Ok I have to admit......I get star struck easily. But today was a fantastic day. Haha. I was given the opportunity to hear one of my favourite politicians, Tony Blair, the former prime minister of Britain, give a speech on the challenges of global governance at NUS today! On top of that, I was even able to ask him a question during the Q&A session after that.

Went with some of the dudes and dudettes from USP to the UCC. I was unfortunately given a 2&3 level ticket, which disappointed me extremely. Aik Heng was the only one among us who had a level 1 ticket. And guess what he did? He exchanged it with me! Can you believe it? Yup, there are still such nice people in the world. I owe you big time Aik!

But the troubles weren't over. I was seated in the last few rows. I was told that unless we have a specific ticket, I couldn't sit in the front. After that, I saw many people holding similar tickets to mine going to the front and seating. It was as if they were being rewarded for coming in late! So I took my stuff, walked out of the hall and came in 'late' too. Haha. Managed to get a seat in the front after that.

After some waiting, The Right Honourable Tony Blair finally entered the hall and after a short introduction by the Dean of the LKY School of Public Policy, Tony Blair finally came to the podium to deliver his speech.

It was, in my opinion, a very enlightening speech. While the themes of globalisation and international cooperation are constantly talked about, he brought in a new perspective saying how institutions need to be built to facilitate global governance, how effective alliances need to be created between countries and how civic societies need to be empowered to act on the global stage.

I was impressed with his take on the Middle east peace process. He talked about how justice needs to be seen to be served. While Israeli security has to be catered for, the Palestinians must also be assured that they will finally be given statehood.

He gave many interesting anecdotes about his time in office, the North Ireland peace process, how he got his first mobile phone after he left office and his first meeting with LKY.

He is a great speaker and very charismatic. And he makes sense. A lot of sense.

I managed to ask him a question. I asked him that despite his calls for global action, are there too many global players in the Middle East peace process and is this causing the peace process to slow down? Another question I asked him was if he believed that the Middle east would achieve peace the same way North Ireland did? That is that the next generation of Irish leaders forgot about the pain of the past and wanted to move on to a new future.

His answer? He doesn't believe that too many players are causing the peace process to halt. He does believe however, that the players that should be doing something aren't doing it and those that wish to exploit the situation are coming in and exploiting it for their own benefits. He says that the necessary players need to step up and play their role. He then discussed the framework in which peace can be achieved.

After hearing him talk about his ideas, I believed that finally, after President Clinton, we now have another person who truly wants peace in the Middle East and has the potential to stop the bloodshed between Israelis and Palestinians and bring peace to the region for everyone, regardless of race or religion, to live together in harmony.

In the end I felt what he said at the end of the session was very profound. That leaders should not live in the past if they hope to make a better future.

Got to meet Mr Zainul Abideen Rasheed, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, during the reception after the talk and speak to him about various things.

Overall, it was a great day. :)