E Contrario

A delegation of 60-70 people gathered at the PM Office at 10.30am. Most of the participants of the gathering were unionists from MTUC. Several of us gave speeches at the lawn in front of the PM Office.

Then 10 representatives from the Coalition went into the office. The delegation headed by Syed Shahir was met by PM Setiausaha Sulit Kanan (Senior Private Secretary), Ahmad Yakob (the same guy who received our IPCMC memo).

Syed presented to him our memorandum, urging him to bring it to Abdullah Badawi’s attention. Syed was under the impression that since it was on Wednesday, Dollah should be having his Cabinet today. Syed requested our concerned in the memorandum be raised and discussed in the Cabinet meeting. To our surprised, when Syed said ‘sampaikan salam kepada Datuk Seri PM’, Ahmad Yakob answered, ‘PM serdang bercuti’.

I imagined if I was 20 years younger, I would have yelled at him in anger—People are crying for help in the flood, workers are suffering from hyper-inflation triggered by your bloody toll hike, the PM dares to go on holiday?!

I wished I was a university student; we should have a sit-in demanding the PM to cancel his holiday to attend to issues of national urgency. I was dismayed with his aloofness, or because of his apathy? Unbelievable.

We went back to our supporters, Syed briefed them and the journalists about our memorandum handing. We dismissed after that.

I left Putrajaya with a heavy heart.