I was driving when I received a SMS from a number unknown to me; the content was quite lengthy so I just left it as it is. Upon reaching my destination I reached for my mobile to have a serious look and there it was a message to watch tonight’s “show” at 10:30pm (Malaysia time) on Astro Channel 93 which happen to be BBC World. It was suppose to be an interview with Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar on topics about Indian and non-Malay ethnic’s rights.

So I waited for the clock to strikes 10:30pm, getting ready for the Friday’s “entertainment” with some cans of Coke, peanuts and some snacks (was watching Bloomberg live on the internet to get the pulse of the stock markets on Wall Street). The time passed but no Minister to be seen. So I thought someone must be playing a joke on me. But wait, maybe I should just do a Google Search (who says internet is useless?) on the keywords “bbc interview syed albar” and bingo I got the link of Sarah Montague talks to Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar …

What I missed initially was compensated with the link within the same page to watch the BBC HardTalk interview. It appears while the Astro (or Malaysian government?) tried to put a stop to the interview from repeat again (I guess the SMS was trying to say the 10:30pm show tonight is the repeat of yesterdays’) on Channel 93, BBC had put it up on their web. Cool, I clicked the pause-button of Bloomberg live and clicked on the newly found link with the speaker’s volume to the max.

What can I conclude from the whole interview is the fact that Syed Albar was trying his very best to beat around the bush, so much so that Sarah was both amazed and frustrated with the minister’s attitude in trying to cocoon himself in the “denial mode”. I can sense that when the minister was grilled so much that he was trapped and pushed to the end of the wall; he used the same tactic of how the common ministers will do in Malaysia – tell the outsiders to mind their own business.

I bet Syed Albar is still kicking himself for agreeing to the interview, not that he didn’t want to in the first place considering the publicity he can get from his appearance on the international TV. He might thought he could beat around the bush, the same way he did to the local media, when tough questions were asked. Furthermore how hard could it be to handle Sarah Montague considering he’s the foreign minister with the eloquent tongue? But he was surely grilled to a piece of “well-done” steak, no doubt about it. Please do yourself a favor by getting a can of beer, coke or a soda together with fries or snacks before you click here to watch the BBC HardTalk interview.

Update: Some readers couldn’t view the above link as it runs on RealPlayer. Fortunately it has been uploaded into YouTube, you can click on below video to view it.

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September 14th, 2007 by financetwitter

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