a new ‘star’ for DAP

this ‘star’ is an oxford graduate and a self-made millionaire at a young age of 35. this ‘star’ is tony pua (picture left), whom i had the chance to meet at the aliran round-table discussion.

according to joceline tan of the star:

Pua is a well-known name in the e-commerce business where he has earned a dizzying string of inscriptions – dotcom success story, pioneer in e-business consulting and, perhaps the most satisfying of all, youngest founder-CEO to have listed a company in the Singapore Stock Exchange.

The Oxford University graduate is the founder of Cyber Village Sdn Bhd and until recently its CEO. Pua has sold his stake in the company and, after settling debts and commitments, is still left with a tidy sum of a couple of million ringgit.

at that time when i met him, i didn’t know about all the above at all! it was after the introduction, that when it was break time, i said to him his face is familiar and asked if he was the one featured in the star paper, together with jeff ooi (not this recent one but the one that appeared last year – picture of tony here was taken from there). not giving a straight answer, he said "ayoh. next time i must hide my face. didn’t know the paper will make my face known."

according to malaysiakini’s interview of tony, (or here) tony has joined the democratic action party (DAP) as the economic adviser to DAP’s secretary-general, lim guan eng’s. he is also executive editor of their newsletter (english edition) ‘rocket’.

being an oxford graduate, he had been compare to another oxford graduate in the political scene – a very famous one who marries the daughter of our PM (you know who, i know who). maverick gave a good write-up about how he managed to rise to the top without any political patronage or the never ending policy.

i’m surprise when, at the aliran round-table discussion, tony said he knew my name through beritamalaysia. seems that he is also a beritamalaysia member. he said all the while he saw the name ‘lucia lai’ in beritamalaysia (that time when i was active) and thought ‘lucia lai’ is a male! ha! didn’t he know the name ‘lucia’ is a female name? well, long long ago, a few europeans had mistaken my name as a male too! anyway, he said so he finally met the ‘lucia lai of beritamalaysia’. ha! as if i’m that famous. ahem!

he said not only is he a long time member of beritamalaysia mailing list but he is also related to uncle yap, the founder of beritamalaysia. interesting. although he is a long time member of beritamalaysia, he does not ever post/comment there at all as i don’t see his name appearing at all. he’s a lurker, just like jeff ooi and lim kit siang and hundreds others (who are also in beritamalaysia). well, ever since i started blogging, i had spent so much time blogging (and reading/commenting other blogs) that now i had also become a lurker!

oh i digress. coming back to tony, tony had written about him selling off his shares and deciding to join DAP in his personal blog. he also had another blog on education which he share with a friend, simply known as ‘education malaysia‘. it is a very good and intellectual blog that touches on the issue of education.

i wish tony pua all the best in his political career in DAP. i’m sure tony’s contribution to DAP will spur the DAP to greater heights!