My letter to Editor of Star, NST

CIRCULAR BY KSN

STAR newspaper dated 26 July 2010 front paged KSN’s circular directing civil servants to report all ‘surat sokongan’ from politicians and well connected people for anything in the Government sector. It is said that all decisions will be based on merit.

A very high and mighty statement from the KSN. I would like to urge the KSN to clean his ‘house’ first, meaning his civil servants before issuing such statements or directive. As we know, last year 140 civil servants were caught by MACC and I assume many more went scot free due to non reporting. The same goes for the service rendered by the civil servants. Should they be perfect, no cronyism, no favours between themselves and so on, then we can accept KSN’s statement and circular. However, many public complaints still go unheard or unresolved. Who has not heard of the story where the public gets scolded or just told off rudely by the person manning the counter or answering the phone which is supposedly the hotline? And don’t forget the many times when the so called hotline is left unmanned with no one picking up the phone!

Imagine the many newspaper reports that we read about how a person was not accepted into university or get a scholarship or was not granted citizenship even after 20 years applying. How did it get solved? Through the intervention and support of the politicians who wanted to help and service the rakyat. For example, YB Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein managed to help many deserving people get their citizenship, and with his resolve and commitment, managed to solve all old applications for citizenship that have been delayed for 10 years and more. The same goes for application to enter universities for example. I know for a fact many politicians, YBs and position holders in political parties will write in supporting applications of aspiring students in their constituency. UMNO and MCA for example, on a yearly basis collect details of students who are applying or appealing to enter matriculation, iptas or for jpa scholarships for them to support and appeal to the relevant ministries and agencies. I am sure all political parties and politicians, regardless of BN or PR do this for the sake of their constituents.

The rakyat go to politicians for help because of the failure in the civil service system to handle all these. The folks in kampungs do not have access to government offices in Putrajaya or the ministries or the state offices. That is why they look for their “WAKIL RAKYATs” or political parties. In fact, the term itself is Wakil Rakyat, meaning they are representatives of the people even with matters dealing with all matters, including the Government offices. If the KSN feels that he has enough officers on the ground, then explain why the Rakyat still feels the need to ask for assistance from the politicians.

It is also the Prime Minister’s directive for all Wakil Rakyat and political parties to go down the ground and service the Rakyat. When one goes down the ground, there will be many requests for assistance from the Rakyat. What are they supposed to with these requests? Throw them into the bin or drain? Or just refuse to accept them? I am sure this is not what the PM wants. As far as I am concerned, KSN’s circular runs contrary to PM’s directive for politicians to go to the ground and service the rakyat. It runs contrary to “Rakyat Didahulukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan”.

What KSN is doing is effectively shutting down an arm that services the Rakyat for the Government especially in rural area, in kampungs and so on. If the KSN feels that his officers are all over the place and should be sufficient for the kampung folks,

I can understand and accept that politicians should not support or be in any way involved with supporting any projects or tenders. That is true and correct. If the KSN were just referring to that, I agree and support. However, do not amputate the part of the Government ‘arm’ that has effectively been supporting and linking the Rakyat to the Government.

Damn funny!

One day I met a sweet gentleman and fell in love. When it became apparent that we would marry, I made the supreme sacrifice and gave up eating beans.

Some months later, on my birthday, my car broke down on the way home from work. Since I lived in the countryside I called my husband and told him that I would be late because I had to walk home. On my way, I passed by a small diner and the odour of baked beans was more than I could stand. With miles to walk, I figured that I would walk off any ill effects by the time I reached home, so I stopped at the diner and before I knew it, I had consumed three large orders of baked beans.

All the way home, I made sure that I released all the gas. Upon my arrival, my husband seemed excited to see me and exclaimed delightedly: "Darling I have a surprise for dinner tonight." He then blindfolded me and led me to my chair at the dinner table. I took a seat and just as he was about to remove my blindfold, the telephone rang. He made me promise not to touch the blindfold until he returned and went to answer the call. The baked beans I had consumed were still affecting me and the pressure was becoming most unbearable, so while my husband was out of the room I seized the opportunity, shifted my weight to one leg and let one go. It was not only loud, but it smelled like a fertilizer truck running over a skunk in front of a pulpwood mill.

I took my napkin from my lap and fanned the air around me vigorously. Then, shifting to the other cheek, I ripped off three more. The stink was worse than stinking cabbage. Keeping my ears carefully tuned to the conversation in the other room, I went on like this for another few minutes.

The pleasure was indescribable. When eventually the telephone farewells signalled the end of my freedom, I quickly fanned the air a few more times with my napkin, placed it on my lap and folded my hands back on it feeling very relieved and pleased with myself. My face must have been the picture of innocence when my husband returned, apologizing for taking so long.

He asked me if I had peeked through the blindfold, and I assured him I had not. At this point, he removed the blindfold, and twelve dinner guests seated around the table chorused: "Happy Birthday!"!! I nearly died!!!

Source - Idle Hours

IT Talk!

Dear Tech Support Team:

Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 5.0 to Wife 1.0 .

I soon noticed that the new program, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activities.

Applications such as BachelorNights 10.3, Cricket 5.0, BeerWithBuddies 7.5, and Outings 3.6 no longer runs, crashing the system whenever selected. I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications.

I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 5.0 , but the 'uninstall' doesn't work on Wife 1.0.

Please help!

Thanks,

"A Troubled User"

REPLY:

Dear Troubled User:

This is a very common problem that people complain about.

Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 5.0 to Wife 1.0 , thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program.

Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!!!

It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 5.0.

It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed.

You cannot go back to Girlfriend 5.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed not to allow this.

I recommend that you keep Wife1.0 and work on improving the environment.

I suggest installing the background application "Yes Dear" to alleviate software augmentation.

The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.

Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance. Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean 2.5, Sweep 3.0, Cook 1.5 and DoLaundry 4.2. However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program NagNag 9.5 . Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Cosmetics 2.1 and Jewellery 5.0

STATUTORY WARNING : DO NOT, under any circumstances, install SecretaryWithShortSkirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.

Source - Idle Hours Blog

Ragging

The last few days, the newspapers have been covering a lot about ragging, especially due to the death of a Form 4 student in the Royal Military College due to alleged ragging by his seniors. I was very sad to learn about this case - a case of ragging going way too far, way too extreme.

Ragging is actually a form of initiation. I remember when I entered PPP-ITM to do my A-Levels. Boy, were we ragged by our seniors! Who can forget about "Tabik Spring" then. Everytime a senior walks by, regardless of what were we doing, we must drop everything and give a "Tabik Spring"! Then at nights, seniors will barge into our room and the next 30 minutes or so, turned the room into what they called " living hell". Singing whilst each person had to hold the table up, getting questioned on so many "things" private or otherwise. And all sorts of other things!

But it never got physical ie getting whacked or slapped or such. Never. Things were always conducted with a sporting mood and laughter. Of course, we were not laughing, the seniors / raggers did.

Even the 'lembik' ones took it in their stride though with more complaints and as what it used to be called " banyak songeh".

But at the end of the orientation, we became good friends with the seniors. The "Tabik Spring" we had to do at each and everytime we met the seniors, which looked more like a frozen dead chicken with a salute - the seniors lined up and gave us one at the end of the orientation in the spirit of fun.

When I was a senior, it was my turn on the juniors. I have to admit I did my fair share of ragging, but in the same spirit when I was ragged then. Never anything physical, never meaning any harm.

And things turned out well enough.

In all fairness, ragging done right, is actually good fun. And it gets us closer to the seniors and amongst our own colleagues.

One of most "memorable" times getting ragged - when I first joined the BLUES, Form 5 in VI . Now that's a different story. Good, hellish and a good learning experience. Victorians you generally know what I mean.