An appreciation

Readers of this blog will understand that my father's sister passed away in May this year. As she was not married and had been staying with me since the mid-1960s, I was her closest relative and had been looking after her very well until her last days.

Sometime in June this year about a month after my aunt's passing, I had submitted an application form, together with all the necessary documents, through the service centre of a political party near the Kampong Baharu market in Bukit Mertajam in order to claim the Senior Citizens death benefits from the state government.

Since more than four months had passed by without an acknowledgement of any sort from the service centre or state government, I approached the assemblywoman of my state constituency to make inquiries about the status of my application.

Initially I was informed that the service centre did not have any record of receiving the application. Frankly at that stage, I wasn't completely unsurprised. In fact, disappointed. But I do remember that the service centre was rather busy on the day I submitted the application. My form and documents could have been misplaced anywhere or forgotten. But it shouldn't be their excuse. Unfortunately too, I had also not kept any photocopy of the application for my own record as I had trusted the service centre too much to do all that was necessary correctly.

But what to do now, since they know that they had bungled and caused my form and documents to go missing? To the credit of the service centre, the mere realisation that something had gone wrong somewhere simply spurred them into action.

Over the past few days, I have received two telephone calls from the staff of the service centre, apologising profusely for misplacing my application. Yes, they acknowledged that they had no record of it at their office or the Land Office which would register the application.

But apart from the telephone apologies, they also sprung into action. First, a Mr Lim visited me to apologise personally. Then a Ms Ooi came along to hand me another application form and said that she would return later in the afternoon to collect all the documents back. I told her that I'd call her when everything was ready. I am really very impressed and feel very gratified over their personal service. So yes, thank you, I hope for an early resolution soon.

Oh, by the way, the assemblywoman that I spoke to was Lydia Ong Kok Fooi and the service centre in question belonged to the Democratic Action Party (DAP), constituency of Berapit in Province Wellesley. Okay, apart from having misplaced my application, they are making amends for this bungle by attending to my case in such an exemplary style. Kudos to the people there!