Passing of the Malaysian "Toilet King"

Me only heard of his name a few days ago when news of his passing came out in the papers. There has been a lot of changes in the Malaysian political scene lately and him being a deputy minister would have to be contented with less public attention - hence not many, including meself, would have been familiar with his name.

However, the thing that grabbed me attention about his passing was his so called reputation as the "Toilet King". Apparently, unknown to most of us, this "Rags to Riches" man had been waging a relentless war against dirty public toilets in the country. Again, not many of us may have realized the fact that he spearheaded the "clean toilet revolution" in the country during his tenure as the Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister back in 2004. Along the way he also set up the first toilet association in Malaysia – Quality Restroom Association Malaysia (QRAM), in which he was its chairman from 2005 to last year!

Me cannot agree more when he said that “Public toilets are a gateway to a country and reflective of the country’s development and their people’s culture”.

The thing that made me want to make this entry was also to highlight the sorry state of the toilets found in most of our mosques in this country. Apart from many of the toilets not being kept clean, the accessories such as the water hose, hangers or locks were often found missing or faulty. Me once had the harrowing experience of rushing into a mosque's toilet and soon realized that there was no door to lock!

In stark contrast to most public toilets in this country, me still remember, during me Aussie days, there was even a toilet being used as a voting center as it was the most convenient and most cleaned place that the authority could find at that time.

No doubt we still have a long way to go in this respect, but never give up easily, all quarters should double up their efforts to educate the public especially our young ones on the importance of keeping things clean. These efforts should not only be left to the authority, it should also be the responsibility of us all.

We would not want the efforts started by the late "Toilet King" being wasted just like that, we should continue on his legacy to make our surrounding clean as we should all appreciate that cleanliness is a virtue that knows no boundaries....

Lessons from The Beatles

Me stumbled upon this article when going through The Malaysian Insider yesterday and thought it would be a good read for those Beatles fans out there. Me used to remember the Beatles during me younger days especially the unique "Temenggong Juggah" hair style which became the craze during those good old days back in the 60s.

What lessons we could learn from the Beatles? Well, as enumerated by the writer, we could look at the following good things which has come out from the "crazy" days of the Beatles mania if we want to succeed "big" in life:-

Firstly, when we do things, ignore conventional approach - do it differently and do it as we know best and most importantly it is to our liking. Secondly, never get too complacent too fast, get uncomfortable, get restless, try we must, on every "tricks" in the book while climbing the success ladder. Get to the bottom of what we really want to do and never give up easily eventhough the tasks in front of us looks too daunting and full of hurdles...the important thing is, to have a go first, and with a bit of luck, just like the Beatles, they managed to win "big" by conquering the US music audience after being successful and complacent in their home turf - UK.

Thirdly, the magic lies in the power of pursuit - as mentioned by the writer, "In order to succeed, sooner or later we had better take some action even before we are ready.Movement will educate us, especially if it involves getting out of our comfort zone. Maybe it’s just a normal part of the process of maturing and sharpening our skills, and holding back will only make us narrow our repertoire by doing things that we’re only good at, when you don't even start yet!"

Further, as he mentioned, "It’s possible to feel inadequate and crippled by the fear of failure – oh, don’t we all have that! – but perhaps mistakes can be good sometimes. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to actively seek failure but mistakes can tell us what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. It’s part of growing pains and maybe that’s why life is called The School of Hard Knocks" - as me always told meself, me, graduating from the University of Nothingness...

And finally, the greatest lesson of all is on the aspect of leadership, a true leader should not think of self glorification but should always put the welfare of others in the forefront, instead of his own success, a good leader should always pursue the success of his "flock" or the group he is leading, in this way, at the end of the day, if we are not too greedy and self centered, we will eventually get both, our self fulfillment as a leader and most importantly bringing success to the group that we led...

After reading the article above, time to enjoy the Beatles' nostalgia, me favorite Beatles song...



Room 721,
Concorde Hotel, Shah Alam
07 April 2010.