Sunday's 'Sans Souci' (Carefreeness)

Good Christians will attend Mass and then perhaps go for an outing or visits. Others, including Muslims who attend Sembahyang Jumaat on Friday, may go out for a weekend vacation, balik kampung, or just cuti-cuti and makan plus shopping at some of the luxurious shopping malls

Saturday and Sunday will be the rest days after a gruelling five days of work, work, work. Those who are now in their 60s and 70s
and worked in the government before, used to work a 5-and-a-half or even 6-day week. Some continue to do so even now due to work pressure, especially those who are self-employed.

I sometimes wonder what an ideal weekend or Sunday would be. Lazing around at a posh seaside resort,on the crowded beach or beside the pool, reading a novel and watching 'the girls go by?" I must say it's a lot of fun on foreign beaches or pool-sides where bikinis or 'minikinis' are allowed. No, not to eat my heart out watching the dames and their bopping boobs and bulging bums which are as natural as the waves splashing on the shore. What tickle the funnybones are the senior madams parading surplus fats and cellulite spilling out of their skimpy wrappings with some brown or dark patches of private undergrowth peeping out to soak up the sun. No offend intended. That doesn't apply to the local scene, anyway.

Or it is a picnic in the park or visiting out with the family? Both are commendable though too many of those can become quite boring to, not so much the father but the teenage sons and daughters. They ( daddy too, you know!) want more fun and games. What happens more often is that the young ones will go out with their friends while the more elderly parents ( not so adventurous anymore) will remain home tending to the gardens and the pets or watching TV. Internet surfing is a modern pastime and those hooked on it will have no problem staying at home, both young and old.

The Sunday papers of course have a lot of entertaining materials to read. More and more about famous people and celebrities like pop-artists and sports superstars, about fashion and food, business and advertisements, with precious little in the form of news roundup and analysis for the week, new insight and horizon in science and astronomy or astrology or about civics and morality. Some experts in social science should really try to analyze the contents of our papers and popular magazines to see if they are conducive to and supportive of the 1 MALAYSIA concept. The Sunday papers are pretty bulky but are the contents suitable for the formation of a healthy 1 Malaysia attitude and mentality? Only the government seems to be formulating a lot of agenda along the Government Transformation Programme: so many coming out in an endless stream that they can get very confusing and unconvincing. Isn't it not better to focus on a few concrete programs and put all attention on them to ensure successful implementation rather than "stretched our targets as a way to increase our aspirations." A plan which builds on the
success achieved as shown by a periodic evaluation, puts a premium on the evaluation process, ie the NKRA and MKRA which will depend on the working of the 8 Labs....A poor evaluation will lead to a weak plan build-up.....

Let's not spoil a good Sunday on that. I still believe in the Red Book evaluation system instituted by Tun Razak which requires all heads of department to answer on the progress made or lack of progress shown, every week. Their verbal report will be compared against factual data collected. Try to bluff and you'll get the boot. Tun Mahathir did the same through a weekly briefing with presentation made by different ministries, departmens or agencies. He'll raise hell where progress is not up to expectation and no head of department can sleep on their work. And you don't spend millions of ringgit on developing a GTP
with 250 top civil servants and Ministers monitoring and building up on its progress.

My, my, I'm straying from my Sunday Sans Souci. My routine for the weekend is simple. I need to do physical work on Saturday like cleaning up my old rural home which includes weeding and clearing up the whole compound, washing up my small fish pond, doing some gardening etc. Going to the show in the night can be fun. Sunday is for rest, reading, writing and watching TV. But the most interesting past-time had always been surfing the internet to fill the gaps in knowledge which seem to be increasing all the time as more and more information becomes available/accessible thorough the computer and other electronic media. Have a cup of teh tarik.....