Wednesday blues and Izakaya Taxi...

"More plants. More planet"...That is what written on the brown tissue I use to wrap my Starbucks green tea frapp. It was made from 70% post-consumer recycled fibers and 30% bamboo fibers. Details and depth, the Japanese-style..informative but sometimes tiring and boring...While waiting for the next train to Demachiyanagi as I missed an express one a minute ago, I killed my time by reading all readable sentences around me and began to wonder on how much longer I will linger in Japan. Am I gonna stay for phd here? or go home and later further it somewhere else?

Madi brought up the question in me while we had our occasional sushi outing at Musashi with Danial just now. He said that after a while, he started to feel that life has gone to a slower pace near bore and each day seems similar to its previous and the next one. It triggers me to think of what will be my next step? A big move or just cumulative little ones. Drafting plans in my head, the decision should be made wise and clear without any intervention of emotional issues and other small insignificant factors. I should take one peaceful weekend to draft everything, big thing is worth it to be analyzed critically from all views, based on the big picture.

In the meantime, Kyoto is currently experiencing another cycle of summer again. As usual, summer is a great time for BBQ and party. This summer, Auntie Jap's and Yana's birthday bash plus a get together at Neshi's house to welcome Prof Roslan (USM) and Assoc Prof Fatimah Kari (UM) for their academic visit opens the door to somewhat that I believe will be a series of summer parties and events (reminds me of Prof. Ibrahim, Mr. Jamal and Prof. Norizan visit last summer). Each of them gave an introductory speech and all of them somehow deliver a message between the lines that educated young generation like us should be prepared to take the helm and help build a new Malaysia after coming home. I seems inspired but I guess I will not be coming home too soon for good anyway. Gonna spend some time chasing dreams...one after another...


The most important thing I would like to share with all in this post is about the latest shocking revelation by a Japanese newspaper (Asahi Shimbun, please refer scanned pic) here this week. It is about the 'Izakaya Taxi' plot. Izakaya is some kind of a restaurant-cum-bar where heavy meals and drinks including alcoholic one were served in an atmosphere suitable for after-work relaxation or a small celebration in Japan. This case is not just another ordinary case normally happened at leisure entertainment centers or red light streets but a unique one involving ethical conduct of government officers. Common to everywhere in the world, government administrative officers in Japan (we called them as PTDs in Malaysia) were paid to serve the community in whatever field they were designated to by the taxpayer's money itself. Basically, the people pay taxes in order to receive good services from the government so that they could function as a good citizen in a systematic structure called a nation. What really happened in this Izakaya Taxi plot is that 1402 government officers were caught receiving bribe from taxi drivers. The basic modus operandi of this plot starts when these government officers tend to ride a cab to go home from their Tokyo Metropolitan office complex in Shinjuku to their homes situated at the outskirts of Metropolitan Tokyo instead of using trains or subways on daily basis. The Japanese government encourage all Japanese to travel by public transport so as a government machinery, their officers must show a good example by practicing it (should be recommended in Malaysia aite?..aren't our Putrajaya parcels were packed with cars parking along its streets?). However, these carefully selected brilliant officers who undergo several special trainings use their brain to manipulate the taxpayer's money in order to get benefits for themselves. For example, a taxi ride from Metropolitan Tokyo to Chiba or Saitama will cost them around 10,000 to 20,000 Yen per ride and if multiplied for one month, the amount will grow into an amount where it will be more than enough to cater the taxi driver income per month without servicing other passengers. Out of this special favor, the taxi driver will have to entertain these officers at Izakaya with expensive foods and beers occasionally. Three of them even being caught receiving cash (duit kopi) from the taxi driver. But it does not take long for the Japanese government to smell something fishy in its monthly claims account. 33 officers were immediately charged with disciplinary actions including salary reduction and immediate discharge from service while the others will receive their punishments after the investigation finished.

A lesson should be learnt by us especially me and my friends (currently in lower grade of 41 from whatever scheme it is M (PTDs), J (Engineers), DS (Lecturers) DG (Teachers)) so that bribery, duit kopi, hampers, duit raya and komisyen culture does not roots in our veins. Those who were in private sectors must also quit the practice of giving gifts in return to favors either it is as small as a hamper or as big as a Benz to lobby for government tenders. It is about time that we stop the tradition of 'know-who' in winning tenders but instead concentrate on developing 'know-how' and know-what'. Annually, billions and billions of money in every currencies were spend on this bribery activities especially in third world countries and thus, offsetting the economic growth of the nations itself. If we were to emerge into a prominent player in world economy, we must reduce this unhealthy activity to the minimum level as we could.

Borrowing Datuk Rafiah Salim's (UM's VC) definition on 'integrity' as per described in her explanation on UM's core values; one should demonstrates high ethical and moral values, acts with honesty and without consideration of personal gains, stands by decisions that are in the interest of truth and justice without fear or favour, does not abuse power or authority and does not tolerate unprofessional or unethical conduct in their decision making process. Only with that, we could contribute in making the world a better place to stay.

Another point to be pondered in this post is I would like to call to everyone to stop thinking that by changing to natural gas vehicle (NGV) or by modifying your ride to be able to use natural gas, you have done a wise step in this recent fuel crisis. Being in the field of energy, I realized that natural gas price also fluctuates easily and the price is still cheap in Malaysia just because it is heavily subsidized by Petronas. The capital needed to develop an NGV gas station is extremely pricey and this be the reason why only a few of it exists and all of them were Petronas (other fuel service provider won't venture into a money-losing activity!!!). If all tend to change to NGV, the demand will be higher than supply and therefore, there is no choice apart from increasing the gas price (basic economy). However, NGV users really contributes in reducing the CO2 emissions to the world. For other options, try hybrid cars (Prius, Harrier and Estima for Toyota and Civic for Honda). It may be a little costly at first but will eventually save a lot of your fuel expenditure in the long run. The government should also look into this by giving a road tax-exemption to hybrid cars user instead of revising fuel subsidies only for 4WD users in Sabah and Sarawak but not for farmers in highlands or remote areas in the Peninsular (This is sooo a political-driven move!!!).

Enough blabbering, happy weekend to all!!!