Constipated

I quite enjoyed a medical talk which The Old Frees' Association organised last Friday. Found it quite practical with easy-to-understand information on some common health issues. About 50 to 60 people attended, and we listened to four doctors from Aptus Surgery & Specialist Centre, namely, Dr Ong Hean Teik, Dr Lim Su Sian, Dr Cathy Heng and Dr Sabrina Jane Dass.

One of the segments was Dr Cathy Heng's presentation on the colon, particularly constipation. She began by asking how many people in the audience were constipated and invited us to raise our hands. Only one person responded. I suspect there were others who weren't quite prepared to own up, given that this isn't exactly the sort of subject we normally discuss in public.

But Dr Cathy made the point that constipation isn't simply about whether we pass motion every day. Some people go more than once a day while others may go only a few times a week. What matters is whether this is normal for us and whether we experience difficulty or discomfort. She also reminded us to pay attention to persistent changes in our bowel habits, particularly if accompanied by blood in the stool, unexplained weight loss or other worrying symptoms. These shouldn't be dismissed, as they could be signs of something more serious, including colorectal cancer.

Another point she made was about keeping our colon healthy through sensible eating and regular exercise. Eating more fibre, drinking enough water and staying active are simple measures, but they are easy to neglect in our daily lives. I particularly liked her comparison of exercise to putting money into a savings account. We save for a rainy day, and in much the same way, maintaining our muscles gives us a reserve to draw on when we grow older or when illness or an accident leaves us less active.

It was a useful reminder that looking after our health doesn't always require complicated measures. Sometimes, it begins with paying attention to what our bodies are telling us and doing the ordinary things consistently.

Deaf championship

Writing this story was not easy. Initially, I was debating with myself whether to use the word “deaf” or a more politically acceptable term like “hearing impaired”. But then the organisers themselves wanted the event to be called the Asia Pacific Deaf Chess Championship, which was part of a wider Asia Pacific Deaf Multi-sport Championship in Penang. Medals were also being contested in other sports, viz, athletics, badminton, bowling, table tennis and orienteering. So perhaps I had been worrying unnecessarily about being politically incorrect.

It was last December that I first heard about the Asia Pacific Deaf Chess Championship and that it would be held in Penang. Subsequently, the Penang Chess Association was invited to provide the technical expertise needed to make the championship a success. And so, what had initially been just an announcement became a reality this month, with the championship getting under way on 03 October 2026 at the 1st Avenue Mall.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to the mall to watch the games until the final day of competition. By then, the players had already gone through the individual classical and blitz events, and what remained for me to watch was the final of the rapid mixed team event. So that was where I caught up with the championship, with the teams fighting it out for the medals.

In this mixed team rapid event, India emerged as the champions after beating Kazakhstan in the final to take the gold medal. Malaysia then beat Kuwait to secure the bronze. It was good to see the Malaysian team getting onto the medal podium in an international chess competition, particularly one being held on home ground in Penang. 

If there is one Malaysian player who deserves a special mention, it is 14-year-old Leong Ee Hern with his three medals. He won Gold in the individual blitz, Silver in the individual classical event and Bronze in the mixed team rapid. That's quite a haul, and a good achievement for the Malaysian player. Winning a medal in one event is already something to be pleased about, but to collect medals in all three formats is another matter altogether. There was also Yoshni Ramakrishnan who won a Gold in the women's individual classical event. So all in, quite a successful campaign for Malaysia. 

For Penang, hosting the championship at the 1st Avenue Mall was yet another opportunity to bring this side of chess to a wider audience. We are accustomed to seeing chess tournaments played in hotels, school halls and other designated venues. A shopping mall offers a different setting, with members of the public having the opportunity to see the games as they go about their usual business.

And so, congratulations to all the medal winners, especially Leong Ee Hern for his Gold, Silver and Bronze. It is always nice to see a Malaysian player doing well, and even better when the competition takes place right here in Penang.

The automatic fuel adjustment factor

Most people don't pay much attention to their electricity bills. Or at least, not until something looks unusual. And I'm one of them. Every month, I generally consider my electricity usage to be normal. There will always be some fluctuations, of course, but they don't usually amount to very much. I'm quite happy as long as my monthly bill doesn't exceed RM150, and generally, RM90 to RM100 is about my average.

But yesterday, I attended a talk on ESG and one of the speakers mentioned something that got me wanting to know more. It was a feature on our electricity bills called the Automatic Fuel Adjustment or AFA. Apparently, this has been causing our Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) bills to fluctuate quite a bit this year. So I decided to find out a little more about this AFA thingy.

As I understand it, the AFA is a monthly adjustment determined by the Energy Commission to reflect changes in the cost of fuel used to generate electricity, particularly coal and gas, as well as movements in the US dollar-ringgit exchange rate. When the costs are lower than the standard baseline, consumers get a rebate. When they are higher, we pay a surcharge. The adjustment is calculated according to how much electricity we use. One sen per kWh may not sound like much, but it works out to RM1 for every 100 kWh consumed. For households using a lot more electricity, the difference can become quite noticeable. And this year, the difference has been anything but small.

January 2026 started with an AFA rebate of 4.99 sen per kWh. The rebate gradually became smaller over the following months before disappearing altogether. By May, we were paying a surcharge of 1.38 sen per kWh. Things got worse from there. The surcharge reached 3.80 sen per kWh in August before easing slightly to 3.67 sen in September. That meant September was the fifth consecutive month in which the AFA was a surcharge rather than a rebate.

For a household using 1,200 kWh a month, the difference amounts to quite a lot. In January, the AFA effectively reduced the bill by about RM60. By September, the same amount of electricity attracted an additional RM44. That's a swing of roughly RM104 a month without using a single extra unit of electricity. For those using 800 kWh, the January-to-September difference is about RM69. At 1,800 kWh, it is around RM156, while someone using 3,000 kWh a month would see a difference of roughly RM260.

I am quite fortunate in the sense that my electricity consumption is low enough that I don't have to worry about the AFA surcharge. Under the normal arrangement, domestic users consuming 600 kWh or less a month are exempt from the AFA charge, the RM10 monthly retail charge and the eight per cent service tax. And there's some good news for those using a little more electricity. Following concerns about the rising cost of living, the government has temporarily raised the protection threshold from 600 to 800 kWh a month, covering electricity consumption from 01 September 2026 till December. The move came after Cabinet discussions, partly in response to the hotter weather and haze, which had pushed up electricity consumption in some households.

There's one important detail about this 600 kWh rule, or the temporary 800 kWh rule, that can easily catch people out. If our monthly consumption stays within the applicable threshold, the AFA surcharge is waived. But cross that threshold by even one unit and the AFA applies to all the electricity we use, not just the units above 600 or 800 kWh. So a household that normally stays just below the limit could suddenly find its bill going up quite noticeably in a hotter month, simply because the air-conditioning has been running longer.

For households consuming up to 800 kWh a month, the temporary protection means they are also exempt from the RM10 monthly retail charge and the eight per cent service tax during this period. For those using between 601 and 800 kWh, the savings can amount to roughly RM40 to RM47 a month, depending on consumption. 

The good news is that there should be a retrospective adjustment for our September consumption, to be automatically reflected in bills issued from October onwards. And for the remainder of this year, households using up to 800 kWh a month have a little more breathing space. But what happens when the temporary protection expires at the end of December is anyone's guess.

There's another point I learnt from looking into all this. The AFA outlook isn't particularly encouraging either. The latest forecast had suggested that the surcharge would ease to 3.36 sen per kWh in October and 2.81 sen in November, before rising sharply to 5.48 sen in December. The October rate has since been confirmed at 3.61 sen per kWh, slightly higher than forecast. The November and December figures remain projections for now.

Come 1 January 2027, the 800 kWh protection is due to end unless the government decides to extend it. That may be when we find out just how much of a difference this temporary protection has been making to household electricity bills. So, while we may sometimes blame TNB when the bill arrives looking rather unhealthy, the story is a little more complex. Much of the fluctuation has to do with the cost of producing electricity, particularly fuel prices and movements in the ringgit against the US dollar. The continuing conflict in the Middle East hasn't helped matters either, given its impact on global energy markets.

For the moment, at least, households using no more than 800 kWh a month have some welcome protection. But it is only temporary. Perhaps this is a good time for the rest of us to pay a little more attention to our electricity bills, instead of simply paying them every month and assuming that everything is normal. I know I shall be doing that from now on.