A wolf in sheep's clothing.

I remember there was a book titled 'Straight and Crooked Thinking' where the author discusses and points out how people twists matters so that what is wrong can appear to be right to the not so discerning listeners or readers.

I remember that book when I read of politicians who claim that it is selfish to take away the rights of a particular race in a country comprising a good number of races. These politicians talk of special rights which do not exist in the constitution of the country. To say that there were such rights, they insisted that 'the special position of the Malays' as given in the constitution imply such rights.

And to make themselves the righteous fighter of their race, they would talk about such rights being necessary to overcome the economic weaknesses of the poor among the race. In fact it, assisting the particular race to overcome their poverty, was accepted by the other races some forty years ago. Yet, the poor were given crumbs while some politicians became rich overnight. (There was this once upon a time poor railway gate keeper who after entering politics became so rich and powerful that he used government land to enrich himself further. With power and wealth, he arrogantly built a huge palace among the poor of his race, exposing his wrongs.) When one politician can get away with enriching himself thus without a murmur from his political colleagues, would it be wrong for the citizens to wonder why or how he could have got away with it for so many years?

And all such noisy protests despite the government implementing another economic policy in which all the poor in the country would be assisted according to the needs of the people concerned. If these people want the poor of their race to be helped, then there is no more need to protest as all those poor will surely be helped through this new economic policy. The only exception would be that even the poor of other races would be helped too but no one should complain about that. Unless these politicians are actually using the excuse of helping the poor of their race to help themselves to business projects, licenses and such opportunities to enrich their rich selves further. In which case, their being not poor but rich enough, they would not be in a more favourable position than others just as rich. They want that unfair advantage for themselves.

Looking at it, these politicians are the ones who are making use of the poverty issue and selfishly thinking of themselves. And to get those innocent poor to support their selfish cause, they use a lot of what the book I mentioned called 'crooked thinking. 'Crooked thinking' helps to make the 'wolf' look like a 'sheep', a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Another self-made champ: Seizing the opportunity!

A friend asked me how would a person from a poor family who did not have the opportunity to study be able to achieve success.

Well, it is true that without a university education, there can be no opportunity to be a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer or an accountant.

But life is not about being a lawyer, a doctor or an accountant. There are still so many other things in life we can be successful in.

Allow me to tell you a true story of a very poor man who was determined to achieve success and did put his everything into it when opportunity knocked.

I personally know this young man who is about twenty years younger than me. We were together in learning Martial Arts and Qiqong under Sifu Wong Kiew Kit in Wahnam Shaolin, Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia. He was the son of a Chinese herbal drink vendor at a small stall in that part of Sungai Petani named Old Town.

He had very little schooling as his family was poor. As a teenager, he was a newspaper boy, delivering newspapers to his customers.

Fortunately, he had intelligence, courage, strength, coordination of movements and so was fast in everything he does. He had a strong determination to succeed. He saved whatever money he could.

At one stage, he used to come to me to help him get orchids to plant and sell in the compound of a house he bought.

We used to discuss his ideas. He even requested for temporary occupation of government land to plant vegetables and fruit trees in another town, Merbok.

One day, the government thought of getting back the land for a Disney-like tourist attraction. He got a huge sum of money from the government when he had to give away his fruit plantation on the land.

With that money, together with some people, he invested in a packaging factory.

Today, with a wife who is just as hardworking and intelligent, he has extended his business, having another factory in Kuala Lumpur.

With his hard work and strength, he started projects. When the opportunity came, he quickly used the sudden financial improvement to start something even bigger. The rest was more hard work and greater returns and that is the business of packaging.

So, there are always opportunities. All our children and us need is to be ready for such opportunities. Yes, get ready, learn everything there is to be learned, keep ready whatever money there is and do whatever that can and ought to be done so that when the boat of opportunity comes, we are ready to jump aboard to sail to success.