Reflection

The year is coming to an end. What a year for me. On a personal note, I was a little sad when I had to leave my former firm YH Teh & Quek. That firm was cosy and warm, but unfortunately I could not gel in with the firm, and decided to leave and set up my own firm. My close buddy, Edward Saw is still there. He had joined that firm, partly cause I was there. So when I had to leave, I knew I had let him down. It will take a while for me to make up to him, though knowing how nice a person Edward is, he wont be too pissed off with me.

But my time at YH Teh & Quek woke me up. Yoke Hooi and the other main partners had opened my eyes to my deficiencies and pushed me to improve. I will remember her advise.

My new firm, Messrs Richard Wee went through a slump the last few months. Partly due to my massive involvement with the Bar activities, but largely due to me trying to find a footing on my own again. I will never blame the Bar activities for the problems at my firm, as the former is a self-inflict voluntary activity. I enjoy helping out the Bar, but my focus will always be to my firm first.

In January 2009, my firm will merge with Messrs Sunil Lopez, a close friend of mine. We will be known as Messrs Richard Wee Lopez by then. Watch our for our new website at www.rwl.com.my. That website is still under construction. I hope next year, despite the expected slowdown in economy, Sunil and I will create a presence in the legal services market. We are confident that our resilience, endeavor & effort will pay off.

A cousin of mine, Wee Thian Aun passed away yesterday. I admit I was not close to him, but he had a wonderful life of love and attention, though he suffered from an ailment which left him bed ridden since he was an infant. He was 27 when he passed away yesterday. This departure, comes almost a month after my grandfather left us too. It is a time of grief in the Wee family, but we will all stay strong. The memory of the departed, will be celebrated and cherished by us all.

My close friends like Chow Hoong and gang remained intact. We have known each other for almost 20 years. And some of them know each other for 25 years. That is a mighty long time. They have been very good friends and I cherish friends who have been honest, loyal and supportive to each other. No stabbing in the back. No betrayal etc etc. I hope that gang will remain intact for many years to come.

I am also very blessed to know many many people, some of whom become close friends. This year alone, I made so many new friends. My friends in the Bar is diversified. I hope to not let these friends down, though there were times a selected few have deeply let me down.

Everton continue to be steady. No more final day relegation battle for now, but football is such; anything can happen. A few bad games, and down you go. Under David Moyes, Everton has shown resilience and focus; though we are just unable to break into that top 4 yet. Lets hope Everton wins a Cup next year.

Back to the Bar, the KL Bar elections last February 2008 showed me that members will vote on popularity. I finished 4th out of 12 in 2007, but in 2008, i barely made in by finishing 9th out of 14-15 candidates (top 10 make it in). Also, I have to concede, in our push for reforms and change from 2006 till this year, I had stepped on many tails and pissed off some lawyers. That is the price I had to pay for demanding and pushing for change and improvements. I foresee this coming elections in 2009, I will not do well again. I just hope members will vote on based on the work I have done, and not merely on my character. However, in our journey of self improvement, I have made it a point to change my way of work and be less aggressive and more people-friendly. I realize that being aggressive all the time, whilst making sure the work is done, is unhealthy in retaining friends.

The country has seen some change and I hope change for the better, will continue to prevail. With Obama elected as President, the world will be invigorated by that, and I hope that spirit will stream towards Malaysia too. I am unhappy that UMNO-led BN continue to misrepresent the Malaysians. The lack of courage to tackle corruption has seen corruption now part of our work culture. I wish to know how the UMNO leaders tell their children that they are corrupt and it is ok to be corrupt. I will not want to be in their shoes.

My desire to travel saw me visiting Bangkok and Beijing for the first time this year. Both trips were brilliant and I look forward to visiting the 2 places again.

I will continue to reflect this last 2 weeks of 2008, and I am very happy that my family is generally well. My parents are healthy and very supportive of their kids. My sister and I love them very much and hope we will continue to make them proud. My sister continues to do well. She is a brilliant girl, brilliant since she was young. I am sure, she will surge up the corporate ladder.

Will 2009 be better?