My First Posting

I reported duty to Mr Cheong Chup Lim , who was the Assistant Director General of Planning. He told me I''ll be sent to Urban Drainage Unit which was headed by an Australian Consultant engaged under the Pahang Tenggara Town Draiange Planning and Design Project. Later I learned that the Unit was also to handle urban flood mitigation projects and to publish an Urban Drainage Planning and Design Manaual. The Consultant had two engineers stationed in the Unit, Peter and Kenneth V. Lewis. After a few months Peter went back to Australia and did not come back again. Kent Lewis was with us untill 1978. Besides Peter and Kent Lewis, there were three local engineers: Mr Lau Kim Paik. the late Mr Lynder and the contract engineer Mr Lim Peng Weng.. A few days later my University classmates Chang Siew Hong joined me but he left to join City Hall about two months later. Chew Chai Huat and Ekuang Ngan who were graduates from Singapore University reported to the Unit about a month later. Liew Chin Loong graduated from UK joined us about three months later. Liew and I later became brother in law. How it happened will be an interesting story to be told later. About a year later Seet Wai Lin and Ng Cheek What came in . By then Mr Lim had finished his contract with the deprtment and left to join local council of Penang Island; whereas Mr Lau and Mr Lynder who were senior engineers in their early thirties were promoted to assume more responsible posts. Kent Lewis left the Department in 1978 when he finished his contract.t. Thirty years later we had a reunion in 2005 with Kent Lewis who came to take part in Ironman Race in Pulau Langkawi.

For those of us just starting the career we could only start off with motor bike as a mean of transport except Liew who bought a second hand car not long after joining the Department and he was also the first to get a steady girlfriend, Teh Ah Yeow a fresh technical assistant, who later became Mrs Liew and my sister-in-law i.e. sister of my wife. Huh! interesting ! right? How it happened? I shall narrate it in future posting provided my wife, Kim, give the green light. What I can tell you now is that the way we met is like those you used to see in Hong Kong movie. OK I'll stop hear.

In 1977 I applied to do a postgraduate study in Delft, Holland. During my Chinese New Year vacation i.e Jan/Feb 1978 I'd to cut short my holiday in Penang to rush back to KL as I received a telegram from the Department wanting me to sign certain documents as I'd been nominated for the postgraduate course mentioned. When I went back to the office the next day I realised that I was only put as a reserve to Zamali who was one year my junior in terms of service. I think Phuah was in the training division and he would know the rationale of the selection. I never asked him about it until today. Of course I did not get it. Few months later in the same year I got my promotion to act on a senior time scale post. This was the second fateful turn of event that changed the course of my career life. Before this I was contemplating to leave government service after the three years mandatory service with government department. But now with this promotion I gave myself another two years. If I got my next promotion to superscale 'G' I shall be contented to stay and serve the Department until mandatory retirement age of 55. During that time my senior who were on supersclae "G" had owned car and house and I thought that was good enough for me. Looking back now this was not a very ambitious target, right? Anyway I really got my second promotion to act on superscale 'G" in early 1980. With this two promotions I started to commit myself to get married , pay for downpayment for house and and get car loan and continue to support my family and siblings. With theses commitments I became very cautious wanted to venture out in the private sector. In addition I was enjoying job satisfaction for being entrusted with great responsibility: I became a state director at the age of 36 which was considered very lucky. By the time I realised I had hit the ceiling and wanting to go into private sector, I was in a very awkward position as I technically became not so hands on and yet not so well connected to get job for any company. The only wayout for me if I wanted to advance myself was to add value and create opportunities for myself. The story is getting too long I shall stop here until the next posting