CHAPTER 11 : SERVICE ABOVE FAMILY 2

Dad was active in community work even in his early twenties. During the Emergency years, the British government decided to involve the people to patrol the security of their own areas. Thus, the Home Guard scheme was raised. Volunteers were trained in simple defence tactics and they were form into groups, These groups took turns to to patrol the village. Dad joined the Home Guard. He recalled one night when patrolling the village, they came across some youngsters stealing tapioca from a farm. How the petty thieves ran upon seeing the home guards !! After the Emergency the Home Guard was disbanded.

 

Medal of Appreciation

Letter of Appreciation

Another Letter of Appreciation

Receiving the AMN from
DYMM Yang di Pertuan Agung

All these service came with a price - sometimes, to meet the requests of the community for help, he would put aside his business for days in order to tend to their problems. There were other community leaders but people prefer to ask dad for help because he was so accommodating. Thus the business suffered for some partners took advantage of his absence to pilfer from the common fund. Very soon the partnership was disbanded and dad more or less was on early retirement. Idle minds and idle hands are the devil's workshop. With too much free time in his hand, dad soon took to gambling- first a a social past time but soon it developed to addiction. It was the beginning of the decline of our family fortunes.

With the decline of family fortunes, peoples' attitude towards us began to change. Well, we cannot change the past. They are part of our experiences and form part of our personality. However we can change the ways we deal with our past and interpret past experiences. Instead of being bitter, we can choose learn from the past. Thus, lesson one - even though we may serve the community, we should not neglect our family's welfare. Secondly, people's needs and demands are endless - we should exercise judgement and wisdom in dealing with their requests for help. Thirdly, treat praises and flattery of people like water off a duck's back for those words are just temporal. Learn to discern an honest compliment from fawning flattery. Thus you will not be unduly influence by those flattery and hence cloud your judgment. (How else did I survive those years in the public service?)

Nevertheless, our childhood was interesting because of dad's involvement with the community.