The Iron Lady

for whom the end justified the means.

I do not normally look up the TV guide (non-Astro) before watching the television. Sometimes I stumbled upon a tv serial by chance, like ‘The Iron Lady’ a local production by Double Vision, shown from Monday to Thursday, 10.00pm to 11.00pm on NTV7.

I can still remember watching one of the earlier episodes where the young lady was at her wits’ end, being faced with a family problem. According to her family tradition, only a male heir is entitled to the family’s estate. Her father had been successful in building up a sizable plantation, which her uncles and aunt are eyeing, especially when her father seems unlikely to recover from his illness. She was pressured almost daily as to when she should be giving up her job of managing the family business. The dialogue is in Mandarin with occasional use of some Hokien.

Her late mother’s servant encouraged her to fight off the predators. She suggested that she got herself married, with a condition that the husband takes up her family surname so that a male heir would bear the family surname and therefore would meet the condition for taking over the business. Under the circumstances, she forced herself to accept reality and sacrificed her own happiness. Though she had a boyfriend who was studying overseas, she could not wait for his return. Once she made up her mind, she set off, driving an old Mercedes (123 model – horizontal headlamps) hurriedly into the oil palm estate. (This was the part that endeared me to the serial because my wife used to drive one to the estates and I have referred to her as ‘the iron lady’ in one of my earlier posts, which I only found out at the end of that episode that it is also the title of the serial! But, the similarity ends there, ok?)

When she reached the estate, she looked around the workers there and none seemed appealing to her. Then she went to the office, to see the clerk or bookkeeper, a bespectacled nerdy looking man (like me, a friend was quick to point out as I related to them about this story! Again, I wish to stress, the similarity ends there, ok?). She locked the door behind him and told the startled man, ‘I know you have been secretly admiring me, with your furtive glances’, and added, ‘take off your shirt and your trousers’ and practically forced herself on him!

Later, she took him to see her ailing father in the hospital and told him to address him as ‘Ah Pa’ or ‘father’ in Hokien. Her father was so happy with her choice, that he smiled and made a quick recovery. He was able to attend the wedding reception and the tea ceremony. He died soon after.

(Fast forward) To Iron Lady’s great disappointment, her two births produced daughters, which did not help her situation at all. She was distraught when she found out that her womb was too badly damaged to be able to get pregnant again.

Earlier, a father and daughter came looking for a job and the daughter was employed as a maid. The actor (father) I could recognise as a former Company Secretary by the name of Sam Sik Wah! Anyway, the father was suffering from a kidney disease and needed dialysis treatment, which they could ill afford. Again, the trusty yet cunning old servant suggested that for helping them to meet their medical bills, the Iron Lady should insist that the young girl return her favour by helping to produce a male heir for her! She had to bear with the thought of her husband having sex with another woman, just for the sake of achieving her end…as in the end justifies the means.

To try and make the story interesting, when the young maid was giving birth at home, the doctor announced the birth of another girl, much to the horror and utter disappointment of the Iron Lady. Having gone to such trouble including pretending to be pregnant to show the prying eyes of her intrusive sister-in-law, she was in despair, until the second announcement of a boy!

A deal was set and promised never to be broken whereby the maid was to go away and never to come back, ever. She asked for the daughter and was given but a request to hold the son was forbidden. A simpleton among the estate workers was chosen to be her husband.

Again to cut the long story short, I was able to predict the outcome ie. the long lost sister was to work in the family company, which by now had become very big with modern office and big development projects. The precious male heir is now CEO of the company and his long lost sister (which he has yet to find out) is now her personal assistant and looks likely to fall in love with each other.

Wow! I managed to write a synopsis of the story, for the benefit of my children (to have a good laugh). The other reason was to relate the part on asking someone else to produce a baby, to this news item, which Bayi sent to me:

I am sure most men would not mind doing the part by Frank Maus!