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Looking at the sunny side of life
By Anthony Thanasayan, 18 Jan 1999
Used with permission from Star Publications (M) Berhad
WHEN you meet somebody on the street who is blind and you wish to help him or her, try empathising with the person.
If she asks or accepts your assistance in locating a place, make sure you lead her right up to her destination such as the entrance of a building or help her up a short flight of stairs instead of suddenly letting go of her arms mid-way and expecting the now unsmiling woman to find her own way about--just because it is only a couple of feet away from you.
Remember that she is blind and what's obvious to you may not be obvious to her.
If a blind man at a bus stop asks you to inform him when a particular bus arrives, and you have to leave because the bus you want to take arrives beforehand, have the courtesy to tell him that you're leaving. Otherwise, the poor fellow may keep on waiting for you to inform him of the arrival of that particular bus.
Also bear in mind that when blind people say they don't need assistance, they really mean it. Don't insist on assisting them. And certainly don't insist on taking them through what you consider to be a better and shorter route.
It may be shorter and easier for you, but the unfamiliar surroundings only serve to make the blind individual more disoriented.
These are wise words from Goh Kaw Kia who often finds himself in such difficult and unpleasant situations. So frequently do they occur that he has to be more wary in deciding whom he wishes to ask for assistance.
Goh, 49, was born in Labis, a village in Johor. Of his family of four boys and two girls, he is the only one born blind.
"My parents were rubber tappers," says Goh. "In the 50s, our area was so underdeveloped that we didn't even have proper roads, let alone a clinic or a doctor.
"I guess I am one of the few people around today who can say that I was born at home and that it was my dad who delivered me," adds Goh with a smile.
It was only after several days later and upon closer examination that Goh's parents realised that there was something terribly amiss with their fourth baby. His eyes didn't look like those of the rest of his siblings.
From then on it was one visit after another to various traditional healers in a bid to find a cure for his sight, says Goh.
"My parents applied every conceivable medicine they could lay their hands on, onto my eyes. All these only hurt my eyes."
His parents then sought professional help and made several trips to Singapore. But, according to Goh, the doctors did not have the heart to tell them that their son's blindness was permanent.
But things began to look up for Goh when someone informed them that blind people could study and that there was a special school for them.
However, the first school--a school for sighted children--that Goh tried to enrol in thought it was a preposterous idea. The principal of that particular school even made him read a newspaper to prove that he couldn't study.
But the Gohs refused to give up and he was finally enrolled in a school for the blind, in Johor, at the age of 10. Unfortunately Goh's dad was unable to witness this happy occasion as he had passed away a few years earlier.
Goh was later transferred to an integrated school with sighted students who were, he says, often very helpful. They helped him by reading out aloud what was written on the blackboard.
In 1968 he successfully completed his Form Five but, unable to find a job, he turned to selling ice creams to the children in his neighbourhood.
(The hospital which had wanted to employ him as a telephonist earlier was reluctant to update its phone system to enable Goh to operate it.)
Later Goh wrote to the Malaysian Association for the Blind in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, and sought help; the association subsequently got him a job at a commercial bank in Kuala Lumpur.
In 1979, Goh met his sighted wife near his hometown. Now the couple, residing in Kuala Lumpur, have two teenaged children.
This week he and his family are celebrating the Year Of The Rabbit with his brothers and sisters in Johor. (Goh's mum passed away 14 years ago.)
"I would like to wish all readers of Wheel Power a very prosperous and happy new year," says Goh. "I would also like to encourage the disabled to always look on the positive side of life and be proud of themselves and their successes."
Happy new year!
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