Infinite Permutation | brandon hoe's blog

I will forever be indebted to Tan Sri Ani Arope, the man whose generosity and sense of fairness completely changed my life. I first met Tan Sri when I was 18 or 19 years old. The leader of one of the largest companies in Malaysia at the time graciously spared 30+ minutes of his time to listen to my story, learn about my dreams and ambitions, and find a way to help. How did I find myself there? To explain, I must first relate the story that preceded that encounter.

I come from a lower middle class family, and as one of three children of parents who both worked as clerks, there was no way we could afford the sizable financial burden that a foreign education would have imposed. Knowing this, I worked hard and made many sacrifices in order to do well in the SPM. I believed then that a good result would enable me access to scholarships or a spot in a pre-university program locally. My efforts resulted in me doing very well in the exam, and buoyed by my results and my sense of youthful optimism, I felt that I would be able to go anywhere and do anything that I wanted. Sadly, like many of my contemporaries, I discovered that this was an empty dream. The system didn’t have a space for me and many others like me.

As time went by, my sense of optimism and my belief that I was destined for success waned. I descended into a funk, became depressed, and stopped caring about my future. While I was going through that phase, my parents continually nudged me back in the opposite direction. They told me to never give up hope, and to believe in myself and God and the bright future that they felt awaited me. One of the results of those constant proddings was my successful applications to two of Australia’s most storied universities – Monash University and RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). I had the admittance letters in my hands, but the greatest distance lay not in the distance between Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, but in the infinite gulf between my family’s financial situation and the cost of pursuing an education there. It is at this point that Tan Sri Ani Arope first came into my life.

My father, an affable, but quiet man, did something out of character one day. He worked at Tenaga Nasional, and at a company event, courageously approached Tan Sri to share our story with him. He asked Tan Sri if there was any way he could help us out. Without hesitation, Tan Sri Ani Arope told him to schedule some time for us to meet.

The wooden walls of Tan Sri’s office were a rich hue, the carpets, plush and relenting, even under the weight of my slender frame. We sat across from each other, and I distinctly remember him making my father, mother and I feel like his peers, even though a giant mountain separated our socioeconomic strata. He spoke with warmth and genuine curiosity, and by the end of our conversation, I felt like he was a family member and friend. He did not offer any assistance with my dream of studying in Australia, but instead, offered me a chance to pursue a new dream; that of studying in the United States.

Tenaga Nasional was setting up its own institution of higher learning at the time, a private university that’s now called Uniten. Tan Sri offered me a place in the first intake of students, and I accepted the offer. Together with a cohort of 20+ other students, I studied at Uniten’s campus in Bangi for a little over 2 years, then headed to the United States to complete my tertiary education.

Over the years, I kept in loose touch with Tan Sri, first through in-person interactions when I was a student at Uniten (where he would delight everyone by speaking in Hokkien and Tamil and sharing hilarious stories with us), then later, through the annual phone call to wish him “Selamat Hari Raya”, and most recently, through sporadic interactions with him on Facebook. I wish I had the opportunity to shake his hand, to marvel at his incredible eyebrows, to hear his wisdom, to thank him again in person and to tell him what an inspirational and incredible man he is.

The story of my life is still unfolding 20+ years after that first encounter with Tan Sri Ani Arope. I completed my undergrad at Purdue University in 1998, then completed my masters degree at Duke University in 2005. I don’t know yet the extent of the impact that I’ll have on this world, but I can safely say that he’s had a significant hand in anything that I’ve contributed and will contribute to this world. His passing gives me extra impetus to be a force for positive change, to continue to live up to the ideals of truth and fairness, and to never succumb to those who would seek darkness in an attempt to elevate themselves. Thank you, Tan Sri. You are loved and missed.