Melly G. Tan: Promoting multiculturalism

Ary Hermawan ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 06/19/2008 9:59 AM  |  People

Melly G. Tan will never forget the turbulent years she spent studying at the University of California in Berkeley, where she was the only Indonesian at the university's sociology department.

MELLY G. TAN: (JP/Ary Hermawan)

She was there from 1963 to 1968, during which great historical events took place in the United States and Indonesia.

"I was in my apartment getting ready for the first test of my first semester. Suddenly, the music on the radio stopped and there was an announcement that Kennedy had been shot," she said.

"I left my apartment to look for people, but there was no one in the building. I tried to call on the phone, but kept getting a busy signal. It was a frightening sensation, waiting to reach out to people and being unable to communicate with anyone.

"I was struck with the truth that we are indeed social beings," she wrote in her latest book, titled Etnis Tionghoa di Indonesia (Chinese Ethnics in Indonesia), an anthology of her scientific writings and essays on ethnicity, from the early 1990s to 2004.

She said that when she left for Berkeley it was not without apprehension. The economic situation under the Sukarno administration was heavily deteriorating and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was gaining ground.

"For Indonesian students abroad, it was a terrible time of anxiety and uncertainty. The anxiety had begun in 1963, when Indonesia was leaning toward the left, the Eastern bloc. We students in the leading country of the Western bloc heard many rumors that our fellowships would be canceled."

Berkeley is far different from Cornell University where she obtained her master's degree. At Berkeley "neither faculty members nor students were interested in Indonesia as an area of study", she said.

Despite her apprehension, Melly completed her dissertation on the Chinese community in the U.S. in 1968 and returned to Jakarta as the first Indonesian female sociologist with a PhD.

When she returned to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), where she worked, she was virtually alone again. She had a "triple minority status", being a woman, a Chinese and a Roman Catholic.

However, it was no hindrance to her career and role as a scientist. Within a few months, she was appointed the head of the institute's division of social studies and was involved in setting up the division of population studies, one of the institute's strongest research centers.

For more than three decades, she researched and wrote a vast number of papers on gender, racial and poverty issues in the country.

Melly has contributed her thoughts toward finding solutions on the problem of national integration, especially with regard to minority ethnic Chinese.

She has received six honorary medals, including the Satyalancana Karya Satya and Bintang Mahaputra Pratama in 1995 and the Bintang Jasa Nararya in 2000, for her work and contributions to the country.

On June 11, Melly turned 78 and Atma Jaya University held a seminar to celebrate her birthday.

At the event, she received two gifts: the opening of a Melly G. Tan Reading Room at the university and the publication of a book titled Multikulturalisme, Peran Wanita dan Integrasi Nasional (Multiculturalism, Women's Roles and National Integration) , a collection of articles dedicated to Melly.

Her lively gestures eclipsed her frail appearance as she greeted her long-time colleagues when the seminar ended.

As an ethnic Chinese having lived abroad for years, Melly knows very well how it feels to be a member of a minority group and knows the importance of recognizing differences.

"It is a given fact that we are a multicultural society. This is a fact whether you like it or not," she told The Jakarta Post on the sideline of the seminar.

"We have to think of the consequences, which is to be able to accept and respect our differences. "

Melly said some Indonesians are unable to appreciate these differences.

"The problem we have here is that we have not seriously dealt with the fact that we are an ethnically and religiously plural society and reach a consensus of its implication. "

The most recent indicator, she said, was the incident at Monas on June 1 when members of the Islam Defenders Front clashed with a number of people campaigning for religious freedom, in support of the Indonesian Ahmadiyah community.

"Even some of the Muslims here cannot settle their differences with other Muslims," she said.

She deplored the government's inability to manage differences in society, especially with the enactment of religion-inspired bylaws in the regions.

"This is an indication that the local leaders are unable to manage the existing differences, " she said.

She said multiculturalism is a central idea in nation-building and crucial to sustainability.

In her writings, she shows that plurality exists not only in the context of Indonesia as a nation but also within the different groups themselves.

Her research on Chinese-Indonesian Muslims, who also take an active part in Islamic organizations such as Muhammadiyah, acts as a reminder to the country's majority ethnic group, who often overlook the fact that not all Chinese Indonesian are non-Muslims.

The article was originally written a few months before the May riots in 1998 when anti-Chinese sentiment exploded in Jakarta. In the revised version, she writes that even Chinese Muslims were not spared during the riots, when people put up signs in front of their homes and stores reading "Muslim" and "pribumi" (native) to escape the violence, for they were still asked: Are you a "pribumi" or "non-pribumi" Muslim?

As a scientist, Melly is concerned about her responsibility to properly represent her community. Charles Coppel, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne, writes in the preface of Melly's new book that after the bloody 1998 riots, Melly is no longer detached from her subject as she was in her earlier works.

She has moved from the question of assimilation and has focused more on discrimination and how to end it, he writes.

Melly, who gets annoyed when people say she was a member of the Berkeley Mafia, a pejorative term for Soeharto's first economic team, believes sociologists can contribute a lot to development, which is currently dominated by political and economic considerations.

"We need more sociologists who understand culture and can analyze social relationships. They could explain why different communities can or cannot cooperate. This, we have to realize, is very important," she says.

http://www.thejakar tapost.com/ news/2008/ 06/19/melly- g-tan-promoting- multiculturalism .html

Bos Pengemis Tinggal Nikmati Hidup

Cak To, begitu dia biasa dipanggil. Besar di keluarga pengemis, berkarir sebagai pengemis, dan sekarang jadi bos puluhan pengemis di Surabaya . Dari jalur minta-minta itu, dia sekarang punya dua sepeda motor, sebuah mobil gagah, dan empat rumah. Berikut kisah hidupnya.

---

Cak To tak mau nama aslinya dipublikasikan. Dia juga tak mau wajahnya terlihat ketika difoto untuk harian ini. Tapi, Cak To mau bercerita cukup banyak tentang hidup dan ''karir''-nya. Dari anak pasangan pengemis yang ikut mengemis, hingga sekarang menjadi bos bagi sekitar 54 pengemis di Surabaya .

Setelah puluhan tahun mengemis, Cak To sekarang memang bisa lebih menikmati hidup. Sejak 2000, dia tak perlu lagi meminta-minta di jalanan atau perumahan. Cukup mengelola 54 anak buahnya, uang mengalir teratur ke kantong.

Sekarang, setiap hari, dia mengaku mendapatkan pemasukan bersih Rp 200 ribu hingga Rp 300 ribu. Berarti, dalam sebulan, dia punya pendapatan Rp 6 juta hingga Rp 9 juta.

Cak To sekarang juga sudah punya rumah di kawasan Surabaya Barat, yang didirikan di atas tanah seluas 400 meter persegi. Di kampung halamannya di Madura, Cak To sudah membangun dua rumah lagi. Satu untuk dirinya, satu lagi untuk emak dan bapaknya yang sudah renta. Selain itu, ada satu lagi rumah yang dia bangun di Kota Semarang .

Untuk ke mana-mana, Cak To memiliki dua sepeda motor Honda Supra Fit dan sebuah mobil Honda CR-V kinclong keluaran 2004.

***

Tidak mudah menemui seorang bos pengemis. Ketika menemui wartawan harian ini di tempat yang sudah dijanjikan, Cak To datang menggunakan mobil Honda CR-V-nya yang berwarna biru metalik.

Meski punya mobil yang kinclong, penampilan Cak To memang tidak terlihat seperti ''orang mampu''. Badannya kurus, kulitnya hitam, dengan rambut berombak dan terkesan awut-awutan. Dari gaya bicara, orang juga akan menebak bahwa pria kelahiran 1960 itu tak mengenyam pendidikan cukup. Cak To memang tak pernah menamatkan sekolah dasar.

Dengan bahasa Madura yang sesekali dicampur bahasa Indonesia , pria beranak dua itu mengaku sadar bahwa profesinya akan selalu dicibir orang. Namun, pria asal Bangkalan tersebut tidak peduli. ''Yang penting halal,'' ujarnya mantap.

Cak To bercerita, hampir seluruh hidupnya dia jalani sebagai pengemis. Sulung di antara empat bersaudara itu menjalani dunia tersebut sejak sebelum usia sepuluh tahun. Menurtu dia, tidak lama setelah peristiwa pemberontakan G-30-S/PKI.

Maklum, emak dan bapaknya dulu pengemis di Bangkalan. ''Dulu awalnya saya diajak Emak untuk meminta-minta di perempatan,'' ungkapnya.

Karena mengemis di Bangkalan kurang ''menjanjikan'', awal 1970-an, Cak To diajak orang tua pindah ke Surabaya . Adik-adiknya tidak ikut, dititipkan di rumah nenek di sebuah desa di sekitar Bangkalan. Tempat tinggal mereka yang pertama adalah di emprean sebuah toko di kawasan Jembatan Merah.

Bertahun-tahun lamanya mereka menjadi pengemis di Surabaya . Ketika remaja, ''bakat'' Cak To untuk menjadi bos pengemis mulai terlihat.

Waktu itu, uang yang mereka dapatkan dari meminta-minta sering dirampas preman. Bapak Cak To mulai sakit-sakitan, tak kuasa membela keluarga. Sebagai anak tertua, Cak To-lah yang melawan. ''Saya sering berkelahi untuk mempertahankan uang,'' ungkapnya bangga.

Meski berperawakan kurus dan hanya bertinggi badan 155 cm, Cak To berani melawan siapa pun. Dia bahkan tak segan menyerang musuhnya menggunakan pisau jika uangnya dirampas. Karena keberaniannya itulah, pria berambut ikal tersebut lantas disegani di kalangan pengemis. ''Wis tak nampek. Mon la nyalla sebet (Kalau dia bikin gara-gara, langsung saya sabet, Red),'' tegasnya.

Selain harus menghadapi preman, pengalaman tidak menyenangkan terjadi ketika dia atau keluarga lain terkena razia petugas Satpol PP. ''Kami berpencar kalau mengemis,'' jelasnya.

Kalau ada keluarga yang terkena razia, mau tidak mau mereka harus mengeluarkan uang hingga ratusan ribu untuk membebaskan.

***

Cak To tergolong pengemis yang mau belajar. Bertahun-tahun mengemis, berbagai ''ilmu'' dia dapatkan untuk terus meningkatkan penghasilan. Mulai cara berdandan, cara berbicara, cara menghadapi aparat, dan sebagainya.

Makin lama, Cak To menjadi makin senior, hingga menjadi mentor bagi pengemis yang lain. Penghasilannya pun terus meningkat. Pada pertengahan 1990, penghasilan Cak To sudah mencapai Rp 30 ribu sampai Rp 50 ribu per hari. ''Pokoknya sudah enak,'' katanya.

Dengan penghasilan yang terus meningkat, Cak To mampu membeli sebuah rumah sederhana di kampungnya. Saat pulang kampung, dia sering membelikan oleh-oleh cukup mewah. ''Saya pernah beli oleh-oleh sebuah tape recorder dan TV 14 inci,'' kenangnya.

Saat itulah, Cak To mulai meniti langkah menjadi seorang bos pengemis. Dia mulai mengumpulkan anak buah.

Cerita tentang ''keberhasilan'' Cak To menyebar cepat di kampungnya. Empat teman seumuran mengikutinya ke Surabaya . ''Kasihan, panen mereka gagal. Ya sudah, saya ajak saja,'' ujarnya enteng.

Sebelum ke Surabaya , Cak To mengajari mereka cara menjadi pengemis yang baik. Pelajaran itu terus dia lanjutkan ketika mereka tinggal di rumah kontrakan di kawasan Surabaya Barat. ''Kali pertama, teman-teman mengaku malu. Tapi, saya meyakinkan bahwa dengan pekerjaan ini, mereka bisa membantu saudara di kampung,'' tegasnya.

Karena sudah mengemis sebagai kelompok, mereka pun bagi-bagi wilayah kerja. Ada yang ke perumahan di kawasan Surabaya Selatan, ada yang ke Surabaya Timur.

Agar tidak mencolok, ketika berangkat, mereka berpakaian rapi. Ketika sampai di ''pos khusus'', Cak To dan empat rekannya itu lantas mengganti penampilan. Tampil compang-camping untuk menarik iba dan uang recehan.

Hanya setahun mengemis, kehidupan empat rekan tersebut menunjukkan perbaikan. Mereka tak lagi menumpang di rumah Cak To. Sudah punya kontrakan sendiri-sendiri.

Pada 1996 itu pula, pada usia ke-36, Cak To mengakhiri masa lajang. Dia menyunting seorang gadis di kampungnya. Sejak menikah, kehidupan Cak To terus menunjukkan peningkatan...

***

Setiap tahun, jumlah anak buah Cak To terus bertambah. Semakin banyak anak buah, semakin banyak pula setoran yang mereka berikan kepada Cak To. Makanya, sejak 2000, dia sudah tidak mengemis setiap hari.

Sebenarnya, Cak To tak mau mengungkapkan jumlah setoran yang dia dapatkan setiap hari. Setelah didesak, dia akhirnya mau buka mulut. Yaitu, Rp 200 ribu hingga Rp 300 ribu per hari, yang berarti Rp 6 juta hingga Rp 9 juta per bulan.

Menurut Cak To, dia tidak memasang target untuk anak buahnya. Dia hanya minta setoran sukarela. Ada yang setor setiap hari, seminggu sekali, atau sebulan sekali. ''Ya alhamdulillah, anak buah saya masih loyal kepada saya,'' ucapnya.

Dari penghasilannya itu, Cak To bahkan mampu memberikan sebagian nafkah kepada masjid dan musala di mana dia singgah. Dia juga tercatat sebagai donatur tetap di sebuah masjid di Gresik. ''Amal itu kan ibadah. Mumpung kita masih hidup, banyaklah beramal,'' katanya.

Sekarang, dengan hidup yang sudah tergolong enak itu, Cak To mengaku tinggal mengejar satu hal saja. ''Saya ingin naik haji,'' ungkapnya. Bila segalanya lancar, Cak To akan mewujudkan itu pada 2010 nanti... (ded/aza)

Pak Samin seorang Indonesia, menyopir mobil mengalami kecelakaan di BC.  Claimnya tidak dikabulkan oleh insurance, walaupun bayar insurance.  Karena dianggap melanggar peraturan BC.  Semua mobil disini harus punya insurance baru boleh disetir.  Sopir menetap lebih dari 90 hari di BC harus sudah punya sim yang sah dari ICBC, dan harus lulus namanya knowledge test dan road test.   Sedangkan pak Samin sudah mengambil test 2 kali gagal, tidak mau mengambil lagi.  Ia hanya berbekal SIM Indonesia.

Selanjutnya urutan kejadian2nya bisa dibaca di link dibawa.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/26/bc-noinsurance.html


ICBC selling insurance to unlicensed drivers
Insurance Corp. panned for 'dangerous' practice
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 | 1:14 PM ET
By Kathy Tomlinson CBC News

Puadudin Samin, left, and Jaco Retief, middle, tell Go Public reporter
Kathy Tomlinson that ICBC should not have sold them insurance when their
foreign driver's licences were not valid in B.C. (CBC)

An Indonesian immigrant says he wants to know why the Insurance
Corporation of British Columbia is selling car insurance to people who
are not legally allowed to drive in B.C., but won't cover their costs if
they get in an accident.

The practice came to light after a Vancouver man with an Indonesian
driver's licence was insured by the Insurance Corp. of B.C. to drive a
new leased vehicle, then denied coverage for an accident when it was
discovered he had lived in the province much longer than 90 days without
getting a B.C. driver's licence.

"I make it clear to the insurance broker: I don't have any B.C. licence
and I live in Vancouver more than five years," said Puadudin Samin.

"At the end of the day we shouldn't have had the insurance or the car
because we were not eligible to get it until we had the B.C. drivers
licences," said Jaco Retief, a South African who leased the vehicle with
Samin.

Doug McLelland, spokesman for ICBC, confirmed it is illegal for anyone
to drive in B.C. if they have lived in the province for more than three
months and do not have a B.C. driver's licence.

ICBC spokesman Doug McLelland says anyone can buy insurance in B.C.
(CBC) "Those people cannot drive in this province beyond the first 90
days unless they take a knowledge test - a written test and a driving
test," McLelland said.

Since he moved Vancouver seven years ago, Samin said, he had no need to
drive in Canada. In 2004, he said he attempted to get a B.C. driver's
licence, but failed the test and didn't try again.

Last December, Samin agreed to help his friend Retief lease a vehicle,
because Retief had just moved to Canada and his credit rating was not
sufficient without a co-lessee.

"I don't really need this car - I mean, I was honest about everything,"
Samin said.

Samin and Retief went to Jim Pattison Toyota in downtown Vancouver, and
arranged to lease a new Toyota RAV4. The dealership called an insurance
broker from All-West Insurance Services Ltd., one of the largest ICBC
insurance brokerage firms in the province.

Policy issued despite lack of licence
Samin and Retief said they told the broker several times that neither
one of them had a B.C. driver's licence. They said the broker told them
that was no problem, that they could both insure and drive the car, and
then had 90 days to get their B.C. driver's licence.

"They said 90 days - 90 days from you buy the car," Samin said. "That's
until March. I said are you serious? I said that. I didn't believe it. I
still didn't believe it."

Because B.C. law states new residents must pass all B.C. driving tests
and requirements within 90 days of arriving in the province, Samin's
window of opportunity to drive legally in B.C. with his Indonesian
licence had closed long ago.

Samin and Retief said they relied on the information the broker gave
them and bought the insurance. On the ICBC insurance document, Samin is
listed as the primary operator of the vehicle.

Samin said, in retrospect, he doesn't understand why he was sold the
insurance.

'Dangerous' practice
"Driving around without a valid B.C. licence - that is very dangerous
not just for me but for somebody else, for everybody," Samin said.

In early February, Samin was involved in a minor accident. Police at the
scene informed him he had been driving the leased vehicle illegally, and
issued him a $138 ticket for driving without a licence.

Fault for the accident was split, half to Samin and half to the other
driver.

ICBC then told Samin his claim for damages from the accident would
likely be denied, because he was in breach of his policy for driving
without a licence. ICBC gave him a 10-day grace period to pass his B.C.
driver's test. Samin said he tried twice, but failed both times.

"It's like I don't want to touch the car anymore," Samin said. "It's a
really, really bad experience."

All-West Insurance says ICBC told its broker incorrectly that the
drivers had 90 days to get licensed. (CBC)
Samin and Retief now have a $4,000 bill from ICBC for damages from the
accident, and they are paying approximately $1,000 a month for a vehicle
Samin can't drive.

"I've been struggling for three months to sort this out," Retief said.
"We are still paying the lease and the insurance, and now the insurance
is going to go up again because of the outstanding claims.

"I know I've been treated unfairly," he said. "Something needs to be
done about it."

Paul Zalesky, CEO of All-West Insurance, told CBC News his broker issued
the insurance to Samin and Retief after consulting with ICBC.

ICBC to blame: broker
"The broker inquiry unit of ICBC made the statement [to the broker] that
they have 90 days to get licensed," Zalesky said. "If a finger were to
be pointed, it should be pointed in that direction."

Zalesky declined to comment further, citing possible legal action by his
firm.

When CBC News asked McLelland of ICBC about the case, he said, "The
insurance should not have been sold in the situation you have described.
If a broker gives bad advice to a customer the customer does have
recourse against the broker."

McLelland later corrected that information, though, and said ICBC does
not require insurance brokers to check whether someone has a valid
licence when they sell them auto insurance. Brokers only need to ask for
identification, he said, which can be a driver's licence from any
jurisdiction, even one that has expired.

McLelland acknowledged that means several people could be driving
vehicles in B.C. without ever having passed a B.C. driver's test - and
their driving skills may not be up to Canadian standards.

ICBC refuses to pay for accident damage to Puadudin Samin's car because
he was deemed to be driving illegally. (CBC)
"Anybody who wants to buy insurance can buy insurance from us,"
McLelland said. "The principle is we want people to have insurance."

McLelland said the corporation does not track how many insurance
policies are issued to drivers who don't have B.C. licences. He said it
also doesn't count how may claims are denied for breach of policy
because the driver's licence isn't valid.

"I think they just want the money of the insurance premiums every
month," Retief said. "Then, suddenly, when there is a claim, the licence
that they accepted is not good enough.

"We were lucky there were not personal injury claims on our claim."

When asked whether he is concerned about a public safety issue,
McLelland answered, "Well, sure, obviously we are concerned about this.
This speaks to driver licensing and insurance and those are both our
lines of business. I'm certainly going to be talking to broker relations
to see if there is something we can do to remind brokers of what
reminders they should give the customers."

Pair on hook for accident damage
"I just wanted someone to tell us - OK you live here five years, you
don't have any B.C. licence. I suggest you rather get the B.C. license
first and then you back here and you lease the car," Samin said.

Both men want ICBC to honour their claim and they would like the
dealership to cancel their lease agreement, without penalty.

Eddie Tao of Jim Pattison Toyota refused to comment on the situation:
"It has nothing to do with us. We didn't sell the insurance."

McLelland said Samin and Retief are responsible for reimbursing ICBC for
the full cost of the accident, despite the mix-up.

"They have been driving when they are not authorized to do so,"
McLelland said.

Ajaib, mari disaksikan.  Seorang jalan menerobos meja tanpa luka, tanpa putus badanya dari ujung satunya ke-ujung lainya.  Klick di URL dibawa. 

http://www.youmaker .com:80/video/ sv?id=51485816d3 124842bc22d463af 60dc51001&f=fs

If you want to stay to 80, 90 or 100 yrs old... a must read Article.

This is Minister MentorLee Kuan Yew's advice on ageing the best way one can. Here is the transcript of his remarks.

Very interesting insight from the Old Man. If you have read it before, or don't have the time to read the whole story, just read the last few paragraphs. Good Advice!

Lee Kuan Yew on aging 'Stay interested in the world, take on a challenge':

Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew This story was first published on Jan 12, 2008.

*******

MY CONCERN today is, what is it I can tell you which can add to your knowledge about ageing and what ageing societies can do.

You know more about this subject than I do. A lot of it is out in the media, Internet and books. So I thought the best way would be to take a personal standpoint and tell you how I approach this question of ageing.

If I cast my mind back, I can see turning points in my physical and mental health. You know, when you're young, I didn't bother, I assumed good health was God-given and would always be there. When I was about - '57 that was - I was about 34, we were competing in elections, and I was really fond of drinking beer and smoking. And after the election campaign, in Victoria Memorial Hall - we had won the election, the City Council election - I couldn't thank the voters because I had lost my voice. I'd been smoking furiously.

I'd take a packet of 10 to deceive myself, but I'd run through the packet just sitting on the stage, watching the crowd, getting the feeling, the mood before I speak. In other words, there were three speeches a night. Three speeches a night, 30 cigarettes, a lot of beer after that, and the voice was gone.

I remember I had a case in Kuching, Sarawak. So I took the flight and I felt awful. I had to make up my mind whether I was going to be an effective campaigner and a lawyer, in which case I cannot destroy my voice, and I can't go on. So I stopped smoking.

It was a tremendous deprivation because I was addicted to it. And I used to wake up dreaming...the nightmare was I resumed smoking. But I made a choice and said, if I continue this, I will not be able to do my job. I didn't know anything about cancer of the throat or oesophagus or the lungs, etc. But it turned out it had many other deleterious effects.

Strangely enough after that, I became very allergic, hyper-allergic to smoking, so much so that I would plead with my Cabinet ministers not to smoke in the Cabinet room. You want to smoke, please go out, because I am allergic.

Then one day I was at the home of my colleague, Mr Rajaratnam, meeting foreign correspondents including some from the London Times and they took a picture of me and I had a big belly like that (puts his hands in front of his belly), a beer belly. I felt no, no, this will not do.

So I started playing more golf, hit hundreds of balls on the practice tee. But this didn't go down. There was only one way it could go down: consume less, burn up more.

Another turning point came when -this was 1976, after the general election - I was feeling tired. I was breathing deeply at the Istana, on the lawns.

My daughter, who at that time just graduating as a doctor, said: 'What are you trying to do?'  I said: 'I feel an effort to breathe in more oxygen.' She said: 'Don't play golf. Run. Aerobics.'

So she gave me a book, quite a famous book and, then, very current in America on how you score aerobic points swimming, running, whatever it is, cycling. I looked at it sceptically. I wasn't very keen on running. I was keen on golf. So I said, 'Let's try'.

So in-between golf shots while playing on my own, sometimes nine holes at the Istana, I would try and walk fast between shots. Then I began to run between shots. And I felt better. After a while, I said: 'Okay, after my golf, I run.' And after a few years, I

said: 'Golf takes so long. The running takes 15 minutes. Let's cut out the golf and let's run.'

I think the most important thing in ageing is you got to understand yourself. And the knowledge now is all there. When I was growing up, the knowledge wasn't there. I had to get the knowledge from friends, from doctors.

But perhaps the most important bit of knowledge that the doctor gave me was one day, when I said: 'Look, I'm feeling slower and sluggish.' So he gave me a medical encyclopaedia and he turned the pages to ageing. I read it up and it was illuminating. A lot of it was difficult jargon but I just skimmed through to get the gist of it.

As you grow, you reach 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and then, thereafter, you are on a gradual slope down physically. Mentally, you carry on and on and on until I don't know what age, but mathematicians will tell you that they know their best output is when they're in their 20s and 30s when your mental energy is powerful and you haven't lost many neurons.

That's what they tell me. So, as you acquire more knowledge, you then craft a programme for yourself to maximise what you have. It's just common sense. I never planned to live till 85 or 84. I just didn't think about it. I said: 'Well, my mother died when she was 74, she had a stroke. My father died when he was 94.' But I saw him, and he lived a long life, well, maybe it was his DNA. But more than that, he swam every day and he kept himself busy. He was working for the Shell company. He was in charge, he was a superintendent of an oil depot.

When he retired, he started becoming a salesman. So people used to tell me: 'Your father is selling watches at BP de Silva.' My father was then living with me. But it kept him busy. He had that routine: He meets people, he sells watches, he buys and sells all kinds of semi-precious stones, he circulates coins. And he keeps going. But at 87, 88, he fell, going down the steps from his room to the dining room, broke his arm, three months incapacitated. Thereafter, he couldn't go back to swimming.

Then he became wheelchair-bound. Then it became a problem because my house was constructed that way. So  my brother - who's a doctor and had a flat (one-level) house - took him in. And he lived on till 94. But towards the end, he had gradual loss of mental powers.

So my calculations, I'm somewhere between 74 and 94. And I've reached the halfway point now. But have I? Well, 1996 when I was 73, I was cycling and I felt tightening on the neck. Oh, I must retire today. So I stopped. Next day, I returned to the bicycle. After five minutes it became worse. So I said, no, no, this is something serious, it's got

to do with the blood vessels. Rung up my doctor, who said, 'Come tomorrow'. Went tomorrow, he checked me,  and said: 'Come back tomorrow for an angiogram.' I said: 'What's that?' He said: 'We'll pump something in and we'll see whether the coronary arteries are cleared or blocked.'

I was going to go home. But an MP who was a cardiologist happened to be around, so he came in and said: 'What are you doing here?' I said: 'I've got this.' He said: 'Don't go home. You stay here tonight. I've sent patients home and they never came back. Just stay here. They'll put you on the monitor. They'll watch your heart. And if anything, an emergency arises, they will take you straight to the theatre. You go home. You've got no such monitor. You may never come back.'

So I stayed there. Pumped in the dye, yes it was blocked, the left circumflex, not the critical, lead one. So that's lucky for me. Two weeks later, I was walking around,I felt it's coming back. Yes it has come back, it had occluded. So this time they said: 'We'll put in a stent.' I'm one of the first few in Singapore to have the stent, so it

was a brand new operation. Fortunately, the man who invented the stent was out here selling his stent. He was from San Jose, La Jolla something or the other. So my doctor got hold of him and he supervised the operation. He said put the stent in. My doctor did the operation, he just watched it all and then that's that. That was before all this problem about lining the stent to make sure that it doesn't occlude and create a disturbance.

So at each stage, I learnt something more about myself and I stored that. I said: 'Oh, this is now a danger point.'

So all right, cut out fats, change diet, went to see a specialist in Boston, MassachusettsGeneralHospital. He said: 'Take statins.' I said: 'What's that?'

He said: '(They) help to reduce your cholesterol. ' My doctors were concerned. They said: 'You don't need it. Your cholesterol levels are okay.' Two years later, more medical evidence came out. So the doctors said: 'Take statins.' Had there been no angioplasty, had I not known that something was up and I cycled on, I might have gone at 74 like my mother. So I missed that deadline.

So next deadline: my father's fall at 87.

I'm very careful now because sometimes when I turn around too fast, I feel as if I'm going to get off balance. So my daughter, a neurologist, she took me to the NNI, there's this nerve conduction test, put electrodes here and there. The transmission of the messages between the feet and the brain has slowed down.

So all the exercise, everything, effort put in, I'm fit, I swim, I cycle. But I can't prevent this losing of conductivity of the nerves and this transmission.

So just go slow.

So when I climb up the steps, I have no problem. When I go down the steps, I need to be sure that I've got something I can hang on to, just in case. So it's a constant process of adjustment.

But I think the most important single lesson I learnt in life was that if you isolate yourself, you're done for. The human being is a social animal - he needs stimuli, he needs to meet people, to catch up with the world.

I don't much like travel but I travel very frequently despite the jet lag, because I get to meet people of great interest to me, who will help me in my work as chairman of our GIC. So I know, I'm on several boards of banks, international advisory boards of banks, of oil companies and so on. And I meet them and I get to understand what's happening in the world, what has changed since I was here one month ago, one year ago. I go to India, I go to China.

And that stimuli brings me to the world of today. I'm not living in the world, when I was active, more active 20, 30 years ago. So I tell my wife. She woke up late today. I said: 'Never mind, you come along by 12 o'clock. I go first.'

If you sit back - because part of the ending part of the encyclopaedia which I read was very depressing - as you get old, you withdraw from everything and then all you will have is your bedroom and the photographs and the furniture that you know, and that's your world. So if you've got to go to hospital, the doctor advises you to bring some photographs so that you'll know you're not lost in a different world, that this is like your bedroom.

I'm determined that I will not, as long as I can, to be reduced, to have my horizons closed on me like that. It is the stimuli, it is the constant interaction with people across the world that keeps me aware and alive to what's going on and what we can do to adjust to this different world.

In other words, you must have an interest in life. If you believe that at 55, you're retiring, you're going to read books, play golf and drink wine, then I think you're done for. So statistically they will show you that all the people who retire and lead sedentary lives, the pensioners die off very quickly.

So we now have a social problem with medical sciences, new procedures, new drugs, many more people are going to live long lives. If the mindset is that when I reach retirement age 62, I'm old, I can't work anymore, I don't have to work, I just sit back, now is the time I'll enjoy life, I think you're making the biggest mistake of your life. After one month, or after two months, even if you go travelling with nothing to do, with no purpose in life, you will just degrade, you'll go to seed.

The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.

If you're not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that's real torture.

So when I read that people believe, Singaporeans say: 'Oh, 62 I'm retiring.' I say to them: 'You really want to die quickly?' If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the  stimuli to keep going.'

Thimlo, srundeng, gudeg AdemAyem, brem, dan Sate Bungkus apa ya masih ada di Solo?

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dan unik, terutama menyangkut soal perut.

Pertengahan  Februari  lalu, rombongan jurnalis dari Jakarta  berkesempatan

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