Oh, Pasar Malam

Food stuff are expensive at pasar malam these days. They are eating deep in my pocket and I am feeling the heat every time I dig deep inside especially since I am now officially a Government servant. Just look at the prices of food I just bought this evening.

1. 2 slices of Murtabak at RM 4.40 when they should cost around RM 3.00

2. 2 packets of Mee Rebus at RM 6.00 when they should be priced at RM 5.00

3. 3 sets of Roti Jala (each set has 5 slices) at RM 6.60 when they be priced at RM 6.00

4. A packet of Laksa Kedah at RM 3.00 when it should reasonably be just RM 2.50

5. 3 plastic cup of soft drinks at RM 3.60 when they should be priced at RM 2.40

6. A kebab with sparse beef is at RM 2.50 when it should be priced at RM 1.50

I spent a total of RM30.90, just to have a quick and fast dinner that we thought could save us the time and money preparing one. I should review my spendings these days, as my bank account is fast turning red. I need to save and see a cost reduction in the expenses of some of the essentials and energy-based facilities.

Maybe I can look at the root causes of the high electricity and water consumption and high hand phone usage.

Passion for cooking

I think I am a good cook. I am passionate about experimenting and exploring the magic of the outcome of the dishes afterwards. Throw in dashes of herbs, or mixing that fresh slice of meat or chicken in that fluid of wonderful colored paste, and the simmering of a beautiful broth, the feelings that just make my heart sing.

I am always at ease and find peace of mind when I hold the laddle. When I taste some new dishes, unknown to their ingredients, I would return to my kitchen and concocted the dishes that I have just tasted. Voila...I come close to the original taste.

Recently, my wife and I made lunch for relatives and neighbours. We decided to cook gulai pisang muda, masak lemak soun & tauhun, sambal tauhu, ayam goreng berempah KFC-styled, sambal belacan with a mixture of strong tamarind paste & lemon, sambal laksamana (a traditional family recipe of pounded fried green chillies, shrimp paste and Indian red onions) . We also had fresh ulams like daun pudina, pucuk tengek burung, daun selom, daun ulam raja and some other fresh leaves unknown to my vocabulary. We also had an assortment of ikan kering masin and ikan kering masam (salted fish) like tenggiri and gelama to accompany the mouth-watering dishes. As for deserts, we bought some delicacies from my wife's friend and my sister, donated her usual kueh Melayu.

It was a blast. Everyone liked the taste of every dish served. These dishes were prepared with love and passion. There was nothing like it; it had been a long time that we had these kind of food at our homes and sharing them with my dear relatives.

Although it was tiresome, we dished out every skills and knowledge we had about cooking traditional food. Although the food was not out of ordinary, the dishes were like fit for the kings.

Vandals, Thieves and Rubbish-dunkers

I hate vandals, period. They also steal things too. I hate them, that's it.

They are the worst kind. They did their filthy job at night and disappeared. They damaged public utilities and disappeared. They stole wrought-iron street covers, electrical poles cover, fences, and even public sporting utilities and disappeared, carting off with public property, with the intent of selling in some Indian backyard iron scrap dealers in Puchong.

The last one was obvious at Section 7 Shah Alam lakeside jogging track. It is prevalent that these thieves have wrecked our hopes when the rip off the sporting utilities: the master swing walk holder, the notice boards, safety parts and pieces of the rower, hipster-swing-around and etc.

The lakeside jogging track, public park gymnasium (if you can call it) and children's park were the only sane thing left in Shah Alam for people like me to utilize, as there is hardly anything else you can do in this dead by 8pm, rustic town but rotting Bandaraya of Shah Alam. I have been exasperated by attempts to complain but these have fallen on deaf ears. Those dickheads in MBSA are just bureacrats who do not think that enforcement on new facilities is their KPI and KRA.

Talking about new, this area has been open to public for a year now but the facilities were ready and completed by July this year. I am sad that the thieves and vandals got away with their freaking criminal activities and antics, I am sure some day they will get "rewarded" by their bad deeds.

I like the lakeside jogging track, which is about 1.5km in circumference. It is serene in the morning, however, with some eyesores of household rubbish strewn about in the lake. These unscrupulous rubbish-dunkers are as bad as the vandals and thieves. They should be punished for the irresponsible act they have created and done.

I think the authorities are slow in acting up. They should install CCTV at the parks or install something that looked like camera with flickering lights every other 5 secs. That will scare them off. These authorities, especially those arm-chaired bastardly-good-for-nothing bureaucrats in MBSA, need to think outside the box rather than just pleasing politicians who think that this is their bapak-punya country.

Don't build parks, jogging tracks if you don't intend to maintain them and more importantly, protect them. And, I wonder if residents' associations here or the Qariahs have any initiatives to patrol these areas at night, as the parks are not only a perfect to cart off with public property, they are also a good haunt for unmarried young couples to do their quicky there.

C'est la vie.

Changing lanes

I have been working all my adult life - started as a cadet journalist at Berita Harian/New Straits Times in Johor as early as I was 19 of age and now to working with the Government as a contract officer. I think of all my years' of working, there were two jobs that I enjoyed thoroughly. One, when I was a journalist for Berita Harian, The Star and NST afterwards (post-Operasi Lallang 1987) in Penang and second, when I was in Toyota in Shah Alam as a PR.

I don't mind slogging, clocking long hours for these organisations, as the jobs themselves gave me more than satisfaction. The jobs were simply fitting to my qualification, experience and character. More importantly, it was the organizational system that was solidly in place. However, as I moved on from one organisation to another over the years, supposedly looking for better wage, I could not find the X factor - not just emotional satisfaction and the right remuneration package, it is the organizational systems that I always be looking at.

Changing lanes on a busy road can be dangerous and hazardous to you, your family and to other motorists. You either make other motorists annoyed by your carelessness as you could snake in and out of the long lines of vehicles which you feel are hogging the lanes. However, when I really look at it, it is the system of having multiple lanes on the road that made us like crazy drivers who love changing lanes all the time.

Likewise, in life like mine, changing lane in careers can also do the same thing to you, your family and people around you.

The only big advantage of changing jobs that I know of is the learning process. Certain organisations have certain ways of teaching and learning, sometimes in weird kind of ways and sometimes, you'd be so challenged that your life is threading a thin line between right and wrong, good and bad, and sometimes, your conviction in whatever you believed before hangs in a balance. I have always believed in life-long learning, as you learnt through practices, visual experience and these are kept tacitly somewhere in your head.

As I was saying, different organisations have different strokes of learning process. I return to the Government, after a lapse of 10 years, and what I found the Government is still at the same level of mentality. Every minute of meetings is recorded conservatively and calling of a meeting is done on paper, when every officer has an email that he or she can utilize without spending too much time printing an invite. It is irony that Putrajaya is a first class infrastructure, but it has the worst kind of work methodology. I am sure not all Government employees are dried basin of uncreative ideas or malas, but someone has not done his job of managing work processes. I blame MAMPU and even Tan Sri Sidek Hassan, the Chief Secretary to the Government, for not able to see the processes through and through. There are just too many overlapping duties and activities, but they keep doing in circles until they don't realize the replication.

I have also seen fantastic Government employees who are dedicated and committed to their work but not given due recognition. It is sad, however, these employees are not noticed or being used by their selfish bosses to advance their careers. Promotions are still not based on performance or meritocracy, promotions are still based on seniority and well sometimes, whoever is closer to the bosses. This nepotism also happens in private sector but in private sector, performance always comes first, as the performance assessment system is well in place.

These factors have done one thing to me - they damage my hope and aspirations to be a better civil servant in helping the Government to be better than it is today. The administrative system and the work processes are so inefficient and flawed in every way that I look. Trainings and courses are given to the civil servants in hoping to improve work process, but when the system still remains the same, nothing can be done. Dato' Idris Jala waited for 3 weeks for his security pass to be ready, as the system flawed. I waited 3 months for my salary to be paid. Not the people who flawed; it is just the system.

Sometimes I think I have made an error in my own system of judgment - swerving into the wrong lane in this current career. It does not give me any satisfaction but a lot of anger, disappointment and frustration. Pay-wise, though I have a lot to complain, but alhamdullillah, this is God-given and I shall be thankful with that.

What relations mean to me...

Attending all the Hari Raya Open Houses in a stretch this week can be laborious and time consuming. I was not so lucky in attending some of them, as some hosts have already closed their doors by the time I got there. KL was jammed packed with well wishers, as jammed as the roads and highways, and those looking for really good and free food while every of them is being hospitable to their guests.

One thing that taught me about open houses was that the connection between the host and his/her guests are really superficial. The host can't really be entertaining one guest all the time when he has hundred others at the door, trying to make small talk, whack the dishes and leave. The poor host must be feeling uneasy when two or more guests come at the same time, not knowing who to entertain first. The hosts and the guests have something to talk but ridiculously short, while amongst the guests, they too suffered the same fate of superficial talk and mingling without having a sincere engaging conversation.

Some did with a lot of success, I mean, having a long, sincere and engaging conversation. But open houses are not really a good place to have those conversations unless you are hooked to him or her or if you have vested interests in the person you're talking to. I have been in that situation before. Before you could go for your second helping, a bloke will be asking you for your business card and trying to think ways and means to be contactable again. I really hated when a stranger came up to you, after a brief introduction by the host, and began talking about things I don't like or feel like talking. Topics such as political gossips, business deals whether they are successful or ditched, and stories on Najib vs Altantuya, Teoh Beng Hock vs MACC. I hated those stories as if I knew the source of the stories and how the complicated storylinea snaked through.

The next thing you know, the guy wanted to see you at the office with a possible business venture. I hated those things when the guy called and said" "I am so and so, we met at so-and-so open house. And, I am thinking of coming to see you at your office with a fantastic proposal." Omg. This is the ill-effect of attending Hari Raya open houses, and you get swarmed with a lot of requests and proposals later on. I know, deep in my heart, this sort of relation will not last long once the guy knows that I am not really into proposals and requests. I just hoped they will go away and get repelled instantly. Sometimes, I needed to show my cold shoulder...it was not that I am powerful or have the connections to the power-to-be, but I just hated those things that do not create any value in my life.

However, I really loved situations when you are invited to "open houses" that are just extended to you exclusively. It is between two friends or two families. I just attended one in Semenyih when we had a ball of time, talking to each other about things that we all loved. Really human stuff, you know. You'd have this inert feeling that the conversation was going to be meaningful without strings attached. We spoke, we joked, we had long pauses to reflect on things and we laughed at our inadequacy. This sort of gathering is between good friends that don't mind of closing their doors even after 9pm, as they open their hearts and soul to you and your family. I have enjoyed thoroughly in having engaging conversation about how to manage adult teens, or sharing recipe to cook their favorite dish.

Sometimes, we need to pause and reflect on these open houses. It is pure glutton and show-offs, and not something that you get to earn pahala when you give food to others. It is also sign of social snobbery of many middle class Malays. For me, my house is always open 24/7 all year around and what you need to do is just to tell me when you're coming.

Join me in reducing Hari Raya open houses. It will do more good to us. It will reduce overeating and wastage of food and time, it will reduce traffic congestion on weekends, it will reduce expenditures, it will reduce the usage of polysterene food containers, of which, are rampantly used as plates and cups, it will provide quality time for families to visit their relatives rather than being with strangers in a good month like Syawal, and definitely, it will reduce fuel usage, tolls, parking tickets, accidents, and the risks of being sick after attending these open houses.