A first-of-its-kind TN50 dialogue session was held with 70 active drug users in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur, last night.

Fauziah Abdullah, one of the few women at the session, stood up to speak. She has been drug dependent for 40 years.

“I am 52-years-old this year and I have no IC (identification card),” she said.

She lived on the streets when she was still in her teens after running away from her foster parents who used her as a maid, she explained. She has never met her real parents and thus has no access to any personal identification documents.

Fauziah started to tear and said she was too unwell to be speaking in front of a crowd. Moderator Mohammad Rizan Hassan gently egged her on.

“I have heart problems, asthma and chronic high blood pressure but I have trouble getting treatment because I have no IC,” she said before sitting down on the green and yellow tikar (mat) on the floor.

Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) has since the start of the year called upon Malaysians to share their aspirations for the future of the country.

More than 33,000 aspirations have been recorded so far from 13 TN50 townhall-style dialogue sessions held across the nation with university students, young professionals, government servants, even celebrities.

However, many other strata of the society have yet to be heard.

Unlike the big halls used at previous TN50 sessions, participants in yesterday’s session voiced their aspirations on the first floor of a drop-in centre for the drug-dependent and homeless.

There were no banners, no circular centre stage, no large television screens. No one wore head-mounted microphones...