Badawi is in Perth

The Consulate General of Malaysia organised a meeting between the Hon Dato Seri’ Abdullah Bin Haji Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia and all Malaysian students currently pursuing tertiary education in Perth, Western Australia.
I was one of the 250 students who were there today. Badawi is in Perth to receive the honourary doctorate to be conferred to him tomorrow by Curtin University of Technology, see new release on Curtin website.

I got there at around 3:30pm, the ballroom was easy to find in the Hyatt hotel because there is a big concentration of Malaysians at the side of the main entrance. So I made my way there and put in my registration under UWA.

The seatings were dining style in a big ballroom. I happened to find an empty seat on the second row of table, with some student leaders (ISC and AMS) from Curtin. I was quite impressed with their manner the moment I joined the table and thought they must have good involvement in student organisation and it was proven to be right later when they turned out to be the office bearers. :)

The MC gave some general briefing about the flow of program, and without noticeable delay (I wasn't looking at my watch) Badawi arrived.

We sang Negaraku and a new song called "Jalur Gemilang", there was a bacaan doa (prayer), and then the PM gave his speech and took some questions/comments.

Some of the points I took down from his speech:

Students today are decision-makers tomorrow. It's the human capital that countries and companies are trying to utilise well. He stressed on the point that "first class facilities" has to be matched with "first class mentality" of the people managing it. Ya, very true, that's a serious shortcomings that Malaysia suffers and has to overcome ASAP.

He then discussed about what makes a "Man of Quality" that can serve a country/company well? Smart is not enough, it's more important to have good value, be honoest and sincere, ie have a good character. He said it in Malay which I am glad that I still understand - "Pandai tapi tipu --> lagi susah!"

He also mentioned about some plan of Malaysian government such as the emphasis on bio-technology (the wonders that oil palm produces through R&D), pharmaceutical area, and he made a point on corruption fighting struggle as well.

He ended his speech by re-emphasis a point he made at the beginning:

It's not that you're not capable, it's that you're not putting in enough work, effort, focus!
There is no easy way to success, Work hard!

There were some refreshment at the end of it, and group photo then bersurai.

It finished at 7pm. I left the hotel and headed to my car. To my astonishement, there was a ticket on my windscreen, I thought: "Not again?!". Double checking the expensive piece of paper and the road sign, revealed that it is a pay parking bay till 4:15pm, which I read in a hurry when I arrived, but I miss the top of it in red "C 4:15-6pm". After 4:15pm, it's not free parking as I thought but NO PARKING!
That makes the meeting with Badawi quite a lot more expensive.
Oh well, it was my fault to rush and not checking it throughly. Lesson learnt.

Group photo with Badawi (UWA students) click here.