Kuala Lumpur, Oct. 27: It was a slip of the tongue. But while introducing the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, at the gala lunch hosted by Khazanah, the country’s chamber of commerce and industry, where Kuala Lumpur’s glitterati — including the former prime minister, Mr Mahathir Mohammed — had gathered to hear him speak of the remarkable transformation he had wrought in India’s economy, the speaker called him ‘Manmohanan Singh’.
The southernisation of the prime minister’s name could not have been more apt.
Despite all the hoopla on Wednesday set off by the signing of six agreements which included the Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement, the highlight of the day remained the Indian Prime Minister’s inauguration of ‘Little India’ and his nod and wink to the improvement of the lives of Malaysians of Indian origin who have faced years of discrimination under the skewed Bhumiputra policy that gives Malays preferential treatment over the Indians and the Chinese.