The Malaysiana Digests

Happy New Year!

New Year's eve has descended upon KLCC in a big way. They've started putting up huge fans in the LRT station corridors leading up to the complex, and people have started jumping off the Petronas Twin Towers. The shopping mall is, as expected, packed.

Everyone's rushing to 'be there' for New Year's countdown. Rather than just kiss the past year away with a big bash, why not follow up on New Year's day with some really good resolutions?

Najah's Top 5 List of Things to Do for 2003 - (some of which I have started already) and related Key Performance Indicators:

1. Be a Better Person - KPIs private-lah

2. Exercise at least 3 times a week - joined the TTFC last week, been there twice a week so far (too many holidays!)

3. Reorganise my finances - reduce spending by 50%, increase savings by 1000% ... (ok, not really a KPI but the guiding principles are there!), go to Spain...

4. Spend more time with family and friends - Visit interstate family once a month (esp Ayah/Ummi, Atok Ha and Atok/Wan), fax Mama/Papa handwritten letter (personal touch!)

My sisters, Najwa (Aeisyah's mum) and Nazeehan Farhy

5. Enrol in MBA program - Get into May intake no matter what!

More of The Problem with Malaysian Businesses

There are too many middlemen. Why do we need so many of them? My ex-GM, in one of his usual, more rational, rants, once warned us of the threat of disintermediation. The good thing about his warning is that we started to think and think again about how relevant we are as individuals to our 'customers', whether it be our organisation's customers or our colleagues and partners who depend on us for something. I believe this has been a global work culture shift for quite some time. Then why is Malaysia still stuck in the past?

Fine - I may not be the most informed on the topic of the Malaysian business scene, but really - from my little coccoon up in the Twin Towers, I can already see the frustration of people who want to get things done (like me!). The task of 'getting something done' is like an exercise of passing the baton from one 'value-adding' vendor to another. At the end of the day, the guy at the finish line is from halfway across the world who has more of an idea of what's happening in your country than those local partners who should be contributing towards nation-building in their own little way by taking the effort to really add value.

I know that there are Malaysian companies out there who play their part for Corporate Malaysia. But this should be the norm for local companies, rather than the exception.

Related:
The Problem Part I

Lessons from Blogging

There are various ways to do a blog. Some people tend to ramble on, not unlike what one does when writing a diary. Only difference is that with a blog, it's easier to type and retype your words, making it easier to get lost in your thoughts.

Others choose to organise their blogs in concise topics, focusing on specific areas instead of summarising their daily activities. Since I've chosen to take this path, I'm finding that this is becoming very much an exercise of extreme concentration. Even while talking, I find my mind wandering from one thought to another, much to the confusion of the listener. Blogging should turn out to be a good therapy for this!

Something else I learned when I was looking around for tips on how to set up a blog. I learned about other people, the way one should - pure and unadulterated. I learned about their inner thoughts, what they really want to project out to the world, rather than what the world chooses to see. Interesting how technology changes things around, isn't it?

Go somewhere else (the blogs I visited today):
Volume of Interactions (from the founder of GMBL)
Blog, she said
Stuck in a Moment

My Dollhouse

I've been a fanatic Sims player for a while now. I switched off the game for a couple of months to pick-up Caesar3 (wayyyy after my sister finished it) and now find myself itching to start with the latest expansion packs (Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed). Was thinking about why this game is so addictive. When I first started playing the game, one of my friends noted that it was my tendency to tell people what to do that made me hooked.

Not that I disagree, but there's more to this game than wanting to play God. For younger players, it's like playing house - only better. You get to build one
that doesn't look like a cardboard box, and pretend to cook and clean without all the real clutter. There's the added bonus of other characters, something you won't have unless your neighborhood is full of like-minded kids, or you have a super active imagination.

For moi, the older player, it's like experimenting with relationships, responsibilities, wallpaper and decor, for free! It's a way to wreak havoc (one player has denied his family the basic necessities for a whole 12-hours and created a white trash family!), build castles, fall in love and generally break away from reality. But I guess it's the reality of the game that makes it so addictive.

The Sims symbolises what the Internet meant for us to be. Somebody else. Interacting through chatrooms anonymously is already the norm, and when the Sims went online, it made this anonymity more interesting. Our identity
takes on a whole new persona - we are no longer just ASCII characters,
we are now a full-bodied character who can better display our personality, interact in worlds that resemble real life.

If only I can play this at work! Dag dag!

Get Started with the Sims:
The Sims
The Sims Online
The Seven Deadly Sims
The Well-Dressed Sim

The Reunion

The prelude to the reunion was unusually stressful. So many things didn't go as planned. But, as with all days that start of on the wrong foot, the reunion ended up to be a blast!

We almost forgot how hot the basketball court was!

The reunion wasn't that much of a reunion. The only people I knew who came were from our English debating team. Nonetheless, the school was packed with Old Girls from other batches - and it was overwhelming to see how many lives the school created and how well its alumni reciprocated.

Arnie and Belina

Roaming about the school was an emotional walk through some of the most amazing experiences of our lives. Somehow, the Rumah Besar where Belina and I used to play the violin didn't seem as big, and the Hall where we all had our exams wasn't so formidable. One thing hadn't changed, the Dewan Makan still smelled of cooking oil, and we had this sudden urge of looking for afternoon tea!

Some things never change: Arnie up to mischief with Shakil, Nonie's son

While we all had similar beginnings, we've branched out quite differently from each other. Arnie is a famous star now (newscaster for NTV7), Nonie's a hot shot banker, Arlyz is a lawyer (though she claims she can't help us if we get arrested, just if we went bankrupt!) and Belina reorganises companies. But walking around and spending the afternoon together proved one thing, some things really never change - I went home that evening with a sore throat from all the shrieking and laughing!

Arlyz with husband Adli

Kera Sumbang: The only three men at the reunion - Shakil, Sharizal and Fino

Malaysian Businesses Lack Innovation

That is my statement for today. It seems that we are always lacking in good ideas, and those with good ideas are lacking in marketing. I don't need to qualify this statement. I'm just making it as a premise for a rant piece. My father came over last night for coffee. We started talking about cars, (Sharizal and I are about to purchase a Kelisa as a second car), when he mentioned about the Super Kijang. This started an interesting discussion on Indonesia and its large pool of talent.

There is no doubt, compare Malaysians side by side with Indonesians and you will find a big differentiator. We Malaysians lack 'seni'. I can't seem to find the right English word for it, the closest I can think of is 'The Arts'. It's not that we have bad taste or no talent. They just have more - some even flawless. How is this relevant to business? Seni can also equate to the term 'a good idea'. Indonesia has many desirable goods, from textiles to flawless replicas of Nike shoes and wonderfully crafted furniture. They weren't always that good.

Those who remember Indonesia some years back remember products that
were the poor man's version of things. How did they get to be so good? It all goes back to practice. Look for the best example of what you want to do and imitate. I guess that's the only way for a nation that lacks such civilisational resources as a good education infrastructure, a stable economy and a strong government, to evolve. Imitate enough and you learn the tricks of the trade of being the best.

In our zest to mark our own identity, some pretty daft ideas have come out. The Juara is one. Those funny looking structures that double as fountains on our roundabouts are another. It is one thing to be unique - we should also strive to be desirable. Pity that Indonesia is still in such a bad state. Its pool of talent in many industries is wasted amidst its political/economic instability and territorial struggles. We Malaysians have the advantages that Indonesians do not - we should learn from what they have.

The Past

I had the oddest dream last night. I was among friends, getting ready for a big party. I was wearing a bright red leather dress, and was having trouble finding my red high heels. There were many, but the one I liked did not have a partner. While getting ready, I bumped into an old classmate from my Seri Puteri days. We got into this argument when she asked me whether or not I was going to the final school gathering on Christmas Day. I guess the anticipation of this gathering got to me. Tomorrow will be the day the Old Girls community get to bid farewell to our school before it is moved. It will be a reunion of sorts, meeting up with old friends, and new ones. I have to admit, I have been sort of a recluse since leaving the school in 1992. I got on with life and didn't look back. Secondary school for me personally, was a very long and painful period of adjustment. I guess after going so far, going back would be a very emotional journey.

And We Ate All Day...

My department (IT Facilities Management) had our Hari Raya 'Open House' today. It was a potluck affair, and my job was to bring Baked Macaroni and Cheese. Due to my usual 'unreliable' life - I was late. Fortunately, so was everyone else!

Linda's specially-cut fruits were particularly popular!

The menu for the day included my share, lemang (a sticky rice dish cooked in bamboo), nasi himpit (loosely translated as shoved rice), fried bee hoon, fried noodles (looks like permed hair, don't know what it's called!), spaghetti, kuah kacang (peanut sauce), rendang ayam (something like chicken curry, minus the curry...) and a whole bunch of other stuff I didn't get to eat because there were so many people! Of course, we had a separate table for all the Raya biscuits and tid bits...

Though he really liked the tid bits, Basir was too scared of the secretary to take it back to his cubicle

It all started with The Hamper. One of our partners gave us a hamper for Raya, and due to the odd nature of its contents, we decided to have the Open House. The only stuff we didn't know what to do with was the box of CornFlakes, flour, and creamed corn. If any of you out there ever decided to give anyone a hamper, please make sure that you don't come off as trying to offload old stock - it makes you seem inconsiderate. Remember, it's always the thought that ounts...

After a hard morning's work washing dishes, Reena finally gets to eat something!

Anyway, the day went quite well, we even had enough to feed the Records and Business Recovery people, some IT Applications people, and some end users! It went so well that we've decided to have our very own Thanksgiving feast... sometime in January.

Back to School

I was told that Malaysia is fast moving towards a national social disaster. Apparently, there is a serious misallocation of resources between/within the public and private sector. It seems that in the rush to make the numbers (x thousand engineers, y thousand doctors and z thousand biotechnologists by the year 2020), we have neglected to review the outcomes of such nation-building programmes - that while we may hit the target here and there, what percentage of skilled manpower is appropriately assigned?

This goes back to the personal dilemma that some state-sponsored graduates (like myself) face upon graduation. Some of us find ourselves making rash decisions - accept job offers that we CAN do, but not necessarily what we were
TRAINED to do. Some common discrepancies include engineering graduates going into IT, and some are as severe as architecture graduates going into mass media. Where are the jobs?

Some industry experts argue that the jobs are there, but there aren't enough qualified applicants. So where did they all go? It has been said that some of our
locally-produced scientists are not fit to do lab work and hence, while they have the 'right' qualification, they may not necessarily possess the right skills. I have personally reviewed the quality of students who have worked with me as trainees.

The problem is not so much with the students themselves, as with any student community, there will be those who are highly self-motivated and there will be those who are in it to just be in university. The flaws, in my opinion, lie in other
areas. While their course content may appear to be comprehensive, I find that some assignments or projects which are assigned to them as part as coursework are not demanding enough of these students to force them to adopt independent thought and critical thinking into their way of life. This, in itself, is a serious and obvious flaw in our academic culture.

There are also rumours of lecturers who are forced to lower the bar of excellence to ensure that the overall output of their respective universities hit management-specified targets - as opposed to maintaining the level of expectations irrespective of how many
students actually qualify.

Secondly, local universities may not necessarily have the resources to sustain 'quality' educators and education facilities. True, our national spending on education is the highest in years, but where does it all go?

Good Food

The theme for last weekend was Good Food. Sharizal and I enjoy eating - much to the detriment of our waistline! Two meals of note was Coffee at Jerome's and Dinner at Home.

Chef Jerome is a cafe located at Megan Phileo Avenue on Jalan Yap Kwan Seng. It's run by Jerome - a pastry chef from France, whose signature pastry is his Chocolate Tart.

On Saturday afternoon, the centre of our attention was the Magic Noir, a delicious vanilla and chocolate cake, sprinkled with coconut and nuts and the Baby Quiche. This was the perfect ending to a late afternoon coffee with Bad and Penny.

This was followed by a late dinner at home. Sharizal and I went around KL comparing the prices of fish from one supermarket to another (while Tesco Puchong is slightly more expensive than Carrefour, it had a lot more choices - we found our favourite blue mackerel). Dinner was grilled beef steak marinated in butter, mixed spices and mustard, grey oyster mushroom tempuras and steamed kai lan. This made a much better accompaniment to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone than popcorn!

Jenny from the Block

My favourite song for this moment is Jennifer Lopez's Jenny from the Block. The song is pretty catchy on it's own. But what I like is the story behind it. The chorus goes something like this:

Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got
I'm still I'm still Jenny from the block
Used to have a little, Now I have a lot
But where I go, I know where I came from

It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend over lunch this week. He thinks his last relationship failed because his ex-gf was too overwhelmed with success. What would I be like if one day my 'struggles' paid off - when I made 'something' of myself? I hope that I remember to follow in the example of my father, Dr Hj Nasseri bin Taib, and numerous other relatives I have personally seen rise to the challenges of life. No matter how much they have achieved in their careers, and how much society reveres them, they always go home - back to where they came from, and give back where they can. It's not just money - it's time, it's a helping hand, it's advice, it's a shoulder to lean on for those who helped them up the ladder, or those who aspire to follow in their footsteps. All this, and they're still very much the down-to-earth, humble, kampung boys they once were.

My Quiet City

As I took my usually late ride on the LRT this morning to work, I noticed how quiet KL seems to be. It's been almost a week since Eid, so it comes as no surprise that our usually bustling metropolis resembles what Putrajaya looks like on a normal day. Being in the city during this lull period makes me appreciate how wonderful silence is, and how few moments there are when the city actually whispers, rather than scream at you.

I have lived in Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Johor Bahru and Philadelphia, and I've begun to realise how much of a city girl I've grown to be. While I enjoy the quiet of the countryside, I always feel a sense of relief at every highway's end -when you start seeing the row of organised shops and malls, and the vast expanse of housing and skyscapers that signify the entrance of a city. I really should be complaining. Instead of crickets, I wake up to the 'yaw' of the early morning buses. Instead of the sea breeze brushing my face, I am greeted by car fumes and seasonal haze. But I guess that my love for city life is not with those things, what I enjoy most is the convenience of getting what I want anytime I want it, and the opportunity to learn something new about the city every day.

But I still wish the city shuts up more often. Like today. And it wouldn't hurt to get rid of those fumes...

Aeisyah Humaira'

Her dad used to take care of rabbits.

I now have a niece. My sister, Najwa, gave birth to a healthy 3.3kg baby girl, on the 22nd of November 2002. Her name is Aeisyah Humaira'. Having taken care of her for a couple of days, I think about how her life will be like, and what kind of world she'll be growing up in. The more I thought about it, the more I realise what most parents go through. When she starts to crawl, how often my sister would have to clean the floors and carpets. When she starts to walk, which pieces of furniture would have to be padded or put away. When she starts her schooling, how much money should she bring to school, what kind of
friends would she have... I guess all this worrying that parents (and aunties like me) go through boils down to this: We've made our mistakes, we've learned much, we want our young ones to do better than we have done.

Noreen Forgot To Charge Her PDA

Or why some people should not own a PDA.

Luckily, she was more concerned about how flat her hair looked.

My colleague came up quite upset that her latest, Bluetooth-enabled iPAQ, could not be turned on. Naturally, the rest of us were nice enough to attempt to assist her. Upon further questioning, we found out that she had not charged it for a couple of days.

She argues that a PDA is an inferior device compared to a cell phone. I tend to agree. Any small device is assumed to be 'mobility'-ready and as such, should have all the qualities that a mobile device should have. The first, most important, criteria, should be battery life. No one should be able to estimate how long a person can be mobile for and if one truly wants to create a device for truly mobile people (e.g. travellers), they should never assume that they have the time nor the inclination to find a power point while trekking through Nepal.

I Own a Clie

if only it could fly...

I'm a huge fan of PDAs. In the last 3 years, I have owned a Palm Vx, a Nokia Communicator 9110, a Compaq iPaq 3650 and now, I've settled on the Sony Clie NR70.

Ever since the news broke out some years back that it was possible to make a computer the size of your palm, I was intrigued at how fanciful the whole idea was. I was one of those people who thought to myself 'Why would anyone need a computer that small?'. Now, I can't seem to function without one. A fact that I am not at all proud of.

Been Reading

I've been reading Karim Raslan's Ceritalah 2 - Journeys Through Southeast Asia. Haven't finished it even after 3 months - I'm a professional procrastinator.

It's a much more likeable Karim book than Ceritalah. But then again, I read Ceritalah in 1998 - 1999, when KL was more turbulent and uncertain, during the time of Anwar Ibrahim's reformasi. Karim Raslan's essays 'attached' itself to me. I found myself thinking that I'm getting to know him and that his views are not unlike my own. It's a collection of 'growing up' thoughts - this almost sudden
realisation of a different way of looking at the same old world you've looked at for the past decade or so.

More Changes: The MBA

I've been shopping around for an MBA program. Being in Malaysia, there's an abundance of MBAs to choose from. Prices range from RM15,000 to RM44,000 (the highest so far being the University of Nottingham).

What do people look for in an MBA program?

Personally, I just want something to do! I graduated from RMIT with a degree in Communication Engineering. Having financed my education via a Petronas scholarship, I returned to Malaysia in 1998 to begin a 10-year bond with our national oil and gas company. Since then, I've been in the IT 'line' - from a short stint with in ERP, to maintaining our voice and data networks. After almost 5 years, I'm pretty much sick of technology. Hence, I began my search for an MBA program last year (yes, I've been slack). I applied and got accepted to Universiti Malaya - Malaysia's first university and my father's alma mater. Complications of life set in and I tried to defer - university policy states that I have to reapply (which sux since I would have to resubmit my GMAT scores).

So this year, I started fresh and found myself another fine-looking MBA - a marketing one from UPM. Let's see how this one goes.

Changes

I didn't look this bad... on the outside, that is.

I've been sulking with my bosses for the last couple of weeks. I am currently in IT Facilities department of Petronas. I've been overdue for a transfer to the IT Planning department for a year now. The first postponement was my choice, I was offered an irresistable project to manage. It was completed quite some time back but due to some reason or another, I have been 'detained' in my current position.

Not that I didn't enjoy my work. The neighbours are great, adequate perks, life was essentially good. I guess all I wanted was change, and since change was offered in the form of a transfer, something was tugging at me to take it up.

This dissatisfaction with what you have can be pretty uncomfortable. Some call it ambition. How many movies have we watched where the characters lament over their childhood dreams. This slow erosion of our pre-adolescent ideals can be argued as practicality - what makes us 'adults'. But honestly, if you're punching the clock in a bank, wouldn't you rather be a ballerina?