How a Bosnian student remembers Malaysia’s longest serving teacher

It was with great sadness that I read a Facebook post by MAZ International School that my ex-Maths teacher Francis Sta Maria passed away on Saturday.

My two older brothers and I were his students in the 1990s at MAZ International School. We have remembered him since we returned to our home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mr Francis was a strict and disciplined teacher and, no doubt, students were afraid of him in class. The scariest moments would be when, in utter silence, we would pray and hope not to be called out in front of the class to answer a Maths equation.

However, he was very fair, making it his priority for students to learn using logic rather than merely memorising Maths. This is probably why many of his students remember him even 20 years later.

He had an interesting way of narrating and commenting. Using colonial English, he would shout “Nonsense!” or “This is utter rubbish!” if a student solved a Maths problem wrongly or if we showed mischief. He would blow his whistle and point a finger at you while calling your name.He knew and remembered each and every one of us, which
was fascinating.

I remember that he loved Bosnia. It was during the 1990s and news about the war was still fresh. One day in 2000, he called out my name in the school backyard during recess in his high-pitched voice. This would usually mean that one did something wrong and what followed would be detention or punishment. When I came up to him, he simply said: “Congratulations, the dog Arkan is dead.” He was, of course, referring to the notorious war criminal Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, commander of the “Tigers“ unit which participated in genocidal massacres throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I also remember one of my classmates saying he was scared because he could not solve a Maths problem. Mr Francis replied “You don’t know what it means to be scared” and told the story of how he and a friend were riding their bicycles in Japanese-occupied Malaya
during World War II and came across two Japanese soldiers. The rule at that time, he said, was to get off your bicycle and stand still while the soldiers passed. Mr Francis did that but his friend could not get off his bicycle on time. The Japanese soldier took out his sword
and slashed him to death. “That’s being scared,” he ended his story.

Discipline, hard work and responsibility were the life lessons he taught and I believe
each and every one of us remembers him for that. Proof of that is the fact that in far away
Sarajevo, after I told my father and brothers about Mr Francis’ death, my father said: “You need to write an obituary.”

(Editor’s note: FMT also published an article today on Sta Maria’s passing.)

Hikmet Karcic writes from Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. - FMT