(MY082) Singapore millionaire finds long-lost wife

KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — A 62-year-old Singapore-born millionaire looking for his long-lost wife and son in Malaysia has apparently found the woman.

Negri Sembilan MCA public services and complaints bureau chairman Tung Kong Ming told The Straits Times that tycoon Yak Eng Wai had informed him of the good news yesterday.

“Yak called me using a friend's phone this morning to tell me that he has found his wife. He is now back in Brunei.”

Yak's plight was highlighted by the media, thanks to the bureau.

Tung also told The Straits Times that Yak — who made it big in Brunei as an auto service provider and parts trader — had not told him whether his wife had returned to Brunei with him.

“We are a public service centre, and we do not question much when someone comes to us for help,” he said.

The businessman told The Star newspaper on Tuesday that his wife, Ooi Suan Im, would be 61 now.

She left him in 1970 and returned to her family in Penang when she was pregnant with their second child.

She left their first child, a two-year-old boy, with her husband.

The boy, who was born with epilepsy, died in 1983 of viral fever.

Yak said he was separated from his wife at a time when he was trying to make ends meet, and when he was planning to move to Brunei in search of greener pastures.

He told The Star: “I have not been able to locate them despite making numerous attempts. Not a day goes by when I don't think of them and wonder how they are.

“It's been so many years but I will not be at peace until I find them.”

He said he had met up with his wife a few times in Penang before they lost touch in 1974.

He believed his son is now 37 years old and is known as Ah Teck.

Yak remarried in 1981 after moving to Brunei, and has a 25-year-old daughter.

After his search for his wife and son was publicised, the MCA office was swamped with telephone calls from people claiming to be the rich man's relatives.

Tung said he had had his hands full entertaining calls from people who claimed to have known Yak's family or said they were related to him.

“One caller said he was Yak's son but when I asked him to fax to me documents or to provide me with personal particulars, he did not get back to me.

“Another sent me a text message also claiming to be Yak's son but declined to be reunited with him. The person asked me to get Yak to contact him.”

Tung added that one caller had even asked for payment to help locate the family. — The Straits Times