WHENEVER a newly completed block of shophouses appears in the vicinity of where you stay, the very first business to open would most likely be your typical kopi tiam or food outlet.

In a way I’m glad of this, for at least you no longer find makeshift roadside food-and-drink stalls standing by the roadside. These would have impeded the traffic flow.

The councils do not tolerate that sort of activity any longer. Instead you find some stalls selling ‘kolok mee’, ‘satay’ or ‘char kuay tuai’ retreating to the compounds of houses in residential neighbourhoods.

But that’s not exactly the point I want to talk about this week. Yes, it has to do with the proliferation of what the Chinese call your neighbourhood ‘kopi tiam’, more specifically, the culture where ordinary people meet regularly over a cup of kopi-o or teh-o and a bowl of laksa or mee to talk about almost anything under the sun, often acting — to quote a businessman friend David Chen — as judge, jury and prosecutor when politicians in power are to be ‘put on trial’.

It’s a waste-of-time but a rather harmless exercise, you might say. But if as a journalist, you want to know what the man-in-the-street thinks or say about current issues of great public interest, go and join the kopi tiam crowd. You don’t need an invitation. Just seat at one of the tables and you can be sure the chap or chaps at the other table will most likely talk very excitedly and loud enough for all and sundry to hear, usually without any holds barred.

Once in a while the speakers might pause for better effect and ask: “Am I going to be placed under ISA for saying all this?”

I know a group of friends meet almost without fail every Sunday at their favourite ‘kuay chap’ shop at the Third Mile, and would debate after digesting the news in the morning paper’s front page about some recent political event or pronouncement. The session can last rather long too, sometimes almost till the lunch hour, some joining in after attending morning church service.

My friend David thinks sitting and talking for hours in a kopi tiam is not exactly a productive activity. That’s not exactly true if you ask the kopi tiam operator who thrives on patronage from people like salesmen, brokers, lorry drivers, 4-digit punters, pensioners, retirees and grandfathers killing time before picking up their grandchildren home from nearby schools.

Go to MJC, Central Park area at Third Mile, Kenyalang Park, RH Plaza, BDC, Jalan Stutong, Jalan Song, Tabuan Jaya, Matang Jaya Commercial Centre across the river, Kota Sentosa or the Mile 7 Bazaar and you’ll find the big evening crowds who stay up till the wee hours of the morning, especially when there are live football matches on satellite TV. In fact, the European football season is on and operators of food eateries are showing broader smiles on their faces after a lull in business.

One doesn’t get to see that many smiles these days, not after the hefty fuel price hike which has sent the prices of practically almost everything else up the wall — hurting at the most vulnerable spots.

Is it any wonder that the favourite topic of coffee-shop talk these days are prime minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who is facing more than the wrath of many citizens due to the hefty fuel price hike and Sarawak-Sabah High Court judge Datuk Ian Chin, who made some startling revelations about former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad’s alleged role in the functioning of the country’s judiciary.

The most popular or hotly debated issue concerns the government’s decision on the huge increases in pump prices of petrol and diesel.

A friend asked me: “Did you notice that yesterday there were at least a third less vehicular traffic in the city yesterday?”

“Maybe it’s time for car-pooling,” said another who came driven by a friend (after sending his own car to the mechanic for repairs) for coffee in a Green Road coffee-shop.

“May have to rely more on that now,” said the owner, pointing to the big 4D sign outside the shop across the road. “It’s my place of hope.”

The conversation invariably turned to the prime minister’s latest announcement that starting July this year, civil servants are going to paid every fortnightly. His logic is that this will help them better manage their personal finances. The question is: “Will it really?”

If that was the logic to better control one’s personal finances, then you might as well pay them weekly like they do in the UK. Workers in UK get paid every Thursday; the party starts the next day and Sunday becomes a real rest day.

My friend David thinks the moment you put money into the hands of people, you’ll never know what they are going to do with it. For one, it will certainly help the bookies and punters.

But car loans and housing loans are settled monthly so will they be able to save enough till month’s end?

“The move is contradictory,” he said adding that as far he is concerned, the real answer — in the face of rising costs of living — is to put more money into people’s pockets; not pay the same amount of salaries/allowances split into weekly or fortnightly payments.

The individual’s income must commensurate with the rising costs of living, so say many self-made economists who think aloud during kopi tiam sessions. Why is there still resistance to a minimum wage policy across the board in this country? Why protect only industries to ensure they produce goods that remain competitive (do we not adopt automation in the workplace?) yet not pay workers enough for them to survive? This attitude has to change.

Bless the political party that recently made a call for workers to be guaranteed a monthly minimum wage of RM1,200. Many workers do not earn that level of income so setting a minimum level would help put more money into people’s pockets. This is, by far, a better way to help them manage and survive in times of runaway inflation.

Heard of the leaping frog economic theory? There’s a difference (in terms of reaction) to throwing a frog straight into boiling hot water rather than into a pot of cold water before it starts boiling.

Be that as it may, my friend David thinks the people must learn to adjust (no matter how painful) to the drastic change in the economic scenario.