I was a guest on the political talkshow, representing the media. The show, coordinated by KJ and aired by NTV7, was different in many ways. It was in English and the producers invited opposition figures such as Tian Chua and R. Sivarasa to express their views.

Dateline Malaysia enjoyed a following with young political analysts like me believing that Malaysian voters should be allowed to listen to arguments from both sides before they cast their ballots.

I felt that if the speakers representing the Government could not convince the audience, then the votes should go to the Opposition. Barisan Nasional leaders should not shy away from debate – it was as simple as that.

But some ministers, I was given to understand later, did not like the idea of giving opposition figures access to primetime TV. It was also expensive to produce the show because advertisers shied away from sponsorship. In the end, the show was axed, and since then there has been no such programme.

I was struck by Khairy's intelligence, wit and analytical mind. His openness and ability to express his thoughts was refreshing to me, especially when many of us have to deal with graduates who struggle with English.

Khairy gave me a tough time during the interview. When the show was over, we laughed about it. With no age barrier between us, we got along quite well.

He was then not yet the son-in-law of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and certainly no one in Umno took notice of him, except maybe those who watched the talkshow. The Bahasa Malaysia version was conducted by Azalina Othman Said, now the Youth and Sports Minister.

When KJ joined the Prime Minister's Office, he called me about his appointment. I was happy for personal and business reasons: I now had a powerful contact there.

Not long afterwards, I learnt that love was in the air between Nori and Khairy. For a while, I did not broach the matter with him as I respected his private life but soon the couple began going out for dinner with my wife and me.

Thanks also to Dr Vincent Lim, the political secretary to the Prime Minister, who introduced Khairy to Nori. Dr Lim used to work at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies where Nori is now employed. The rest, as they say, is history.

I have stayed away from the debate over the ambitions of the 28-year-old KJ. Some have implied a schism between those with family connections and those without.

His detractors admit that Khairy is very clever but being an Oxford graduate does not necessarily make him future prime minister material. Fair enough.

Last week, an editor of an Internet news website wrote about favoured sons and sons-in-law inheriting positions in Umno. In short, nepotism was prevalent in the party.

I felt it was terribly unfair simply because no one has pointed out that in Parti Keadilan Rakyat, DAP and PAS, we find the immediate family members of these party leaders holding positions and contesting in elections. We do not have to name names but no one bats an eye simply because they are in the opposition.

Despite knowing Khairy for only a short time, we have talked about our concerns for the nation, including corruption, bureaucracy, lack of racial interaction, increasing crime rate and religious intolerance.

Irrespective of our political affiliation, Malaysians, I believe, share the same anxieties over what we see around us. The country needs politicians who are idealistic and committed to fighting the scourge of corruption.

It does not matter whether they are young, inexperienced or are family members of political leaders. What is important is that they are prepared to walk the talk instead of just talking for political expediency.

At a Christmas open house of a journalist friend in Petaling Jaya last year, Khairy pulled me aside and asked whether I had a Christmas wish. I nodded and told him that I would like to see a clean and reformed police force.

He smiled. Not too long later, Abdullah announced the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the role and responsibility of the police force in maintaining law and order, including in areas like work ethics, abuses, the welfare of policemen and women victims of violence.

I do not know the part about Khairy being the most powerful 28-year-old in the country but Malaysians do not want him to let them down.

He has asked for three years. No one can begrudge him that, since he has won a key political post that will allow him to do something for the country. He should be given that chance.

That dinner was held in honour of Norwich
(pronounced as noh rich) City players and officials who were making their first
visit to Malaysia.
The following day, I watched the team beat our Malaysian side at the National
Stadium in Bukit Jalil.

At the dinner, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who admitted he
knew nothing about football, could not resist taking a swipe at the Malaysian
team: Previously, the Malaysians used to beat the Japanese during the Merdeka
Cup matches but the Japanese are now performing so much better.

A lot of us will surely nod in agreement. The former
prime minister also said Malaysians were so soccer mad that they could rattle
off the names of soccer personalities but not local politicians. More so now
with the many newly created ministries.

Football is big in Malaysia,
especially the EPL which kicks off its season next month.

Proton has certainly scored by sponsoring Norwich
City. It means a global audience of
450 million in 150 countries watching Proton's Tiger logo on the team's
yellow-and-green jersey.

I may be biased but I think the sponsorship of Norwich
City is an even better investment
than Petronas' Formula One commitment because the audience spread is bigger and
we don't have to keep watching the same driver winning most of the time.

Proton's association with Norwich
City began when it bought over Lotus,
the international sports car maker. Norwich
City is the home of Lotus, which
employs almost 1,400 people.

Said Proton CEO Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Arif: "Norwich
City is certainly an underdog and
so is Proton. Both of us are challenging the top players in our respective
field. Not many know us outside of our home base.

"Both of us do not as yet have top names, but as a team
we work and support each other to succeed. This, I believe, is the key factor
for the success of both Norwich City
and Proton.''

Outside the hotel lobby during the dinner, a few cynical
journalists remarked that Norwich City
sounded like "Nowhere" and "No way."  One
of them was a Manchester United die-hard.

I was more sympathetic. I really hope that Norwich
City will stay in the premier
league and not just be a one-season wonder. That should be the realistic target
of the team; I don't think they are thinking of lifting any silverware this
season.

Norwich City's
opening match is against Crystal Palace,
another Division One team that won promotion to the premier league. A victory
would be a morale booster, although Norwich
will have to face Manchester United and Arsenal in the subsequent matches.

The club has had its glory days. It has reached the FA
Cup semi-finals three times in 1959, 1989 and 1992. The team won the League Cup
in 1962 and 1985 and were runners-up in 1973 and 1975.  As for the UEFA Cup, they were champions in
1993-94.

The team had been languishing until Proton-Lotus entered
into a sponsorship agreement with the Canaries during the 2003-2004 season.
Since then, it has gone places.

I was impressed by the attitude of the Norwich
City players when I met some of
them on Thursday night. Unlike the prima donnas of the bigger teams, they were
polite and unassuming.

I could see the young lads having a good time during the
dinner, especially when they saw the lovely Malaysian models in their
tight-fitting kebaya, but their joy was cut short when team manager Nigel
Worthington ordered them to retire for the day at 10.30pm.

The team had chosen the home of its sponsor for
pre-season warm-up. It's only right for us to consider Norwich
City as our home team.

If you are a movie buff, then you would have also watched
Chalize Theron in The Italian Job, which also used Venice
as the setting.

And who can forget watching Madonna squirming in a gondola
in her music video Like a Virgin.

Arriving in Milan
on Saturday, I was told that I could catch a train to Venice.
It would just be an hour's ride.

It was too good to resist. It would cost me only about 20
euro (RM94) and I could return to Milan
the same day.

Besides, the hotels in Venice
were too expensive. It would have been over-indulgence to stay overnight just
to join the rich romantics watch the sunset and drink expresso by the sidewalk
cafes.

With fellow journalists from the other press, we joined
thousands of tourists in the unbearable hot summer, leisurely admiring the
canals that had inspired poetry, art, music and literature.

The quaint cobblestone streets and medieval churches were
as quaint as I expected.

The movies captured those Venetian scenes well. If you
had watched The Talented Mr Ripley – which starred Matt Damon and Gwyneth
Paltrow – you would know what I mean.

Summer is really not the best time to visit Venice.
It's uncomfortably hot at this time and, while the Europeans love the sun,
Asians like me looked around for some shade.

The restaurant and ferry (and gondola) operators
overcharge you because it is the peak season.

Many of the eateries do not have air-conditioners. The
spaghetti dish I ordered was mediocre yet pricey.

I could never understand how the Italians could have
their pasta with tomato sauce alone – no meatballs, no seafood, nothing – and
at 20 euro per serving.

There were two Chinese restaurants but the idea of
sitting in Venice eating fried rice
seemed out of place, even ridiculous.

The souvenirs were overly expensive for us, bearing in
mind the ringgit-to-euro exchange rate, but the positive part was that none of
us spent our money unnecessarily.

To console ourselves, we agreed it was "patriotic" to be
thrifty and that it was not worth buying those tacky tourist rip-offs.

I had to tell the illegal African immigrants peddling
fake Louis Vuitton handbags not to bother me.

Like a two-hour movie, my one-day visit to Venice
was over by 6pm. We had missed the 4pm train back to Milan
because some of my colleagues lost their way in the maze of the Venice
alleyways.

As a result, we missed watching the Euro 2004 final
between Greece
and Portugal at
the Duomo Square where a
huge screen was set up for city folk.

We missed the train, the football final but, most of all,
we missed Venice.

We had arrived in Rome
ahead of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who was making a
working visit to Italy.

Despite being a seasoned traveller, I had a phobia about Italy.
A colleague was robbed in broad daylight some years back and arrangements had
to be made to send him some money because he was left penniless by the
small-time Mafia.

Before leaving Kuala Lumpur,
I looked at several websites on Rome.
Many of them warned first-time visitors like me of the dangers of the Italian
capital.

One item warned that on arrival at the airport, you may
be approached by people claiming to be employees of the Rome Tourist Board. I
had no such problem.

I read about the indifferent police officers who enjoy
sending victims from station to station just to lodge a report. Sounds
familiar?

Another item told of greedy taxi drivers ready to fleece
visitors. However, my ride from the airport to the hotel at Viale Castro
Pretoria, near the Coliseum, was a pleasant one.

Despite all the negative reports, particularly about the
notorious gypsy pickpockets, tourists from all over the world continue to visit
Rome.

Many like me would hold on tightly to our bags when we
visit tourist spots, fearing we would be relieved of our wallets.

In July 2000, ex-Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson lost
US$4,000 after being accosted by a small group of gypsy girls at the famous Via
Veneto – and they outran him.

Like Malaysia,
Rome has its fair share of snatch
thieves, too. Men in scooters often prey on tourists.

But Italian officials are not worried by these negative
reports. Some Malaysian officials, on the other hand, have tried to coax the
press into not reporting cases of snatch thefts, saying the publicity would
drive away tourists.

It is all very silly. By highlighting these issues,
tourists would appreciate our concern in fighting crime.

In Jakarta or
Manila, snatch thieves would not
make front-page headlines because they are so common.

But in Malaysia,
the public and the media are angry because our streets used to be safe. We want
the police to deal with these crooks effectively.

Rome reminds
me of New York. It is noisy,
dusty, dirty and chaotic. Even the Metro trains have similar graffiti painted
on them.

Unlike Singapore,
which is sterile but pretends to be hip and hot, Rome
oozes energy. But the Italians don't believe in rules; you only have to look at
the way they park their vehicles.

Italy
has one of the biggest economies in the world, producing some of the finest
names in cars and fashion but its government and social structure are
comparable to that of a banana republic.

Rome is a
city of contrasts. I attended the service at St Peter's where the aura of the
place, especially its pale rays of heavenly light, can move to tears tough and
cynical journalists like me.

I also "weep" later at the Vatican's
souvenir shop where nuns were selling expensive religious memorabilia. The weak
ringgit against the strong euro would make my stay an expensive one.

As I was about to finish this article, a colleague called
up to find out whether the cunning gypsies had got their hands on me.

Not as far as I know, I said. But give the gypsies time –
it was only my first day in town.