The cleverly-chosen “Colors of Independence” was the theme of this week’s meeting in honour of Malaysia’s 52nd national day celebration, 31st August, 2009.
In spite of it being the fourth day of the fasting month of Ramadan, 3 muslim members attended the meeting. At the specified time, they were accompanied by other non-muslim fellow members to break fast, reflecting a show of unity among our multi-racial members.
It was an evening when things didn’t go as planned too! In her excitement, our Madam President overlooked the order of the programme and instead she jumped-the-gun by introducing the Toastmaster of the Evening when it should have been done after the break of fast. There was also a time when Leong could not run the video presentation of his humorous act (recorded from a contest performance), when the laptop failed to read the DVD. To add salt to his wounds, Mohamad remarked that more preparation should have been made before the presentation! Unfortunately, when it was Mohamad’s turn to present his Table Topics presentation on Power-point, he too encountered technical problems and this was when Leong teased back at him. Could it be that its ‘puasa’ time when even the laptop was affected? I would call this an “impromptu” humour session with moments of light bantering, which provided amusement for everyone.
Our honourable guest for the evening was Mohd Hadzrin Shah, the W2 Area Governor, who took the honour of being one of the evaluators for the project speakers.
As the evening progressed, the programme fell into place and it all proved to show that “to err is human and to forgive, divine” in this holy month of Ramadan! After the ‘buka puasa’, everything went ‘boleh - Malaysia sure Boleh!!!’
Raja the King gave us food for thought with his invocation after a sumptuous dinner.
Wei Lyn was baptised as a member of MII TMC in the New Member Welcoming ceremony. Immediately after that she was put into action as the official toastmaster of the evening. With her bubbly and enthusiastic disposition, Wei Lyn impressed everyone with her spirit of patriotism. All sang the national anthem with flags held in our right hands led by our MIA (missing in action) member, Monsieur Tilaka. Flashes of fond memories came back to us, memories of the time we were taught to sing ‘Negara Ku’ in our early days in school.
Mohamad, the Table Topics Master, conducted the table topics session using his laptop, projecting the topics on the projector. The creative approach got everyone on their feet giving their views relating to Malaysia. Members got to pick the topics based on the letters they chose from the word Malaysia.
Ho, who was one of the table topics speakers, chose the letter S and the statement upon which he had to elaborate was “Solidarity amongst all races is important”. He kept chanting the word “Merdeka”, as though he was possessed by the spirit of the first prime minister of Malaysia! At that moment my imagination went wild, Ho was suddenly transformed to Tuanku Abdul S Ho!!!
The best-speaker award for the table topics session went to Anna Hue, who was presented with a leather wallet, compliments of Mohamad.
Meanwhile, the Immediate Past President, sandwiched by the Madam President on his right and the Lady Vice President on his left, was in need of “Kwan Loong-Cap Kapak “ medicated oil throughout the meeting to calm his nerves while guiding both women in their new roles.
Members were later entertained by 3 project speakers, comprising two gentlemen and a lady. Wong Hang Hiang with his ice-breaker speech, Jerene Yap and Khung Varn Fatt with their second project speeches. The 3 speakers had everyone perked-up listening to their refreshing speeches.
The evening ended as scheduled and everyone was happy to take home a hand-held Malaysian flag each, as a token of appreciation from MII Toastmasters Club.
Our 3Jokers, The AG Mohd Hadzrin, Mano and Kok Wah celebrating a 1Malaysia, The Drafter, The Speaker and the Conspirator at the recent Humorous Speech Contest coming together at last at our Meeting. Believe it, Hadzrin is wearing Kok Wah's and Kok Wah is using Hadzrin whilst Mano using his own. Guest what?Another meeting among fellow toastmasters has ended. The next one to look forward to will be on the 8th September,09 with new project speakers and role players, ever-eager to play their roles. Until we meet again in two weeks time, Selamat Berpuasa!
Specially Reported by Robin Hood (RH) aka Rozina Harun
