BUANASENI

Eating Durian with the Prime Minister

NAJIB Razak, the Prime Minister, was seated next to me. It was the 2016 Hari Raya Open House for MyCreative Ventures. I was already in my fifth year as the Chief Executive Officer of MyCreative Ventures. It was the first and last Hari Raya do that we had a Prime Minister attending. It was awkward. I did not know how to behave sitting next to a Prime Minister. Checking my hand phone would have been rude. Striking a conversation would have been tricky for what topics should we have talked about?

Najib made the first move. He asked, “So, how many investees are Indians under MyCreative?” What the hell. Why can’t the Prime Minister just ask, “How many kids do you have?” Sweat starts to develop on my forehead. This was because the answer to that question was “Zero”. Being a politician, a “Zero” as an answer is political crisis. I could see him waiting for my answer.

So, I gently answered, “Dato’ Sri, at this juncture, we have none. However, let me provide you with some insights. The Malaysian creative industry is predominantly contributed by the Malays. The Chinese comes second. Naturally, they are only few Indian players in the industry to begin with.”

The Prime Minister stared at me and said, “Go find the Indians. There must be adequate representation of every segment of society in your investee portfolio.” I nodded. By that time the waiter had brought our plates of durians and had placed it in front of us. I suspect Najib had sensed my embarrassment for not having Indians in my investment portfolio. Being the seasoned politician he is, he quickly remedied my uneasy feeling by asking, “Ok, now how do I eat this durian? Should we use our hands or the fork and knife?”

I said, “Let’s use our hands?”

He said, “Errr…., I don’t think so.” He picked up his fork and knife and looked at me before he even touched the durians. That day became the first day and the only day in my life eating durians with fork and knife.