Stepping out into a good deed
Sim Bak Heng
IT was 8pm on the last day of October. I was walking from a bus stop in Jalan Skudai to Sutera Mall in Taman Sutera Utama in Johor Baru, when I stumbled upon a rectangular object that resembled a booklet.
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I kicked it, trying to turn it over and see what it was. It was light, and my instinct told me to pick it up. It was a Malaysian passport, with two cards inserted into its cover.
Upon reaching my office in Bandar Baru Uda later, I examined the passport and the two cards — one of them was a Singapore work permit.
With no addresses or contact numbers available, I first though it would be easier to just hand over the document to the Immigration Department.
But then I thought, as a journalist, it should not be too difficult to trace the owner of the passport.
I was prepared to do just that the following day. There was an inner force driving me to look for its owner, who must be desperately looking for the passport to be able to enter the republic and go to work.
Then I saw a company’s name on the work permit. I called 103, and was told to call 101 for international.
After I obtained the company’s number, I called and a security officer who identified himself as Ng answered.
I told him about my find, and sought his help to either get the passport holder or his superior to call me the soonest.
About 45 minutes later, a colleague of the passport holder called and offered to collect it from me. He said he could not get in touch with his colleague in Johor Baru.
Later, while I was about to go to sleep at about 9.45pm, the owner of the passport himself called me. He asked me how and where I had found the passport, to which I asked him how and where he had lost it?
He told me that he had lost his car at the shopping mall the same day I found his passport. He said his passport was inside the vehicle then.
I realised that I must have picked up the passport after it was discarded by the car jacker who was making his escape through Jalan Skudai, probably just hours earlier. I felt sorry for the car owner.
But then, I felt sorry for myself too on that day because I had had to walk for 15 minutes to the mall as I could not get a stage bus that served the route after an hour or so of waiting.
At the mall, I encountered problems with a customer service representative due to a price discrepancy between the one stated in the receipt and the price tag.
The episode affected my entire mood that evening.
I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had managed to take a direct bus service or a taxi to the mall, or if I had ignored the “little booklet” on the ground. I don’t think How Cheng Siang, a Malaysian working in a factory in Woodlands, Singapore, would have ever found his passport. It would have most probably been destroyed by the rain and heat.
As How had lost his car and had to rely on his friend’s help to get to the police station to make a report, he only collected the passport the following night.
Even then, he had to collect it from my company’s security guard as I was not able to walk properly after having injured my foot on a piece of broken glass in the morning.
How sent me an SMS and promised to treat me to a meal. I sent him an SMS and asked him to take care.
Until now, however, I have not met How.
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