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DREAM
CHASER
The lines on her face speak a thousand words
and her humility disguises her gumption and
strength. This is the story of Chow Gek, one
of the Orang Asli’s most successful female business
personalities to date, and how she made it to
the top.
TEXT
SHANTIE GANESAN
When Chow Gek
was a little girl, she didn’t have much time
to focus on herself, much less dream. Her mind
was occupied with keeping her family a float,
being the third child of 13 siblings. It could
have been before she fell asleep at night, body
exhausted and aching from a hard day’s work,
that she told herself this wasn’t going to be
her life forever.
Today,at
45 years old, this ever resilient Orang Asli
descendent is a well-known contractor in her
hometown Pahang as well as in Terengganu. Sure,
there have been many who have taken the hard
road to success but Chow Gek’s story unfolds
in a decidedly different
“I left school
halfway through Standard Two. We had to travel
all the way to Segamat, Johor from Rompin, Pahang
to go to school. So, we ended up staying in
Segamat during the schooling year and only went
home once a year. It was a terrible arrangement
but we had no choice,” says Chow Gek.
“We lived in one of the timber merchant’s houses
in Segamat because he thought we needed an education
and volunteered his place to stay. But halfway
through Standard Two, I didn’t want to go to
school anymore. I wanted to go home and help
my mother. Those were difficult times and I
couldn’t bear to see her struggle on her own
with all my younger siblings when my father
went away to work.”...
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