Happy birthday ISM

ISM celebrates its 50th birthday this year and in conjunction with that, a 50th anniversary commemorative book was compiled. The launching of the commemorative book was held on 17 Feb 2011 at Mutiara Crowne Plaza Hotel. Since President volunteered me to be incharge of the launch, naturally I invited my favourite minister, YB Senator Dato' Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil to be the guest of honor. As usual she was witty and a joy, showed total professionalism and commitment and in her opening address when she referred to me as her good friend and invited me to be involved in politics, I was teased by friends for days. There were multimedia shows, ice sculpture and Katherine and four of her staff making a grand entrance marching in the hall with the book accompanied with the song "Gemilang". We even had all logistic personnel wore the ISM 50th anniversary T-shirt. In addition ISM Wikiknowledge was also launched and a technical paper presented. All went well. I wished to thank all members especially past presidents and senior members who attended the launch.

But the drama weeks and days before the completion of the book and well after the first print could have been a drama made for TV3 in the samarinda slot. I can't say about others' experience, but from where I stand, I could well see the commotion to ensure the content was satisfactory and printed on time for the launch, and arguments continued even after the launch. There were flurries of emails, last minute changes, emails lost in translation, accusations, impassioned words, harsh and hard decisions made, emotions stirred, heated exchange of opinions through emails/sms, and tense meetings.

But I know, and as every member who is involved knows, especially the editors who were totally committed, it was a painstaking labour of love to collate all the historical data and pictures and to say our thanks to senior personalities who had a hand in laying the foundation of ISM, past presidents for bringing ISM to what it is today, and to members who have supported ISM all these years. Hopefully good sense will prevail and all of us will be proud of the commemorative book.