Ex-landlady the latest to step forward to help keropok seller

Ex-landlady the latest to step forward to help keropok seller

Here is a man who is rightly deserving of assistance but refuses to accept it because he wants to be INDEPENDENT!

I can safely assume that he has nothing of significant monetary value to his name, to top it off, he is physically disabled as a result of fever when he was young, according to Paul who had come forward and claiming to be Ah Fook's (the man's name) childhood friend.

Ah Fook cherishes his independent and refused to go to a welfare home.

He makes all of us look like invalid and I am glad that many have come forward to make life a bit better for him. It is not reported whether he accepted their monetary hand out willingly. I imagine he would probably insist that they part with his keropok in exchange for him accepting their cash.

This is the kind of spirit that we Malaysians especially Bumiputras, should emulate. Ah Fook is the BOLEH spirit personified. He doesn't whine about his predicament, he doesn't blame others for his plight, he doesn't beg for a living, he doesn't insist that we help him, he wants to make it on his own with whatever resources he has; his will to survive and whatever limb movement that is left and available in his body to make a living. He walks 2 hours everyday to his 'stall'.

                   Ah Fook, selling keropok at Sea Park, Petaling Jaya

I like to think that amongst those good samaritans who came forward to help Ah Fook included Malay, Indians etc. We are Malaysians! More than that, we are human beings. It doesn't matter what the colour of our skin are, we share a common trait, the ability to be compassionate. Few years back, I read in the news about a Malay kid falling from the window of his house. This happened in West Malaysia. I don't remember the exact details but it left a positive impact on me and reinforced my belief in humanity. The first person who came to help the boy was a Chinese man. When the situation calls for it, we will rise to the occasion. We will rise above all the trivial details like the colour of your skin, who you believe, your political allegiance. In this case, the man was not motivated to help the boy because of his race or religion. He didn't see a MALAY BOY. He see A BOY who was injured and needed help. As adult, his natural instinct to protect the young ones kicked in and he rushed forward to help.

You see in times of need or great emergency, we would not be thinking about all these little details. It would be about survival. We hear about people at their best during life and death situation or during natural disaster. People who sacrifice themselves for the well being of others even when they are of different nationality. The Tsunami incident during boxing day offers a lot of these fine examples.

However, it is unfortunate than when things settle down and when things return to normal, we all go back to our lives and forget all about these sacrifices. We hate and hate and hate because it is much easier to hate and blame others than to love and examine ourselves. We should draw inspiration from the sacrifices and act of kindness of these fine human beings to be better humans.