Knowing I was going to be late, I was literally striding like an Olympian to the Pippard Lecture theatre, Imperial College to hear ex-Chief Minister of Perak, Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin. However, I guess I have to get used to YBs turning up late these days, previous experience with the Seri Setia ADUN has somewhat supported this trend. Nizar was like 45 minutes late and during that time, I managed to turn my little town into a 1,000,000 populated megacity (Simcity lah!), finished off yesterday's leftover and chatted with an ACCA girl who is an avid fan of Malaysian politics.
Finally, I could see Nizar being greeted and welcomed by enthusiasts and me, wanting to keep myself calm and composed shook his hands and he asked me if I was a student here. Yes, someone thinks I look young! I'm still getting used to the fact that people do grow old and this guy here just gave me the greatest compliment I could have asked for during my torrid time as an under worked analyst in London. So far so good.
Nizar started off apolitically by reciting the verses from the Quraan, since the crowd being mostly of non-Muslims. He referred to the verse telling us not to conceal the truth and another one about loving one another of different races (Quraan 49:13). He then gave the typical greetings to the members of the floor in four different languages (Arab, English, Mandarin (I think) and Tamil) and so, the political talk has officially begun! He should have just used the Arab version "Assalaamualaikum" to everyone me thinks.
I am not going into acute details about the things he mentioned because he was basically repeating himself (just like Zambry the last time) and you can find them in blogs and alternative news portals. However, I will point out the fun, crazy, unusual things from the talk. For a start, when he was elaborating on the Perak issue yada-yada-yada, I may be the only one from the audience who realised he gave us the middle finger each time he was adjusting his spectacles! I kid you not and I'm not writing to sensationalise! I almost exploded with laughter when people were like so serious listening to the usual bits, Nizar, quite innocently and unintentionally was giving it, WWE The Rock style. LOL.
Okay okay maybe I needed to concentrate more. I wanted to see if the Facebook quiz "Which Malaysian Leader are You?" was accurate with my result being "Datuk Seri Nizar". First thing that I learned about this guy was that he is not a lembik puppet as many anti-Pakatan people perceive. The other day Anwar Ibrahim also had a talk in London and he hypocritically quoted "I may have a bad back, but I have a backbone!" but for Nizar's case, he did really seemed to be one firm leader with a massive backbone! His arguments were strong, bold and honest. He even answered my simple but tricky question quite well by stating how he is strongly against the act of 'froggies', more formally 'party defection'. "It is an act of betrayal to the people!". Some Pakatan leaders are calling these defectors names (frogs, kataks, traitors, shi-oots who only help cleanse the party) but at the same time defending the Westminister-style Constitution that allows ship-jumping and endorsing and agreeing to the failed 16th Sept 2008 party deception (not defection) when asked. That's no backbone if you ask me and there was no evidence at that time that I could find Nizar being in support of party defections even from the Bota ADUN's (I used to be playing football with his kids) double-jump ship as all I could remember was Anwar, Anwar and Anwar being on the ADUN's side.
Sure or not, Jeg? Unfortunately, Nizar has forgotten that he himself welcomed the Bota ADUN to PKR and claimed there were three more UMNO men jumping into the Perak coalition in 2009. "They came forward to us without us inviting them."
Well, you could have said "No, it is an act of betrayal to the people! Go away!"
At least for strongly against the principles of party crossover even if it was constitutional, Karpal Singh and I have got the rights to condemn these defectors. Pot calling the kettle... Made in China? (I need to avoid being anti-Afro and support China products by not using the standard version of the idiom).
"Harus bertaubat!"
Okay now, we all now know Nizar is not a DAP's puppet, evidently from his track record, helping people not based on colour or religion. We know he is a qualified engineer and was English educated (Aston University, Birmingham). He is quite new in politics and one guy asked why did he enter politics. "Because I see there is some injustice and I feel I need to correct this." He is also a religious man with a multi-ethnic background (father is Malay, mother is Chinese). He is quite a strong, firm leader as we all know with a bit sense of humour. His economics agenda and willingness to work with the current Perak government seem like a good idea. What else did I miss?
Well, being quite a particular kind of guy, I did not find that many faults in his speech compared to Anwar's couple of days earlier. I think he did quite well apart from being hypocritical about party defections and Zambry bashing. However, there is only ONE and only ONE part that I could not absorb. I still think it's a minor issue but it is worth mentioning here just to provoke the minds of you guys. He started his speech by quoting the verse of the Quraan clearly reminding us not to conceal the truth. Towards the end of his talk, Nizar said:
"For whatever reasons you read on the blogs, regarding why the Sultan has not dissolve the State Assembly, despite what the Sultan himself wrote in his book, don't believe them!"
"Maybe the Perak Sultan wants to protect his business?" asked an Ah Pek.
"The reason is far more beyond that. The Sultan already has everything under the sun. Like I said, don't believe whatever you read on the blogs regarding this."
I was dumbfounded myself. Nizar was not telling. He gave the impression he knew the reason. Why is he now concealing the truth?
I want to know the reason! Help!!! If you are reading this, Datuk Seri, please get me out of this niggling misery. Look for me on Facebook and Twitter and tell me the reason in private message. I swear I will not tell a soul!
Maybe it's just mind games. Politicians...
Jeg Hui
Finally, I could see Nizar being greeted and welcomed by enthusiasts and me, wanting to keep myself calm and composed shook his hands and he asked me if I was a student here. Yes, someone thinks I look young! I'm still getting used to the fact that people do grow old and this guy here just gave me the greatest compliment I could have asked for during my torrid time as an under worked analyst in London. So far so good.
Nizar started off apolitically by reciting the verses from the Quraan, since the crowd being mostly of non-Muslims. He referred to the verse telling us not to conceal the truth and another one about loving one another of different races (Quraan 49:13). He then gave the typical greetings to the members of the floor in four different languages (Arab, English, Mandarin (I think) and Tamil) and so, the political talk has officially begun! He should have just used the Arab version "Assalaamualaikum" to everyone me thinks.
I am not going into acute details about the things he mentioned because he was basically repeating himself (just like Zambry the last time) and you can find them in blogs and alternative news portals. However, I will point out the fun, crazy, unusual things from the talk. For a start, when he was elaborating on the Perak issue yada-yada-yada, I may be the only one from the audience who realised he gave us the middle finger each time he was adjusting his spectacles! I kid you not and I'm not writing to sensationalise! I almost exploded with laughter when people were like so serious listening to the usual bits, Nizar, quite innocently and unintentionally was giving it, WWE The Rock style. LOL.
Okay okay maybe I needed to concentrate more. I wanted to see if the Facebook quiz "Which Malaysian Leader are You?" was accurate with my result being "Datuk Seri Nizar". First thing that I learned about this guy was that he is not a lembik puppet as many anti-Pakatan people perceive. The other day Anwar Ibrahim also had a talk in London and he hypocritically quoted "I may have a bad back, but I have a backbone!" but for Nizar's case, he did really seemed to be one firm leader with a massive backbone! His arguments were strong, bold and honest. He even answered my simple but tricky question quite well by stating how he is strongly against the act of 'froggies', more formally 'party defection'. "It is an act of betrayal to the people!". Some Pakatan leaders are calling these defectors names (frogs, kataks, traitors, shi-oots who only help cleanse the party) but at the same time defending the Westminister-style Constitution that allows ship-jumping and endorsing and agreeing to the failed 16th Sept 2008 party deception (not defection) when asked. That's no backbone if you ask me and there was no evidence at that time that I could find Nizar being in support of party defections even from the Bota ADUN's (I used to be playing football with his kids) double-jump ship as all I could remember was Anwar, Anwar and Anwar being on the ADUN's side.
Sure or not, Jeg? Unfortunately, Nizar has forgotten that he himself welcomed the Bota ADUN to PKR and claimed there were three more UMNO men jumping into the Perak coalition in 2009. "They came forward to us without us inviting them."
Well, you could have said "No, it is an act of betrayal to the people! Go away!"
At least for strongly against the principles of party crossover even if it was constitutional, Karpal Singh and I have got the rights to condemn these defectors. Pot calling the kettle... Made in China? (I need to avoid being anti-Afro and support China products by not using the standard version of the idiom).
"Harus bertaubat!"
Okay now, we all now know Nizar is not a DAP's puppet, evidently from his track record, helping people not based on colour or religion. We know he is a qualified engineer and was English educated (Aston University, Birmingham). He is quite new in politics and one guy asked why did he enter politics. "Because I see there is some injustice and I feel I need to correct this." He is also a religious man with a multi-ethnic background (father is Malay, mother is Chinese). He is quite a strong, firm leader as we all know with a bit sense of humour. His economics agenda and willingness to work with the current Perak government seem like a good idea. What else did I miss?
Well, being quite a particular kind of guy, I did not find that many faults in his speech compared to Anwar's couple of days earlier. I think he did quite well apart from being hypocritical about party defections and Zambry bashing. However, there is only ONE and only ONE part that I could not absorb. I still think it's a minor issue but it is worth mentioning here just to provoke the minds of you guys. He started his speech by quoting the verse of the Quraan clearly reminding us not to conceal the truth. Towards the end of his talk, Nizar said:
"For whatever reasons you read on the blogs, regarding why the Sultan has not dissolve the State Assembly, despite what the Sultan himself wrote in his book, don't believe them!"
"Maybe the Perak Sultan wants to protect his business?" asked an Ah Pek.
"The reason is far more beyond that. The Sultan already has everything under the sun. Like I said, don't believe whatever you read on the blogs regarding this."
I was dumbfounded myself. Nizar was not telling. He gave the impression he knew the reason. Why is he now concealing the truth?
I want to know the reason! Help!!! If you are reading this, Datuk Seri, please get me out of this niggling misery. Look for me on Facebook and Twitter and tell me the reason in private message. I swear I will not tell a soul!
Maybe it's just mind games. Politicians...
Jeg Hui
4 comments:
Good article. 3 quick questions:
a) If YB does tell you the reason, tell me as well please :D
b) Why will the Arab greeting be enough? As a Malaysian leader; do you not think that it will be better suited for him as a Malaysian to wish all races in their form of greeting as opposed to just one? And if it was to just be one should it not be in Malay rather than in Arab?
c) Is it not a bit unfair to call the innocent Chinese man an Ah PEk.
Thank you
firstly, i am glad i used those words to get ppl asking these questions.
1) i wanted to ask nizar directly after the talk but i was sceptical he would. anything in your mind?
2) nizar is from PAS and it is clear that he wants to improve ppl's perception about Islam. Assalamualaikum is good for all, can be used by anyone including non-muslims. its a hassle to greet in many different languages. there are like thousands of different languages n dialects in th3 world and we miss one, we might offend one. iban, kadazan language were left out for example.
3) Ah Pek means 'uncle'. no offence there. he looks way older than me so im sure its appropriate.
Good sharing! BTW Nizar is fluent in Mandarin and is well-versed in Chinese culture, that (and his clean, friendly image) was an important factor in his ascension to the MB seat. DAP were ready to take Perak but the Sultan said it must be a Malay.
Looking back in retrospect, a damn fine choice I say.
I got a feeling he should lead pakatan. To make it stronger
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