Interviews

I had been to many interviews and some of the conversation during those interviews I could still remember till these days!

Schlumberger came to the campus to recruit engineers for their oil fields. One tall and macho looking french man wearing a pair of sunglasses interviewed me and asked me about my interest and his subsequent comments were that I am more suitable to do a sales job! I think he might be right and I went to become a sales engineer in "Volvo Penta Marine and Industrial Engines"  division right after my graduation. One of my coursemate Lee Chee Fong scribbled on the Schlumberger job application form, his handwriting was so bad that he was told to re-fill up the form again! Schlumberger took in Michael Oh and Tien You Fong to fill their vacancies. Michael Oh did not last long before he came back for another job in Exxon! Schlumberger was a dream job for many as it offered a very attractive package and one could easily earn RM7K(USD3K) a month for a fresh graduate engineer. It was big money 28 years ago!

I also remember going to attend a MIDF scholarship interview, and I told one of the interviewers that I had chosen to study Engineering because I came from Chinese school background and my mathematics and science subjects were stronger compared to my other subjects. That guy got so offended and told me that he came from a non-Chinese school background and claimed that he was equally good in those subjects without any problem. A simple answer from me that somehow provoked someone with an inferiority complex, but I guess then I was not sensitive enough at a time when the NEP diversity policy implementation of the nation was taking place at its height,  though I did not mean to undermine the ego of someone of a different ethnic origin because I am simply not a racist! You could guess the outcome of the interview and my coursemate Bata got that scholarship!

My subsequent graduation had landed me a few more interviews. I went to an interesting one in Hong Leong with a panel of interviewers, so many of them in number that it scared me for a while . I was again asked the question on my interest of doing a sales job, I answered them " it is alright as long as I am not told to sell shampoos!". One of the GM from Hong Leong Yamaha posed me a question on how I should act upon a worker caught red-handedly stealing parts from the plant. I was a bit naive and told him that  I would just tell the worker not to do it again. Guess I am too lenient a guy and therefore I did not get the job offer either.

There was a travel expenses paid interview in Hitachi Penang. One of the interviewers was asking me a very technical question on coefficient of resistance and whether it is less for a boat to travel in a turbulent flow, and I had given him the wrong answer! Another older interviewer mentioned that all newly recruited engineers shall be sent to Japan for training but need to sign a contract with Hitachi. I argued with him that once we sign the contract and the company so decide at a later stage not sending us, what are we going to do? He was angry with me and saying that how could a big company like Hitachi swallow its own words and break a promise. I was probably perceived to be too cocky for a job in this Hitachi semi-conductor plant.

Anyway, finding a job was not tough at that time and we could afford to be a bit choosy. I had met good bosses most of the time and I did not normally let them down for employing someone like me, I am a good worker. For some of the jobs which I had attended interviews but did not get the jobs, come to think of it, they missed a good worker and some companies even went burst after that!

Qing Ming - Tomb Sweeping Festival

Qing Ming is a very important festival for the Chinese and it has been practised for over two thousand years since ancient time. It is a day for the younger generation to remember their ancestry and their loved ones who had passed away!

Many folks that had shifted to stay in cities but with parents passed away will normally do not return to their hometown or village for Chinese New Year celebration. Instead they will take this opportunity to return only during Qing Ming for the sweeping and cleaning up of the tombs. It is easy to remember this special day because it is a festival day to be remembered in a very special way immediately after the Chinese New Year. The roads leading to cemetary will always be jammed with vehicles and always need traffic police to divert and ease out the flow. The superstitious folks will burn paper money and even fire crackers in the grave sites. For Christians like my family, we will only bring flowers to the tombs. Before my mum passed away, she prepared the flowers for me whenever I returned for Qing Ming.

When it is near to Qing Ming, weather will always turn rainy and I also remember that it is also the season where the yellow flowers of Angsana trees will start to blossom. It is a beautiful sight to see all those bright yellow flowers all over those tree tops and how the flowers are strewn onto the ground and roads by the gust of wind and the sweeping rain.

I was away from home and had missed this rite of tomb sweeping for 5 consecutive years. And I have to be home this year to attend this despite I have an important 9 am meeting on the following day. Because of this I have to rush back all the way from Kampar Perak to Kemaman Trengganu.

Prayer of the day as Christians

We have to say our prayers everyday and we were taught how to say prayer, the flow and the format of it typically are as follows:

First of all, we have to praise God for He is a God worthy to be praised. He had created the universe, all things big and small on this earth, and He is the origin of life and everything!
(Sometimes I do wonder, God behaves a bit like small kid, need to be praised?)

After that we have to admit that we are no perfect being and ask for His forgiveness of sin committed intentionally or unintentionally, through the redemption and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Then we categorize the next portion of our prayer as corporate prayer, that is, we pray for the world, our country, all our leaders and citizens of the nation, the company that we work for etc.

Then we pray specifically for persons such as friends, members of the church, colleagues, relatives that we know for their needs, protection or healing of illness etc.

We will then pray for our family members, each and every one of them with their names specifically mentioned.

Finally we only pray for our own self.

Most of the time I pray for health and wisdom, only ask God to provide what is necessary for me and have never directly requested God to increase my wealth. I know very well that once we have a healthy body, everything else could be made possible and other things will come naturally. We have to offer our tithes in any form with a cheerful heart, seek God's kingdom and righteousness, income will come automatically. It is very true that we have to give God a portion of what we earned, I wanted to write it down here as a reminder to myself that I had experienced God's generosity and tremendous blessings whenever I contributed my portion. He will give it back to us more than what we expected!

May God's spirit always acts as a counsellor to guide us to avoid any misdeed, lead us not into temptation and away from all evils.

We close our prayer by mentioning "in the name of Jesus" and then "Amen" !

Health Care Plan for all Malaysians

With the escalating cost of living and the ever rising medical fees in the country, health care becomes a very essential issue for every citizen to consider. Most of the retired Malaysians have some kinds of saving with the employees provident fund (EPF) which is made available for withdrawal upon reaching the retiring age. To me, most of the retirees should somehow able to make their ends meet if they do not face major critical health problems. Therefore it is imperative that the government should think of a way to take care of this concern. With the historic breakthrough under President Obama that the US congress had passed the health care bill, it is a big boost for the President popularity and also provides a safety net for the Americans at large who could ill afford the exorbitant price of paying health insurance. It is doubtless that there is a price to pay for a country to embark on nationwide health care for every citizen, but it is all for the good cause compared to spending money on  building missiles, sending troops to war on the lands of other countries etc.. Some critics were saying that the subsidy from the  government to run the health care program somehow will have to recoup somewhere from the pockets of every citizen; it might even cause the cost of doing business in Malaysia becoming high. This is because employers would have to foot portion of the health bills whether they like it or not. Despite all these, I would say in a country like Malaysia, instead of subsidizing on gasoline, sugar and flour, let us have subsidy in health care instead, which is more meaningful. The government must have some strategies or creative thoughts to overcome this, so that we could be all aligned and work towards the direction of a developed nation with health care plan in its blueprint. Could we not think about utilizing portion of the EPF fund for individuals to pay on those health care plan instead of a full subsidy? That would be perfect for everyone. It is also a good way to allow the contributors to make use of the fund the rightful way!

I am all for the nationwide health care plan for every Malaysian!

Discovery of big oil field in Malaysia?

If this news is ever true, that is really good for all Malaysians. We Malaysians really need this because we had wasted too much of our resources for the past decades. Our country once possessed the richest natural resources in the world, having a very big potential to be categorized under developed nation in no time!

It is like digging deep into one's pockets of fixed deposits in the bank, slowly and gradually we find out those accounts are running dry, and suddenly someone informed us we have inherited a bigger sum of deposit in Swiss bank account. What a windfall for the nation!

God always give us surprise in the form of good news to bless our people. If this opportunity ever comes to Malaysia, I urge the government and all our leaders of the country to make good use of this black gold resource and take this country to a new era of development. Let us learn from all the mistakes that we blundered in the past, avoid all the pitfalls and start all afresh. Do come out with concrete plans and strategies to move and propel this country to a new height. All Malaysians regardless of races are to work hard and build this country together and to share the fruitful results of a big cake made possible by the wise policies drawn up by our government.

May God bless Malaysia abundantly so that all races live in harmony as 1Malaysians!

Cars

Actually I am very much exposed to cars but somehow the automobile business seems to be not in my career list for very long. I am listing my experience below as a record:

I was sent for "Ferien Beschaftigung" or "vacation training" in Daimler Benz Sindelfingen Stuttgart Germany for industrial training of about 2 months in Mercedez Benz headquarter during my 3rd year study in Mechanical Engineering.

My first job was with Federal Auto, the local concessionaire of Volvo cars

My 2nd job was with UMW Toyota Assembly Plant and at that time the plant was assembling the Toyota LE, Daihatsu Charade and Rocky models. I was sent to Toyota Kyoho in Toyota City Japan as the design engineer to learn on jigs and fixture design.

After that  I was never in the automobile business anymore. I owned many cars and the list that were  registered under my name were :

Datsun 160J twin Cam - AY1237
Toyota LE - WBA 8945
Proton 1.5i - WCK 7129
Honda Accord CA1 - WCB 1682
Honda Accord SM4 - PCA 5121

Recently when I returned to Malaysia, my family decided on Exora as their choice rather than mine.

When I was in University Malaysia, I rode a Suzuki 125 scrambler WP 5350 and I passed on to my younger brother, and he lent it to his friend; I was told the motorbike was totally destroyed by a fire near a petrol kiosk. And I did not know what happened actually! After driving cars, I get a bit nervous to ride on motorbikes, but I do have interest in those big bikes!

I always enjoy cars and somehow cars are attractive to me, be it just an old model such as Volkswagen Beetle, latest model BMW or Mercedes Benz, or 4WD drive vehicle such as Pajero or Triton.

Bad News

It was really bad news to read on Rev Dennis Brice facebook on our friend Jone Cheng in Taipei is suffering from cancer. Jone Cheng and her sister Eve were once our good friends, my wife and I used to lunch with them after the Sunday service in Presbysterian church Taipei near to the National University of Taiwan. She drove her Fiat car and brought us around and we really enjoyed the fellowship and the warmth that they demonstrated to us as foreigners in this metropolitan city. I always remember the warm smiles and the generosity that they demonstrated to us. It lasts a life time for us to remember good friends like Jone and Eve. Jone is always in our prayer and we plead to God for her complete healing!

It is a devastating and agonizing moment to learn about friends suffering from cancer. It was heart wrenching experience for me many times. Not to mention those painful time we had gone through with our own elderly family members, I had personally witnessed on how my colleague Jeremy Tan and good friend cum coursmate Seah Joo San suffered and eventually succumbed to the illness. A few others of my coursemates include Tee Yee Sam and Ng Wah Heng also passed away from cancerous diseases.  It always brings me tears whenever I remember all those deceased friends and beloved ones that had once crossed path with me in one way or another. We must always be thankful to God for whatever difficulty in life we face as long as we do not need to lie in the hospitals waiting to recover from critical illness or just waiting for our days to be numbered! While we are all happy and peacefully living our everyday life, amidst an occasional busy schedule of our daily chores and work, do remember to pray for those people who are in the hospitals seeking treatment. May God watch over them, console them and heal them according to His will!

We wonder why after so many years, with the wisdom bestowed upon human beings that could even invent space exploration equipment, super computers and make great medical discoveries that benefit the human kind for centuries, still could not find a solution or remedy to cure cancerous diseases till these days! God, why so many people have to suffer from this illness? Why we human kind could not be spared from this? We already have more than enough heart attacks, diabetes, aids, high blood pressure, kidney failures, bird flus, H1N1 and even human accidents, terrorism and warfares etc. that could easily take away many lives from this planet earth. And we really do not need cancer anymore!

It is also extremely demoralizing for us all especially when we watch helplessly God loving and dedicated church workers like Madelene of former FGA Kulim and Jone have to battle with all those treatments and life-threatening moment. We could not understand why God's people have to be put through this hardship and trial, though we understand God has never promised a smooth sailing life for us all for being His followers!

I pray that God always has mercy on us all. We know that birth, aging, illness and death is a definite cycle that we all have been destined for, let your kindness be upon us that we could all age gracefully to the end of our days. Amen.

Position that commands influence

We in the working world would always understand that our positions are given to us by the company or appointed by board of directors. Such appointment will come with authority which enables you to make certain decision or to decide to the best interest on certain matters pertaining to the smooth running of an organization. Position comes with responsibility, the higher the position, thus the higher the responsibility that one has to shoulder.

Many people simply forget this, once they are in certain positions, they would think that they will be in power forever! Stepping on others, foregoing past relationship and ignoring certain principles of  life and becoming extremely arrogant. One fine day, when they are out from that position, they only realize that they are nobody, just like any other ordinary man that walks on the street!

There are certain positions which one could easily feel the difference, for example, as the purchasing manager of a company. A lot of suppliers or potential suppliers would try every opportunity to get close, connected or friendly to you so that they could pave way for doing business with the company through you. They might even buy you meals or send you gifts during festive season just to build that close rapport to impress you. All these are purely business motivated most of the time, and once you are no more holding that title, all these "friends" of this kind will disappear and distance themselves from you! What a realistic working world we are in, but we have to accept this as fact of life, whether we like it or not!

I believe when Musa Hitam and Annuar Ibrahim lost their deputy premiership position of the nation, they would have the real life experience of feeling the differential treatment from people or supporters once they called friends!

We have to try our best  to do a job that is given to us, as though God is the boss who sent us here for a purpose. We assume every position with the right attitude and integrity to work towards the best interest of the organization. Be humble and treat everyone fairly and do not abuse your power, and be answerable to God for every move we take. Behind the back of our mind, we know very well that all these power and authority assigned to us will be things of the past once we leave the job. Let all your subordinates or colleagues still remember you as a good friend and a good leader.

May God bless those who do their job faithfully and honestly!

Uniform and badges

Uniform units always attracted me during my school days. Be it Boys Brigade, Boys Scout, First Aid Ambulance, school band or even police and army! Other than the good appearance of those uniform attires, the drilling and the training of such units were interesting too. Of course by joining such units, the interaction with other members would also be the greatest fun part of the whole idea. School children or students need such extra-curricular activities to boost their skill in interacting, socializing and dealing with other fellow students. Such units would incorporate some of the basic skills that could be acquired through training, practice, test and the awarding of different achievement badges etc., in additional to the regular meetings and other activities organized for the members.

I was once in the Pei Yuan school band that played the clarinet instrument. The school band normally practised every week on some of the songs such as "The Longest Day" , "Chan Mari Chan" , "Negara Ku" etc. but the peak of the performance only came on the sport day! For all the hardwork we practised the whole year through, and the band was only on display once, the most glorious moment was on the sport day which attracted a lot of the audiences! Probably the greatest satisfaction and fun were derived from performance "on stage"  and show off our skill to the crowd. A few of the school band members that played different instruments that I still could remember their names are: Wong Kok Lam, Tho Thong How, Ng Meng, Choo YK, Chong SY, Kok Zhao Lin etc. The band instructor or teacher was from Ipoh and I bumped into him a few times as he happened to be the same coach for St. Michael Ipoh school band when I studied my form 6 there. I remember him as a short and stout guy and spoke funny mandarin, but he was real good in giving the right coaching for a high standard school band.

I joined the boy scout when the team from LSS joined ACS doing our form 4 together, mainly for reason persuaded by my buddies Kong Kam Sang, Kok Hon Seng, Lau Tong Hong and Chong Yok For. It was some sort of friendship and comradeship when your friends were in that unit, you just wanted to join them together. Started with the most junior rank without a first class badge could be demoralizing for a egoistic person like me at that time. All the rest started somewhere during their lower secondary days and Kong Kam Sang was the troop leader in his former LSS school while Chan Yew was the overall troop leader then in ACS.

The beautiful boy scout badges always fascinated me. I did borrow a first class badge to paste on my uniform during the ACS sport day from Lee Chian Shui of Pei Yuan just to boost up my ego a little bit. We learned how to tie different kinds of knots, setting up of tent etc. One of the scout master teacher told us to climb up the flag post and did all the adventurous stunts so as to get ourselves tested for the adventurer badge. But after doing all those, I did not remember him ever awarded us that badge at all! Chong Yok For and I decided to seek out that scout master who happened to stay in the same village as we are and wanted to go through more tests or examination through him with the intention of enhancing more badges to be pasted onto our uniform, but we were somehow nicely refused. Heard that he brought some of the students up to Kampar waterfall, a drowning incident occurred and that discouraged and demoralized him so much that he decided to quit scouting activities. We were the eager and serious students then but there was no way out for us to upgrade ourselves to become better scouts.

When we went to St Michael school, a lot of our schoolmates such as John Ooi, Wong Kam Tong etc were king scouts, though in ACS we only know that Yoon Kok Choon's brother was a king scout then! It was a big thing then to receive a king scout certificate from the Agong or sultan of the state!

By the way, I had drawn up and colored my scout log book very well based on the idea from another of my Pei Yuan classmates Choo Jian Meng. That log book was passed onto my younger brother KM Lee, and he was a better scout than me! That log book is now in the old house and perhaps could be kept in the museum for display one day!

Those were the things of the past. We did seriously thinking of going into scouting then as students, but the weak organization and the lack of skills and dedication of scout masters were the main constraints! We missed the chance and I believe we could do better if the school management had put in a little bit more effort in this! Who knows we could be king scouts too!

Seemingly healthy

My mum was a very well disciplined person. She read and knew a lot about good habit, good diet and the ways to take care of health. I remember when I was in form 6, she suffered an illness that required the installation of a heart pacemaker to regulate her heartbeats. I had contributed my saving for her to put on the machine that lasted her almost a life time. That was the most critical illness she ever suffered as far as I could remember since I was his son at that time.

Compared to my dad, my mum was very much healthier during her days. She slept and woke up early in the morning and went for Taichi exercise, did not take on high cholesterol food and control the intake of sugar though she liked sweet things such as red-bean soap etc. She used to advise me to eat more vegetables, fruits and high fibre food so as to keep the body system in balance and be more resistant to illness. She was healthy and strong, active and agile, never heard her complained about discomfort in any part of her body. On the contrary, my dad is a smoker and he always suffers from coughing, fever and not feeling well because of weather changes. He has asthma but insists on smoking a stick or two cigarettes whenever his breathing condition improves. Even from appearance wise, my skinny father seems to be weaker than my mum a lot more.

Despite all these, my mum suffered a peritoneum illness, whereby the peritoneum membrane seemed to be not able to hold tight liquid that seeped in and built-up in her stomach. She died at an age of 70+. My father is still strong, and he is able to ride a bicycle to the market to do some shopping; sometimes he cycles with one hand holding an umbrella if it drizzles a bit or the sun is too hot. He is now at the age of 82, the same age as Tun Dr. Mahatir.  God has blessed him abundantly with his health.

I was devastated when I first learned of my mum's illness, how could this happen to her?  God, you mean all her discipline, good diet, exercise and good habit could not help her even in prolonging her life for another 10 or 15 more years? This is true! If God so decides one day we have to go back to Him, no matter what we do and how we try, our stay on this earth will not last even 1 second longer!

A seemingly healthy person is not that healthy afterall. Despite of this, we still have to maintain a healthy life-style and then pray to God for his mercy and kindness so that we could be healthy and age gracefully over the years. There is nothing more important than asking for health in our everyday prayer! May God bless us all with a healthy body for that is the greatest wealth that He has bestowed upon us on this world!

German Technology - A piece of 2nd world war equipment

I always admire the Germans for their efficiency and intelligence even though they did not enjoy a good reputation because of their notorious aggression in Europe during the 2nd world war. I had studied German efficiency course for 3 years in University Malaya and was given a chance to stay in West Germany for 2 months in Stuttgart for a vacational training program in Daimler Benz headquarter. It had given me the chance to help and practise my speaking German to a certain level of proficiency, without which I think I would never be able to achieve. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Volkmar Sturm and Mr. Fleischer for making this possible for me. I have not practised this language for a long long time - " fast alles vergessen" !  The languages that I have learned always find ways for me to use them much to the benefit of my career life, I wonder when this Deutsch language will become useful to me!

My admiration or adoration towards German had prompted me to pursue this particular language program with the intention to understand them more from all possible perspectives. In the current factory that I am working, I came to understand that the equipment was actually from East Germany and it was manufactured and built during the 2nd world war period. Take a look at those photos, could you imagine those are the components of a piece of second world war equipment? I bet you would definitely marvel at the advance in design and precision machining technology that the German possessed more than 70 years ago. Malaysia even at this time might not be able to match them in term of advances in technology. From this piece of equipment we could appreciate and understand the reasons why the Germans were almost invincible during the 2nd world war!

Sound or noise that reminds us!

There are certain sound, noise or even songs or music that will always remind us of the yesteryears and the time while we were at somewhere in this planet earth and doing something different at certain intervals of time on our life. We tend to forget the exact dates, but it is much easier for us to relate certain events with the effect of sound!

When I was a kid, the crowing of the rooster early in the morning in my grandparents' home always reminded me of my sweetest childhood days. The more distinct sound of the day was the broadcasting of the Cantonese drama from the radio at about 2pm, TV was yet to be invented and made its appearance in the village. The noise from the propeller engine of a plane that flew across the sky at about 4pm was quite an accurate indication of time. My grandma always referred the time as "The plane had flown pass...". At about 6pm was the captivating story telling from Mr. Lee Dai Soh, that was the greatest attraction and the most popular radio station during my time. If you mention about Mr. Lee,  he was well known to everyone young and old then!

My uncle when he was still a bachelor, he used to ride his Vespa and came home humming the favorite tunes of the Beatles " wow wow yeah..." while he arrived at the gate. He spotted an Elvis Presley hairdo with a little pouch shape in front, that was the trend at that time!

When the morning sun rose, the callings of the yellow vented bulbur, oriole and also the dotted doves started a typical day of the village life. The calls of the plaintive cuckoo sounded something like " Thin Dew Shui!", interpreted as the falling of rain from the sky, though it was always a clear sky, near to the evening of the day with dimmed sunlight but without rain most of the time!

And on some dark silent nights, the eerie deep calling of the owls in the wood was the only disturbing sound for a good night sleep. And the same unpleasant calling of the owl reminded me the funeral night of my grandpa who passed away that particular day! It was like the call from hell that took away his soul, and it was one of the saddest day of my life! The call from the little owl was considered a bad omen that coincided the death of a few elderly in the village and the village folks subsequently organized an owl shooting team that included the land district officer who was armed with a gun because of his seniority in government post. The success rate of shooting down an owl at night was low and this gunman always missed his target, that were the complaints and side stories that I heard from the adults!

When we moved to our own home bought by my grandmother for my parents, the rattling and tail beating sound of the gecko on the windows sometimes awoke my mum. It took a while for my mum to figure out that was actually the noise from the geckos and not any thief !

When I was in the upper secondary school, we did not have the convenience of emails and the internet of present days; we used to write letters and wait for replies whenever the postman passed by with the familiar noise of his motorbike and horning to pre-alert the arrival of letters in the mailbox. And one of the top ten hits of the week happened to be  "Please Mr. Postman" by Karen Carpenter reminded me of those good old school days with dreams!

My wife and children shifted our house from Prai to Kulim in the early years of 2000s, the dwarf chicken (Ayam Serama) roosters we reared in the garden crowed early in the morning at 4 am that woke us up and also the neighbors ( I really want to apologise for that..). The loud and sharp noise of the Guinea fowls when they started to call for a certain reason made us nervous and I had to calm them down with a stick!

Songs by Bee Gees marked the beginning era of my learning to play the rhythm guitar in early 70s. "Melody fair"  was a song that had popularized the child stars Mark Lester and Tracy Hyde by the the movie S.W.A.L.K! Those songs "I started a joke", "Baby", One Way Wind", 'Let it be", "Relection of my life" etc set the stage for my switch from listening Chinese songs to English! All those Chinese songs before this point of time were kept and set aside in my memory to make way for those English songs to fill in the gap at the later part of my student life.

I always remember the violin and the Chinese guitar played by my dad whenever he is in the right mode to play his favorite Chinese opera or Cantonese songs! The calls of the night jar perched on the tree or power cables opposite our house near to the lamp post on a silent night was typical of a quiet village life!

I like the non-stop burning of fire-crackers during those Chinese New Year days when they were still not banned by the goverment. Long bamboo sticks were used to hang up rows and packets of red fire-crackers. The longest lasting fire-crackers would signify the status and the wealth of the village folks. In my area, the land officer always emerged as the champion as his fire-crackers would always burn through the entire night of the new year eve.

PVD & Photopsia

Yes, it is the symptom that I was mentioning earlier. The eye specialist was impressed I could utter out such medical terms which are meant specifically for the medical profession only. I paid RM125 for my eye examination just to find out if there is any retina detachment or retina holes that occurred due to the PVD. I was told nothing of that sort at this moment after a thorough examination of my eyes using some speciliazed scopes and equipment.

I did not know that to examine the details of an eye, one has to get the eye pupils dilated by dripping certain kind of eye drops. Once the pupils are dilated, then the details of the eye structures could be revealed in great details with the aid of opthalmic equipment. I was told to look all over different directions while a checking lens was placed right in front of the position of the eye pupil, acting like a little torch that shone the light to check the nooks and corners of the eye. I was relieved when told that there was no retina holes or whatsoever, and I only need to come back in 2 weeks' time for another follow-up checking. There is no medicine whatsoever for this PVD and photopsia!

The dilation, movement of eye ball looking at different directions plus the squeezing of the eyes by the lens and checking equipment made my eyes watery and hard to focus. I had a hard time to re-adjust the eyes with the bright ambient environment. Fortunately my son was driving me home from the specialist clinic. I had to put on a sunglasses to drive all the way to Terengganu, without which I do not think I could manage the bright sunlight outside the car. It was really an experience for me! So remember to bring along your sunglasses if you want to go for an eye check-up! The dilation of your eye pupils could last for hours! Without a pair of sunglasses, your eye sight would be blinded by the glare from the outside sunlight when your pupils are artifically dilated!

I was told not to go on stressful exercise such as jogging. I do not understand the reason why but somehow I feel that this eye problem might be related to my over-exerting myself while I tried that 6-7 km run about 10 days ago.

During this trip to the eye specialist, I bumped into Gurmeet Singh, my UM classmate and also my once colleague in UMW Toyota Assembly plant. I had not met him for years! What a coincidence that he went to the same doctor to have his eyes check-up for his previous laser eye-sight correction done there!

The honor of being a UM graduate

University Malaya was one of the oldest and most reputable higher institution of learning in Malaysia and it was indeed a prestige to enter the gate of this university many years ago. I would say, it is equivalent to getting yourselves into Yale, MIT or Harvard universities in America, National Taiwan University of Taiwan, and Qinghua or Beijing universities of China. It was only meant for the cream of the country and only top scorers of the nation went in. It was especially so for Medicine, Dentistry and Engineering faculties. During the late 70's even USM did not have the capability to offer such courses.

At our time, we only had UM, and USM as the two main intake universities for students based on the racial composition quota in Malaysia. Other universities such as UPM, UKM or UTM had limited places for non-Bumiputra (Bumiputra - Prince of the soil or the indigeneous people which made up of 65% of the Malaysian population). It was indeed a great honor to be counted as one of the Engineering students in those years. These elites would have to score a minimum of 2As, 2Bs and General Paper 6 in Cambridge A level or HSC examination in order to qualify for enrolment in the engineering faculty. For civil engineering, at that time it was the most sought after course which promised bright future and higher income upon graduation, with a lot of the students coming in with 4As. 4As was the normal criterion to enter into Medicine and Denstistry then. There were just a handful of students with such excellent results in major cities of Malaysia at that time.

The 1st year of Engineering faculty had a total students of about 400 of all the 4 streams (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and Chemical). It was a very tough course and by the time we graduated, we are left with less than 200 students and a lot of the students failed and dropped out from the course over the years. Requirement was tough and very stringent, tough in the sense that the results were based on 1 final examination over all you had learnt over the 3 semesters of the entire year. One did not get any mark or scores over assignments or projects other than your thesis paper in final year. To fail 1 subject, you had to re-sit the paper and if fail again, the student had to be retained for another year. No student was allowed to continue the course if they ever fail the same academic year twice. In this way, we ended up with a very small group of graduated students; for example my Mechanical class has less than 30 of them and our relationship with each other was closely knitted because of this small in number.

Coming to study in reputable institution is a challenge and also an honor that could last us for a life time. It is the most shameful thing if someone criticizes your way and attitude of working when they associate you with the school or college that you graduated from. For all these years, I strive to live up to that standard and expectation of a UM Engineering graduate. Because of this honor, that comes with responsibility at the same time, I had shouldered that well throughout my working career and still feel proud and enjoy the great honor to call myself a UM graduate.

We hope University Malaya will continue to uphold the high academic standard and reputation of a top institution of higher learning in the country and improve its ranking in the region!

The Sting in real life

If you ever watch the move "Sting" and you would be able to enjoy the thrill and excitement of how a plot was being set up and cheated someone big time! All these swindling acts need brain-work put together and make it look like the real thing and the victims just could not help but fell into the traps!

I had in real life witnessed 2 incidents of "Sting" that related to me directly and indirectly:

Back in year 1987-88, I wanted to sell off my Toyota LE to depart for Taiwan. Before my planned departure, I advertised for the sales of my vehicle with number plate WBA8945 and it attracted quite a few interested potential buyers. But the most efficient buyer at that time was someone who paid an immediate downpayment of RM200 without inspecting and asking much about the car. After paying the money, he disappeared for a week or two without any news and I was trying to locate him high and low. Had tried to call him on his house phone but no one picked up the call and was wondering why some guy paid generously RM200 and not even in a hurry to get the deal through. He finally appeared and told me to take the car to one of the finance company situated near to Brickfield and the entrance of University Malaya Kuala Lumpur. My wife and I drove the car all the way there and someone by the name of Mr. Billy Ong was introduced to us. He was a fair, good and honest looking young gentleman donned in smart long sleeve shirt presented himself to us as the Finance branch manager. He told us to open up the hood of the car and check on the engine and chassis numbers so that they matched with what they appeared in the car registration card. That was the usual procedure of a finance company to assess the value of the car before the hire purchase loan was approved for the potential buyer.

He then brought us back to his office and while entering the office, few office girls were sitting there with typewriters and they kept staring at us as we entered and we thought we were just too much of strangers to them. The mananger quickly locked up the doors and gates and told us that the area was not a safe place because of frequent thefts and criminal extortion. He sat in his office room and talked to us about the car now was approved for financing and then pointed on one Star newspaper cutting attached on the wall. The content of which denoted how unscrupulous car buyers cheated the owners and he advised us to be extra careful on conmen! How impressive!

Then we returned to our home and patiently waiting for the car to be sold. The buyer phoned up and came to our house, and he told us to give the car to him. I was suspicious and then decided to phone up my brother-in-law from Public bank about the procedure to surrender my car. I was advised not to let him have the car driven away unless the balance of payment had been made in full. He grudgingly complained that the finance company had agreed to pay and was not happy with my refusal to let him have the possession of the car and went off. After a week or so and we advertised again and sold the car to one Mr. Ong who returned from Brunei. And then we saw newspaper published on news about several occasions on this kind of  car dealing cases where car owners lost their cars without payment and the culprit was finally caught by the police! This was a typical case of highly well organized crime that involved intellectuals and a group of swindlers, I was lucky that I did not fall into their trap!

Another case was in Taiwan, a group of people were playing cards on a make shift table for gambling in the market place. All the players on betting seemed to be having easy wins over the card shuffler guy. And while you were watching, some women came around and wanted to lend you money for the easy win that you observed. You were tempted and decided to join in for the easy win but instead lost hundreds or thousand of borrowed money. Then they asked you to return them the money in cash or kind! Human greed would blurr your vision and mind to fall into a simple trap and trick set up this way.

Just remember, there is no easy way out to get easy money, we all have to work hard to earn it. If there is something too good to be true, be careful, it must be the job of a conman with a catch. As long as you have a clear mind, not to be greedy, you could be 100% sure that you would not be conned into this!

May God bless all the honest people!

Buang Negeri (Banishment from country, state or town)

The banishment Act in 1959 (Act 79) could banish a person from the state or expulse from the country. This law is only applicable to aliens or persons who had acquired citizenship by registration or by naturalization and not for Malaysians who are born here.

It was fairly common in earlier days of Malaya States that people got caught involving with communism or related activities were "Buang Negeri"! There were incidents where the early Chinese settlers were deported back to China once convicted of such illegal involvement.

Do you know that Malaysia also could banish a person from a town and then be sent into "exile" in another city or village? It was common then the Chinese would refer such punishment as " Uang Fou", because the local Chinese could not pronounce the word "Buang" well enough while "Fou" refers actually to town! People committed offences in gangsterism or illegal lottery jockeying when found guilty were banished from their residential township and transferred to another far away town or village as an act of punishment by the police. They have to report to the local police station at specific intervals of time to indicate their presence and physical confinement in that particular area as specified by the police or the Home Ministry!

I remember those days while my family was still staying in the house of my grandparents, a family of "Cheong Goh" or the "Taikoh Cheong" was banished from Ipoh for involving in gangsterism and rented a room in my grandparents' home. The renting was made possible because the wife "Wan Jie" of "Cheong Goh" was related to a neighbor of us next door otherwise nobody would want to rent a room to convict or gangster! But this person and his family were nice people and you would not be able to see a trace of gangsterism in them because they were soft spoken and behave well like any other normal people. Only those people knew the background would know he was actually the head of gangsters in Ipoh area. We befriended his children, one by the name of "Monkey Ying" while another younger sister of her, I could not remember her name, but she spoke in a stammering manner and could not pronounce her words clear enough as normal kid of her age, as though her tongue got sticky and stucked somewhere . The family ran a curry mee store selling in the market place to earn a living. Probably from earning big illegal money earlier and now downgraded to a mee hawker in the village.

They had been staying with us for a period of about 1-2 years when the banishment period expired and then they returned to their original residence in Ipoh. The last time my friend Seng Meng and a few others including I had visited them in Ipoh in a massage parlour operated by "Cheong Goh" somewhere in Pasir Putih. That was the last time in years 1977-78 that I visited them as friends.

I remember another person by the name of "Ah Gone" who involved in the illegal lottery was banished from the village to somewhere else, but I did not see him anymore after so many years. The irony is that the biggest tycoon in illegal lottery is still in town though everyone knows who he is. Somehow he is able to gather all his wealth, send his children to study overseas, buy a few houses and shops, own expensive cars, live happily but never get caught. This is the wonder of money that could do a lot of things and you know what I mean!

Illegal lottery is simply too lucrative a business and I would say it is rampant in many small places even far away from cities and towns. Most village folks wanted a windfall very much because of their meagre income earned the hard way, and this lottery scheme fits into their life style and is probably the only way out in a village setting for these poor folks to fulfill their dreams! This has now become an addiction for many villagers and even women, how sad is this!

Brothers getting together

It was prior to the period of Chinese New Year that my brother came to stay with me for about a month in Geliga Kemaman home. He had a project in Gebeng Kuantan area and decided to travel further north to stay in my house. It was a very rare occasion for us to stay together for such a period of time after we had got married, built our individual families, stayed at different cities, assigned to different job locations, our own destinations and timing just could not make such getting together possible if it is not for God's arrangment. All in all, it was a precious period after almost 35 years since the days we were both in secondary school staying with our parents. Our normal get-together time limits mainly to an annual affair when all our siblings go home during the Chinese New Year period.

 I had come home to Malaysia from overseas, the first time when I returned from Suzhou China in the year 1997, he had a serious case with the government and we and the other siblings were there together to face the problem. Thank God the issue was finally settled amicably!

This time around when I returned from Qingdao China about 8 months ago, it was a coincidence that because of his Oil and Gas nature of his job that he traveled to this part of the country for the work. We talked about the good old days and started to recall some names of old friends and also tasted some of the good food in Cukai. We went to Air Putih to look at the bridge built by my uncle and it was fun when we found time in life that we could get together in this manner.

I had written on how somebody we met for a brief moment in our life and then never have a chance to see them again. Thinking about this, even with our own brothers and sisters, we have the same problem to schedule ourselves to meet, it would be relatively more difficult to meet old friends or classmates if we do not make an effort to do so.

At this moment, I think of my son and daughter, this is the time they should enjoy the company and good time together while they are still staying under the same roof under the good care of my wife. The time will come when they eventually would have to go their separate ways once they start to work and have their own families. In my case, we have total of 6 siblings and we hardly have chance to really gather together because of our own individual commitment to our families, so just having 2 children would render the chance even rarer.

Life is so short, time is so good and while we can let us appreciate and enjoy the good time together!

Somebody you met

Some of the people we met in our life that you only shared a brief moment with them and then they were gone as though disappeared in the thin air, nowhere to be found but you know they are still somewhere out there. They might still remember you if they ever dig deep in the far recess of their memories or they had totally forgotton who you are and did not even ring a bell such acquaintances ever actually took place.

As far as I could remember  a few of my friends that went missing are:

1. There was a very young girl who used to visit our neighbor behind the house of my grandpa. She was related to this neighbor by the name of Soul Jie (passed away the same few days as my grandpa) but stayed somewhere at a different part of the village. I remember very well that whenever general election was around the corner, the village would be filled with heaps of stones brought in by the JKR (Public Work Department) trucks for making the foundation before paving on the bitumen to form the tarmac roads. Those stones were actually blasted out from some mountains or caves using dynamite in quarry operation. There were a lot of shiny, orange, purple and red crytals that mixed with those normal stones. Nowadays one could probably see all those complete crystals which are being sold at decorative stores for very high prices. As kids, we always gathered these colorful crystal as precious stones and gems for our keeping. I presented some of those beautiful stones to this cute little girl whenever he visited us at the right time when these crystals were abundant and readily available. I do not remember her name and had lost the impression of how she looked like and we never met again though we are from the same village!

2. There was a primary school classmates by the name of Yap Wai Keong, he was probably the 2nd best student in class and he left for Johore in primary 2 and never returned to the village anymore. I used to receive news about him from one of his relatives living in the same village. Now we had totally lost contact.

3. There were 2 brothers by the name of Ah Sang and Ah Choong that lived across the road. Choong was one year my senior and he had one of his forefinger chopped off, perhaps caused by an accident. We used to play and jump around the drain that was full of white mud but running with crystal clear water. I used to visit their house that smelled heavily of stinging milk that might have spilled on the floor but not cleaned properly during baby feeding. They had a sister by the name of Ah Lan and her mother name is Nyet Por, the family shifted to KL and they had left the village forever for good!

4. A secondary school classmate of mine by the name of Lam Hong Chee from Pei Yuan Chinese school. We were transferred to ACS to study science stream in form 4. We applied together for the technical college in KL based on the recommendation of one of our seniors Leong Chee Meng. My LCE results should be better but he got the offer instead and he left ACS for this Technical Institute to futher his study. Heard that he is working in a senior position in TNB (National Electric Board)but I have never met him. He used to stay in Temoh and I visited him once in his house. His nickname was "Temoh Railway Station" because he used to tell his classmates that was the place near where his home was!

5. I used to befriend a guy by the name of Michael in St Michael Instituion Ipoh, he was my junior. Somehow we kept in contact and subsequently his family shifted to KL to run a canteen operation. My classmate Chan Sek Tai and I visited him once in the canteen when I contacted him in Kuala Lumpur. After that we have our own life and we totally forget about the existence of each other!

6. My brother and I used to visit my cousins in Bidor. During one of the trips, I met one of the guys who was originally from the same village but shifted to stay in Bidor. We were going to the main road stores in Bidor town and passing by a field while this guy was flying a kite. We called out each other by names, what a surprise to meet a fellow villager at a different town! That was the last time I met him!

7. There was a Sarawakian friend from civil engineering by the name of Law Kah Heng if I still remember it correctly. I was looking for a place to stay in the University Malaya days, and he was my senior and introduced me to this rented house of Leong Khoon Wah in PJ SS2 area. The neighbor staying next door was UEM General Manager Chan Long Kong from Rantau, whom at later part I introduced Yow Han Meng to work for him. A few houses away was the MAS administration manager Mr. Yong who was staying with his mum.  I stayed in the same house for many years even after graduation and left the place only after knowing my wife. Even CC Choi, the cousin brother of my wife and my brother had stayed a while in the same house before. My housemates then also included the national novice squash champion Michael Loo, who used to play with Ong Beng Hock's father in Subang. Law is a good Christian and he used his motorbike to fetch me all the way to locate the house. What a good friend indeed but I lost touch with him when he went back to Sarawak.

8. While I always spent my school holidays to stay with my grandma in tin mines where she worked as a cook, I happened to make friends with one of the guys in the mine whose home town is from Tronoh. After my grandma broke her pelvic bone and returned home to stay with us, I had never met him anymore. Could not remember his name but he was a friendly guy even though I was just a primary school kid and he was already a working adult, we got along pretty well despite the age gap!

I am listing some of these friends that I could remember at this moment. Somehow these people had left a memory or mark in my life, for this I want to pay tribute to them. Wherever they are, I want to pray that God bless them with health and happiness!  God willing, we will meet again!

Saving a Musang

As usual I woke up today in the morning about 6 am and took a ride with my MTB mountain bike near the beach. Upon riding the 2nd round along the tarmac road, I heard the calls from the nearby houses and saw 2 pairs of shining eyes! I thought it was these 2 cat-like "Musang" with long tails that were harassing some birds early in the morning and caused all the noise.  I rode another round with my bicycle and the noise persisted and I decided to check on what was going on, thinking that perhaps the "Musang" might have grabbed hold of one of the young bird and the adults birds were giving all the desperate warning calls. On shining my headlamp on the fence of the house, I saw one of the young "Musang" crouching on the lower portion of the concrete wall, it was probably stunned by the light and stayed motionless while the mother Musang had fled the scene. I further probed the source of the noise where it came from, I found down under a deep drain of about 4-5 feet, there was another young "Musang" trying desperately to climb up. I suppose this particular kid "Musang" might have slipped itself into the drain and could not follow the team home!

I went back home and took my fishing net with a long handle and scooped that poor animal up the drain with some effort. When I scooped it half way through, the animal climbed up the handle and eventually set foot on the road. There it went and still frantically searching and calling for the mother Musang and its other sibling! Eventually the animal was set free and re-united with its family to roam freely in the wild again. I felt relieved to see them gone before humans might catch and keep them in captivity. I took the opportunity to take photos in the dark of the animal while it climbed up to the fence.

There are different types of Musang in Malaysia, they probably belong to the civet cat or fox families. They usually eat fruits or insects in the forest and make nearby secondary jungles of housing estates as their habitat. But some bigger size Musang are carnivorous and they eat even house chickens. I remember our village at one time, there was loss of chickens and we blamed that to the drug addicts who stole them for their drug money. But the most recent loss were some of my dwarf or Serama chickens went missing, and someone eventually set up a trap and caught the culprit, it was a big fierce Musang, double the size of a house cat!

Birds

Birds flying in the sky are always fascinating and young boys like me then was always attracted to birds. We always imagine ourselves to be eagles that could fly high up freely above the sky and see the whole world!

If you are staying not in big cities, birds become part of our life especially morning and in the afternoon. They perched on trees, electric power cable and telephone lines, fences, bushes etc. and sometimes even venture into the pens of chicken and ducks for a free feeding. The calls of these birds amongst the roosting of the cockerels made a typical day in a village life!

Breaking the dawn in the village would always be the noisy yellow vented Bulbur and the loud call of the Oriole, noon time would be the Tailer birds making the "Beep Beep" sound in the bushes and jumping on the branches and fence. Afternoon and evening time would be the occasional distant calls from the doves! Sometimes it was a mingle of all the callings of these birds together at no specific time of the day!


Villages are normally planted with a good variety of fruit trees and these vegetations are the favorite feeding venues and natural habitat for them. They also pick on the more bushy trees near houses to build their nests and raise their youngs. We called these birds by special names which are nomenclatures specific to the village community there. Yellow vented Bulbur (White headed grandma), Oriole (Yellow bird), Tailor bird (Small Doubit), Mynah (Ngat Cheng Cheng or Cow Dung bird), house sparrows (Mahjong bird), Spotted dove (Boku) and Zebra dove (Fire bird) can be sighted commonly in the village.

My grandma who worked as a cook in mining company used to keep spotted dove in cages and I started to learn from her the way to keep these spotted birds in captivity and feed them. Spotted birds used to  build nests on the Rambutan trees that surrounded our house. As young boys, we heard the sounds or noise of the young birds, climbed up the trees, caught them and brought them home and then fed them using a piece of cloth wrapped up a kind of seeds that could be bought from Indian sundry shop on the other side of the village, just behind the police station! Spotted doves are very good birds for keeping, and when they grow, they shed their feathers and put on a new coat of shiny, smooth and attractive bright colored feathers. And the male bird would recognize and greet me whenever I returned home from school by raising its head up and down and making the "Ku Ku" sound and thus the name " Boku" I believe!

When I grew a little bit older at secondary school age, my brother KM Lee and I were more aware of the cruelty of keeping birds in captivity and we had stopped all activities of keeping birds in cages of any form. We even put on barbed wires on tree trunks to prevent our neighbors from climbing and catching young birds on the trees near our house!

Birds are creatures of God for our pleasure to listen to their calls and enjoy watching them. Going through life all these years imparted us a special feeling towards these birds that had accompanied us a good portion of our childhood days in our life.  Thinking of how we humans treasure our own freedom and that in return giving us even a stronger desire to see these birds flying freely in the sky without worry being hunted down or kept in captivity. How we wish we could be like them, flying freely and happily, finding their food, raising their youngs, growing old together and be part of God's wonderful creation plan!

Branded Shoes

I was not a very brand conscious person, perhaps at that time I could not earn enough to afford branded products! As our income increases, brand awareness was somehow created, I said created! Remember before going to Mexico and US, Levi's Jean and Reebok shoes were selling fairly expensive in Malaysia and I did not bother even to enter into such shops because such products were priced far above my perceivable market value. In the US, Levi's Jean is selling at USD30 while Reebok is about in the same range of price! Because of this price gap compared to Malaysia, I thought it was a good deal to buy them and bring back to Malaysia. Eventually more than enough of such branded products were brought home, my son and myself might have owned more than 10 pairs of Levi'sJeans, Reebok or even Nike shoes. Whenever you thought you are having a good deal, we started buying more than what is necessary! If a branded product is expensive, you probably purchase just one, but when it is 20% cheaper somewhere else, you ended up buying 5 to 10 pairs!

In China, most of these "made in China" branded products such as Nike, Levi's etc are sold almost double the price in US. What is the logic behind this? Well, in China those shops only aim for the 0.001% of the 1.3 billion population, and those products are not meant to be for the price conscious normal people. But the brand awareness created in China also drives many of the lower income group to purchase these branded high end products! The power of branding and advertisement has brain washed them, branded products become symbols of status! The quality is probably just 10% better than the normal brand, but you pay the extra 100-500% more for these companies to do the brand marketing, advertisement and also the celebrities to be the spoke persons of the brands!

During my school days time, a pair of Bata "Badminton Master" priced at RM3.90 was considered a premium for school going children both in primary or lower secondary schools! Nowadays, our income might have double or even triple, but the price of a pair of Bata shoes had gone up more than 10-20 folds, yet they are much more cheaper than a pair of New Balance, Nike, Adidas and Reebok!

I went jogging in Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur during the weekends, and I observed and noticed that 70% of the people there were wearing brands like Nike, NB or Adidas shoes! It occurs to me now that wearing such branded shoes will not make you stand out of the crowd as before!

Recently I had decided to purchase 1 pair each of Bata Weinbrenner and Power shoes at a discount sales for a total price of RM85! I think it was a good deal!

Flashing and floaters in the eye!

Recently I experienced a mild flashing or photopsia in my left eye whenever I turn my eyeball to view on the left side, there is a slight flashing or flicker of light at the corner of the eye. Against bright light, I see a few floaters or small bubbles but this condition existed before and should cause no alarm at all. I searched through the internet and was told that this could be a result of posterior vitreous detachment or PVD whereby because of aging the vitreous gel becomes more watery in the center of the eye ball; while the heavier or denser peripheral more gel like vitreous detaches and moves towards the softer center of the eye ball. However the occasional flashes might be a symptom of  a torn, tugged or detach of the retina from the back of the eye ball as a further result from PVD. This is a more serious problem that could cause the loss of eyesight and might need to see a eye surgeon to check on it. At this point of time, this slight flashing does not really bother me at all because I always focus my eyes right in front most of the time rather than side way!

Well, when we start to age, we do not know all these kinds of funny and teething problems could come to affect us. We practically never heard of,  knew and thought about this PVD or retina detachment,  if not because of the convenience of the internet. All the time people just talk about diabetes, high blood pressure, gouts, high cholestrol and uric acid etc. which are more common amongst the middle-age group people.

Now I have put a lot more emphasis on exercise, reducing weight and eating less. No one could defy aging but through exercise, we hope to delay the process. Other than this,  I am actually having a bigger plan or dream for myself, as written earlier I hope to be physically fit enough to join a  marathon run of 42 km!

Singapore

I visited Singapore basically because my neighbors two brothers Wong Kam and Wong Peng went to work and study there. We were buddies because we did not have much of an age difference and there was no generation gap. There were also attractions in Singapore then, for example the ease of job opportunities and also the night life where transvestities were first in public display in the back lanes of Singapore etc. Malaysia was still relatively a more conservative society then.

I happened to bump into one of my very distant cousin from KL Salak South garden many years ago in the busy China town street of Singapore after that I never meet him again when he married and has his own family. Just imagine how popular a destination Singapore was for the Malaysians, every body was going to Singapore, be it for a short visit,shopping or looking for a job. At that time, the imported fruits such as oranges, apples, pears etc were very cheap in Singapore and most Malaysians brought back big bundles across the causeway to Malaysia. As students we used to go to Peninsula Plaza to buy our scientific calculators which were also very cheap there. Customs were very strict then and they checked every single bag of the visitors coming back from Singapore. A lot of the things were cheaper in Singapore than Malaysia. At that time, Penang island was probably the only free port in Malaysia. Only at later part, the free port status of Penang was abolished and then Langkawi was announced as the new duty free port by Dr. Mahatir.

After my HSC A level examination, I went to Singapore and started to give tuition classes. I was earning a fair living without asking money from my parents for my own expenses. Subsequently after about half a year I left Singapore for further study back in Malaysia and passed on the students to my buddy Yau Peng Long. I still could remember a few of my favorite students include the related cousin brothers of Ah Tiong from Indonesia and also Singaporean Chay Yong. I had never seen them again after that and probably even I see them now I would not be able to recognize them at all. At that time a lot of the rich Indonesian Chinese bought bungalows with swimming pools in Singapore and they also sent their children to study in Singaporean schools. And I believe they had also moved and deposited a lot of their money into the Singaporean banks. At that time Indonesia was not that stable politically. Singapore was a finance center, shelter and a refuge haven for these rich Indonesians, a very near contingency destination in case anything happened in Indonesia.

Singapore is a very clean city and everything is well arranged, people are well disciplined and even the trees are very straight! The straight trees were something I really dislike the most of Singapore because it did not give me that feeling of being natural, it seemed to me everything was so artificially arranged and even the trees were not spared. The roads were ever ready to be turned into a runway for fighter planes. That was the impression I had for a very efficient Singapore.

I left Singapore with a heavy heart and I did not know that thereafter I would never have a chance to go back to work or stay in Singapore. Only once when I met someone from a reputable computer company ALR , and on my way back from Taiwan I went to Singpoare for an interview but the deal did not cone through. I only passed by Singapore Changi airport for transit once a while and visited Wong Peng one or twice and that was it!

For many years in my very personal opinion, cars and apartments in Singapore are far too exorbitant in prices compared to Malaysia, even I could earn double the amount in Singapore than in Malaysia, I would not be in my right mind to work and live there. What I did not realise and expect were that, Singapore CPF contribution is 20% from employers and also the currency appreciated more than double over a short period of time! That was the time period where Singapore economy grew by leaps and bounds and I missed that boat! All my friends and classmates went to Singapore at that time now become rich!

That was only an incident of my life that I think back after so many years. Even I did not go to Singapore for good but I went overseas and stayed and worked in a few countries for many years. Sometimes life is not our own arrangement, it is God that is behind everything. And I believe God puts us in a place for a reason, one fine day we would be able to find out the reason why!

Riding a Motorbike

Bicycle was the main mode of transport in those days for the village folks. From single gear bicycle to multiple switchable gears type was a breakthrough, only well-paid workers could ever afford one. How cool it was, just with the clicking of the handle switches to drop or raise a gear ratio! The possession of one of this type of higher end bicycle also symbolized the social status standing of the owner in those days.

When motorbike was first introduced into the village, that was really a conveniece and it also signified the standard of living of Malaysians was generally improved one notch above and its dominance over the conventional usage of bicycle as a means of transport was inevitable. At that time vehicles on the road were few and accidents were less common!

As years went by, the rate of accidents increased tremendously because many people started to own vehicles. Many villagers died a gruesome death because of accidents involving motorbikes. That was common and even until today, a few cases involved the death of our workers in the plant that traveled to work using their motorbikes. Within a short period of 8 months, it had occurred at least 3 cases!

My parents would never agree to allow me to own any motorbike because of safety concern. I had owned one of my Suzuki scrambler in varsity days and I only told my mum upon paying and bringing it home. She was not really happy over it however I did observe the unwritten rule of not riding the bike all the way home from KL to Kampar during holidays or semester breaks. I normally arranged to send it home by using a transport company for a small fees. It was safer to make arrangement this way in order to pacify or relieve the concerns of my parents!

From Honda C70 or popularly known as Honda Cub to Vespa, scrambler or motor-cross bikes, and subsequent more trendy bikes continue to flood the Malaysian market over the years. And now with Yamaha Virago, Kawasaki Vulcan, Honda Shadown and the luxurious Harley Davidson etc. on the Malaysian roads, only the rich could afford! Malaysian government had levied a very high import duty on big bikes. But I think big bikes are safer and more noticeable by other road users, and the use of it should be encouraged!

I would like very much to own one Vulcan 500 or a Honda Shadow 600, though my driving licence is only valid for riding a motorbike till the limit of 250 CC. I know it is really dangerous to ride a motorbike after having driven cars through my many years of experience. On the other hand, I think it is really fun to ride such big bikes for fun especially for leisure trips organized in a group when proper safety precaution is taken.

If I have more money, I will own a Harley!

Natural Disaster

We are all blessed to live in a nation called Malaysia because we had never experienced any major calamity compared to many other countries. Hurricanes, typhoon, tornado, earthquake, volcanic eruption or even tsunami were something which I only heard of, read in newspaper, or as themes of entertainment from the TV, movies and magazines etc. The global warming, climate changes and ecological impact on earth might have caused the recent tsunami and the feel of seismic tremor from neigbouring countries.

I asked my mum once why Japan had to conquer and attack other nations during the second world war. My mum told me that it was because Japan was a land full of volcanoes and therefore they had to expand their territory in order to look for a better place to stay. It might not be the entire truth from the explanation of my mum but it did give the implication that, a land without natural disaster, indeed is a blessed place to stay!

I only experienced the first  earthquake in Taiwan in late 80s while I was renting a place from a friend Cephas Lee, near to Min Sheng East road, right at the middle of  Taipei City. The tremor and vibration had caused the rattling of the items stored on shelves and inside the kitchen, also I could feel a slight swaying of the bed or apartment. It was not that scary as it was just a mild quake. At the same Taipei city, on a particular night when we attended a Malaysian colleague wedding dinner, the city issued the first warning of the coming typhoon. Other than the heavy rain and the occasional falling down of sign boards onto the streets, I did not feel the full impact of a real typhoon. However the Mc Donald store was flooded and also there were deaths near the river bank as reported in the next day news. That was my first experience of a typhoon too! Subsequent typhoons were more of a fun to me, mainly because the office would close and you would still get paid for a day off at home!

Malaysia never had haze before and only in year 1996-97 that haze started to come into picture as a result of forest fire in Indonesia. And tsunami was just a one off incident for Malaysia and this happened while I was in Mexico and US. I remember how the US immigration officer saw my Malaysian passport and asked me "Are you glad to be in the US while the tsunami occurred in your country?" I  only replied the extent of damage was minimal in Malaysia as the glaze of the Indonesian tsunami just swept past some remote corners of some Malaysian islands, the full impact was blocked off by Sumatra of Indonesia.

A few scary incidents which could be categorized under natural disaster that occurred in Malaysia include the caving in of a house in my village while I was still studying in Universtiy Malaya, and also the death of many persons because of the Nipah virus. Other than that, Malaysia is simply a country too good to be true to live in! There were plenty of jobs and we could easily find jobs, even going to work in Singapore across the causeway and getting a PR is a breeze! Malaysians also could work in Hongkong, China and Taiwan without any problem because of their good command of languages.

Where on earth one could find a place like Malaysia to live in? I love Malaysia despite some uncalled for issues stirred up by some unscrupulous politicians just for their own selfish gain!

God bless Malaysia!