KUALA TERENGGANU REVISITED 2013

The few times that I had gone to Kuala Terengganu, I made Pasar Payang a must place to visit. My visit to Kuala Terengganu will not be complete if I don't include Pasar Payang.
We went to Pasar Payang twice during our Terengganu holiday recently. We were there in the second week of the school holidays.
The Monday that we went there, the one-way road leading to the market was jammed with vehicles. My brother dropped us off in front of the market, drove off and waited elsewhere for our phone call for him to pick us up after we finished shopping. We forgot that we could have just gone to the Ri-Yaz Heritage Resort and Spa, parked the car there and take the “bot penambang” from the resort to Pasar Payang.
The next day, however, traffic wasn’t that bad. My brother managed to find parking but we split up – he went off with his wife while his son and daughter were with me – to do our shopping. We took the trishaw back to the hotel as they (my brother and wife) had not finished with their shopping yet.
My niece and nephew enjoyed the market. The groundfloor of the market housed the wet produce and foodstuff such as local snacks, serunding, turtle eggs and local delicacies. Traders on the first floor were selling caftans, clothes, batik textiles and traditional household items.

What would Kuala Terengganu be without the Pasar Payang? The Kuala Terengganu museum and the Taman Tamadun Islam where the Masjid Kristal is located is not a crowd-puller to the town.
The one time I went there with three other friends, we saw a makcik smoking “rokok daun” at the market. We ended up buying the rokok daun, where you have to roll up the tobacco with the nipah leaves, and smoking them back at the hotel.
And you can find brassware items like the tepak sireh and the dulang hantaran commonly used in Malay weddings for a fraction of the price if you buy it in Kuala Lumpur.
So, I can understand why and shoppers alike prefer for Pasar Payang to remain where it is. One trader I spoke to said Pasar Payang needed refurbishment instead of being torn down.
He told me that he couldn’t be selling his wares at the current prices if he were to move to the new premise across the road. Most of the traders at Pasar Payang are paying RM200+ in rental compared with the RM2,000+ at Menara Warisan. There are some 1,000 traders and the double-storey Pasar Payang.
I personally see Pasar Payang as a heritage building, never mind if it is not yet 100 years old. If Oxford’s definition is anything to go by, Pasar Payang is has the “valued objects and qualities such as historic buildings and cultural traditions that have been passed down from previous generations.”
And I would support any efforts to “Selamatkan Pasar Payang”  (the facebook page is here) for the character and colours it provide to the façade of Kuala Terengganu.

ONCE IN FIVE YEARS OR LESS (12)

GE13. Well, we got over that, didn’t we?
BN was returned to power; it regained Kedah but still lost Kelantan, Selangor and Penang. The Cabinet was named. Executive councillors were appointed by the respective menteri besar and chief ministers.  Kelantan, Kedah, Perlis and Johor are now helmed by new Menteri Besar while Malacca has a new Chief Minister. 
Have I missed anything major?
Oh, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has not resigned from politics although he said he would do so if he is not Prime Minister. Well, I never believed he would do it in the first place.
Now he is said to be contemplating to boycott the opening session of the 13th parliament sitting on June 24. What next?
Anyway, GE13 gave me a totally new experience. I was a little disappointed initially that for the first time in my career, I was not part of the newspaper’s election coverage team but there was a blessing in disquise.
I was in between projects at work and took the opportunity of the free time in hand to embed myself in a candidate’s campaign team.
I count myself lucky as I know the Barisan Nasional candidate, Datuk Tengku Putra Haron Aminurrashid bin Tan Sri Tengku Abdul Hamid Jumat, who contested the Kempas state seat against PAS candidate Suhaizan Kaiat.
Tengku Putra and I have known each other through the blogsphere for five years now. It was a new experience for him too as it was his first time contesting as a candidate in the general elections. And, he was contesting as a candidate in my constituency.
I spent three consecutive weekends prior to polling day in Johor Bahru, in Kempas to be exact. I didn’t go home in my capacity as a journalist; I was there as a constituent and a registered voter.
I wanted to see for myself how a new candidate like Tengku Putra undertakes a campaign and eventually winning the election.
I can tell you that a short campaigning period – two weeks or less – is not enough for a new candidate to cover the constituency he is contesting in especially if it was a big one. Most often than not, the Opposition candidate would have the upper hand as they already know that they will be contesting the seat way ahead and would already start their campaign before the nomination day is announced.
It was almost impossible to cover every nook and corner of Kempas. One of the best ways to interact with voters is to go on a walkabouts at public places.
When Tengku Putra’s name was announced at the candidate for the state seat of Kempas, there were rumblings among the constituents who claimed that they didn’t know or even heard of him.  They said he wasn’t visible enough.
Those in Umno know him well enough, having served the party for 20 years, with the last 10 years holding the position of vice chief of the Pulai division. Among the “citizens of Kempas”, as he calls his electorate, he is really the new kid on the block.
He undertook three to four walkabouts a day. He attended Maghrib and Isyak prayers at mosques in the area to enable him to get to know the congregation. He went to people’s gatherings at night, often finishing way past midnight.  Post-mortems are carried out after the day’s campaigning ends.
On one particular Saturday that I followed him, he attended four weddings and one funeral. In between, he visited a gotong royong, the dilapidated house of a voter who he was helping to rebuild and meeting voters at a food court . There was also one morning that we ran in the heavy rain for a walkabout at a marketplace in the constituency.
He didn’t have a big team to handle his campaign but together, they came up with ideas to “promote” him. It was all about “branding” and “marketing” the candidate.
To overcome the “problem of visibility”, his campaign team came up with billboard advertising as one of the ways to “introduce” him as a candidate. A total of 21 "billboard" (billboards), measuring 15 feet by 10 feet each, were placed at strategic areas in Kempas. The billboards in Malay, with the tagline “Disinilah Kempas”, were placed in the Malay majority areas while the “This Is Kempas” billboards in English were put up at the Chinese and Indian majority areas.
On the eve of polling, the team physically moved some of these mounted billboards (without have to dismantle them) nearer to the polling stations. It was quite a massive operation, having to re-direct traffic to do it, and they successfully completed their mission before midnight.
When they conceptualized the billboards, they didn’t realize how big the impact of the campaign would be.
On polling night at the Dewan Jubli Intan in Johor Bahru where the Election Commission returning officer announced Tengku Putra as the new state assemblyman for Kempas, the “This is Kempas” tagline became a war cry.
I have covered many elections before this but this is the first time that I heard an impromptu war cry by supporters.
It was an extremely long night for most of us.  It was at 3am when the returning officer announced the results to the public. Although the candidates were informed officially of the results at midnight (we were told to gather at the hall at 10.30pm), we were informed that the returning officer needed for the results to be “wartakan” in Kuala Lumpur before being given the go-ahead to make the public announcement.
We left the hall right after and headed for very late dinner with his family and team members.
I woke up at noon to join the newly Yang Berhormat Mulia Datuk Tengku Putra and his family for late lunch and later for a small tahlil kesyukuran at his family home before flying home on Tuesday morning after the election.

Happy Teachers' Day

To all my teachers at Convent Infant Jesus Johor Bahru, Maktab Adabi Maharani Muar and Cambridge College and my supervisors at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your dedication to your profession.

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." - William Arthur Ward

ONCE IN FIVE YEARS OR LESS (11)

This is a thank you letter from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak which I received in my mailbox today.

Fauziah Ismail yang dikasihi,

Kita baru sahaja menempuh satu proses demokrasi yang terbesar dan paling mencabar di negara kita. Di setiap kampung, pekan dan bandar, setiap rakyat telah berdebat, berkempen dan mengundi untuk masa hadapan negara. Saya amat berterima kasih dengan segala usaha yang telah dilakukan oleh semua pihak yang selama ini telah berusaha gigih dan berdiri teguh di samping saya dan parti. Dengan penuh tawaduk saya juga mengucapkan terima kasih kepada para pengundi yang telah memberikan kepercayaan kepada kepimpinan Barisan Nasional untuk terus mentadbir negara.

Saya telah berkhidmat sebagai penjawat awam hampir sepanjang pengalaman kerjaya saya selama ini. Saya masih ingat lagi kali pertama saya dipilih menjadi Ahli Parlimen, kali pertama saya berucap di Parlimen dan kali pertama saya menjalankan tanggungjawab sebagai ketua jabatan kerajaan. Sepanjang empat tahun yang lalu saya telah diberi peluang pula untuk berkhidmat untuk negara ini di peringkat tertinggi sebagai Perdana Menteri.

Namun pencapaian paling bererti tercatat pada awal pagi Isnin lalu adalah apabila saya diberi mandat oleh rakyat untuk menyempurnakan segala perancangan dan perlaksanaan yang telah saya mulakan sejak empat tahun yang lalu.

Saya merasakan pilihan raya kali ini merupakan yang paling sengit dalam sejarah negara. Sepanjang beberapa minggu kebelakangan ini, begitu banyak pandangan dan hujah-hujah yang berbeza ditawarkan kepada rakyat. Ada yang menyemarakkan semangat, tetapi ada juga yang menimbulkan kemarahan dan prasangka. Kini tempoh pilihan raya telahpun berakhir; tibalah masanya untuk kita kembali ke arah kedamaian dan keharmonian demi Malaysia yang dicintai.

Kerajaan Barisan Nasional akan berusaha bersungguh-sungguh untuk menolak fahaman ekstrem dan perkauman yang tidak memanfaatkan negara kita. Selain itu, kami juga akan meneruskan usaha untuk meningkatkan amalan konsep kesederhanaan atau wasatiyyah di kalangan rakyat berbilang kaum di Malaysia.

Janji saya kepada anda hari ini adalah untuk menjadi Perdana Menteri bagi seluruh rakyat Malaysia – tidak kira agama, bangsa, mahupun ideologi politik anda. Cinta saya terhadap negara kita tidak mampu saya jelaskan dengan kata-kata, dan saya amat bangga serta bersyukur dengan pencapaian Malaysia sehingga ini. Saya percaya, jika kita bekerjasama sebagai satu bangsa negara, insya-Allah kejayaan yang lebih besar lagi akan berada di dalam genggaman kita.
Najib Razak

ONCE IN FIVE YEARS OR LESS (10)

I received this in my mailbox today, an email from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
For the past six months or so, I have been receiving phone calls and SMSes from the Opposition. This email from the Barisan Nasional chairman and Umno president is a refreshing change.

Empat Tahun Membina Masa Depan Yang Lebih Cerah
Saudara/Saudari Fauziah Ismail.

Salam 1Malaysia,

Kelmarin genaplah empat tahun pentadbiran saya sebagai Perdana Menteri. Sepanjang tempoh itu, saya dan para Jemaah Menteri telah berusaha sedaya upaya untuk memberi khidmat terbaik kepada seluruh rakyat Malaysia.

Matlamat saya adalah untuk melihat negara kita ini terus maju. Sebab itulah, saya sentiasa bekerja keras bagi memastikan hasrat itu tercapai.

Sebaik memegang jawatan Perdana Menteri, saya telah memperkenalkan prinsip 1Malaysia yang menekankan mengenai perpaduan di kalangan rakyat berbilang kaum di negara ini. Menerusi prinsip ini, saya telah perkenalkan pelbagai inisiatif yang memberi manfaat dan meringankan beban setiap rakyat tidak kira bangsa mahupun kepercayaan agama mereka.

Semasa mula-mula mengambil alih tampuk pentadbiran negara, ekonomi global berada pada keadaan tidak menentu. Namun, pengenalan Program Transformasi Ekonomi telah berjaya memberi kemajuan ekonomi kepada negara sekali gus mengelakkan kita dari terjerumus ke kancah kegawatan ekonomi yang berterusan.

Dalam tempoh itu juga, saya telah melaksanakan pelbagai transformasi politik yang memberi lebih kebebasan kepada Rakyat. Ini termasuklah dengan meminda, memansuh serta menggantikan undang-undang yang dianggap tidak lagi sesuai dilaksanakan dalam landskap politik semasa.

Selain itu, pentadbiran saya juga turut menyumbang kepada kepimpinan global. Pergerakan Kesederhanaan Global yang saya perkenalkan mendapat pengiktirafan ramai pemimpin dunia termasuk Presiden Amerika Syarikat, Barack Obama dan Perdana Menteri Britain, David Cameron.

Kerajaan pentadbiran saya sentiasa berusaha untuk merapatkan hubungan dengan Rakyat. Maka sebab itulah Kerajaan memperkenalkan saluran secara online untuk menggalakkan penglibatan Rakyat dalam setiap keputusan Kerajaan. Laman sosial seperti Facebook dan Twitter benar-benar membantu saya bukan sahaja berkomunikasi malah juga mendengar suara hati Rakyat.

Untuk itu, dengan pembubaran Parlimen ke-12 kelmarin, kini, terpulanglah kepada anda untuk menilai kerja keras kami selama ini. Teruslah menyokong saya dan kongsilah emel ini bersama rakan-rakan, ahli keluarga atau rakan sekerja anda agar kita dapat sama-sama memastikan impian untuk menjadikan Malaysia sebagai sebuah negara berpendapatan tinggi menjelang 2020 dapat dicapai.

Najib Razak