Submitted by webmaster on Sun, 2010-10-31 08:57
Jan' 89 (Malay Mail)
From ‘Kopi O’ talk to politics
By Au Foong Yee
Though nomination day is still not till Saturday, Mr Ong is already pushing himself in a way that is not entirely alien to him.
After all, he came from a modest home with a fishmonger father struggling to feed a wife and two young sons – Mr Ong has an older brother, an electrician.
Born and bred in Kuala Lumpur, Mr Ong had his early education in Confucian High School.
By the time he reached Form Two and expenditure was an increasingly burden on his father, Mr Ong started scouting around for scholarships.
His grit and determination had him hanging on. It was scholarships and study loans that finally saw him through secondary school and then tertiary education in Universiti Malaya.
Although he was far from being an active unionist, Mr Ong joined MCA as soon as he graduated in 1981.
“I wanted to improve things for the people as a whole, to alleviate the hardship faced by them,” said Mr Ong.
“People have always related politics to power. But feel that politics have noble ideals.”
Mr Ong, the political secretary to MCA deputy president Lee Kim Sai, has since decided that he does not want to be just a politician.
“A statesman. Yes, I want to be a statesman, a negarawan who is motivated by lofty ideals and who can see things not just in the right perspective but more importantly, on a macro level,” said Mr Ong who is fluent in Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and English. He also speaks and write Jawi.
For someone who started off writing scripts and submitting short stories and essays to local newspapers, Mr Ong has certainly come a long way.
Mr Ong is now a regular political columnist in three vernacular newspapers. He used to write the script for the once- popular television series Empat Sekawan.
Besides attending to the needs of constituents in Mr Lee Kim Sai’s area and other party work he tries to spend as much time as he can with his teacher-wife Madam Chooi Yoke Chun, 32, and their two young daughters Swan Wui, four, and Swan Yen, 18 months.
Jan' 89 (Malay Mail)
From ‘Kopi O’ talk to politics
By Au Foong Yee
Though nomination day is still not till Saturday, Mr Ong is already pushing himself in a way that is not entirely alien to him.
After all, he came from a modest home with a fishmonger father struggling to feed a wife and two young sons – Mr Ong has an older brother, an electrician.
Born and bred in Kuala Lumpur, Mr Ong had his early education in Confucian High School.
By the time he reached Form Two and expenditure was an increasingly burden on his father, Mr Ong started scouting around for scholarships.
His grit and determination had him hanging on. It was scholarships and study loans that finally saw him through secondary school and then tertiary education in Universiti Malaya.
Although he was far from being an active unionist, Mr Ong joined MCA as soon as he graduated in 1981.
“I wanted to improve things for the people as a whole, to alleviate the hardship faced by them,” said Mr Ong.
“People have always related politics to power. But feel that politics have noble ideals.”
Mr Ong, the political secretary to MCA deputy president Lee Kim Sai, has since decided that he does not want to be just a politician.
“A statesman. Yes, I want to be a statesman, a negarawan who is motivated by lofty ideals and who can see things not just in the right perspective but more importantly, on a macro level,” said Mr Ong who is fluent in Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and English. He also speaks and write Jawi.
For someone who started off writing scripts and submitting short stories and essays to local newspapers, Mr Ong has certainly come a long way.
Mr Ong is now a regular political columnist in three vernacular newspapers. He used to write the script for the once- popular television series Empat Sekawan.
Besides attending to the needs of constituents in Mr Lee Kim Sai’s area and other party work he tries to spend as much time as he can with his teacher-wife Madam Chooi Yoke Chun, 32, and their two young daughters Swan Wui, four, and Swan Yen, 18 months.
ORIGINAL POSTING http://ongteekeat.net
No comments:
Post a Comment