Najib's New Year Message

Today is the first day of 2011. And in the Star today, the front page headline was “It’s in your hands” referring to Prime Minister Najib’s New Year message that “Malaysians must fulfill their responsibility to building a better future for the coming generations and place the country in its rightful position”.

I wholly support his statement. His advice is sound. He is right, y’know. Malaysians should pay heed to his counsel by making sure that when the GE is held some time this year, BN is expelled from the government! No two ways about it. Only then can we build a better future for all Malaysians. So I must exhort fellow Malaysians to take the opportunity when it comes to exercise their rights as voters. Be brave. CHANGE THE GOVERNMENT.

I read that when Barack Obama was in India in November, he gave a speech in the Indian Parliament. I reckoned it must have been a good speech but what most people didn’t know was that he was reading from an “invisible” teleprompter. This had misled his distinguished audience into thinking he was speaking extemporaneously, a skill that is highly regarded in India.

As columnist, Jagdish Bhagwati (Star, December 31, 2010, p B10) wrote that while this is a common enough practice in the US (though one might expect better from an orator of his ability); it was not so in India, where such a technique is, indeed, regarded as reprehensible.

But I digress. What I want to say here is that when I read the above, I beam with pride because since May 31, 2010 when I began to repeat my CC manuals – I have been delivering speeches extemporaneously at Toastmasters meetings. It was not easy, mind you, but I wanted to develop this skill in impromptu speaking. I believe I have done fairly well so far.