Its a State of Mind?

Yesterday I went to Kota Bharu for a wedding. Thought of staying there for the night but surprise of surprise it was all full! Every hotel 2 star, 3 star, 4 and even 5 star were all full. It was attributed to the school holidays apparently. To kill time while waiting for the wedding to begin I had a short stroll in KB Mall the latest development in Kota Bharu. Kota Bharu has always been amazing and always interesting.

Let's now move to the town I am in, Kuala Terengganu. Moved here since January 2006. The move was related to the MB's attempt to spur the economy and activity in Kuala Terengganu. For that he instructed all Terengganu state related company to return to Kuala Terengganu and set up their headquarters here. But the lamentable state of affairs that is KT is that it is dull compared to KB. Not exciting not picturesque. Always been like this. I first came here way back in 1995 for an assignment and truthfully nothing have changed.

I can only sum up one great difference between the 2 states, its all about the mindset and attitude. In KB the people themselves help to spur and generate development while in KT any form of development will need some kind of government push, backing or involvement. Why is that? Terengganu people are nor proud of their state capital?

MB continues to lament that people do not come to KT that he had to device various initiatives and programme to bring up the numbers. Monsoon cup is one of them. While what brings the numbers to KB? The Pesta Air the annual play in the flood festivities. That's it. No government push. No need for million dollar ad campigns. No Michelle Yeoh.

The state cannot push for development when the people do not want to develope themselves. Where are all the Terengganu born corporate leaders? Aren't they interested in developing the state much in the same manner as the Kelantan businessmen as developing their state? When will we get to see high quaility developments in the same vein as in Kota Bharu that spurs excitemment and that elicits pride?

Another comparison. I was a bank auditor once and I have audited the branches in both state. In KB after 6 the branch Manager invites us out for tea in front of the branch premise and tells us if we want to work late he can assign someone to come in later to lock up. Its a huge branch. in KT it was 5.00 pm and they told us to hurry up because they have to go home and no one is available to lock up. And that's it, by 5.30 everyone leaves and its all dark by 6.00 pm. The size is a fraction of KB's. Notice the difference here?

I had another brush later with KT when I headed an audit outfit. I arranged for an audit assignment to audit a KT warehouse and what did they do? The Managers and senior staff promptly went on leave almost during the duration of the audit. I had to pull rank and force them to come back to work! I had lesser problems in KB even though the situation there was more problematic. Its all about the state of mind. Need to bring changes to the state? Change the state of mind first. How? Next time eh?