Like Father Like Son...

I said I could write volumes on MAS. This is another piece.

Although this time it is about Firefly, it is also about MAS. Isn’t Firefly part of MAS?

My colleague in Singapore who usually does the all the plane bookings for me was not sure when I would like to swing over to Kuala Lumpur for my weekends. Although she had reminded me, I had totally forgotten until Thursday night. I duly went on-line to make a booking; it was about 11pm. My credit card was repeatedly declined, even though it was accepted for the travel insurance part. I tried to contact Firefly via its call centre. “Sorry, we are closed. We operate from what time to what time.” That was the voice mail I got. I called Maybank’s card centre.

“There was nothing wrong with your card, sir. The problem is with Firefly’s clearing bank was not able to communicate with our bank.”

The officer was most sympathetic, but he just could not do anything. He suggested I tried again an hour or so later.

I tried an hour later, which was past mid-night, and again, I was not able to effect the payment.

On my iPad next morning, I saw Firefly’s reminder for me to pay up. Again, my attempt proved futile.

At 8am, I called its call centre. This time the centre was manned. The officer confirmed that their system had been down since yesterday. At least he could effect my purchase over the phone.

My question is: if they know the system has been out, why don’t they have a standby arrangement, like ensuring the call centre is reachable to explain and process sales?

How many sales have they lost because of this? How much ill-will they have created?

These people simply don’t have any business concept, do they?

The Not-So First-World Side of Singapore

I have been in and out of Singapore every month for the last ten years, usually a week or two each stay. Everything appears to work efficiently in Singapore; there is no question about it. And you feel totally safe.

Is there anything to complain? Yes, there are a couple of things that are not quite befitting of its first world status. And they seem to have escaped the attention of the leaders of this city state; which is really unusual.

Its parks are very well kept; I usually take a morning walk along the stretch of Geylang River besides Nicoll Highway. I used to try to give a friendly wave to fellow walkers. But now I have stopped doing it. 90% of those I encountered were totally oblivious to my gesture. Some even gave me strange stares!

I used to rent an apartment at the Bukit Timah precinct. I ran into familiar faces all the time in the lifts. Sad fact is: I was totally invisible to many of them!

These people are not young; many are in fact of my age group. In Melbourne and Sydney, where I also lived for a couple of years, I would say three-quarters of the adults – old and young – would initiate or return pleasantries; in Malaysia and Indonesia, 50% would do the same, but Singapore. I reckon it is less than 10%.

The corner seats near the doors of its MRT are prioritised for the old and weak. I am old and bald; many would spring up to offer theirs to me. But believe me; those who did it for me are not the young and able people. You can see that they are non-Singaporean. The former are too engrossed with their smartphones or iPads or the likes to care!

More discerning visitors might also have noticed the sliminess of the food trays one sees in food courts in many parts of Singapore, including those in the squeak and clean, upmarket Suntec City. The picture below was taken in one of the food courts there. I remember I wrote to The Straits Times about this some years ago. There was no response. I even chided some food stalls about it. “Oh, that’s the cleaners’ business!” appears to be the standard answer.

Yak, so slimy!

I am sure many Singaporeans would say that I am being too sweeping in drawing conclusions. The people, like me, may not be Singaporeans at all. They might be right; but is there any harm in "educating" these visitors and new PRs or citizens some ABCs of good habits and behaviours?

Those Top Ostriches at MAS...

You don't need to be a Michael Porter or Henry Mintzberg or one of those McKinsey MBAs to tell you why MAS is in such a bad shape!

I travel on MAS between Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur virtually every month. I can see the continual deterioration of its service. I pity the cabin crew; they are a very nice lot. Unfortunately, the weaknesses  of their management have turned them into a bunch of apologists - for no fault of theirs.

A case in point is my Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur flight on MH148 recently. I chose Baramundi for my main course only to be told by the steward that they had run out of this choice.

How could they run out of choices when they were charging me more than four times the economy fare for my business ticket?

I insisted and somehow they did produce my choice. The inflight supervisor was most apologetic; I simply told him that I was not trying to be difficult. I just wanted him to register my complaint with his management or those who are operating from their ivory tower.

When it was ice-cream time, I reminded them the stuff they offered used to be handed out to me when I was travelling economy, which I still often do. They agreed whole-heartedly.

Please don't get me wrong. I was not trying to be snobbish. I was just trying to say that those in the ivory tower of MAS do not know how to run a business!

Product consistency is something that is in short supply in MAS. Take this particular flight I am referring to. Not a single copy of its Temptation magazine (for in-flight shopping) could be found. Why? This is not the first time I noticed this oversight. It happened in a similar flight a few years ago. It was an Airbus 330, if I could remember correctly. The excuse: Oh; it was new. I suspected it was because they had forgotten to go through the checklist. (I promptly wrote to Ahmad Jauhari [who else?] and guess what? There was no response!)

And look at the audio-video control in the picture shown. The Boeing 777-200 could not be a new plane; but the cabin looked new. It must have been refurnished recently. But its system was a dinosaur! What happened, MAS? Why are you paying for obsolescence?

I am also a frequent flyer on Singapore Airlines. They know where the profit is. It is in the business class! They spare no effort in pampering these customers of theirs. And not surprisingly, their business class is usually full. No wonder they are laughing all the way to the bank and MAS is forever begging for bail-outs by the government.

I suppose you don't really need to be good to be a CEO in Malaysia's GLCs; what is paramount is that you must have the necessary "know-who". MH17 was bad luck, but certainly not MH370. It was a management failure traceable all the way to the CEO!

I just finished a book called Execution – the Discipline of Getting Things Done – by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. The whole book boils down to this: The failure is the enterprise is directly attributable to the CEO. Why waste another M$6 billion restructuring MAS? All you need is a good CEO and there are plenty in Malaysia!

Before I forget, just a couple of days ago, I tried to redeem my frequent flyer points with MAS. Its online system on it Enrich programme doesn’t work on iPAD, when everybody else’s can.  Luckily I still have my laptop. I clicked Enrich; it led me to nowhere. I finally figured out how to access. But I just couldn’t do my redemption on-line after many trials. The explanation given on-line was totally mickey-mousy. I made a call to its call centre from Melbourne. The girl was totally helpless; she also did not know why things couldn’t work from her end either. I asked if her supervisor could call back, since there was not point my waiting on the line to see her performing a miracle. An hour or so later, I tried to call again. I kept hearing “You will be attended shortly” but that "shortly" never came; I hanged up. Two hours or so later, a lady from MAS called; she confirmed that their system was faulty. She had also got my wife tickets finalised. MAS’s computers were not talking to one another. Is that the staff’s fault? NO, many of them are actually very good. The problems lie with those ostriches at the top! These people up there never had to make a booking themselves.

I can write volumes on MAS's shortcomings.

My wife says I am always complaining. Why not, when I have hardly any choice besides MAS?

WHEN THE PARTY ENDS - China's leaps after the Beijing Olympics by Peh Shing Huei

When I first saw this book at Changi Airport, I did not even bother to cast a second look. I thought I had had enough of books on China already. After a round of the book shop and still finding myself empty-handed, I reluctantly picked it up - only to see later it is indeed one of the most objective books I have come across on modern Mainland China.

The author is The Straits Times of Singapore' journalist who got assigned to cover China for a couple of years. He has the benefit of both Western and Chinese perspectives of Chinese social psyche. On China's handling of Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines over some of the disputed islands in East and South China Seas, he presents facts as they are without the "baggage" of Chinese-ness. The leadership in China appears to practise 臥薪嘗膽 (loosely, to ensure hardship to fight another day) the detriment of its own good. And the recent leaders have apparently forgotten the teachings of Deng after the 2008 Olympics and Shanghai Expo. The air of arrogance and intolerance that is emerging is suffocating, even to a an ethnic Chinese like Peh.

The book reveals a great about pollution in China, the food safety issues there and the ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. As a "civilisation" with which many of us are proud to be identified, we certainly can learn a great deal from his exposé, especially on ethics, scruples and social conscience, or more correctly, the lack of them, by Chinese businesses.

However the book is not without conspiracy theories as it wants to be. The chapters on Bo Xilai are a case in point. Nonetheless, the insights are gripping, save the top level intrigue part.

I hope this book will get translated and gain widespread readership in Mainland China. 

Sanitation

I copied this picture from Malaysia Chronicle. It is said to be taken by a Singaporean near the MRT station at China Town. What the boy was doing is too obvious for us to miss. Apparently the Singaporean tried to tell the PRC woman that she should have taken the boy to a toilet to do his business; instead, the Singaporean was told to mind her business. She also took the liberty to leave all the soiled tissue pieces behind.

This picture reminds me of an article I read in The Economist. It was about India's sanitation, or the lack of it. The article carries the following picture, which is pretty self-explanatory.

I visited the Shaolin Monastery in Louyang a couple of years ago. The nearest town is actually Song-shan. While we were walking along the town's main thoroughfare, I actually saw a young boy doing his business on the road, looked on by his very stylishly-dressed mother. To stares from hill-billies like us, she must be wondering "What's the big deal?".

I tended to make this sweeping statement to friends: People of some of the world's oldest civilisations appear to be the least civilised in terms of public hygiene and sanitation. And this is Century 21st!

Not Domestic Maids;They are Domestic Helps!

A friend posted a couple of pictures in Facebook of his family’s reunion with a former domestic help of theirs. I was taken aback somewhat; he is still using the term “domestic maid” in this era.

In the feudalistic or imperial old days, slaves were bought and sold to do one’s menial and dirty tasks. Many were treated like sub-humans; whipping was common. With slavery outlawed, these tasks had still to be performed. If one is rich, one could hire an army of them. But few actually use such a term nowadays. (But if you are a bureaucrat, no matter how senior you are, ironically, you are still a government servant, aren’t you?)

When Filipinas were first recruited over, we called them Filipino maids. They were laer joined by Indonesian maids, followed by Bangladeshi and Cambodian maids. These poor souls have to leave behind their husbands and children to serve in environments that are totally alien to them. Many are subject to abuses by their employers. A couple of deaths actually resulted.

I thought the term very degrading. I would use the term Domestic Help instead.

Wits versus Pot-shots

Wittiness is a gift. Some are born with it; others grow to have it – in speeches, writings, drawings or even casual conversations.  You enjoy people who are witty. The ingenuity in their messages has the power to evoke spontaneous laughter by their audience. The things they say may seem incongruous to the occasion, nonetheless, they don't quite appear irrelevant. They can be ice breakers in tense situations.

On the other hand, people who throw pot-shots OFFEND, even though their subjects may not protest. (Many are also too dignified to reciprocate!) These pot-shot throwers may or may not realise their folly. They think they are clever or witty which, in actual fact, they are not. I have come across many of these characters in life. They are not people of poor upbringing. Many are products of top business schools. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have this to know their foolishness: self-awareness.

My concept of a pot-shot thrower! Hi Jeff, no offence intended!

From my 9-year-old grandson Maxel

I can go on and on to illustrate these two with examples; but to do so will mean I will lose a couple of friends. These people are intelligent, but do not possess wisdom!