The Special One

It is Thursday night now and that means we are 24 hours away from the weekend that we always look forward to. So, let me keep the cannons in the warehouse and bring out the balloons. Just for laughs and just today.

At around 10.30am this morning, I was sipping Dutch Lady Full Cream milk. Really, that's what I do almost every morning. A packet of milk a day, keeps Dr Ong away. But clearly, that's not working and I must get a new medical doctor.

The drama came when my phone buzzed. I received a new tweet mention. It was from "The Special One".

The Special One held a press conference and issued a press statement just to respond to my blog article that was picked up by Malaysiakini - YB Ong Kian Ming nakal. I was so touched YB.

Let me give you an analogy why. To me, it was like Spain having a press conference just to beat the drums to counter Timor Leste coach's words that in the upcoming friendly, Timor Leste will beat Spain 3-0. Of course, you are Spain - Member of Parliament, I'm Timor Leste - orang biasa.













A Member of Parliament held a press conference and issued press statement on my blog post that is not even endorsed or supported by the Maintenance Executive or Cleanliness Specialist in Prime Minister's Department.

Maybe I am the Special One to you YB. If you are not doing anything on Feb 14 next year, please call me. Chocolates are ok with me, no kisses please. Save that for someone else.

You won't call for a Press Conference to talk about this, right? But come to think of it, the probability is not zero. Some interesting words from a CNN anchorwoman recently that I heard on TV during the US Government shutdown: we are on day 9 of shutdown, hoping for a miracle and as we know with politicians, there will always be miracles.

Back to the press release. Here's the first paragraph:

In a comment piece in Malaysiakini yesterday[1], Mr Goh Wei Liang, a senior analyst at PEMANDU’s communications team under the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) tried to justify the high pay that the directors at PEMANDU were receiving.

The first paragraph itself was ...

A Malaysian Member of Parliament has just given me a new job scope and job title! According to the MP, I am now with the PEMANDU Communications Team and I am a Senior Analyst. I must call PEMANDU tomorrow morning and see what's my job scope in the Communications Team. Some of my contacts texted and called to check on why did I leave whatever I was doing to join Communications. But okay lah, at least this chap below congratulated me and said talk to you soon:

Anyway, the Special One has been going on and on about salaries. First, he said contract staff in Government agencies earn more than the Chief Secretary or their peers with the same rank in civil service. Then, when it was explained that it was similar or comparable with the difference being length of employment, the story shifted to "hey, be open and transparent about how much your staff are being paid!".

Speechless. My story and exposé on allowances and tickets skipped his eyes. Agensi Inovasi Malaysia skipped his eyes. Another case of gajah depan mata tak nampak, tapi bising pasal pasu bunga dekat kaki gajah.

For those of you who have been trying to figure out PEMANDU staff salaries and have been losing sleep at night, let me end your 'misery'. Here's something that I found on Google using the key words "recruitment pemandu analyst".

YES GOOGLE!









You do the math on others.

Before I sign out, let me tell you this. Most of the folks I know in PEMANDU were Managing Partners, Regional Directors, Senior Vice Presidents of MNCs, GLCs, consulting firm, etc.

None of them in PEMANDU chose to leave comfortable, long term jobs like PwC, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Petronas, Proton, DIGI, RHB, Telekom, MAS, Shell, Procter & Gamble, Sime Darby etc to work in Government with 2-year contracts and get bashed by politicians EVERYDAY. Betul abang, siapa suka kena tumbuk tak tentu pasal tiap tiap hari?

I am sure those in Government agree with me that they are better off playing marbles in Serdang. Or getting a job in REFSA.

Ok Doc. See you on 14 Feb.

NOTE: This blog post is the personal opinion of GWL and does not represent the views of anyone in the Government of Malaysia, including the maintenance guy.