DDYPC TMC Meeting #25 - 18 June 09

This would be my last write up as the VP PR of the club, and I am happy to end my term with a blast. Why? Well, let me walk you through the meeting last Thursday, 18 Jun 2009.

We were honored to have the presence of the very pleasant TM Soo Loon Teo from Exact TMC to be the General Evaluator of the meeting. In fact, the President of Exact, TM Seow Yung Gan also attended the session as the Evaluator for another guest that we have, TM Azlan Supian from Maxis TMC.

The line up of role players were as follows:
TMA: Newly elected VPE Tunku Indra
Grammarian: Outgoing President Azlan Mohaideen
Timer: Guest Azeela from GSCM TMC
Ah Counter: Incoming Secretary Muaz
Speakers: Azlan Supian, Suhana Sidik
Evaluators: Seow Yung Gan, Mas Rizal

TMA did a wonderful job explaining the meeting practice to 20 over attendees, of which half of them were first timer to a toastmaster meeting. By the time he handed over to our Table Topic Master, El Faraoug, everyone was excited to embark on their very own toastmaster experience.

Our first volunteer, Andrew wowed us with his salesperson ability of promoting a device called a emotional recorder (a creative detour than describing about what a headphone does. Well done!). Then our guest TM Azlan Supian was next with the topic of 'If I had an Extra Hour' but cleverly talked about having an extra day, week or month to spare. Our incoming secretary, Muaz was up next with his philosophical idea dwelling on what his Best Days in School were. Overall, all the speakers did very well!

In the assignment speech slot, 2 speakers bravely faced the audience with speech manual of CC#8 and ACB#3.

The first speaker, TM Azlan Supian planted the scenario of having the attendees acting as school children while he educated us on his work as a Geoscientist. I was pretty much intrigued with the many interesting pictures of rocks formation he took and his great passion while describing his profession. What most appealing to me was the many places he travelled either for work or while attending forums and workshops!

I was up next giving my ACB#3 titled ‘Seringgit’. I have to admit that it was not easy trying to craft a speech with the intention of persuading the audience especially when it was only done at the very last minute (not advisable!). I tried my best to persuade the audience to refrain themselves from giving their money away to beggars, and I guess, it did appeal to half of the audience when I was named the Best Speaker for the day (talking about ending the term with a blast!).

Our guest, Azlan Supain was named the Best Table Topic Speaker (and at the end of the meeting, convey his interest to join our Toastmaster Club). Bravo!

Our highlight was of course the evaluation given by our General Evaluator, TM Soo Loon Teo. He never failed to impress me with his candour assessment of our meeting and his smile that never seems to fade at every sentence.

Thank you all attendees, and we hope to see you again next time! And let’s welcome the new VP PR, Azlan Mohaideen with his bi-weekly report of the meeting next time.

Cheers all.

Signing out
Suhana Sidik
Outgoing Vice President of Public Relation
DDYPC TMC

Meeting #25 Best Speech - 'Seringgit'

Speech Title: Seringgit

Speaker: Suhana Sidik, CC

Any of these sights looks familiar? What about the certificate bearing the Jabatan Kebajikan masyarakat logo? Have anyone approached you with these certs as a supporting document?

What I like most about my country Malaysia and what I must be proud the most about being Malaysian is the fact that we may be skimpy on paying the tolls, parking ticket, that extra tips to the waitresses or some (ehem) even resort to stealing the papers and magazines from the office, but we always have the extra seringgit to give away (show money).

But why do we do it?

If you ask any girls in the room, our answer may be too simple. It is what we call ‘Right at Your Face’ syndrome. We are just a fragile creature with a generous soul. We can’t bear the sight of a blind pakcik, or kids in shabby clothing or those poor souls who lost an arm or leg. It just melts our heart away. Besides, we spend more than 1 ringgit to buy chocolates anyway, so why not do something good with it?

But what’s the excuse with guys?
Wait. Have you noticed that beggars don’t normally go and approach a group of boys, especially the smokers type. These people would rather save that 1 ringgit on 2 more cigarettes than actually give you any money. But that is not the case if you approach a group of guys with a pretty lady in the group. Ok, beggar alert from 50 m away. You know boys tend to be competitive right? Out they compete to see who can reach out fastest to their wallet in the hope that she would go ahh at the sight of your kind generosity to help the disadvantage. Ladies trust me, some boys are just a show off!

And there are just tonnes of reason why I think Malaysian is a generous bunch!

So yes, we are trying hard to eliminate the so called ‘Poor-Index’. In our heart, everyone wants to try and be a super hero. So yeah, if we don’t have Hiro Nakamura’s power, let’s reach into the wallet and be our very own modern Robin Hood. We steal from our very own pocket in order to give other people what we think they deserve.

But let me tell you here that it doesn’t work that way.

The beggars that you see here in Malaysia is no ordinary beggar. Instead, they are intelligent beggars or what I would call ‘intgar’. These ‘intgar’ would offer you tissues, stickers and tonnes of other things in exchange for your seringgit. And why do you have to give in to their demand at all times?

Do you notice that the more you give, the list of ‘intgar’ multiplies rapidly. Have you noticed that if you have lunch in Wisma Central for example, within that 1 hour, there would be 2 ‘intgars’ coming to your group screaming for seringgit. Sometime, you would ease your way reaching into your wallet and at times, you would nod and shooh them away. And here I am, recommending that ALL of you present here to do the latter.

Nowadays with the many ‘intgar’ in Malaysia, how do you differentiate between an ordinary beggar with disadvantage, with another intelligent beggar?
And if you are really a generous bunch, why don’t you go through the proper channel? That would probably be a more tax effective way of donating your money away.

Have you ever imagine the irony of these ‘intgar’ and their guide. Their so-called job of an ‘intgar’ is to beg for money, and the guide is to bring these ‘intgar’ around from tables to tables. Look at the condition of the guide. These guides are those perfectly normal human being much like you, with two perfectly working eyes, hands, legs and at times, they look more healthy than you are. Yet, they are working for another lesser capable human being, the pakcik buta as the boss. Just imagine how much the blind pakcik or makcik is earning to be able to pay for the guide, and still make enough money to support his/her own lifestyle.

And for lifestyle, I do mean A LIFESTYLE. Some is capable enough to earn thousand of ringgit to even afford a Honda Civic to drive home everyday. Some would walk with a limp using their cane to Hartamas, and leave away with a brand new Honda Civic everynight with their leg suddenly perfectly healed (yes, true story seen with this very own eyes). Well, that’s how seringgit help improve their lifestyle ... by a mountain.

Imagine this. Seringgit in 2 minutes per table equal to thirty ringgit in one hour. You beg for five hours a day and you get 150 ringgit per day. Multiply that with 20 working days and you get 3K per month, and that is just the basic so called ‘salary’. And you’ve never accounted for the extra overtime, and multiple seringgit per table and etc2. It does sound tempting actually, a probable business venture.

But let’s inject common sense into it.

Please don’t fall into the seringgit scheme, which is much like a Ponzi scheme. Use the legal channel to donate away your money. Seringgit, though maybe small to you may accumulate to a lot more if there are even 10% of the people in this room are guilty of donating their money away. Do not support this seringgit business. Say No to these Intgar.

So L&G, now, what do you do if the ‘intgar’ come and approach you? :p