IT is difficult not to admire Tan Sri Effendi Norwawi in "retirement".
Ensconced in a 25,000-square-foot, multi-storied home at the Mines Resort City outside Kuala Lumpur with his wife Puan Sri Tiara Jacquelina and 17 cats, the 74-year-old former federal minister recently admitted to this writer that he has not been busier.
Ever gracious, he put his well-honed barista skills to use by whipping up a cup of coffee for himself and me before sitting down after his early afternoon guitar practice to detail for me his typical daily schedule.
His mornings are religiously reserved for his hours-long exercise regimen.
He would allocate no more than two hours each afternoon for meetings to keep tabs of his still varied business interests. It would then be time to get physical again.
This could be a game of golf or a session of aikido of which he is a lifelong exponent. One can imagine him spending evenings with various creative pursuits in music and the arts, be it his or Tiara's.
Typically, Effendi showed me thick compilations with colourful perspectives and designs of his latest project ideas, this time in Pulau Langkawi.
The man who started NTV7 and, rather less happily, the local Bloomberg News franchise, is always enamoured of great designs and eye-catching physical forms.
With age, attention naturally turns to keeping oneself physically and mentally fit. This is one personal "obsession" that Effendi hopes everyone – young and old – takes seriously.
While young, he feels many are preoccupied with getting ahead in careers or businesses and tend to neglect to take care of their physical wellness.
The seniors, on the other hand, may take old age for granted and do not pay enough attention to preparing for the inevitability of infirmities and sickness until it becomes too late, reducing them to becoming dependent and a burden to children and family members.
Politically, Effendi is one of those rare breeds who had it all and happily walked away when he felt he had done his share in public service.
He was plucked from relative political obscurity in Sarawak by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the 1990s to become minister of agriculture.
After declining re-election as an MP, he was nevertheless tapped by Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to return as a senator and was appointed minister in the Prime Minister's Department, in charge of the Economic Planning Unit.
Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud as Sarawak Chief Minister reportedly wanted him back in Sarawak but Effendi again declined, content to go back to his businesses and husbanding his main vehicle, Encorp Berhad, to its eventual public listing.
Effendi is nevertheless keen to offer his public service expertise in a non-political capacity.
He had made overtures to the late Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem and to current Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg in this regard. His acceptance to chair the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) was announced this week.
The former minister is a prime and happy example to the fact that there is life after retirement.
He has a simple outlook that he offers to others in high political office: treat it as merely fleeting and to not presume that whatever deference due them as ministers will remain once they are no longer one.
It is important, he says, that one maintains personal integrity while in office because that is what keeps doors open for when one is no longer a minister.
Oh, and perhaps another commodity that Effendi singularly supplies in abundance.
Wafi Lim, Effendi's long-serving personal officer in Kuching, recounted how when he walked into a government department on a personal errand for his boss, he was given a welcoming wave and a ready helping hand by an official in attendance.
The official pulled out a letter of appreciation from Effendi for assistance rendered while the latter was a minister.
He had never received such letters from the many other senior officials that he had rendered assistance to, he told Lim.
The writer views developments in the nation, region and wider world from his vantage point in Kuching.