Saturday 17 January 2009

It's a numbers game

Today is polling day for the citizens of Kuala Terengganu to elect their representative to parliament. I have not been following the campaign process closely. It’s only through the accidental reading of newspapers and occasional visits to so-po blogs that I get to know of what’s happening. It never ceases to amaze me the silly things that political leaders (from both sides) say during campaigning, all in the name of political expediency.

Anyway, this post is not about the KT by-election. It’s about something that happened during the time I was based in Dungun some years ago.

It was the year 2000 and I was working for a KL-based construction company. We got a sub-contract job to carry out mechanical works at a water treatment plant in Dungun, Terengganu. At that time, PAS had just taken over the state government and part of the changes they made was to ban gambling. This meant that all the licensed operators of the 4-digit betting franchise (Magnum, Sports Toto and the like) had to close shop.

This however, did not deter one of my staff from finding ways to continue his habit of `buying’ numbers. Sandra, my site supervisor, is a die-hard 4D player. Don’t let the female-sounding name mislead you. Sandra is a full-blooded Indian chap. I’ve seen his IC… it reads Sandra A/L Govindasamy.

Where there is a will, there is always a way. Sure enough, it didn’t take long for Sandra to find an operator who was willing to take his bets. The closure of betting shops had created a black market among the local Chinese population of Dungun. The 4-digit operators had gone underground.

On certain days of the week, Sandra would leave the job site earlier than normal because he need to meet his `agent’ and place the bets before closing time. I tolerated this routine because Sandra would cover for the missing hours on other days. As long as our work progress was not affected, it was fine by me.

On one occasion, a team of colleagues came over from Kuala Lumpur to help us out during a critical shutdown procedure over a few days. The team included our Project Manager, David Chong.

It was a 4-D betting day but since the boss was around, Sandra couldn’t simply leave the work site unnoticed. At around 4pm, Sandra approached David and sheepishly asked, “David, can I knock off early please? I need to go somewhere.”

David looked at Sandra with a stern face and replied, “Why? You want to go and buy numbers hah?”. David already know of this habit of one of his longest-serving employees.

“Err… yes,” Sandra replied with a wide grin.

“Got place to buy numbers, meh? I thought all the 4-D shops closed down already?” David asked back.

“Got… black market,” Sandra told him.

David thought about it for a while and then agreed to let Sandra go. But not before saying, “Here’s RM10. Buy my car number for me also.”

Seeing that the boss had joined in the game, a few of the other KL guys decided to tumpang sekaki and asked Sandra to place bets for them too.

David looked at me and asked, “So Fadhil, want to buy your car number? Never mind, I belanja.”

I politely declined. I was driving the company’s project car at the time, a Proton Wira bearing the registration number WHH 1798.

The following day, the team gathered at our favourite makan place for breakfast before going to the worksite. As normal, I would buy the daily newspaper before going for breakfast. While I am not a numbers player, I liked to check the 4-D results just to see how often my friends strike something. It was also interesting to assess how often my car number has cropped up as winner. If I had been a regular numbers player, I would have lost a lot of money putting bets on that number. Until that particular day, that is.

When we reached our favourite breakfast spot, the other team members were already there. As I reached their table, I said aloud, “Whoever bought my car number yesterday would strike big.” I passed them the day’s paper, already turned out to show the 4-D results page. The Magnum 4D results box showed 1798 winning the first prize.

David studied the page and then looked at me in disbelief. He muttered, “If only you had said `YES’ yesterday, I would have bought your number. We all can makan besar tonight.”

Heheheh… no regrets, my friend. That’s what the luck of the draw is all about. Sometimes you strike… but generally most times you don’t.

Barisan Nasional recaptured Terengganu state in the 2004 general elections and retained it last year. I have been to Terengganu a few times since I last worked in Dungun but I cannot recall if the 4-D betting shops have been allowed to resume business by the BN government. Even if they have not, I’m willing to bet that the illegal black market operations would continue to thrive and survive. It’s a supply and demand game, right?

9 comments:

Lee said...

Hi Old Stock ha ha, enjoyed read of 'Sandra'.
I too old days had a friend, betul kaki empat ekor, real fanatic!

One evening driving to his house near Sungei Besi KL, ...passing some high rise apartments, there was a strong breeze blowing then...I saw something fluttering down from the sky. Beige colour.

Pluuup! It landed on my car windscreen...I slammed my brakes, got out to chuck it off...alamak! It was a woman's panty!! Must have got loosed from those bamboo poles people use in high rises gantong baju.

I after chucking it off later told my friend.
Yes...you guessed it. He terus checked his Chinese book of numbers for 'panties' and grabbed me to go buy.
Gatal fellow sapu tiga kedai. Not a gambler but motivated by him, I tumpang 10Rgt. He bought I think Rgt 50!!!

Next day he phoned me...I thought he had heart attack going to die as his voice gasping excitedly.
"LEE....We're RICH...RICH"!!!
And yes, the number came out 1st prize!! Ha ha.

How you doin' my friend? You keep well and have a pleasant weekend, best regards, Lee.

Pat said...

Hi Oldstock,

What you say is so true - if something is banned, its just send underground, that's all! Why are people too stupid to realise that? At least, when its legal, it can be regulated!

Nice story. My husband is a toto fan - and he'd love your story! He's always buying my car number, or ic number, or ex-army number. Hahaha. He's 'struck' a few times. Big enough lah. But, you're right - most times, he doesn't! hahaha. But he's happy just making his little bets :)

Pat

Anonymous said...

sslam bro... wah..bgs artikel kali nie...psl nombor ek.. i ader kwn yg kaki nombor so i nk pass kat dier la nombor kete u tu..maner tau..leh kaya gak ehehehe

take care

Fadhil said...

Lee,

The die-hard 4D kaki have a thousand and one ways to interpret any event into a series of numbers. So what's the 4-digit number for panties? Hahaha!

My friend Sandra would look at anything to give him a reason to buy numbers. Once he bought a number based on the license plate of a car that he saw in a P. Ramlee movie. And the number came up as a consolation prize! How's that for luck.

I'm doing well, my friend. A bit busy since the start of the new year, but overall okay. You take care too.

Fadhil said...

Pat,

Aha! Another 4D fan. Ask your hb to buy the number in this story. Hope he strikes something... heheheh.

Fadhil said...

Hanitha,

Kalau kawan you mengena, jangan lupa mintak dia belanja... :-)

Anonymous said...

salam bro... dh bg dh nombor tu kat kwn kite tp tk mengena la kot sebab dier sonyap yo.. emmm...sonyap tu tanda mengena atau tidak, tk tau la plak... :))

Jarod said...

Aiyo Uncle... should have bought the numbers looooo... then u will be 35K richer!!!!

But Yes, being true to Islam teaching is ONE big thing!!!

haah! but u can donate it off,, ANother silly thought... :)

I am not a FAN of 4d... just like you , like to watch numbers!! :D

Fadhil said...

Jarod,

Sometimes it's interesting to calculate the odds... as long as you're not tempted to place a bet, it's okay I guess.

The problem is when we see our friends strike it easy... that's when we want to try our luck. Once we get hooked, it's tough to let go :-)