My Consultant from the Fourth Dimension

I was transferred from the Berapit Secondary School to the Taman Sejahtera Secondary School on the 6th of February, 2003 to teach Form 1 and Form 2 the Living Skills subject; a subject that I never taught before.

In the subsequent year, I was given back Mathematics to teach. As such I was entitled to apply for the allowance of teaching Science and Mathematics. I submitted my application dated 29.1.2004. My school clerk assured me that I would get it as I had fulfilled all the necessary conditions, among others, I had a credit in English for SC/MCE Examination and I had been teaching Mathematics for almost 26 years.

On the 15th October in the same year, after a period of about nine months, my application was then rejected with a brief hand written memo from a clerk at the Penang Education Department stated in Malay language as “ Dikembalikan. Tidak memenuhi syarat. Jadual tidak boleh ‘break’” [literally means: Form returned. Condition not fulfilled. Should not have break in the time tables for the teaching of Mathematics]. I was not convinced with such rejection, in form as well as in substance. I then submitted my appeal letter to the Penang Chief Education Officer by AR Registered on 28th January, 2005 and the carbon copies of it in registered post were sent to The Chief Secretary in the Ministry of Education and the Secretary General of National Union of Teaching Profession.

On the morning of 23rd February, I received a phone call from the Human Resource department of the Education Ministry to check my present status in school and the subjects I was teaching during those two years.

On the 7th of April, the Secretary General of National Union of Teaching profession, Madam Lok Yim Pheng, sent me a letter with the opinion that I did not qualify for the allowance. To me it was like pouring cold water over the hot burning wood.

On the 9th of April, I received a carbon copy of the letter sent from Human Resource Department of the Ministry of Education to the Education Department of Penang, the content of which was to request the later to reconsider my appeal.

Still no news what so ever came from the Education Department of Penang. ‘No news is good news’ was not what I wanted. On 19th of April, I sent and faxed simultaneously the same letter from the Education Ministry to the Head of the Curriculum Section of Penang Education Department for the attention of Dr Goh, hoping that those who were sleeping would not remain sleeping.

A few days later, on 25th of April, I was summoned to the Penang Education Department to explain to Mr. Mawardi the reason why I submitted my appeal letter without following the proper procedure. My reply was that the one supposed to reply my letter did not do so whereas the one I did not expect to reply had been following my case closely. To this, Mr. Mawardi replied that the Penang Education Department did not receive my AR Registered letter. It might have been misplaced during the recent shifting of new office from Georgetown to Bukit Gambier at Gelugor, Penang. According to Mr. Mawardi again, it was not necessary that the person to whom the letter was addressed to should take up the case; those carbon copy letter receiver could take due action too. That was the first time I ever heard of it during my thirty three years of service with the Government. It was entirely new to me.

The next day I telephoned Mr.Mawardi to find out the outcome of my appeal. He still maintained that I was not qualified to get the teaching Science and Mathematics allowance as I did not attend the induction course for teachers converted to teach these two subjects. To this reply I requested him to issue me an official letter of rejection from the Penang Education Department. I waited and waited. No letter came.

While this matter was still unresolved, I thought it would be a good idea to consult the Goddess of Mother Earth [地母娘娘] at a temple in Air Itam, Penang during the month of May. Through a qian[签 ] [a qian is a piece of paper on which an advice or prophecy is written in the form of a poem] .The Goddess gave me a good qian of No 81, stating that my effort would not be in vain as God would be helping me to get the allowance. The sailing boat would carry the treasure home was what she meant.

qian no.89_______qian no.81

By July, there was still no news from the Penang Education Department, either good or bad. On the 15th of July, I wrote another letter to Madam Khadijah of the Human Resource Department of the Education Ministry to thank her for the concern she had shown in my appeal case and at the same time to highlight the very same case that was still unresolved by the Penang Education Department.

In August I made another visit to the Goddess of Mother Earth [地母娘娘] to get further advice. Again, she gave me a good qian[签] of number 89, stating that if I could gather the help of a Samaritan [a person who gives help and sympathy to people who need it], I would be joyous with the treasure brought home.

Again, like my dad and mum before me, I was quite skeptical about the advice or prophecy of this consultant from the fourth dimension because an officer of the Penang Education Department had already verbally turned down my appeal.

Finally, on the 7th of October, my appeal was successful. I was informed by my school clerk, Kak Min, to fill in a form to process my claim of the Science & Mathematics teaching allowance. I got my arrears back dated to January of 2004; the amount totaled up to about RM6000.

Later, I learnt from the letter of approval of my claim from the Penang Education Department I received on 20.10.2005, it was Madam Khadijah whose phone call to the Penang Education Department on 5.10.05 that made my claim possible. Looks like Madam Khadijah was the Samaritan which my consultant referred to.

Luckily, I took the right move to appeal persistently. Otherwise, I would not have sailed in a boat carrying the treasure home as predicted by my consultant from the fourth dimension.