Teresa Kok

Hello guys,

Apologies for not updating my blog for 12 days. I know I have used this excuse a number of times, but really, and I mean really, work has been so busy till i didn’t even have time to check email.

I was busy with fund raising dinner for my service center which was held last weekend, and before that I was in Sarawak. I was also occupied with helping to organise this weekend’s party convention and party anniversary.

I have a little bit of time now, so I’ll try to summarise a little of this and a little of that. This is the first of two posts, the second one to be posted tomorrow.

I was in Sarawak from March 6-8 to attend a series of events organised by Sarawak DAP to celebrate International Women’s Day.

I was there to replace Fong Po Kuan who was there earlier, and who had successfully persuaded our Sarawak leaders to gift flowers to women in markets. Po Kuan promised them she’ll help them with this creative idea but later discovered she couldn’t make it as she had to attend the Parliament Select Committee meeting. That was how I became the party’s Flower Grrl.

While giving out flowers at the Bintulu market, our state assemblyman of Kidurong (Bintulu area) Chew Chin Sing told the recipients we wanted to thank women for their contribution to society. That attracted smiles from many women. Chew was very popular with the women traders in the market. Got charisma, also handsome too, what to do? A few more conservatively-attired women shoppers tried to avoid him but Flower Grrl was there to help bridge the gender divide and successfully presented them with our gift of flower power.

The scene at the Sibu market was totally different. The response from the women there was so different from their rather “shy” cousins of Bintulu. While we were preparing an area at the entrance of the market for the distribution of the flowers, many women came over and asked why there were so many flowers on the table. When told they were for, they got over excited and just grabbed them off our hands. It wasn’t very lady-like, minmd you. We were not amused.

We dared our DAP Sarawak chairman Wong Ho Leng to emulate Chew by telling women he was thanking them for their contribution to society. He first expressed shock at what Chew had said to the women in market. He then said that he can never do it. But when he was at the Sibu market with us, he was overwhelmed by the curious crowd surrounding our flower counter. Many women were happy to receive flowers from our guys. When men came to ask flowers from us, we politely told them the flowers were meant for women only. One middle aged man asked us to give him two flowers to give to his two wives. That’s beyond cheeky. No, he didn’t get any flowers from us.

Then I saw Ho Leng made a historical breakthrough in his life. He told a curious old lady he was giving away flowers cos he wanted to extend his appreciation to women for their contribution to society. She seemed very moved by his words. He asked her whether it was the first time she was receiving flowers from others. She said yes. That means Wong Ho Leng had the honour of being the first guy to give flowers to this poor old lady. Who says there’s nothing romantic about politics?

We managed to hand out 200 flowers within half an hour. Many women came to grab flowers from our guys at the counter. When we were having tea, Ho Leng told us that he felt like crying when he was told it was first time the old lady had received flowers in her life. After that, he took me in his car to go buy more flowers as he wanted to give them to the mothers of Hand Mouth Foot victims who were in hospital.

Unfortunately the florists said they didn’t have that much stock. Fortunately, Ho Leng’s wife came to his rescue and got him 200 stocks of flowers and we did another round in the Sibu hospital during lunch time,

Aside from giving away flowers, Sarawak DAP also organised forums on Women’s Day in both Sibu and Bintulu .

The forum in Bintulu was in a hotel. I thought there would not be more than 50 people as many usually find forums on women’s issues a ZZZzzzzzZZZZzzzz. To my surprise, it was almost full house with close to 200 in attendance.

I was pleasantly surprised the Bintulu DAP only put my name as speaker on the backdrop banner. I then asked Chew why my name was the only one up there when there were other speakers/leaders of Sarawak DAP who were also to speak that night. He said it was because he thought I was the crowd puller. Ohmygod, I won’t be contesting in Sarawak state elections, why put only my name leh?

Note: Sarawak imports flowers like roses and carnation from Cameron Highlands. The flowers have to be quarantined in the airport for a day.

Captions:

Left to right: Chew Chin Sing giving flowers to Malay hawkers; Chew was a runaway success; The Sibu crowd wasn’t lady-like; 200 stocks of flowers finished off in 30 min. The guys with me are candidates in Sibu. Third from the right is Ho Leng, the guy with dark blue shirt is Dr Ting Chek Ming.

Me happily Karaokeing speaking at the women’s forum in Bintulu while Wong Ho Leng tries hard to keep awake.