Inter-Faith Prayers For Dr. M

On Friday, Marina Mahathir had written for a post inviting everybody to come for the inter-faith prayers for her father Dr. Mahathir at Blog House yesterday.

I was the first one to be there at 5.30 p.m.

Of course, the top bloggers are there, but I get to meet some whom I met yesterday at the Citizen Think Tank talk but some new faces including Captain CY Yusof (Ancient Mariner) and few more.

Extracts from this post by Jeff:

It started with Maghrib prayers for Muslims at 7.15pm, led by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf from New York City. Imam Feisal, born an Egyptian, is the son of the first director of Islamic International University Malaysia.

It was followed by prayers led by representatives of Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu, Sikh and Baha'i faiths.

I was late rushing from another function across the city, and Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, leading the prayers representing the Christian community by the time I arrived.

Marina (Mahathir)'s voice was choked when she thanked everyone at the end of the prayers. She related to the wellwishers that it was Dr Mahathir who made the decision to have the operation, probably believing he still have many thing unaccomplished for the country, while the operation was successful and the doctors said the "numbers (vital signs) are good.

I had a talk with Zakir again but this time discussing about comic sketch and about Monty Python as well as Rowan Atkinson. Of course there's talk with some people and I was surprised to see JUST chairman, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar being among the attendance. I thought I was looking at hallucination of someone else I've seen before, but Captain Yusof corrected me about that person.

Of course, I am visible at the far left of this picture taken by Jeff, with Dr. Chandra as the man on the wheel chair. I wasn't aware that he was struck by polio when as a child.


Of course at the time of prayers, it was about to rain, but briefly. By 8.15 p.m. everyone was invited to have dinner. Later on, I only found out that the amount of food was catered for 200 people, meaning the amount prepared was double then the intended number of 100 people. Of course, there are specially prepared vegetable food specially for vegetarians. But by the time it was over, there are still plenty of left overs and everyone was invited to take as much back home. Tony told me that all leftovers are to be disposed. Rather than wasting them, I took as much as possible leaving me enough for approximately one week's dinner.

So it's free dinner for me after free lunch (See my next post).

Out of the respect of prayers and religion, I did not bring my camera along for the meet. As mentioned in the previous post, I was shocked to find Big Pete (Raja Petra) appearing in my sight the second day in the row.

That pic was from TV Smith with a very interesting caption:

Kuala Lumpur, 9th September 2007: You! You must embrace our barber! Raja Petra Kamarudin and the Chief High Priest of the Buddhist Maha Vihara, The Most Venerable K Sri Dhammaratana seemed to be saying :)

I asked Tony later on regarding Audra's case against MAS. According to him, not very good as it was clearly stated in the Collective Agreement. But then, the problem is they are facing a very intimidating lawyer in Shearn Delamore. Seems like the case is going to Federal Court if there's chance. According to Bernard, the Collective Agreement was against the rules of the Employment Act 1955.