How a kopi stall became the Studio 54 of Permatang Pasir
Permatang Pasir's Studio 54 all quiet in the daytime. - Picture by Jack Ooi
By Syed Jaymal Zahiid
AUG 18 — Can you imagine how the regulars who frequent this usually quiet coffee stall to watch football or wrestling felt when it was literally transformed into a star-studded joint?
It became something like New York’s famous Studio 54 for a while (with less glitz, of course) when Pakatan Rakyat top guns like PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa, vice- president Datuk Mahfuz Omar and central committee member Dr Hatta Ramli dropped by for some teh tarik and mee kuah.
I was there before these political heavyweights came, writing my story on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s ceramah… while watching the Liverpool-Spurs match.
The stall was already buzzing with PAS supporters apparently upbeat about the by-election taking place in their hometown.
But the moment these leaders stopped by, the atmosphere was almost muted. They became self-conscious, talking in whispers and were careful with their conversation.
Instead of watching what was actually a top-notch game of football (considering it’s the first game for the teams in the 2009/10 English Premier League), their eyes were glued to the table behind me where the leaders were having their late supper.
It was a comical moment to me.
But it became funnier when I noticed how they paid a lot of attention to me after they saw Dr Hatta and Datuk Mahfuz approach me instead of the other way around.
They looked like they didn’t expect a semi-scruffy bloke in shorts and a pink polo shirt to know anyone of Dr Hatta or Datuk Mahfuz’s stature, let alone being casually addressed by national figures on a first name
basis.
Not that I know them well, but after covering and writing so many stories on PAS, you eventually become acquainted.
But the comical moment also showed me how the politics of icons (a euphemism of sorts for feudal politics) is still pervasive in this country. We should not view leaders as demigods but as equals.
Be they the prime minister or the menteri besar, we are equal and should be subject to the same principle of respecting one another. No two ways about it as far as I’m concerned.
And until then, Malaysia has a long way to go to become a mature democracy.
