Humble roots are nothing to be ashamed of, says this Jelutong boy

IN Wong Chun Wai’s On The Beat column last Sunday, one sentence which struck a chord for me was, “Tough has been the word he (Lee Chong Wei) learnt from an early age, where he spent his childhood in Jelutong and Teluk Bahang before moving to Bukit Mertajam.”

The trigger word here was Jelutong, having come from that part of Penang island myself. In my growing-up years, it was more often notorious for gangster activities along its many shady lanes.