Addendum

My buddy asked me why I am so angry in my last two post. So now I'm telling you why in the exact words that I used...


I'm sick & tired of trying to defend civil servants everytime I meet my friends or balik kampung or meet my relatives. Everytime some foul-up is highlighted in the media, penat aku nak kena defend. Sampai aku rasa cam aku ni PRO kerajaan tak bertauliah. Even dengan semi-government macam doctors or lecturers pun aku kena bambu jugak. Nak marah depa balik, tak boleh sebab memang dah salah some of civil servants. Tapi public bukannya nak kisah either it's SOME civil servants or ALL civil servants. Bila nampak je ada salah, yang gets blamed are civil servants in general. Sikit sangat di kalangan public yang can differentiate between the actions of some and the actions of all. That's why I'm so angry.

Don't be stupid

My last post was angry in nature. Yes, it was angry. But I shall not apologize to anyone for it. Stupidity pisses me off, because that stupidity affects other people. I have always been a firm believer of ultimate judgement by our Maker. As such, I have no problems at all with what some people perceive as "wrong". I mean, if a person does something wrong, then that is between him or herself and Allah. To me, mere mortals have no business trying to police everyone else, just like no one nation should try to be the "superpolice" of the whole world. So, whatever the hell that you choose to do, it's your business. Yes, it's your business, PROVIDED whatever you do does not adversely affect other living things. By that, I mean you can do whatever you want, as long as other people or animals or plants are not harmed, threatened, hurt, damaged, killed or anything else which is undesirable. As such, if you want to jump off a building or cross the path of a speeding train or try to down a gallon of weedkiller, go ahead. As long as there are no grieving wives or husbands or children or parents or friends that you leave in your wake. You can go ahead and have promiscuous sex with a gazillion women, as long as you don't hurt their feelings. You can go ahead and steal a billion bucks from a bank, as long as nobody has to suffer elevated theft insurance premiums after that. And yes, you can walk around in Alamanda during office hours, proudly portraying your ID tags or nametags, AS LONG AS THE PUBLIC DOES NOT THINK LOWLY OF CIVIL SERVANTS FOR YOUR ACTIONS.

So, you see, you can do whatever stupid things you want. But don't drag others down with your stupidity.

Please, change

A week or so ago, I received an email containing a scanned letter of complaint addressed to the Chief Secretary of the Government. The complainant was angry to see that there were quite a few civil servants in Alamanda during office hours, especially between the hours of 1200 and 1500.

I have to agree with the writer. As it is, I am on study leave, so I have a lot of free time in my hand. As such, I usually have my lunch at Alamanda almost every day, if I am in Putrajaya. Sadly, visions of Government officers and staff loitering around Alamanda during office hours is rampant, to say the least. They'll be walking around or sitting at McD or KFC or Pizza Hut or God knows where else, happily yakking away with their Government ID tags proudly flashed on their bodies.

Besides Alamanda, civil servants also frequent the numerous mamak restaurants, Taman Warisan, food courts and so on. Why do I say so? Because besides Alamanda, I also frequent these other places, usually for breakfast. There, you'll see numerous Government vehicles parked outside, and even more Government staff sitting and eating and having a merry time, oblivious to the eyes of the public.

Some of you might think I think of myself as so high and mighty, complaining about others while I am on study leave, "wasting" the Government's money. To you, I say: too bad. Getting a scholarship for study leave is not as easy as you might think. I worked my ass off to get this scholarship. I give it my best most of my time, so that at the end of each year, I get an assessment mark of at least 80%. Those of you who know me personally would agree that I'm not the bodek type. Far from it, you'll know that I have fought with almost all of my bosses before, but they still give me good assessments. Fortunately for me, my bosses so far have been professional in their dealings. Although I fought with them, they know that I do a good job and my arguments have ALWAYS been for what I think is right. So yes, right now I am enjoying myself. Why shouldn't I be? After all, it is the semester break and I don't have any assignments due anymore. So what if I spend my time in mamak restaurants, Taman Warisan, food courts or Alamanda? I'm on leave, remember?!

I have always been a stickler for rules and regulations. If I arrive at the office late, I better have a damn good explanation for my tardiness. I don't go out of the office without permission. Even if I have to go to the bank or such, I make sure I fill up the relevant forms, get permission from my supervisors, and make sure I come back to the office within the 2-hour time limit. Yes, for those of you who are not aware of this, there IS such a form. You can go out of the office up to a maximum of two hours to settle pressing matters, but if you expect it to last for more than two hours, you're advised to take leave for the day instead. I live by those rules. And I expect everyone else to do the same. If everybody adheres to laws, rules and regulations, there would be so much less pain and injustice in this world.

I'm being side-tracked here. What I wanted to talk about is about how the public perceives the civil servants. I mean, you can't blame the public if they bad-mouth civil servants. Not with this portrayal of stupidity on the civil servants' part. I mean, even if you absolutely, positively, alarmingly HAVE to go to Alamanda during office hours, can't you at least take out your ID tags and name tags and leave them in your purse or handbags or pants pockets? Do you absolutely, positively, alarmingly HAVE to proudly portray them while you make a fool of yourselves and tarnish your fellow law-abiding civil servants' image at the same time? Come on lah, don't be stupid. Better yet, why don't you just stay in your office and work like what you're supposed to do.

Okay, I might not be fair if I put a blanket judgement to ALL of you walking around in Alamanda or wherever. I can forgive those of you who come from outside Putrajaya for meetings or events here. Most probably, either you arrived early and are just killing time before your meeting/event, or you've finished your meeting/event and are stopping by to have lunch or tea or whatever before heading back to your department. Those of you, especially driving into Alamanda with crests proclaiming Lembaga Kemajuan Perikanan Terengganu, Politeknik Ungku Omar, Lembaga Kemajuan Pelancongan Johor or such on their vehicles, it's obvious that you're here on business and just visiting Alamanda for a while. I can also forgive those of you who go to Alamanda to buy supplies for your office. Maybe your department is organising something and you have run out of decorative stationary or there's an ad hoc visit from some foreign dignitaries and you need to get some special food that your caterers are not able to supply on short notice. I don't even mind those of you who already got permission from your supervisors to go out using the form that I mentioned. After all, Alamanda does have a bank and post office in them, and you might have an urgent need to go to AM Islamic Banking, Alamanda Branch or the post office there. But what irks me most if I see cars with Kementerian Perdagangan dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna or Kementerian Tenaga, Air dan Komunikasi or Ibu Pejabat Kementerian Kesihatan cars parked in Alamanda or outside mamak restaurants during office hours. To me, that is melampau.

People, wake up and change! Takkan la nak tunggu sampai KSN suruh buat spot-check kat Alamanda baru nak berenti kot? Pakai la otak sikit, bukannya budak kecik nak diingatkan berkali-kali. Bila public kutuk, nak marah balik. Bila PM tegur, nak jauh hati. Bila boss marah, nak melenting. Bila buat salah sendiri, langsung tak ingat. Bodoh!

There's nothing diplomatic about this entry? Again I say: too bad...

Of Injustice and Type A Personalities...

This is going to be an unusually long entry. The preamble itself is going to take over an hour of typing, before I get to the actual story. So, here’s the preamble…

Yesterday I dropped by at my old office. No particular reason, just that at times I'd just come over to see if I have any new mail or anything else that might be important. Nothing for me yesterday, so I went around to all my previous divisions where I'd been attached for the past six years or so.

As usual, I'd make my ritualistic stop at the HR Division, since that was where I served longest and that was also where I learnt stuff the most. After making sure that all my service matters were in order, I hung around with my colleagues. One of them had an interesting story to relate to me. He narrated what happened to him and another co-worker and asked for my opinion on stuff. As we were sitting outside the office talking about his issue, another person came by from the neighbouring division. He asked me whether I've heard the so-called "shocking" news of how one of my friends got a "shocking" promotion. But to fully deliver the impact of the so-called "shocking" promotion, I gotta give you some background info about the Government promotions system.

[Start Background Info]

A freshly-appointed officer to the Government usually starts with his/her scheme abbreviation followed by his/her grade. For example, a Systems Analyst brought into service at an officer level would be an F41, the F being the abbreviation for his/her scheme of service (Information Technology) and the 41 being the entrance grade for his/her position. Under the Skim Saraan Malaysia (SSM) or the Malaysian Remuneration Scheme, anybody hoping for a promotion in grade would have to successfully make the grade in Penilaian Tahap Kecekapan (PTK) or Competency Level Assessment. Now, the PTK is different for different schemes, but basically it is an exam-only or “exam-plus-coursework” kind of assessment. In theory, an officer who makes the grade in PTK, consistently achieve high marks in his/her yearly performance appraisal and, for-lack-of-a-better-word, is “acknowledged” by the organization (s)he works in, is eligible for promotion. Barring small differences for different schemes, an entry-level officer starts at grade 41, followed by grades 44, 48, 52 and 54.

In terms of promotions too, there are a few categories of promotion. The first one is called Khas Untuk Penyandang (KUP). There are two instances of KUPs, either paid (in very rare instances) or unpaid “promotion”. Usually, it’s the latter. In this instance, the officer is supposedly “promoted” but in actual fact, (s)he is just doing the work of a higher post without being paid anything extra. Not a single sen. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. The only thing you get is usually extra stress, less hair, extra wrinkles, less quality time with your family, extra reprimanding from your superiors…. you get my drift. Although to me this is a direct violation of existing Labour Laws or even simple common sense, it happens. Believe me, it happens a lot. It even happened to me at one time, but that’s a different story.

Okay, the next category of promotion is Memangku or sometimes called Pemangkuan. Same root word, same meaning. Here, the officer is gets extra stress, less hair, extra wrinkles, less quality time with your family, extra reprimanding from your superiors…. but gets paid extra for it all. Not to say that his/her actual salary is bigger, but (s)he gets the difference between the grade salaries as an extra allowance. Let’s say his/her F41 salary is $2000 and the salary of an F44 officer is $2800. In this case, the officer who gets the Pemangkuan is actually getting $2000 of his/her own salary, plus the difference as allowance ($800) to a grand total of $2800. So it seems like it’s a good deal, but it’s only good for short stints. Why, you might ask. Well, let’s keep the same scenario. Officer F41 is drawing a salary of $2000 in 2007. (S)he gets Pemangkuan in 2007, so for the rest of 2007, (s)he gets a monthly total of $2800, inclusive of the $800 Pemangkuan allowance. However, in 2008 (s)he gets a measly annual salary increment of $85. So his/her basic salary is now $2085. However, (s)he does NOT still get Pemangkuan allowance of $800. Remember, (s)he only gets the difference between the grade salaries. So in this case, (s)he is getting $2085 of basic salary, but her Pemangkuan allowance is now only $715 instead of the original $800. That, my friend, is why Pemangkuan for long periods of time is not such a great idea.

Finally, the last category of promotion is an actual, full-fledged promotion. Here, you get extra stress, less hair, extra wrinkles, less quality time with your family, extra reprimanding from your superiors…. plus getting the actual salary of the higher post/grade. But at least, you get actual annual increments based on your grade level. So basically, this is what a vast majority of us are looking for. However, in normal circumstances, you don’t come up to this kind of promotion just because you’ve already made the grade in PTK, consistently achieve high marks in your annual performance appraisal and acknowledged by your organization. Even after you’ve achieved these three criteria, what you can hope for is to get KUP first, followed by Memangku of at least six months, and finally, Insya-Allah, you get the actual promotion. [End Background Info] I warned you it’s gonna be a long entry ;)

Okay, finally we get to the actual story that I want to relate. If I’ve lost you by now, flashback to “shocking” news about “shocking” promotion over a hundred lines above. Anyway, the news is one of my friends got a promotion. Nothing shocking there, but here’s the deal. Her actual grade is 44. Right now, she’s Memangku 48. That means she’s getting the difference between her 44 salary and the 48 salary. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But at the same time, she is also KUP 52. That means, although her real grade is 44, she’s bypassed one grade above i.e. 48, to go straight to 52. This is strange, because this kind of scenarios is not usual. What is even more unusual is that there are already quite a few people more senior than her, who are actually due to be promoted to 52, who got bypassed. Naturally, this would piss some people off. Because if either one of these more senior people were put at that post, (s)he would not get KUP but actually get Memangku and got paid for it since they are already due for promotion. So this guy who came to me was one of the people who were due for promotion, and he was not happy with the whole fiasco. He kept blaming the poor girl who actually got the KUP for bypassing him and many others. You see, this guy is a Type A personality. The go-getter type, the always-on-the-move-trying-to-get-higher-posts-and-higher-pay kind of person. And he was ranting and fuming to me, relating this story of how unfair the whole thing is.

Eventually, I got angry at the whole thing and started my retort to him. First, I asked him why he was so angry at her. He said that she’s still a junior and she shouldn’t bypass that many people. So I knocked some sense into him. I said, if I were offered that position, even if I were paid handsomely for it, I’d hightail out of there as soon as I can. The post in question is the “hottest” post around. The person in charge of that particular post is basically in charge of over 70% of the Ministry’s annual budget! It’s the make-or-break kind of post, the so-called biggest reason of the Ministry being there in the first place. Forgive me, but I’m not up to it. I don’t want to haul my ass up to the Minister’s office at his every whim and fancy. I don’t want to have to explain why progress is slow for certain projects. I don’t want to be compelled to have my mobile switched on 24 hours a day and answer questions about projects in the middle of the night or during weekends or when I’m taking a crap. That’s not for me, thank you very much please. So I asked him, is that what he really wants for an increase of income of about $1k? Is that really worth all the shit that you have to deal with?

He mellowed down a bit, but it wasn’t over yet for him. He changed tactics. He now attacked the HR Division for proposing her name to the top management. Again, I had to make him understand how things are run there. First, I gave a disclaimer. I said, what I’m about to say has got nothing to do with the fact that I was in the HR division before. I said, as far as I can remember, the HR Division has always been objective in proposing people for promotions. The way they work is to take into account all factors: qualification, adherence to current laws and practices, competency, seniority and so on. But at the same time, the final say has always been with the top management, not the HR manager. Because in the end, the name submitted to JPA would carry one person’s signature and one person only, and that would be the Pegawai Pengawal of the Ministry, the Secretary-General. Not the HR Manager, not the HR officers. So, I said, who actually is to be blamed here? Is it the officer who got the so-called promotion? Is it the HR Division? Is it the Secretary-General? Or is there any one party that deserves blame in the first place? Is blaming other people the last resort? That question shut him up for a while. But he mumbled something about the whole thing not being fair. Again, I had to retort. Of course injustice will occur when it comes to human dealings. As long as the power to decide resides in one person, there would always be casualties. As long as decisions are made not through musyawarah or an actual, functional council of minds, injustice will prevail.

It's 16:54 and I'm tired. I've been at this since 14:00 and I need a break.

to be continued

What's up, Doc?

Wow! Time sure knows how to whizz by, huh? Give it another week or so, then I'd be "absent" here for 2 months. I know, my bad...

Okay, so what's been happening? If you read my last post, I registered at UKM on the 3rd of July. But my classes didn't start until the 12th. As it is, I could only take up two classes this semester coz the other classes weren't offered until next semester. Anyway, the two classes that I'm taking this semester are "Introduction to Psychology" and "Research Methodology", both of which I'd already done during my undergrad days. I could appeal and ask for exemptions for both these courses, but that would mean I can only register for classes next semester. That means I'd have to go back to work for another 5 months or so. Something that I'd never do, not if I can help it. By right, I should have been granted automatic exemption from these 2 papers, but why should I have to suffer because of some other people's foul up? I don't care, I'm taking these two papers even if some people callously accuse me of wasting time and the Government's money unnecessarily. I mean, who the f**k do they think they are, going around judging me like that?

So how's student life? It's pure heaven, I tell you. It's a far cry from my undergraduate days, with money stretched to the limit and schedule packed to the brim at times. I mean, this semester I only have four hours of classes, no tutorials, and in the past 2 months or so, I only have been given one measly assignment. ONE! I finished that in less than 2 hours, even though we were given about a week to finish it. Granted, my mid-semester test will be in less than 3 weeks, but that will only cover about five topics. I'm not saying it's gonna be a breeze, but I hardly think it's something to lose sleep over. So, what actually HAVE I been doing?

The first month or so, I've been enjoying myself to the fullest. I watched movie after movie, bowled my hands sore, raked up the mileage on the car. Heck, I watched more movies in the first three weeks compared to the past three years! But eventually, the novelty wears out after a while. Even the Internet and X-Box lost their appeal to me. So in the end, I just stayed at home. And now, I'm in the midst of planning little projects to keep me going. For starters, I've started cooking. I bought a thick recipe book and I've started cooking for dinner. Nothing fancy, just normal everyday cooking with a dash of recklessness, I reckon. The first time I tried cooking, it took me about 5 hours to prepare dinner. Eventually, now it's down to just over three hours. I've taken short cuts to the everyday humbug of cooking, like blending onions, chillies, garlic et cetera and putting them in small plastic containers so that I don't have to spend hours just preparing the essentials for every meal.

My next project would be to upgrade my sister's PC. She wants to convert her PC into a gaming machine, so essentially some core components need to be upgraded. I've had her PC for about two weeks now, but I'm only going to open it up tomorrow 'coz I haven't been much in the mood to tinker with minute parts in the PC. So that should keep me busy at least until the end of the month.

My third project would be to upgrade my X-Box's hard disk. Right now it's got something like 10Gb, but it's very much lacking in terms of keeping my favourite games. So I got me an 80Gb disk, but still haven't figured out the instructions on how to change the X-Box disk. I guess that can wait till next month, though.

Anyway, anybody got any ideas what I should do after my third project? I'd like to write a bit about my cat and my Streamyx, but let's not overdo it for my first posting in weeks, shall we?

Day 1

Here I am, sitting in front of an almost empty page, trying to think of what to write. I guess I should start with what happened on Day 1 then...

Yesterday I arrived at PPS at 0845 to start my experience as an old mahasitua in UKM. When I got at the counter, it was not opened yet, so I just hung around waiting for it to be manned. After a while, someone came and opened the counter. 1st order for the day, get a queue number. I got number 5015 and a sheet of paper saying that the briefing for new students will start at 0900. Strange, coz in the letter they sent me indicated that the briefing should start at 1100. So I filled in some relevant forms and waited for my number to be called. A short while later, there seemed to be some commotion going on. I went to see what was happening. The lady who manned the counter was making a fuss, saying that we could not register yet as we haven't listened to the briefing, as such we couldn't register the courses that we're supposed to take for the semester. Some of the new students were just standing there looking dumbfounded and not knowing exactly what to do. So I took out the literature they sent us and told the lady that according to the flow indicated, we were supposed to register FIRST, then go for the briefing at our respective faculties. I showed them what we received. The lady then make another ruckus, taking the stuff I gave her and asking her colleagues around as the schedule that they have was different to what the students have. That there's an example of Malaysian-style miscommunication for you! Anyway, they finally allowed us to register ourselves first before continuing with course registration after the briefing by the faculty. Since it was quite a while before briefing starts, I went to Pusanika to have my breakfast. There I met a few of my friends who did our QA in INTAN in January. As 1100 inched its way in, I left Pusanika for the briefing room.

The briefing was done at one of the lecture halls. There were quite a number of us around. My guestimate is that there were around 60+ people in the hall. Then the briefing started with a brief intro about the faculty and the staff. Seems that one of my colleagues is now a staff there and on study leave for her PhD. I guess one of these days she'll be my lecturer :) During the course of the briefing, there were at least 10 people who came in late. I don't blame them. Our letter said that the briefing will be at PPS, but was changed to this lecture hall. That's a distance of at least one kilometer between them, and some of these students have never set foot on UKM grounds before so it's understandable that they came in late, what more if they just arrived at PPS circa 1100 and suddenly found out they changed the venue. Me, I already called up PPS last week to confirm the venues of registration and briefing so I got an early warning that the briefing would be at a different place. Anyway, the briefing ended with a QA session and most of the questions were expected questions. Towards the end, they told us to go back to PPS to continue with course registration and that should be the end of Day 1 for us. And since it was nearing 1300, I thought I'd just grab a quick lunch and at 1400 go back to PPS for the course registration.

I then went to Billion Bangi. First thought of having lunch at one of the restaurants there, but it was full to the brim. So ended up patronising KFC there instead. After Dzuhur, went back to PPS. This time, had to park at world's end and walk in the hot Malaysian sun. When I got to the lab, I logged on and tried to register for my courses. Imagine my surprise that NONE of the courses I was supposed to take were offered! So I consulted the people there but they were not much help. They asked me to go to the PPS office upstairs and meet up with one of the staff there. So up I went, and after waiting in queue for about 20 minutes, finally met with the staff mentioned. Seems that my courses were faculty courses and that PPS has no authority to add them in the course list. So I had to go back to the faculty and register manually there. Bummer!

For the second time today, I had to drive back to the faculty and fight my way for a parking space. Luckily for me one car drove out of one just as I was approaching the faculty, so swiftly was I in manoeuvring into the space before anyone else grabbed it. When I reached the faculty, thankfully there were no other students there so I managed to get the staff there immediately. When I related the problem to her, she was surprised that our courses were not offered. So she made a few phone calls and finally found out that another Malaysian-styled miscommunication had happened and ALL faculty courses were not listed in the system yet. She frantically made more phone calls to rectify the mistake, but eventually was told that the courses would ONLY be included after 1700 today. She was profusely apologetic with the foul-up and was EXTRA helpful with my demands then on. I made her check which ones of my courses would be offered this semester, made her get me the timetables, lecturer names and numbers and so on. Eventually, I found out that out of the six pre-requisite courses that I have to take, only two were being offered this semester. As such, my classes would be Mondays 1600 - 1800 and Thursdays 1000 - 1200. That means at other times, I'd be free. Another bummer! I was hoping to take at least four courses this semester and the remaining in the next semester. Or at least take three courses each semester to even out the workload. But seems that it's not going according to my plans.

Anyway, I then decided to take my medical report & x-ray to the health centre. Crazy, ain't it? By right, they should take everything when we register, but here you have to surrender different documents at different places. As such, students would have to embark on an amazing race sort of thing. Regardless, I managed to find my way around (it helps that I stayed in UKM for almost two years back in 1998 - 2000). When I handed in my medical report & x-ray,the nurse there looked at my report and asked me to see a doctor there and then because I was truthful in my form declaration. So she gave me a queue number and left me there to wait yet again. When my turn finally came, I went into Room 2 to find this foreign doctor. After chatting up with him for about 15 minutes about my health history, I was finally allowed to go back. And go back I did. Arrived home at 1740, just as if I were still working. But what the heck, the day was finally almost over.

That night, after dinner I came back and logged on to UKM website for my course registration. Lo and behold! My courses were finally in the list. A quick click here and there, and I am now officially a student with classes beginning next Monday :)

And that, my friends, was my account of what happened on Day 1...

Something to look forward to

I guess this would be my shortest post ever except for my maiden post, but what the heck...

If my leave for Monday is approved, tonight would be the last time I'm going to iron my work clothes for the next couple of years.

Just thinking about it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside...