Who Is Jong

For several months taxi driver Jong Ah Sui has been bringing a Malay couple to a dialysis centre even though they often do not have the money to pay the fare. Jong, 61, came across Awang Jamil Awang Panji and his wife Fatimah Jili when they were trying to hail a taxi without success sometime in August.

“I’m usually looking for passengers in the town centre. One day, I saw Awang wanting to get a taxi to bring his wife for dialysis but no one wanted to pick them up because they had no money for the fare. “I felt sorry for them so I decided to bring them. It didn’t matter that they could not pay,” he said.

Since then, Jong has been bringing the couple to the dialysis centre three times a week.
He said the normal fare was RM30 but he only charged them RM20, which they will pay if they have money.

For the return trip, he gets a friend of his to take them home. “The fare is RM35 as the distance is further, but I asked my friend to charge them RM30. If they are unable to pay, I will pay my friend on their behalf,” Jong said.

Asked if he was helping the couple out of the goodness of his heart, Jong laughed and said what he was doing was nothing extraordinary.

“It’s good to help others, especially those who are in need. Awang’s wife needs dialysis treatment so if there was nobody to bring her, she would be in difficulty. I just sympathise with them. It doesn’t matter that they are Malay and I’m Chinese. I only hope that I will remain healthy,” he said.

Awang, who works as a gardener, said he and his wife were thankful to Jong for picking them up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“He’s really good to us. He doesn’t mind if we can’t always pay him. We depend on him to bring us to the dialysis centre,” he said.