My eldest son Wai Kit's UTAR Convocation 2011

A brief account of my eldest son Wai Kit’s UTAR Convocation 2011

Date: September 9, 2011
Venue: Dewan San Choon, Wisma MCA, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur
My entourage: Mother-in-law Choo Siew Fang, wife Soh Ai, eldest son Wai Kit and I
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September 9, 2011 (Friday) morning session was the first of three days (total six sessions) of the 13th Convocation of University of Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). Wai Kit is a graduand of Bachelor of Engineering (Hon) Mechatronics Engineering.

4.30 am Woke up to take bath, brush teeth and dress up.
Mother-in-law (from Selama, Perak) came the previous night to our house for Wai Kit’s Convocation. She has two other graduate grandchildren (daughters to Soh Ai’s eldest sister Sock Kim) but she did not attend both their Convocations as one was held in Australia and the other United States. This is her first attendance of a grandchild’s Convocation.
Wai Kit was required to register at 7.30am. We decided to travel early for fear of traffic jam, although our house is only about 30km away from the venue.

5.20 am Left our house.

5.55 am Parked our car at basement B2 of InterContinental Hotel (fka Nikko Hotel) adjacent to Wisma MCA. I initially wanted to park at Menara Citibank which offers early-bird parking rate at RM 6 flat rate for parking before 7.00 am, but it was still closed at the time we arrived.Seeing the sky was still dark and nowhere to go, we went to the hotel restaurant Serena Brasserie at ground floor for refreshment to while away the time. The coffee was very expensive at RM 18 per cup. We just ordered 3 cups of coffee and the bill came to RM 62.65. I supposed we actually paid for the 5-star hotel’s cozy environment and a luxurious waiting place for 1 hour before dawn.

7.00 am We walked to Wisma MCA. At that time, crowds of the graduands, their parents and guests were already seen gathered inside and outside the building.

7.15 am We entered Dewan San Choon and were seated in the 2nd front row reserved for parents/guests as we were the early birds. I was seated third from the aisle.

In the hall, I saw Prof. Dr. Lee Sze Wei, UTAR Vice President (R&D and Commercialisation), who is also a Council member of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and Vice Chairman and Chief Editor of IEM Standing Committee on Information and Publications of which I am the secretary, walking around to scrutinize the front-most VIP guest seating arrangement with UTAR President Ir. Prof. Dr. Chuah Hean Teik who is also the Immediate Past President of IEM. As Prof. Dr. Lee walked past my row of seats, I stood up and greeted him, most probably a pleasant surprise to him. We shook hand. He was so nice to smile and wave at me as he followed the out-going procession after the ceremony was over at about 11.00 am.
Then at about 7.55 am I saw a lady with a familiar face walked past but dared not call her for fear of mistaken identity. I remember she is the Press Secretary to the Prime Minister and since the latter was coming she might be here on duty. As I have her hand-phone number, I used my hand-phone to send a SMS to enquire whether she was here in Wisma MCA. She replied in the affirmative and asked me to meet her outside the hall.
She is indeed Joan Lai Siew Choo, currently Press Secretary to the Prime Minister of Malaysia and formerly attached to Nanyang Siang Pau as the Opinion Page Editor and later Executive Chief Editor to whom I used to send my articles for publication for quite a number of years.
I promptly went out and greeted her. We had a brief chat and she told me she had recently renewed another 2-year contract with the government. She gave me her name card informing that her email address had changed. She quipped that some people told her the figure “916” behind her name of the email address appeared to be linked with Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (who benchmarked his political comeback as 916 – Sept 16, a date he once set for enough lawmakers from the ruling bench to cross over to the Pakatan Rakyat to enable the opposition to take over the reins of government from the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition under then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi back in 2008). She explained that September 16 was actually meant to commemorate the date of her appointment as the Press Secretary to the Prime Minister.

Prof Chuah delivering his speech

8.55 am The Guest of Honour, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Hj. Abdul Razak, arrived. This is the first time he came to UTAR Convocation and conferred the scrolls to the post-graduate and 1st class honours degree holders only (Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh in his capacity as a member of the University Council took over the conferment to the rest of graduands later). Towards the end of his Convocation Address, Najib quoted a saying from Confucius i.e. “learning without thought is useless; thought without learning is dangerous (学而不思则罔, 思而不学则殆)" that somehow impressed me.

Prime Minister delivering his speech

Other guests I observed present at the function included MCA President Chua Soi Lek, Deputy Ministers Wee Ka Seong, Hou Kok Chung, Donald Lim and MCA leader Tan Chai Ho. These politicians left together with Najib and did not return to the hall for the second half of the ceremony.

Earlier the trilingual UTAR President Ir. Prof. Dr. Chuah Hean Teik delivered an excellent speech in 3 languages i.e. Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin.



Studio Photo of Wai Kit



11.30 am After the conferment of degrees was completed, we went up amid huge crowd to 6th floor of Wisma MCA to have an individual and a family portraits (complete with Monalisa frame and canvas photos) taken by FotoRex that cost me RM 300. We could collect these portraits only on and after October 5, 2011.

12.15 pm We went down to 3rd floor to look for my long-time old friend/ex-colleague Anthony Kon who is the Property Services Executive of Wisma MCA (I knew him since 1986 when I worked in MCA headquarters during the economic recession time). But he was not around in his office though I had contacted him earlier.
Only half an hour later did we meet each other and I was touched by his kind gesture in giving Wai Kit a congratulatory ang-pow of RM 100. We took some photos together and he led us to 4th floor canteen for our lunch. He was so busy with the hall/room bookings that he could not join us even for a drink and we bade farewell shortly after that.

Meanwhile, Wai Kit also found the companionship of a former housemate and SGM comrade, Jong Tzy Ching who was his UTAR senior, last year 1st class honours graduate in Mechanical Engineering who came all the way from Bintulu, Sarawak to meet his graduating friends with a sophisticated camera.

1.12 pm We left InterContinental Hotel and the car parking fee for 7.18 hours came up to be a hefty amount of RM 23.50. Compared to the 3 cups of coffee costing RM 62.65 earlier, this parking fee may be considered "cheap".

 

7.30 pm We had a 6-course dinner (including curry fish-head, steamed pork with yam, pork-rib meat, salad taufu, veggie, salted veggie & taufu soap, costing RM 128.80) at Restoran Gee Ann in our residential area (8 persons including my other 2 sons Wai Jen and Wai Kei, sister Winnie and her hubby Sze Wah) considering that as a celebration cum farewell dinner for Wai Kit who would be flying to Grand Canyon South Rim, Arizona, U.S.A. this Sunday night on September 11, 2011 for a 5-month Work and Travel Program.