SK 1&2 Sultan Alam Shah

Last weekend, while on the way to the house of my wife's niece in Sungai Way for Hari Raya, we passed through Section 11, Petaling Jaya (PJ as we Malaysian call it). I was so excited as my former primary school when I was in standard one, SK Sultan Alam Shah at Jalan Bukit, Petaling Jaya is within the vicinity. When we reached the school, I stopped by the side of the school. My two sons went down to take a few photographs with me. The above is the best shot to share in this post (me and my second son at the front of the school).

I related to them stories that had happened to me 37 years ago. One that had them in stitches was the story while I was in the first week of school. I had not attended kindergarten, a luxury then as well as it was not available where I live in Kampung Sungai Penchala. So, my late mother (may Allah forgive her and bless her soul) would accompany me to school in the morning and stayed until recess. Her presence at the canteen was a reassurance to me. She had also cooked rendang; which is my favourite until now, just before the school reopened for the New Year and brought it along with her to school. I enjoyed the rendang for the whole week.

From time to time, I would scan the canteen from where I was sitting in my class, trying to locate her sight (my class was on the ground floor and the canteen was just next to it). However, it was probably on the second or third day of the first week of school that I could not locate her at the canteen while I was still in class. I then became afraid that she had left and I started to cry. Seeing me crying, the class teacher came over and asked me what had happened. She thought that some of my classmates had hurt me. However in between sobs I told her that I could not see my mother. She then asked one of my classmates to fetch my mother from the canteen. Apparently she was not at the canteen at that time because she had to go to the toilet. My family was laughing loudly in the car as we drove off.

My Project Manager's end of contract

In my post on Saturday, 9 August 2008 with the title Building relationship and gaining trust in work, I related to you about my Project Manager. He is in charge of the implementation plans and operational stabilisation of a third party vendor on relocation services. His one-year contract was coming to an end on 30 October 2008. I had expressed my intention to extend his contract via his manpower supply agency but I do not intend to increase the price of the contract as I see the current contract price as reasonable. This is where we do not see eye to eye.

K, my Project Manager, is a good employee. He accorded me the respect of a superior, completed the task that I have given him and extended his cooperation in several assignments that I assigned to him. However he lacks the drive to push the implementation plans and operational stabilisation of the third party vendor on relocation services to succeed within the prescribed time frame. He did not see himself as the driver of the implementation plan but a mere implementer after someone else had open up the way to him. How hard I pounded into him that this is not the intention that he was recruited for, he still did not see it that way. This is something that I had been trying to work on him.

In the end, he summarised his demand for the contract extension i.e. a 10% salary increase, a monthly bonus allowance, 20 days fully paid leave and 15 days fully paid medical leave. The first and second demands are something that is very hard for me to accommodate. With the level of his output, the two demands are rather excessive. The two kinds of leaves are non-issues; probably the quantum could be discussed. However, even before I could lay out the negotiation in full, he concluded that he could not accede to my request for him to extend his contract. It seem he had already made up his mind and expressed that he had made plans to move on.

With this development, I then proceeded to find his replacement via another manpower supply agency. However, this morning K sent me an SMS saying that he had a change of heart and asked for us to discuss again after the Eid holiday i.e. next week. I am always open to talks to explore any opportunities to work together.

October Milenia Muslim magazine with part 5 of my collumn is available now

You may get a copy at the local bookstore, newstand or subscribe directly from Milenia Muslim (<--click here).

This made my week

Last Friday, I was having a chat with one of the staff at the office. She used to report to me when she first joined the company. I was handling Recruitment then and she was supporting me. She just joined the department I am in early of this year but in a different unit.

She showed me her notebook where she had diligently written her "To Do List". I commented on her nice handwriting and then showed my notebook (a management diary) that was full of scribbling. She laughed and commented that the dates written in the notes did not coincide with the dates in the diary. I told her that the dates were different because I have made the diary as my notebook. Actually, I told her that I use my Outlook calendar as my diary and another smaller diary as my daily "To Do List".

She then pulled out her drawer and showed me all her notebooks over the years. I could see about 5 thick notebooks similar to the one she had showed me. I praised her for her very organised work. She then unexpectedly told me, "This was how you had trained me when I first joined and worked with you. You had taught me how to organise my work. You taught me to itemise all the work that were required to be done for the day, to prioritise them and to plan how to tackle them according to the priority."

Her statement made my week as I then told her that this is part of the good deeds that I hope God would accept from me. I encourage her to continue doing it and wish her well in her career.

p.s.
1) I have written on work planning tips in my monthly collumn in Milenia Muslim magazine.
2) photo from http://www.freefoto.com/

Chinese Wedding Reception on the 7th day of Fasting

My wife and I were invited to one of my staff wedding reception on 7th September at one of the hotels in Kuala Lumpur. I have always made it a point to attend weddings especially if the weddings are connected to my personal or official life. This is similar to the trip that the whole family made to Kedah to attend another one of my staff's wedding in late August.

I had been to a Chinese wedding once before a couple of years ago. Similar to the last one I attended, my wife and I were very cautious in our dressing. Both of us had selected red coloured attire as red is synonymous to luck in Chinese. On top of that I had prepared an Ang Pau (money packet) as my gift for the occasion.

We arrived very early at the hotel. After signing on the guest book and exchanging pleasantries with the family of the host, we were escorted to our table. However, we noticed that the Chinese guests were not observing the dress code of no black attire (synonymous to death in Chinese). However other Chinese guests who were seated at our table were very appreciative to the fact that my wife and I had made the effort to respect their custom.
All the Muslim guests were provided with dates and water to break their fasting, which was 45 minutes earlier than the scheduled dinnertime. The family of the host was very concern for us but we assured them that we are all right. During dinner we had an eight course Chinese cuisine from starters to main meals until dessert. The dinner ends at 11 pm when all the guests congratulated the bride and groom on their way out of the hotel.

Global Contract Manager's visit to Malaysia

This week the Global Contract Manager of the company I work with came over to my office for a visit. He is based in Europe and had just moved into the position early this year. The purpose of his visit was to familiarise himself with the operations of the KL Human Resource Service Centre and the contracts that the Centre has with its service providers.

One of the roles of my position is to manage a contract on expatriate relocations. I am technically the Contract Holder and I have a Contract Manager reporting to me. So I was the co-host throughout the visit and had several meetings as well as a site visit to the service provider premise with him.

The Global Contract Manager, Chris, is an interesting individual. He himself is originally from the USA and is an expatriate in Europe. He had not been assigned abroad prior to his assignment to Europe. After only two days in KL and meeting a few people, he had written an observation note and was then shared with the KL Human Resource Service Centre Regional Manager. Luckily the Regional Manager had then shared the note with me. I was shocked and surprised as the note was based on gross presumption without even checking the facts with my Project Manager or myself. Obviously his observations and conclusions were far too early and very much too soon. He should have waited until he had met everyone and took his time to gather the facts and clear his mind to conclude his findings.

Immediately after reading through the notes, I had a meeting with Chris and shared with him my views. I outlined to him the activities and initiatives that had been taken by all of us in KL in managing the contract. He obviously could sense my dissatisfaction with his note and provided some justification to why he had to produce and shared it with the Regional Manager.

After the meeting with Chris, I then made an arrangement to discuss the note with the Regional Manager. During the discussion, I shared the responses and points I had provided to Chris. As the Regional Manager has been following the progress of the contract from the updates that I have provided through the Operational weekly meeting, he fully accepted my responses and points.

On the last day of the visit, all of us, the Regional Manager, my Project Manager and myself had a close-up meeting with Chris. Chris was asked to share his observation note. However, Chris did not go through the whole note and only touched points from the note that was positive and correct which I had told him during our meeting. Chris himself acknowledged that it is very easy for him to fly in and give all the comments, however he promised once he is back in the office, he will gather again his thoughts and re-write the note.

Human Resources Expatriate Policy Train-the-Trainer Internal Workshop at Westin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur from 25 Aug-1Sep 2008.

As a continuation to the Human Resources Expatriate Policy training I had attended in The Hauge, The Netherlands in May early this year, I was invited to attend the Train-the-Trainer workshop at Westin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur from 25 Aug-1Sep. The plan is to lay out a training plan where local and internal resources would be trained to deliver the training. The facilitator was a young South African lady who is based in The Hague, The Netherlands. She is white without any intention to point this out, more to provide one of her personality. She had been in KL once before on a short work assignment.

The workshop consisted of 4 parts

1. Introduction of new Expatriate Human Resources Policy training modules
2. A three hour examination (I had sat and alhamdulillah had passed a three hour examination in The Hague, The Netherlands earlier in May)
3. Role playing as a trainer
4. Feedback on role playing

I had come to the workshop with an open mind, as I had expected that there would be a lot of learning from the 6 days workshop. True to my expectation, I had absorbed as much as it is possible and along the workshop, we had several views and ideas exchanged between the facilitator and participants. This is the part I like about workshops that are open and allow exchange of views and ideas.

However, there was an instance where the facilitator had been so engrossed with the policy so much so that the discussion had turned into a defensive argument. It was not helpful that one of the participants had an eye for a position in the Human Resources Policy unit that she had lost sight of her sensible judgement.

I had once held a Human Resources Policy role and I understand the thinking behind Human Resources Policy formulation, it is based on the principle of equity, competitiveness, clarity and standardisation. However, in my opinion Human Resources Policy shall always be run hand in glove with Human Resources Operations, the former from an idealistic view while the latter from a realistic view. Striking a balance between them would definitely bring in the principles mentioned above naturally.

I am still waiting for the result of my three-hour examination, which the facilitator said she would mark with her colleagues upon her return to her office.

Family outing at Kompleks PKNS, Shah Alam

Yesterday my family and I attended a khenduri (thanksgiving ceremony) in Shah Alam at my previous boss's house. The khenduri was held in conjunction to the upcoming fasting month, which is expected to be on Monday 1st September 2008. After the khenduri, we stopped by at Masjid Shah Alam to perform our noon prayer. As my wife had always been interested to shop at Kompleks PKNS, Shah Alam, we then headed towards it after the prayer.

Kompleks PKNS, Shah Alam brings me a lot of nostalgic memories as I had once lived in Shah Alam for three years as I was then studying at Institut Teknologi MARA, ITM from 1987 until 1989. ITM had been upgraded into university status in 1999 and more popularly known now as Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM),

We spent close to two hours shopping at the complex. The complex is famous for its wide range of malay boutiques where one can purchase baju kurung (a traditional female attire), jubah (robes) for males and females, tudung and selendang (female head scarves), brooches, songkok and kopiah (a traditional male head gear), capal (a traditional male sandal) at affordable prices.

Compared to Wisma Yakin, another smaller complex in Kuala Lumpur and Pekan Rabu complex in Alor Setar that I had written in my earlier posting in this blog, all three complexes sell almost the same range of products and Kompleks PKNS is somewhere in between all three in term of size and varieties. However, it is a lot more convenient to shop at Kompleks PKNS as the shops are more organised and there are lot more modern and up-to-date designs available here.


My wife bought for herself two pairs of modern jubah with local Malaysian motives, my daughter who had always been reluctant to participate actively in our family shopping outings had a field day of purchasing two very beautiful pairs of jubah and selendang which she had selected herself. My two boys got their hip jackets and I got myself a very nice pair of capal. We headed back home at about 5.30 pm to avoid the pre-Merdeka traffic.

de templer Restaurant - The Authentic Chinese Muslim Cuisine

Last Friday, I had dinner with my family at this restaurant. It is located at Jalan Melati Utama, 4, Melati Utama, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur, along the MRR2 highway in front of Platinum Victory Condominiums. We had crabmeat and shark fin soup, sizzling prawn, deep-fried cuttlefish, dried chilli chicken, brinjals with salted eggs, fried eggs with big onions and plain rice.

While having our dinner, my eldest son and I were curious as we thought the restaurant is run by Chinese Muslims, however it was not seem to us they were Chinese Muslims, probably converts. I then had a chat with one of the waitresses and from the way she provided the information to me, she seems to me as part of the business establishment, more so that her facial feature looks like one of the more senior person operating the restaurant. She told me that there are four partners of the restaurant, three Malay Muslims and one Chinese non-Muslim. The operator is the Chinese partner but the three Malay Muslims were not there at the restaurant. She told us the restaurant had only started operations at this location on Sunday 24 August 2008.

From the brochure she gave to us, we knew that the restaurant had already started operation as Jinjang Fish Head in 1999, specialising in Thong San fish head and vegetables. It then opened up its second branch in Kepong and the third branch in Rawang. Throughout this period, the restaurant also appeared in Chinese language TV programmes such as 8TV "Ho Chiak" and Astro Wah Li Tai "1 Day 5 Meal". Realising the potential of Halal market, de templer Restaurant was established as a joint venture with the three Malay partners.

Unlike Cheng Ho Restaurant which we had lunch a month ago (which was featured in my earlier blog posting), de templer Restaurant is very spacious, twice the size of Cheng Ho Restaurant. However unlike Cheng Ho Restaurant, there were not many customers at de templer Restaurant when we were there. However I would say that the food was more delicious and the service was much better at Cheng Ho. Nonetheless, I would confess that the brinjals with salted eggs at de templer was the most delicious brinjals that I ever had. Similar to Cheng Ho, de templer also does not serve any dessert, but we had plenty of choice on drinks, which we did not have at Cheng Ho.