| Nominee: |
Mr Lim Chin Wah |
| Company: |
Genesis Education Holding Pte Ltd |
| Address: |
9 Shenton Way, #06-01 |
| Website: |
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| Interview with Mr Lim Chin Wah |
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| 1. What is the nature of your business? (Business Profile) |
| Basically, I’m in education (business).The nature of my business is that, I currently have two major businesses if I could divide them. One business group I call the education services, the educational services business group basically provides training and education services and products to the schools, to the corporate and to the general public. The other business group focuses on building schools in Indonesia. We invested and helped build these schools that are meant for pre-schoolers and primary and secondary levels. We provide the curriculum and teacher training as well as the daily supervising the operations of these schools. We have a total of 12 companies from both business groups.
Besides that, I sit on the board of Singapore Education International (Pte Ltd). It is an organisation formed by all the educational companies in Singapore. As one of the founding members, I serve in the executive committee. |
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| 2. What made you embark on this venture choice? |
| If you ask me what made me embark on this journey, I’ll have to show you my vision for Genesis Holdings which is “changing lives”. Actually, that came from ‘coffee shop’ talk when I was young. I spent a lot of time drinking teh tarik with my friends. We were dreamers. We dreamt about what we want to do. When I asked myself what kind of job I want to do in future, I knew that I’ve some sales skills because of my upbringing and I thought of getting a sales-related job but in which industry? That was something I had to decide. If I had continued my training in electronics engineering, I’d be in the IT or electronics sector but I find that I’ve no passion for that.
My passion is to be involved with (people) lives in one way or another but I did not know how to make a business out of it. To me, being involved with lives is to be a teacher or a social worker. I didn’t like the social worker part. The hours are too long and the pay is too low. Be a teacher? I don’t think I qualify because I only had a diploma. I think what made me embark on educational businesses is primarily due to my beliefs and passion. I believe that if we do something we like, we will succeed. If one has no heart in what he does, it will be very tough. One is likely to give up or walk away.
That’s why the vision of my company is changing lives. I share with my staff that whatever we do at work have to be education-related and it must change lives. If lives don’t get changed, we don’t want to be involved in. In fact, the company mission statement of the year is that we do not want to make a business out of education. We want to make education our business. There is a lot of growth in the education sector lately as the government wants to build Singapore into an educational hub. So, many people see the dollars and cents in it. Well, it wasn’t because of market trends that I started my business. Back in 1995, I already had the desire to do this. I think it began with my passion. (How old were you then?)I think I was probably around 20 or 21. |
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| 3. How does your business work? |
| To the schools, we provide enrichment programs ie. Developmental programs for students from primary one all the way to secondary schools, JCs (junior colleges), and varsities. The kind of solutions that we provide to schools can range from enquiry-based science, teaching students to handle science equipments for data collection, or music learning solutions and adventure outdoor camps to affective management programs and some language programs.
We also have an e-portal and learning management system. The e-portal not only allows school administrative works to be done online, it also helps to build a community for learning to take place online. That’s why it’s called the e-community, e-admin and e-learning. We have our own learning management system that the schools employ. That is the InfoComms Technology portion. These businesses that I just described cater not only to the Singapore market, but also the Indonesian and Malaysian market.
As for the corporate side, we provide corporate training and services to the corporations, government agencies, hospitals and private companies in the HR (human resources) sector. It ranges from sales training, management training or company retreat strategy and planning. We provide some form of HR consultancy as well.
We also provide post-grad courses in the area of education. So it is a very niche. We focus on education and development. We have various units that do this. |
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| 4. Did you have the capital to start the business or did you have to borrow from someone to get started? |
| I did not start the first company. I joined as a sales person in High Achievers Training Consultancy which is currently one of the subsidiaries of Genesis Holdings. When I was a staff, I told myself that I would take ownership of the company’s business. Due to the ideas I was contributing and the network which I was able to build on behalf of my company; I think, my boss, then, was very open to me about ideas. Although I began with no capital, I started to own shares because of my contributions to the company. I did inject some capital later on. It was my personal savings. In fact, I just got married then and all my savings were poured into the company. Although it was a small sum, it was a big thing for a twenty-something, fresh-poly-grad then. From there, I grew and acquired many businesses, built more partnerships and finally, I used Genesis to hold all my education businesses together. Currently, I run the Holdings with two other partners and am in charge of the day-to-day operations and business strategy and planning in Singapore. |
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| 5. Do your parents have their own businesses too? Have they inspired you in one way or another? |
| Nope. My parents don’t own any business. My dad is a bus driver and my mum is a housewife. She did some part-time waitressing.
(Have they inspired you in one way or another?)
I don’t think it was my parents who inspired me to start up businesses. The family background provided some foundation. I came from a very poor family. I grew up eating porridge and soya sauce as my staple. I grew up watching people playing with toys that I could not afford. I think Jesus used my childhood experience in a poor family to turn it around for good.
When I was about 8 years old, I had my first sales experience. It was very scary for a young primary school boy to go door-to-door selling nasi lemak, goreng pisang and ah char. I remember being chased by dogs and scolded by aunties and uncles. (Did you stay in kampongs?) I was already staying in a 3-room HDB flat in one of the old estates. (I see… You’re not as old as I imagined!) No, no. I’m not that old, I’m quite young actually. I’m only 31. I know I sound very old. I’m married with two sons. Well, I think my family background has made me more resilient against hardships and helped me understand certain things in life. Moreover, my childhood work experience has also taught me to be more enterprising and street-wise. |
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| 6. What was your childhood dream? When did you decide that you would strike out on your own instead of working for someone else? |
| My mum always thought that being a doctor is good, so I thought being a doctor is good. But a year later, I thought being a fireman is not a bad idea. I didn’t really have much of a childhood dream. When I was in secondary school, I thought teaching was not bad because my secondary teachers made a deep impact on me. I was a very tough kid then. I didn’t do my homework for four years. When the teachers were teaching, I was sitting on the table. I made them cry. I was on detention all the time. When I was in secondary school, I had quite a bit of family problems and also, social problems dealing with peers because of my ‘te-rok’ (bad) attitude and temper.
I was a boy who was trying to find himself and wanted to get attention. But with the teachers’ love and acceptance in a Christian school, I managed to graduate with 15 points for my ‘O’ levels at the end of 4 years when I scored ‘F9’ for all my subjects during prelims. That was a miracle. That must be God. I think God really had used my teachers to encourage me and help me see the possibilities in the teaching profession. My teachers’ patience and nurturing spirit really made me want to make the same kind of contribution back to society one day. I thought being a teacher is the closest to what I want to be but of course, with the kind of results that I have, I can’t apply to be a teacher. Hence, I went the alternative way, and am now a businessman in education.
(When did you decide that you would strike out on your own instead of working for someone else?)
I don’t think it is a matter of whether I want to work for myself or someone else. I always tell people that when you’re working for someone, think like the boss and you will become the boss one day. Think like a manager and you will become a manger one day. When you start thinking like a boss, you will ask questions from his perspectives. As I’ve shared earlier, I did not begin as a boss. I started off as a staff. If you ask me today if I am working for myself, I will tell you that I’m still working for someone else because I’m working for my shareholders, my staff and management. It is about accountability. Being a boss doesn’t mean you can do anything you want. People have this idea that being a boss allows you to come to work whenever you want. I think there is a certain truth in it whereby there is some flexibility but the responsibility is there. My work never stops.
I don’t think it was an issue of whether I want to work for myself instead of working for someone else but rather, an issue of natural progression and the divine arrangement of God that I was given an opportunity. I think I am very blessed. To me, it takes an anointing and a lot divine favour from God to strike out on my own. I am young man –only 31 this year. I couldn’t have accomplished what you see here (in my office) today without God’s favour and wisdom. My staff and management who are reporting to me, they have bags of awards under their belt and lots of work experience. Some of them are old enough to be my parents. They all have their own businesses and are entrepreneurs in their own rights. |
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| 7. Why does someone decide to be on their own rather than join an existing company? |
| If someone wants to work for himself because he cannot submit to higher authority due to pride, I think he has got some fundamental issues which he has to deal with. Ultimately, pride will fail him one day. Look at the some of the latest corporate scandals like Enron, it is an ethical problem in terms of accountability. A business owner must be responsible. I question one’s readiness if he wants to start up a business just because he does not want to be accountable to his existing company. Society sometimes looks upon the businessman as the rich man who frees the poor. Hence, I think there is a place for social-entrepreneurship whereby we want to be entrepreneurs and contribute to society. I’m a strong believer in that.
It is important that we know why we want to get into business. In fact, I’ve counselled young men and women who wanted to start up companies because they couldn’t work for anybody. I could tell that they cannot succeed. Many a times, these people have an attitude problem and they want quick money. You should get into business because you really love it and you find that there is no opportunity for expression being an employee. For an instance, when you work for a local company or an MNC in the healthcare industry and you find that the company does not offer you the opportunity to express your abilities, then yes, go –strike out. If it is a dream that you have, then go –strike out. But if it is because you don’t want to be bound by the company’s rules and regulations, you want to wake up late and so on, I think you should think twice. Bad attitude definitely should not be the reason to strike out on your own. When such people rise up to the top and they cannot handle the pressure, they collapse and don’t know how to pick themselves up. |
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| 8. Are there at any point in your life that you experienced a significant event (WW2, racial riots of the 1960s, the Economic Crisis of the 80s or 90s, SARS, new competition or shifts in market behaviour and trends) which affected or influenced you and your business that made you change the way you think and do your business? |
| Yes, there are certainly external events which caused me to rethink about my business operations. However, the external events only make me search for principles and truths in the bible which is the blueprint to run my business. The bible is where I seek help in those situations. Take for example the SARS.
When SARS broke out, we were hit badly. We had no business for two months. At the back of my mind, I could have easily blamed SARS but I didn’t because I learnt in the bible that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Whether there is a crisis or not, I have to be above it. My confidence to thrive lies not in a good, comfortable environment but because of my identity in Christ. I don’t think that the SARS crisis had affected me negatively but instead, they strengthen and affirm my beliefs and how I run my business. |
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| 9. What are some of the challenges in starting a business from scratch? (Modify question to what are some of the challenges in maintaining a family business if applicable.) |
| There are MANY challenges, especially if you are young. Acceptance and the lack of experience are some common challenges. I think cash flow is always a problem among SMEs (Small-medium Enterprises) but you just have to manage and know what financial resources are available to you. In my opinion, capital is an idea problem. If you have a good idea, in my case, a God idea that works, you will have no lack of investors. That is most probably the first challenge for any start ups.
Next, I believe is implementation. Entrepreneurs generally do not know how to implement their business ideas. They are learning all about business. In fact, they are creating a new type of business. Like in some of my businesses, we have to create a market for it. Uphill challenges are very real in start up businesses. To me, the biggest challenge is to overcome yourself. |
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| 10. Who/What motivates you? |
| Jesus motivates me. Many people told me, “You have a lot of passion in what you do,” but I said to them, “Passion is an emotion I display. Enthusiasm is an attitude but faith is the substance.” What drives my passion and enthusiasm is my belief in a God who desires to prosper my path and give me success. You can call it religious motivation but that is my sole motivation and inspiration. |
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| 11. Tell me about the first few customers and the first few years of business. |
| I faced lots of rejection. I was jittery and inexperienced. A lot of cold calling, which is making a phone call to somebody who has never met you to try and get an appointment, do a sales presentation. I think that the first few customers I had, that I managed to close the deal, were willing to give me a chance, but yet at the same time they needed to know that I could deliver. While they were willing to try out someone new, or take on something new, they had to see you are able to deliver.
I think that my experience with them was tough, because I had to learn about their ways, their preferences, and their styles of doing things. I had to be very adaptable, innovative and not be fixed in my thinking about what I want. Furthermore, I had to be very customer focused in order to build the confidence of customers. Although they sometimes do not mind you making mistakes, it is how you make good use of the mistakes, move on and demonstrate that you learnt to try and give them a better quality of service every time. (So in a way it is bridging the trust between you and the customers?) Yes. |
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| 12. Please tell me some stories of your best day in business or your proudest achievement to date. |
| There are many days that I am happy. Everyday has its challenges, if you ask me if there is a significant day that I ever remember as my best day, it would be my experience when I was on the ground delivering the services to this group of students. My job was to provide leadership training to this school. It was very enriching and meaningful because at the end of it, students got all teary and were grateful for how my colleagues and I have changed their lives.
I can’t really recall what was the best day in business or my proudest achievement, but the days that I really remember were the days that I felt that my vision was being carried out and fulfilled either through me or the services delivered by my staff. I think that is the thing that thrills me everyday. (Do the students send you cards?) Oh yes, they send my trainers cards. In fact, there is a story, whereby one of my trainers was at a school to train below average students. After the course, the students became very motivated and guided because they were able to follow and apply the course content easily. The trainer’s performance was excellent the following year! I remembered this story very well because the trainer once told me that as she was going to the school, and a student ran to her, yelled her name and gave her a hug –thanking her for giving her that boost and help her see the possibilities in life and how to achieve them. Every other day I hear stories like that; they really give me the extra boost to go on. |
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| 13. Do you recall your worst day in business? Have you ever felt like giving up? |
| One of the worst days would probably be when your revenue is not coming in, and you get some complaints from customers, and you feel uncertain and the staff are demoralised. I can’t really remember which day would be the worst, but those are the days.
(Have you ever felt like giving up?)
Every other day. I always tell other people that even as much as I like what I do, there are still some things I do that I do not like. We all have different strengths and weaknesses and skill sets. The things that we are not very good at, we are all very uncomfortable about, so that discourages us and we always have to look back at what is the right prospective we need to hold. There were many times and moments that I was tempted to walk out. What pushes me on is the accountability to the staff, revisiting my vision and remembering what has been delivered. The day I would be discouraged about the business is the day my vision is not carried out – that lives have not been changed or touched and this becomes a purely commercial entity for me. Then I find that there is no “higher living” to speak about. |
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| 14. When was the moment you realised the business would work and support you? |
| I never thought that I would become a businessman. That was never the first thing on my mind. It just happened that education is something I really like and I was determined to make it work.
My learning curve is no curve. It is a vertical line. It’s very steep…It’s VERTICAL. It was tough and I had LOTS to because I wasn’t trained in accounting or business. I was an engineering student. In fact, I did badly in polytechnic. It took me four and a half years to complete it. So, I had to learn a lot more to compensate for lost time and of course, much was learnt through the goodness and enablement of the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s teaching and enabling me had a lot to do with my success. (Which year was that?) That was in year 2000 I think. I came out of school in 1995, went into army in ’97 and worked for about three years before starting up something on my own. |
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| 15. What are some of the things you have had to overcome to succeed? |
| Personally, fear. The fear of failure, the fear of man’s opinion, I have learnt to overcome. It’s a growing thing, I will not stop learning to overcome the fear of man’s opinion or the fear of failure. Because every new risk you take, there is a possibility of failure. I think every step of the way you learn, you may get better, but I don’t think that anyone can just say that I don’t need to battle with that anymore. It may not be a strong component, but then and there fear may just come and put some thoughts in you. |
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| 16. What are some qualities that you feel you possess which differentiate you from someone who works for others? |
| In the year 2002, I had a year-end staff retreat. I stood up and told my staff that they were very gifted, good at what they do and are a very good management team. They are very experienced, older than me in age, and they have such powerful strengths in their lives. As I said that, I was thinking through the organisation, the one quality I had and the rest do not possess was that I am a dreamer. I dare to dream. What gives me the strength and the ability to dare to dream is that I know that my God supplies all my needs. He holds my hand, He holds my future. One of my strong qualities is that I am a dreamer.
(I believe in dreams, if you don’t dream, you cannot have things coming to you.)
Yes, I always tell people about what a WWII General, General McArthur, said, “that the years will wrinkle your skin, but the lost of dreams will wrinkle your soul.” I think we all have a God-given ability to dream because we have such a potential as human beings. People don’t dream because they don’t know what it can do for them. That’s why right earlier in the interview when you asked me how it all began, I said that it was a “coffee shop” thing. I sat down and I started dreaming. Night after night, year after year, then the dream became a possibility; a possibility became a reality and finally, a reality became opportunity again. Humbly, I would say that I am a dreamer. |
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| 17. To succeed in business, what qualities are essential? What are some of the secrets in making a successful business? |
| I learnt this from someone years ago; it’s not the technical know how, but the technical know who. You do not necessarily need a strong network when you first start, but you must know how to network. I feel that networking skills is something evident in every successful business person. You have to count your cost and be prudent with your costing and projections. However, you must take risk, calculated risk. You must be clear about what you are jumping in to. Many people think that running a business is just like an idea, a dream, but they didn’t count their cost. I may be a dreamer, I may not be very good in counting my cost, but I try to count my cost. I think they are important qualities to be successful and being practical. On the one hand you have to see opportunities, and on the other hand you must know what are your liabilities.
(What are some of the "secrets" in making a successful business?)
Yes. Know God. I don’t think there’s any other secret for me. You just need to know yourself what you prepared for. A person has to be very comfortable with himself. I believe if you are very comfortable with yourself, know and understand what you are like, understand that you will strive in a business, then you will succeed. But if you do not know what you are like, and live in this “la la” land and you think you are like that, when you’re not going to succeed. Because everyone is going down the same road, you will have a higher chance of failure than success. |
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| 18. Who or what inspires you? |
| I guess if you ask me who inspired me; it would be the Lord Jesus. |
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| 19. Have you ever thought of expanding the business in some way or in multiple locations? How and where? |
| Business expansion is always on every businessman’s mind. Expansion means you grow your business. Definitely I have thought of that, we are always waiting for the right opportunity, waiting for the readiness of the organisation and other factors.
How do you intend to expand your business? Wait for the right opportunities or is there a target within a certain number of years?
We have set a target for the organisation in the next 2-3 years. We hope to establish more presence overseas in the Asian countries. Currently looking at what we have, probably Australia, India or China. We have to ask ourselves how ready we are as an organisation and are we building towards that. We went into Malaysia and Indonesia in the last 2 years and I think we need to grow, as we are a Pte Ltd, there is no pressure. We focus on building something that lasts, and not something that comes and goes like a shooting star. |
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| 20. What aspects of expansion would you like to see for your enterprise? |
| Everybody likes to be at the top, and it will be good if we have that. I hope we will be one of the premium education service providers. We may not be necessarily be at the top, just being comfortable with our own market share, focus on education itself, not education at large.
(Do you have a vision that you want to expand in terms of your manpower?)
Yes, in fact we have doubled our manpower yearly.
(What other types of educational services would you go into?)
It depends on the capability that we have and also on opportunity. Of course we do go on a search, but we are moving towards research based education solutions which mean that whatever products churns out has to be research-based not just customer based solutions or just a product that we think up in our own lab or our own research. That is what we want to move towards. |
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| 21. In your opinion, how would you define entrepreneurship? |
| To me, an entrepreneur is someone who has an idea and is able to implement it and build it into a business. He also has little or no resources and builds an enterprise from scratch. |
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| 22. To what extent does one?s educational level help or hinder entrepreneurial-ship? |
| To be honest, the Singapore system does not encourage entrepreneurs at this moment. We have got an excellent education system that produces a very effective and efficient workforce. Our education is focusing on raising a workforce in Singapore. In America, the education system is different; it educates. They are not trying to make someone a worker. On the other hand, Singapore’s education system tries to make you a clerk, an IT (information technology) programmer, an engineer, a lawyer, and etc. I think this is because of our economy and size. A small country with no resources; we don’t really have much of a choice. I don’t find that our current education system caters to that, at this present moment.
If we want to groom more entrepreneurs, I think the system has to be much more flexible in terms of education, higher social acceptance of failures and more liberal and tolerant mindset of the people. Instead of putting within people negative emotions of the fear of failure, you put within them the positive emotions of their desire for success. They look very similar but they are quite different. (I think it’s the culture we don’t have) Yes, we don’t have the free spirit of enterprise. Every generation I see in education possesses very different trademarks and strengths. While today’s young people are dreamers –they say that they don’t want the 5 “Cs” career and they want to do what they like, they also lack the resilience and perseverance of the older generation. |
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| 23. As we try to select the final 41 entrepreneurs, what qualities would you think a person should have to inspire others? |
| The person must be inspirational and exemplarily in his life and he must have a certain amount of success that demonstrates that he has overcome odds. I can’t be an entrepreneur if my father has 2 million dollars, gave me some money and I call myself an entrepreneur. (So if you don’t go through any trials or some failure then you can’t be entrepreneur?) I won’t say that, there are some people who make it the first time. What I am saying is that they cannot be spoon fed; they have to experience what it is like to do from the ground all the way up. (Is experience what makes one inspirational?) Yes. |
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| 24. What are some of your own values in doing business and what do you like to pass down to others, particularly the younger generation? |
| Commitment to excellence is something you never compromise. I think from my values and my company values, (What are your company values?) breakthrough thinking. I find that generally Singaporeans have a lot of mental “blocks”, they do not think out of the box. I think we need to have breakthrough thinking to be customer enthusiastic. We need to team, even as entrepreneurs or bosses, we need to team with the rest of the staff. We must develop people. People development is very needful. I think these are few values that an entrepreneur needs to have.
You will see it in the corporations, in the CEOs, in the top executives, but I think integrity and ethics is what you must possess because when people buy something from you, it is you they are looking at, not just the product. Your company will become what you are because we always reproduce what we are. We teach what we know, but reproduce what we are. You can teach a class something you know, but the people you work closest with, you reproduce what you are – they become like you. |
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| 25. What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business? |
| My advice is: write down your dream on a piece of paper, give it a period of time, visit the paper in the future and ask yourself whether what is written down is something they still want to do. If they do, count the cost, get the support of some friends, have an inquiring mind and keep inquiring, and do not give up easily. And ask for the blessing of God.
This is the end of the interview. Thank you for your time to share. |
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| 26. Please assist me in coming up with 2 lines synopsis. These 2 lines will highlight the interview for viewer who be reading this synopsis before the entire interview. |
| Mr Lim Chin Wah, a passionate dreamer who strives to change peoples’ lives through education, is the CEO of Genesis Holding Pte Ltd. For Mr Lim, to become a successful entrepreneur, the greatest challenge is to overcome yourself and the greatest secret is to know the heart of the Lord. |
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| Interviewed by Neo Si Yin on 2004-03-03. Student can be reached at neo_zammie@yahoo.com |
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