Subang Jaya assemblyperson Michelle Ng has penned a moving tribute to her great-grandmother who came to Malaysia as a refugee fleeing China's civil unrest.
Ng, who is originally from Kuantan, took her two-year-old son to visit her ancestral grave and wrote a loving message reminding Malaysians that we need to build bridges, not walls between us.
"Before leaving Kuantan, I brought my son to visit his great-great-grandparents.
"He may not yet know the significance of doing what we do. But as his parents, we want him to know his roots, to respect and honour his elders," she said.
Ng shared that she is the descendant of a refugee, saying that her great-grandmother had to flee China as her great-great-grandfather was a provincial general there.
"His family therefore risked persecution. She came to Malaysia and took refuge as a child bride, and was brought up by a family here who took her as their own," said Ng, who is in her second term representing Subang Jaya.
It is not entirely clear which conflict her great-grandmother fled as the tombstone indicated 1915 as her year of birth.
Ng said the family in Malaysia accepted her great-grandmother and that made all the difference.
"That family only knew what it meant to be 'us'. It was never 'us' and 'her'.
"And for that, I am eternally grateful.
"The best of us comes about when we build bridges, not walls," she added. - Mkini
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