MANIFESTO NIGHT: First Impressions

Manifestos are, by definition, utterly boring speeches where people with a sense of humour lose it. Thus, it came as no surprise that half the candidates took liberties with Manifesto Night. Ghani did a cooking demonstration (Food Exco), Nasyi had a little tune on her ambitions as - what else? - Food Exco, Ajak from, you knew it - the Food Exco! - regaled us with a PowerPoint presentation, Ilya ate an orange to scattered applause - no points for guessing what she's running for. But we at Veritas report. not revel, so let us run through every candidate with as much impartiality as he deserves.

WELFARE: Joey is a world class charmer. He walked up, clutching a huge file, and told the voters this was his speech, but since he had their welfare at heart, he'd only read it after the elections. Then he maintained he was not a typical male. THAT set the crowd wild, for reasons that cannot be discussed here.

Wen Ai delivered a populist speech, with simple language that cut through to the public, and ended with a modified rendition of "Better Man". Sit delivered a serious speech proposing his grand plans for student welfare, some of which made sense (Common transport from KL after breaks) or bordered on the imaginary (Bonus Points system for the Dot.Co, redeemable for trips to KL). We wouldn't mind, though. Nanat gave a solemn speech with all the typical promises about not making any empty promises but trying her best, while

FOOD: Ghani stole the show with his clumsily planned Chef Wan demo. Before he began his speech, he frantically turned his pockets upside down, couldn't find his speech (all reeking of a planned gimmick, of course), dashed backstage and emerged with a table. Then a chair. Then a paper bag and a kettle of hot water. And he proceeded to cook Maggi, asking us to remind him in 2 minutes' time. Speech was ok, many personal moments, including poking fun at his waistline. You said it, Ghani, not me.

Nasyi was a bit off the beaten track, striding up on stage wrapped in a shawl and singing her little ditty about why she chose to run for Food. She was, of course, caught red-handed handing chocolates out to prospective voters out. Couple that with her little "Vote Nasyitah" golden ribbons and you have an expensive campaign. Expensive, of course, is relative, when a vice-presidential candidate reputedly spent RM 1200 on glossy full-colour posters. Feedback? They have been labelled the "Spirulina posters" due to their uncanny resemblance to health product advertisments - clean-shaven metrosexual boy, long pompous words, too much text.

But I digress. Ajak did a PowerPoint presentation on...something like his 23 campaign promises. To his credit, they were ALL small and ALL doable, allowing him to play the credibility card. Ilya brought an orange on stage in a bowl, and proceeded to eat it through her speech - actually many self-penned poems on food cobbled together. Anwar was the serious one this time, giving his staid voice to public scrutiny.