will i am's delayed diary

Malaysia's 15th General election was called on the 19th of November 2022. Having registered as both polling and counting agent, KH and I both woke up bright and early to start work at Institut Latihan Perindustrian Kuala Lumpur located beside the large KFC at Jalan Kuchai Lama. Parked our car at the fast food restaurant and walked over to the polling station. Although it wasn't open yet, and it was drizzling a little, there was already a queue of early birds. Collected our passes from the DAP polling station manager, and we were let in by the police officers at the gate.  KH and I were assigned to different saluran . Voters who came to my saluran were at least 60 years old. Greeted the Elected Commission staff and made sure we were friendly with the leader of the saluran because he had the final say in most things. As the first ( and only~ lack of volunteers ) polling agents on duty we had the task verifying the setup. We were responsible for checking the ballot papers, ensur...

I wasn't really that keen to be a polling agent for Seputeh constituency ( I had already moved to Sri Serdang ), but since DAP had put out a SOS on manpower shortage, I answered the call. Roped in KH as well since he votes in Seputeh. Hehe. Attended the PACA (Polling Agent, Counting Agent) training after dinner at Choi's Don and Dak , Zed's recommended Korean restaurant. The training was held at the Teresa Kok's office at Kuchai Lama, and it went pretty smoothly. Some things had changed since my last stint as a polling agent, especially the layout and flow of the polling station. Most annoying was the "no smartphone" rule. During the Q&A session, people started asking inane questions and harping on obscure scenarios. Missing fingers, political conspiracies, and shit. Since the trainer had covered the main content, I just said "Thank you" and left for some taufufah at Dao .

Looky what I found at the OUG morning market multi-level car park! Someone must have been doing some other kind of parking there! Good choice in ONE condoms, but guess it wasn't a long session judging from the leftovers. After our marketing session, mum and I went to help out at an event at Theatre Impian, Aurora Place. It was a pre-CNY event to distribute goodie bags and calendars single mothers at the Seputeh area. Must say that the location is a but problematic. Many had trouble finding it. Basically I was there as a general worker. Plenty to do-- hauling up the goodie bags, decorating the venue, arranging tables and chairs, preparing the food utensils, and taking photographs.  YB Teresa Kok was a little late, so the emcee had to drag the ice breaker for quite some time. She was pretty good at stalling. After the event, the attendees were given a guided tour of Saudara Lim Kit Siang's visual art biography exhibition. Mum and I stayed back to clean up, then we headed home af...

DAP Seputeh had 3 tonnes of frozen fish heads to distribute, so they organized an event at Muhibbah PPR. The person-in-charge needed an additional photographer, so I was roped in to help. Initially, the plan was to have it at the surau, but they moved it to the food court next door ( IMU volunteers were also there for a vaccine registration drive ). A much better idea since it might get messy. Muhibbah has a notorious parking problem where the residents actually occupy the fast lane of the main access road. Since I had to arrive before 9 AM, finding a parking space was quite challenging. When I arrived, the trucks had just finished unloading the boxes. Each box contained roughly 10kgs of frozen  Amberjack fish heads. DAP members busied themselves with packing the fish into plastic bags, while some others were responsible for ensuring that SOPs were followed. Things started getting busier after Teresa Kok arrived. The distribution wasn't very smooth, and this surprised me because th...

Ever heard of NADMA ? You're not alone. For the uninitiated, NADMA is AGENSI PENGURUSAN BENCANA NEGARA, the National Disaster Management Agency under the purview of the Prime Minister's Department. The first time I heard about them was when the Perikatan Nasional federal government declared that they were distributing free face masks to households. Distribution was no easy task, so they had to rope in the help of each Member of Parliament to make sure that their constituents would receive this benefit. The MPs would get their staff and volunteers to pack and perform door-to-door distribution. My housing area was taken care by DAP's YB Ng Sze Han, so we got the face masks from the Unit Tindak Kinrara. Each household received four face masks in a plastic bag, together with a small piece of paper with instructions for proper mask usage. Based on Facebook posts, seems that different places received a different number of masks. Guess its based on supply and how the packing was d...

As the Minister of Primary Industries, YB Teresa Kok has been eating palm oil and sleeping palm oil every single day. Look at her Hari Raya Open House at Sri Petaling~ Looks more like a palm oil industry junket. Selamat Hari Sawit y'all!

Mum got word that Teresa Kok ( Seputeh MP and Minister of Primary Industries ) organized a Hari Raya Open House at Muhibbah Community Center. Food stalls were arranged outside the hall with selections like chicken rice, nasi lemak , curry noodles, nasi himpit , lemang , rendang , kuih , fried noodles, etc. Guests ate in the air-conditioned hall where speeches and goodie bag giveaways for the needy took place. Khalid Samad also made an appearance, but the most shocking was Bannie Chin, sitting at the VIP table. He's the long time nemesis of Teresa Kok at the Seputeh constituency. A strange sight indeed. The event went about awry towards the end due to some screw ups regarding the charity hand outs. A bunch of people from Kampung Muhibbah alleged that they were 'overlooked' on purpose due to favouritism. A small disturbance but it was ironed out by the organizing committee. Things are so different now with the once-opposition MP having so much resources at her disposa...

If memory serves, I went to Tun M's Hari Raya open house at Sri Perdana in the final year of his premiership. For some reason, the Hari Raya open house shifted to PWTC starting Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Najib followed suit. A very basic affair, with no 'wet' food. Usually lemang with serunding , and biscuits and cakes for dessert. Probably to avoid oily stains on the carpet. But then, memang potong stim . So for years and years, I didn't attend the federal government's open houses. Partly cause it's BN and partly cause of the sucky food. With the birth of Malaysia Baru, Tun M's first open house was held at Sri Perdana! Full circle. Who would want to miss such a historic moment? Hehe. Mum, SK, SK's ex-colleague ( who is having a mid-life sexuality crisis ), and I arrived there before 10 AM. Thank goodness we managed to park not too far from the main entrance. Being the prime minister's official residence, the place was under the jurisdiction o...

I woke up to a new Malaysia. So surprised that the incumbent BN government didn't pull out all the stops to cling on to power. Much gratitude for that. Everyone was in a state of euphoria. Pakatan Harapan was finally going to form the federal government. However, there were still a lot of rumours fying around, and some drama regarding the swearing-in of Tun M as the new prime minister. Mum and I went out to OUG for breakfast. Barisan Nasional's loss after sixty years in power was on every lip. Coffee shop talk was livelier than usual. Met up with ex-manager who was in town to vote, and of course the main topic of our conversation was GE14. That evening, mum and I went to AEON Equine Park for some grocery shopping, then had dinner at Jack and Steve Grill . We shared a platter of pork ribs, pork chop, and pork belly. Came with a side of mash and an iced pineapple juice. Not bad. Back home, we watched the swearing in of Tun M as Malaysia's 7th prime minister ( he's a...

The 14th General Elections (GE14) was called on the 9th of May, a Thursday. The BN government declared it a public holiday, so there was no issue of local voters having to take time off. For outstation voters, it was another matter. For the first time, my polling station was actually in Selangor, at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara. I managed to change my address in the electoral roll before it was gazetted. Previously, I voted in the Seputeh, a federal constituency. A neighbour tumpang -ed mum and I to the polling station. We arrived at around 8:30 AM, and the crowd was already building. Managed to find parking away from the school area, at the BK5 commercial area. Mild campaigning was going on opposite the stay, mostly providing service to check the electoral roll. Before entering voting, one had to endure to queues. The first was the queue to enter the polling station. The polling agents at the entrance would direct voters to the different polling stations....

A new shop opened right opposite my church on the LDP-- Restoran SK Sabah Pork Noodles . The shop specializes in sang nyuk noodles like the shop I visited in Kuchai Lama . First things first, I dislike the cramped interior of the shop where there's no proper space to manoeuver between the tables. Secondly, it's reall stuffy in there. And most importantly, the taste is average at best. Made a trip to Jalan Jalan Japan again. Mum wanted to see if they had any 'new' stock. For me, the only interesting thing there was the fact that it was the last day of the DKSH warehouse sale. Great deals on Old Town White Coffee and toilet paper. There were also some freebies because they wanted to clear as much of their stock as possible. KH also turned up at Subang SkyPark to have coffee with me at Old Town White Coffee . Normally it's quite difficult to catch up with him. Election fever had finally reached my neighbourhood with a Pakatan Harapan ceramah at the commerci...

With just less than a week before CNY, the  OUG morning market was a hive of activity. Even BN Seputeh tried to 'show their concern' by organizing a community event on Jalan Hujan Rahmat 2. They commandeered half of the road to put up a stage and many tables. The displaced market vendors must have been so pleased. Hampers were given out to elderly residents and those with disabilities. And of course there was free food for the public. Senator Datuk Mustapa Kamal also 'turun' padang to distribute free reading glasses ( bet they can detect fake news ). He tried to help mum to get a suitable pair but none they had were suitable. Countless cameras were clicking with his every 'charitable' move. Come evening, I joined SK at a party with her ex-colleagues. A pot luck with lots of food. There was grilled chicken wings, char siew , vinegar pork knuckles, savoury rice, and a birthday cake.  And booze too. Someone brought their kids along, so we even had an ...

From church, mum and I traveled to Kuala Lumpur on a Sunday afternoon to attend a talk on women and politics at Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH). But before that, we met up KH for lunch at Ali, Muthu &Ah Hock at Jalan Balai Polis. It was my first time at that very touristy cafe. Following the trend, it's a retro cafe at a heritage shop lot. Their menu is full of typical Malaysian favourites like nasi lemak , roti kahwin and laksa lemak , all of which were pretty good. Their local coffee is also great. No wonder it's usually packed. At 2:30 PM, we headed to KLSCAH to listen to the talk . Two of the speakers were female lawmakers from the opposition. Mum started yawning halfway through the thing ( and KH could hardly understand 20% of what was being said ), so we quickly left the hall and went coffee hunting instead. KH recommended that we go to Leaf & Co. , right opposite the old Yan Keng Benevolent Dramatic Association building. A...