Kuala Lampur, Oct. 15 -- Recently, sitting at the forum titled "Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as a Catalyst of Socioeconomic Transformation" organised by the Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Universiti Malaya, I felt like I had come full circle.

I was once among those who lived in poverty, raised by an indigenous, Penan woman, and lifted out of hardship through the power of education.

I remember reading about the late Royal Professor Ungku Aziz in one of my school textbooks while waiting for my mother to apply her herbal remedy to my shingles. That moment; poverty, infectious disease, and indigenous wisdom, was echoed in this forum.

Coming from a medical background, I was deeply grateful to Datin Sri Professor Dr Suhai...