Cemerlang and Gemilang

"Cemerlang means excellent. It is necessary to make a distinction between achievement and excellence. For example, it was doubtless an achievement for Abdul Malik Mydin to be the first Malaysian to swim the English Channel.

However, his time of 17 hours and 42 minutes is short of excellent if we keep in mind that a 12-year-old girl Samantha Druce managed 15 hrs 28 mins. Even a 70-year-old, George Burnstad, did better at 15.59 than the 29-year-old Malik at 17.42.

The Malay hero was nonetheless conferred a Datukship for his exploit, such ‘excellence’ as KPI-ed by our self-calibrated measure. Was it worth all the state-sponsored expense of Malik’s training under an Australian coach and ‘airflown’ to England for his almost 18-hour swim when the best channel crossers can complete the distance in under-seven hours?

For that matter, why not carry out the Malaysia Boleh stunt, if they must, swimming from Langkawi to Kuala Kedah instead?

It was however a different case with the second Malaysian to swim the channel that same year (2004). Lennard Lee was already based in England – at Cambridge University doing medicine, and at least his swim met a more useful objective, i.e. to raise funds for a cancer hospital.

Clocking 9.45, Lee was faster than Malik by a whopping eight hours.

More importantly, Lee did not land Malaysian taxpayers a hefty bill for ‘Satu lagi projek Barisan Nasional’.

My letter to the CFO of Telecom Malaysia

Title:Debtor chasing debtee (TM)

Dear Sir,

This is a story of irony.
I am a recognised debtor to TM’s Streamyx division since my account was activated in Nov 2009 and have been chasing your esteemed organisation to pay my debt.

Here is a short summary.
1. Never received my bills from Nov 09 till now.

2. Have updated my mailing address 5 times with different departments. Customer service confirmed last week that my address was still wrong but got that corrected (checked today)

3. tmonline@tm.com.my & streamyx@tm.net.my is a blackhole and i can’t recall having an email immediately answered or a ticket number issued.

4. In January 2010, I was happy to get a call and made the payment via phone. The finance lady declared that I will get my receipt ( important as i need to claim) and my Nov-Dec bill. It never came (refer 2).

5. Other happy encounters

a. One fine day, decided to work at home and got the call on house landline to ask about the debt. I wonder if the finance department was calling my landline everyday instead of my hp?
i. My hp number is xxxxxxxxx, which i shared in my application form and every time i was connected to a customer service person.

b. Only 2 ways to obtain my copy of bill , via Fax or TMonline
i. Fax – Requested 3 times and it never came. Refer (4), was working at home and the phone kept ringing with fax tone at the other end. I think the fax was directed at my house landline instead.

ii. TMonline – the registration requires the latest bill date and amount. I have to call back and get the data yet still unable to process. Send screenshot to (3)

iii. Snail mail – it will take another 2 weeks for the mail to come. It never came (refer 2)

iv. Email – repeatedly told that this is not an option. One finance lady was kind enough and agreed to send. It never came.

At this rate, my internet connection will be disabled come 16th June 2010 and I do need that for business purposes.

Today: I finally got the customer helpline after waiting for 10 minutes but the lady (very helpful) was not able to facilitate payment via phone. The phone collection folks will call me within the next 24 hours, i was assured.

My impression so far are either delusional or comical and wonder if TM’s profit margin is extremely good that a small debtor like me are allowed to do the chasing.

I do hope that this feedback will be helpful to your organisation to move forward.