Born on 10 February 1974 at a very small village named Kg. Agam, Kota, Negeri Sembilan
Brought up in a typical traditional country life or "kampung" life where paddy fields, rivers and jungle used to be my playgrounds.
The village was so small and the total occupied houses was only 11.We knew each other very well in the village and that made me had little friends a well.
School years ..1980-1991
Sent to a kindergarten at another village named Kg. Legong Ulu at the age of 6 because it was none at my own village. Stayed at my grandmother's house at the same village which is closer to the kindergarten to enable me to walk to the kindergarten every day.
Started my formal education at the school at the age of 7 years old at Sekolah Kebangsaan Astana Raja, 71350 Kota, Negeri Sembilan. There were two classes in each grade in the school namely Blue and Red. I performed pretty good during my primary school days where I was on the top three of the final exam in each year in the Blue class. I never felt that I was smarter than others but I do admit it now that I worked very hard to get those results since that was the best way that I can make my parent happy at that time.
The only thing that I was different from my elder brother and my friends was I gave more serious attention to homeworks given by my teachers.
I took a lot of time by myself to understand what have been taught at school and that kept me stay awake until late night under the light of the kerosene-fueled lamp or known as "pelita minyak tanah". My parent has never pushed me to study that hard but I have been advised by many people that time if I can excel my study, I would have a brighter future and that was my only motivation. I guess studied under the kerosene lamp has affected my eyesight and I was advised to wear a glass by the age of 8.
I had dreams that time that I wanted to have a better and more comfortable life in the future where my parent can enjoy it with me. Whenever my parent came to my school to receive rewards directly from the headmaster due to the good results that I obtained in every year end examination, I felt very excited.
Other than that my life was just like any typical "kampung" boys. After the daily school hours I played in the muddy water in the paddy field and cleaned ourself in the river with my friends. Sometime I brought some fishes that I caught from the river and fruits for friends and teachers at school.
I was offered a place at a boarding school after just after I completed my standard six. This is due to my 5A result in my Penilaian Darjah 5 exam and excellent performance throughout my standard six. I was shocked that I have never felt those results were excellent anyway and I did not even know that what is boarding school all about. Suddenly my parent agreed to accept the offer and from that moment I started my life separately from my family.
I was fairly unknown during my secondary school days at Sekolah Tuanku Jaafar, Gentam, Kuala Pilah throughout my 5-year stay there. I was rarely spoken to others other than my classmates. I guess no one will remember me there other than students from the same batch of mine.
Other than my normal life there, I hadtwo most important moments that will never vanish in my mind.
The first one was my frustration when I scored 5 Aggregate in my Sijil Rendah Pelajaran exam but did not received any prize from the school. The only reason was because I obtained 7A (6 A1, 1 A2) for others subjects and a C3 for my English paper. Others who obtained less A1 than me but with no C3 received the prizes. Only Allah knew how sad I was and I was not in the list to receive awards for the excellent performance in SRP from the school. I was so disappointed that I could not invite my parent to come to my school to witness that since it has been my dream since I stepped my foot in the school.
The second moment was a happier one and that was very motivated by the earlier frustration. I managed to get the award at last. I was a joint top scorer with another student who was also my good friend. We obtained the same aggregate but he was ahead of me in As for few other subjects. However, it was great enough for me because finally my dream has come true and I was in the school to receive the award! Although my parent was not able to witness that day personally but I was happy enough to show to them the book from the ceremony where my name was listed as one of the award recipients for excellent performance in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia 1991.
What made it more special that time was, it was unknown to many of my friends in that batch since I was never expected by anyone to "get that" and until now, I am remain unknown for that achievement to those who were in STJ in the same time I was there.
In the end I can say it to myself at least that I have achieved my dream there although it came at the very last moment. One day, hopefully I can inspire my children by saying to them that "your father was one of the top scorers in a boarding school and he came from a small village with only 11 houses".
Pre university (1992-1994)
Received an offer for a science matriculation course at University Kebangsaan Malaysia. Based at Junior Mara College at Seremban, Negeri Sembilan in the first year and later moved to Kuala Pilah Matriculation Centre (PMKP) to finish the second year. Academically, I performed at an average level thoughout my matriculation years. I suffered a culture shock in the first year with the CGPA system and performed quite bad in the first semester in Seremban. Managed to get better result towards the end that enabled to be accepted in the Engineering Faculty of UKM.
Personally, the highlights of my pre-university days was not so much in my academic performance. I discovered something new in me when I started to involve with some activities with other students. In Seremban , I involved in organizing activities for students with one of the student council members. We involved in students election campaign and many more. Other than that, I was voted by my classmates in my class and also in my mentor-mentee group to be their chief.
These kind of exposure were an alien and totally new to me but slowly I found it very enjoyable. This was due to my quiet character since I was at school and the inferiority feeling that I have in me due to the origin where I came from. I started to feel more open and speak up more of my mind when I deal and talk to more people. All that gave me more confidence and the alien-like feeling started to go off my back.
On top of that, being a chief in a small group within my friends in has developed some new skills in me especially in leadership. I learned how to manage my own friends and in the same time they were expecting me to perform my duties as their leader directly or indirectly. I feel so awkward when I heard people started to comment and criticize what I did although we were friends.
My leadership and human management learning processes continued when I moved to PMKP where I was voted to lead another group of students. First as a class monitor and secondly as as the president of the Creative Club. On top of that, the monitor of the class was appointed as a student council member automatically. Roles and responsibilities that I need to play was even more challenging and there were moments that I thought all that were too much from me.
In PMKP I really felt that I really transformed myself to someone new. I did many things that I never thought that I will such as giving regular speeches to my classmates, public speaking during the weekly assembly and etc. In the same time all that really developed my personal characters to be more confident of myself and show off my expressions whenever necessary in order to get things done.
By the time I had to decide on what course to choose for my degree in UKM, without any doubt I changed from medical to engineering. It was my father's dream for me to be a doctor but knowing about myself more at that time, I knew that career would be suitable for my future although it was another tough call to make.
I left my matriculation years with another personal missions accomplished (although the personal development part was far more beyond my own expectations). I was more confident to step into another stage of my life in the campus and I was very clear on what I wanted to achieve further in UKM later. I knew that I just need to keep develop and polish skills that I gained the the two-year spell in the matriculation while pursuing my first bachelor degree in the engineering faculty.
Undergraduate at UKM Bangi(1994-1997)
Accepted in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department at the Engineering Faculty of UKM. Engineering course has been known for its tough time to be dealt with and I would not deny that. Knowing that in the first place, I knew that I could not afford to take my study lightly at all although in the same time, I had a greater desire to explore the most of potentials that I have in me other than the academic side.
The goals for me was very clear...I need to get my degree in the specified period and I want to development myself to be prepared enough to start my career the moment I step out from the campus later.
To make make it short, I obtained my degree at last in 1997. Second class honour with my name listed a recipient of the Dean's Award for one semester. I have never failed or need to resit for papers in any subject throughout my 3 1/2 -year period in the campus. Surely I was not listed among the best in the academic achievement but I was the earliest one ( to my knowledge) who was offered a place for an industrial training and later to secure a job to start my career while my friends were having tough time to land any job during the currency crisis in 1997.
In UKM I was considered by most of my friend as a different type from other typical engineering students due to my active involvement in non academic activities. I spent my time with other engineering students only at lecture halls, tutorial classes and labs. Other than that I was pretty occupied with works for numbers of projects and events.
There were many of people surrounding me who were not supportive on how I lead my life in the campus. Except for a very few close friends, most of them gave me very little words of encouragement or to agree with what I was trying to achieve.
There were moments I felt being isolated by my own friends by the way they talked and looked at me just because I was not like any of them. I ended up being more close to those shared the same thoughts with me by doing all those activities.Here I would like to share some of the moments that I strongly believe as major milestones and accomplishments for me as person in my years at UKM.
1994-1995
Accepted to pursue my study in Mechanical Engineering
Accepted to be a member of Urusetia Kerjaya under the Students Affair Department, UKM.
An active member of the organizing secretariat in Urusetia Kerjaya (UK)for the UKM's 13th Career Day and Career Forum for final years students.
Both projects were initiated and implemented by UK with funding came from sponsorships by the the private individuals and organizations.I was in-charge on the forum and apart of the marketing team to source for sponsorships deals. We managed to fill the main hall at Dewan Canselor Tun Abdul Razak (DECTAR) UKM with exhibition booths and a main sponsor from Maybank and Co-Sponsor by Samsung. The estimated total costs for the project was about RM60k and we manage to secure beyond that figure in less than 4 months of efforts.
As a person, I was chosen to be the MC for the opening ceremony of the Career Day and that was the real breakthrough for me in public speaking. The event was a very formal where the audience were the high officials of UKM, representatives from private companies and etc. On top of that, the guest of honour was a minister.
Played a key roles with other members in UK in a National Educational Workshop For Secondary Schools. Again, I was apart of the team looking for sponsorships and later became one of the facilitators for the students during the workshop itself.
Prior to the both events, we had to underwent a very vigorous training programs in project marketing, business and dress codes protocols, skills in facilitating and etc outlined by UK.
All that I learned were new skills and knowledge which have been very interesting to me and very useful until today.
Among the best thing that I managed to acquire in my early days in UK was the methods to understand the emotion of others people and later to motivate them to pursue their goals and dreams. We were taught very extensively on that matters when we were prepared to be facilitators for the school students in a week-long workshops and activities.
What I concluded from all that was, there were so much to learn at the campus other than the academic qualifications. We must excel in academics but we should not ignore the importance of getting ourselves ready for the real world with all the soft skills required as a person. I managed to complete my first year in UKM successfully balanced my academic and non-academic responsibilities . For years to come I had more intense desire to build more in my personal as a person to prepare myself before I enter the job market later.
1995-1996
I continued my involvement in UK. My performance in the first year was recognized and rewarded with more specific responsibilities. I was appointed to sit in the Board on UK to in the same time as the Director of the 14th Career Day of UKM in 1996. It was another very challenging and also a successful year at the end for me. Other than with UK I was involved partly in the annual dinner for the engineering faculty and also programs with the student association of Negeri Sembilan.
In that year we managed to secure more than RM86k for the 14th Career Day of UKM and all the UK members was rewarded with a vacation trip at Pulau Kapas. That achievement marked another great year for me as a person for being the director of the project and nothing can stop me to feel how grateful I was with the team that I had to achieve that.
Until now, I am still puzzled with the amount of money that we managed to secure within 4 months with the main involvement of about 30 first and second year students...together we have managed to market our project and to convince various organization especially the private companies to participate in the annual event with a strong guide and advise from more seniors members in UK. We secured RM15k for the main sponsor and a co sponsors with RM10,000 contribution...we doubled the price for the exhibition booths from the previous year and still we had to refused to late comers due to unavailability of space.
That was also the first time I gave a speech to hundreds of audience and shared the same rostrum with a very high level officials from UKM, the main sponsor and the ministry.
1996-1997
The year that I felt so fast to happen while I was still enjoying my campus life. I knew the moment will come where I need to move to another level of my life...new world and different world.
I completed my degree program just like others but I believe that I have gained something more valuable for me to keep pursuing my life in the future.
I was the chairman of UK in the last session of my study years in UKM. With my leadership and great people in my management team at UK, we continued the tradition with another successfully implemented projects and handed over the responsibilities to the next group of members who we believed to continue create more success stories for UK. We hoped and prayed that they will achieve something greater than what we have accomplished.
Personally I owed UK so much for all the experiences and knowledge that I learned to improve myself as a human especially. I realized my true potential and the most important things that I gained from all that was...I have become more certain on what I wanted to do and achieve the moment I stepped out from the campus to pursue my dreams! I also found true friends in UK where supports, helps and sacrifices for each other were unconditional. The bond between each of us just like true brothers and sisters that would never-never end and that is the main reason why most of us are still feel comfortable to contact each other until today.
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When I left UKM, I felt deeply in my heart that I was prepared enough for the "real" world after the campus life.
I believe in myself that I will survive and successful in pursuing my dreams along the way in my career. Challenges are about something for me to overcome and I did say it repeatedly to myself that nothing would be easy and the future will be full of bumpy rides and uncertainties. Thankful to Allah that has given me the strengths and guides throughout my campus life which enabled me to have the most important feeling for me to face my own future...I FEEL SO CERTAIN ABOUT MYSELF AND STRENGTHS THAT I HAVE IN ME TO MOVE FORWARD!
When I am looking back from where I came from, all that will remind me that it has been a long way before I reached here today. What matters now is all about differences that I can make in the future while all my past will remain as something that can keep me motivated. It was a long journey and I would not be here today if I ignored what I did in the past. What we did moments or years ago brought us here today and what we do today will lead us to where were will be in tomorrow.
I just do not to regret myself in the future just because I failed to do something that I am suppose to do today. I can see all that today since there were many things that I did since I was small has been giving so much impact to my life at the next stage after another...even until today. The world is ready to be explored by anyone and it does not matter where we come from and how we found our way to be there.
We need to have a good dream for ourself as a start and without that...most probably we may end up no where or end up with nothing! I had my dreams when I started to understand about life as a child and every small dream that I reached, it opened myself to dream for something greater and I just want to keep dreaming until the end of my life!
Life is great but it is up to us to make it great or miserable! Finding reasons for us not be the greatest is better than finding excuses for our failures.
