MUBARAK NS 3/2017 "enemy in the bedsheet".

Fri 13 Oct 2017.

Just 5 days after "the fight at OK Corral" in Kota Bharu, Yazid called for to-day's "sudden" meeting. Sudden because the AGM was just 5 days ago, and the NS meeting exactly 1 month ago, and this is only the 3rd. meeting for the year. Remarkably Yazid admitted he had a one-hour meeting with the MB this morning. I think he must have let his heart out about being double-crossed in Kota Bharu.

The truth is, Yazid took his loss in Kota Bharu very badly. In these elections, losing 48-84 is huge. He had wanted to resign in a hurried and impromptu meeting in Kota Bharu itself. But, among others, Sainy the former secretary, and Ismail his old friend talked him out of it. Anyway the meeting never happened because there were not enough members around.

So today Yazid really let fly. The only thing he left out was naming the  target of his fury, but everyone knew who it was. The funny thing was, I'm not sure that guy knew who Yazid was talking about. I know him.  He was one of my clerks, and I can't vouch for his intelligence.

Yazid went as far as threatening a sacking for his "enemy in the bedsheet." He mentioned his sacking of the secretary of one of the other organizations he chairs.

For today, he completed the shut-out by naming the secretary as the second member of the Central Committee, and Yusof Misai as his stand-in. The poor guy, who is the Deputy and Negeri's alternate in the Central Committee, now is left high-and-dry.

I'd told a few other members of the Negeri committee that I won't come for this sudden meeting, knowing that a fight might take place. I came anyway, because after talking among a few of us, we agreed that we should solidify and not allow Yazid to resign. If this Deputy takes over, MUBARAK NS would be dead. Thus this "emergency" meeting had an almost  full-quorum. And in spite of the livid language from Yazid, his target remained wordless and looked lost. As I said, maybe he was too dumb to realise that Yazid was targeting him! On the way back from Kota Bharu, a couple of the Chinese members also said this guy should resign, not Yazid. Seeing as to how he's friendless now (even his omnipresent wife didn't come to-day, a first in my memory), maybe he'll resign now.  That's too good to be true. But not impossible.

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MUBARAK's 14th. AGM.

Wed 11th Oct 2017.

8th. October was the 14th. "Persidangan Agung Tahunan MUBARAK  Malaysia",  the ex-wakil rakyats association's annual general meeting, held at the Perdana Hotel, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Saturday 7th. was the dinner and opening ceremony, 8th. the AGM proper, and 9th. departure. The importance of MUBARAK to the powers-that-be was underlined by the no-show of the Federal Minister from Kelantan who was supposed to officiate.   The bias of MUBARAK was shown by the non-invitation of the MB of the state, from PAS.  PAS this time around is touted to have reconciled with UMNO, though. 

There are 13 states in Malaysia, but Sarawak has yet to join MUBARAK.  With 10 delegates from each of the other 12 states, there should be 120 of us. The actual count was 136. That came from the Central Committee making up the absence of several state delegates.

The main event was supposed to be the voting for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, the President, the Deputy President, and 3 of the 4 Vice Presidents, with the Sabah one pre-nominated. The rest of the Central Committee members are made up of the 12 state Chairmen, selected by each state. The Hon. Secretary, Treasurer and Information Chief are appointed by the President, as are the auditors. All seemed staid. What transpired was the old UMNO dirty tricks, again.

The voting for the present line-up 2 years ago in Kuantan was more robust. The delegates campaigned for their respective candidates for the contested posts, other than that of the President, who won uncontested.  In fact, it was agreed that I print the name card for the nominee from NS, our chairman, Yazid, but in Kuantan Chong from Bahau also came with his own cards printed. That Yazid won the Deputy Presidency  was because of the apparent extra effort by our delegates from NS.  You can say  it was Yazid's own vote that won him the Deputy Presidency, because he beat the other  opponent by 1 vote ! 

At our NS preparatory meeting there were misgivings about the Kota Bharu elections.  The earlier announcement by Yazid of his intention of contesting for the Presidency had been retracked because of his so-called compromise of going only for the continuition of his Deputy incumbency. Zaharudin, our secretary, said there was talk that the President should  let the Deputy's  contest be put aside in favour of the incumbent. No such action came.

To be fair, Yazid had worked hard since  his election to the Deputy's post in Kuantan.  For NS, he managed to get the MB to approve the land in Bahau, and to revise the pension by 100% ! He was also in the midst of the review for the overall pension structure for all 12 states.

But as the two Ismails said, Yazid's style was an issue. There's a certain snobbishness, even when conducting the state meetings. Imagine at the Central Committee, where we have  former Federal Ministers and  MB's. And Yazid was only a State Exco. 

The last-minute withdrawl of Abu Hassan Omar from Selangor also suggested some power play. 

In the end Yazid lost soundly - 48 to 84, in fact. That's huge by these types of elections. I heard Yazid wanted to convene a Negeri meeting that same night, but Sainy managed to get him to postpone it to some later date, back in Negeri.

By contrast, the clearly inept Chairman got reelected, in spite of the bungles he made in front of everybody.

I took exception also, to this bungling Chairman. I had personally handed him my written request to speak after the lunch break. While some states had already had multiple speakers, Negeri, although scheduled for the morning session, had not been called. And here was the Chairman calling for the next agenda. It took Yusof Misai to grab the floor microphone and loudly demanded Negeri speaks. And that was how I got the mike from the Chair.

All the previous speakers had spoken off the cuff, including the President. Yazid, too, spoke without notes towards the end of the afternoon session, as the outgoing Deputy, and he spoke well enough.

I didn't want to grope around when speaking, and the subject matter entrusted by Negeri was "pension", something everyone was interested in right from the inception of MUBARAK. When I was serving back in 1995 - 1999, I always spoke from my notes. The rumbling speeches before me carried their points, but I wanted to make myself crystal clear and emphatic. I had spent several days writing and rewriting my 3-page notes, and had read them over several times, loudly, in practice. There's this Malaysian style of speaking when the address at the beginning sometimes takes a big chunk of the time. And there's always the repetitions and the loose direction, all time badly spent and all distracting. Speaking from notes is less glamourous, but there's no missing of points.

The notes distributed to the delegates included one on the issue of the pension, from Selangor. I thought the writer was verbose, and trying hard to be legalese , the grammar lethargic. I wanted mine to be street-sharp and curt. I wanted to emphasise justice and fairness, reason and deserved reward. And there was no need for long, vague sentences, with  repetetive and bombastic words.

I took all of 7 minutes.

As I walked  past the Central Committee's dias, the President said "great..... !" something, and I turned, and both he and the  Secretary stood up and reached for my notes as I handed them towards the President. The Sabahan Vice President later said to me "very clear speech." One of the Melaka delegates said "you did your homework." There were also a couple of congratulations from the other delegates. So I guess I had achieved what I wanted my speech to convey.

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Kota Bharu trip & KLIA2

Tuesday, 10 Oct 2017.

I can't remember when my last trip to Kota Bharu/Kota Bahru (those are the different spellings being used) was. I think it was Shima's wedding. We stayed at Sutera Inn; the groom was from Kg. Sireh, right in town. I remember renting a van from Seremban, driving through Kuala Lipis , Gua Musang, Kuala Krai, and Machang to Kota Bharu. I think it took us one full day, with many stops.

This time I took the one-hour flight from KLIA 2. In fact it  took half the day. 11 hours to be exact.

This was my first time with the low-cost Air Asia, and the first time through KLIA 2. The travel agent said to be 3 hours before the 1 o'clock flight. I had to believe him. I urged my daughter to drive me at 8 a.m. We arrived at KLIA2 at 9. I checked in at 10, as insructed by the girl guarding the q-line. I went into Gate K 4 when they called at 12. Then they announced the plane had technical problems. At first they couldn't say when the flight would be rescheduled, and gave us food coupons and bottled water. I drank the bottled water, but didn't redeem the food coupons because I had to go out to the main foyer just to cash in RM 20. Finally, the flight was set for 5 p.m., 4 hours late. We landed at Kota Bharu at 6. We collected our baggage from the carousel, caught a taxi to Perdana Hotel, and arrived at close to 7. That's 11 hours !

I found out at Kota Bharu airport these delays and cancellations were common for Air Asia.

Returning 3 days later wasn't as bad. There was no delay, and after 30 minutes in the air, we were already making the landing descent. My next-seat fellow passenger, a Hoe from Kota Bharu, said Air Asia sometimes speed up the flight, because the plane would continue to another longer  destination. Hmm. I think I know the trick.Better turnaround, better load factor, cheaper variable cost.

But Air Asia is cheaper than MAS. The return ticket, including RM 50 for 15 kg checked-in luggage, was RM 305. They say if you do your own midnight internet booking at home, you can get even cheaper ticket. In fact it's all digital and on-line now, something very different from my old flying days. I feel out of date.

I stayed at the old but newly refurbished Perdana Hotel for 3 days and 2 nights, for Mubarak Malaysia's 14 AGM, on which I'll write separately. Because of the AGM and the dinners arranged, there was no time to go to town. But the hotel stay was ok. The room was ok. The food was ok.  The staff was ok. It was all paid for. So everything was, well, ok ! 

I wonder how much it actually cost MUBARAK. Let's see. The room RM 200/night, food RM 180/day, times 3 days and 2 nights, that's 800 x 136 participants = RM 108,800.

Kota Bharu airport is as small as I remember it. Maybe there're more shops now, but nobody seemed to be buying anything. With bottled water at RM 3, and a sandwich at RM 7.50, I wasn't surprised.

KLIA 2 was a pleasant surprise. I remember the hue-and-cry in the news when it was opened, about all the glitches. But now I find it well laid out, well-stocked and well patronised. I think it's about the size of KLIA, but there are more shops. Certainly there's a much bigger crowd. This must be because of the bigger number of destinations and busier schedules. If you're not into walking, KLIA 2 isn't for you. They should put in more of those "walkerlators" like in Singapore's Changi Airport. I saw several golf buggies, but nobody was driving them and they were  parked here and there. What a waste.

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