Tun Tan, a man of calibre and integrity

AS a young officer in the government service in the early 60s, I had the opportunity of accompanying the late Tun Tan Siew Sin, our one time Finance Minister, to attend international conferences and meetings overseas with other officers from the Treasury.

Malaysia’s delegations to these events were usually small comprising not more than seven or eight people travelling on commercial airlines in economy class, except for the minister.

Tan always made it a point to have lunch or dinner with us during such occasions despite his tight schedule.

He had a special liking for sambal belacan for his lunch or dinner, perhaps a trait of his Malacca origin.

I remember on one occassion he specifically asked one of us in the delegation enroute to Washington DC to bring the sambal to Davos where we were to meet him after his hunting trip to Kenya.

On another occasion he asked one of the Treasury boys in the delegation to bring some of his luggage back to Kuala Lumpur. He gave some cash to the officer to pay for the taxes for some taxable items he purchased during the trip.

When going through the Customs at Subang, the Customs officer asked us whether we had anything to declare before we opened our suitcases.

As for the minister’s luggage the Treasury officer said he is just carrying it for him. He wanted to open it but the Customs officer said there was no need as the baggage was cleared.

The following Monday morning, the Treasury officer was very excited when he went to call on the minister at his office after the luggage had arrived safely and to return his money.

He thought he would get a pat on the back because he did not use the minister’s money at all.

When Tan saw the money he asked why he did not pay the tax to which the officer replied the Customs officer at the airport did not inspect his luggage but just let it through.

Tan was annoyed and indeed very angry.

He immediately rang the Director-General of Customs the late Tan Sri Wan Hamzah and told him over the phone that his officer at the airport was not doing his work and called him to his office. The rest is history.

During one of the trips to Washington for the World Bank/IMF annual meeting Tan asked one of his officers to change his travellers cheques.

The officer did it very quickly at the hotel itself.

And when Tun realised that he was short-changed because of the unfavourable exchange rate, the officer was given a pep talk and told to go to the bank the next time.

These little anecdotes have left a deep impression on many of us who worked with him on what sort of person the Tun was.

Where can we find a minister of this calibre and integrity nowadays?

I remember he just could not tolerate people comparing Malaysia with Singapore especially our money which was on par or a bit stronger than Singapore’s at the time of separation.

He prided himself on the strength of our dollar then vis-a-vis the Singapore dollar.

At that time we were ahead of Singapore in terms of our economic performance, and we did not have oil at that time.

Tan also could not tolerate budget deficits and during his tenure as Finance Minister we had surplus budgets every year.

We hope our present leaders can emulate and stand above our leaders of yesteryears not only in terms of their integrity, sincerity and honesty but also in commanding the respect and admiration of all Malaysians regardless of their race, creed and colour.

DATUK HJ AHMAD SIDEK

Petaling Jaya