the nostalgic Neighbourhood Watch

Very proud of this signage – ABF Neighborhood Watch. It has been there for more than 11 years standing steadfastly reminding people about the importance of unity vs. selfishness. That was many years ago when the housing area was populated by the ABF people. Now, however, its existence is no more relevant. The design of the signage is actually the logo of ABF Neighborhood Watch initiated and formed in 1998 by group of some concerned devoted ABF staff, supported and sponsored by one of the PETRONAS subsidiaries – Asean Bintulu Fertiliser Sdn Bhd a.k.a ABF. It all started when the Company’s house - SS2E/7 that I stayed was broken-in during having our ‘sahur’ i.e. taking food or having meal before we start our obligation, the second tenet of Islam – fasting in the month of Ramadhan, at around 04:40 hours. After completed my meal, I went up preparing myself for the dawn prayer. Second after I opened our bedroom door, I was shocked when I saw someone behind the curtain tried or rather climbed over our window and fled away. Muhammad Afiq, Muhammad Asri and the little M Aiman were in their deep sleep at the corner of the room. Without much thought I’ve tried to give a chase but ended up stuck at the window shouting for help. My good neighbor M Ridzuan rushed out responded to my 95decibel pitch, but could not do much though. Amid the adrenalin rush and state of nervousness, with a hand-made ‘samurai’ sword, I exhausted my effort tracking the possible path of the intruder. The spiritually harmonic dawn prayer call, ‘Azan’, forced me to withdraw the operation. I said to myself, “things happened for reasons; hence I must go back to the Almighty Allah swt for help”. After came back from Masjid al Hidayah, we then made a thorough check and sad to share, few RM notes / cash in my wallet and my mom’s jewelries were burgled. Same time on the following morning, my friend’s house, just 100 meters from my house, was intruded by same modus operandi. Not to further deteriorate the situation and to prevent other houses from this mad vulgar non humane person, we – Kassim, Mohamad, Yusuf, A Hakim and few others formed a commando like group to trace any sign of intruders in the neighborhood. Equipped with catapult, dagger, torch light, etc., the team resumed their round from 03:00 hours until around 04:30 hours. Prior to that, we reported our move to the nearest police station. There were very supportive and cooperative. To cut the long story short, we received strong support by the community and gradually, many had joined us. The noble move had attracted ABF’s Management. They had given us full support in many aspects, among others, the installation of the signage that carried the group logo – the owl.