WHAT'S IN A NAME ?

At the Golden Lounge, I met a lady who had served Sabah since graduating from Uni. Like me, she married a Sabahan. She now holds a very prominent position in the State. So the conversation goes :

Her: Hi, nice to meet you again. Finish meeting?
We : Ya. You met with Ministry of Finance? Get any more funds?
Her: Aiyah, I had to convince them of our needs. You know......... (and on she goes on how hard she worked for the state)
We : Never mind lah. The CM will give you a "Datuk" soon.
Her: Don't mention that. I get geram. Every one of my juniors get their Datuk already but they won't give me because they say I'm from the West.
We : Datuk are a dime a dozen. Why you want it so much?
Her ; Aiyah - each time I go for meeting, it's Datuk this and Datuk that and I'm the only one addressed as Puan. Not syiok lah

This is malaysia's love for titles and people will lobby for it. mention a datuk, and people automatically will show deference for that person.

On the other hand, holding such a title certainly get you better treatment in flight. Just the other day, I was sitting next to a prominent personality. The air steward was all over him - "Tan Sri this and Tan Sri that......are you okay?..."
We had some wine and after that the Tan Sri told the air steward, "Give the rest of the bottle to the lady" Immediate compliance and not only that, he came with another bottle : "Would you like this too?"
SoI ended up with 2 bottles of white wine. Thanks Tan Sri !!