Merdeka Award Lecture Series

An email came in last 2 weeks, an invite to the Merdeka Award Lecture Series. The speaker? Prof DiRaja Ungku Aziz. I quickly asked my boss and he gave the green light and I booked myself a place for the talk.

It was last Thursday in KLCC. I have never been in any talk, or even in forum with Prof Aziz as the main speaker, but really was excited to hear his words of wisdom. I was the only one from PD and upon registration, no familiar faces that I manage to locate. I went straight to the front..mind you 4th row from the front..hehehe..most middle places are still vacant. So I sneak in between what I presumed to be Petronas staff (as this event organiser). Managed to get a seat that I considered good. (I would like to actually SEE the speaker when he speaks). The chair was seriously uncomfortable.

Upon the start of the event, there was screening of short video on how Malaysia comes about..starting from the Portuguese occupation in 1400, and only 2 minutes to the show, there was a power dip!! The whole hall is dark and organisers quickly apologise for the glitch. I was wondering..of all times and event, why is it happening today? well...things happens.

Enough on the minor stuffs, Prof Aziz is actually a very wise man. He is seriuosly not seriuos during the talk. It was not formal, not like some very high level speaker who are so high up that you don't even see the grounds anymore. He talks about everything including his meal plans and his secret to stay healthy at the age of 87. He still have most of his hair!! He is very witty and always cracking jokes in between his lecture.

(Note the old fashion ways of lecture)

During the Q&A session, he actually came down to see face to face with the person who is asking the question. And the person gets to shake his hands instead..I say that was awesome, how many of this VIPS actually step down and does what he did? Although most of the question does not come with a straight answers, I actually enjoyed the way he answers all of them (not straightforward, but some intrigues you to think more of it rather than being fed with the answers.)

The session ended around 4.30 pm and I was rushing to go back. If I was there with a friend, at least I will still have the energy to wait and snap a picture with him, but I was down with flu and the mucus won't stop running out of my nose (which makes it immpossible to stay any longer).

Glad that I attended the session, managed to get insights on how some of the most prolific figures in the country thinks ;)