"He was the eldest son of a taxi driver and teacher who got only two new sets of clothes a year - during Chinese New Year and at Christmas. Home was a rent-controlled compound house in Upper Serangoon shared with 20 other relatives.
His biggest thrill was when his father swung by in his taxi to pick him up from Paya Lebar Methodist Afternoon School. The bright boy, who transferred to Anglo-Chinese School at Primary 5, worked hard to attain the highest rank of Colour Sergeant with the Boys' Brigade, struggling only with Chinese.
Whenever he or his three younger siblings failed in any endeavour, after putting in their best effort, his parents would take them out for a picnic. The value he caught was that: "The team that loses is the one that needs to be taken to McDonald's, not the winners. They need to be encouraged to go down to the football pitch next week to fight again."
He also learnt to treat everyone - regardless of station - with kindness. His mother had such a rapport with their Malay washerwoman, who lived in a nearby Malay kampung, that when the racial tensions broke out in the 1960s, she became their "guardian".
A university education was beyond his family's means. But he won the President's Scholarship to study at the University of Adelaide and graduated with first class honours in mechanical engineering in 1969, which gave him his clear-eyed, problem-solving approach to life.
He started work here as a mechanical engineer at sewage treatment plants where he got his hands dirty."
Read this great man's full story in the Straits Times HERE
I'm pretty sure that there are at least a few Malaysians with this public servant's values and qualities which certainly makes him a role model for all human beings. This is how human beings are supposed to live.
Imagine if Khazanah Nasional, Felda, Tabung Haji and other GLCs had more such men of honour and dignity. Even the increasingly flamboyant ministers and ministries, the Prime Minister's Department included, could do with a few such men of honour.
Just imagine, don't compare. You might slide into depression if you start comparing Mr Lim Siong Guan with some of our jet-setting GLC heads, high flying KSUs or even their no-position-holding spouses.
"Every time people visit Singapore, we show them our Housing Board flats, CPF, education system, we talk about our strong leadership and political will - all of which are important. But if I were to ask myself, so what is the brand image of Singapore? What made us succeed? What is the defining characteristic of Singapore?
"It is trustworthiness. That's why corporations plonk billions here and are prepared to wait 10 or 20 years to recover their investments. That's why so many Singaporeans work in China as financial controllers and accountants, jobs which require total integrity and honesty." - Lim Siong Guan
10 comments:
I'm not sure exactly why but this weblog is loading very slow for me.
Is anyone else having this issue or is it a issue on my end?
I'll check back later and see if the problem still
exists.
how can you glorify a pendatang cinabeng?
Ketuanan melayu must be preserved!!!!
It doesn't matter if our country burn in hell.
Many of the older generation of Chinese are respectable people. Chinese are known as people who honor promises and trustworthiness more than their life. They are also know as people who take decency above everything. Traditional chinese are not allow to see their bride until the night they are married. Fornicator will be punish to death by drowning.
Today, all these values are gone. The new generation of Chinese mostly only indulged in self-interest and greed for wealth and personal satisfaction. They are the generation that carry some western name who glorify everything that is coming from the west. Most of them lost the value of decency and respect for others. Fornication becomes a norm. Many of them live together for many years before getting married.
These are the generation of Chinese that troll the cyberspace. Many of them are know as Dapster.
always i used to read smaller posts that
also clear their motive, and that is also happening with this article which I am reading now.
We stumbled over here by a different web address and
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so now i'm following you. Look forward to checking out your web page for a
second time.
Why users still make use of to read news papers when in this
technological globe the whole thing is available on web?
Asking questions are truly nice thing if you are not
understanding something entirely, except this piece of writing
presents fastidious understanding yet.
ISMA,
No need for such remark. You're only hear to spew hatred!
And we know you're not Malay.
I really like what you guys tend to be up too.
Such clever work and coverage! Keep up the superb works guys I've added you guys to our
blogroll.
Saudara, rest assured there are many such honest men and women among us. Just that most of them are not given the opportunity. Others are ignored, sidelined due to their straight arrow nature and probably for not playing ball with their superiors or political masters.
JakelMama
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