Remembering Dr Rama

Legacy: The book commemorates more than 50 years of the scholarship fund first mooted by Rama (pictured right). — Recopy

THE name Dr Rama Subbiah may not ring a bell unless you studied in local universities.

More than his remarkable contributions to academic research, the prolific writer was also known for his deep interest in the welfare of the underprivileged and finding solutions for them.

The academician informally started the Indian Students Scholarship Fund in 1967 – believed to be the first crowdfunding of its kind then – to help poverty-stricken Indian varsity students.

“A group of like-minded UM [Universiti Malaya] graduates were already contributing RM5 monthly to help some needy students. Dr Rama wanted to formalise their efforts and register the fund.

“As a budding lawyer then, I was asked to draw up the constitution, which still exists,” recalls retired lawyer Datuk VL Kandan, 86.

Thanks to the fund, which was formalised in 1969 and later renamed the Rama Subbiah Scholarship Fund (RSSF), more than 2,000 students have since been able to complete their education.

Kandan, who is RSSF’s current chairman says: “The fund has exceeded our initial expectations and today, we offer scholarships for deserving secondary school students and undergraduates. But they have to return the amount given once they start working to keep the fund revolving.”

Buddies with a passion

History began like this.

Four young men met while studying at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Malaya (as it was known when it was located in Singapore): Rama, S. Singaravelu, R. Balakrishnan and K. Pathmanaban became fast friends.

Rama and Singaravelu were born in India but came to Malaysia at an early age while Balakrishnan and Pathmanaban were local estate boys.

All four shared a passion for the Tamil language and graduated with first class honours.

Rama was immediately recruited as a lecturer and tutor in the Indian Studies Department at UM, which by then had relocated to Kuala Lumpur; Singaravelu joined him in academia later.

Both eventually completed their doctorates and Rama became the first Malaysian to be appointed head of UM’s Indian Studies Department at a young age of 35, taking over from Prof Xavier Thaninayagam, an expatriate from Sri Lanka.

Rama travelled all over Malaysia, especially to plantation sectors, to encourage eligible students to study the Tamil language at UM. He knew education was the only way to lift marginalised communities out of poverty.

Kandan shares: “During one of his lectures, Dr Rama spotted a student dozing off. Asked why, the student replied he hadn’t eaten for three days because he couldn’t afford to purchase food. The money he had went towards paying university fees and accommodation.

“Immediately, the kind lecturer whipped out RM50 and gave it to the boy to buy food.”

However, the incident played at the back of his mind and disturbed Rama who realised not many Indian students had the opportunity to study, and those who gained university admission didn’t have funds to attend.

He told his three good friends about it and they all agreed to contribute RM5 a month to ensure other students did not suffer the same plight.

That was the genesis of RSSF.

A second chance

In 1978, Pasupathi Sithamparam was among the recipients of an RSSF’s programme, the Form Six Project, aimed at giving Indians students a second chance to get into university.

Back in the 1970s, only students who obtained excellent results in the Malaysia Certificate of Examination (now called SPM) could get a place to do Form Six in government schools.

The youngster missed by a mark.

Born and raised on a oil palm estate in Batu Arang, Selangor, Pasupathi’s family would sometimes only have one meal a day because his boilerman father couldn’t afford to feed his wife and eight children regular meals.

The kids never complained, and everyone set out to work after leaving school. Pasupathi, the third child, toiled as a construction worker, earning RM7 a day.

Within a year, he earned enough to sign up for Form Six classes at TAR College in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur (now called Tunku Abdul Rahman University College).

“The commute was far and it would take me more than two hours each way by a few buses to get to class,” recalls Pasupathi, 65.

One day, one of his teachers asked him why he always left early and the teenager explained his predicament. If he missed the bus, he couldn’t get home.

He says: “My teacher said if I continued to travel like this, I’d fail my exams and that’s when he told me about RSSF. Encouraged by my mother, I got into the programme and from then on, I stayed in the hostel at Vivekananda Ashram in Brickfields [KL] where my fees, room and board were covered.

“Often, successful Indians would come and give us motivational talks and that opened up my eyes to the plight of Indian youth.”

Out of the 14 selected in the programme, 10 managed to get into local universities, including Pasupathi, who also secured a Public Service Department scholarship to study chemical technology at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Pasupathi got a job with the Income Tax Department, and later read law in the United Kingdom.

Today, the lawyer has put two of his siblings through law school and together, they run a firm in KL.

He is also one of the founding directors of MySkills Foundation, an institution providing skills training for school dropouts and youth from broken or dysfunctional homes, with the intention of getting them employed and preventing them from falling into gangsterism.

“When the estates started closing down in the 1980s, people moved to urban areas. Indian youth struggled to find decent jobs without an education and resorted to crime.

“If we give them vocational training, we can prevent thousands of kids from becoming criminals and, hopefully, turn them into productive citizens and family men.

“So many people have helped me throughout my life and since I have the opportunity, it’s time for me to give back to the community,” says Pasupathi, who was also the co-producers of the award winning 2015 film, Jagat.

A tribute in print

As for Rama’s close friends – Balakrishnan went on to make a name for himself in Radio Malaysia as head of the Indian (language) Service while Datuk Pathmanaban rose through the ranks of civil service to become deputy Labour and Manpower minister.

Sadly, Rama suffered a tragic death in a car accident in 1969, leaving behind two wives and four children.

Thereafter, Prof Singaravelu took over his position in UM until 1994 (he died in 2020), while “Radio Bala” became RSSF’s chairman until his demise in 2009, after which Kandan took over.

RSSF and its board members recently launched a book titled Dr Rama Subbiah Scholarship Fund: Commemorating Five Decades of Community Service.

Edited by Girijah Balakrishnan (Balakrishnan’s wife), the book chronicles Rama’s brilliance and vision in shaping the minds of Indian youth.

“He mastered English, Tamil and Malay, and bridged the different cultures with his effortless translations of literary works. He also encouraged lateral thinking among students and made them aware of their environment and rights,” she writes in her foreword.

Rama’s eldest son, Ramu Subbiah, who lives in Chennai, India, attended the book’s launch and had this to say: “My father died when I was 15 and the last time I saw him was in 1965. We couldn’t come for his funeral. He always told me to study hard but since we lived in India and he was here, I had no proper guidance so none of us became an academic, although my half-sister has a PhD.

“I knew dad was brilliant but I didn’t realise he had left such a legacy behind.”

To buy 'Dr Rama Subbiah Scholarship Fund: Commemorating Five Decades of Community Service' (RM50), contact Segaran at 012-313 8234 or Bala at 019-326 2827. All proceeds from sales of the book will go to the Rama Subbiah Scholarship Fund.