DRIVEN by desperation, my father borrowed money for a perilous boat journey from China and across the South China Sea to the then Malaya, in search of a better life with my mother, eldest brother and sister and a single mother. He left behind a village suffering extreme hardship then, with most barely able to put food on the table.
Having survived the perilous boat journey, my father’s next big task was to find work and this was indeed a monumental task in a land which was totally alien to him. Desperation drove him to try his hand at various jobs, which included making crude cigars, tailoring and rubber tapping. It was in rubber tapping that he finally settled down to a more defined livelihood. In fact, the whole family finally became rubber tappers – my parents, my eldest brother and two elder sisters. Only my second brother, my younger sister and I, being the three youngest in the family, were fortunate enough to attend school.
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