International Affairs Minister Penny Wong opens up about her childhood for one of many first occasions throughout a visit to Malaysia.
That is an excerpt of a keynote tackle delivered by Minister for International Affairs Penny Wong in Kuala Lumpur throughout a visit to Malaysia to push for nearer ties with Southeast Asia.
It’s a unprecedented privilege and honour to face right here as we speak in Malaysia as Australia’s overseas minister. I doubt my Poh-Poh [grandmother] may ever have imagined it. Her identify was Madam Lai Fung Shim. She was of Hakka descent. When the struggle got here to Malaysia, she and the remainder of the household had been in Sandakan.
Most of our household died within the struggle, and Poh-Poh was left alone to take care of her kids within the hardest of circumstances. She was barely literate. She was loving and humble, and the strongest particular person I’ve ever recognized. In occasions of wrestle, I consider her, and what she needed to endure.
