DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A SPEECH, TALK, LECTURE AND SERMON

…AND POLITICAL GATHERING OR ‘CERAMAH’ TODAY AND THOSE THAT WERE HELD BEFORE MERDEKA WHERE THERE WAS DECORUM AND MUTUAL RESPECT.

By Mansor bin Puteh

Malaysians generally do not know the differences between a speech, talk, lecture and sermon.

So each time when there is a forum, many, if not all who are given opportunities to speak, they ended up giving a talk and often times, a lengthy sermon that covers everything under the sun.

Worse, is when not many also do not know the differences between a forum, talk, seminar and conference to know how to behave and speak.

And most of the time in forums, there are maybe, three or four or five speakers or members of the panel of panelists, who are all moderated by a moderator whose task is to ensure that the panelists do not talk too long or those from the floor do not become uninvited members of the panel that no one goes away from the topic to be discussed and there is a title for each of the forum or talk.

And forums normally last no more than one to one and a half hours.

A talk is mostly given by a prominent person who is erudite on some topics such as an acclaimed novelist who is invited to talk about his book or a whole collection of his works.

This can be conducted with the novelist talking just a bit about the topic and he is guided by the moderator who acts like an interviewer with those attending asking brief questions to the writer.

Most often a member of a panel in a forum is given ten to fifteen minutes to speak whereas in a seminar or conference he is given thirty to forty minutes to speak as the topics chosen are often those that require some research and explanation.

As in most of the cases, Malaysians who attend public forums or talks, often take it upon them to give lengthy lectures and sermons from the floor during question-and-answer time.

The moderators who are not familiar with their tasks often let those from the floor to go on and on with some who often get carried away and assume that he or she is the uninvited member of the panel when they are not.

What those on the floor should do or are allowed to is just to ask one or two brief questions and go back to their seats or sit down.

In Malaysia, the moderators often ask for the names of those from the floor who have questions to ask, when this is not supposed to happen, because this will take a lot of time and often allowed those from the floor to go on with their past and personal achievements and cracking jokes to get the attention of the members of the panel and in the hall and mostly those from the media who might be there to cover the views of the panelists.

In many instances, because of the lacking in decorum in conducting such public forums, talks and seminars and conferences, there were even skirmishes and even physical acts of destruction causing the forums to be canceled and spoilt.

If this is not enough there are some who had caused such gatherings to become the focus of someone else’s antics, when balloons are flown and placards carried and shooting and screaming heard from individuals and groups who were out to distract the main focus of the event to their own cause which they could promote using other forums or platforms but which they could not simply because they could not pull the crowds.

So they had to steal some attention from the events organized by some others, even if those who have been invited have differing views from them or anyone.

But the fact remains that those who had been invited was because the organizers wanted to hear their views and share them with whoever is interested to know what they are, and be given time and space for dispute during the allocated question-and-answer period.

So one must marvel at the way political gatherings or ‘ceramah’ were held before Merdeka or Independence when the national leaders only gave speeches that touch the salient issues with no intention of firing up anybody’s emotions or feelings.

Tunku Abdul Rahman, being a Cambridge University-rained lawyer, knew how to do it in the best possible way, both in English and Melayu. His comrade-in-arms then, such as Tun Razak Hussain, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun Sambanthan, and some others knew the role they had to play and did it well with such suave.

All these men were highly trained in their specialties and who knew enough to not unnecessarily cause disharmony amongst the differences races, as most of them were not familiar with the type of democracy that the British wanted to introduce into the country by voting for the first time that they also had to be taught how to vote. 

Political ‘ceramah’ held today are mostly for entertainment or ‘meet the crowd’ session when top leaders of political parties travel through the length and breath of the country not to educate the masses but to fire up their emotions and in the end they do not say much.

They have become entertainers who enjoyed when the crowd before them laugh and clap their hands with their jokes that are mostly bland and useless even to whatever causes they have. 

And they are mostly from the opposition who did not care with what they say or do as long as they get the crowds to support them even when they do not say anything other than to say what they have been saying again and again in public gatherings or the social Medias.