By LOONG MENG YEE
The Star, 17 November 2007

KUALA LUMPUR: Former newscaster Ras Adiba Radzi is pretty sure she is the woman in wheelchair Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi mentioned as “capable and presentable” but unable to get permanent employment.

“I have met the Prime Minister last year at a function for the disabled.

“He asked what I was doing and I replied not much … because jobs were hard to come by after I became paralysed,” she said.

Keeping strong: Ras Adiba practising hard for her theatre play Merdeka di Mataku. She will not give up on life but hopes for a break by getting a permanent newscaster job.

At the Prime Minister’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Awards presentation on Wednesday, Abdullah mentioned about an unnamed wheelchair-bound woman unable get a permanent job although she “looks good and is capable. “

Ras Adiba said Abdullah told her to persevere and keep strong, words she kept to heart.

The 39-year-old became a paraplegic after a series of ill-fated incidents, including a car accident in 1999 and an assault which further damaged her spine in 2001.

Ras Adiba is not ready to take life sitting down.

She has another mouth to feed after adopting a son, eight-month-old Umar Ras Engel, last year.

“I want to give Umar the best. He is my light. Friends tell me I saved him from a broken life, but the truth is, he rescued me from drowning in darkness.

“I adopted Umar after my third brother, Iqbal Ismail died from a heart attack. He was only 27-years-old. In Umar, I dare to hope again,” said Ras Adiba.

She had written to a news station and even enquired personally, but was told there was no opening for a newscaster.

Before her accident and when she was at the top of her game, emceeing jobs poured in.

Now, the telephone has turned cold. Ras Adiba tries her best to stay afloat by managing her production company, doing part-time emceeing, voice-overs and writing television scripts.

She also champions better quality of the life for the disabled and is an athlete with the Malaysian Paralympic Society.

She is working hard to produce her own play, titled Merdeka di Mataku (Independence in My Eyes). It will be staged at the Actors’ Studio from Nov 21 to 23.

“Come watch my play. Come sing, dance and read poetry with me. See me for all the things I can do.

“Don’t just see the wheelchair,” she said.