Panca Bela was developed by Zein Effendi. In order to gain an insight into the origins of Panca Bela we must start with a look at the founder, Zein Effendi.
Zein Effendi was born in 1922 in a village in the mountains of Central Sumatra, which is a part of the Indonesian Archipelago. He first started learning Pentjak Silat in the village at the tender age of five years. The people of the Minang Kabau Kingdom on the West Central Coast of Sumatra are very strong in their religious beliefs, and Pentjak Silat is regarded as a holy ancestral inheritance. Everyone practices in the traditional way. When he was about eight years old, one of the masters who was a relative on his father's side, took young Effendi as his student. It was very difficult to find a true master, as they would never show what they could do and were always humble.
In 1936 when Mr. Effeni was fourteen years old, a Japanese barber by the name of Nakagawa San took a liking to the young Effendi and sought the permission of his father to regard him as his son. As such, Zein Effendi was able to gain access to the exclusive Japanese Club. Nakagawa San was highly ranked in Judo, Ju-Jitsu, and Oyama Karate, and Mr. Effendi studied with him for four years. He learned a different art on different nights of the week, and qualified as a black belt in each art in 1940.
In 1952, he joined the Police Force as an instructor and in 1954 he commenced learning Kuntao, an traditional or indegenous form of Kung-Fu. It was not difficult to learn this style due to the similarity to Silat as practiced by the Menangkabau people.
Originally, Mr. Effendi taught different arts on different days. One day in 1957, his boss proposed that he combine the different arts into one. Mr. Effendi completed this work in three years and thus formed Panca Bela. Mr. Effendi taught Panca Bela to the Police Force up to his retirement in 1977, whereupon instructors trained by him personally took over the task.
Mr. Effendi is a quiet, almost timid little man, but is nothing short of lethal. His philosophy is "ILMU PADI" and this means that you must humble yourself to gain knowledge. When the rice padi (head of rice) is immature, it blows down with the weight of the grain. The analogy is that as you gain more knowledge you become more humble, and you never brag about your skills or show them off.