June 12th, 2008
Dubai.
Dubai.
Malaysians in UAE have an opportunity to meet with three political leaders from Malaysia tonight. Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Tan Sri Khalid and Dato' Husam are in Dubai and despite arriving in the wee hours of this morning after taking the night flight from KL, they arrived at the planned venue much to the delight of the waiting crowd.
First to take the floor was Tan Sri Khalid who went straight into giving a summary report of his first 100 days as the 'CEO' of Selangor state. In his own words, he considers the rakyat as his stake-holders and he holds himself accountable as the man at the helm of leadership and as the one holding rakyat's trust (amanah!). He stressed the essence of Pakatan Rakyat's values - that is to place the rakyat at the center of all decisions. As an example, he mentioned the free povision of water up to a certain volume of usage. His speech resonates well with the audience who were able to relate to his past tenure as the enterprising CEO of PNB. Everyone applauded him at the end of his speech. His sincerity to transform Selangor for the benefits of the rakyat shone through. At times, his frustration with some of the old baggages he has inherited were apparent.
But what will linger on in the mind of many is his enthusiasm and optimism which I personally find very contagious. Best wishes Tan Sri!
Next stood Dato' Husam. He immediately reminded the audience that one of the secret recipes for Pakatan Rakyat's success was focusing on similarities between DAP, PKR and PAS. According to him, one of the similarities is a desire to improve transparency and governance so that Rakyat will be the beneficiaries of all decisions and actions. Rakyat, and not members of the cronies. His speech was temporarily drowned by welcoming greeting for Dato' Seri Anwar when the later walked in to standing audience. DSAI's aura and presence made everyone stood up and formed a pathway - which reminded me of scenes at hotels' grand ball rooms whenever he as the then Deputy Prime Minister walked in as guest of honour to dinner functions. In my book, DSAI is the most magnetic and charismatic Malaysian leader we haev seen. None comes close to his ability to attract and command an audience.
Dato' Husam continued his speech touching on issues of national interests such as oil reserve and oil prices, foods supply and foods price, and a call for everyone present to continue supporting Pakatan Rakyat and its' shared idealogy of serving the rakyat!
Dato' Seri Anwar started his speech by thanking the audience for their direct and indirect support towards the success in PRU-12. For a man who has been removed from the penultimate seat of power - then humilated, punched, and imprisoned - he was forgiving of the past and its ghosts. His focus was clearly on the future, and more specifically on how to gather sufficient force of unity to form a new Malaysian government. In responce to a question, he elaborated about the transformation he wish to see in the new Malaysia. He must have painted a glorious picture - judged by a thunderous applause he received at the end.
The Q & A session was long and laborious. The audience used the opportunity to unleashed their bottled emotion about the current Federal Government's many shortcomings and the weaknesses of their policies. Even a few Malaysians from Riyadh joined in via IT technology. To their credit, all three leaders patiently addressed all questions which were asked.
For those who were not there, 150 people who were there tonight may sounds like a small number. However, for the 150 who were there it was a night of a new beginnings. It was a succesfull meeting despite having been organised within lots of limitation and restrictions. All of us wish to thank the hosts Mr. Fudzail and his family, the men with the network Mr Hasnol and also Mr Fudzail himself, and volunteers who have given their time to work out the logistics. Bravo guys!!!
It was a beginning of new hopes....for a better Malaysia!
It was also a new beginning, where political leaders of significant statures came down to meet their 'Stake-holders' - the rakyat!
It was a new beginning - when we felt we matter!
I have a story to tell my children when they wake up tomorrow morning. I will tell them....."Being a leader means serving your followers!" It is a story I learnt last night listening to my friends talking over dinner about what they see in Dato' Seri Anwar, Tan Sri Khalid and Dato' Husam.
(photos from Nik Rahman)
