Faithful Retainer

Our little Dato here received sizable boost since his old pal has entered the Istana on the coat tails of the reigning President of the Republic. Jolly good show indeed. Just now at the Haig the information passed of his purchase that afternoon in fact of a jacket for.... Well, it had been a wet and cold first half of January, the coldest of the last ten years the newspaper reported that morning. A jacket purchase for the wardrobe on the equator not entirely remarkable just now. Past days quite the deceptive Euro spring evoked at the Al Wadi tables—all manner of windbreakers, scarves atop scarves, jackets and wraps to the fore. But no, in this instance ‘twas “an occasion” upcoming in March that needed attendance….in company of….the dignitary….The President’s husband. Ahha! Oh. I see. Good oh. Three or four weeks previously the same had drawn attention to a fan mounted on a Wadi pillar. The end pillar near where the Dato liked to sit evenings with his “Foreign Minister” good wife. Ahha. Yes. I see... Well, you know. The President (‘s husband) join us evening.... The owner at Al Wadi had been appealed: President gracing the Onan corner never know when he may show. Aduh! Nothing too much trouble, installed in a jiffy. It wasn’t there before if you didn’t know. (Hot days were coming too, and nights.) Once more late morning one Friday not a total out-and-out surprise the man appeared hard against the table in a resplendent dream of white — long jubah stretched over the tummy, haji cap, recent dye, shoes as always, and Ray B’s. Wah! An expensive detergent and bleach. There had never been a maid in Dato’s company—the wife, the “foreign minister,” more than proving her goodness. Because why though? Well, the President (‘s husband) was attending the sermon that day. Dat. swinging by early to tell them at Masjid Khalid to leave a space in front for the limo.

NB. The honourific delivered by a pal one evening must needs be a joke, you thought initially. Dato had run a couple of food stalls at the Haig over the years and 1,2,3 others elsewhere somewhere. A property in a gated community in Johor purchased for cash some years before the ringgit crash; then something—roundabout the tune of RM1.5mil—sunk into 1MDB. But don’t worry, be happy, the mantra Dato continued to maintain. Roy to his mat salleh friends.