On Politics and Love

Metafora politik adalah seperti sebuah episod percintaan merupakan satu perumpamaan yang tepat. Jika anda sdg 'tangkap cintan', segala kutukan/gosip/sindiran orang terhadap pasangan anda akan anda abaikan. Segala kebaikannya pula akan anda besar-besarkan walau ianya sekadar "sambil membelai rambutmu" (lirik sebuah lagu). UMNO sekarang adalah dalam satu misi utk 'mengorat' rakyat yang sedang ber'cinta' dgn PR.. Sebarang attempt utk highlight keburukan PR might be brushed off by the rakyat.. if UMNO menunjukkan perangai buruknya (spt bercakar, memulau negeri PR, memulau sesama sendiri, berpuak2) pun will not help either. Dalam keadaan begini mungkin hanya keikhlasanlah yang dapat mengalihkan pandangan rakyat yang sedang asyik mahsyuk itu. Antara keikhlasan yang saya maksudkan ialah membantu negeri2 'malay-majority' spt K'tan yang sudah sekian lama di'overlook'. Projek piping gas/minyak umpamanya tak perlulah didivert ke Songkla, ckup sekadar di daratkan di K'tan utk membangunkan kaw. setempat. Itu hanya satu cth 'act of keikhlasan' which actually akan memberikan beberapa hasil yang positif utk UMNO (nak cerita di sini pjg sgt). Apabila org2 Cina sudah tidak lagi menyokong BN, BN membalasnya dengan memberikan pelbagai kemudahan tambahan (cth: ratio biasiswa yang dulunya favor bumi skrg sudah pun berubah). Apabila melayu tidak menyokong BN...what UMNO do?? They 'demonize' these malays, ..that is pretty sad untuk kelangsungan Melayu di tanah airnya sendiri...ok..say no more.As for your question on pembinaan literasi politik..it is currently being taking shape dlm pelbagai sudut. Media like blog can be used as a platform.. cumanya org bijak pandai/prof. seperti tuan dan lain2 perlu memainkan peranan untuk membentuk halatuju content dan perbincangan di dalamnya. Since blog are quite new, ethics, code of conduct masih lagi loose. Its our responsibility to set this code of conduct and did not allow the rule of the jungle such as maki hamun, mencarut, memperbodohkan org, raw speculation to become the order of the day. And like out good old metaphor of 'bercinta' just now, shaping the blog culture cannot be done by banning or demonizing but more by ucapan 'I love you' or 'You memang cantik sayang'...once they (the rakyatlah...not your bf/gf) give their heart to you... Insya Allah they will give their life for your cause ;-) Tq.

On Bureaucracy and Human Touch

Often time we heard people complaining about red-tapes they are facing when dealing with certain institutions private or public. Public institutions for example are barraged with voices of complains and irritated customers whenever there are problems during the transactions. I am one of those guys who have problem with red-tapes. Recently I lost RM2000.00 simply because I did not comply with some of the (new) regulations of which I am not aware of. When I protest, the only feedback I get is "Saya hanya menjalankan tugas" or "Saya tak boleh buat apa-apa, peraturan memang begitu". Today, I hit it again. One of my paperwork is lost in the wilderness of the red-tape. It is a very important paperwork and can cost me a huge sum of money if it is permanently sucked into the black hole ("Saya tak tahu.. kami tak pernah terima, bagaimana kami nak ambil tahu??").. so what to do?? Actually these are some of the instances that irritate us Malaysians. While the Malaysians may tolerate the imperfect private firm (yes private firms can be sucks big time), the same cannot be said for public institutions as they are big and can be found everywhere. These imperfect govt body gives the ruling party a very bad image since the public services are the representation of ruling party of which people can feel and touch. Maybe we need to think more on the impact of bureaucracy on society at large.

For the time being it seems that bureaucracy is similar to robots. It has functionality but lacks emotion or passion. Maybe we need to think of a way on how to inculcate 'emotions' into bureaucracy so that human can interact with it comfortably. Asking the staff to be 'expressive' such as smiling or thanking is not enough. I have encountered staff who are very polite and friendly who still says "Maaf saya tak tahu, saya hanya menurut perintah". An emotion-ful bureaucracy must have policies or rule that implicitly has human touch in it. A 'three ring then pick up phone' is an example of an emotion-ful bureaucracy albeit of a very small proportions.
A better emotion-ful bureaucracy system of is the one that is able to flag something amiss in the daily process. Something that is not obviously part of the rule but not quite in place. An emotion-ful bureaucracy can assist human to cope with some negative outcome during the whole interaction. Instead of saying "saya tak tahu, saya hanya menjalankan tugas" the emotion-ful bureaucracy may one to sit down with the customer and lay-out the solution plan that will be amicable for both parties. Hmm "Emotion-ful Bureaucracy"?? seems to be a good topic to be researched on.

On Tolled Road

Controlling the price of toll is fair to everybody even people in Sabah and Sarawak... remember the tolled road are the backbone of our transport system.. all major goods in one way or another will have to go through these highways. Product manufactured in Peninsula need to go through tolled road before reaching the port for transportation to Sabah, Sarawak vice versa.