Sunday, September 20, 2009

Eid al Mubarak, and some old friends.

20.9.2009.


Aidilfitri came today, 20th. September 2009, or 1st. Syawal 1430. For the first year to-day we spent the whole day at home. Until dear mother passed away during last Ramadhan, we would all bundle into the car shortly after the Raya prayers and take that trip back to the kampong. Now that she's gone, and Dekna, my youngest child has started working and is home for a short Raya break, we thought this would be the routine now - everybody home for the Raya for the whole first day before going anywhere.

This posting is now well into the night, and I took a look at my blog and made a small reply to a kind thought posted on it. Actually I had wanted to write something after Aik Kheow called from Taiping just now. I know him from 24 years ago when I was working in KL. We became associated through work and a friendship grew, and although I've since moved and subsequently retired, we have maintained contact to this day. I attended two of his sons' wedding, travelling all the way from Seremban to Taiping with my wife. He mentioned some names, our mutual erstwhile acquintances. Some became friends and remain so, while some have not maintained contact. Two of the latter in particular were mentioned by him.

Faizul  worked under me in KL for five years. When he wanted to obtain his Advanced Diploma for his professional qualification, I gave him my approval - something that was required at the work place at that time. When I moved to the new job at Port Klang, after settling down, I offered him a post in my new Company, to be posted to Pulau Pinang. All this was because we had an opening for him and because I know he could fill it. At first he hesitated, trying to hold out for more money. I told him the offer I made was already better than his salary, and that this was a new and fast developing enterprise, and he should be able to grow quickly with it. So he accepted. 

In my usual style, I gave him full resposibility to develop the new Pulau Pinang office. I gave him the supporting staff, all newly recruited. Everybody was housed in our temporary branch office on a 10-acre rented land which also served as our Penang logistics depot.

It so happened that one of the new assistants given to him for marketing work was a young lady with an Actuaral Science degree who had some very fresh but limited marketing experience. I personally interviewed and selected her in Butterworth. I thought she had potential. What I didn't know then was that Faizul also saw some potential in her - he later married her, which in turn caused him to lose his first wife. Now, that is the first part of the story.

My Chairman at that time eventually got wind of the intra-office marriage. He disapproved it and in one of my periodic deparmental meetings with him strongly suggested, verbally, to me that the lady officer ought to be sacked. No written order to that effect was ever issued, so I chose not to act on his suggestion.

Now, this was no ordinary Chairman. His word was Law. Junior staff would tremble in front of him. Even his p.a. carried a certain "transferred" potency, causing officers to give her extraordinary respect. So you can imagine the dangerous grounds I was treading. But I was prepared to answer the Chairman, if confronted with the issue. I had already at least the names of four officers who worked in the same organization that the Chairman was in, who were married to each other. I would have posed to the Chairman, "what about these cases ?", if he confronted me. But it never happened. And Faizul has never known about all this, and the stand I was ready to take on his behalf, at my own risk. That is the second part of the story. 

The third part of the story is what I related to Aik Kheow just now. Here is a guy, Faizul,  who has all the reasons to be eternally grateful to me for giving him a job, a wife and a defence for keeping both the job and wife, who doesn't even bother to return my early calls soon after I resigned, which was many years ago, and has never even sent a Raya card to me in all these years. That thing about not returning my calls I had intimated to N.N. who remains, from what I know, in contact with Faizul until now. N.N. said, and this was many years ago, he had mentioned my remarks to Faizul. He is yet to call and explain to me until now. So much for gratitude. 

The other name mentioned by Aik Kheow in the telephone call just now is Tajri. But this deserves another space.

Incidently, Faizul lost that second wife mentioned, a few years ago, to cancer, I was told. I was also told that in fact she had resigned from working with Faizul some time earlier. 


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No comments: