dinner with penang’s CM

true! see, here’s a picture of me and my colleague vincent with the CM. wah! we both wore the same colour shirt. (i was wearing the ‘abolish ISA’ badge)

it was a simple buffet dinner for all NGOs in penang at rumah tetamu, the CM’s official residence on tuesday, 27 may, 8.30pm. i was there representing the penang office for human development (POHD). only 3 of us were there as the others can’t make it. we arrived just about near 8.30pm… and oh my, CM lim guan eng (LGE) was there already! he was already seated at the dinner table. what a humble man… to arrive early and wait for guests instead of the other way round!

his humility and intention of not spending lots of money also show in the food he served – simple catered indian muslim food – tomato rice with chicken and 3 other dishes (just like what we usually had during our church function). some NGO person mentioned they thought it would be something like a chinese course dinner… but on knowing that it was not, they were not disappointed at all but in fact praise LGE for his simplicity.

there were, i think, about 30 NGOs present. all together there were about 200 people present. i saw bukit bendera’s MP liew chin toong and a few other MPs i don’t really recognise (expect to see jeff ooi but he was no where around). all the newly elected councillors were there!

before the dinner started, LGE gave a short speech. i can’t really remember his speech before the food but i remember his speech after the food! haha. probably my stomach was growling so didn’t concentrate on his speech? i guess the opening speech will be more or less the same like any other speech – thank you for coming, hope we’ll be able to work together and so on. oh, one thing i remember was that he asked us how many of us were here at the rumah tetamu for the first time and almost all raised their hands!

after his speech, it was food time! everybody had to queue up for the food (of course). the queue was quite long when i got into it – snaking from the hall to the garden outside where the food was. thank god it is tomato rice because i prefer it to plain white rice since everyday i eat plain white rice at home. beside the dishes, there was watermelon and drinks there were orange juice and teh tarik.

after the food, the people were given chance to speak – at least 1 rep from 1 NGO – for 3 minutes. first person to speak was ramakrishnan, aliran’s president. i saw lots of other aliran members too like anil netto and dr francis loh (who is now a councillor). being NGOs people, you know lah, people who are out-spoken, you bet many stood up to speak.

they introduced themselves and which NGO they represent, then they spoke a little either on their works/causes or brought up some issues pertaining to the works/causes, which they want the government to highlight.

most notable for mention was a disabled er… i was far way… can’t really notice… not sure a child or a young adult… a disabled girl who slowly and with difficulty stammered out what she wanted to say. she thanked the CM for dinner invitation (like many others did) then she asked the CM to look into transportation for the disabled.

another notable mention was a deaf and dumb man speaking through sign language with a translator (in bahasa).  he mentioned that many people who met him usually turned away/avoid him because they don’t know how to speak to him in sign language, but he was touched that at the dinner itself, there was one man he met, who took the trouble to ‘speak’ to him although he doesn’t know sign language. the deaf, he said, can somehow or other read your lips and thus knows a little what you are talking about. so next time, when you run into a deaf person, don’t avoid him/her lah. try to talk to him… well with your own sign language and for heaven’s sake, talk in words too – they will understand (they’ll read your lips).

lastly, of course, LGE made the concluding speech. touching on some of the issues the NGOs brought up. he said that at the moment, he forsee the 3 most important issues the government has to deal with are the 3 C – corruption, crime, congestion (traffic). he then said that the government is now trying to be a CAT government – competent, accountable, transparent.

he also mentioned about the land scams they uncovered and said they will take all measures to make sure there is a full investigation. oh he mentioned dr koh tsu koon (KTK) name, that being the CM during the land scam incident, he should be fully responsible. that’s why, i think, he wants to meet KTK, as highlighted in malaysiakini news ‘koh in no hurry to meet lim‘. well, so according to malaysiakini, KTK does not wants to meet him! like that, how to solve all the big issues like the land scams and KTK’s wife hasty decision to give away money to the federal government (wives actually – the bunga tanjung issue).

oh, he mentioned one saying – "evil exists because good men do nothing". hmm…. thought provoking. do you agree and why so?

i’m glad to note that the CM is people oriented enough to have the thought to invite NGOs for dinner to hear them out. glad to be able to see the CM so close and glad to have met many NGOs friends, some of those i know well. i was seated at the front table just next to the CM’s table. thus when the dinner ended, i quickly approached LGE for a photo (the one you see right on top). i was the first to have a photo taken with him! later on, i see many people queuing up wanting to take photo with him.

this is going to be an evening to remember for sure.