Blast from the past... Wee (2nd from left) was filled with pride being among the few boys with bicycles at his school in Jasin, Malacca. - September 1, 2013.“Now, what is it that you want to talk about...” he says as he plonks himself on the leather brown sofa.
Holding three handphones and a tablet in his hands, Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong’s deep and clear voice indeed commands presence in the parliament lobby.
Wee is the MCA Youth Chief and the Ayer Hitam MP, who is touted as a frontrunner for the party’s deputy president post.
He is also the former Deputy Education Minister, most recently in the news for finding out that a camera-mounted on a remote-control helicopter, also called a hexacopter, had flown over his home in Bukit Tiara, which he had claimed had something to do with the party polls in December.
Speaking to The Malaysian Insider recently, Wee, comes across as meaning business, with no time to waste. “My daily routine is making phone calls. If someone tries to call me, I would always feel uneasy until I call back,” he says, with a serious look.
But the man in the brown batik shirt is also willing to recite his life story if that is the task at hand.
Feeling relaxed, with his chin firmly rested on his right palm, as he places his arm on the side of the sofa, he says, “I was not born with a silver spoon. I had to work for everything I have.”
His parents were rubber tappers and as the eldest of five siblings, Wee had to help his parents at the estate during the weekends.
“At age 6, I started working at the estate for half the day. I would tap rubber, collect latex, harden it and would put it through a manually-operated machine for it to be sold,” he says, as he pushes his frameless rectangular glasses above his nose.
“My house also had no water supply. So every morning, as the eldest child in the family, I would wake up at 5am to take water from a nearby well to fill in a big container for the whole family to use.”
Wee was brought up in Kampung Air Baruk, Jasin in Melaka, surrounded by Malay neighbours.
“During those days, Malays, Chinese and Indians lived harmoniously. I still remember when my neighbour would cook nyonya food, she would call me ‘Ah Siong-ah, you want sambal also?’ as she passed the food to us,” he says.
Wee, a father of a 13-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy, is married to Datin Lim Hai Ean, whom he tied the knot with in 1999.
“I was a good student and did well academically although I never spent much time studying,” he said, adding that he was not boasting that he was smart, but he had an interest to learn.
“I earned my first bicycle at Standard 4 when my parents promised me a gift as a reward if I did well in school. Since then, I cycled to school, which was located about 2 kilometres from my house, until I was Form 3. At that time, to cycle to school on your own bicycle gave you a sense of pride,” he beamed.
When Wee was 13 years old, he also worked as a labourer during his school break.
“There was a seven-week break and I went to a construction site for houses to work as a general worker with a RM6-wage a day. That made me very fit physically,” he says as he flexes his muscles to show he still has it.
“But I really understood hardship. My parents told me that if I did not excel in my studies, then I was destined to do labour work for the rest of my life. So that motivated me to a certain extent to study really hard.”
Wee also worked in Singapore after Form 5, but without a permit.
“A teacher recommended a few of us from the school to work in Singapore for four months, while waiting for our results. Six of us were working at Hoi Peng Plastic Pty Ltd in Jurong area. We were paid S$20 for eight hours.
“I worked very hard and overtime for four extra hours every day, but was bullied by the Singaporean engineer there. I still remember his name, a Mr Tan. He would scold us and pick at every single thing my friends and I did.
“In my heart, I told myself that ‘one day, I must be the superior. I must do better than him’,” he says as he puts his hands behind his head and leans back.
Wee admits to having worked in Singapore without a work permit, after completing his Form 5. - September 1, 2013.When he returned to Malaysia to pursue his degree, he immediately applied for an engineering course.
He graduated in civil engineering in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and then pursued his Masters in Traffic Engineering in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where he also worked as a teaching assistant and a researcher, with a monthly salary of S$2,400 and a three-and-a-half-month bonus.
This avid scoutmaster then returned to UTM to continue his PhD in Transportation Planning.
Wee said he pursued his education all at his own expense as he saved all the money donated by associations and foundations and what he was paid when he worked.
“My childhood ambition, believe it or not, was to be a politician. I remember watching the black and white television in the 1978 general election and had also attended ceramah at age 10,” he smiles as he recounts this.
Determined not to veer off track, Wee began his political career when he joined MCA in 1992.
“I also became the youth secretary in 1993. Soon after, I was appointed by former Johor Baru MCA chairman and my mentor Freddie Long, as division secretary and I became a ‘Michael Chong’ where I would help people with their problems.”
So after more than two decades in politics, if he had one wish, what would he wish for?
“I would take my family to a secluded place for a week for a holiday, without my handphones.”
Can he really live without his phones?
“That is my biggest problem,” he says, as he fiddles with his phones again.
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