COMMENT | 99 Speedmart - a victory for all Malaysians

COMMENT | May there always be people like Lee Thiam Wah in this country! Surely, he is one of Malaysia’s greatest entrepreneurs in living memory.

With virtually nothing and starting from scratch, he built a retailing empire, 99 Speedmart, employing some 22,000 people of all races and religions. And better still, he employs only Malaysians and treats them all equally.

To all those business people who hobnobbed with the corrupt and corruptible and bribed their way to fame and fortune, claiming in private and without batting an eye that this is the only way of doing business in Malaysia, take a good hard look in the mirror and ask whether you can match Lee’s business acumen or application. Shame on you!

Shame also on all those who measured the success of the company he founded and nurtured to listing last week in the main bourse of KLSE through the narrow prism of the premium it commanded on opening day or the fact that he is now a billionaire.

They have missed the point and the moral lessons behind his success.