remind me to thank you for commenting… ?

did you notice anything wrong with the picture on the left? it is a poster by the national registration department (NRD) for its courtesy campaign.

what’s wrong with it (to me at least) is the words “remind me”. it’s not only wrong but funny. why? courtesy should come naturally. why should we remind others to be courteous?

just imagine how strange and funny it would sound if i were to say:

* “cik, please look at me while you are talking to me, will you?”

* “you did not smile at me. please let me see a smile on your face.”

* “hey encik, you did not wish me selamat pagi!”

* “why didn’t you thank me?”.

NRD’s director general, abdul halim, tells us that it is our right to have service with a smile, and he also said:

“Now, the public have the right to demand better service if the counter staff have not been courteous,”

huh? only now? encik abdul, you mean all along we have no right to ask for courteous service?

while i laud NRD’s (and also PLUS‘s) effort in coming up with a courtesy campaign, methink they are doing it the wrong way. instead of targetting us, the rakyat… to REMIND them to be courteous, it’s their own customer service staff that they should target. instead of the posters meant for us, to remind their staff to be courteous, they could have come up with posters for the staff themselves that says things like “i must remember to smile at my customers” or “to greet and thank customers is my priority”. the reminder should be FOR the staff, not for us to remind them!!

the rakyat could play a part if NRD impose something like a demerit points system. when the rakyat came across a rude impolite staff, s/he could file a complain, then the staff concerned would have a demerit point deducted. although there may be lots of cons for this system, but it is better than the ridiculous, occasional “encik, senyumlah sikit” coming from us.

i don’t know. this is just my suggestion. do you have any suggestion?

2 weeks ago when i went to the NRD in penang to collect my new mykad, i did not notice the staffs smiling at me at all. never mind, now i know i have a right to scold them for not smiling, so i will. 🙂

talking about my mykad, when i collected it, i asked the staff to check my details for me. she did… with the card reader, but she was holding it against her chest, which means only she will get to see the details… and how will she know my details were correct? silly. should have bring the card reader to me and showed me. anyway, as i was only interested in the agama part, i asked “agama, krisitan kah?”. then she looked and said “ah ya betul, kristian”. so i leave it as it is.

however few days ago, when i try to check my mykad in church with the card reader, it says “kad tidak sah”… and nothing came up!! (we have a card reader in church and i can check anytime since everyday i park there). why then when the staff checked, the details were there? strange. though i try several times (at times trying to clean my card while wiping it with cloth), still it says “tidak sah”. what should i do now? should i go back to NRD and tell them my mykad is not ‘sah‘?

coming back to the courtesy campaign, should i put up a button in my blog that says “remind me to thank you for commenting.”? nah, it should be “i have to thank those who comment”. huh? why not this instead – “thank you to all who comment” – that would solve everything as i don’t have to remind myself and i already thanked everyone.