Eminent 25

I was reading a comment made in a local web regarding the attack made by a local daily on the Malays...

State's Fund Through Political Parties

The MB of Pahang refused to provide the the state's constituency development fund to oposition assembly- men although he had made the promised to do so.

As reported, Adnan said that he will do it if the Pakatan State started it. This is the characteristic of a born follower, not a leader. Selangor offered to give to the oppositions, which are the UMNO, but UMNO refused to accept it.  

Star 20 Dec 2014

Arresting Islamic Fighters

In Oct 2014, Malaysia had announced her plan to support FBI to fight the Islamic Fighters.

In the news on 3 Dec 2014, a few arrest had been made.

The Star 3 Dec 2014

Combat Vessel Lost at Sea for 30 hours

Malaysia Combat Vessel CB204 was lost in South China Sea for about 30 hours. The boat was having engines and communication problem.  It was luckily found before any fatality happened. The families were relieved, and the Navy Chief, Tan Seri Abdul Aziz Jaafar said... an inquiry will be carried out.

Checking the internet, this is some information about the vessel...
- Boat Maker -  Dockstavarvet, Gotlandsvarvet
- Boat Operators: Swedish Navy, Royal Norwegian Navy, Royal Malaysian Navy, Mexican Navy, Brazilian Army, United States Navy

- Unit Built : 250–300

This is the only incident involving mechanical failures and loss at the sea.
It is rather an unbelievable event given easy availablility of the modern communication and navigation equipment. Even some handphone is fitted with GPS.

The Star 7 Oct 2014

Malaysia Joined FBI to Fight IS

Malaysia is joining US FBI to fight the Formation of Islamic State. This was stated by Home Minister, Ahmad Zaid Hamidi in a telephone interview made during his working visit to US on 1 Oct 2014.

Star 2 Oct 2014

 The main focus is to eradicate radical and extremist ideology.

Mean while the world is flooded with videos to show the cruelty of IS. However there were no third party confirmation the authenticity of the case. We had seen the 911 video which had shown indicator for holywood fabrication.

More recent was cases of the missing Malaysian B777. The US and the related companies fell into uneasy silent.

Selangor MB Khalid was Told to Resign

The crisis in the Pakatan Rakyat, is now a public knowledge. The MB was told to go or face the disciplinary committee.

star 5 Aug 2014

Selangor Pakatan Crisis

The MB of Selangor was sacked from PKR, and he had pulled the trigger and sacked the EXCO.

Now he wanted to go after the councillors.

The paper on 14 Aug had the headlines....

the Star 14 Aug 2014

Problems with PBS

With the Deputy PM Mahyuddin taking charge of the Ministry of Education, he wanted to do something change the system. He wanted to get rid of the PMR, Penilaian Menengah Rendah, to be aligned to that of UK, where the first public examination is the 'O Level'.

However, Malaysia is not UK, Malaysia is having issues on the distribution of students and many of the school are having problems with high students to teacher ratio. It isuncommon to have 42 students crammed in a classroom.

A news in a local paper 14 Feb 2014

 The PBS system has been in use for 3 years and it is still facing problem. According to NUTP, the national union of teaching profession, the main problem is inaccessibility of PBS data base. Despite the assurance of the Education Ministry, the problem still persist.

The Ministry wants to review the PBS following the complaints of the teachers.

Under PBS, the teacher grades the students based on 6 bands of spectrum, understand to exemplary, the highest. The system was introduced in 2011 with year one students and Form one students.

Some of the quoted problems face by the teachers are:

a. High volume of assessments - Example, a teacher can have 165 students under him. and each of the student has to be assessed individually for each class.

b. Another commented that the PBS makes hard work by the students unnecessary, as the PBS is based on the teachers assessments, and the assessments can be manipulated.    

Audit on Terrengganu Hotel

The Star on 17 Jun 2014 reported that 15 rooms at the RM37mil hotel in Terrenganu are not fit for guests.

The three star Grand Puteri Hotel was built by The Prime Minister's Department and handed over to Jawhar, Department of Wakaf, Zakat and Haji.

The Star 17 Jun 2014

PAC 2014 Wants Answer for Poor Management

The Star 17 Jun 2014

The PAC, Public Accounts Committee, want explanation for the poor management and implementation of its projects.

It was highlighted that 91.1 % of the ministry's program and activities faced the issues of inefficiency, non-compliance to rules and regulations, poor quality and unreasonable delays. The call up would include Education, Finance, Multimedia and Urban Wellbeing Ministry.

Johor Real Property and Housing Board Bill 2014

The controversial Real Estate Bill 2014 was passed by the State Regislative Assembly when all the 38 Barisan National representative voted for it.

Self Sufficiency in Food

It is interesting to note that many of the developed nations are having their own strategy to ensure the countries self sufficiency in the food production. Japanese still grow their own rice eventhough the price of the rice is much higher than the imported.

Star 12 May 2014

In 2012, Malaysia produced 1.68mil tonnes of rice and imported 1.01mil. This is abbout 62% sufficiency.

The trend is worrying, The food deficit increased from RM1bil in 1990 to RM13bil in 2013.

Malacca Missing Millions $$$

That was the title of a local news paper, "Malacca is Missing Millions".
Malacca or in Malay Melaka, is a small state in Malaysia. It is smaller than some of the districts in other states in Malaysia.

Star 5 Mar 2014

Several state's agencies, which were boosted to be cash cows, were making losses in term of RM$$  millions. This was confirmed by the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Harun..
The quoted reasons includes:
- overspending.
- Bad Planning.

The agencies include:
1. Yayasan Melaka- RM286mil. The foundation created to provide quality educations for all Malaysian.
2. Melaka Development Corporation. (RM50Mil) -
3. Hang Tuah Jaya Corporation. ( RM25mil)
4. Melaka International Trade Center.

The Chief Minister said that the recovery mechanism had been put in place and he was confident to recover the loss.

Anwar Knows The MH 370 pilot

When the aircraft was announced missing, 100 of theories emerged. On of which, trying to link the missing aircraft to Anwar, the leader of the opposition.

School Based Assessment Stalled

The Malaysian Education under the Deputy PM wanted to follow the foot step of the advance nation and implement the School Based Assessment system (PBS).

According to the Director General of Education, Datuk Dr Khair, Tan Sri Muhyuddin wanted a thorough study to be carried out on the implementation of the PBS, thus teachers do not have to implement. This includes the instruction to delay the briefing to primary and secondary school.

The Star 24 Feb 2014

On Saturday, a group of teachers joined the protest against PBS. They claimed that they were not afraid of the consquences despite the claim that some teachers were punished due to their involvement in the protest.  The the director general, efforts are made to ensure the totality of the assessment without the increase   in work load. The ministry wanted to improve the access to the system.

Pemandu

Pemandu is tasked to deliver the Malaysia's most ambition program to transform the Government and the Economy.  Led by Idris Jala, the two drives are:

a. GTP - Government Transformation Programs.

and

b. ETP - Economic Transformation Programs.


A. GTP
It was formulated to help us achieve the vision 2020 and inline with Najib's principle of 1Malaysia...  People first and Performance Now. It has seven NKRAs, national key results areas...

a. Reduce Crime
b. Fight Corruption
c. Improve Rural Development
d. Improve Urban Public Transport
e. Raising Living Standard of Low Income Household
f. Assuring Quality Education
g. Address the Rising Cost of Living


B. ETP
They are efforts to push Malaysia to become a high income nation. To be a high income nation, the following are the areas of focus... The specific area of development are called NKEAs..

a. Oil Gas and Energy.
b. Palm oil and Rubber
c. Communication, Contents and Infrastructure.
d. Electronics and Electrical
e. Agriculture
f. Whole seller and Retailer
g. Private Education
h. Healthcare
i. Financial Services
j. Tourism
k. Business ervices
l. Greater Kuala Lumpur

The Star 18 Jan 2014

Najib Celebrated Thaipusam at Batu Caves

Taipusm was celebrated on Friday 17 Jan 2014 by the Hindus and Malaysia. The PM of Malaysia, Najib Razak was there to join the celebration.

Najib at Batu Cave to Celebrate Taipusam

It was reported by Malaymail.com, accesses on 19 Jan 2014, that the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today spent time together with the other communities in appreciating the uniqueness of the Thaipusam celebration at Batu Caves. The extract of the paper is given below...

Clad in a cream kurta, an Indian traditional attire, Najib arrived at the the Batu Caves grounds, where thousands had thronged, at 10.15am.

He was received by MIC deputy president Datuk Seri S.Subramaniam, Gerakan vice-president A. Kohilan Pilay and Malaysia’s special ambassador to India and South Asia, Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu.


Also there to welcome Najib were MIC vice-president Datuk Seri M. Saravanan and the party’s Central Working Committee member P.Kamalanathan.

Since early morning, thousands of Hindus converged at Batu Caves where the Sri Subramaniar temple is located, to partake in the religious festival to express gratitude, fulfil a vow or do penance.

Among the sea of people were foreign tourists who watched with interest and captured snapshots of the colourful kavadi procession and other features of the festival.

IN THE GALLERY


Thousands of Hindus throng Batu Caves in Gombak on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur to celebrate Thaipusam on January 17, 2014. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng
Najib also visited the many stalls at the location and exchanged greetings with the Hindu devotees and visitors.

The prime minister was then taken to the top level of the temple building from where he waved to the huge crowd on the ground.

Najib also spent time discussing with the Indian community leaders and Batu Caves temple management on the government’s commitment to the country’s Hindu community.

The Thaipusam celebration this year is more special as 2014 is also Visit Malaysia Year, which was launched in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Najib in his special message in conjunction with the Thaipusam celebration,

said it was not only a religious festival but part of the main agenda in the country’s tourism calendar.

Meanwhile, Kamalanathan who is also Deputy Education Minister, when met by reporters, said the prime minister expressed awe at the Thaipusam celebration witnessed by tens of thousands of people including many from other races and religions.

He said the prime minister also stated that the government was prepared to assist in the development of the Batu Caves area.  — Bernama

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/pm-joins-others-at-batu-cave-as-malaysians-celebrate-thaipusam#sthash.ba1805Bs.dpuf

The online paper is given in the link above.