Four
ROTARIANS ALL:
SOME
MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
(cont'd - 3)
For most P.Ps, the presidency represented the apex of their careers in Rotary, and they found it a testing but satisfying and enjoyable experience. As Low Teong has pointed out, each president, having been selected a year in advance, had time to prepare himself for his tenure of office, which made things easier, while the extremely well-thought and time tested Rotary procedures lessened the difficulties of the task. The spirit of fellowship engendered in the Club was another very important supportive factor, although it must be said that tact and diplomacy were essential at all times. Occasionally things did not go quite so smoothly because of issues raised and once in a while career obligations got in the way. The latter was what befell Dato' Kok Wee Kiat whose presidential year coincided with a general election when he successfully stood for Parliament. However, the inevitable consequence was that he was unable to give such effective leadership to the Club during his period in office.
Whatever differences there were in personality and style, situation and approach, one thing is quite clear, that all the P.Ps. were entirely dedicated to the Rotary ideal of service before self, even if Kok Wee Kiat has his reservations on this point. This lay in the nature of things, for with the active and dedicated membership which the PJ Club had, dead wood never could float to the surface. Indeed, the Club's standards and tone were sufficiently high for it to be able to produce two District Governors within its first thirty years of existence, which bearing in mind that Rotary District 330 once had over eighty clubs (currently, the redistricted twice over District 330 has 40) within its fold is no mean achievement. The Club's two P.D.Gs are Dato' James Peter Chin' and Dr. N. Ganesan. If Ray Hardless had had his way, the Club would likely have had a third P.D.G. as well.
No one who is not prepared to make real sacrifices of time and convenience can hope to aspire to the post of District Governor. It means putting one's personal career and interests into the background for one whole year while concentrating on the task of supervising the activities in the District and of getting to know the clubs which are in it. But the track records of both Chin and Ganesan show that they had what it takes. Chin's manifold activities in and outside Rotary have already been mentioned. Rotary was in his blood. His father had been a Rotarian, and so were his three brothers, one of them becoming a P.P. (in Singapore) and a P.D.G. to boot. Born in Singapore himself, James Peter Chin aspired to membership of Singapore Rotary when working as a journalist on the old Singapore Standard, but was thwarted by the formidable Allington Kennard already there under the journalist/public media classification, on behalf of the rival Straits Times. However, Chin could find solace in that in 1963, when he was twenty-seven years old, he was awarded the Rotary International Foundation Ambassadorial Graduate Scholarship, which took him to the University of Missouri, USA, to take a Masters in Communications. He came to Malaysia and PJ as a result of being appointed Communications Manager with Dunlop on his return. He joined the Club in 1968 and has been with it ever since.
*Dato' James Peter Chin also has the distinction of having served as Instructor at Rotary International conventions on three occasions.
Ganesan, like Chin, was born in Singapore, but is six years his junior. He followed Chin as member of the Club in 1970 and has likewise remained a faithful and dedicated member ever since. He cannot vie with Chin in terms of the great range of organizations with which the latter has been involved; the half dozen or so bodies which the good doctor is connected with and plays an active part in are all essentially centred on social welfare work. His main work revolves around the practice which he started as a GP in Sungai Way in 1969, and it was the outbreak of the 13 May Incident and its aftermath that year which first pushed him into the world of community welfare. As far as Rotary is concerned, unlike Chin, Ganesan was not born with it in his blood. In fact, when he was first introduced to the Club by Oscar Fernandez, one of the Club's livelier wires who himself had recently joined and had singled him out as likely material, he was quite ignorant about Rotary. Fernandez's instincts were obviously right and for Ganesan the Club became a powerful adjunct in his mission of community service.
Presidents tend to get the limelight but it is the Secretaries, as any Secretary will confirm, who's got to do all the donkey's work. There are some, however, who prefer to play second fiddle and are content to serve behind the scenes. This was certainly true of K.S. Menon, despite his exalted 'title', and he never indicated any desire to be anything more than Secretary. Only one other Rotarian carried the burden for more than one full year's term, namely Teoh Kim Thean, though two others, Yong Wah Loong and Tan Joon Siew, stepped into the breach left by a suddenly incapacitated incumbent and then continued for the succeeding year. Of the twenty-five persons who have held the post of Secretary over the past thirty years, ten of them subsequently became Presidents.
It would be a gross injustice to suggest that all the work of a Rotary club is done by the President and the Secretary. As all Rotarians know, there are four paths of service, with each individual Rotarian being called upon to serve on various committees and sub-committees. The avenues of service are operated on through these committees, the chairmen of which are inescapably very heavily involved, and so are most of each committee's members. The part played by these committees and their contributions to the work of the Club and the general problems they have faced and how these have been overcome form the theme of the chapters which follow.
