Sabah State election 26 Sept 2020

Mon 28 Sept 2020.

Last Saturday Sabah held its State elections, the second one in 2 years, 4 months and 17 days. They are supposed to occur once in 5 years. These things don't come cheap. This country doesn't have money to burn. But nowadays Malaysian politics have become cheap.

The former UMNO CM who lost in 2018 had gathered around him some Government supporters in the Assembly who turned coats, and threatened to upturn the 2-year-old Warisan-led government.  Shafie appeared to have pulled the rug from under their feet by dissolving the Assembly and forcing fresh elections. It appears now that Shafie would have closed the deal if not for the formation of new alliances - PN and GPS. As it is, Shafie only managed to get 32 out of the enlarged Assembly of 73 (previously 60), when the simple majority is 37. Out of the 13 additional seats, Warisan got only 2 more to add to its 2018 seats of 21. The balance of 11 went to BERSATU which had none before.  PBS added 1 more seat to its previous 6, while STAR did better by adding 4 to its previous 2. Unchanged were DAP with 6, and PKR 2 seats.  The losers were UPKO, with 1 now from 5, PBRS 0 from 1, and loudmouth UMNO, 14 from 17. MCA contested 4 seats, and SAPP 2, and have nothing to show for it. Warisan is the single largest party in the Assembly now, but the PN-BN coalition (UMNO, BERSATU, PBS, STAR) means it has 38, which is just a majority of 1 above the required 37. But it's 6 more than "Warisan Plus". The remaining 3 seats are held by Independents. Even if these 3 go to Warisan Plus, the 35 would be 3 less than PN-BN. Unless another jumping show happens. And it very well could. Again. 

The slim margin of victor over vanquished does not guarantee stability over the rule of "the land below the wind".  UMNO does not accept subservient treatment, or any suggestion of it being so treated. An UMNO man, controversial from the beginning, has hogged the centrepage of dealings, and obviously aims for CMship. Muhyiddin seems to have  different ideas.

Which brings us back to the Government's actual strength in Parliament. The PM can use all the tricks of the trade, but a resolution is inevitable. He had hoped for a resounding victory in Sabah. No expenses were spared, it being Sabah. The 11 BERSATU seats must have been pleasing. But the slim majority, and that via a coalition, too, means the vote of confidence resolution in Parliament is no nearer to being held. 

The fact that the proposed CM comes from BERSATU is obviously not welcome by UMNO. They had made that clear immediately after the election. The fact that the PM got his wishes here means UMNO is not strong enough by itself to do as it pleases.

The weak PM and his jumpy supporters must now make sure GE 15 happens no sooner than 2023 so they can enjoy the maximum possible 36 months of rule.

 For the next Sabah state elections, it's 2025. There's more breathing space.

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Mazni in Kg. Pilin.

Sun Sept 26, 2020.

Yesterday Hank and I attended Mazni's son's wedding in Kg. Pilin, Rembau. Mazni is an OP who was with MARA. Hank extended the invitation to me. It was on-and-off for a while, because Hank was fearful of the new Covid cases in Kedah, only about 400 km away !  A few days ago he changed his mind again.  In the end, when we went yesterday.  And he forgot his face mask. As usual I came to the rescue.

General Tan Sri Borhan, ex Armed Forces Chief,  also came, complete with his cane and mask. We all arrived at the same time. We all also left at the same time. 

I've heard of Kg. Pilin before, just as I've heard of Bongek. But Bongek I first heard in 1962.  The late Bakar "Chimp" said he was from there. I thought it was a joke, then. 

Until yesterday I'd not visited either one. Bongek, I see the sign board every time I take the Seremban-Rembau-Tampin old road. But no Kg. Pilin sign board.  But I've made it to Kg. Pilin now. But no Bongek yet.

Mazni was our senior at college, and yet here we were, attending to his son's wedding, when in my case my youngest child got married 7 years ago. Hank explained that Mazni had two wives. This must be from the younger wife. His first wife had died. He's now on crutches because of some age-related ailments, although in appearance he looked all right to me.

We didn't wait for the new couple to arrive because we needed to follow the s.o.p. and vacate the limited seating for other guests. Mazni said some police officers came earlier to check on the festivities. All the sop gadgets were there - the book, temperature scan, and the digital scan. The limited seating was adhered to. But unlike other  receptions I'd attended, food was still served buffet.

Mazni sent the video of the wedding party, which showed the couple on a superbike, with other superbikers in tow. So they're superbikers. Without knowing this, which was sent later, I was talking  to Hank about my Honda CBR 600 and Kawasaki Vulcan 750. I had them for about 6 years, but sold them off when I moved to Seremban in 1995. The topic cropped up when a group of superbikers overtook us before reaching Seremban. "What cc are they ?" Hank inquired. "Must be around 900" I said. Hank and I both had our "kapcais" at varsity. I still have one now that I use for trips to town. It beats the traffic and parking woes. 

At Mazni's, they gave us each a ticket with numbers. "Lucky draw, ah ?" I'd joked. They were part of the sop. Before leaving we returned them, and got a door gift each. When I reached home, the wife asked "mana bunga telor" and gave the two kueh bahulu in the gift to her. They came in a nice little basket. 

My trip meter said 41 km from Tesco S 2 to Mazni's place. When I reached back home, it said 120, not 82. That's because we took a different route back, one Hank said he'd not taken before.

We took the Lubuk China road that went past Linggi and Pengkalan Kempas, through Pasir Panjang to the Tg. Tuan road, to Telok Kemang and PD town, or as one sign said, "Port Dickson, Bandar Angkatan Tentera". I pointed out the Palm Spring Golf Club near Pasir Panjang to Hank, and then actually stopped at the Port Dickson Golf Club, or the Garrison Golf Club, a name  used by local golfers to differentiate it from  Palm Spring. I had wanted to stop for refreshments, but we ran smack into a competition and the restaurant was packed. We took a leak and went for rojak & cendul in PD town instead. I'd warned Hank about the traffic jam because of the weekend crowd. We crawled to town and were relieved that the stalls' parking area was almost empty. They're all at beach, I thought. We went to Lukut ( "Oh, this is Lukut" said Hank) and then back onto the PD-Seremban highway, and at the Rasah junction, what else, ran smack into the Saturday traffic again. Hank was not fully awake all the time, so when we finally arrived back at Tesco, as I turned into the parking lot, he came to and said "where are we, where are we ?"

There was banter at Mazni's, and in the car going and coming back. A lot of ground was covered. A lot of time was covered. Children, wives (of course), careers, and of course politics. To me this was the enjoyable part of the day's trip. I don't know about Hank, but Mazni sms'd saying he enjoyed our visit, too.  Hank said he's looking forward to the next date.

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Nyaleh II

 Thurs 24 Sept 2020.

41 days after "Nyaleh" in this blog, Halim (with son), Hank & I made the second trip to visit Burkhan in his Nyaleh homestead, on Wednesday 23 of September.  This time Halim also brought along his wife.

We left S2 at about 10, but only made it to Nyaleh at about 12.15. Somewhere before the Simpang Ampat exit, a large lorry had somewhow skidded and ended up straddled across the highway, blocking traffic, spewing its load onto the road, and causing a 40-minute delay for everyone. Halim said they were stuck for about 30 minutes. I think because they were earlier, the traffic probably was not as bad. By the time we arrived, Halim & co. had already tucked into the brunch prepared. "Wah ! you started without us, ah ?" I said. Halim didn't reply.

Halim introduced his wife. I said I know she is the sister of Lil's wife, Lil being Fauziah's younger brother. Fauziah is my brother's ex wife. "They seem to remain close" I said to Halim's wife, referring to  Padir, my brother, and Fauziah.

Halim and Hank had arranged for this visit, mainly to collect their fresh orders of VCO. I didn't specifically order for it, but managed to get 2 bottles, anyway. Just as well, because on Tuesday I played with Jamaluddin, and he wanted one bottle when I told him about the VCO I was going to get on Wednesday. I gave it to him this morning when again we played together, and collected the 40 bucks. Hank had also bought one each for Mahbob and Azhar, but in the car returning home had wondered if he should collect the 40 bucks each. "Collect !" I said.

Burkhan told us that he's keeping stock with his son in Putrajaya, and we could collect from him there in future, but there would be a 5-dollar charge.

My first bottle from the first visit lasted exactly one month, I said to Burkhan. This was  1 tablespoon morning and night. This new bottle should last me until October 24. Both Hank and Halim should last theirs until next year, if they don't share it with anyone else.

This time there was no field trip. After the brunch and our midday prayers, we all made our separate ways. And Burkhan gave us some  pisang for making goring pisang.

I took Hank on a different route home this time. We went to Alor Gajah, and stopped for "cucur udang Alor Gajah" at the stalls opposite the District Office. I told Hank, pointing to the new office complex, this was my first place of work after university. But I was ADO for only 5 months in 1968. To his question of why I left, I told him the story of the wedding I attended back in KP around December. My father introduced me to Raja Alias (now Tan Sri) at the kenduri, because it was one of his relatives, and the house is close to ours. Raja Alias invited me to join F.L.D.A. as it was known then. It's Felda today. At that time he was the Deputy Chairman (Development) to Taib Andak, the Chairman. Taib Andak was Tun Razak's close friend, and was credited for the tie-up to Toh Puan Rahah because they were Johoreans. A Mr. Clifford was the Deputy Chairman (Finance). I accepted the invitation and went through the formal interviews.   The interview board was made up of Raja Alias, Mr. Clifford and Ishak Tadin, the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development under which Felda was. That was a real powerful panel. Nowadays it would only involve the Personnel staff. Of course I was accepted. I started there in March 1969. My first salary was 950 plus 100 allowance, which was 100 more than the MCS pay. Halim, Akbar and Ghani Sulaiman, all the same year at varsity, were also in Felda when I joined, but all three joined the MCS after less than a year. I remember Ghani when we got our first pay in cash from the accountant, he couldn't put it all in his pocket, and stuffed some of it in his socks ! Ghani retired as the Pahang State Secretary. He was also from Pahang. I think he's now in Kg. Pandan, somewhere.

After the cucur udang, I took Hank to Gadek, on the way to Tampin. Gadek is well-known for its hot springs, like the one in Pedas. I knew of it since my school days in KP. They have made the place more presentable, adding attached pools patrons can share and loll in. There were 2 - 3 Chinese vistors in the different pools, immersed to their necks in the hot water, obviously for medicinal purposes. The girl at the entrance said they get about 100 visitors on weekends, and about half that on week days. The entrance fee is 5 ringgit. Hank entered foc because I paid for him so that he'd enter because he refused to pay to enter.

One reason I wanted to go to Tampin was because I had called an old school mate for tea several days earlier. I know he'd seen my sms. But today, after calling a few times, the ringing phone went unanswered. So we skipped Tampin and went back to the highway.

Before Tesco at S2 we stopped at a Mydin restaurant  for a late  roti canai. Hank collected his car at Tesco, and I lingered for a while there before making it home before Magrib prayers. 

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Reunion of the original 3 MHS

 Sept 12, 2020.

The MCO extension had made me wonder when can I meet with the original MHS Team again. On and off I'd met the old MHS staff at weddings and some reunions organized by the clerical group.

Yoke Ling has been a regular whatsapp correspondent for the last year or so. She hasn't aged, when last I saw her during the last meeting mentioned. So, it seemed natural that I turned to her and about two weeks ago suggested she arrange lunch or something with 5 - 6 of these people. She quickly got hold of Ramlee, Hussein and Mala, and sent word to a few others staying in the Kelang Valley, to meet for lunch at the "Pizza vs Satay" in Subang Jaya, Thursday 10.9.20. The place turned out that it's close to where she stays.

I got hold of Sam, and we rendezvoused at Subang Parade. I held on to my "waze" as he drove to "Pizza vs Satay". Four of the 5 of us who eventually made it arrived almost at the same time. Ramlee came last as we sat at one of the tables, and ignored the sop seating arrangement.

Mala couldn't come because she had to take her daughter to the dentist. Onn and Mas didn't read Yoke Ling's message in time, and could't make it. The next one we asked Husein to arrange in December.  We should try to pull a few more, but not too many. Ramlee had suggested to call some of the girls staying around Shah Alam-Kelang, and I quickly agreed.

The lunch we individually ordered was great, and disappeared fast, but we lingered for a while. Nobody wanted dessert. Everybody seemed satisfied with his/her single portion, but it was the talk that was enjoyable..

It's been 29 long years since  I was given the task of heading the management to run MHS, the land-based operation by sea-bound MISC. Hussein said he was in the MISC Planning team that drew up the paper on MHS, so he got pulled in to be the Admin Manager, one of the 3 original executives. Ramlee was also from MISC. He became the Operations Manager. I was the GM of Felda Transport and was picked by the MISC Chairman to be the GM. The MISC Chairman happened to be also the Felda Chairman. 

The four and a half years at MHS had been the most fulfilling of all my salaried appointments. This was the company that I ran from day one. Sure, a team of managers were in it, too, but I set the tone for work, putting to practice all that I had learned from my previous jobs and from my readings and studies. I had 22 years of Felda experience and had attended numerous short management courses in the country, and two lengthy top-management courses in England and the Phillipines. Hitherto, I took over my jobs from previous managers. This time I started from scratch. I could set my own style, and did.

My style was to share the workload with all my managers.  I made sure that my table was cleared of all papers before I leave for the day, so I came to office with a clean desk every morning. The files belonged to the 3 managers. They must deal with them. They welcomed the trust and the responsibilty 

This was my style in the previous job,  the GM of Felda Transport Corporation. Hussein said a relative who was one of the staff there had called him, having heard that I was coming to MHS. He was more than happy to see me go. I don't know who this chap was, and I didn't ask Hussein. To my mind, this was just his version  of my management style. He didn't see my perspective, obviously. I reponded to Hussein's story with one of my own. My No.2 Son is now with UTM, with offices in both the old campus in KL and the new larger one in Senai. When he visited the Senai campus, a female lecturer approached him and asked if he was "Zainal Mokhtar's son"? Affirmed, she said her husband had related to her that I was the best boss he ever had. The lecturer's husband, I found out later, was Fuad Hamid whom I had personally picked and put in charge of the Johore operations. I'd told him to run Johore and only come to me if he had a problem.

The fact was, the MISC Chairman had a full trust in me that I didn't betray. In turn I gave my managers the full trust that they, too, didn't betray. The late Othman Abdul came slightly later the Ramlee and Husein to become the Marketing Manager, and I gave him full reins. Yoke Ling, in his team, should testify the high spirits of the marketing people. I believe there was an atmosphere of trust and enterprise that was palpable, and it went right down to the drivers, the ones who were really responsible for our performance in the industry that we were in. As far as I was certain of, our expensive equipment were run at optimal capacity, and we threatened our 4 rivals in the haulage business at that time. Sadly, a totally new management came to MISC after I left, and they decided to off-load the land-based operations of the sea-based company.

Hussein and Ramlee mentioned about the "Kalmar story". I related about what transpired in the board room. The Chairman had chided that I wanted to buy "a Rolls Royce". Kalmar quoted a price three times that of a rival producer. We had studied the machinery, and I had even gone to Sweden to check up on it. This was a proven product. I said to the board members, an expensive machine that would perform well and last longer, and in the end becomes cheaper to maintain. They bought it. And so we bought it.

 

Then there was the purchase of the 2 pieces of land in Butterworth and Air Keroh. I had confidently presented my cases to the board each time. Air Keroh was straight-forward. The location was central to our Peninsula routes. Butterworth towards the end became a bit dicey. This was because by then Khalid Dahalan, my old nemesis from Felda, had come to MISC, thanks to the Chairman. He became the DMD, and MHS came under him. He questioned the proposed purchase of the Butterworth land, citing flood risks etc. I knew it was just to sabotage me. Fortunately, by then the preparatory studies were  well advanced, and the findings positive. This was an operational hub to the northern peninsula area, with Penang and Thailand as important links to container haulage operations that Khalid knew nothing of.  So the proposal went through. But clearly, the seeds of battle had been replanted. The revenge Khalid wanted because of my resistence to his show of power when in Felda had been halted when the Felda Chairman moved him to Boustead, because this Chairman was also the Boustead Chairman. When Felda's shares in Boustead were bought over, the Chairman left, leaving Khalid stranded. In his short stay in Boustead, Khalid, fully aware of the fact that the Chairman was behind him, had his way  and in no time irritated the long-serving Boustead MD. So when the Felda Chairman left  Boustead , the MD lost no time in making Khalid feel the heat. Khalid ran back to the Felda Chairman for help, and thus was put into MISC, because he was also MISC Chairman.  But the Butterworth purchase was appreciated by the Chairman, so much so MISC wanted to buy more there. They didn't. I had left.

Incidently, Khalid moved back again to Felda when the Chairman also left MISC because of the transfer of Felda's shares in MISC. This hiding under the skirt habit finally ended when Khalid contracted come deadly virus while camping in Terengganu. I was told that in the final months of his life, he was no longer aware of his surroundings because of the damage to his brains.

As we were walking out of the restaurant, Hussein also mentioned about the case of the supplier suing MHS for some supplies bought by marketing. After about 10 years, the courts have awarded the supplier damages of about 200,000.  This case also came about because of Khalid. He wanted to stop the purchase simply because it came from my team. Part of the purchase, I think, were golf umbrellas meant for customer relations. Khalid, an accountant (not a Chartered accountant),  had said "marketing is nothing". When I heard this at that time, I'd said to my managers "you have to market to make money, before you count the money".  If I bother to know where he's buried, I'd take one of the umbrellas and put it on his tombstone to shade it. 

After all these years, here at lunch I learned some new tit bits.  Zahrah was our first clerk when we were still in Jalan Conlay. Now I'm told she had been married at 18 and was a single mother when taken in by Hussein out of sympathy. At Port Kelang apparently she had a few affairs with the drivers. Ramlee said she stays nearby. I said call her for our next makan.

Ramlee mentioned Suraya, my secretary in Port Kelang. He also mentioned Maya, my first secretary while at Jalan Conlay. Maya was Hank's gf. Hank had called and asked if I could take her.  I found her to be qualified and took her. The short time we were in Jalan Conlay, I found her work ok. But she didn't want  to move to Port Kelang.  That was why I took Suraya. Ramlee has followed her in fb, and said she looks different now. I said it's the digital touch-up, because I've met her, though many years ago, and she looked her old self. But Maya was known for her firm breasts (I said sorry to Yoke Ling for mentioning this).  I was told she challanged those who doubted their authencity by asking the doubters to go with her to the toilet and see for themselves. But I wasn't told if the challange was accepted.

It was a nice get-together. We should do it again.

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