Today in The Star MCA Secretary Tan Sri Teng suggested members be registered only at the branch where they live or work. I have always thought this is the case since it is only logical. How can I register myself in Johor if I hail from Ipoh but work and live in KL? What can I do for the Johor branch if I am not physically there?

However, to actually implement this suggestion will take some house keeping. First they will need to consolidate their members list, put it into a database which they can data mine and drill down to the first member who signed up.

I dont think they have any thing sophisticated ( I mean a sophisticated database with all the bells and whistle of the day) to keep their database, I think the member names are all entered into a simple spreadsheet developed years ago and enhanced over the year by volunteers.(or am i being too optimistic??) And I think it will be a herculean task for them to search for a particular member names, least of all know where that particular member is at that very moment, i mean pyhsically.

i've emailed a few "people rep" listed on the MCA website as well as to the site administrator sometime in late 2000 or early 2001 requesting them to check whether I am still a member of the MCA. ( if memory did not failed me my late father has registered me as a life member when i was in my early twenty in Ipoh)

The result? no one reply me ... my conclusion? I am such a small fly it dont justify a reply from them busy "people rep" or my name have not been entered into their system and is still sitting in that big pile of member list somewhere in the corner.

But what really distressed me was why "no one" actually bother to reply? Are they that busy that they dont have time for a simple question from someone who want to know his status as a MCA member? And i thought MCA is very keen on signing up more members....

Going back to MCA Secretary proposal, may i also proposed that all branches be hook up to the HQ server so that they can perform query for members. Or are the branches already hooked up? I dont know but what i know is I've written to YB Ong TK ( AMpang Jaya) pertain my email to MCA, i've spoken to someone in MCA pertain trying to find out about the status of my membership and know what, i was asked to make a "CALL" to a certain number in MCA HQ to check on my membership status....

Think about it... in today broadband era, no one in MCA ( I mean the members with portfolio like the one I spoke to and of course YB Ong whom I wrote to ) seemed to have a line connected to the MCA HQ to perform a query on the status of its members. How long would it take to do a query?? seconds...? how long does it take to place a call ( and be charged for it??)

The ideal way would be to put up a search engine in MCA website so that the general chinese community can perform searches to see whether they are registered as members. Hoewever, there may be some political connotation which I may not know which deters MCA from doing it.