KUCHING, Dec 20 — Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg today said his former geography teacher the late Datuk Seri Polycarp Sim Cheng Mong was a great source of inspiration and a model for him in life when he attended St Joseph’s School in the 1960s.
He said Sim had brought up people who were passionate about humanity, well-disciplined and those who had a heart for the community.
“That was Datuk Seri Sim,” he said at the launch of a book on the life of Datuk Seri Polycarp Sim Cheng Mong written by businessman and former student Richard Song See Jin here.
Abang Johari said it was not just him who had benefited under Sim’s guidance, but also his former classmates, many of whom had been successful in their lives.
“Sim was very close to my father ( the late Tun Abang Openg, then the Governor of Sarawak), and my father had asked him to look after me when I was studying at St Joseph’s School in the 1960s,” he said.
“He gave me tuition on geography at a shop in Carpenter Street.”
“It is indeed an honour for me to launch a book about a man, a legend, who was not only an educator, but aslo a mentor,” he said.
He said Sim motivated him to take up a postgraduate programme in Masters of Business Administration in 1981.
“He motivated me to read and get more knowledge. That is why I now can speak by hydrogen, even though my background is not science,” he said.
“All the personality of Sim has become a model for me. I try my best to be a good premier and be humble like him.
“This means to serve the community without any expectations of rewards. It is from your heart. You dedicate whatever you can to the overall well-being of the community,” he said.
He said he would focus on the job as the premier of Sarawak that is entrusted to him, just like Sim did in motivating his students.
Sim died in 1993 at the age of 81.
