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ime to decide because I was afraid that to teach them how to read and write. What I could do, however,
1g hi maid instead of his wife." was to teach them how to be good people, with moral standards and
.\'a . till hard, what with having to take honest hearts. Being rich or poor does not matter. Being good is
at followed. enough."
of work, from keeping pigs to weaving, Her pride is that all her eight children had the good educa-
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selling, just anything," she recalled of tion that she wished for them.
he was little, also had to help me with In 1969, however, young Chuan decided to forsake his
mother's dream of him becoming a judge, and to enter politics.
third son is now House Speaker. He is "I remembered that I disagreed with him, telling him that
.. ter. and has been a Democrat MP for it would need a lot of money which we simply could not afford. But
mns. the longest serving representative he insisted that he wanted to give it a try. So in the end I gave in."
f the most popular politicians and most That year, Chuan contested his first parliamentary election :
1d. in Trang, and achieved the first of his six electoral victories in the
, he said he would not go to school, province.
He said he was sorry for me. But I It is undisputalbe that one of the factors that have made him
, Tuan said lovingly of her son, now a Trang's longest-serving representative is his mother. As his firmest
-rang people. supporter in the constituency, granny Tuan, being a popular and
ly agreed to leave for Bangkok to further well-loved figure among the local people, has taken it upon herself
. i ted that he should wait until he was to clear up any misunderstandings that might have discredited her
rude to her. 48-year-old son.
had taught her that education was the For example, he was once alleged to be the owner of a tour
,uld oive her children. With this thought bus company, and of a lamyai orchard in the North.
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to work in order to help her teacher "People know me for my honesty, so I told them the truth.
:y to give an education to their children. My son does not even have his own house. All rumours about his
iildren that I had no education at all and wealth are untrue.
,;:e I am. I said I was sorry not to be able "As I see it, I owe it to the people that I have a son who
