Just had a break but need another one soon...

Today I am recuperating from two things: my 3 days holiday and the fuel price hike frustration.

It’s already 3.30pm and I am still feeling drowsy; even 3 cups of strong black coffee couldn’t wake me fully. Thank god the rest of the office is also as sleepy and looking just as demotivated; nobody’s requesting anything from me ever since morning.
The boss only stopped for awhile at my cubicle to tell me to prepare an orientation plan and one place for a new hire (replacement of The Diva).

Actually I was the one who recommended him to hire this engineer although his resume was not that impressive. I usually reject candidates with ‘too-good-to-be-true’ resumes. This particular candidate submitted a very simple CV so I actually investigated him (through my agents working in various IT companies in KL… hehehe). I’m paranoid like that most of the times and won’t simply hire some candidate who has a nice smile and made a good first impression during interview sessions. We are living in the IT era, but word of mouth is still very important. You can guess a person’s personality from her Facebook profile, but you’ll only get to know her if you’ve met her in person or mingle with her good friends.

So, until this new engineer report to work next Monday I’ll be somewhat idle most of the days this week. Can spend more time on Facebook, yeay!

(Skip the paragraphs below if you can’t stand any more opinions on the ‘minyak naik’ issue. I don’t want you to ‘naik minyak’ lagi…. )

On another note, I’m still rather pissed off with the fuel price hike. I might need to switch from using Shell V Power to cheaper options. The good thing is that I’m used to using an RM2 ++ per liter fuel, so paying an extra sens per liter would hurt a bit, but not too much, I guess (I hope… hehehe).

My greatest regret is the implementation and approach of this whole newly restructured fuel subsidy scheme. I think ¾ of Malaysian population has come up to terms with the fuel hike – it is inevitable, or so they said (well, at least that’s what I think the mainstream media has been trying to plant in our heads these past few days).

However, the implementation flaws are just too obvious. Read carefully every media statement made by the Minister in Charge and the PM himself. I am not a Project Manager, but I get a funny feeling that this was not properly planned and the implementation approach is just ‘reactive’. There’s no way for us to know whether this whole scheme has been planned since mid 2005 or only a few weeks ago or right after BN’s poor performance during the GE. A properly planned program/project/change shouldn’t be implemented so sudden, as if not giving any chance for the public to think and prepare for it.

As a result, there were negative reactions plus new development of distrust. As an adult, I was feeling both frustrated and insulted.

How would you feel when the government announced that Yes, they understood the people’s situation and will strategize more plans to help cushion the blow. So the officers in charge will be working throughout this weekend (for their first ever brainstorming session, I suppose) so that they could announce the plans on next Monday. Was there any study done by the subject matter experts before the government took this drastic action?
Shouldn’t those research papers be published somewhere? I’m neither an academician nor a politician, but I demand a proper project/program/change/scheme implementation with all the documentation in place. I sounded like my manager, I know. My conclusion is: Can we have better people to run the country, please?

... and please don't get me started on the fall back plans I expect the government to have in order to save the country's economy (especially our cost of living) as the inflation rate rises.