rare pose with the current secretary-general of ASEAN, His Excellency Dr Pithsuwan and James Beltram, my old friend from Melewar Holdings, at the 5th ASEAN Leadership Forum at the Shangri-La Singapore, this morning... 
luncheon talk by Karim Raslan at the same function & venue this morning...I flew into Changi airport last night at exactly 7.55PM on SilkAir Airbus 319. The smaller but still relatively comfortable aircraft. We departed KK airport (under refurbishment...& expansion) at 6 PM. We were flying at 32,000 feet and at an airspeed of 900km/hr. I left sutera harbour Kota Kinabalu and the 2nd international CEO Conference for the airport, as soon as Paklah arrived for the closing ceremony (as a mark of respect). I could have left earlier. When they heard rumours of the possibility that the PM may n0t be closing the conference, many, including a Datuk friend of mine changed their flight schedules back to KL. 2nd Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Yakcop officiated the opening on behalf of Dato' Sri Najib, the Deputy Prime Minister. Not a bad crowd. There were 540 delegates from all over the world, at the last count. I arrived sunday evening on same flight with the Senegal Ambassador to Malaysia, HE Abdel Kader Pierre Fall.
The theme of this year's conference was globalisation (they meant gobblelisation...I think!) and the focus was...hmmm your guess is as good as mine...sustainability, green, CSR..bla bla bla ...and what have you! I thought Tan Sri Munir Majid, MAS Chairman, was, as ever, very crisp in his remarks, crystallising the issues and paradoxes in the usual immaculate combination of Oxbridge Queen's English and the sharpness of a London School of Economics (LSE) analysis! Tan Sri Dato' Seri Megat Najmuddin could not resist sharing an ethnocentric joke which he thought wasn't too offensive...but I shall not repeat that joke here (sorry folks..hahaha).
In Singapore this morning, His Excellency Dr Pithsuwan Secretary-General of ASEAN, was as ever, articulate, philosohical and pragmatic in his remarks after the short, sweet, brief but equally illuminating (by international diplomatique standards) opening speech by the Minister of Trade, Singapore. After 40 years, ASEAN has been viewed by some as something akin to old wine in new bottle. The SecGen casually quipped that ASEAN, if not carefully taken care of, could degeneate into another UN...which... I am not sooo sure what he really meant. In the wake of the ASEAN Charter, yes...by 2015 (the target), ASEAN should, ceteris parebus, become like the European Community (EC).
And o ya...my good old friend, Karim Raslan was rattling away about the 100 days of the aftermath of our 2008 Malaysian GE. His intermittent reference to malaysiakini and the carefully 'veiled' description of some touchy scenarios...makes me wonder...hmmm...his political inclination and allegiance..heheh..but then again, that's his right to secrecy right?....brave fellow...this matsalleh...We last shared a taxi about 10 years ago from Shangri-La Jakarta to the airport....
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