Dinner & Dialogue Session With Anwar Ibrahim In Tokyo

"Madiba, mad for sure we are,

Crazy, I'm certain we are"

Anwar Ibrahim,

when he visited Madiba

Proboscis monkey, the mascot of Visit Malaysia Year 2014 welcoming guests.

Anwar Ibrahim; a name which is just too synonymous not only to Malaysians, but also the global community.

After a failed attempt to get himself into Japan a month ago due to some complications, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim finally managed to pass the Japan Immigration for a short business trip to Tokyo. Despite his tight schedule, we managed to get him to join us in a dinner-cum-dialogue session a day before he flies home.

The entrance to the restaurant.

A very well furnished interior, which provides a warm and cozy ambiance to the diners.

A name tag prepared for the guest, just in case people doesn't recognise him haha!

The venue was the same - Malay Asian Cuisine, a Malaysian restaurant which was opened in early January this year, and located just a short 10-minute walk from Shibuya station in Tokyo. The chief chef in this restaurant is Chef Muski, from Terengganu and you can expect authentic Malaysian dishes carefully prepared with local Malaysian touch at this restaurant.

Back to the event, the delegation this time also consists of Prof. Dr. Ramasamy, the Member of Parliament for Batu Kawan, who also the Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Dato' Kamarudin Jaffar, the Member of Parliament for Tumpat, Shamsul Iskandar, the Member of Parliament for Bukit Katil and also Khalid Jaafar. Besides the guests, there were approximately 70 Malaysians and a few Japanese who joined this dinner.

Mr Yeoh introducing the guests.

As our main guest was busy with his Facebook and Twitter.

Food was served in buffet style.

The food was simply fantastic.

A very mixture of everything on a plate lol!

Not often you get the chance to have DSAI to serve you haha!

The event started with a welcoming speech by Mr Yeoh, followed by a brief self-introduction (each of us were given 15 seconds due to time factor), and some words by each of the guests. Group photo session followed up afterwards, and then the makan session. Food wise, the free-flow food and drinks were great, and there was no complain at all. 

The evening was continue with the main event, which is the Q&A and dialogue session with the guests. To be honest, the questions raised were mostly issues which I shall call "basi" stuff, and the answers provided were quite disappointing; we was not given a concrete but instead vague replies, especially when asked what is their strategy to penetrate the people from East Malaysia. Well, I don't know, probably that is something which they would prefer to keep it behind close doors.

 The man running his show.

Q&A session, with Siew Fong posing a question regarding the term "justice".

Prof. Dr. Ramasamy, answering another question from the floor.

The giant killer in Bukit Katil, who showed a former Chief Minister the exit door - Shamsul Iskandar.

Another giant killer who also beat another former Chief Minister in Penang - Prof. Dr. Ramasamy, now the Deputy Chief Minister of Penang.

This is not a giant killer, but a very close friend of DSAI - Dato' Kamarudin Jaffar.

 With the most mad and crazy person in Malaysia.

Nevertheless, I personally enjoyed the sense of humour that is always associated with Anwar in his speech, especially when he talked about his visit to see the late Nelson Mandela. Both fought for a slightly different cause, but they shared one thing in common - the two has tasted the life of living in a prison but never allowed that dark experience to stop them to continue to fight for what they strongly believe on.

The session was closed with a presentation of a souvenir for DSAI, whom Mr Yeah described it as something which will be useful during his upcoming campaign and by-election he is facing in Kajang. The special gift turned out to be a 24 million yen cincin (pun intended).

"I guess Azizah will like this a lot."

Aha! Just kidding lol! It was a hand-painted Japanese traditional fan. I bet it will be useful when he is preparing satay in Kajang lol!