Cheong Moon Foo (Beloved Class Monitor) and Aikido

Cheong Moon Foo was our class monitor of Sec 3B Science. He was slightly older than most of us and had an elder brother disposition to the extent that he was elected monitor of his classes from Sec 1-3. Unfortunately, Sec 3B was so incorrigible and up to so much mischiefs that it got the better of him. By Sec 4 and beyond Moon Foo refused to be class monitor anymore.

Poor Moon Foo, he was hauled up by teachers and principal umpteen times to answer for the class’ misbehaviors. Most times, he was told to take control of the class but secretly, he was enjoying our pranks. The worst was when the class was detained and not allowed to attend the RI-Saints Rugby Match. During that detention the class made such a ruckus including offending Asst Principal George Sobreilo for doing a slow match towards the flag lowering ceremony that Moon Foo gave up entirely.

Chen Wen recalled a secret that Moon Foo pledged him to keep and now exposed for the first time in 54 years. It belied the kind heart of Moon Foo our leader. Mr Phua our Physics teacher was unexpectedly transferred to another school in the middle of 1966. The two boys scouted around some shops in North Bridge Road to buy a farewell gift for Mr Phua using the class fund. Moon Foo and Chen Wen gave the teacher the present privately. No one knew why this had to be kept a secret but Joe Chua Cheok Kwang found out about it and confronted Chen Wen. Joe said that the class would not mind Moon Foo's gracious gesture but Joe felt that it should not have been kept a secret. Chen Wen defence 54 years later was that he was only following orders from the class monitor

Moon Foo was best of friends with Lionel Lee. They were classmates from Primary 3 to Pre-University 2. They studied together at Elling South School and were the only two students that went to RI from that School for many years. Both came from very humble backgrounds and lived in the infamous Lorong Tai Seng, a place rife with gangsters. Lionel's father was a clerk. Moon Foo's father was a house painter and his mother, a washer woman so that she could support the children's education. Four poor RI students from the same year, stayed in the same area, in those days call a 'kampong', a Malay word for village. They were Amos Koh Ah Meng, Alec Lim, Moon Foo and Lionel Lee. We went to school together each having to walk more than a mile to the bus stop. We scrambled onto the #12 Singapore Traction Company (STC) for a 30 minutes journey to school.

When Moon Foo left school he became a mechanical engineer and subsequently founded a new engineering company.

Cheong Moon Foo had a great love for Aikido, the Japanese martial art. In 1965, Raffles Institution started Aikido as a curricular activity. Many of us were in Sec 2A then and Mr John Chew who was our form teacher became teacher in charge of Aikido. He promptly made Moon Foo, his trusted class monitor to be its student leader. In the above photo, contributed by Moo Pao, Moon Foo was standing second from left of the back row. Sec 3B dominated the Aikido Club and could count Moon Foo, Poh Seng, Heng Kian, Cecil, Kim Quee, Moo Pao, Chor Wei, David Poon, Teep Khee, Chen Wen and  Yau Seng as members.

On classmate, tall and lanky Lim Kin Chew, did not join Aikido. Instead he was lead proponent in Judo and he became a student leader of the RI Judo Club.

Aikido is a non-aggressive martial art developed in the 1930s by Professor Morihei Ueshiba. Moon Foo explained that the key to the Aikido movements is to draw momentum from the opponent’s attack, side step and cause him to lose his balance. There is a beauty and fluidity of the Aikido’s movements that attracted many of our classmates.

Poh Seng recalled that more Aikido practices under Moon Foo were carried out after the the practices led by John Chew. These practices were carried out in the school gym. Chen Wen said that the grading was done by the Master wearing a black skirt and that at the first grading many received a double promotion bypassing the yellow tip belt to the green belt. But at the second grading no one advanced to green belt with yellow tip except for Chua Jee Muay who was from another class.

Heng Kian said that he still has his Aikido outfit, although he cannot fit into it today. He had a great time in learning how to throw an opponent. He thought it may come in handy one day, if he came across a bully but this did not materialise unlike Poh Seng who taught a bully a lesson using Aikido during National Service. Heng Kian mentioned that we were quite ahead of our time as Aikido was new to Singapore then. Today, Aikido is quite popular even in Canadian cities.

Cecil remembered that the RI Aikido Club and all martial arts clubs were disbanded after a Judo accident. That was a pity. Luckily, he was able to resume Aikido after a very very long break. He became a black belt exponent but stopped about 6 years ago.

Very sadly Moon Foo left us at an early age, succumbing to cancer on 18 May 2012 at age 63 years. He is still fondly remembered by many of his classmates.


Contributed by Lionel, Cecil, Heng Kian Chen Wen and Poh Seng