A NEW book on “What Sabahans Should Know” is out detailing the views of first Sabah (North Borneo) Reporter late Datuk Mohd Fauzi Patel on various issues that he reported – or did not report fully due to prevailing constraints and circumstances.
In this regard, retired headmaster Peter Lee Hock Yin, was the first Kudat reporter of the Overseas Chinese Daily News, a sister publication of the Daily Express.
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He was unwell prior to his passing in Kota Kinabalu on Oct 4, 2025 at the age of 85.
With a flair for writing in the Chinese language, Kudat-born Lee, then the first trained headmaster of Khoi Ming Primary School (now SJKC Khoi Ming) in Kota Marudu, started contributing to the OCDN during weekends and school holidays, while taking pride in his career as an educator.
At 21, then a fresh graduate from Kent Teachers Training College, Tuaran, he was posted to the school which was then a “kajang” (built from nipah palm leaves) building in proximity to the Bandau River.
That was in early 1961. He taught here for three months before the school moved to the new building, a wooden structure, in May that year.
In fact, he filed a report on the official opening of the new Khoi Ming School building by then Kudat District Officer Watson on May 14, 1961.
“Life was tough,” Lee remarked when interviewed by the Daily Express in 2001 in conjunction with the 80th Anniversary of the foundation of Khoi Ming Primary School.
“Bandau (now renamed Kota Marudu) was not accessible by road from Kudat or Kota Kinabalu. I used to travel by sea from Kudat and landed at the jetty (in the vicinity of wooden shops built on the bank of the Bandau River) while serving Khoi Ming School for one year.
“I rented a room at one of the shops. There was no piped water or electricity supply. We used either rain or river-water and depended on pressure lamps. Treading the earth road was the order of the day.”
The bicycle was one of the main modes of transportation in the early days.
According to Lee, newspapers would be sent from Kota Kinabalu to Kudat, and then from Kudat to Kota Marudu by boat, reaching the destination in three or four days, depending on availability of boat services.
“The boatmen would refuse to operate in the event of inclement weather. More often than not, I was reading ‘stale’ news,” he quipped.
After a year, Lee sought a transfer to Lok Yuk Primary School, Kudat. Despite the odds, he continued writing exclusive stories for the OCDN as a hobby.
Among the former reporter’s cherished memorabilia is a press card issued to him in 1962 by the late Tan Sri Yeh Pao Tzu, owner of Sabah Publishing House Sdn Bhd which published the OCDN and Daily Express, two leading dailies in Sabah and Labuan.
The card is now in the possession of his wife Agnes Chin, a retired teacher of SM All Saints, Kota Kinabalu.
Lee fondly remembered the first visit of Yeh and his wife Lim York Sham to Kudat, a sleepy hollow, in the early sixties, during which he took the couple on a tour of landmarks (including the old Clock Tower which had since been demolished) in the old township.
He also took them to the Bak Bak Beach (on the outskirts), a tourist hotspot in the sixties, seventies and eighties, popularised by the famous triple-branched coconut tree, then the only one of its kind in Sabah. The ageing tree subsequently succumbed to the forces of nature).
During the visit, Yeh was reportedly fascinated by the breathtaking view of the beach, taking a host of photographs with his conventional camera for publication in the OCDN.
“Puan Sri asked me to resume contributing to OCDN as a columnist sometime in the early eighties after I had moved with my family from Kudat to Kota Kinabalu. However, I declined due to other commitments,” Lee recalled, with a tinge of regret.
On the social front, the younger descendants of the Nam Ann Clan in Sabah are probably not aware that Lee founded the Sabah Nam Ann Association in May 2001. He was duly installed as its Founding Chairman in 2002, re-elected for a second consecutive term in 2003 and served until 2004.
It was during his tenure that the Returned Overseas Chinese Association of Quangzhou, Fujian (ROCA) sought the help of the Nam Ann Association in Malaysia to collect literary, social and cultural items from people of Nam Ann descent and to send these contributions to the Museum of Quangzhou Overseas Chinese History.
Lee, who met leaders of the Federation of Nam Ann Associations Malaysia in Negri Sembilan in 2003, encouraged members of the clan in Sabah to contribute to the Museum.
An avid jogger, he scaled Mount Kinabalu five times, based on a written record in his own handwriting (kept by his eldest child Dr Christine Lee).
Fitness-centric Lee started his mountain climbing adventure in 1996 at the age of 56, repeated the feat twice in 2008 while taking the Mesilau Trail this time, a challenging route up the peak, and then the fourth outing in 2009 followed by the final conquest in 2012 even as he turned 72 in his twilight years.
