2011/03/27
By Shahrum Sayuthi
news@nst.com.my
I WAS quietly amused when my hometown friend Fiona reacted with much enthusiasm when I told her that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was making a stopover at her alma mater, the Chong Hwa High School, during his visit to Kluang on Saturday.
She is after all a DAP supporter and had not made it a secret to me who she voted for when she had cast her vote for the first time in the 2008 general election.
"Oh my God! That's so great of him!" was what she text messaged me in return before proceeding to relate how when as a student she had, along with others, lined the street leading to her school when then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad went there in 1987.
"That was the last time a prime minister visited our school. I remember it was a very hot day and we were sweating, but we were all so happy that a prime minister visited our school," she added.
If Fiona was at the school on Saturday, she may have thought she had been transported back in time to that day.
The over 2,000 students, in their all white uniforms, were equally enthusiastic in welcoming Najib.
The highlight of Najib's visit to the school was when he mentioned in his speech the government's "landmark decision" to allow Unified Examinations Certificate holders with three credits including passes in Bahasa Malaysia and English, to take part in the special intake for the Chinese language degree course to become Mandarin teachers.
The students cheered as he made the announcement.
"We (the government) are committed to being fair to everyone and will continue to strive for this. Dreams will not be realised until we are at peace with one another," Najib had said.
My colleague Chuah Bee Kim interviewed some of the students and teachers on how they felt about Najib's visit.
Seow Yu Sheng, 15, a Form Three student said it was a memorable day as it was the first time he had seen the prime minister in person.
"I am happy to see him. Furthermore, he was here today to launch our school's green programme which my teachers have always promoted among us," he said.
Another Form Three student, Dana Lim, 15, echoed Seow's sentiment but lamented that Najib's hour-long visit was such a brief one.
"My classmates and I nonetheless feel very honoured to have the prime minister at our school," Lim said.
Liong Kok Kiong, 32, a geography teacher at the school for the past six years said the announcement made by Najib regarding UEC holders was very uplifting as it was a step towards the success of the 1Malaysia policy.
"I also hope that Najib's visit will encourage more English language teachers to join our school as we need more of them here," he said.
Later in the night, Najib attended a "dinner with the people" function at down town Kluang which was attended by more than 10,000 people.
Such was the overwhelming response given by the crowd when Najib arrived at the function that Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman had to pause several times to compose himself while delivering the welcoming speech.
Expressing his pleasure, Najib in his speech, suggested that judging by the crowd's response at the function and during his walk-about in several parts in Kluang earlier in the day, Barisan Nasional may probably recapture the lost ground it suffered during the coalition's disastrous outing in the 2008 general election.
He told the crowd how an old Chinese lady gave him a 51-year-old Jalur Gemilang during the walk-about.
"I was so touched because she told me that it was a gift for my effort in initiating 1Malaysia," he said to thunderous applause from the crowd.
The prime minister probably had in mind that Kluang, with its huge Chinese community, was the DAP's first stronghold in Johor before it was overwhelmed there by BN in the late 1970s.
However, in 2008, DAP captured the Mengkibol state seat there when its Ng Lam Hua defeated Gan Ping Shou of MCA by a majority of 1,281 votes. Ng had got 13,538 votes while Gan received 12,257.
When Najib announced an allocation of RM105 million for the construction of a dam in Kahang to ensure no recurrence of a water supply problem which hit Kluang during last year's Chinese New Year, I immediately sent a text message to Fiona.
After all, she was the one who had pushed for me to initiate extensive news coverage about the problem in the first place.
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