RPK in London

PS: Excuse the frightful quality of pictures. This was the most my BB could do.

Last weekend, Hanna and I decided to be EVEN more insightful and learned and attended a political lecture by 'hardcore' (some might even go as far as infamous?) Malaysian blogger, RPK (Raja Petra Kamaruddin) at the BPP Law School in Holborn. Much thanks to LX who informed me that he was speaking that Saturday - the pseudo Malaysian that I am does not follow Malaysia Today. Time to turn over a new leaf. What say you? ;)

I did not regret attending the lecture at all. Was a little skeptical at first. Again, emphasising on the 'pseudo Malaysian' bit in me, there was little that I actually knew about the Internal Security Act (ISA) apart from the fact that, well, there WAS an ISA in Malaysia. But then I realised, this was almost as though I was going to meet a Malaysian celebrity in London *puts on Bimbo cap* and definitely not a chance to be missed.

The two hours flew by without my realising it, and I was enthralled with every single word that he spoke. It is possibly rare, and shocking even, to find a writer who is equally charismatic, captivating, unafraid to speak his mind with an equally fabulous sense of humour to boost - and RPK was all of the above AND more. My Saturday was made just by laughing aloud at his quips of sarcasm and dry humour, and my heart went out to him when he recreated the horrendous scenes of the detention centre. That much courage, I certainly did not have. And kudos to him for that amazing showcase of indigence, or more simply put in his words 'being a stubborn bastard'.

On the previous 'bimbotic' note, you know that you are in a celebrity's 2 metre radius when he is flanked by two massive, sunglass-clad, scary-looking, KGB Member Lookalikes who stood on either side of him throughout the entire event, and even escorted him into the lift at the lobby before it began. Again, because I have been watching and reading radical, political and terrorist-themed material all weekend (read: Munich), this made me realise how easy it would be for someone like him to be in a great amount of potential danger, because there were as many people out there who probably thought of him alot more than merely a 'stubborn bastard'.

End note: There is much that we lament every day about our country and the state it is getting to these days. How corruption used to be a thing of deeply-sworn secrecy in the past, but now the cheating even went on with the cards on the table. People think that the government is screwed up, and a tsunami of a change could bring about 'revolution'. I say this is true theoretically, but it isn't all as easy as it sounds. And coming from me, who is almost pseudo Malaysian (only in terms of Food, I insist!) and lacks patriotism rather significantly - all I can say is that I wish I had done more in terms of following up on politics and getting to know the country better before this.

After all, home is still home.

And Malaysia, TRRRUUULLYYY Asia, is mine.