Getting an award

It's been a week since I was at the Penang Institute grounds to celebrate the 142nd anniversary of the birthday of Dr Wu Lien-Teh on 10 March 2021. But that date had a bigger significance for me; a greater reason to celebrate, and all thanks to the good doctor and the society which was formed in January 2013 to honour him, the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society.

Early last year, the secretary-general of the Society had submitted my name - together with Clement Liang who is the Society's treasurer - to the state government for a Governor's annual award. For a long time, no news was received from the government, partly also due to the coronavirus pandemic that can forced the country into various stages of a lockdown. The Society had also submitted the name of the president, Anwar Fazal, to receive a Dato' Seri title from the state government but for that sort of high-level award, a recommendation from someone who was already a Dato' Seri was also required. 

Then in November last year, I received an official notification that I would be awarded a Pingat Kelakuan Terpuji (PKT) and was asked to collect the medal on the 19th of January this year. But no, I won't be receiving it directly from the Governor. Because of the pandemic, he won't be there to pin the medal on me or any of the recipients. 

Anyway, about 10 day before this date, someone called from the state government to inform me that the ceremony was postponed and would be held on the ninth of February. The new date was fine with me although it was clearly too close to Chinese New Year.

Penang was then badly affected by a second surge of coronavirus infections and was placed under another lockdown. And so, I was informed again by the state government of yet another postponement. Finally after weeks of delay after delay, another official notification came in early March to say that the award ceremony would now be held on the 10th of March. I breathed deeply on seeing this date. Significantly, of course, there was never a more appropriate date than this to receive an award that had been recommended by the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society itself. So I've to thank the Society again for the nomination.

Incidentally, this PKT award comes 25 years since I was given a Pingat Jasa Kebaktian (PJK) award by the state government in 1995 for my contributions to chess in Penang. That recommendation had come from the Penang Chess Association when Dr Choong Sim Poey was still the president. As I had not expected to receive another award since then, this PKT comes with a lot of personal satisfaction indeed. Perhaps I shall have to wait another 25 years before a third award can come my way. 😁