Zambry’s Q&A Session

As usual every weekend I will always look for an opportunity to fill up the day in boring London. I received an invitation to attend a session called “The new Perak: Emerging from the Crisis” by Perak Menteri Besar Dato Seri Zambry Abdul Kader so I guess I wanted to give it a go.

As I didn’t want to be late, after a quick lunch at Thai Square, Strand (being served by a pretty bespectacled Siamese lady – worth notifying here) I dashed to the Kings College’s Edmund J Safra Lecture Theatre only to find out the guests of honour were late, as expected.

This time, we had a better proportion of Malaysians from the floor. We had more Malays than UKEC Homecoming for Nik Nazmi, although these so called people who claimed to be multiracial still sit with their own ‘kind’. The Malays with the Malays, the Non-Malays with Non-Malays although the sight of a Datuk with his Caucasian wife of about 40 years from Ipoh somehow added some balance to it.

A good Chinese friend of mine had saved me a good spot and here we go, here we go. I noticed the man of the moment from a group of smartly dressed men taking their seats. Zambry was all smiling (northen slang - ghenyeh) like a ‘kerang busuk’ in the eyes of Pakatan supporters but like a friendly leader for the neutrals and the BN supporters.

MC: Salam 1Malaysia.

What? A new way to greet Malaysians?

It was my first time listening to Zambry and my take on him is he is indeed a friendly leader. The man got some humour in him as well. A bit about himself during his younger days, he claimed to be very active in football and was dubbed the ‘Pangkor Pele’. I couldn’t hold my laughter any longer when I started imagining Pele and Zambry side by side playing for Team Pangkor in a friendly match.

Man, don’t they look like brothers? Or shall I say father and his 40s son?

Zambry had the State Secretary Dr. Abdul Rahman Hashim and his laywer Feirouz (who looks like Nazir Razak) by his side seated on the stage together with the MC. He promised not to be too political during his speech and would rather have a no-holds barred session with the members of the floor. He also commented a bit on how he will do about improving the economy of Perak. He even repeatedly urged the Perakians (and also non-perakians) to return to Perak and develop the state.

At first sight, Dr. Abdul Rahman didn’t look friendly with his long face. Feirouz’s tie was too long. And Zambry couldn’t stop smiling. The hardcore Pakatan fans were not impressed with Zambry’s smile and it clearly showed when they bombarded the questions. One was even seen to be so emotionally engulfed, asking questions while struggling to breathe.

Feirouz was there to read out the Perak Constitution when needed to. There were the same old Q and A you can find these days so I will not elaborate more here. Generally I am satisfied with Zambry’s and Feirouz’s answers to the questions although I could not be bothered as I knew the answer even before the session.

However there’s something new that I haven’t heard of that is under the Perak Constitution, a pact must work officially as a team in order to be recognised as having the immediate majority. During the March 2008 election, Barisan was only short of two seats in order to take the majority. PAS, PKR and DAP however, did not officially work under an umbrella during the election and even by saying that, “WITH THE DISCREATION OF THE SULTAN”, PAS-PKR-DAP was still accepted to be the new lawmakers of Perak.

To be fair, let me remind you that Pakatan Rakyat was not in existent during the last election.

Feirouz then said under the Perak Constitution, if a party has lost its majority, the MB must immediately resign from his post. But Nizar did not even the Sultan has advised him to. Then, I quote Zambry saying “the Divajee Sivakumar” who claimed to be the rightful Speaker suspended Zambry and 8 other BN ADUNs and passed one motion.

“You call this democracy?” Zambry asked the audience and smiled.

I have to agree that Sivakumar made that mistake because he was overwhelmed by emotion. How can you suspend half of the Opposition Team to vote? It’s like having the referee red carding 10 players from the same team right after the kickoff and let the goalie play all alone?

I may sound like a BN supporter now but for the case of Perak, I believe that Pakatan is calling the kettle black and is fighting the losing battle. Be a man. You lose the numbers, you bow out gracefully.

Sept 16, if you had the numbers, are you saying you will dissolve the Parliament?

Well at least according to one smart ass law student (dressed up like a lawyer just to convince the audience that he knows EVERYTHING about the law and Anwar Ibrahim.)

The boy, arrogantly asked Feirouz to read out the Perak Constitution regarding the power of Sultan declaring BN as the rightful lawmakers because he couldn’t find it anywhere and Feirouz read it out word by word quite handsomely.

“WITH THE DISCREATION OF SULTAN this… WITH THE DISCREATION OF SULTAN that...”

The boy could not say anything. He then, out of anger boldly made a statement “I believe if Sept 16 was to materialised, ANWAR WILL DISSOLVE THE PARLIAMENT”

Zambry quickly replied (with a smile, again), “Brother… trust me, I know Anwar better than you do.”

Then the crowd was laughing at the boy. Clearly a hardcore Pakatan fan here, blinded by the charm words of his idols. Even a neutral like me felt he was ‘too clever’ to say that. Red-faced, he was just speechless.

I always reminded my now defunct rock band to simply have fun when performing in front of a big crowd, as long as you don’t make a fool of yourself.

When the long 3 hour session came to almost an end, the microphone was passed to Abdul Rahman and he suddenly said, with a school-teacher tone, “Based on the questions given by you, it is clear that some if not all of you did not read the case fully, comprehensively and fairly. I am shocked that you are supposed to be talented Malaysians and you should do more investigation not just read and absorb everything you read in the blogs.” (Note: not his real quote, but something like that lah).

To be honest, what Rahman said is true, but maybe not the right manner. We are not schoolchildredn!

One bespectacled M. Nasir look-alike from Swansea immediately rose up and asked Abdul Rahman to take back his words, because he, self-claiming to be representing the members of the floor, felt offended with Abdul Rahman’s remark as if the audience were that stupid.

“TARIK BALIK! TARIK BALIK!”

Haha! What do you think this is? Circus? Malaysian Parliament?

Again Zambry had to save the day. “Dia dah tarik balik la tu…”

The crowd just laughed off the incident and I still smile each time I remember that incident.

“TARIK BALIK!!”

To wrap up the session, Zambry kept reminding himself and the people to do less with politics and work hard for the State of Perak. He told us he just got back from the USA to find investors to develop Perak, helping the state to regain the title the richest state in Malaysia.

“PERAK MAJU DAN AMAN.” – Perak – Peace and Prosperity.

Well, best of luck for that mate. I miss the old peaceful Perak, Taiping especially, the town I grew up in.

After checking the goodies (including a Daulat Tuanku badge, Criminalise War badge, Nasi Goreng and currypuffs), I headed home smiling… just like Zambry.

Ghenyeh ghenyeh…