musings from the sidewalk

I like visiting Haridas. He and I share a common passion -- for English literature, and I'm amazed by the ease he would quote from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar or Macbeth! We were also from the same school, me senior to him by a year, and both of us enjoy writing, and often we exchange notes --he's already a noted writer in the Tamil community.

He is a fresh government pensioner, and now helps out at a Teh Tarik stall (run by one of his sons) adjoining a town road somewhere in Malaysia where the madding crowd stop by for his hot nasi lemak with kambing or chicken curry, or his roti canai, or special nasi goreng that tastes "above par" because he throws in lots of onions and garlic ... all washed down with piping hot teh tarik! I pamper myself with an extra teh-o iced limau or a second teh tarik with susu lembu, it's exquisite especially on a cold night!

Haridas was quieter than normal when I paid my routine -- at least once a week -- inspection of his business, that runs from about 6.30pm, arriving at 10.30 last night. I was direct in asking why there was just a sprinkling of customers at only three of his tables, numbering 10. At this hour, most times only one or two tables would be unoccupied, and sometimes I would have to share a table with "strangers". But sidewalk strangers become acquainted easily, that's the beauty.

Haridas' lament was that for the past few days (which did not rain), business had been unusually slow. He could not really pin it down to any definite reasons.

Could it be that fewer workers involved in transportation (like drivers of lorry, bus, taxi or other vehicle using diesel) are just hampered in dropping by for their makan and drinks? You should know by now the raging "diesel shortage" crisis besetting those involved in this sector the recent days! On the TV news just before I came visiting, the minister concerned, Shafie Apdal, was reported to have promised that the problem of diesel shortage -- due mainly to smuggling -- would be overcome in 48 hours.

Maybe, Haridas said, that is one factor, but he also expressed the view that many other goings-on in the country were upsetting people's spending power, like the recent hikes in toll, public transport including bus, and taxi charges. Definitely consumer goods' prices are rising in tandem, but workers' wages are not keeping up.

Our PM's chief enemy?

I told him that another buddy of mine working in the property and construction sector had reported that the business is struggling, indicated by plunging cement prices (by some 50 percent, the situation three weeks ago), the problem compounded by the vast numbers of "illegal" Indonesian workers who went home under the amnesty programme, but did not return to Malaysia legally (in the numbers as expected by the Malaysian government). So there will be a shortfall of construction workers for some time while the government tries recruiting from other source countries like Pakistan, Vietnam and India.

Haridas and I also discussed some politics. Both of us believed that when Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi assumed the helm of leading the country one-and-half years back, there was unreserved support for his expressed wish to deliver a clean, accountable and caring gocvernment. But has he lost steam?

My guess, concurred with by my politically-informed mate who had contested as a candidate for a State Assembly seat some years back, is that Pak Lah meant well, we don't doubt his determination and sincerity. The main dilemma facing him is that he inherited a system very entrenched in bureaucratic redtape, unaccountability and in many public service departments (not all, I emphasise here) that were not, and are not, customer-orientated. The biggest hurdle to beat is that of corruption -- entrenched like a cancer, spreading stealthily like a thief at night, if not arrested or excised. Would the PM's subordinates work with him, that's the question.

To be or not to be, that's the question -- I add, to be single-minded about the fight against corruption, public enemy number one for Malaysia, in desiderata's humble opinion. If this our government's chief enemy too?