Poetic Justice

May 29, 2010 (yesterday)Poetic justice?from KoSong by KoSong Cafe
Excerpts from Lim Kit Siang's 'An Inspirational story' by Justin Hong:

http://blog.limkitsiang.com/page/2/

I was 18 in 1997. I came home, half completed my high school in England because my father became a bankrupt. He was a contractor bankrupted because the licensee, Taib’s uncle, defaulted on paying royalty to the Government. He pocketed all the money my father had given.


Together with 6 of my friends we went to Komat in Sama Jaya to look for jobs as they only required MCE. I wanted to help out the family.


The HR lady was an Iban, on our turn she refused to give us application forms and demanded to see our qualifications. Without even understanding us, we were turned away. On further enquiry from us, she said, the 250 posts were all filled. It was 10.25am and the application counter had just opened at 9.30am. She asked the guard to show us out.


Komat repeated publication for the posts for another week. We went back again and again were rejected. This time she asked us to look for jobs in China.

My uncle promptly helped the six of us to look for jobs from his contacts. Ironically, we all ended up in Shenzhen China, working in a micro circuitboard plant.
...

Today my company has been operating in Penang for 6 months. We are employing 200 people.

I was conducting interviews for senior staff for the jobs. One of the people that came in for the interview was the same Iban lady from Komat 10+ years ago. The lady who turned me away. The lady who told me I was not eligible for the job. The lady who told me the posts were filled when yet to select the first applicant of 250 and the lady who asked me to go to China to look for a job.

I had the satisfaction of telling her all these if I wanted to. Instead I listened to all her talk about how great she had done in her former employment and now she was out on a huge VSS. How well she will do for me with her experience and how much she would like to work for a Chinese boss. She said she is the daughter of an influential bumiputra man and her husband is doing well in business. I let her rave on with her diatribe.

Finally, when she realised she the one doing all the talking and I was not even asking questions, she stopped.

Finally I said, I know her. She was shocked, for now I was properly suited up and not in T-shirt and jeans like the first time we met.

I simply said I like to thank her for asking me to go back to China to look for work. I did, I made it and what she is seeing today and the brochure I placed infront of her is in fact the SUCCESS from disgust and disappointment of being a Malaysian Chinese!!


...


It was also an excellent example of how an apparent setback in life could be a blessing in disguise! I am sure there are many more such success stories resulting from our unfair system of administration.


The more the government favours certain people, the less fit they become; those discriminated against would come out tougher and get going when the going gets tough.
It is probably the law of nature, and can be seen even in family situations.
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I came across the above posting in one of my followers' blog by KoSong Cafe. The blog has many interesting articles.

The above article reminded me of the time when I just came back from completion of my tertiary education at the University of Alberta. I visited my eldest sister in Kuching, Sarawak and had the intention of finding perhaps a temporary teaching job to while away my time while on a three months' vacation. To my surprise, the Malaysian Government did not recognise my B.A. degree, and as I had only completed my studies up to Form Five with a Malaysian Certificate of Education, the government would only recognise the MCE and the pay offered to me was a paltry sum. I told my sister I might as well enjoy my vacation .

When I visited my eldest brother in Singapore, I was surprised the Regional English Language Centre immediately gave me a part time teaching post and the pay was attractive. When I applied for training with the then Insitute of Education, I was immediately accepted and a year after graudation, the government offered me citizenship! Malaysia has not welcomed her own physicians; can she blame the brain drain of her people.? The standard of English in the country is so weak, and now Malaysia has to spend so much money to employ English teachers from England and the West!

KoSong Cafe was right to say that an apparent setback in life could sometimes be a blessing in disguise. Hence, it is important that we always keep up our spirit, for when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Papa has always reminded us that life is not always a rose garden; we have to prepare the beds of soil and grow the rose plants, and in the process be somtimes pricked by the thorns. However, if we persevere, we would soon see the beauty of the roses in the garden of life.

Gan Cao