Mie On Penang after 19 months

When I started blogging somewhere 2007, I managed to separate my working life and personal life as it was already quite balance. I refused then to blog so much about my working life as I was dealing a lot with housing problems - sales and purchase agreements, rehabilitation of abandoned housing projects, prosecutions of rogue developers etc. Looking back, if i was to compile all these work stories, it may be a bestseller hehehehe

Here in Penang, working life rules! So can't help lah selit-selit about work. Gosh ... I couldn't enjoy my weekends. Got calls on odd hours. Kadang-kadang tu teringin jugak tak dapat tidur malam sebab terbayang-bayang seseorang. Ni tidak, cannot sleep sebab worried work tak siap. Kadang-kadang wish jugak my heart pumping hard because nampak object yang "lazat" mata memandang. Ni tidak, jantung berdegup kencang sebab nampak no telefon yang tak lazat appeared on phone screen hahaha

Though I have all the priviledges of a state Director but at this age ... I think I deserve a good rest. Had been doing this when I was 41-44 officers. Btw, I hope the Housing Act amendment are being carried out smoothly ... it was already 80% complete when I left. Bukan nak take credit, but it was a team 4 people yang really think about it from 2009- april 2010 ... now semua left Ministry due to better offer. Hari-hari balik pukul 9 malam. But weekends ... sorang pun tak kacau.

Penang to be honest post quite a challenge for me to handle. The greatest pressure is actually how to be different or better than my predecessors. And in order to do that I need a good team. Adoh, when we first start-up, some posts were not being filled up. And ada pulak officer bermasalah yang dihantar ke opis aku. OMG! Ada yang sebok dengan DAP (Di Alam Percintaan), ada yang ada kes tatatertib, ada yang sebenarnya lari dari negeri asal sebab tak bayar kontraktor heheheheeh ... tapi after probing further some are actually mild and can be tackled easily. Masih better than one of the state directors who had to handle isu staff tiba-tiba hilang dari ofis sebab masalah pankreas atau gout stage kritikal. 

But the funniest incident was when my HR officer told me that one of the staff is a disable person. The description given was "no hand and leg". I almost had a heart attack. So what can she do? Dahlah staff tak cukup, bagi pulak sorang yang OKU takde tangan dan kaki I nak buat macam mana? So when I arrived in Penang, I checked sorang-sorang yang takde tangan dan kaki. Rupa-rupanya the staff hands and legs are slightly deformed but she still can do work but slow. Now, she is one of my best staff handling homestay and program pelancongan pelajar. And has longer list of beau than me hehehe

Throughout 2010, I had been through many trials and errors ... polishing my people skills, building bridges and linking cultures, and trying to adapt Ministry's policy into Penang settings. Coincidentally,  many of the programs and products introduced by Ministry or to be exact, my Lady Boss actually work in Penang. Sometimes, it's hard to tell the OTAI of tourism in Penang that the tourism scene has change and we need to change. Itu belum lagi those who think they know better than you huhuhu

Entering the tourism market now are the Gen X and Gen Ys, both as tourists and tourism players. At the end of the day, what we want to get from tourism are income, job opportunities and of course leisure. Domestic tourism must also work for both local and foreign tourists. I looked at the growth of our budget carriers. Their routes, not only it must encourage outbound but it must also bring inbound as well. I relooked at all the concrete structures implemented during 8th-9th Malaysia plan. Many of those had become white elephants as people just know how to build but dunno how to market and used it to it's fullest capacity.

I know many people dislike Dato' Seri Idris and his PEMANDU team. But having worked with him for a month I learned one very valuable lesson, if we can change the way we work, no matter how simple the idea is to create a big impact and transformed the industry, why not?