The Day I Met My Hero

Today was the day I met my hero.  Waking up early today, I quickly prepared myself for the long day ahead.  And a long day it was.

Rendevouing with friends at Mamak restaurant at Setiawangsa, which might be the only regret that I have for today (a few hours after having the food and drinks there, a video that is viralling in the social media circle showing a worker of the restaurant using mop to clean a table - will be authenticating the video though), we set about to our task today of meeting a man whose dedication and sacrifices to this country is unrivalled.

Thanks to my great friend, Weaponmaster Red Aenid, we were able to meet a man that I consider as my hero and mentor, Tan Sri Yuen Yuet Leng.  With Aenid, Rafe, Ninja and Sandman, we went to Tan Sri's house.

A meeting that we thought would last for 2 hours (we didn't want to take too much of his time to rest), ended 4 hours after we shook hands with him.

Right in front of our eyes, was a man who served this country without fail.  A man who considers himself a Malaysian first, second and third.  And he even he took 4 bullets for this country (of which one is still in his body, almost 60 years after he was shot).

Listening to his stories, of his time in service, we got to learn several important lesson.

1. Love your country.  What party you support, they mean nothing as the country must come first.  The party falls, the country still stands.  But if the country fall, so the party too.
2. Love your comrades in arms.  He remembers dearly those who fought beside him, and those who died under his command.  And friends who were unfortunately killed just because of being the son of police officer (one of his dearest friends, a Malay, was captured by the communists during the 14 days of terror and was tied behind a vehicle and dragged around Taiping).
3. Love your enemies.  They might want to kill you.  But it doesn't give you the right to kill them when you have authority and power over them.  He told us how many times he gave chances to captured enemies, one of them who almost managed to shoot him, chances to redeem themselves, thus a chance to return to the society.  Many did and they get to live a fruitful life.

We will honour his sacrifices, and that of his men too.  So that we need not to live through the nightmares he had.

Till we meet again, sir.

PS - I hope I can find your book that I had bought a few years back for your autograph one day.

First published on Facebook Notes on November 23, 2014 at hour 2206 (GMT + 8pm)