By Adie Suri Zulkefli

KEPALA BATAS, MALAYSIA: It is common for teenage girls to write gushing letters to their heroes.

However, when the sender is a no-nonsense student and the recipient is a national leader of finance, the outcome of such correspondence can be unexpected.

Hanis Syazni Hasni, 16, of SMK Datuk Onn, Butterworth, discovered this first hand when she found herself face to face with the recipient of her letters, Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, on Sunday.

She also discovered that her articulateness can fail her, as when she learned that she was to be "adopted" by him.

Hanis, who has a deep interest in economics and aspires to become the nation's first female finance minister, first wrote to Nor Mohamed two years ago when she was 14.

In the letter, she expressed her admiration of Nor Mohamed's efforts in fending off attacks from currency speculators during the 1997 financial crisis.

He was then an adviser to the prime minister.

The letter impressed Nor Mohamed with its demonstration of the young writer's grasp of complex economic concepts and mechanisms, and had stayed in his mind.

But when the Form Four pupil, who scored 8As in her Penilaian Menengah Rendah examination last year, delivered her second letter to him at a recent open house, Nor Mohamed was impressed.

In the two-page letter, Hanis praised the government for its success in managing the economy and confessed that she was Nor Mohamed's biggest fan.

Nor Mohamed, who is Tasek Gelugor member of parliament, was so touched that he made a surprise visit to her home in Permatang Binjai here.

During his visit, he said that Hanis had set a good example by proving that even the young could be aware of and grasped economic issues.

"I am surprised that someone her age could speak with such intelligence on the 1997 Asian financial crisis and what the government did to preserve the country's sovereignty at that time."

He said he and wife Puan Sri Pauziah Begum had agreed to adopt Hanis – whose father, Hasni Hashim, 50, is a store supervisor at a factory in Prai and mother, Hasnah Hassan, 48, is a clerk at Lembaga Pertubuhan Peladang – and pledged to monitor her academic progress.

Hanis, the youngest of three children and nicknamed "FM" (finance minister) for her interest in economics, said she had never expected that her letter would result in Nor Mohamed visiting her home.

"It was a pleasant surprise and Tan Sri (Nor Mohamed)'s visit is a huge boost for me to study harder towards achieving my dream of becoming the first female finance minister."