SHAH-AZZ, INCORPORATED

Before any other citizens of this proud nation knew about this, I was amongst the ‘early-birds’ to witness and helped to run the inaugural of GEMS programme at MoF, Putrajaya on 12th-13th March 2009, which was lauched by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak. How come? I attended the preparation and pre-rehearsal the day before the launching.

For any of you who want to know about GEMS, and might want to register, please visit this website. For a little bit of intro, GEMS stands for Graduate Employability Management Scheme. This programme is designed to help graduates to enhance their employability in participated GLC companies. This programme also designed to reduce the number of unemployment, which is the number 1 problem of today’s fresh graduates, and even for those who didn’t get a job for several years. As we all know, with today’s economic crisis and recession, one will always hard to get a job. Even a lot the worker from the private sector have to quit ‘forcely’ as their respective company had felt the pinches of this problem. So what’s the different between GREEN, the one I entered last year? For me, GEMS is government’s version of GREEN, while GREEN is more Khazanah Nasional Berhad-specific project. In other words, GEMS is GREEN with more publicity...hehe...Anyway, see the website for insights of the programme, venues, modules etc.

Back to my intended story. Our batch had received the invitiation to come to the launch day, and in the same time, asked any of us who are free to come and help in rehearsal. Since I’d quite a lot of free time at MRCB, I might as well lend a hand to them. So my journey started after lunch on the 12th, where I took the U80 bus to Pasar Seni. I’ve researched on the net before that from here, one could get a RapidKL E1 bus which the destination is Putrajaya Sentral, which I did. This was the first time I came to Putrajaya by myself. However, I only knew one bus that pass the MoF building, The U42, so I had to wait for that one. I arrived at the place at about 6:30pm.

The hall where the ceremony was being held.

Puan Fazlinda (pink outfit) is the Assistant Vice President, Strategic Human Capital Management of Khazanah, or should I say, ‘mother figure’ for GREEN, and now, GEMS. She’s amongst the major person in this programme.

Bob (Biotech) was the emcee. He is always considered as the ‘de facto’ for this task in any programme.

Sabarina (Irshad HR Consulting) and Fazri (Khazanah), the usherettes.

So what’s left for me? I was becoming an usherette too, situated at the main entrance, so I was amongst the 1^st person to greet the DPM. I, with some other friends, will also get the chance to get on stage with DPM for photography session as a GREEN alumni.

Anyway, let’s see some stuffs outside the hall…

These frames (I didn't know the actual name of this board) will be taped on the softboard to show some GREEN info…

…And we were the ones who were taping it. (From Left): Maza (Irshad), Ardi (Khazanah), me, Mr Salim (Irshad), Faizal (‘Freelancer’) and Sabar.

GEMS Banners. See all the boards at the background…

…and now, see what happened the next morning. I thought somebody purposely arranged like this, but actually the boards had fallen off. Well, now we know that masking tape couldn’t do the job :p

After some rearrangements, and with the addition of LCD screen and a laptop for showing off the website (mocking only) by Rahimie (Proton), the setup turned out quite good. A table as an information counter was to be put afterwards.

The two lucky counter girls were Junita (MAFC) and Dayang (Sage Consulting).

The view of the hall after Friday prayers. These mostly were VVIPs, CEOs, Managers of the GLC’s. Some alumni parents also came.

The DPM came about 3:00pm and gave the speeches. After his signature on the digital ‘plate’, we, the selected alumni went on the stage with the DPM and some of the VVIPs. This was the time when all the cameramen and photographers from various press and TV stations took a lot of shots of us. Admittedly, there was some kind of ‘hiinnssss’ feeling (hidung kembang) during this moment. Unfortunately, none of the GREENies took these pictures, so I was in dire, hoping to get these photos, possibly from the press itself (which I don’t know how to request it). To inflict further damages to my misery, while the launching occasion did came out on the TV news at that night, apparently the camera guy were shooting at a different position than where I was standing, so I did not have a ‘nationwide appearance’, unlike those who were standing at the right of DPM…darn…

So the only I could do was to take photos of myself beside the slide…huuuu…

Some of the Batch IV alumni attended…Dayang, Ardi, Faizal, me, Rahimie, Fazri…

Puan Fazlinda and her ‘right-hand man’, Mr Amizi (Khazanah)

The shots outside the hall showed the people who crowded the lobby, and the food table. I was also about to get a shot of DPM with his tea break, but one of his bodyguard won’t let me. “Adik, Datuk Seri kalau time makan tak nak diganggu…nanti dia habis makan baru boleh…”..ooo okay…sorry didn’t know…

After the successful launching event, since we were a bit tired, some of us got the chance to feel the exotic life at a 5-star hotel at Putrajaya, Pullman. Mr Azahar Mansor (Irshad) aka Datuk (the sailboat guy) rent a room for us to stay for a night. Unlucky for me, I had to go to a friend’s wedding on the following day, so I had to go back…

…And I can’t even get access to the junk food stored in this fridge. This will add up the cost anyway.

Me and Mr Azahar (not sleeping together, mind you) and also Ardi…

And during the nighty, Mr Azahar, the kind and generous one, treated us at Padi, one of the grandest food stall at Cyberjaya. (Ini ayat bodek mintak belanja lagi lepas nih..hihihihi)

(PS - The rest of GEMS photo collections have been uploaded at, as usual, my Picasa)