Loving mother

Going back to mother's house in Ipoh has always been very emotive experience because ever since I took the plunge into public life on 27 October, 1987, I seldom have the time to be there. Moreover, I left home for Australia on the first day of the 1982 Chinese New Year (because air ticket was very cheap for that period) and lived there until January 1987, except for a week in 1985 when I came back to attend father's funeral. Mother has always been very understanding for my involvement in public life. She lived through Japanese occupation as a 16-year girl in Batu Gajah-Tanjong Tualang.

She also saw and heard enough postwar political and social upheavals in the Kinta Valley and Malaya to appreciate altruism for larger good, although she may occasionally be tempted by more materialistic (but well-meaning) relatives to ask me why don't I choose to be a bank officer. Of course, in the great and very proud tradition of my family, no one has ever thought of joining MCA even for a nano second, although we still have friends and relatives who are MCA members.