The perils of being a weekend husband

MANY a wage-earner knows only too well the pressures of having to go where the job exists. Some job advertisements attach a readiness to move to unpopular locations as pre-requisite for employment.

Where job prospects are bleak, it is Mohammed who has to come to the mountain and not the other way round. In fact a former UK Minister Norman Tebbit once famously raised the ire of the harassed working classes by using such metaphor although his was less sympathetically lyrical.

The United Kingdom of the late 70s was a hotbed of union-led strikes brought about by unemployment that touched over 3 million. In Margaret Thathcher, there could be no disciple of Milton Friedman more ardent than the `Iron Lady' who rode in to the rescue.

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Her fulsome embrace of monetarism saw the economy ditch Keynesian dogma in addressing the British malaise of a bloated workforce coupled by a `closed-shop’ work tradition.

The rebel rousers were agitating against the harsh new realities brought about by this laissez faire attitude to market forces. The Conservative government was unafraid to use high unemployment as economic tool, disregarding the political costs.

Strikes at factories and coal mines were frequent and violent confrontation against the police and union-busting `scabs’ were common fodder on the nightly news. Legend has it that in one confrontation a trenchant Tebbit told the strikers to; `get off you’re a..es; and hop on your bikes!).

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By all accounts enough members of the electorate agreed with that `on yer bike’ manifesto and voted for Tory rule. Margaret Thatcher remained in power for three consecutive terms from 1979. The two decades of Maggie was won off a platform of less government, more private industry and for individuals to get on their bikes to go where the work existed.

History tells us that nearly 20 years of free market capitalism under the Iron Lady not only put the Great back into Britain, it also became strong enough in resources and resolve to give a bullying nation (the Argentinians); more than just a bloody nose during the Malvinas crisis resulting in the Falklands war.

KEEPING A DISTANCE

Back home I have many dear colleagues who have had to make the ultimate sacrifice – they work during the week here in Kuala Lumpur leaving their spouses back home in their kampungs.

Now in other societies with trains that run on standard 56-inch guage rather than our puny 38 inch ones; a civil servant can work in London yet maintain a commute daily from up to 300 km distance. Working in London and living as far north as Birmingham or Sheffield, not to mention Oxford or Cambridge is therefore not unusual.

Without such daily travel option in this country, weekend husbands organise themselves a weekday pad in Kuala Lumpur. Invariably some make do with a basic squat that has just enough space to fit a horizontal frame to rest the weary bones for a good night’s sleep.

Many keep a family photo of Sayang, Along and Angah in default setting on their handphone. This, just in case the loneliness and boredom drives them up the wall. Should all the pent up hormonal pressures build to a boil, those wild thoughts and naughty urges can supposedly be doused by the thought that Sayang, Along and Angah are intimately available on speed dial.

I can imagine the resolve and spirit these friends of mine need to summon as invariably; all the companionship at hand is a kapok-filled bolster pillow against a wall of so much pent up libidinous energy.

WORK IN KEDAH, LIVE IN KL

Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir on the other hand is not in the same boat as some of my friends. He is not your ordinary weekend husband.

Mukhriz (at the time of writing) heads the administration of an entire state. He chose not to uproot and move the family lock, stock and barrel from Kuala Lumpur to move all of 437.7 km up north to Aloq Staq when he became chief minister.

Weekends are spent back in Kuala Lumpur which means he heads south wards at the end of the Kedah work week on Thursdays.

We shall not get into the intricacies of Kedah State politics but the choice of weekday-versus-weekend domicile is now turning into a political hot potato.

Maintaining two abodes while on official duty is not entirely new. At one time, the Malaysian King chose not to rule from the throne room of the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur throughout his five-year reign.

BPL football fans too have residential attachments to the clubs they support. But where their history began and where they moved to eventually are governed by the same laws of geographical; if not commercial expedience.

Arsenal began life in Woolwich, across the Thames in South East London. No one gives a thought that they are now so well-ensconced in North London in Highbury. Further north, Manchester City uprooted and ditched Maine Road for the Etihad.

As with all domestic upheavals of this nature, some work; some don’t.

Politics it is said; mirrors life to a tee. Letting one’s weary head rule one’s undecided heart may have repercussions not quite intended.

How Kedah chooses to fix its current political imbroglio may or may not change this truism one way or the other.