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.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Tun Mahathir - the musical
On 28 Jan 2011 we went to Istana Budaya to catch the musical on Tun Mahathir. The musical was featured in that morning paper and I was curious to see their interpretations of his personal life and as the Prime Minister. As we settled in our seats, the hall was abuzzed and the whole audiance stood up and clapped. We were going - what? what? - what's going on? As it turned out, Tun Mahathir and wife also decided to attend the musical that night. My son explained that Tun was not able to catch the musical before as he was taken ill in Melbourne while there for a talk. And it seemed due to that, the turn-out for the talk which was supposed to be a sell-out, was very poor - I don't envy his substitute. Even my son who was in Melbourne at the time thinking of attending changed his mind.
The musical showed his young days where he loved his books and already into business. It portrayed a reasonably level-headed, charming but shy young man and the musical ended upon his historic speech to resign from all posts during the 2003 UMNO assembly. Some scenes were quite loose and one scene made me somewhat uncomfortable as it was overboard but overall I'll give it a B+. I just felt that he could have been better portrayed. It may have been difficult to portray someone alive without having the liberty to put in creative dramatization. The commemorative book states that only after several years Tun gave his permission with a condition that all be based on true events.
But the last scene - awesome. I had tears streaming down - it was a very poignant scene between Tun and Siti Hasmah. Any hardcore critics against him would have melt. Esma Daniel playing Tun was amazing. His stance, his speech and even his feature at times were uncannily aliked. My only regret was that his bush jacket was a tad long - if it was a bit shorter it would have been perfect. Anyway back to the last scene - that was outstanding. You couldn't help but felt his anguish, his helplessness alike an old man defeated. His words of heartfelt sorrow rang out loud - "I fail". He brought development to Malaysia but the level of Bumiputera development was not up to his expectation as reflected in the poem "Perjuangan yang belum berakhir" but he, not wanting to overstay his welcome decided it was time for him to leave.
The musical showed his young days where he loved his books and already into business. It portrayed a reasonably level-headed, charming but shy young man and the musical ended upon his historic speech to resign from all posts during the 2003 UMNO assembly. Some scenes were quite loose and one scene made me somewhat uncomfortable as it was overboard but overall I'll give it a B+. I just felt that he could have been better portrayed. It may have been difficult to portray someone alive without having the liberty to put in creative dramatization. The commemorative book states that only after several years Tun gave his permission with a condition that all be based on true events.
But the last scene - awesome. I had tears streaming down - it was a very poignant scene between Tun and Siti Hasmah. Any hardcore critics against him would have melt. Esma Daniel playing Tun was amazing. His stance, his speech and even his feature at times were uncannily aliked. My only regret was that his bush jacket was a tad long - if it was a bit shorter it would have been perfect. Anyway back to the last scene - that was outstanding. You couldn't help but felt his anguish, his helplessness alike an old man defeated. His words of heartfelt sorrow rang out loud - "I fail". He brought development to Malaysia but the level of Bumiputera development was not up to his expectation as reflected in the poem "Perjuangan yang belum berakhir" but he, not wanting to overstay his welcome decided it was time for him to leave.
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