Did we learn any lessons from Ahmad Ismail and Imam Ramlang?

Long time ago, I had a Taiwanese boss in the company. One day, in a fit of anger, he scolded all the senior production managers as they had failed to produce PCB like how they should. PCB is printed circuit boards. I was summoned from town to drive up to Bayan Lepas within 20 minutes because the Taiwanese boss (not my immediate boss) wanted someone to take the minutes of meeting as no one else is capable of jotting down everything she heard. The meeting was in Hokkien, English and Mandarin as most of the production managers were skilled but without very high education.

He warned the managers that he could adopt the Japanese way of “pemecatan konstruktif” if they don’t buck up. What is pemecatan konstruktif? In English it means constructive termination constructive dismissal. (tks to cheekyme) What do they do in this situation? Put a senior manager who earns a five digit income to wash pigeon shits on the rooftop of the factory. Soon enough, the person will lose his dignity and resigned on his own.

I just recalled this term while reading what they did to Imam Ramlang. I read on Malaysiakini :

Sementara itu, Ahmad Nizam berharap tindakan Jakim itu tidak bersifat ‘pemecatan konstruktif’.

“Ini bukan pemecatan tetapi memberi tekanan kepada pekerja. Dalam kes ini kadang-kadang mereka bagi meja dan kerusi tapi kerja tidak ada.

“Saya harap Jakim tidak melakukanm perkara itu (terhadap Ramlang),” katanya.

Menurut Ahmad Nizam lagi, sudah tentulah anak guamnya kini dalam keadaan sedih.

Katanya, walaupun gred jawatan Ramlang adalah sama tetapi dia tidak lagi menjadi imam.

Of course, I have no comments on what they do in Jakim as it is none of my business. I am only telling you what I know about pemecatan konstruktif.

Meanwhile, I am still puzzled with the mixed messages our local TV stations sent. I watched the news last night because I was without my blogs.

I read the papers this morning to confirm that what I heard is right. Yes, Pak Lah is reminding us :

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Cabinet, which discussed the race issue yesterday, was of the view that race relations in the country was showing “not so good signs” which could cause tension.

And then, there is the police and the army reminders as well.

Pak Lah, please read my lips. I am a Chinese. I am from Bukit Bendera constituency. I have no problems at all. I have no anger whatsoever with Ahmad Ismail. I have good relationship with my Malay neighbours and the people I meet on the streets. THERE. IS. NO. NOT. SO. GOOD. SIGNS. ALL IS COOL, PAK LAH.

If that is not convincing enough, since I am a blogger and blogger tends to lie a lot, my other neighbours and people I meet in the wet markets too do not care about Ahmad Ismail. You can suspend Ahmad Ismail (malaysiakini) for 3 years, 3 days or 3 hours or 3 minutes or 3 seconds, it makes no difference. And why do we not care? Because those real reasons are not mentionable. (I won’t dare to say that Ahmad Ismail did not apologise, was very proud of being given the hero status and was hinting that he will fight back. He blamed Teng Hock Nan and Koh Tsu Koon for blowing things out of proportion.) If you have access to Malaysiakini, there are more updates on the reaction of other leaders.

Welcome to Malaysia. Where two sets of rules, rule.

10 thoughts on “Did we learn any lessons from Ahmad Ismail and Imam Ramlang?

  1. on a totally unrelated note… anywhere in penang paying 5 figure salary just to wash pigeon shit… i’ll do it. provided they give me menigitis vaccination of course. 😛

    zewts last blog post..DO… NOT… REACT

  2. My Malays neighbours were actually criticizing and laughing at that Ahmad. Its only ppl in UMNO that are creating these racial tensions.

  3. CM LGE should banished him out of Penang for disturbing the peace here.
    lucky we in Penang don’t have many like him around.
    Peace Penangites!

  4. Anyone knows about the Petrol station that AI is said to own in Green Lane ? (source:SusanLoone’s blog)

  5. Domino – I read it on Jeff Ooi’s blog. Don’t know real or not but I never pump petrol wan. I mak datin mah.

    bkt jambul – Yalor, I also never heard of him before until now.

    pablo – Yalor, that’s why I die die post whatever that struck me so that I can refer back. Or rejoice come Sep 16

  6. “Constructive termination”- Wow you sound like the big bad termination mama! Ha ha ha

    But on a serious note, that Ahmad fella really don’t know what is his agenda, actually nobody really cares but somehow he just kept on fanning the “fire” until now big flame. Somemore, media claim the entire UMNO Penang division also support Ahmad, why so many of them hate us?

    Maybe like you said, the common people(Bumi or Non-bumi) have no problems but it is the “elite” people that is all “hang” up!

  7. that Ahmad fella as in UMNO….what has he contributed to the malays in bukit bendera i the first place before his people tore up ex-cm’s photo?

    If I were koh tsu koon, tell me 10reasons why should i mend or patch up with this Ahmad fella?

    We Malays on Penang fedup with UMNO penang top cream nothing but getting creamier….look at their houses, mansions, cars…in ratio
    to Malay Penang. Shame, not vote for UMNO BN..

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