Much Ado About Nothing

This morning I woke up quite early because I wanted to make sure that I would be ready to go to the Hospital for the appointment with my father. He was supposed to come for the preview last March but owing to certain unavoidable circumstances the date was rescheduled. The helper who always came early every Wednesday was surprised to see me up very early in the morning. She did not know that I had always been up early even upon my retirement. It's a good habit and better keep it so. What troubled me most on seeing the headlines is that about the purchase of Mercedes Benz by the Trengganu State Government for their Exco Members, including ex-officios. I thought it was a straightforward purchase and the money came from the State Coffers even though there's a circular about entitlement for cars by civil servants and others. But in fact, no State Government was ever banned from purchasing non-National vehicles for official purpose. The bigger picture is that, most Proton Perdanas are just shit cars! I was told by an experienced driver during my halycon days going around interviewing candidates who applied to become public servants from the middle-rung right up to management levels, that the V6 always had gearbox problems and to fix it would cost a bomb. I am not against Proton because I had owned the first generation protons when the Japanese supplied the engines and other components and they hardly broke down by the wayside. After Mitsubishi people withdrew from the Shah Alam plant, the downward slide began to appear and non-national cars captured the market share which were once dominated by EON and PROTON. It seemed that the people who were hemming the automaker were so complacent that even if they put up rubbish, people would still remained loyal to the brand. But what they did not figure out was in the real world, competition driven mind set was the one that ensured survival. I had read Lee Iaccoca and he turned around the ailing Chrysler and returned to the black. And now it seemed that even the Cabinet was concerned about what Terengganu State Govt wanted to do. Actually I had taken over the govt Mercedes Benz E200 and at first I wanted to sell it after 2 years. But then what car would give me the least trouble in the next twenty years? Only a Merc could last a lifetime provided one maintains it in mint condition. That's what my brother-in-law Khaliludin said to me. he said, " Abang, you could never find such fine cars made by the German automaker anymore. I had been to the plant in 1994 and was told by the foreman that it took them 5 years to train a really skilled worker who assembled the best cars in the world and there's no equal to it. Even the BMW is way far below the level of efficiency all round apart that it was a machine made in the Bavarian pig country of the German republic. The moral of the story is not so much whether we should be opting for the national car or not. With rising petrol prices it made good sense to purchase vehicles which give the optimum level of service for the next 25 or 30 years, and Merecedes Benz is one such brand. The Govt should not be penny wise pound foolish! As if the Federal Cabinet had no other important matter on their agenda but to waste time on such trifles. The kitchen Cabinet could have done a much better job at making sure Proton did not fit a reconditioned engine to their V6 which is already an obsolete brand and fit for the junkyard. Biarkan SiLuncai terjun dengan labu labunya, Biarkan Biarkan! The people in the Federal Cabinet are just a bunch of Lunchai's which would make M. Nasir green with envy since they had overtaken his recording company's trade name,"SiLunchai Emas".