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| Aduentes Fortuna Juvat : “Fortune favors the brave.” |
Legend has it that Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋), the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), once planned to kill a family that had insulted his wife, Empress Ma (马皇后), and marked them with the character 福. In order to avoid bloodshed, the kind hearted Empress Ma ordered every family in the capital to paste the character 福 in front of their doors.
Everyone followed the empress' instruction, but one illiterate family had pasted the character upside down. When the emperor's soldiers went through the streets, they found the character pasted everywhere, including the one displayed upside down. The emperor was very angry to hear their report, and ordered his his soldiers to kill the family who had pasted the character in the wrong way.
Empress Ma saved the day with her quick-wit, "That family had known that you would be coming to visit them, so they pasted the character upside down intentionally. Doesn't that sound like "fu arrives" ? Upon hearing this, the emperor was appeased and a tragedy was averted.
Luck had nothing to do with the stunning victory at Punggol East, a margin of 3,182 votes or 10.8 per cent of valid votes is not something to be sniffed at. Lee Li Lian deserves the accolades for her hard work, covering every one of the HDB blocks in the ward with the help of volunteers and party members. And we are forever indebted to the courage of the Punggol East voters, who were not seduced by the temptations of the short term giveaways, and focused on the future of their children's generation. As for the big time loser, he should have listened to his wife's counsel, "You want to help people, but people don't want you".