Thank You My Friends..

During our small farewell gathering held yesterday I was asked to provide some pep talk basically on how I felt during my tenure in UTP. I started off philosophically with a story about colors and how I painting it for the last 7 years in Registry. During the first few years I’ve tried so many colors painted to the white canvas hoping that somehow or another, my superior and colleagues would appreciate it heartily. And I did just that. I’ve painted it with nice metallic blue in color. Though sometimes it was not really blue, not even near the color blue, but being Fadil that have been well received in Registry, my painting was generalized and well accepted.

My tenure in Registry will end in few days’ time. I will be relocated to a new place with a new environment, new perspective and definitely new challenges. I need to re-paint and will not be able to depend on the nice metallic blue color that was well received by my superior and colleagues in Registry. I need to paint using different sets of colors now and hoping one of them will be accepted by my new superior and colleagues. I just need to continue painting and put new effort to the work.

That was my piece of advice not only to Siti that will leave us for good but also to myself – which really lack of motivation at this moment of time. I’m hoping God will bestow his mercy on me, I really need that…

P/s – 

To Siti, thanks for all the nice words. You are good on your own now as you’ve transformed yourself from ‘white and naïve’ to a wise ol’ lady..

To others, my superior and colleagues in Registry, thanks for being with me through thick and thin, laughter and sadness. My respect to all of you…

Trapped

It was a lovely day filled with beautiful smile, delightful words, big bright sun that give a tight warm hug. Kind of wonderful day that gear up your excitement.. mmm..

.. just to be a bit dramatic in presenting some contradictory scenario between a perfect scenes and what was really happened on that day. I was alone trapped inside a 4x7 dark elevator last few days back. It was hell of a horrible 25-minute of experience, fear of being restricted in a small place and also fears of suffocation. It was just not my day. Everything went malfunction, the alarm, the support lighting as well as the ventilation. I called some friend to inform about my situation and start to cool myself down. I sat down, talk to myself and start to pray. Something that we need to do in that situation, else we might end up having claustrophobia, start to sweat and eventually choked to death. At least those are some of what runs inside my head during the situation. Nevertheless, I was extremely grateful with the effective and efficient response by the Security personnel and maintenance people. Within 25 minutes the door to the elevator was unlocked from outside with ease. It was an electricity breakdown on the whole campus due to technical problem with our GDC. 

I received and apologizing remarks via my cell phone by the Maintenance people but a routine checking on the elevator should provide a freedom of discomfort should there be any cases of trapped-in-an-elevator again. The ventilation, support light and alarm should be in function with no excuses. That was my message to him.

Could you imagine being alone inside the small, dark hole inside your grave? It does cross my mind for an obvious reason while being trapped inside the elevator. Allah (subhaanahu wa ta'aala), praise and glory be to Him, and Him only..

P/s - Nora was so worried, I could 'smell' it from the choices of word she uttered and uncomfortable tone of voices...

Budaya Buat Dulu Maaf Kemudian

I remember preparing a slide on attitude and how it is relevant with one’s mindset. The attitude will determine how exactly you approach your life i.e. the way we think will determine the way we do things. What you portray physically comes from how and what you fill in to your head. For example, if someone has written something bad about you, you can assume that he must have an ill feeling towards you. If someone is always late, you can assume that he is always late for most of the things in his life. Attitude is usually shaped by the culture surrounding them. So this triangle thing is very much related to one another – mindset, culture and attitude.

The slide that I’ve prepared shows these correlations. Further, a superior performance culture comes from the way we think, the way we view things, habit of thinking and feeling towards certain issues, moment of truth and people surrounding us. What you see as the behavior is what you are made of in term of your mindset i.e. beliefs and attitude as well as your philosophy i.e. values and principle.

P/s – I wonder whether the guru tuisyen’s mindset is a manifestation of culture that is surrounding him? Too bad then....

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Isu karikatur: Guru tuisyen mohon maaf

Sinar Harian, 1 Ogos 2012

JOHOR BAHRU  – Pusat tuisyen di daerah Ledang yang mencetuskan kontroversi kerana menggunakan karikatur dalam nota ringkas subjek Sejarah tingkatan empat menghina sahabat-sahabat Nabi Muhammad SAW tampil membuat permohonan maaf, semalam. Pengusaha pusat tuisyen, Lim Lee Yee, 26, hadir di Jabatan Pelajaran Johor di sini bersama guru terbabit, Ku Chong Yoong, 22, dan membuat permohonan maaf secara terbuka sambil disaksikan oleh Pengarah Pelajaran Negeri, Mohd Nor A Ghani. Lee Yee berkata, segala alat bantu belajar serta proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran (P&P) yang dilakukan oleh setiap tenaga pengajar di pusat tuisyen itu akan dipantau dengan lebih teliti bagi mengelak berulang kejadian sama.

“Guru berkenaan (Chong Yoong) mengajar subjek Bahasa Melayu dan Bahasa Inggeris. Subjek Sejarah hanya subjek tambahan yang diajar kepada pelajar tanpa mengambil yuran,” katanya. Bagi Chong Yoong, dia sudah meminta semua pelajar memulangkan kembali nota ringkas yang diberikan bagi mengelakkan keadaan bertambah keruh. “Saya meminta maaf kepada umat Islam terhadap tindakan saya yang tidak matang. “Saya benar-benar ikhlas memohon maaf kepada semua umat Islam di Johor, Malaysia dan seluruh dunia,” katanya.

Sementara itu, Mohd Nor berkata, Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri akan memberi surat peringatan dan amaran kepada pusat tuisyen serta guru terbabit. Terdahulu, Sinar Harian melaporkan sebuah pusat tuisyen di sini mencetuskan kontroversi apabila menggunakan karikatur dalam nota ringkas subjek Sejarah tingkatan empat, yang didakwa telah menghina sahabat-sahabat Nabi Muhammad SAW.

Marhaban ya Ramadhan

Ramadhan will be knocking on our door in less than 4 days time, brings with it so many 'Barakah' to be treasured and pleasured. May it bring lots of Nur to our heart and into our life. 

During ‘heyday’ as a kid, not much can be taken away or learned from the holy month of Ramadhan, thou the month was something that we are looking forward to. It was a period of exciting and exhilarating with mercun, bunga api, main polis sentri dan segala bagai...almaklumlah Setan2 dah kena tambat, so kurang takut main malam2. Fasting can be ¼ a day (dikenali sebagai posa yang yuk), ½ day or full day depending heavily on how we dealt with lust and desire for food. Thus, parents usually allow their kids to play whole day long just to deviate their minds to this lust and desire, which eventually lead to a very minimum stamina towards the end of the fasting. Udah ghope nak separuh mampuih bila duk nengok ayo sirap kaler merah masa nunggu  masuk waktu Magerib..

Over time, you’ll learn that Ramadhan is not only about not to eat, not to look, not to do things that you are not supposed to do, et cetera but obviously it is more than that. It is mainly for the purpose of attaining ‘takwa’ i.e. piousness, devoutness, the feeling of fear to God. Fasting is between you and your Creator, only between the two of you. Thus, it’s really shape up your attitude, your mind, your fear, simply because no one knows whether you are fasting or not, except for Allah. It’s all about takwa that spiritually and mentally force you to continue fasting in the way that it should be.

I was in US in early 90s and I’ve experienced fasting in a society that will not pressure you to fast, they not even know what fasting is all about. Again, takwa play its pivotal role whether you have the inner strength to shape up or shift out. Allah says in Al-Baqarah, 183 “O you who believe, Observing the fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may attain piety.”  There are two phases involved i.e. the Believer and those who attain piety. Fasting in the month of Ramadhan, as prescribed to us and doing it in the way it should be, is the linkage between both of them.

To all of us, let’s do this Ramadhan with our utmost best simply because we could never be certain whether or not we would live to see the next one.

Marhaban ya Ramadhan..

Bad Supervisors Criticize Others

Something that I've read lately and makes me wonder??

"When a supervisor is insecure, they tend to overcompensate by putting other people down, especially in public. They tend to talk down to people and make themselves appear more powerful. They find things to criticize about anyone who is getting positive attention. When they need to reprimand a subordinate, they will often do it in front of other subordinates because they think it make them more powerful. If only they know how horrible it makes them look!!

(Top 10 Signs of A Bad Supervisor, Dr Kimberley Alyn)

P/s - mudah-mudahan aku tidak seperti ini...

Khusus utk sahabat, Shamo yang tengah diujiNya. Moga cepat2 sembuh especially selepas mendengar lagu kegemaran ini...

OMRA 2012 (Finale)

Panjang sungguh posting ini. Sebagai finalenya, berikut adalah beberapa penghayatan dan pengertian bagi ibadah umrah bagi diriku yang boleh dikongsi bersama dengan pembaca: -

Sesiapa yang menunaikan haji dan umrah adalah tetamu Allah dan hadir kerana jemputanNya. Selama ini telah banyak kali bonus yang diterima, duit yang telah cukup tapi sekiranya tidak dijemput, maka tiadalah kesempatan untuk kita ke sana. Sebagai hambaNya kita perlu banyak berdoa, berharap dan sentiasa bersedia kerana sekiranya kita telah dijemput, segala-galanya di dunia ini akan kita tinggalkan untuk menerima jemputan itu. Namun tidaklah layak kita berpergian sejauh Baitul Haram dengan segala dosa dan kekejian yang masih berdaki di hati dan fizikal kita. Jadi, perbanyakkanlah  berdoa dan bertaubat. Keikhlasan hati adalah antara penyebab kepada segala urusan kita dipermudahkan Allah SWT di Tanah Suci Mekah.

Ilmu pengetahuan (be it fikh, tasawuf atau tauhid) amat-amat perlu bagi mendapatkan penghayatan dalam melakukan ibadah. Seseorang tidak akan terkesan dengan segala perbuatan umrah dan haji apatah lagi menghayatinya tanpa ilmu pengetahuan bagi sebab-sebab perlakuan umrah dan haji tersebut. Contohnya berlari-lari anak di antara Safa & Marwah, Intipati doa tawaf setiap pusingan hatta beribtidda bagi orang laki-laki. “Dan hendaklah kamu membawa bekal dengan secukupnya, kerana sebaik-baik bekal itu ialah Takwa (memelihara diri), dan bertakwallah kepadaKu wahai orang-orang yang berakal (yang dapat memikir dan memahaminya).” petikan daripada Surah al-Baqarah ayat 197.

PENYERAHAN DIRI

Hidup ini adalah penyerahan diri secara total kepada qada’ dan qadar Allah SWT iaitu sebagai hamba kepada penciptanya. Segala ibadah hanya kepada Allah, segala permintaan hanya kepadaNya. Begitulah konsep penyerahan diri secara ikhlas yang sepatutnya dilakukan terhadap Allah SWT tanpa meninggalkan doa dan harapan. Berserahdirilah kepada ketentuan-ketentuanNya, hukum-hukumNya, dan takdirNya. Setiap jiwa di Tanah Haram akan merasai ujian dan setiap ujian itu harus ditangani dengan konsep penyerahan diri ini. Setiap ujian adalah kifarah. Justeru kepayahan, kesakitan, tekanan yang wujud semasa, sebelum atau selepas menunaikan haji dan umrah adalah ujian Allah SWT untuk hamba-hambaNya. Sebagaimana yang terdapat dalam sebuah hadis sahih daripada Abu Hurairah dan Abu Said Al-Khudri bahawa Rasulullah SAW telah bersabda “Tidaklah seorang mukmin dilanda kecemasan, kelelahan dan kesedihan, melainkan Allah SWT akan menghapuskan segala kesalahannya.”

Ibadah umrah dan haji mampu menjadi agen perubahan kepada keperibadian makhluk Allah. Itulah yang dapat aku rasakan sehingga posting ini ditulis. Esok-esok aku berserah lagi kepadaNya tetapi doaku untuk sentiasa diberikan petunjuk ke jalan yang benar tidak akan lagi lekang dari bibir. Kalaulah aku tahu ibadah umrah ini mampu mengubah keperibadianku sebegini rupa, sepatutnya dari dulu lagi aku patut ke sana. Apabila kita mampu membuat diri terasa berdosa ianya adalah hasilan dari sifat terpuji yang telah kita miliki. Ianya jelas merupakan agen perubahan terbesar yang terhasil daripada ibadah umrah tersebut.

Berdoa dan bertaubatlah dengan sebenar-benarnya kerana segala permintaan InsyaAllah akan dikurniakan oleh Allah. Begitulah juga halnya walaupun kita tidak lagi berada di Tanah Haram. Berdoalah kita sentiasa kerana Allah SWT pasti menunaikannya dengan caraNya yang tersendiri.

Mengunjungi Rasulullah SAW seolah-olah seperti kita bersemuka dengan Baginda. Namun hati yang keras dengan segala macam dosa tidak akan dapat melihat Baginda seperti yang sepatutnya. Jadi banyakkanlah mendengar kisah2 Baginda, banyakkanlah memahami jerih payah SAW meninggikan syiar Islam sehingga kita ini diberikan harta yang paling berharga – iaitu dilahirkan menjadi seorang Muslim. Begitu juga dengan pengorbanan dan perjuangan sahabat-sahabat serta teman perjuangan Rasulullah SAW patutnya dihayati dengan penuh keinsafan dan kesyahduan.

P/s – sebagai panduan untuk diri ini (juga anda perhaps)..

Man With Integrity

(Bernama 02 Ogos, 2011) - Datuk Dr Rosti Saruwono mengambil keputusan meletakkan jawatan selaku Naib Canselor Uni-versiti Selangor (Unisel) dengan notis 24 jam berkuatkuasa esok. Beliau mengesahkan peletakan jawatannya menerusi khidmat pesanan ringkas sebagai membalas SMS yang dihantar oleh Bernama bagi mendapatkan pengesahan berita tindakannya itu.

"Ada keputusan yang saya tak sanggup laksanakan iaitu untuk melucutkan jawatan tiga pegawai Unisel tanpa proses sewajarnya," katanya ketika menjelaskan antara punca beliau meletakkan jawatan.

Berasal dari Klang, Selangor Rosti pernah berkhidmat sebagai Timbalan Presiden Bahagian Pendidikan Petronas dan rektor pertama Uni-versiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) sebelum dilantik sebagai Naib Canselor Unisel pada 2 Mac, 2009. Beliau menggantikan Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Razali Agus yang mengosongkan jawatan itu pada Julai 2008. Semasa baru dilantik, Rosti berkata beliau tidak akan menjadi "Pak Turut" kepada mana-mana pihak dan ingin memastikan institusi pengajian tinggi swasta milik kerajaan negeri itu tidak dijadikan medan berpolitik. Menurut sumber, Rosti telah diarahkan oleh kepimpinan Unisel untuk melucutkan jawatan tiga pegawai -- Pendaftar Rokmaa Mat, Dekan Fakulti Perniagaan Prof Dr Khalifah Othman dan Pengarah Pemasaran dan Komunikasi Korporat Halid Hasbullah.

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Kudos to Datuk Dr Rosti. Being a righteous man with full of integrity I could not agree more with his decision to quit the post with immediate effect. After all, things must be too hard for him to handle when what matter most is politics. It was sad to hear an integrity and good governance (as in the case of the Unisel management) were buried down under just to ensure political sustainability of some. I might be wrong to pre-judge the situation; there might be something amiss, but professionally you don’t act on hearsay i.e. action taken until proven guilty.

Patutla 2 - 3 hari ni cuaca panas sangat.

When I joined the institution, Datuk Rosti was no longer the Rector. He instead was made the Vice President of Education since 2005 before being appointed the Unisel's Vice-Chancellor on March 2, 2009. I never had any chance to serve him until in 2009 when he chaired the Transformation’s Steering Committee. That was also not very long due to his official retirement from PETRONAS. Nevertheless, I had once accompanied him to South Africa for a mini convocation in Cape Town. I would view him as an easy going person, chilled and easy to communicate with but at the same time very committed and meticulous in whatever he does. He love to read and always stressed that life-long education is the factor for the strength of the nation (and the company) of which I found very interesting to a man of his credible.

All I could say is Unisel might have lost a man with the utmost credibility. Innalillah..

Happy 2nd retirement Datuk, we UTPian are so proud of you!

P/s – rupanya panas lagi di Unisel..

Ketenangan

Minggu lepas sememangnya menuntut tenaga sehingga ke titisan peluh yang terakhir. Habis saja dengan AAC dan post-AAC, datang pulak accreditation visit untuk program-program Pasca Siswazah. Finally, hari Jumaat barulah dapat bernafas dengan sempurna. In between sessi accreditation, aku sempat bersembang dengan Dr M Noh. Dr M Noh ni kaki sembang tapi seronok sebab dia memang tahu detail, sometimes too detail. Dr M Noh bercerita tentang insiden 2007 masa dia kena endio sebab banyak artery yang dah block. Dia berumur dalam lingkungan 45 tahun ketika itu. Dia kata banyak block sebab setiap satu blockage kosnya sekitar RM20K. UTP kena bayar kos keseluruhan almost quarter million!

Anyway, seperti biasa Dr M Noh bercerita tentang detail in & out pasal fat, kolesterol dsbgnya yang amat mengconciouskan aku. Tapi di sebalik kejadian yang menimpa dirinya, Dr M Noh melihat bencana yang datang sebagai satu peringatan tentang kematian dan dalam masa yang sama betapa banyaknya rahmat Allah kepada manusia. Setiap hari selepas itu bagi Dr M Noh merupakan satu bonus dari tuhan kepada hambanya. Dia sentiasa membuat yang terbaik dan bersyukur dengan apa yang diberi.

Aku pula sebaliknya. Masih belum prihatin terhadap diri ini secara fizikal & spiritual. Bersyukur juga masih suam-suam kuku bergantung kepada naik turun iman di dada. Aku melihat kerja sebagai ibadah tapi terlalu mendesak diri sehingga kadang-kadang aku merasakan semua ini bukan lagi ibadah tetapi lebih kepada personal glory. Itu tidak sihat tu..

Aku perlukan ketenangan di kala beberapa hari lagi untuk menyambut Ramadhan Al Mubarak. Ketenangan yang menuntut aku mengurangkan desakan fizikal melampau dan keletihan minda. Seikhlas hati aku mohon ampun kepada keluarga & rakan taulan yang terkesan dari tempias ’desakan fizikal melampau dan keletihan minda’ minggu lepas.

P/s – Handy Black punya ketenangan,

Peace You'll..

I get pretty excited after reviewing an article by a HongKies (dunno this word correct or not?) by the name of Professor Otto CC Lin. His work entitled “Environment for the 21st Century” talks on few things that need to be given proper attention for the 21st century, of which I also believe is very much applicable for mindset change (i.e. such as in the case of our AF candidate second stage friend.. huhu)

Amongst others, Prof Lin mentioning about the ubiquity or readiness of PCs and the Internet including wireless technology and mobile commerce; or in a simpler word the ability to utilize PC and its applications. As an administrator, you are not going anywhere without the knowledge in either Microsoft Word or Excell.. and I’m just talking basic here. Secondly, the influence of the co-existence between competition and cooperation. One should be able to adapt to your competitors’ strength and adopt cooperation. Strategic Alliance is the correct words. Finally (three of so many more), every knowledge workers is a source of innovation, continued and life-long needs for education. The importance to enhance and efficiently looking into problems and turn it into opportunity.

Nevertheless, in contenting the challenge of creating another so called civilization, the Malays particularly need three basic stuffs; (i) the ability to understand the situation and maintaining it, (ii) the skill to rehash or re-treat, and (iii) adaptation capability. The above stuff is so important for us to change the paradigm, by using the local moulder/template (glocal), in fulfilling ones’ desires. We should learn on how to inherit our forefather’s strength who never surrender in defending the Malays civilization thou they have been colonized for hundreds of years.

P/s - Siti ngan Zam sedang menggayakan sign Peace..

De Bono's Thinking

Some of De Bono’s view on politics, thinking, innovation and complacency.

1. Political Views

Errors in Thinking! - logic was more a matter of communication than of thinking. Men had always worked in groups (hunting parties, was parties etc.) so logic was necessary to get others to go along with you. 90 per cent of the errors in thinking are errors in perception. Yet tradition forces us to believe that thinking is all about logic. In the end logic is about arranging the pieces provided by selective perception (David Perkin, Harvard)

Political thinking among the youth - two rather prevalent modes of political thinking amongst young people. The first mode is the blame mode while the other one is to mimic/imitate adult politicians and to come across with all the usual noises and clichés.

Politicians - In a democracy what do politicians have to do? Do they have to do good thinking or can they get that from advisors and committees? Is their job to present matters well and agreeably? What do people expect from President Obama in the USA? Perhaps they expect inspiration. Perhaps they expect good thinking. Perhaps they expect confidence. The role of a politician is never clearly defined. The task is to get elected and to continue to please people. Is that the same as making progress? Possibly, not.

2. Thinking

..a hundred years from now! - If we take a hundred year perspective from now, what is going to be seen to be important? A lot of things which seem very central and important at the moment will be seen to be trivial and peripheral. What will really matter are the fundamental shifts in human beliefs, human thinking, human behavior and human organization.

Too trapped in traditional philosophy - Every university should have an open-ended faculty of 'thinking' which should be quite separate from philosophy and psychology. In its rush to be considered as a serious science psychology it has focused on measurement. This is almost the exact opposite of operational thinking.

3. Our complacency

Perhaps our real problem is not so much our deficient thinking as I indicated in the last message, but our complacency. We do believe that our thinking is wonderful. Our existing thinking has indeed been wonderful in science and technology - and getting to the moon and beyond. Yet our poor thinking has been responsible for most of the human disasters such as wars conflicts, persecutions etc. The reason is obvious. We rush to use judgment rather than to design the way forward.

4. Design and Analysis

Design is just as important as analysis. Analysis helps us to understand things. Design helps us to deliver value. Design is putting together what we have to deliver the values we want. Without design we just have routines. Some of these are very good and were set up by design in the first place. But routines have no way of changing by themselves. There is a major role for routine but also a place for design.

WHO IS DE BONO?

Edward de Bono is regarded by many to be the leading authority in the world in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. He has written 62 books with translations into 37 languages and has been invited to lecture in 54 countries. He is the originator of lateral thinking which treats creativity as the behavior of information in a self-organizing information system - such as the neural networks in the brain. From such a consideration arise the deliberate and formal tools of lateral thinking, parallel thinking etc.

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door”

I joined Edward De Bono’s Lateral thinking Full Course not long ago..