IN whatever you do, do your best” – that is the advice of The Star deputy group chief editor II Datuk Wong Chun Wai to some 200 students at SMK St Xaviers’ speech day in Penang.
“Not everyone will get a degree or become a professor. And if you become a doctor, it’s pointless if you are a lousy one and get money out of issuing MCs (medical certificates).
“Thus my advice is, don’t be a mediocre person. Be passionate in whatever you do. If you have to be a robber, be the best one. You wouldn’t want to be thrown in jail for stealing a loaf of bread,” he quipped, putting the audience in stitches.
He said he had joined the newspaper company immediately after leaving school.
“In my interview with (the then editorial adviser) Datuk Khor Cheang Kee, he asked me why I wanted to be a journalist.
 |
Teoh(second right)presenting copies of The Star to Brother Paul(left)under the Star-NIE sponsorship programme to the school.With them is Wong(right). |
“I told him I was basically a busybody and I got penalised often in school for talking too much.
“I also said I put in my best effort in whatever I do. Lastly, I said I thought he would give me the job because I was a Xaverian,” he said, adding that Khor was also from the same school.
Wong, who was the guest of honour, went on to share his ex-periences as a journalist which enabled him to meet famous people such as former US President Bill Clinton, Cuban president Fidel Castro, former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, former South African President Nelson Mandela and pop groups like Black Eyed Peas and N’Sync.
Russian Federation’s honorary consul Teoh Seng Lee, who is also a Xaverian, also pledged to sponsor 200 copies of The Star each week to the school for a year under the Star-NiE (Newspaper-in-Edu-cation) programme.
Inti International College Penang principal Michael S. M. Yap gave away the college’s book prizes to students for academic excellence.
A total of 177 outstanding students received prizes for various achievements.
The VIPs were earlier ushered into the school hall as the school band played their bagpipes. They performed the song When The Saints Go Marching In.
During the interval, a choir also sang John Denver’s Country Roads and Man Bai’s Kau Ilhamku.
Also present were school principal Brother Paul Ho and parent-teacher association chairman Paul Seah.
