The history of Sabah Karate by SKA.

FightBah have recently found a new website from the Sabah Karate Association that has given a very interesting documentary of the history of Sabah Karate. The original link to their site is here.

You might find the read to be very interesting on how Karate made its mark in East Malaysia, Sabah.

History of Sabah Karate Association

The beginning of SKA can be traced back to a small group of Sabahans who were inspired by some of the Karate films they saw and some of the books they have read.

There was however no karate association or clubs in the 1960s so the group of friends led principally by Michael Chin, David Lee, James Lo and Joseph Liow went looking for someone who is willing to teach them the art of Karate.

They found Mr. Kim Chan Yong, a Korean Judo Master who also ran a “Karate” class in one of the shops at Kampong Ayer of Kota Kinabalu and joined his class.

A picture tells a thousand words. A humble starting where a group of white belt enthusiasts gathered together with Mr. Kim for their 1st Karate class in 1966. Front Row from left : No. 5, Michael Chin, No. 6, James Lo No. 8, David Lee and Back Row No. 2, Joseph Liow. Mr Kim towering at centre back with George Chin on his left who penned the words on the board, “The First and Only” Karate Class in 1966 in Sabah!

They soon found however that Mr. Kim’s katas and basic styles were not the same as those shown in their Karate Books and soon realized that Mr. Kim was actually teaching a form of Tae Kwon Do and not Karate.

The group of friends then decided to move out from his class to form their own Karate Club. It was a brave move as the group had little or no knowledge of the art of Karate other than what little they have learnt from Mr. Kim and from their Karate books! But they were a determined lot and were also fortunate to find the Principal of St. Agnes’ School sympathetic to their cause.

So they started to meet at St. Agnes School Hall and the Jesselton Karate Association (JEKA) was officially registered on the 29th June, 1967. David Lee was asked to assume the position of President and Michael Chin was pressed into the position of Chief Instructor – a position he reluctantly accepted on the understanding that the Association would make it a priority to engage a professional Instructor as soon as possible. James Lo was the Secretary General and Joseph Liow was in charge of General Affairs with Lim Tyne Yee a Committee Member.

Meanwhile the Association prospered beyond the dream of all the pioneers of Sabah’s Karate Movement. At the beginning, there were three classes each day (two classes at 5pm – one for the ladies and one for men – and one “co-ed’ class at 7pm. In fact the Hall at St. Agnes’ School was filled to capacity despite the early Instructors’ inexperience and lack of qualification. The Instructors ably took their students through the basics of karate. Michael Chin recalls they were at most times only two or three steps ahead of their students! 

A few months after the establishment of JEKA, Sufu Thomas Chang, a Chinese Martial Practitioner of Kuching, visited JEKA. He was so impressed with what he saw at the young Association that he awarded the four pioneers (who were then only brown-black belters) the black belt grade.

In late 1967, JEKA invited Mr. Manuel Jose, President and a 6th dan Chief Instructor of the Eastern Karate-Do Dojo in the Philippines to help out with their training. During Mr. Jose’s short stay, he also awarded his Karate Association’s Shodan Certificate to the pioneer Instructors.

 Group Karate photo at St. Agnes’s hall with Mr. Manuel Jose.

In January 1968, JEKA rented two shop lots at Dah Yeh Villa and made it their Main Dojo.

Dah Yeh Dojo of bb James

The name JEKA was subsequently changed to Kota Kinabalu Karate Association (KOKINKA) following the change of the capital’s name in September 1968. By then the Association had also saved enough money to afford a full time instructor. With the assistance of the local Japanese Consul, KOKINKA was able to contact Mr. Masatoshi Nakayama, Chief Instructor of the Japan Karate Association (JKA). With a State grant, James Lo was sent to observe the training method of JKA as well as interview the instructor recommended. Subsequently, Mr. Yoshiki Habu, a senior Instructor of the JKA was engaged by KOKINKA in March 1969 as their Chief Instructor. With the arrival of Mr. Habu, KOKINKA also formally adopted the Shotokan style as its style of Karate.

Yoshiki Habu Sensei with Michael Chin

Mr. Habu’s contract was shortened as a result of a national eviction of all foreign instructors following the May 13th riots. Before he left, Mr. Habu was able to upgrade a number of karatekas to Shodan and the pioneers to higher grades.

Photo of Pioneers with JKA Certificates

Pic: An advert from KOKINKA notifying its AGM to be held on the 20th September 1969. KOKINKA also announced the postponement of its 1st Sabah State Karate Championship.

By then, KOKINKA had three clubs and two registered branches (Kudat and Beaufort). The Kudat Branch started as Kudat Karate Association and its founding members were Paul Lo, Fabian Chang, Joseph Shim and Patrick Chok. The founding member of the Beaufort branch was Kenny Ng, a school teacher who was a karate instructor himself and notable opponent.With numerous requests being received from karate enthusiasts in other parts of Sabah, branches were soon established in Tuaran, Kota Belud, Keningau, Tenom, Kota Marudu, Semporna, Papar, Labuan, and Kunak as well as in many locations of the Police Force, instrumental of James who was a police officer. In fact James also started the Tawau branch.Sandakan, like Kudat, also started originally as an independent Karate Association but soon joined the Sabah Karate Association (SKA) when SKA was formed. 

Founding members of the Sandakan Branch were Richard Lee, Patrick Yap, David Pang, John Lim and Philip Yap.Mr. Habu returned from Japan in July 1970 under the sponsorship of Datuk Haji Abu Bakar Titingan as Technical Advisor which further helped to solidify the standard and spread of Karate in Sabah.

Picture of Mr. Habu awarding a 3rd Dan Honorary Black Belt to the Sabah Commissioner of Police.

Also shown in the picture are David Lee (left) and Michael Chin (right)The tremendous popularity and speedy spread of the art of Karate into various parts of Sabah was not lost on the pioneers of Sabah’s Karate Movement. They realized that they need to re-organize KOKINKA into a bigger body and adopt a more embracing name. So the Sabah Karate Association (SKA) was born and it was formally and officially registered on August 20th 1970.Members of the first committee of the newly registered SKA were: Michael Chin (President & Chief Instructor), James Lo (Secretary General), David Lee (Treasurer General) and Joseph Liow (General Affairs) with some others filling up the rest of the committee posts.

The Association also promoted a Life Membership drive to raise funds for SKA. But todate, we have records of only four Life Members of SKA. About the same time, Tun Datuk Mustapha became Honorary Patron and Tun Fuad Stephen, Datuk Harris Salleh, Datuk Pang Tet Chung and Mr. Yong Vun were also appointed Honorary Presidents of the Association.

ROS registration through the close rapport with JKA, SKA sent its first team to attend the 2nd World Karate Championship h

eld in Tokyo in June 1971, namely James Lo, David Lee, Simon Chin, Aziz Wong, John Ng and Paul Yap. SKA too had gained regional recognition and was invited to participate in the 1st Brunei Open Karate-do Championship held in August 1971. Led by SKA Chief Instructor, Mr. Michael Chin and John Ng, a team of 10 contestants, namely Wong Kee Yu (Captain) Frederick Choo, David Wong, Cheon Ali, Jenny Tsen, Andrew Wong, Stephen Lok, Tan Poh Yong, Lee Yen Fong and Paul Chin. Winning Sabah first medals of 1st and 2nd were Frederick and David Wong in the Men’s Individual Kata event respectively. The team also won the bronze in the Free Sparring Competition .

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