New book sheds light on Penang’s first chief minister
After being consigned to the shadows for more than 50 years, the legacy of Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee, Penang's first chief minister will finally be told in a new book to be launched next week.
"Unsung Patriot: Memoirs of Wong Pow Nee" sheds light on the life and achievements of the late politician, who was chief minister from 1957 to 1969.
His son Peter Wong Tet Phin, who co-authored the book, said apart from rare insights and accounts of Pow Nee's early services and personal life, the book seeks to provide interesting untold details on Penang's post-developmental history during his tenure.
"He has long been forgotten as the first chief minister of Penang," Wong said. "We hope to bring justice to the administration he had led then."
Wong said among Pow Nee's greatest career highlights were his involvement in two landmark proclamation, the Independence in 1957 and the formation of Malaysia, to include Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore into the federation, in 1963.
The book also sheds light on Pow Nee's involvement in the Cobbold Commission of 1962, in which he was a member of the five-person commission of inquiry to find out the views of the people of North Borneo (now Sabah) and Sarawak, about the formation of Malaysia, Wong said.
However, Pow Nee, who was an MCA leader when he was chief minister, is little known among Penangites, compared to successive chief ministers Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu (1969 to 1990), Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon (1990 to 2008) and Lim Guan Eng (2008 to present).
Wong co-wrote the book with Koay Su Lyn, a research analyst at the Penang Institute. They also co-published the book together with Lee Beng San.
Wong was speaking at a press conference organised by the Penang Kar Yin Fee Kon Association, the oldest Hakka association in Malaysia. Pow Nee was of Hakka descent.
Also present was the association's chairman Datuk Lee Yow Ching.
The book will be launched on January 8 at the Chinese Recreation Club, Penang.
Pow Nee's tenure as chief minister ended when he failed to retain his Bukit Mertajam state seat for the MCA against a Gerakan candidate in 1969.
The Alliance, of which MCA was a component party, also lost the Penang government to Gerakan in that election.
Pow Nee was later appointed the Malaysian ambassador to Rome from 1970 to 1975.
He died in 2002 at the age of 90.
Koay said many Penangites in the current generation are ignorant of his contributions.
"It was Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee who set up the seeds of Penang's development, like the industrialisation of the state," she said, adding the Mak Mandin industrial estate was conceived during his tenure.
The book also presents details and accounts that point to Pow Nee paving the way for the birth of Penang's industrialisation, which later turned out a major success under his immediate successor Lim Chong Eu. – January 2, 2015.
