Yong Chee Seng was the eldest of seven children of a railway engine driver, Yong Ah Kow, and his homemaker wife, Kei Yuet Ngor. A bright student at Methodist Boys’ School, Kuala Lumpur (MBSKL), Yong came out second in his school in the Cambridge School Certificate examination in 1948. He dreamed of pursuing a science-related or engineering course but had to forego the opportunity to study at a technical college. Instead, he became a teacher under the Normal Class Training programme as it provided a salary to help his needy family. This was a momentous decision that sealed his career path and directed his life and mission in education.

From 1950 to 1955, Yong taught at the Methodist English School in Tanjong Malim, Perak, and returned to MBSKL as a teacher in 1956. While teaching, he attended further education classes and completed the Higher School Certificate in 1960.

On December 18, 1960, Yong married the love of his life, Chou Voon Whar, with whom he had three children – Wai Yin, who is now an ordained pastor in the Trinity Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Malaysia; Kin Cheong, who works in the finance sector in Sydney; and Hon Cheong, a lawyer in Kuala Lumpur. Yong was utterly devoted to Voon Whar, who was his pillar of strength throughout their marriage until her death from cancer in 2013. 

In January 1961, Yong was sent to Kirkby, United Kingdom, for the Teacher Trainers’ In-service Course. On completion, he returned to Malaysia and taught at several schools in Kuala Selangor and Petaling Jaya for three years before returning to MBSKL.

When his siblings completed their education and no longer required his financial support, it was time for Yong to go back to school. Between 1965 and 1968, he pursued his tertiary education at the University of Malaya and graduated with an honours degree in economics. He was posted to the Royal Military College to teach economics but later returned to MBSKL, where he held several key positions until 1980 when he became the principal. He retired in 1985.

Throughout his career in education, Yong was an active member of the National Union of Teachers and was a member of the executive committee in the 1950s. He was also a two-term honorary treasurer of the Association for Senior Education Officers in Malaysia.

In recognition of his services towards advancing education in Malaysia, he was conferred the “Tokoh Guru, Wilayah Persekutuan” (Model Teacher for the Federal Territory award) in 1991.

'Jealous mother hen'

During his time as MBSKL principal, Yong was like a “jealous mother hen” over his students. His daughter, Rev Yong Wai Yin, recalled a eulogy by a former student at Yong's wake in 2016. The former student shared that Yong would chase gangsters across the school field and out of the school. MBSKL’s location at the heart of gang activity in Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur, was a magnet for gangs to recruit members.

“He was very protective over his boys and always confronted the gangsters who loitered in the school field,” Wai Yin said. “He felt that the minute a boy joined a gang, his life was almost over.”

Education was key to a better future, and Yong poured his energy into making MBSKL a school that the students and teachers would be proud to call their own. A year after he became the principal, MBSKL became the top school in the Federal Territory, with the Science stream students achieving 100% passes and excellent individual results in the 1981 Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (Malaysian Higher School Certificate) examination.

Yong saw the future coming and quickly established the Computer Club to prepare the students for the Internet world. MBSKL was probably the first school that provided computers for students to gain hands-on experience.

A deeply compassionate man with a big heart for the needy, Yong arranged for the school to take in blind students. A year before his retirement, the first batch of six blind students enrolled in Lower Form Six Arts in 1984. MBSKL continues to receive blind students today. “He had a soft spot for poor students and always looked for ways to help them,” Wai Yin recalled. “He would get his former students who were working to help the poor students financially.”

Just before he retired, Yong led a concerted effort to raise funds to build a wall around the school to keep gangsters from intruding into the school and enhance overall security. Before this, the school had only a flimsy chain link fence.

In honour of him, the school has an annual award called the “Yong Chee Seng Award”. The award is given to an outstanding student who has undergone tremendous challenges in life but has nevertheless performed well academically. One block of the school is also named after him.

Post-retirement years

Yong remained active after retiring from MBSKL. He continued to serve the larger education field as deputy education secretary (1985-1990) and education secretary (1990-1995) on the Board of Education of the Trinity Annual Conference, which later became the Council of Education of the Methodist Church in Malaysia.

Up to 2006, he was a member of the board of directors of Kuala Lumpur YMCA and charter member of the Methodist Education Foundation and its board of trustees, among others. Yong was also a member of the Persatuan Dialysis Kurnia Petaling Jaya that he helped found. He continued to serve MBSKL in whatever capacity needed, especially in fund-raising efforts for the school building.

He also became more involved in his church, Trinity Methodist Church in Petaling Jaya, particularly in the social concern ministries. One of his initiatives was assisting the church to set up the Special Assistance Fund in 2008 to provide financial assistance to needy church members and retired pastors.

Yong had been a Christian since 1950 through attending the school chapel services as a student, but he became more fervent and vocal in sharing the gospel in his later years, according to Wai Yin.  She remembered that weeks before his passing, when he was warded in the hospital after an accident, he would openly tell his visitors to accept Christ if they had not done so.

Legacy

Yong became an educator for practical reasons but his passion grew as he came to see it as his calling. “As he grew in his faith, he began to see clearly that the school was God’s place and purpose for him,” Wai Yin said.

He saw education wholistically, beyond academic achievements. His former student, Jayanath S. Appudurai^[1], wrote that Yong always emphasised the difference between an educated person and a literate person – the latter can read and write but the former “has a well-rounded personality, is outgoing and shows goodwill towards all”.

“He subscribed to a philosophy of education that ‘encompasses in its widest sense the inculcation of moral values, character building, physical, spiritual and emotional development’... to mould a society of responsible citizens,” Appudurai added.

A tribute to Yong in a local newspaper following his death in 2016 said: “Mr Yong had an unwavering belief in MBS as ‘a school that can play a role in unifying students of all ethnicity, creed and socio-economic strata, who enter its portals as Malaysians, and be imbued with the spirit to serve with honesty, integrity and industry for the good of self, community and country'."^[2]

On May 3, 2016, Yong accidentally drove into a 12-metre hole that had been dug for sewage works. He emerged unscathed except for a few scratches, which was a miracle. He and his companion were rescued and sent to the hospital for observation. He was discharged the same evening and rested at home but about a week later, the latent effect of the accident surfaced and he was rushed to the intensive care unit. He recovered and was to be discharged. However, on the night of May 14, he passed away from aspiration pneumonia.

During his two-night wake, the home was swamped by former students. “It was as if a celebrity had died,” Wai Yin said. The ceaseless stream of students filling the overcrowded hall was testimony to the influence Yong had. Among them were formerly delinquent students whose behind had tasted his rotan (cane) but who had turned around because of his genuine care for them.

Yong recognised that his work for God’s kingdom was to be God's salt and light where He had planted him. Appudurai observed: “Humility and gratitude were his hallmark traits. Eternally faithful to serving God’s will on earth, for him, teaching was never a job but a mission to serve and to make a difference to the lives of those privileged to be his pupils, his colleagues, and his friends.”