Prelude ~ My friend from Switzerland told me once that in his country, people do not need to re-confirm their appointments. He said once you’ve agreed, both parties will undertake the commitment to fulfil their obligation without having to be reminded to do so. Sounds really wonderful. When re-work/correction/re-check are not required, we have more time to attend to other pressing issues. Wastage goes down, efficiency goes up....voila, we have a very productive society and everybody goes home a happy camper in this beloved Bolehland. Sadly, more often than not, that is not the case here.
Judging from my recent encounters with various inefficiencies and obstacles when dealing with our own systems, I am afraid to concede that our society is a long way from becoming a world class......and to think that Tun Mahathir’s Vision 2020 is not too far down the corner already.....sigh...come on, wake up!!!!.
I was recently given the run around trying to register my twins for Year 1. I finally got my order to transfer to KL in late November, leaving me with no choice but to register my kids well beyond the stipulated deadline. I went to the state education department, and was told that all registration must be done online. Registration online –checked! I went to the preferred school after that but was told they have no say whether my kids can attend school there, ‘school placement will be done by the district education department-via online’. After waiting for the ‘2 week window’ for the process to take its due course, and still no news of the school for my kids, I decided then to go to the district education department. To my disbelief there were at least a hundred disgruntled parents there with all sorts of issues ranging from not being able to send their kids the school they prefer, to their kids being sent to schools in a different district. And to think there were that many ‘re-work/correction/re-check’ that had to be done.......what an inefficient on-line system!!! Anyway, in my case, I was told that while I’d done my registration on-line, the school had yet to ‘confirm’ my registration online, despite my showing of the school’s stamp on my kids’ birth certificates. No...no...it has to be done online. I was dumbfounded but decided to remain patience......and asked, 'what does it take now for the process to move forward'. The lady said, ‘give it a week for the school to confirm online, and re-check after that’. I decided to go back to the school to ‘drive’ the process. True enough, with a little insistence, the ‘confirmation’ was done within half an hour-via online! I wanted to go back to the district education department immediately but was told earlier that the officer who could make the decision was not around. ‘You can call him personally on Wednesday when he comes back....Here’s his number’. Thank you!!! So, came Wednesday, I gave the gentlemen a call. He was very nice, and told me that he took extra effort to rectify all outstanding school placements and asked me to just check the system. Believing this could be the end of my misery I gave the system another try. And a false hope it was as the status had not changed beyond what I saw on Monday. A little agitated, I gave the guy another call. He said, ‘I may have overlooked some names, I’ll rectify them today and you should see it by tomorrow. If it’s still not rectified then, call me back right away’. Surprise...surprise...came next day, still no school for my kids in the system. He said, 'the system has been very slow, I will try to do it this weekend, so please check again on Monday'. Sigh....double sigh.....Still no confirmation of school for my twins......We are still at the ‘we’ll try’ stage and don’t know how long before we can get to ‘we can confirm’ stage.
The following are some things that didn't go right the first time related to my sister’s wedding preparation:
~ The hall for the wedding was filthy with trash and I had to clean it up myself. The guy responsible promised to send somebody to clean the mess up (which should have been cleaned before the hall was handed over to us). That somebody never arrived and the person responsible eventually simply refused to answer our calls.
~ The lady who was supposed to prepare the ‘pelamin’ on stage promised to come to set it up in late afternoon before the wedding day, then delayed it till early night, then delayed it again till before 11pm, and her final promise was before the next morning. Last I checked at 0120am, the pelamin was not there and she stopped answering her phone. She quietly set the pelamin up without our presence early next morning, and when we arrived later, we had to re-adjust the setting for the cake cutting ceremony because it was placed too far back. Sooooo very easy to get this one done right the first time and yet, so much rework and adjustment had to be made. After taking into consideration that she also ‘deliberately’ forgot and had to be reminded that she was supposed to provide fresh and not artificial flower bouquet for the bride, as well as trying to escape from her commitment of providing red carpet at the walk way, it’s is safe to assume that I’m not going to recommend her to others.
And this one was my experience dealing with the most famous rugby brand in the world....we are obviously talking about the ‘local’ company representing the brand.
~ How difficult is it to do jersey alteration? Piece of cake you say. That was what they said too.......but the truth is it’s been 8 months!!! ...and still they can’t get it right.
How about trying to change billing addresses and to cancel some services following the news of my transfer to KL? I have already called my credit cards companies, phone & internet service provider, satellite TV company, mobile phone company etc ....they all sounded very helpful and friendly over the phone....at least we’ve got to that stage now in this country. Should I be optimistic and run my hopes way up there that there will be no hick ups? I’d love to be proven wrong....please...please prove me wrong!!!!! However, after weighing the prospects I am already gearing up for another round of phone calls to these companies to straighten things out. As I said, prove me wrong....PLEASE!!!!
Well, I have already accepted that I can’t change the world we live in. I know though that giving up is not an option as we will continue spiralling down if nothing is done now. So let’s start small....let’s fulfil all our little promises and commitment. Let’s get things right the first time.....or at least let’s strife to at least make that a real objective and not accepting anything less unless there is a concrete reason for it. I’ve always believed that the place to start is within my own family. Then on to my dealing with others, be it at work place or in my social encounters with people. Let’s take our promises and commitment more seriously, especially so when we know that the way we react/respond affects others directly or indirectly.
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