Category: From My Angle

Bear with me, super duper long post. Since there’s someone who said that I like to whine and complain a lot, then here you go…

MH = Malaysian Hospitality? Oh… I’m thinking twice about it now. As some of you know, I was one of the media from Kuching who was sent to cover two events last weekend in KL, I had the privilege to fly MH which many people envied and I could also collect Enrich point. It’s my first time being flown to cover event after so many years of blogging! So excited! There were 8 of us from major newspapers in Kuching and I was the only blogger.

Last Friday, 30th September 2013, I went to the airport to take the flight that was supposed to fly at 10.50am. I knew no one from the media that time, saw a few but wasn’t very familiar with them so basically we’re all pretty much strangers to each other. Finally we boarded the plane, sat there, waited for take off. It was an unusual long wait, almost half hour if not mistaken.

Left: I looked up, oh!!! First time saw this hahaha… I was sent a photo of this last year by someone when he was on business trip telling me he’s on such old plane ;p Never thought that I will be seeing it with my own eyes so I took a photo of it while waiting just for the fun of it.

Ok… Before you people start saying that many planes are old, flying more than 20 years and so on but they are maintained at a very high standard. This I know. Don’t have to lecture me on that if you know who I had been in a relationship with before. I am always confident with the airline industry so it doesn’t matter at all to me how old the plane is. If it’s not flight worthy, it won’t be flying. Apart from that, I am in fact looking up to those in this industry with utmost respect. If I am tall enough, I would have apply to be an air-stewardess but too bad I’m not.

I’ve been flying a fair bit these few years. Never did I experience any delay, not with any airline (be it premium or budget, international or domestic, local or foreign carrier, I flew with SQ most of time for international flight when I was in Adelaide) all on time. However, the recent Europe trip, I did experience some delay when we flew back to Kuching with MH, it was a short delay, no big deal. It was my very first flight delay that time. This time… This story, it’s my longest flight delay in my entire life and had to change to another airline to fly at the very last minute.

Back to the story. I almost dozed off waiting because I was pretty sleepy, waking up very early and sleeping late the night before. Suddenly the announcement came, I thought it was just the apology for the delay and we would fly soon but it was asking us to disembark because of technical issue and the flight would delay for maybe 2-3 hours. It’s a good thing all passengers were rather calm about it, didn’t make a fuss at all.

Right: We were compensated with meal voucher. While queuing, we got to know each other as we were practically seated next to each other in the plane. We could claim either from KFC or Marrybrown. KFC we went. So we went out of the departure hall to go to KFC.

From there, we mingled around. Since our event was at night, so we thought that should be fine, as long that we could fly before 4pm, we would be able to make it. So we just informed KL side that our flight was delayed. No one would expect it would delay for more than 3 hours as we were confident that MH should have a better standard than AK. Finally, we heard announcement saying that we could fly by 2.45pm. Excited! Everyone went back to Gate 8 to wait but at 3pm, came another announcement saying that it’s going to be delayed again. Now! We started to panic! However, we still had faith, as long that it could fly by 4pm, we’re still in time.

Then suddenly, someone overheard people saying that the flight was likely to fly only after 7.30pm, a new plane with new set of crew will be flown in. This time, we immediately went back to the counter, tried to request to be slotted into any empty seats in any flight flying out at the same time claimed another meal voucher. There was no way for us to fly before 4pm, by the time we reached KL, the event would long ended already. We immediately informed our sponsor about it. After ding-dong-ding-dong, there’s no way to fly us with MH anymore and the representative of our sponsor from Kuching rushed to the airport at peak hour to “rescue” us and she bought us AK ticket to get us to KL.

Finally! We’re flying but with AK instead of MH. However, we still missed the event. At least we managed to get out of KIA after spending 8-9 hours in KIA! It’s amazing that we were still in surprisingly high spirit despite such delay. I was behind the camera. Photo taken while waiting to board our new flight. We’re a fun group of people 😉

We understood the difficulty of the airline. That’s why we didn’t make a fuss. However, what made us angry was that why there was no one from MH even bother to come out to inform us or check on us (all the economy class passengers, as I’m sure 1st and business class had managed to fly on the next flight) personally? It’s a crazy wait, people were getting frustrated, at least some MH staff should come and distribute bottled water to us as a token of apology or just have a chit chat to check on the passengers’ condition or something but no one showed up at all to do anything except making announcement via the sound system!

Many people also didn’t know they could claim another meal voucher for the wait. Is it so hard? It’s not 2-3 hours delay, it’s more than that. Should there be a simple courtesy by MH to do something to show that MH are truly hospitable? Where’s the Malaysian Hospitality that was promised? There’s also foreigners who got stranded, it’s not only Malaysians. What kind of impression are you giving to those foreigners? This reminds me of the Malay saying, “cakap tak serupa bikin”, means talk only but not executing it.

Just because we’re all flying economy, it doesn’t mean that we were less important than those flying 1st or business class. I am very sure AK is doing better in this part as some of us had experienced delay with AK but were compensated with RM200 voucher. No, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to request for such compensation from MH but at least show us that MH really cares about us, the Malaysian Hospitality.

MH, I’m disappointed with you.

So, the result is out and so many people are angry with it. As for me, expected it from the beginning, didn’t even bother to wait for the final one. All I know I’ve done my part. Problem now is the angry people. Again, I’m not siding any side for this, it’s just my observation on how most people reacted to it. At the same, I’m very disappointed with how some people had reacted to the result. I’m not disappointed at all with the result, if you had observed the strategies used in campaigning and consider the geographical and socioeconomic situation of the state, it’s not a surprise at all to get this result.

Before I go on with the negatives, I will talk about the positive points which obviously not many people bother to look at because they are too sad or angry to think straight.

1. The turnout is extraordinary! KUDOS! It proves that you all care about the country’s well-being and you are making history for creating a high turnout. This is enough to shake their confidence. They were so afraid of all of you hence all those dramas unfold. Even though they are still governing but you had made an impact and they will definitely be extremely careful with what they are doing. From the outside, they seemed arrogant, in fact, in the inside, I can guarantee you that they are already so afraid and shitting in their pants because they are human. Even animal will be afraid too if it encounters such issue. Who wants to show their ugly/weak sides to you right? Yes! You had made an impact. Keep it up!

2. Opposition had won more seats compared to the previous election. Also, look at the number of votes, the margin between the competitors, it’s HUGE! This is something you should be happy about. It’s getting there, just hang in there. Rome was not built in a day. Remember that! There’s no such thing as instant win even though it seemed promising however at the end it didn’t turn out as you wished. I’m sure the opposition leaders will fight with all their might, so do you even have the rights to give up now?

3. The world is watching now. So you think those people are not afraid? They are so afraid that they had to resort to all sort of strategies to prove their innocence or secure the seats but why worry? The world is watching. You are not alone. Whatever you’ve been fighting for wasn’t wasted. In fact, this is just a start. It’s not easy, it’s never easy. Keep it up!

Now the negatives:

1. Again… Photoshop! Goodness you people!! For eg. Sharing photo of Obama holding Bersih t-shirt. It’s not true! The actual photo was taken in 2009 in MIT, that’s MIT’s blue t-shirt not Bersih yellow t-shirt. Another random photos in the Internet which people edited. I don’t know who did this but I’m sure it’s not the work of the official, just some immature supporter’s work. Still, by doing so, you can cause the cause that you are supporting to be targeted by people who really want to destroy you and also potential supporters will not want to support it as it doesn’t seem as clean as it claimed to be.

2. Getting all emotional, changing profile photo to black, encouraging people to wear black and taping their mouth when they go out, change the country’s flag into black and white or hold it upside down and so on just to name a few. You know… By doing so won’t do you any good. You will only cause more troubles and provide easy avenue for you-know-who to launch attack on you and also your beloved party. You are not helping but making things worst! They can say that you have plans to disrupt harmony and peace of the country and so on. Yes, you want to show your dissatisfaction but this is not the right way to do it. Instead, you must stay calm, go on with your life as usual, show them how strong and rationale you are, you are not easily defeated otherwise people will take advantage of your weaknesses and turn the sword against you. The opposition leaders know what to do with it. If you respect them, then do them a favour by not giving up and refrain from immature acts.

3. Calling Sarawakians names simply because BN is leading here. If you have not been to Sarawak before especially the rural areas, then shut your mouth up. Do you know how big Sarawak is? Some people need to be taught Geography, Sarawak land size can fit in many states from peninsular Malaysia ok?!?! The map you see mostly are not actual size, that’s why you are misled. Also, Kuching is not in Sabah, thank you very much.

You don’t know the the real situation here. Frankly, even I myself have never been deep into the rural area and I have no reason too. I don’t want to also because I don’t think I can stand living in such places. Do you know, just to go into most of the rural areas, those extremely interior ones will requires hours of driving with four-wheel drive, next need to take hours of boat ride, then hours of walking just to reach the village, and with very little development, no electricity or even proper piping or sanitary system? We have a lot here as our land is too big and the jungle is dense. Along the way, you might get attack by leeches, mosquitoes, and so on. These are the places that made up BN winning seats.

These people do not get the chance to be exposed to the outside world much and they are afraid of strangers. You know how lucky you are or not? All they know is who is the one that is helping them no matter how small. RM100 is HUGE in their eyes, they have no choice at all. How do you expect them to change when no one is there to guide them? Did PR go deep into the jungle to campaign? No! None! Nil! Zero! Kosong! They only did it in the urban areas simply because they don’t have the resources in terms of skills, manpower, money and so on. Even if they managed to go in, they will have problem convincing them because they are afraid of outsiders unless someone they trusted bring them in. Again, PR doesn’t have such resource. What’s more for only showing up near election. As for the BN, the representatives of those areas will visit them from time to time the whole year through, that’s why they trusted him/her. At the end of the day, they will vote for BN for sure. It’s not an easy task for PR to do that, maintenance is very important and it takes ages!

Narrow minded people started to call us names but they did not see the big picture at all. Do you know that PR had won more seats in Sarawak this time around especially in the urban areas than it was. It’s an improvement already. Those other areas, they still need time. Furthermore, me and you, we are Malaysians, why do the condemning among ourselves? Did we Sarawakians call you names when some of the states in West Malaysia had fallen into another party’s hand? If you are oh-so-smart, then why don’t you go into the interior to educate and help them? Remember, not just staying there for short term but long term as you need to gain their trust. How many of you dare to do so? You would rather sleep in your air-con room, drive your car, have your Starbucks, play with your iPhone/iPad and so on than going into the jungle. Just talking or hiding behind your computer making degrading statements will not improve anything.

4. Boycotting. YO! Malaysians sure like to boycott but after awhile they forgot what/why they boycotted something for and life is back to how it used to. Might as well resign from the companies belong to you-know-who and their cronies to show your dissatisfaction. Don’t do it halfheartedly or quarterheartedly (I know… No such word), might as well do it wholeheartedly. Oh! Can you sense my sarcasm?

5. Playing up the racial sentiment, blaming certain race for their losses and so on. *shake head* not relevant anymore! Out of date already. You are just going to dig your own grave with that.

6. Calling the candidates names or cursing them. Talking about democracy and freedom? They are also human, they do no deserved to be condemned like that. Even though you don’t like the party they represented, you have to know that they too are like you and I, have father and mother, and make mistakes too. Don’t tell me you never make any mistake. Don’t talk like as if you’re a saint. What’s more, it’s an election, of course there are more than one parties to vie for the spot. Else, why is there an election in the first place?

Too many, too many silly things to share but I better stop here.

Remember, you had made your voice heard, don’t be so naive to think that with just one election you can vote the governing party out. It will take decades! You have no rights to give up when the leaders are not giving up whether it’s the governing one or otherwise. Also, we are all Malaysians, we had showed them that we are able to stand united as one, we must respect each other no matter what. Don’t simply mess with us especially we are now connected to the world. This is just the beginning, not the end. If you really want to help the country then stop being so naive and narrow minded as you will only be the laughing stock of the world because the whole world is watching.