Reminiscence : Chartered Accountants are very powerful...

Chartered Accountants are very powerful... So said Lim Soo Keat aka Lau Kiah on a date between 1964-1969.

It was on an evening and we were a bunch of neighbourhood boys sitting at the drain side at Immigration Road, Georgetown. I asked him why ? He replied that Chartered Accountants have the power to go into any bank or government office to check their books ! Wow, I was properly impressed by what he said.

Moving forward to 1978, I started my Accountancy career with M.S Ahmad Abdullah and Goh Certified Accountants and qualified as a CPA in 1983 and became a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) in the same year as a PA(M). Guess what ? Some years ago, the MIA after a restructuring redesignated me a Chartered Accountant :-)

Penang Free School... Let us march on to fame... [1996]

Whenever I think of my alma mater, Penang Free School, I can't help hearing in my head the PFS anthem which I last sang in 1976 !

Let us march on to fame
Let the ailes proclaim
Till the anthem will dare us to do
Let us onwards to win and new laurel gains
Frees School for the brave and the true.."

I had my primary education in Westlands Primary School ( now the Westlands Centre of Sports Excellence) from 1964 to 1969.

Based on the assessment exams for Standard 6, I was given a chance to enter Form I at PFS in 1970. I remember sitting for an open examination together with students from other feeder schools like Wellesley, Hutchings etc.

Based on the results, I was streamed into Form 1A. At that time, I was pretty proud of my achievement not knowing that I was soon to be demoted to Form 2C & Form 3D ! You see, my method for studying was to study just a few days before the exams. This used to work for me in primary school as I was always in the top 3 of my class.

Anyway, I finally woke up in Form 3 and managed to get two distinctions and the rest credits to enter Form 4 Science 2. As I recall, I was always at the bottom of my class as I was spending more time Scouting ! By a miracle and lots of common sense , I managed to pass my MCE again with 2 distinctions several credits and almost failed my Additional Maths & Bahasa Malaysia. As I recall we had to sit the BM paper twice due to the infamous leak !'

By the way, those days you had to get less than 8 points from 2 science & 1 maths subject to enter Lower Six. Again by some miracle, I gain entrance into Lower Six Science 2 with 8 points from 3 science subjects as compared to the 9 points gained from the best 2 science + 1 maths combination !

In lower & upper six, I was up to my old tricks i.e failing monthly exams, term examinations due to my interest in Scouting & other society activities. I was the Troop Leader for 1st Georgetown (S) Boy Scout in 1975 and the Assistant Senior Scout Leader of the Senior Troop in 1976 . I even managed to win prizes for my science projects at the State Science Exibitions.

The price I had to pay for the lack of attention was a mediocre HSC result ! That's how a science student became a Certified Public Accountant

Reminiscence: How did I get to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) ? [1996]

In 1974, I was a fifth-former at Penang Free School (PFS) in the Science Stream. At that time, one of my classmates, Ng Swee Weng (now Penang Partner, KPMG) was telling me about the CPA qualification and his plans to do it after our MCE. At that time, MCE was the minimum entry qualification. As fate would have it, when the MCE results were announced in 1975, the MACPA raised the minimum entry qualification to HSC !

I went on to study Biology also at PFS with no further thoughts of pursuing the CPA qualification. In the meantime, Ng Swee Weng then a Maths Student also at PFS took up the LCC Book-keeping Certificate and in 1977 signed up as an Article Clerk at Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co as KPMG was then known. At that point, he was already offered a place at University Malaya to study Engineering. I was in close touch with him at that point in time and that rekindled my interest in the CPA qualification.


In 1978, I wrote in to quite a few big firms in Penang without even eliciting a response from them. Sometime in Jan 1978, another of my schoolmate, Khoo Chee Eng (also a Primary Schoolmate and now a CPA) visited me and informed me of an advertistment in the Star for the position of "Audit Clerk" by an anonymous firm. I had missed that advertisement. I wrote in mechanically without expecting a reply.

Imagine my surprise, when I received an interview letter from M/s Ahmad Abdullah & Goh. On 19th Jan 1978, wearing a pink shirt and a maroon pants (it was the fashion then...), I went to Bangunan Elceetee and as I was going up the stairs, I met a gentleman with a tie who was staring at me. So as a 20 year, I stared back. I was met by a Miss Linda Choy and asked to take a seat. Guess what ? I was shocked when the interviewer, Mr. Michael Goh turned out to be the very same chap whom I was starrring back ! At that time, I was thinking to myself...Game Over !

The interview wasn't that bad ... At that point of time, I was crazy about getting a goverment job and I knew the scale very well. For example, a HSC holder would start at $485.00; MCE $405.00 and LCE $235.00. The interview went pretty well and Mr. Goh asked about my expectations. I said that since I'm a HSC holder with no experience and absolutely no accounting background, I was prepared to accept a LCE pay ie $235.00. I was stunned when he said that the pay was only $ 125.00 !

On accepting the offer, he said that I could start straightaway and before I could say anything, he introduced me to the staff ( at that time less than 9 staff) and asked me to start work !
I went home at lunch-time and told my mum that I'm going back to work. She was shocked and said "but.. you just went for the interview this morning..." Sadly, my mum passed way on 16 Feb 1978 but I was able to give her some money from my first meagre pay of $95. BTW, Mr. Goh forgot to tell me that $30 was to be retained for 3 months. I can still remember my sister, Alice laughing at me for getting such a low pay for HSC holder compared to the $ 300 which she was getting as a MCE holder.