Tuesday May 22, 2007

Meeting of old friends

IT WAS a meeting of old friends when the country's first Malay-sian navy chief, Rear Admiral (Rtd) Datuk K. Thanabalasingam, hosted a dinner at Penang Freemason Lodge recently.

Thanabalasingam, 71, who now lives in Kuala Lumpur, said this was the first time since his retirement in 1976 that he had a chance to meet up his former colleagues and those who served under him.

“It has been more than 30 years since I retired. It's been so long that I can't recognise many of them,” he said.

He said he was touched that more than 50 ex-Royal Malay-sian Navy (RMN) and the Navy’s volunteer reservists attended the dinner gathering.

Great time:Thanabalasingam(second right)and former and present RMN volunteer reservists catching up with old times.

“Some of these men came all the way from Kedah and Butter-worth just to meet up with me. I am very honoured.

“Tonight, everybody is equal – there are no ranks.

“These men may have served under me once but now we are all friends,” he said, adding that he had earlier visited former chief minister Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu.

“We go back a long way. It was good catching up with Tun. He was always very suppor-tive of the navy's activities,” he said.

Also present were members of the Penang Veteran’s Associa-tion.