This Standard V school certificate from Geylang Government Malay School belonged to one of Singapore’s Malay literature pioneers, Masuri bin Salikun, otherwise known as Masuri SN.Masuri was born in Singapore in 1927, and grew up mainly in the eastern Singapore, attending Telok Kurau Malay School and Geylang Malay School, graduating from the latter in 1939. He then went on to become a teacher, doing his traineeship at his alma mater Telok Kurau Malay School before this was disrupted by World War II (1942-1945). After the war, he furthered his studies at the Sultan Idris Training College (SITC) in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, and came back to Singapore to teach. It was during his time in SITC where he met other Malay teachers who would also go on to be pioneer laureates in Singapore, such as Muhammad Ariff Ahmad or better known by his pen-name MAS. Together with some of these teachers, he would set up the Malay literary organization Angkatan Sasterawan’50 or ASAS’50 in 1950 with the slogan “Seni untuk Masyarakat” (Arts for the People).