True 1Malaysia exist in Sabah

The Star, Tuesday September 28, 2010

HOW many Malaysians have been to Sabah?

I have been to several cities like Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Tawau and several other small towns several times and I always get the same feeling: people there are seriously united.They communicate with each other in Bahasa Malaysia, with a heavy accent ending with a “bah”.

Even though they are Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or others, they speak similarly.

To those who have never set foot there, I suggest you plan a holiday there instead of to other countries and I can assure you it will be worthwhile.Born in Penang, later educated in Kuala Lumpur and working in Johor Baru, I got used to the fact that if I wanted food, I will go to a “Mamak” restaurant, Malay restaurant or any fast food outlet.

Chinese or Indian restaurants won’t cross my mind as the food there is not “halal”.

I could remember the very first time I went to Sabah, it was time for breakfast and my friend, a Sabahan and also a Muslim, brought me to this typical Chinese looking restaurant which we normally see in the peninsula.Over here, it is obvious that I, as a Muslim, won’t be able to eat the food there because of the “halal” factor.

But to my surprise, the patrons there in that restaurant were mostly Muslims. The food served was normal “nasi lemak”.I was quite skeptical at first and when I tried to get an assurance from the owner himself, he proudly said: “We Sabahans understand each other well.”Thinking that the morning scene in the Chinese restaurant was a coincidence, I suggested to have lunch in another Chinese restaurant.

True enough, the scenario was the same: most of the patrons were Muslims.

At night, it was time for a “feel” of the night life in Tawau and we went to a popular “dangdut” outlet.Again, I was surprised to see many Chinese there.In Peninsular Malaysia, “dangdut” outlets are normally filled with Malays.When it comes to food, Sabahans have shown us the true meaning of unity in terms of a simple meal.

Whether it is breakfast, lunch, dinner or even supper, they are united as a people and they eat at a same table.We sometimes just forget the basics of being a truly united nation.It is so easy to slur another person, another religion or another race on various websites these days, but is this what we want to do as a responsible citizen?

I feel the way to understand 1Malaysia is by starting to look at how Sabahans live.

HALIM CHEW,
Kajang.

BN Youth: Let undergrads go into politics

The Star, August 3 2010,Tuesday

KUALA LUMPUR: Barisan Nasional Youth wants the Government to allow undergraduates to be political.Its chairman Khairy Jamaluddin said the wing unanimously supported a recent Umno Youth resolution calling on the Government to allow undergraduates to join political parties.

“We agree that undergraduates should be free to venture into politics.

“They are able to do everything now apart from joining politics,” he said after chairing a Barisan Youth meeting yesterday.Khairy said the Government should not be close-minded in thinking that university students would be distracted from their studies if they got involved in politics.

“In other countries, they are not restricted. It’s just a question of time management,” he said.He also announced the formation of a 1Malaysia youth troupe which would travel around the country to help repair 1,000 homes.“We have identified 1,000 homes that need upgrading and repairs in all parliamentary constituencies, including in Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

He added that the first phase of the programme would focus on the homes of the low-income group and low-cost flats in need of repairs.On another matter, Khairy, who is also Umno Youth chief, questioned why the Opposition was harping on the issue of ministers’ asset declaration when they failed to do the same for leaders in Selangor and Penang.

“If you remember, the Opposition leaders in Selangor and Penang also promised that they would publicly declare their assets.“But until today, they have failed to do so,” he said.He said the Opposition’s promise to declare assets based on competency, accountability and transparency to distinguish it from the Barisan government was an empty promise.

Stop fighting, and start working!

RECENTLY, the front page of the leading newspapers in our lovely country, Malaysia were focused on some dramas that had happened involving the person in the government itself. The press tried their best to deliver the story to their regular readers even though sometimes they don't even know the story is true or not. But, what they had written about the civil servants lately were real and true stories.

At first, I was attracted to a column in The Star written by the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Sidek Hassan about the efforts taken by the government to boost up the productivity and the quality of the civil servants in Malaysia. He really want to abolish and brushed out any negative-picture made by the public about the government sector which is usually labeled as poor by the public.




I am strongly admit that the government sector still need an improvement and a revamp to build up the image of the government itself. For me, the government sector is isn't that bad.We were the 6th best government in the world in 2008(it was not easy to be achieved). But, a major overhaul still need to be taken to level up the credibility of the civil servants nationwide so that the government sector itself can play the main role in managing the country to achieve the Wawasan 2020 which was initially introduced by the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Muhammad.


While the Malaysian is busy talking about the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), they were interrupted about the story that the State Development Officer (appointed by the federal government) has lost his cool with his Chief, Lim Guan Eng which is well known is an opposition (since Penang has taken over by the opposition in 2008). As usual, the Bosses that appointed the SDO has backed him by saying that the Penang's Chief Minister was acted badly and not professional enough to handle the problem.



The most interesting point here is, a civil servant is in any way, still a civil servant. They are appointed not because of money, but to serve the country the best they can do. It was a very dissapointing moment for the SDO but not the Malaysian. Maybe, THEY should settle this problem on a round table and not by doing some press release and acting like a politician. They should more focus on the development of the state and the country generally and not let any of these kind of problems appear again in the future.


Do they actually notice that the huge decrease on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has something to do with them? or they just don get the picture of it.Can you imagine, somehow in the mass media, an international important person who is a prospect investor said that he/she wants to some money in some business in our country, which is on his view has a huge potential to develop his business.


Do any of related personnel come and know his house's door and say directly to him that we can give them a place for him/her to invest in this country. But, what had happened is oppositely and he started to think to invest in other country since some other personnel from interested country has approached the potential investor earlier than Malaysia. No one come to him/her, and a huge loss on the FDI has totally nothing to do with him/her. We should blame ourselves and not pointing with each others.


After all, every single person in this country, either who came from the multi-different backgrounds, should work together as a team to build up this country and let all the criticisms and blames to be the tonic to ourselves to be more patriotic and focus on our job as a Malaysian. The burden should not be carried alone by the civil servants, but all Malaysians. For me, as a Malaysian, I really proud to say that i am a Malaysian. Malaysia, You will always in my heart!

Freakonomics

THINK out of the box! Maybe, this is the perfect words you might say once you completed the epilogue of this book titled, FREAKONOMICS. The title attracted me most! It is a combination of two words which are freak and economics. What is so interesting with this title? Is it just annoying piece of written pages that has nothing to do with our daily life? or, its just a comical novel?

Written by the Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, the Freakonomics is a blend of a long hours of critical thinking and regressions of data from the point of interests of the writers and came out with a correlation from those data, which some economist might say, "a rubbish". Since both of the writers is an economic-base and important personnel in top university in the United States of America, the book has nothing to be exposed,but to explore the hidden side of everything, almost everything.


The chapter started with a story on what do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? In which, this part of the book explores about the beauty of incentives, as well as their dark side, which is cheating. Teachers and the sumo wrestlers are cheating in the same way; which is needed by them to survive in their own battle ring, to gain an incentives and not to be terminated( teachers) while the sumo wrestlers are wrestles to save them from becoming the victim of the Japanese gangster clan, Yakuza.


What can i say, this book is Brilliant! the style of the writing is so easy and the tone is so funny and humorous. At first, it is really hard to realize the arguments in Freakonomics. But, once you getting deeper and deeper, you will start saying.. "yes.. I'm really into it!" I strongly recommended this book to all of you, Malaysian.It is available at all bookstores nationwide. Happy reading people!

Are you counted people?

As we are aware, from the 6 of July until the 22nd of August all the census takers nationwide started to do their job to count and do ask the Malaysian to update the profile of each Malaysian. The census is very important to the nation since it is directly related to the indication on how Malaysian and Malaysia generally perform in the economy sector and other related sectors. People are urged to cooperate and not giving fake answers to the census takers for our own good. It is because under Article 17 (1) of the Census Act 1960, individuals who gave false information or refuse to cooperate with enumerators could be charged in court.

Historically, a census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The census in Malaysia is carried out every 10 years, like many nations, since 1960 (with the exception of the fourth census, which was carried out in 1991). The next census is carried out currentlly from July 6 to August 22, 2010, the most recent was in 2000. So, what are you waiting for people, do your job and fill the forms correctly; not for others benefit, but We, Malaysian.

Hello Malaysian! Actually today i want to share some letters from the true Malaysian who shouted out his opinion about the proposal to abolish the UPSR and PMR examinations which heated up the debate on the education policies; and make the Education Minister is holding his hand full with no space to make even a mistake. Below is the letter that he sent to The Star via E-mail :

The problem is not exams, it is with the education policies

THE recent proposal to abolish the UPSR and PMR examinations had created a heated public debate among Malaysians, who in general are against such a move. I too join in the chorus calling for the idea to be dropped. It would be irresponsible and unwise to abolish these exams which have been in place for many decades and served their purpose reasonably well.

Our education system may have become very exam-oriented but the cause is not the exams themselves. Many major changes to the education system are made abruptly without due debate and consideration. The folly of such decisions are then realised a little too late when the damage has already been done.

Tendency for education to become exam-oriented is a universal problem and is not just peculiar to us. Even advanced nations have gone through such problems, some even worse. They have not done away with exams but found alternate ways to overcome it to some extent.

Doing away with exams may be the easy way out, but it will only lead to greater repercussions which we will regret later.

Whether we like it or not, exams are necessary as there are no better means available to assess the capability of the student.

If we abolish exams, what are we going to use to gauge a student’s knowledge and capability for selection to enter universities and get scholarships? How are we going to set a national standard for all students to measure up?

Instead of abolishing existing exams, we should device ways to make the exams more “intelligent”, whereby they can be used to assess the overall ability, aptitude and capability in critical thinking, reasoning and maturity of thought.

Examinations should be tailored to evaluate these aspects instead of the usual “vomiting” out of memorized facts as it is being done now. There should be more stringent criteria for awarding As in examination.

It is deeply disturbing that the national education system has long been used as a political tool which is the main reason for the pathetic state it is in now. There seems to be no sense of purpose or direction with repeated changes to the education policies. It should be left to the officials in the Education Ministry, academia and teachers to run the system in a more professional manner without undue political interference.

Examinations are essential part of our education and they should be improved to prepare our students for the competitive global world and not be abolished for any reason. Sitting for an important exam like the SPM after going through school for 11 years without sitting for any major national examination would be like going for the World Cup finals withouttraining.

DR CHRIS ANTHONY,

Butterworth

Please, help the poor Govt

Bang! its a subsidies cut dude! why it is so fast dear Gov? People keep chatting and talking about the price hike even in the mamak and even a student who still has no income yet talking about it with a serious face. Started today, Malaysian will enjoying the 5 cents price hike on the Rons, and not forgettable the Sugarcane business, also experiencing a hike after government implemented their first move to cut the subsidies.

Do the Malaysian thinks the same as the government?

For the high-income group, these cut wont burden them too much. Instead of experiencing the 5 cents per litre increased in the Rons, the will generate more than hundreds thousands of times profit rather than complaining about the cuts.

But, the problem is how to find ways to ensure poor cope with higher cost of living after the subsidy cuts?


I am fully agree with the comment from the Fomca secretary general's comments on the cuts. He said ' Richer people will be able to afford it. The government must do something to take away the burden put on the people'. But,what he suggested was ridiculous. With only reduce the public transport fares 20-30 percents wont help the poor to cope with the subsidies cuts. How many people are using these public transport in rural areas? and if it is acceptable, the government must find the other ways to cope with their financial to back up the subsidy on the fares, then.

As a student, i am relieved that the amounts of cuts is not as much as expected. the most thing that in mind is, how long will it last Gov? when will be second round of the cuts?

As Seri Setia assemblyman, Nik Azmi said to the press, " I understand the Government's need to reduce subsidies, but it is unfortunate that the mechanism, expected to be implemented on May 1 has not taken place". What he was quoted is about the mechanism to ensuring that only targeted groups were allowed to buy subsidies fuel using the Mykad during their purchases.

Actually, as an amateur in dealing with these atmosphere, since i am studying Physics;i am totally not against the implementation, but how the way government manage the National Budget is more important. From the analysis, government expected to generate around Rm750 million from the cuts; still not enough to pay the cost for the newly built 'Istana Negara' which costs the government Rm880 million.

At the end of the day, there are some pros and cons from the cuts that government has implemented to us Malaysian. How we handle it, and how the adjustment that need to be done by us to cope with it; Its up to us. Me, as the Malaysian that from the middle-class income family is highly hope that the mechanism that will allow the subsidy to be given to the targeted group of people can be implemented before the second Tsunami of cuts are coming, soon. Enjoy your day Malaysian!