THEY WILL ASK thee as to what they should spend on others. Say: "Whatever of your wealth you spend shall [first] be for your parents, and for the near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer; and whatever good you do, verily, God has full knowledge thereof." - Al-Baqarah (2:215)
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Monday 14 September 2009

The cheque presentation

Yesterday was the day for the presentation of cheques awarded by Yayasan Sultan Azlan Shah for various NGOs and shelter homes in Perak.

We (the reps from the various NGOs/homes) were to report to the person in charge at 2.30 pm while HRH The Regent of Perak was scheduled to arrive at 3.45 pm.

I had never been inside DBI's premise, so I wasn't really sure where the function hall was. And so I decided to go early. Good thing I did. I thought the venue would be somewhere at the ground floor - but apparently the function room was on the 10th floor.

There were quite a number of representatives already present by the time I reported to the person in charge. After a while, they called out each organisation to make sure we sat according to the numbers allotted. Mine was number 69. And in total there were 71 recipients. Surely you can guess where I sat, huh? Yep, last row...

Anyway, when the emcee called out the names of the various organisations, I kinda figured he wouldn't pronounce Buddies correctly. As expected, he mentioned Buddhist of Ipoh. I pointed out to another officer that it's supposed to be Buddies, not Buddhist. So this officer went to correct the emcee. The emcee replied back, "Tapi tulis sini budis!" Duh, dah lah tak tau, degil pulak tu!! The officer then said to him, "Ni tulis orang putih, sebut BA-DIS bukan BU-DIS."

Hmmmph... maybe next time we should just change the spelling to Badis...

Anyway, after our seating arrangements were settled, the protocol officer then briefed us on what to do etc. The lady sitting beside me began to get nervous. Every now and then, she'd be asking me, "What is it that we have to say after we get the cheque?" And every now and then I'd have to tell her, "Menjunjung kasih, tuanku."

At about 3.50 pm we heard the sound of sirens loud and clear. Obviously HRH had arrived. And walking in along with him were the Raja Puan Muda, and also Raja Ashman and Raja Eleena.

The official function started off with a bacaan doa, followed by a speech by Raja Nazrin and then on with the cheque presentation. The emcee did some blunders as well during the official function, with wrong pronunciation of names. Despite the presence of royalties in the room, our giggles were rather obvious when the emcee tried to pronounce Persatuan Autisme. And at one time, he was about to say Persatuan but realised it was Pertubuhan, so he went like... Pers..tubuhan... (now what does THAT sound like??)

I was quite worried that he would again mention Buddhist Society of Ipoh - what a shock it would have been to those present seeing this Mak Aji going to get the cheque!

But guess what? I think after the giggles due to the word autism, this time he played safe. He only mentioned my name without mentioning the organisation!

Well, anyway, with 71 recipients altogether, frankly I had expected a cheque of maybe just RM2K, or at the most, RM5K.

I hope nobody realised I went terbeliak biji mata when Raja Nazrin mentioned in his speech that each recipient would be awarded RM20K each. Of course, there's a condition to it. In six months time we will all have to send a written report with details on how we spent the money.

Time to plan for new project, maybe?

15 comments:

mamasita said...

20K??? Alhamdullillah..banyaklah program2 yang bakal diatur..
I hope lepasni you pergi istana untuk terima pingat kerana jasabakti you membantu kaum yang susah!

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

muahahaha...persetubuhan! the emcee really should have done his homework first before taking over the mic.

together with other 15 NGOs/Homes, my PERSETUBUHAN received our cheque last friday. individually, we got a backpack each and to top it all, PK9 members received angpow from our treasurer. meehoon aside, the spread was mouth-watering. so all in all, the last buka invitation i went was great. a few of us actually lit up some fire crackers and literally left wisma spastic with a bang!

Naz in Norway said...

Alhamdulillah...hopefully there will be a lot of progs coming up for the benefit of all.

Kak Pi?...ooo Kak Pi?....Laaa hai Kak Pi dah pi shopping kat Haadyai1 :D

Pi Bani said...

Mamasita,
Pingat-pingat tu semua tak bawak ke mana pun. Kalau pengat boleh juga masuk perut... :)

Pi Bani said...

Kerp,
Emcee tu bukan sekadar tak buat homework, degil pulak tu! I wonder why they chose him in the first place for such a formal function!

So, did you tapau any buka puasa leftovers in your backpack?

Pi Bani said...

Naz,
Gi shopping kat Haadyai buat apa? Kat Malaysia kan tengah mega sale? ;)

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Aunty Pi,
HRH Raja Nazrin tu hensem kan? If only he were a cat too....sigh....
As my Mama would say, now, Pi Bani, get back to work and use that money wisely. heheheh...that's how she scolds ppl at her ofc.

Pi Bani said...

Cat-in-Sydney,
Aii... putty tat oso minat kat dia ke? Tapi nak tackle Adibah's Rajoo. Macam mana ni? Casanona punya kucing!

Anyway, get back to work? Now? Aiseh, bagi chan la I nak raya dulu!

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Casanona? Never heard of that word...I'm just spreading the lurve...Anyway, HRH now married to my Mama's friend's sister in law. sob sob sob.....
Rajoo? still trying.....
Aunty Pi,
Pls eat whatever that humans eat on Eid on my behalf. I'll stick to my Fancy Feast, thank you. purrr...

Pi Bani said...

Cat-in-Sydney,
Casanona tu I punya term for a female version of casanova lah!

Not only will I eat on your behalf, I will also hold a "virtual" open house and serve you pics of food... hehehe...

mekyam said...

ngo for pers..tubuhan..., buddhist mak aji who went terbeliak biji mata while repeating "menjunjung kasih, tuanku"... tsk.. tsk.. tsk.. apalah nak jadi dengan perak ni! ;D

selamat hari raya, dear McPi!

utk usikan setahun, saya minta maaf dan ampun!

Queen Of The House said...

Laaaa Pi, you tak tau beforehand ke how much the Pers-tubuhan is getting? but alhamdulillah for the amount.

Pi Bani said...

McYam,
Perak is full of drama lah!! Mana ada lagi tempat lain kat dunia ni yang buat sidang DUN bawah pokok kan? KELLAASSS gitu!

Selamat Hari Raya to you too... and ni nak mintak maaf siap-siap sebab raya nanti I nak torture you lagi... hehehe!

Pi Bani said...

QOTH,
Nope, they never tell before-hand how much they're giving. They just send us the letter asking us to send a rep for the cheque presentation. Another Yayasan last year gave us RM2K, so I was thinking this one pun about the same amount lah, tambah pulak banyak recipients.

Salt N Turmeric said...

Murah rezeki all the ngos this year ye? Alhamdulillah now yu can do more for all those that really needs help. If only HRH can fix the slowliness and/or unhelpful staff at the gov offices.