~mademoiselle*shopaholic~: the inaugural sekhar memorial lecture with the honorary bill clinton RUINED by RUDE LADY!

I never had abundant luck throughout my life. Of course, I consider myself lucky as I always seemed to manage to pull through at every level of my life (getting an overseas scholarship; accepted into University of Chicago; working for McKinsey) but I almost never win any lucky draws or random competitions or lotteries. So I was extremely excited when I found out that I had "won" a spot to listen to Bill Clinton give a speech in his inaugural visit to Malaysia.

Clinton gave an amazing speech -- it was captivating, relevant and inspiring. He was charming and he knew what to say and what not to say. He was also funny and definitely a joy to listen. I was and is still very glad that I was there amongst the crowd.

I really thank the organizers -- Sekhar Foundation and ASLI -- who footed the bill and brought Bill Clinton to Malaysia for this wonderful occasion. However, I was terribly offended by the people who were working the registration.

We were told to register and pick up our ticket/tags earlier at around 2pm. I was wearing a grey top and suit skirt (without the suit jacket) with heels, totally appropriate as "smart/business attire" as prescribed in the emails sent out to us. But when I picked up my ticket, the registration table asked me "where's your jacket?".

First of all, a question such as "where's your jacket?" should not be asked during registration (since the lecture was later at 5-6pm). A polite reminder to wear a jacket during the lecture would suffice.

Secondly, there was NO indication in the email that we NEEDED to wear a suit jacket. The email distinctively wrote "smart/business attire" and obviously I was careful enough to make sure of that for something as important as this.

I lied and said that my suit jacket was in the office but I couldn't help pointing out the fact that I was NEVER told to wear a suit jacket.

The youngsters at the table immediately started looking for someone who had more authority to speak with me and this lady stepped to the front to talk to me.

I repeated what I said and she retorted, "no, it's business formal".

Please la, I have the email from the organizers as proof can?

She insisted over and over again that it's business formal and then proceeded to make a comment "you're going to meet Bill Clinton without wearing your jacket?".

That is SO not the point. Not that I'll actually meet him (not to mention that I was sitted so far behind!).

I was at least in business casual if not slightly more formal than business casual and she was wearing this V-necked dress with some cleavage showing. Please tell me which is more appropriate?

And while I was still talking to her, she went "next person please" and totally ignored me!!!

I didn't want to argue anymore because she's obviously awful and rude and will not budge from her self-declared righteousness and I'll forgive her ignorance although my blood was boiling from the way she was treating me. I may be young, but a little respect please! I wasn't even being rude and I was simply pointing out a fact. It is SO Malaysian to not let people argue the facts and treat the public like shit and that's what I HATE about Malaysia. I'm sure that if I were in a different country, someone would have apologized for the inconvenience and patiently explain that there may have been some miscommunication but a suit jacket would be needed.