Observations in a Governmental office

I brought Granny to the National Registration Office over in Bandar Perda early this morning to change her IC which was implemented by the Government several years ago. The office is suppose to open at 8am and we reached around 8.15am. When I went to get the queu number, it's already at 122 and it's not even 8.30am yet!

All sorts of thoughts went through my mind at that instant. My Granny is not one of the most patient person on earth and mind you, with her sharp tongue, it's bound to offend quite a number of people. I immediately inform her that we have to wait for naerly 2 hours before it is her turn to take her picture and suggest that we go for breakfast at a nearby coffeeshop.

At first, she agreed. But when there is not direct bridge from the office to the coffeeshop which is directly opposite the building of the Registration office, she got impatient and fed up with all the walking around. See, she had to walk all the way to the main gate and walk another distance before reaching the coffeeshop. However, because of her poor health, hence she's not able to walk far without feeling dizzy and out of breath. Since she got really irritated and angry, she proceeded to tell me off in a not-so-nice way that she rather not have breakfast after all and that she rather wait in the Registration office for her turn. So, I offered to accompany her to the office, find a place for her and go get some thing for her to eat. She proceeded to give me a glare and so, I told her, "It's up to you la. If you're hungry or anything, you let me know. Cause it's gonna be a very long wait before it's your turn."

Being a Monday, I think the theory where a lot of people call in sick or take leaves on Monday is quite true. The Registration office is so crowded that there are barely any seats left when we reach at 8+ in the morning. I had a hard time looking for a place for Granny to sit down. It was a while before I found any seats. There was this empty seat beside a lady which I saw was with her husband earlier. So out of courtesy, I asked her if the seat is occupied. She said no. So I asked my Granny to come to the front and take the seat since she was standing behind that lady. Behind me, was this Malay girl. I think she saw that empty seat because she was trying to manouver her way around me to get to the seat. However, I wanted my Granny to have that seat because she's weak and she shouldn't be standing around for hours. So, I purposely block all attempts by the Malay girl to get to the seat and got my Granny firmly seated before I turned around and glance at her. She was GLARING at me. :P LoL. I did not give her a second thought after that because hey, she's still young, probably around my age. She can afford to stand around, not my Granny who's nearly 79 this year.

Speaking of youths, I notice that a lot of youths and yuppies who were sitting around at the provided seats, do not stand up and offer their seats to senior citizens or pregnant ladies. From where I was observing, it saddens me to see that majority of those standing are senior citizens with their head full of white hair, while those sitting down, are youths that stare at them with indifference. Where are all the morality and ethical values we learn back in school? Did they disappear the moment we left high school behind? So what if they scored an A1 in their SPM for their moral when they are acting like it's their God given right to sit down and stare when they are still young and energetic enough to stand instead? If I were in their position, I will feel sorry and ashamed of myself if I did not stand up and offer my seat to those who needed it more than I do. WHy? Because I'm still young! That's why. I won't waver around if I stand too long but those senior citizens will, especially those who are 60+ and above.

Now, the procedures in the Registration office is that they will call your number, then you proceed to the first counter to have your picture taken. Then, you take a seat and wait again. They will call your number again and this time around, you will get your thumbprints scan and receive a receipt. Usually, one doesn't have to wait more than 15 minutes between the 2 procedures but because they have a lot of people in the office today, and the lady that handles the photography is a very fast worker, plus the scanners for the thumbprints did not work very well, there was an hour's delay between the 2 procedures. Thus, after taking her picture, my Granny had to wait another hour before she can get her thumbprints scan into the system.

After having her picture taken, there were no empty seats around. I was standing around, looking with a purpose for an empty seat for my Granny, and there are this group of youths around my age at a nearby seat, staring openly at me and my Granny. The more they stare, the more irritated I got. I had a good mind of giving them a piece of my mind on what I think their attitude is. The least they could do when they see my Granny was to offer one seat for her. But no, they just stared insolently at us. I nearly wanted to tell them off when I spotted an empty seat and quickly urge my Granny to that seat before some spoilt youngster decided to take the seat.

This is probably what I would tell them off.

"SInce you're staring at my Grandmother, you'll notice that she's very weak now wouldn't you? So why not give up you seat and offer it to her instead of just sitting there and staring at her with you mouth open wide like you're watching a movie?! Do you want to see her faint or something? Would you enjoy that? I bet you would!"

Urgh! How can some people be so insensitive towards the older generation? DOn't they have grandparents? Can't they sympathize with them and try to treat them nicely instead of being so rude, just sitting down there and stare to their heart's content? Maybe it's just me. I always have a soft spot for senior citizens and the disabled. Not forgetting pregnant ladies too. If I were in the LRT, I would stand up and offer my seat to them. I've always felt that it's the right thing to do. ANd the plus factor was, I felt much better about myself as a person after being kind to them.

I think that the Registration office should make their department senior citizens and disable friendly. Perhaps open up a special lane to cater to such special people. It's really unfair for them to wait for such a long time. Especially when quite a number of the senior citizens are not literate in Malay or English. I'd notice a few senior couples whom went to the office themselves and they had a hard time trying to get people to help them fill in the forms. They had to asked people around what are the procedures. And, nobody bother to help them, or were reluctant to give them a helping hand.

Plus, there were one or two disable there who came in a wheelchair. They had to wait like everybody and go through the 2 procedures and wait for such a long time. Thank goodness their family were with them! Imagine what would happen to them if their families were not with them and they had to handle everything by themselves? They would probably be as helpless as those senior citizens. BM and Penang are not like KL. KL are more disable and senior citizen friendly because it's the capital city of the country. But that doesn't mean that there are no senior citizens or disable in other parts of the country! I think the Government should really 'take a look' into the situation since that's they're favourite way of solving a problem and instead of giving more excuses, they should find a solution and make public places, especially Governmental offices, a friendly place for senior citizens, disables and pregnant ladies.

I have a good mind of writing into the newspaper and put in a complain about this senior citizen friendly thing. I just might do so in a couple of days. Hmph!