Watch out for Yen! - Part 1

When I was at Monash University, one place that I loved most to go to during my lunch break or free times was Monash University Malaysian Students' Union room located on thr first floor of Student Union Building.

The MUMSU room became a chit-chatting place for Malaysian students of Monash. That was also the only place where New Straits Times was available to keep us close to homeland. NST was flown in from KL at high postage. Fortunately, Monash Student Union subsidised MUMSU for this meaningful service to the fellow Malaysian students.

I used to bring packed lunch there and waited with patience for my turn to read NST. In short, NST was very hotly demanded there.

At times, MUMSU room was also turned into a venue for airing views on Malaysian politics - and, occasionally, friendly exchanges were overshot into heated-up debate on contentious issues. The place, therefore, conveniently became an important source for me to update on the current political developments back in Malaysia.

I never missed Lat's cartoons in NST, especially those depicting Malaysian political issues.

In one copy of the paper, Lat's almost struck me off the balance with a cartoon on Tun Hussein bin Dato' Onn, then the PM of Malaysia, and Mr. Ohira Masayoshi, the then Japan's PM.

The cartoon was Japanese Yen-related.