What happened?Patrick: Don't really know-lah. Those things happen.
I have my father, still alive. My mother passed away about three or four years ago. I have one brother who lives in Singapore. He's a Singapore citizen. My family is very small, just my brother and I. And both of us have a large age difference, so we are not really close. He's 14 years older than I am.
Are you currently attached to anyone?
Patrick: Ya, I am. Girlfriend. I call her Min. And I get along very well with my two girls---the elder one is in advertising; and the younger one is hopefully following in my footsteps. She has decided not to pursue her tertiary education, and be an entrepreneur. Yesterday, was the official opening of her pet shop. She started it with a couple of her friends. They sell pedigree dogs, cats, iguanas, snakes. It is called Pet World. It is located in this new development near OUG.
The elder one is Melisa, and the younger one is Melanie.
Tell us more about your love interest. How far are you into it?
Patrick: How far, you mean if I am going to get married? Ya, I plan to get married as soon as I can finalise my divorce papers.
How are your daughters handling the divorce?
Patrick: Fortunately, quite well. They are, thankfully, quite matured in their thinking. Their approach to the whole thing is, well, dad, it's your life. You have a right to do whatever you want because we love you and we'll be there for you.
Was it an amicable divorce?
Patrick: It is amicable compared to some that I have heard of.
What do you think of marriage?
Patrick: Very over-rated institution.
But you still want to go into it?
Patrick: Well, ya. As much as I would like to think that I am a non-conformist, there are certain things that you can't fight. A certificate of marriage is necessary to fulfil certain conditions of living in this society.
You had polio.
Patrick: I had polio when I was seven or eight which affected my legs, and for some time, I wasn't able to walk. Then I went for an operation in Singapore, and I regained my walking ability. Of course, polio is a wasting disease. So, the bones in my feet have deformed to a certain extent and the muscles are not developing like the rest of the body. But I think that I am pretty lucky as far as polio is concerned.
How has that affected you?
Patrick: I have taken it quite well. I think I have to come to terms with it very early on in life. During school days, of course, you get ribbed about your limp and all that, and get into fights because of it. Only one time has it come up in my working life.
When I was in Redifussion, working as an announcer, they used to organise regular live shows outside the studio---at cinema halls and so on. One of their most famous shows was the Treasure Chest Quiz, forerunner of gameshows that you see on TV these days, but this was done on radio. And it was very popular among Redifussion listeners; and I remember, I went up to my programme manager one day, and said that I have been working in Redifussion for a number of years now and I have always been studio-bound. And I said, I would like the opportunity to go and host this Treasure Chest Quiz which was the talk of the town. And his answer to me was, and I thought rather unkindly, he said: "Patrick, you will never get the opportunity to go on stage. I don't think people in Malaysia would like to see a cripple on stage."
I remember that it affected me quite a bit. Prior to that, I never thought about it but fortunately, I am the kind of person who can get over these things fairly easily. So I got over it. I mean, I am where I am now, and he's dead.
I have done, other than radio where I am not seen at all, stage plays and years and years of emcee jobs and nobody has ever made references to my physical disability. I must say the audience has been very kind to me. They accept me for who I am.
Are you contented at where you are now?
Patrick: Fairly contented. Although I would like to see radio develop in a slightly different way. Other than that, I am quite happy.
What do see yourself doing five or ten years down the road?
Patrick: I would like to get more involved with radio, for one. I would like to get involved with teaching, in sharing my experiences with people who have interest in broadcasting or public speaking. I have done some of that work before. Last year, for four months, I did a course in public speaking with a group of 80 people at the Brickfields Buddhist Temple. I am not Buddhist, and neither were many of the people who attended the course.
And it was a lot of fun. It was only scheduled for a month but it was so much fun, that it went on for four months. And as a result, the people of that course have set up a speaker's club for the temple.
Are you paid for this?
Patrick: No.
How much community service such as this do you do?
Patrick: I try to do it as much as I can with the organisational frame work that I have. We do a lot of work for WWF for their audio-visual requirements. We contribute by providing our audio facilities free. And I am also very partial to charitable causes, particularly in my radio work, like cancer wheelathon and Autistic Society. I get requests constantly to emcee things like church fund-raising programmes, which I am not particularly fond of doing because after almost 30 years of emceeing functions, you just get tired of it. But I try to help in other ways.
Are you religious?
Patrick: No, I am a non-practising Catholic. Religion to me is a very personal thing, I talk to God everyday. You don't have to go to church to do that.
What's your perception of God?
Patrick: I perceive God to be the DJ of a big radio station in the sky. If you have a problem, talk to him. He's not going to give you answers but you talk.... That's a good analogy, isn't it? He doesn't give you any solutions, but if you talk to him, you might find the answer in yourself. Sometimes, he cuts you off too.
Any plans for your own radio station?
Patrick: Well, that has been a dream for many, many years, but given the situation, I am particularly optimistic about it, although, I have made several attempts.
We are still in the position of it-is-not-what-you-know, but-who-you-know. That's the way it is.
Development of radio in Malaysia. What do you think lies ahead?
Patrick: The development of radio is also an act of natural progression---it has to happen. What I envision to happen in years to come will be this: We'll move from broad-casting to narrow-casting. This is the case with all mature radio markets; like even in Singapore, it is starting with narrow-casting.
Narrow-casting means that you will have stations to cater for individual taste---classical music station, rock station, jazz station and so on. That will be the way we go. It has happened to a certain extent now in Malaysia. With the advent of Time Highway Radio, the younger generation listen to THR because of the music they play. The older, more mature ones listen to Radio 4 because of the music and some, the talk shows.
What do you think of the DJs today?
Patrick: Oh, some of them are terrible. It's not their fault, some of them just don't have any training. See, people like me or people like The Fly Guy, whom I think is the best DJ Malaysia has produced in 30 or 40 years; he has had the opportunity of training in the States for many years and he has had the exposure. I have been in the business for thirty years, so I too have had my fair share of exposure.
But the younger ones seem to have this idea that because they can string two records together and can speak English with a slight accent, they can be a DJ. THR has got a proliferation of disco DJs which I detest. They are professionals in their own right but they belong to discotheques, not radio stations. There is just no training.
To me, if you asked me, why do you listen to radio, I would never ever say I like music. If I like music, I put on a cassette of my favourite songs so that I don't have to bother about what the DJ is saying or the DJ playing the wrong songs. I may as well play a cassette with all my favourite songs, then, I am happy. Why should I listen to the radio? I listen to the radio because I want company---while driving, or while I am reading a book in bed---I want to have somebody who talks to me, who tells me things that matter in my daily life, who makes me angry, who makes me laugh, who makes me feel like I have a friend there. That's the only reason I listen to the radio.
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