Shima's Blog

12 November 2008. Yes, that was the date of which I will never forget. The day I get to meet Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in-person.

I started the day off very bright and early. But the LRT that took me to Putrajaya arrived rather late (yeah, you guessed it right, my university didn't provide transport as there were only 3 of us). So i arrived at the Perdana Leadership Foundation Hall rather late too, mind you, that building is Tun Dr. Mohamad's office.

As a result, I did not get to enter the hall as it was already full. And then, I saw him, coming down the stairs right in front of me. He smiled and waved; appreciative. I looked at him in awe, noticing how petite he was, not as grand as he were when he used to appear on tv, friendly and gentle too.

So there I was, struggling to take out my camera to snap some pictures of him, but it was too late. So I sat outside enjoying his talk, through the projector displayed. But I was determined to get his picture afterwards. And yes, just as I had determined to do, I waited at the door just when it is tea time. Surely Tun Mahathir wants some tea too,(haha). I pushed myself among all those huge media cameras. When he got out, I quickly took his picture until I realised the camera is jammed.. Determined, I focused my camera rite at his nose until a flash came out. He actually stopped so that I can take his picture properly (haha).. When the flash came out, he smiled at me asking "Dah?"...Me, (smiling cheekily): "Hehe, ok dah"

Well, the food was great. We had tea-time twice and a huge lunch, with lots of lamb, chicken n beef dishes cooked in various styles displayed on a long buffet table. Waaahh, nice...

Ahem, moving on.

There was this talk with several panelists. I managed to get into the hall by this time (You can see all this pics at my Picasaweb). Guess who I saw that made me almost faint. It was Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, my most favourite Political Analyst.

I could not ask for more and enjoyed the whole talk, scribbling notes furiously. At the end of the talk, I asked him a question and managed to tell Dr. Chandra that I'm his biggest fan before proceeding to my question. Right afterwards he responded by saying "I'm flattered that I have a young lady as a fan"..Wahh, that really got me blushing. Later on, after the other panelists tries to answer the questions that was asked by the other people in the audience, I was surprised as they all wanted to answer my question, although I only directed it to Dr. Chandra. "I want to touch on that lady's question".. So yeah, all of them referred to me as "the lady", haha...

We had group activity later on. It was normal, some discussions and presentations. But I was surprised as most of the pariticipants are Malays that speaks fluent English. And they were interested on this particular issue on "Bangsa Malaysia" too, like me. I think that's cool.

I get to take pictures WITH Tun Mahathir, which was unexpected. But I wish to have a card or something to give to him. As a token of my appreciation of his way of thinking and contribution. But still, a picture is worth a thousand words.

One thing I want to highlight is that, maybe most of you are not as excited as I am. Perhaps the reason is that you perceive him only as a politician. Well, you shouldn't see it that way. See him as a wise man, his vision has a deeper meaning than just "Wawasan 2020". His speech encourages the Malays to strive better than the rest of us although he sounds as if he is mocking us Malays. No, he's not a racist. To me, he was just a "Pejuang Bangsa", and he still is.