Should I stay away as protest?

I had a bad experience last night when I went out for dinner. After work, Anita wanted to head over to Kinokuniya to order some books for Idlan. I thought we might as well have dinner there in KLCC, taking Irfan along with us. We left just after Maghrib, headed straight for food. Anita decided we should try Sakae Sushi.

The restaurant was quite full already at that hour of the evening. About 60% full. The waiter ushered us to a table at the back. And that's when the problem started. I soon realised that all the staff there were foreigners! Worst still, their command for the local nor the English language as we say, left much to be desired. That was to paraphrase, they can't speak a word of Malay and their English sucks, and they are not from Indonesia. The majority was either from Myanmar or Bangladesh.

Let me put you in the picture here. You are at Suria KLCC. One of the tourist hotspot. Probably the only place for tourist with is under the pressure of time might encounter Malaysia before jetting off somewhere, or get stuck in a meeting room with no time to explore KL. Hmm! Under the Twin Tower, decent shopping mall, they might want to walk around. I just can't find any sensible reason why the Tourism Board not insist on making sure that the front-line staff re, waiters etc at these premises are at least Malaysian! They took a step in the right direction when insisting that all front-line staff in KLIA are Malaysians, which is in my book, a brilliant move. The foreign worker can still be employed as backroom staffs. No problem with that!

I ordered some California handroll and Anita wanted some extra mayonnaise. The answer from the waiter was, it's already in there or some muttering to that effect! Disgraceful! I looked around to find the manager. Alamak! Even the shift manager was a foreign lady, and I would rather eat my necktie and have a conversation with her. And the place is getting full by now. Around 30% of them were Mat Salleh.

Suggestion: High profile tourist attraction such as Suria KLCC should be manned by the locals. Before long, even the people behind the desk at the information counter may be from Indonesia. It already is from all we know! This is just appalling! Hmm! I'll probably be quoted as racist for saying all this, but hey! It's a free world ... or is it?

Lat at KLCC

Lat at KLCC, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman. Taken on my Nokia E71 mobile.

It has been a long week for me personally, with Anita's birthday, on calls, work and all. Unfortunately, I still have to do the rounds tomorrow morning. I thought, I'd better get it over and done with and look forward for my Hari Raya break. I will be off work from next Wednesday. We will be traveling to Penang on the second day of Raya and will be staying there for three nights.

Since the children has been asleep during the day, we decided to eat out tonight. We went to KLCC to do some shopping as well. The central foyer this year was very well decorated I thought. There is a model of Malay kampung with caricatures from the Malaysian famous cartoonist, Dato' Lat. Malaysia is not really liberal in the sense that, nobody really dare to make fun of the politicians without the fear of getting a knock on the door from the powers that be

Lat however is somebody unique. He lampoons Dr Mahathir on a regular basis and gets away with it. Why? Because you can tell the innocence and the truth of his thoughts in his drawings. They are often funny, but at the same time hits home. When I was growing up, my Dad has collection of his comic in our living room and I often browse through hem I guess I learned much about Malaysian politics through his work, something that the current crop of young leaders could do with as well. If you have the time, be sure to give a Suria KLCC a visit. It will be worth your time should you be able to tolerate the crowd. By the way, I didn't see that many people wearing masks there tonight either.