Tg. Bin Power Plant (TBPP) was the first to organize a Raya open house this year. What better place to celebrate the occasion other than having it at the plant itself?

Although dark clouds that loomed kilometers away in Port of Tanjung Pelepas left the guests anxious as to whether the thick clouds would spoil the celebration, Alhamdulillah the weather was beautiful throughout the day and guests were able to enjoy a sumptuous spread of local Johorean favourites such as nasi beriyani, laksa Johor and burasat, a traditional Bugis delicacy of rice wrapped in banana leaves which is later boiled in water for 8 hours, to name a few. For this year’s celebration, only food from the best sources was selected. Contractors were also encouraged to sponsor food stalls during the do.

I managed to have a chat with Station Manager of TBPP, Mr Chew before the event started. He was excited about the open house that day as it was one of the occasions where the plant personnel gets to meet people from around the plant area, bringing them closer to the plant that had came into existence in their community since a few years ago.

Detailed preparations were made by the committee to attract the folks from the surrounding areas to join in the celebration. Banners were put up in the villages about TBPP’s Hari Raya open house. As transport was expected to be the deterring factor for them from participating in the event, organizers have chartered buses to ferry these folks to the ‘makan-makan’. 4 buses were chartered and at least each bus made 2 trips to ferry the villagers to the do. They arrived as early as 3pm and the first bus to ferry them back to their respective destinations left every half hour starting from 5pm.

Approximately 1, 600 people were expected and in the end an estimated 2000 people turned up for the event. For Mr Chew, this year’s celebration was seen as a success as the food was definitely much better than the previous year’s and they were able to attract more people from the surrounding areas to attend. No formal agenda was fixed on that day as he wanted it to be a casual event where everyone is free to eat and mingle with each other. He also saw this celebration as a means for TBPP to give back to the people, as stakeholders of TBPP, for their support to the plant.

A casual chat with one of the guests from the surrounding village showed how much he really appreciated TBPP and Malakoff’s gestures and treatments towards him and his family. For an ‘orang kampung’ who might not have experienced life outside of Johor and probably cannot offer more than he already have to his kids, he’s grateful for TBPP’s Sekolah Angkat program which he sees as a positive exposure for his kid who, together with his Primary Six schoolmates, joined the trip to Kuala Lumpur for the weekend.

“Baguslah ada loji Tanjung Bin(TBPP) kat sini. Baguslah dia bawak anak pakcik pergi Kuala Lumpur, jalan-jalan. Dengarnya nanti budak-budak tu tinggal kat Dynasty Hotel. Dengar kata, besar hotel tu.”

There are so many little things that we take for granted in our lives. Little things that probably did not mean much to us. But it is these little things that can make a big difference for folks like them. TBPP’s ability to make an impact on the community gave a good impression of Malakoff to the people and giving back to the stakeholders is considered as one of its corporate social responsibilities to the community it touched.