered (and got punished for) porn together (hey, I’m being as truthful as I can here, ok?).

And while there were periods of lost connectivity post-EC, the last few years, we’ve been tighter than ever; sharing the good and the bad (mostly good – ahem) of life together.

What makes it even more special is the fact that the ECOBA brotherhood has always been colour blind. Look at the picture above and you will see what I mean. Indeed, race and religion have never been a factor with us. And we’re all truly thankful that we grew up in such a tolerant and wonderful environment.

And I can’t remember that this ever became an issue. We accept each other for what we are, and we’re forever bound by the spirit of our school.

So you could imagine how indifferent we are to the current racism “issue” the country is facing. I mean, don’t we all want peace, harmony and enough money to afford us lives filled with cool stuff? And how else could we the people of Malaysia achieve this apart from pulling up our collected sleeves and working with and for each other?

That’s what ECOBA is all about, and there’s no doubt in my mind that the 30 people in the picture above would definitely make an awesome cabinet. Yes, I’ll be in charge of the Ministry of Entertainment & Pop Culture. But no, we won’t be legalising porn. Well, maybe.

Hi My Name Is Zul, And I'm A Magazine Addict... (Part I)

Yes, it’s true. I can’t get enough of the stuff and I’m afraid there’s no real cure in sight. (Not that I’ve seriously looked for one)

It started more than 30 years ago when my parents constantly purchased for me a variety of comics, local and foreign. Can’t recall all of them, but Bujal and the Jungle Book do come to mind.

Then I moved on to pop culture and footie rags, including Weekend, URTV (yeah huh!), Shoot!, No1 and Smash Hits. Being an only child, magazines were my loyal companions, apart from my Star Wars and Majorette collection lah.

And I guess the addiction was what pushed me to start writing myself. Which then meant the mags would become my source of ideas and reference. This was during the dark days of Pre-Internet (yes, humans used to live without the Internet, believe it or not), where if you were looking for a quote, you had to literally go thru tons of mags and books, flipping each page manually with a coloured marker in hand!

And the thing is, whatever I collected, I've kept. So if you were to ask me how extensive my collection is now, I’d say it’s big enough to open up my own MAGS FOR LESS store.

And apart from the titles I’ve mentioned above, the collection also includes Guitar World, Metal Edge, Tiger Beat, Teen Set, Sports Illustrated, Match, FHM, GQ, Details, Esquire, Men’s Review, his, EM, Journal One, Monsieur, Tone, KLUE, etc, Hooters, Autocar, Entertainment Weekly, Maxim, WWE, Blender, Spin, Mojo, Writer’s Digest, Reader’s Digest, Conde Nast Traveller, Hot, OK!, People, US, Men’s Health, Time, Newsweek, Asiaweek, Far Eastern Economic Review, Wired… ah, banyak lagi lah!


So you can imagine how difficult it was for me to actually throw away some stuff during one spring-cleaning session a couple of weeks back. It was torture. It was hell. It was virtually impossible.

But somehow I did manage to throw away RM5 worth of stuff to the old newspaper guy. Although I think I cried a little. I mean, I’ve spent virtually 70% of my pocket money over the years on buying up all these mags, so it was like throwing away money for me.

And secondly, I have in my possession a number of Premiere Issues and no-longer-in print gems that I think would make me an e-bay millionaire sometime in the future…

Coming up: Part II

GUA Dah 1 Tahun TVC

GUA Anniversary Buka Puasa Pics! (Part II)

Appreciation for the media
The cast and producers of Luna Fantasiku

With Nu Muzik's Johan and Kamal

Duit Raya!

Norman and us are working on something special for 2009. Tunggu...

With the ever-supportive GUA members
With funnyman Douglas Lim. He came cos he "hadn't had dinner yet"

With GUA host Sarah Lian
Another one for the album...