Page 75 - MDOS2_Final

MY JOURNEY IN WISMA PUTRA – THE EARLY PART
OF THE JOURNEY

T e Naruhodo! T e World team was in Malaysia during the Raya period
in 1987, at the time when Tun Mahathir was hosting Rumah Terbuka Aidil
Fitri at Sri Perdana (the then of cial residence of the Prime Minister). T e
team went for the Rumah Terbuka and f lmed the event, as this was a unique
af air where tens of thousands of Malaysians and foreign tourists made a
beeline for Sri Perdana.

T e team captured footages of guests zooming in on the food and the food
disappearing almost instantly as if in a magic scene of “now you see it, now
you don’t”. Unfortunately, that did not paint a good image of Malaysians in
general, who looked as though they were in starvation. After a few rounds of
negotiations with the TV station together with our Information Of cer, the
team f nally agreed to remove those footages.

Besides the of cial functions and events, my fellow colleagues and I were
also active in extra-curricular activities. During the yearly summer hikes up
Mount Fuji, I managed to conquer the mountain twice, once in the f rst year
of posting when I was still a bachelor and in the following year with my wife.

We also made a winter trip to Niigata to celebrate Hari Raya with the
Malaysian students there. It was an eerie driving experience for me going
through a ten-kilometre tunnel of dual carriageway which was temporarily
converted into a single carriageway, as the inbound carriageway was
undergoing maintenance work. T is made driving dif cult as the road was
icy. It was also my f rst-time using chain tyres to prevent skidding and which
also acts as an ice breaker. When we reached the end of the tunnel, we were
already in the eastern shore of the Honshu Island facing the Sea of Japan.
We were greeted by a totally white f ashing scene which dazzled our eyes due
to the brightness. I recall a similar situation when I had to drive cautiously
up a narrow, climbing road towards North Carpe (some 1,600-kilometre
journey) with ravines on both sides during my posting in Helsinki in 2011.
One cannot make a U-turn and is forced to continue the journey due to the
narrowness of the road and the ravines.

T ere was another memorable event which took place in Tokyo before
I departed for Malaysia. I had gone to Gaimusho to bid farewell to my
counterparts and their superiors. While I was there, I wanted to try my luck

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