DFA honors long-time KL embassy driver

MANILA, Philippines - If there is someone at foreign embassies who may be said to have the so-called institutional memory, it often would be the local hires – employees who are nationals or permanent residents of the host country.

Professional diplomats and service attachés rotate in and out of the embassy after three or so years, but the locally-hired translators, service staff and drivers stay on. They work behind the scenes and outside the glitz and glamor of diplomatic life, but are the silent witnesses of a foreign service mission’s ups and downs.

The Philippine foreign service is no exception. It is said that the success of an embassy or consulate general partly depends on the competence of its local hires. Their knowledge and familiarity with local customs and culture, ability to speak the language and having the heart to serve are what enable Philippine diplomats, particularly newly-arrived ones, to carry out their missions. It is no surprise that many of them figure prominently in this year’s Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) list of loyalty awardees, some even earning outstanding employee awards.

A stellar example of this is Ahmad bin Buyong, the long-time official driver of a long line of Philippine ambassadors to Kuala Lumpur. Working at the Philippine embassy since 1968, Hajji Ahmad (as people in the embassy call him) is an institution as old as the embassy itself, as he served Yusof Abubakar, the country’s first ambassador to Malaysia, and his nine successors, including the incumbent one.

Born on July 3, 1947 in Kuala Lumpur, he came to work in the embassy as a young man. After almost 45 years, three children, a score of grandchildren and nearing retirement, he remains the efficient, endearing and highly courteous man that present and former embassy officers and staff have cherished.

Going about his work in his quiet efficiency and a forever smiling demeanor, he at times regales them with stories of years gone by, of then Mahathir’s attendance at the embassy’s trade exhibits, and much more.

Hajji Ahmad has endeared himself to embassy personnel, past and present, and epitomized the DFA’s credo “service with a smile,” that current Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia J. Eduardo Malaya nominated him early this year for the DFA outstanding employee award.

Upon learning that he has not yet been in the country he has served all these years, the Ambassador also promised that if he was selected for the award, he will receive it personally in Manila. That moment came last July 26.

When confirmation was received that he was to be conferred the DFA Outstanding Employee award the following day in Manila (another embassy staff, Faith Planas-Bautista, was also selected for the award), embassy staff members immediately made arrangements for his plane ticket and other logistical concerns to enable him to be present at the awarding ceremony.

After a quick trip to the Malaysian Home Affairs Ministry for his passport (he did not have a passport all these years!) Hajji Ahmad left Wednesday midnight for Manila, where he was welcomed by former embassy personnel at the airport. From there, he was taken to a serviced apartment that was to be his residence for the next few days, before he went to the DFA for the award ceremonies.

He was the only local hire – and a foreigner at that – to receive the award personally this year.

When Hajji Ahmad, garbed in his batik, was called to the stage to receive the Outstanding Employee award, he received thunderous applause. Former embassy officers and staff cheered for him, including former Ambassadors to Malaysia Jose Brilliantes (now Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Special and Ocean Concerns) and Assistant Secretary Victoriano Lecaros of the DFA’s Legislative Liaison Unit.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario was all smiles when he handed Hajji Ahmad his award, and gamely posed with him for photos. “Thank you for your 44 years of faithful service,” Del Rosario told him.

He made the rounds of the DFA offices the next day, including a courtesy call on Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for Asia and Pacific Affairs Ma. Theresa Lazaro, the head of the ASPAC office which supervises the embassy in Kuala Lumpur. He later had a tour of historical sites around Manila, prayed at a nearby mosque and was honored in an iftar dinner by grateful colleagues and friends.

Hajji Ahmad returned to Kuala Lumpur after four days in the Philippines, with memories of a long-awaited “homecoming,” made sweeter by the recognition he so richly deserves.