Lunch With The Tun
It’s probably a once in a lifetime experience…last week, I had an unofficial lunch appointment with the great Tun Dato Seri Dr. Lim Chong Eu and Toh Puan Datin Seri Goh Sing Yeng.
The Tun - 89 years old this year - was the second Chief Minister of Penang, taking over from the late Tun Wong Pow Nee. He held the position for over 20 years, the longest serving CM of Penang so far until he was defeated of the state seat by DAP supremo Sdr Lim Kit Siang in the 1990 General Election .
I have heard many wonderful achievements of this visionary leader especially his far-sightedness in planning the FTZ and building the Penang Bridge towards the FTZ from the mainland for industry development. And many people said that he was a stubbornly firm leader, in fact one of the reasons he felt out of favour with the late Tunku Abdul Rahman’s Alliance party was because he had requested for more parliamentary seats for MCA and had pushed for the chinese language to be recognized as one of the official language. Gulp…that’s unthinkable for MCA of our times. Even at this old age, he was still very sharp, remembered a lot of histories and past events, like a living history encyclopedia (he said KOMTAR was supposed to have 3 towers instead of 1).
Anyway, I was practically adoring this old couple at lunch, although I probably hid my excitement very well in such polite company. Tun still cared very much for his wife, he was concerned with her food and drinks and kept asking her if she wanted this or that dishes.
One thing which he said that gave me the goosebump, even right now as I am recalling it:
The British asked us if we are ready for Independence. Many people didn’t think so, but I said “Yes, we are ready”.
