Talk by Dato Dr Norraesah Mohamad

My dearest gang,



Dato Dr Norraesah Mohamad may be petite but she speaks volumes.



She speaks volumes in four languages mind you. Bahasa, English, French and I missed out the fourth, and it was not Urdu, as we were jesting at the luncheon talk. K Chah as that's how she is fondly known amongst us OGs, has headed banks and corporations. Now she is a respected entity in the political arena.

Yes, a group of us were treated to an interesting talk on Women and RMK9 held at KL Hilton on 11th July organized by Persatuan Tindakan Wanita Islam (Pertiwi). Prof Dato Nik Safiah Karim is Ketua I and Dato Rahmah Hamid is Ketua II, of Pertiwi.



K Munirah Hamid who is an OG, is a Pertiwi AJK (a dedicated member, I can see, since knowing her personally), informed me that Pertiwi is 39 this year and K Muni herself has been involved with Pertiwi those number of years as well since she's 16. Kudos to you K Muni (so now we know...ha ha! Hold your horses...she's not bashful about her age, in fact she is so proud to have arrived there with good health and wisdom and success and being a grandma to two lovely toddlers. In any case she looks so youthful. Bravo babe).



A slight digression there, pardon me. Anyway, K Chah touched on so many varied issues, both the technical and social aspects.



I would like to begin with her parting quote: ‘What a hunger is left, unfulfilled, in our society for no reason other than that women has been so devastated by others and so dishonoured by ourselves’ by Marianne Williamson.




She was indicating, we women are not doing enough for ourselves. We were told that it is all up to us, as women to go the distance in our own advancement. Nobody is going to walk the talk for us. We have to pick ourselves up and get going. She said, to make it, we have to be pro-active and we have to identify opportunities and seize them and not wait.



I found it interesting how we were reminded that women were the highest contributor to world growth, by the World Bank. Yes, women were placed at number one position, second was China and third India, as contributors to world growth. The ladies at my table just found this awesome, as to our role in this world. We women, are a group to be reckoned with, but unfortunately quite an under utilized resource as yet.



K Chah spoke of ‘First class mind’. I was puzzled and didn't quite catch the meaning initially and later found out it has to do with being progressive, being innovative, being sophisticated in our thoughts and approaches to overcome problems and constraints in our daily lives. Being today, being current, being up-to-date. Hmm...it is a great concept, I must say and I do believe in it myself. I have my reservations currently, as to how we can achieve that. To me, in my understanding of our current situation, it can only be had, provided we have educators with ‘First class mind’ at schools and 'First class mind' nurturers at home too. This is the only way, otherwise we will only talk the talk. This is my personal opinion. This was the private dialogue I had in my own head. (I may be wrong, forgive me).

There were so many other interesting issues that we were enlightened upon by our revered speaker. It would be too long and wordy for this entry if I were to list all.



Anyway, since we women, form 50% of the population it is imperative, that we can and should contribute to the economy in a big way, thus to quality of life as well.


Cheers,


Ruby.











Pix 1: Ruby (OG), Dato Rahmah Hamid, Munirah Hamid (OG), Dato Dr Norraesah Mohamad (OG), Zuhairah Ali (OG).
Pix 2: Datin Aida Abd Ghani (OG) and 2 other guests.
Pix 3: Datin Seri Kee Ming Yuet and 2 other guests.
Pix 4: More invited guests.
Pix 5: Badilah Samad (OG), Masmah Rashid (OG).
Pix 6: Dato Dr Norraesah, Dato Rahmah.
Pix 7: Munirah Hamid (OG).
Pix 8: Ruby, Laila Johari, Zuhairah.