The day I left my handphone behind

 It was a wet Langkawi Airport greeting

I was in Langkawi for two meetings running back-to-back July 27-28.  A farewell dinner was scheduled for the evening of July 28 for pending retirees and those on transfers.  However, with my regular medical check-up scheduled for the morning of July 29, I had to give the dinner a skip.  Not wanting to rush the evening for my trip back to Kuala Lumpur, I chose the 21:45 hrs instead of the 17:35 hrs flight.  After some final chocolate and nut shopping (things people normally go for in Langkawi), I had my bags packed by 7:30 pm.  Drained of its battery, I had my hand phone charging on the beverage counter using the powerpoint meant for the kettle. At my final departure from the room, I remembered packing the charger into my backpack.  The phone as always is supposed to go into the outer pocket of my handbag for easy access.

With the promised transport to the Langkawi airport at 20:00 hrs, I was on my way down the elevator for the check-out counter at 19:50 hrs.  The airport is only about 20 minutes away.  Had my checked-in baggage scanned for security checks, my ticket checked and was issued the boarding pass.  A short walk for yet another security scan for hand carried baggage and I was off to the waiting area.  Passing the waiting time, I took to reading Glimpses by Adibah Amin.

Noticing that my flight is on schedule, I tried retrieving my phone to call Saadon, the office driver, that is supposed to be waiting for me at KLIA.  Feeling for the phone where it is supposed to be, and finding that it was not there, the panic button soon striked. I had my handbag turned inside out and rustled my backpack too.  Having the hand phone as an 'appendage' all these years, I felt real helpless.  I had no coins for the public phone and worst still I could not remember any number except that of my husband's.  He has the foresight of getting simple numbers that even when the children were at pre-school, the numbers are easily remembered.

There was this lady in the seat in front of me who had earlier enquired about her flight.  I responded well to her telling her to wait to be called.  She was flying Firefly to Subang.  I approached her for use of her phone telling her of my predicament.  Without as much as a blink she handed me her phone.  I made that desperate call to my husband to get him to call the hotel to check on my phone and to have it handed to my colleague still at the hotel.  I prayed hard for my phone to be in the hotel room and not dropped elsewhere.

Now my other worry is yet to start.  As normally the case, Saadon choose not to crowd the waiting area but wait for my call upon disembarkation.  This is not to be tonight.  I prayed that he might drive to the pick-up area should he not receive my call after sometimes.  Alas, even after a 30 minute wait in the diesel-smoged area, he was yet to be seen.

I hate to be seen at a loss, but I was at a loss.  I have to resort to another phone borrowing.  Who would I approach this time?  I had earlier seen two youths hanging around.  They must be waiting for relatives. I braced myself for possible rejection but approached them nevertheless explaining my predicament yet again and request the use of their hand phones.  One of them paused just long enough to check his phone credit and without further question just handed it to me!  I again called my husband (I could not remember Saadon's number) to have him picked me up.  Getting his assurance, I handed back the phone to the owner thanking them both.  They refused my offer to reimburse his credit for the use of the phone.  I moved back to the terminal building to be away from the diesel smog of the waiting vehicle in the pick up area.

It was way past midnight when my husband showed up and for us to reach the house close to 1 am.  From my husband, I gathered that I left the phone on the counter and is now with a friend who will bring it back to me.  Alhamdulillah, I couldn't be more relieved. The phone is brand new and provided by the office.  Losing it means a replacement at own cost if not a surcharge!  Using the numbers registered on my husband's phone, I send messages to both the phone owners thanking them.  I am most relieved to have such helpful and trusting citizens who did not think twice about offering assistance, though we know of cases of people running away with phones offered for use.

Lesson learnt; check-out everything thoroughly before leaving hotel rooms, write down important numbers, and carry sufficient coins for emergency calls.  One most important lesson, NEVER be judgemental of people's look or the way they dress.  On normal days, I would keep away from those youths.  I regretted for not even asking for their names but there is hope for they exuded trusting images and that people are generally helpful.  The youth even responded to my message saying that it is his duty to help people in need and adding that there must be a reason (hikmah) for the way things happened.  I know what the reasons are now.  My thanks yet again, gentleman.

My found again appendage


The many islands off Langkawi


Marred by manmade structures as playground for the rich


Even rice fields are now tourist stops

My Brother's Wedding

We flew back to Kelantan last Saturday to be with the clan for my youngest brother's wedding.  We were all grown-ups and married with children of our own when Balya came into our lives.  Agewise he is sandwiched between my two boys, Nazim and Faiz, and they were playmates everytime we balik kampung for the holidays.  My youngest sister then was close to 18 when Balya was born.  She was already well known as Mak Su La (Acu La for short) among the nieces and nephews and heaved a big sigh of relief for with a male younger sibling she can still retain the title.  With such a big age gap, Balya was raised much a loner, siblingwise, as those close to him were away in either boarding schools or colleges.  Ma passed away when Balya was in his early teens and he is shuffled between pondok schools without really graduating from any.

Time passed and with some start-up financial assistance from father he grew-up an entrepreneur. Too early to call him a success (though that is what we are wishing for him) but he is making a fine living for himself and employing a staff of eight (I don't have even a single soul under my employment!).  He met his match recently and with an elder brother mediating, his marriage was solemnised on July 21, 2011.  The majlis Kesyukuran Sambut Menantu (reception on the groom's side) was held on Sunday July 24, 2011.  The reason for us to be home. 

It would have been great had all my children and their family balik kampung together.  But with everybody having commitments of sort, it was just the hubby, Aiman and I that took the flight home.  Driving would have been too streanous for us and Aiman who have to skip school.  Thanks to AirAsia, the trip was affordable.  With the family home gathering crowd, we chose to lodge at a rented abode, a stone's throw away.  My youngest sister (Acu La) with her big family chose Zainun's Palace.  She was lucky, Pn. Zainun, the proprieter, was around when she checked-in.  She was offered the biggest room at the lowest charge.  Benefit of a small town community.

The bunting announcing the event

Arrival of the bride's entourage

The newly weds

The oldies (pengantin lama)

The newly weds, the siblings and father

Our threesome with father

Faizal teasing a younger sister

The family home was buzzing with activities when we arrived.  The kenduri tents were under construction and nieces and nephews were running around.  There wasn't much activities in the kitchen as we catered food needed for the reception.  Any cooking done in the house was to prepare the required meals for the family members present.  There was a heavy downpour late in the evening accompanied by strong winds drenching the workers working with the tents.  Everybody had to call it a day leaving with promise of coming in early tomorrow to finish the job.

We turned-up early Sunday to help with whatever job that needed attending to.  My husband and the men of the family busied themselves arranging the chairs and spruicing up the reception area. I turned to the kitchen.  We, the sisters, had earlier decided to share preparing the hidangan beradab between us.  I took to cleaning and preparing the prompfet for masak tiga rasa, the youngest sister took to preparing the steamed siakap and fruit cocktail, a niece the syrupy gula hangus pudding (she took the shortcut in ordering the ayam golek from a restaurant in town)!, a sister-in-law took to skewing the prawns and another cutting up the melons.  Later we have my brother's (the groom) staff bringing in the fern shoots (pucuk paku) and helped turn the vegetable to mouth-watering kerabu dish.  Gotong royong has never been this fun before!  I know Ma is smiling at us all for putting up this fine show together.

The full clan with in-laws, nieces and nephews

The first guest start arriving at about 12:30 pm and the flow went unabated until about past six!  This is a kampung setting and any time limit to a kenduri is a big no no.  The bride's entourage came in past 3:00 pm and were immediately usured to the the makan beradab table.  Then it was meeting the family and photography sessions.  All starts and ends well and we are all happy for Balya and his wife, Ayu, the brand new addition to the family.

Wishing you the very best Balya and Ayu dearest.

ITEX and IDB 2011 wins

We had a press conference (PC) last Friday (22 Jul 2011) to publicize our ITEX 2011 (International Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition) and IDB 2011 (Islamic Development Bank Award) for S&T wins.

Our 11 entries for ITEX won us five gold, five silver, one bronze and five special jury awards.  What make me most proud is the fact that one of the special jury awards is the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) award for Best Woman Invention that goes to Dr. Tan Guat Hun, a true blood Rantau Panjang Kelantanese.  This is for her smart pesticide invention, a phage-based biopesticide against plant diseases.  A Johore-based company together with UTM Skudai is now up-scaling the product and is currently being tested on dragon fruit plants.  This phage thing is very specific in its action.  The fact that the technology has its origin from the medical sciences is also something to be proud of.  Technology is indeed crossing boundaries.

A model of Dr. Tan's phage and its working mechanism below

The IDB award has made us US$100,000 richer.  Too bad the we have to loose out to PDRM for the AIPM 2011 (Anugerah Inovasi Perdana Menteri), though we were among the three finalists.  Winning could have mean that we be richer RM1 m, but that is not to be. Talk about the IDB US$100,000, it was promised that everybody in the organisation would have a taste of it.  It's going to be gulai kawah for all!  Maybe we can parcel out the winning to all stations for our 2011 Hari Raya do.

Back to the PC.  We had this great digital backdrop, buntings and banner announcing our ITEX and IDB wins.  But as Murphy's Law goes, anything that can go wrong will go wrong, Murphy was indeed working against us that morning.  While the Minister was visiting the booths displaying the winners, we were (including the press) made to wait in the PC room. We had nothing but just the backdrop to feast our eyes on.  It then drawn upon us that IDB is made to mean International Development Bank while the date is 21 Julai 2011 (Jumaat)!  Only God knows the panicky state that we were in.  Good thing it was a digital display. We really counted our blessing.  It was quickly edited, but then the press group was already staring at our blundering ways.  It was easy to correct the backdrop but not the printed buntings and banner.  We had them removed from the PC room. 

Indeed this is a lesson learned.  Need to be more deligent the next time around before the powers that be go hopping ......

The glaring mistake on the bunting.  IDB would not like it.

And now it's EDAMS

Electronic Digital Asset Management System

As the name goes, organisational information is now regarded as an asset.  Being the information powerhouse the organisation is, pray that they do not make a commodity out of it, else we'll all need to relocate to the KL Stock Exchange.

I have nothing against technology.  I'll embrace it like religion anytime I see the benefit of its application.  But it'll have to bring real benefit, not the imagined kind.  It is not just about monetary benefit here, but it need to be shown that there will be time saving, repetitive work be avoided, and info and K sharing a reality in using the system.  It should not be some body's dream but every body's nightmare.  Technology should be an enabler rather than a distraction.  A burden is what is seen by most now with EDAMS.

The intention was noble, we are to go digital corporate wide, where the 'search engine' would just be our fingers.  We will no longer have to carry along our documents to meetings but with an i-Pad and a wifi connection, EDAMS will enable us to access the needed info .  We were make to believe that the system will even trace all communication.  I love that promise and was sold on that dream, especially when the most up-to-date info is required for decision making and to answer to our stakeholders. 

My wish is that we be allowed to initially use the system at our own pace.  Allow us to appreciate it's capability after which we can go on overdrive to reap it's full benefit.  Trust me, managing change is never easy and rushing it may get people apprehensive and rejecting the system in total.  Allow not our eagerness to overwhelm the system.  We do not want a good system shelved.

Sorry Sir, I didn't recognise you.

I was at Subang Dorset last week (July 14) for the Agric-Biz 2011-2012 Directory launching.  I was the stand-in for my immediate boss who was supposed to stand-in for his boss, the way it goes in most government departments/agencies.  So a stand-in I was.  Saw a few old hats around who left the organisation to join the KL rat race. 

Walking from the main hotel lobby towards the function room (Selangor 3) I came shoulder to shoulder (of course he is much taller) with a familiar looking gentleman who accessed from a side door.  Looking at it now, it's more of the main entry to the hotel function rooms.  As mentioned, he looked familiar but I can't really figure out who he really was then.  We exchanged smiles and walked side-by-side to the registration desk.  I registered and walked into the function room to take a seat.  I have a magazine to while away the waiting time.

Soon we have the MC at the mic welcoming us and inviting the publishing house chairman on stage.  We were shown slides to reminiscent of past launchings.  Soon it was time for the guest of honour for the new directory launching to be on stage.  Guess who?  He was the very same gentleman who was walking over to the registration desk with me.  My thousand apologies Sir for not recognising and acknowledging you.  I'll do my homework from now hereon Sir so that I won't have a repeat of this!  Incidentally he was not Dato' Mohd. Hashim (refer backdrop), the ministry KSU, but the TKSU, his stand-in.  Now the reason why my bosses are not here in person is solved.  It's been stand-ins all the way.

The event backdrop

Competition and Being a Winner

My third born, Wan Mohamed Faiz, is a service adviser (SA) for Kajang MTR Toyota.  A job he cherish and a real 8 - 5 job.  After 5 he is as good as unemployed, no take home job and nothing to disturb him in the night except for occasional enquiries from clients that can't wait for tomorrow.  This particular Toyota service centre is among the few that you can just walk in without prior reservation.  They will handle those with reservations for sure and walk-ins are accommodated equally well.  So Saturday is always a busy day servicing over 80 cars at times.  Regulars are mostly from Kajang, Seremban and even KL.  Being the only Toyota service centre for Kajang, most Kajang Toyota owners know him.  The best part is that his former school is a stone's throw from the centre.  Words soon spread among the teachers 'as having one of their boys' as the SA at the centre and his Cikgus flock to him.  Payback time, I guess.

The family owns a Toyota Unser which has been serving us good since 2002 (gosh, it's already 9 years old!).  Come service time, Faiz will just drive the Unser to his office and have it attended to but not without prior referral to the father of what needs doing.  The go ahead will only come after much question time and cost recalculations.  Faiz is not a man of many words but we like this comment most, "Abah, the whole of Kajang listens to my advice and approves of my recommendation of what needs doing to their car without much question.  You are the only one that don't really believe in what I am capable of!".  Food for thought for the father, but things haven't change much though.  A son is still a son to a father.

For a person barely 4 years with the company Faiz is doing good.  Using the point system he was rewarded with a company sponsored trip to Sydney after his first year of service and a Shanghai trip for the second.  Getting to see the world has been an eye opener for him and he now begin to appreciate better what we have in the country!

Recently Toyota held The Skill Contest 2011 enticing participants with a Tokyo trip.  In spite of the concern for the Japan tsunami aftermath, Faiz went in for the SA preliminary, semi final and finals.  He surprises even himself with a perfect 100% score for the preliminary.  The fire is ignited and he moved on to the finals held on 15 - 16 July with eight SAs vieing for the title.  He got the third placement but was credited as the overall champion.  The Tokyo trip reward was, however, awarded to the first placement finalist.  For his tenacity, Faiz is RM500 richer.  He was home all smiles but couldn't hide the frustration of the near miss.  To add salt to the frustration, the reward goes to a lady SA.  A win could have been perfect as his 27 year birthday gift celebrated today (18 July).  With this experience, you can always give yourself another try come another competition.

Our youngest, Wan Nur Aiman (she's a girl), is not to be out done.  She had been pestering the father to send her for bowling most Saturdays.  Without her knowing, the cumulative scores were registered and last Saturday (16 July), prizes were given out.  She came in second and walked away with a trophy and a big hamper and of course a big smile too when we came to fetch her home.  Should have taken a shot of the hamper but it was dismantled before the idea of taking its picture came to mind.

The competitive spirit must be in the air this month.  Must be the pre-Ramadhan thing where all physical activities will be frozen during the month.  Incidentally, Shaaban takes the whole of July.  The office is also having the Bi-annual Sporting event (15 - 18 July).  Four teams are competing, representing the Head Office, East, North and South teams.  The event is held a KUIM, Nilai; UNITEN, Serdang; MINES, Sri Kembangan and Seremban.  The opening was officiated by the Board Chairman.  The competitive spirit is fascinating and it's great to see people pitching out to make the whole event a full success.  I salute them all.  I was there at the opening and was the guest of honour to be giving away the medals for the congkak winners.  I didn't see any trophy though.  My reluctance to cough up the RM500 for it could be the reason.  Not a stingy person by nature, but I am a firm believer that the sum could be for a better cause.  The club organising the event will have to make do without my contribution.

The four teams in the meet

The Head Office Contingent in dark blue led by Hj. Ghazali

Ballons released to mark the official opening of the Bi-Annual Games

The marathon runners moving out of the stadium

Datin letting off the VIPs

The victory lap for the Ladies 5 km Mini-marathon winner



Women Drivers

Lifted from Puteri Campbell's:

This morning on the Interstate, I looked over to my left and there was a

Woman

In a brand new
Cadillac

Doing 75 mph

With her
Face up next to her
rear view mirror

Putting on her eyeliner.

I looked away

for a couple seconds!

And when I looked back she was

halfway over in my lane,

still working on that makeup.

As a man,

I don't scare easily.

But she scared me so much

I dropped

My electric shaver,

which knocked

The donut

Out of my other hand.

In all

the confusion of trying

to straighten out the car

using my knees against

the steering wheel,

it knocked

my cell phone

away from my ear,

which fell,

into the coffee
between my legs,

splashed,

and burned

Big Jim and the Twins,

ruined the damn phone,

soaked my trousers,

and disconnected an
important call.

Damn women drivers.

MPPSO - Siri 2; 2011

I was on the balik kampung leave for the first meet.  The leave was applied long before it was decided to have the meeting.  So there will be no excuse this time around.  Further it was decided that the progress report for each PTJ be made.  I have to deliver that for the division.  It was supposed to be a PROPER mediated presentation.  Checking through the system a few days prior to the meeting, I realised that not many had their report in the system.  That called for a surprise meet with my deputies and we came to the consensus that the excel COP format will be used instead with an added column for the progress achieved to date.  That was 3:30 pm on the day prior to the MPPSO.  Love it or not, with submissions coming through the night, it was 2 am that I called it a day.  The next day I have to literarilly dragged myself out of bed to prepare for the trip to Nilai.  The MPPSO is to be held at Allson Putra Nilai with registration and shop talk by the meeting secretariat at 8:30 - 10:00 am. 

The group from my PTJ were early, but that gave the distintion between the Q vis-a-vis the N service.  At one point it was suggested that we have our PTJ meet instead.  The crowd kept piling in with their luggage and sundry.  Hotel check-in time is only after 2 pm and our function is held in the function room in the building across the road from the hotel.  When you want to be economical it rhymes with cheap.  So it was luggage dragging across the road and along the pavement for most.  I didn't plan on staying the night, so I have no complains.

Except for the IS group, all others had their own presentation version, mostly on powerpoint.  I had mine on powerpoint slides and excel.  But we delivered what was achieved to date and things went on smoothly.  Though initially allocated a 30 minute session for each, everybody exceeded their time and we ended with half an hour to spare for Asar.  I don't really know should some chose to go Jama' Takyah.  But Nilai is too near for most to go on Zohor-Asar jama', except maybe for those from Subang / Klang/ Shah Alam.

Serious business....everybody listening hard.

Feverishly completing my presentation while Hj. Ghazali was presenting his.

All attention on the screen.

The hotel is overbooked for functions.  It was over an hour wait before we were seated for lunch.  I have never been to this place before and for such a small township, I never realised that it is that popular.  But Nilai is booming, with KLIA , Sepang F1 Circuit and newly launched Sepang Gold Coast, things can never be better.  Nilai has begun to realised its name (value!).

Night time was scheduled for a farewell dinner for the few of us who are retiring, Dagang (Che' Dag); Hjh. Rafeah (Cik Ah) and Hj. Rahim (Loyar Buruk), sometimes this July and early August.  With close to 100 yrs of service between them, they are iconic in their own ways.  Dag ensured that we get our paycheck on time every month, Cik Ah ensured the quality in our R&D project proposals and Hj. Rahim literarily lived to his name, freely dispensing legal advise (he is Linclon Inn material!) in the office canteen.  One thing I remembered about Dag was when he enquired should there be a job higher than the PM apart from the Agong.  Should anybody be interested to know why, you'll have to call me personally.  I'll readily share his concern.  Cik Ah is a good friend of mine, ready with her down-to-earth-counsel and opinions.  There's no word mincing.  With her you get what you see.  She will not necessarily agree with you just to please you, and for that she will always be my friend.

Cik Ah saying her goodbyes.....

Che Dag accepting his parting gift

Hj. Rahim Jr (Joehan) accepting the farewell gift on behalf of his father ..... thankful for his father's Muadzam posting where his parents met

We called it a day at about 10:30 pm, with me arriving home past 11:30 pm. 

Corporate KPI Draft

The discussion came out with these as our KPI for 2011.  What we normally used to set for the 5-year Plan has to change of sort as the govt funding mechanism now is not like before.  It's unusuall business for us all.

KP1 1:          (Bilangan) pengetahuan baru yang signifikan dan teknologi berpotensi untuk dikomersialkan dijana.

KPI  2:          Tidak kurang 15% dari teknologi yang dijana dikomersialkan.

·         Meliputi teknologi sebenar yang dikomersial dan yang diguna awam secara meluas

·         Termasuk projek pra-pengkomersialan/TechnoFund

KPI  3:          Dua ratus lima puluh penulisan saintifik dan teknikal berwasit diterbit.

KPI  4:          Dua puluh lima Harta Intelek/IP dijana.

Termasuk inovasi/rekacipta berstatus pendedahan (disclosure)

KPI  5:          Sekurang-kurang 250 tan metrik benih asas padi dikeluarkan.

KPI  6:          (Bilangan) aktiviti pemindahan teknologi dilaksanakan di peringkat kebangsaan.

                         ·         Bilangan modal insan yang melalui latihan teknikal

·         Perkhidmatan rundingan

·         Khidmat nasihat

·         Hubungan duahala

·         Bilangan usahawan dibimbing

·         Bilangan anak angkat

·         Pameran

·         Seminar/Persidangan/Bengkel

·         Projek peningkatan skala/projek perintis

·         Pelatih testbed teknologi

KPI  7:          (Bilangan) projek yang menyumbang kepada inisiatif utama kerajaan dilaksana.

·         Projek NKEA

·         Projek KPI Menteri/Azam Tani

·         Projek Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS)

·         Projek SRI (Strategic Reform Initiatives)

KPI  8:          Tidak kurang (enam puluh lima peratus) dari keseluruhan penyelidik berkelulusan MSc dan PhD pada akhir RMKe-10.

KPI  9:          Sejumlah 40 (akan dikemaskini) aktiviti pengantarabangsaan dilaksanakan.

·         Perkhidmatan:

-           menjadi ahli majlis /anggota pertubuhan/badan/institusi antarabangsa berteraskan kepakaran,

-          menjadi ahli kumpulan pakar yang melaksanakan projek bertaraf antarabangsa,

-          menjadi perwakilan negara (secara berterusan) berteraskan kepakaran

-          memberikan perkhidmatan berkaitan kepakaran yang ada

-          personel pakar

·         Teknologi

·         Persidangan

·         Standard

·         Penerbitan

·         Anugerah

KPI  10:        Sekurang-kurangnya RM25 juta peruntukan dari sumber selain daripada Geran Tetap Kerajaan diperoleh.

Will be finalised by Q3 Aug.

My Morning With The KP

I came prepared for the slaughterhouse, to face the music of our 'undoing'.  For the fact, the KP was really off the hook.  I have to take the blame for not taking charge, but regrets won't be making things any better.  But I need to remind myself not to repeat the incident, it's for sure not worth the agony and outcome.

Though prepared for the worst, it is not to be.  The KP, being a nice and diplomatic man was all full of apologies for his outburst.  Would you believe that?  The situation makes me sick to the stomach, for what I really really deserve is  the boot.  You never in your life would want to hurt and disappoint a man of such noble character.

The worst is over for now.  Together in the session were the two TKPs and my TP in-charge of the Corporate Planning and Evaluation Program.  We discussed the matter over, came to a consensus, plot our new move and have the new work schedule drawn out.  The new corporate KPIs were set and I will need to key them out to be flashed to the Directors and Deputies for the pre-lunch meet.  The new job schedule is that IS will need to modify the PROPER programming logic to take in the new decisions, we'll need to arrange for a familiarity workshop with all the PTJs and have them upload their project registration and information to the system, and finally to have a new M&E session. Will need to remind them of GIGO (garbage in garbage out) during the workshop session for I now refuse to accept any blame for their soon to be declarations.  The job will be scheduled as such:

Now - to end of July: IS to improve PROPER and run acceptability tests
Q1 - Q2 Aug: PTJ Data Entry Workshop
Q3 Aug: Corporate Monitoring Exercise (There goes my puasa and Raya peace)

The prelunch session goes pretty well albeit with some reservation from some expecting another hammering.  The group are agreeable to the new KPIs except with respect to the publication KPI.  The KP had wanted it at 1000 refereed scientific and technical publication/yr, we negotiated for 500 during the morning session with him, the prelunch group wanted it only at 250!  The KP will have the final word though and we leave it at that.  The TKP will need to renegotiate the new figure with the KP.  Felt like the Isra' Mi'raj bargain for the solat.

What a relief, but I am promising myself to never again be put to this situation.

The truth unveils with PROPER

We have developed PROPER, a corporate project monitoring tool for over a year now and today is the D-Day when it is put to test.  PROPER is a real time monitoring tool, so whatever is uploaded will be linked and shown as an output.  The hick-up was that a print-out was prepared for the top management sometimes back (July 5, to be exact).  Due to unforseen circumstances, the physical monitoring was postponed several times.  As it was not possible to lock the system then (this was around the time that the country's government computer system was being hacked), project information was continously inputted.  Come the day, what is shown on screen did not tally with the printout.  Our fault as the Secretariat was not checking the output earlier!  So the KP's mood was set for the day.  Those responding were of no help either as everybody start to blame on the system and of all things, UK!  As if UK was the one sorting out the facts when in actual fact all were extracted by the system.  Familiarity with the system is required.  For this I am summoned by the boss tomorrow.  What luck, but I did flaw for not being very detail with matters.  Too much trusting the system.

Of BERSIH & Cleanliness

The name, appeals.  The purpose, righteous.  The demands, logical.  So why the big fuss?  It's the case of being haunted by one's own deeds.  The fear of the fearing.  The guilt of the guilty.  You put the demons out to haunt your enemy, but you turned out to be your very own enemy.  The paradox of the situation, your very own demon is haunting and hunting you down.  You face the music, your very own melody but not sweet to the ear neither is it pleasing to the mind.  The need to ride the turmoil of your own creation.  Pak Samad has put it very nicely:

Ungun – Bersih

Semakin lara kita didera bara -

kita laungkan juga pesan merdeka:
Demokrasi sebenderang mentari
sehasrat hajat semurni harga diri.

Lama resah kita - demokrasi luka;
lama duka kita - demokrasi lara.
Demokrasi yang angkuh, kita cemuhi;
suara bebas yang utuh, kita idami!

Dua abad lalu Sam Adams berseru:
(di Boston dijirus teh ke laut biru):
Tak diperlu gempita sorak yang gebu,
diperlu hanya unggun api yang syahdu.

Kini menyalalah unggun sakti itu;
kini merebaklah nyala unggun itu.

A Samad Said

Jun 28, 2011, Malaysiakini

And another;

Peludah Warna

Kuasa gusar kini menggelegak murka;
warna kuning diisytihar racun terbisa.
Diragutnya baju-T segeram tenaga
dan diumum itulah busana bahaya.

Tapi, kita jahit semula perca kain,
menjadikannya panji terindah dan tulen.
Warna kuning yang teramat tenang dan syahdu
kita kembalikan damai ke dalam qalbu.

Kini cahaya mentari mungkin diramas
dan sinar kuningnya juga mungkin dicantas.
Memanglah mereka kini peludah warna
sedang menghimpun lendir kahak sebanyaknya.

Kerana nikmat amat lama berkuasa,
kuasa pun seolah menjadi hartanya.

A Samad Said

8 Jul 2011, Malaysiakini

Do I spy Dato' Dr. Toh Kin Woon with Pak Samad here?  A principled fighter.  Has been one good teacher to us all.  Glad to know you are OK Sir.

The police showing their might.  They are under directives from....

The people's asking....why the denial is beyond comprehension.

The people coming in droves.  There is no stopping the tide of change, especially when what is being asked is for a clean govenment and governance.  The sum total is sure not 6,000 as reported by the mainstream media.

For the love of Malaysia Tercinta!

With all the police blockage around the city, how did this 4-wheeler manage to be in the midst of all?  Sure defies logic.

Taken for a stroll (away from the tear gas and water cannon).

The alternative ride, a choiced pick after most public rides to the city are shut down.

Leaders with a cause, truely 1Malaysia.

For all the fuss, Bersih 2.0 simple demands are:

A repeat of Bersih 1.0 demands;

1. Use of indelible ink

2. Cleaning up of the registered voters' roll

3. Abolishing postal votes

4. Giving the opposition parties access to the governement-controlled print and broadcast media

New additional demands with Bersih 2.0;

5. Minimum 21 days campaigning period

6. Strengthening public institutions

7. Stopping dirty politics (am yet to see clean politics)

8. Stopping corruption

Are those too much to ask for?  I rest my case.

A shot from the house balcony in Sg. Ramal Dalam.  See how jam-packed the road is towards KL.  The police roadblock is about 500 m ahead.  Took me half an-hour to loop back to the house after office yesterday.