Posts Tagged ‘Negeri Sembilan’

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SJKT St Helier, SJKT Serdang, SJKT RRI Sg Buloh building problems

March 7th, 2012
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While in recent days we’ve seen Samy Vellu launching new wing of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil (SRJKT) Ladang Henreitta in Padang Serai (refer here), and  PM announcing proposal provide allocation for 3 new block at  SJKT Simpang Lima anda block at  SJKT Methodist Kapar (refer here), we are also saddened by incidents in three other schools recently – SJKT RRI Sungai Buloh, SJKT Serdang and SJKT St Helier.

You can read about SJKT Serdang classroom roof collapse here, while news on the other 2 schools are below.

 

SJKT RRI Sungai Buloh

THE parents of the 500 pupils in SRJK (T) RRI Sungai Buloh are concerned over poor conditions at the school following a freak storm last week.

They said the school’s roof was heavily damaged during the storm.

Parents’ and Teachers’ Association (PTA) chairman P. Suresh Kumar said the more than 70-year-old school was in dire need of repairs.

Cleaning up: Suresh (right) and another parent gathering the broken shelves from the library.

“About 50 kindergarten pupils were attending class when the storm hit and they had a big scare.

“It happened at about 3pm on Wednesday and the class had to be postponed,” Suresh said.

According to him, the school’s roof had last been replaced 25 years ago.

Suresh added that bookshelves in the library had also been damaged by the water leaking in through the damaged roof.

“A lot of of books were also damaged,” he said

Suresh said the school needed about RM200,000 to repair the damage.

He said he had also submitted an application for a new plot of land for the school through the Prime Minister’s Department.

“I submitted the application last year but have not received any feedback,” he said, adding that the area was up for development and the parents feared losing the school.

source: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2012/3/7/central/10859837&sec=central

SJKT St Helier

Makkal Osai reported that 288 students boycotted classes while their parents staged a demonstration in front of the St Helier Tamil School in Bahau on Monday over the school’s building safety.

Classes for the 120 affected students would be conducted in the St Helier estate until the repairs are done

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/3/7/nation/10865586&sec=nation

There’s some action being taken, says ADUN VS Mogan (though its still at level of “akan memohon bangunan baru jika didapati berisiko”:

 

VS Mogan keluar dari kawasan sekolah selepas melawat keadaan bumbung bangunan SJK Tamil St. Helier, di Jempol, semalam.
JEMPOL 28 Feb. – Bumbung sebuah bangunan di Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (SJK) Tamil St. Helier dekat sini yang hampir roboh dan tidak selamat digunakan akan dibaiki segera.
Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (ADUN) Jeram Padang, Datuk VS Mogan berkata, Kementerian Pelajaran melalui Jabatan Pelajaran negeri telah meluluskan peruntukan sebanyak RM114,000 bagi membaiki bumbung serta tiang yang rosak tersebut.
“Bangunan yang menempatkan beberapa bilik darjah itu telah dibina pada 2002 oleh Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru (PIBG) sekolah berkenaan.
“Sejak beberapa tahun lalu, struktur tiang pada bumbung berkenaan mula rosak dan menyebabkan berlaku anjakan pada bumbung, yang kini dilihat tidak selamat untuk digunakan oleh pelajar di sekolah ini,” katanya ketika melawat sekolah itu dekat sini, semalam.
Mogan berkata, bumbung bangunan yang menempatkan 120 pelajar itu kini menunggu masa untuk roboh jika tidak dibaiki segera.
Beliau yang melawat sekolah berkenaan petang semalam turut meninjau keadaan bumbung di salah satu bangunan itu dan mengesahkan ia tidak boleh digunakan buat masa ini.
“Saya telah minta pihak sekolah tidak lagi menggunakan bangunan tersebut dan menempatkan pelajar dalam makmal komputer sehingga ia dibaiki dan disahkan selamat,” tegasnya.
Mogan yang juga Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Bertindak Hal Ehwal Perladangan, Sumber Manusia, Alam Sekitar dan Pengaduan Awam negeri berkata, pemeriksaan terhadap semua struktur bangunan di sekolah itu akan dibuat oleh pihak Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR).
”Jika kita dapati bangunan itu juga berisiko, maka kita akan memohon supaya dibina bangunan baru yang lebih selesa,” jelasnya.
Pada masa yang sama, Mogan meminta ibu bapa supaya tidak panik dan dapat terus menghantar anak mereka bersekolah seperti biasa.
Wonder if the “RM340 million allocated in last 3 years” is enough or has been actually spent. It was supposed to be for upgrading and maintenance of SJKT school buildings. It was meant to cover about 75 schools, but maybe we have far more school in dire conditions.

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no circular on halal food in vernacular school canteens

November 26th, 2011
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On one hand, if you want to show respect to the rights of the Muslim students, then must provide halal food as per the Ministry guideline. But if you insist “only halal” food, then you are denying the rights of the other students. Being communities from religions that respect everyone, the best is to have a section of the canteen at the vernacular schools to cater for Muslim students and staff. There’s no problem with Tamil schools as they don’t serve pork nor beef based products.  So, good thing that there’s not such circulars from MOE curtailing the food types.

I wonder, how many schools cater for the non-Muslims students by offering the respective food cooked by own community – at least can also help the small operators. Wonder if the ministry has such guidelines.

The best is to offer a variety, as long as the students are aware and don’t mix utensils.

I still remember the char kuey teow in my school, prepared by the Chinese uncle. Delicious!

 

There is no directive from the Education Ministry that only halal food be sold at all Chinese and Tamil primary schools, said its Deputy Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong.

He said while under the ministry’s guidelines, canteen operators must provide halal food if there was a sufficient number of Muslim students in the school concerned, Chinese and Tamil school canteen operators could also offer non-halal food to their non-Muslim students.

“However, in practice, school canteen operators usually offer pork-free food,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby Wednesday.

Dr Wee was responding to a vernacular news report stating that a circular was recently issued by the Negri Sembilan Education Department to schools in the state that only halal food be sold by canteen operators.

Based on initial feedback, he said Negri Sembilan’s Education Director had confirmed that no such directive had been issued.

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2011%2F11%2F23%2Fnation%2F20111123175642&sec=nation

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Lawrence cremated amid conversion controversy

September 23rd, 2011
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This gets more interesting. The deceased who allegedly converted 3 days before his death was cremated according to Star article below. So what would the consequences be?

The departments says got recorded proof, but yesterday’s article did not mention anything about such recordings.

Anyway, at least the family managed to get some peace by doing a proper sending off for their loved ones.

 

The family of a 33-year-old businessman who apparently converted to Islam on Monday but died on Wednesday went ahead with his cremation even though state Islamic Affairs Department officials had arrived at his home to claim his body several hours earlier.

The officials came to T. Lawrence’s house, in Taman Wawasan near here, with documents to show that the deceased had embraced Islam minutes before the hearse departed.

The deceased’s family members, however, refused to release the body and police had to be called in to maintain order.

In the end, the family members managed to take his body to the crematorium at Jalan Templer.

It is learnt that Lawrence was found unconscious in one of his vehicles at his store at KM9.6 Jalan Seremban.

The father of one was pronounced dead at Port Dickson Hospital at 8pm.

Pusat Dakwah Islamiyah official Muhammad Zuwairi Baharudin said the deceased, whose Muslim name was Zairy Abdullah, went to the centre with another friend known as Shahul Hameed with the intention of converting.

“I had asked him several times if he was absolutely certain about converting to Islam and he answered in the affirmative,” he said.

Muhammad Zuwairi said he even recorded his conversation with Zairy and took pictures of the deceased for documentation purposes.

Father Clement Lim from the Immaculate Conception Church expressed shock that Lawrence had converted to Islam.

“He was a devout Catholic and an active member of our parish,” he said.

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/9/23/nation/9556815&sec=nation

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Another disputed conversion case in Seremban

September 22nd, 2011
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We just read about the college student in Perlis whom was converted, and today there’s another case in MK. This kind of problem won’t go away until the laws are tightened and more protection is given to the family institution of the non-Muslims.  Unfortunately, the powers-t0-be are not seen as doing anything to solve the problems. Rulers council, religious councils and the government – we have not heard any positive news for nearly a year now.  I think this is the problem when religions are not given equal footing in terms of administration or when laws are not fair to all.

Just imagine 30 strangers come to your house to claim the deceased’ body. What an intimidation. Will definitely create anger amid the family members. Probably the family should make a police report against criminal intimidation and harassment since no proper profof is provided, but being Bolehland, I guess the report won’t be worth the paper its was written on.

Part of the cause of this problem lies on our lawmakers, rulers and the authorities. Before asking others to be tolerant, to find alternatives or be patient, why not they correct/improvise the existing laws? Don’t simply blame the families or communities.

Anyway, what a weird situation, allegedly converted and died 3 days later.

The religious status of a recently deceased man has sent his family into a tailspin after religious authorities in Negri Sembilan went to their house to claim his body earlier today.

The body of Lawrence Selvananthan, 33, was scheduled to be brought to a church in Seremban at 3pm today for a funeral mass followed by his burial, but his family was stopped by police and Negeri Sembilan Islamic Affairs Department (JHEINS) officials who claimed that he had already converted into Islam.

The deceased’s cousin, who asked to only be identified as Jenny, said they were approached by police officers at the family home in Lukut, Port Dickson at about 12.40pm to inform them that they could not proceed with the burial.

She said the police officers showed them what she described as a photocopied document, detailing Lawrence’s alleged conversion into Islam.

“They told us that he just converted three days ago. The name and IC number were correct, but there was no photo. We’re not even sure of (the authenticity of) the signature,” she said when contacted by Malaysiakini.

It is understood that Lawrence, a lorry driver, was found unconscious in his parked lorry by family members, and declared dead on arrival at the Seremban General Hospital sometime last night. The cause of death is unclear.

Both sides in discussion

PKR’s Port Dickson state assemblyperson Ravi Munusamy, who was mediating between the two parties, confirmed that there was a stand-off between the family members and JHEAINS and police officers.

He estimated at least 30 officials went to the house to claim the body, though both sides have since entered discussions, which were still ongoing at the time of writing this article.

Ravi pointed out that the family members are sceptical over the conversion claim as the witness to Lawrence’s alleged conversion did not turn up despite being asked to verify the claim.

“Even the signature on the document is not his. His brother confirmed it is not his (Lawrence’s) signature,” he added.

Jenny stressed that the situation is only making things worse for the family, as they cannot even grieve over their loss.

“The family is very sad. His daughter lost a father and his wife lost a husband.

“They said he had already mengucap (took his vows of conversion) at the department, but by right they should have informed his family immediately. We think this is very unfair to us,” she said.

source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/176585

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former Tanah Merah Estate workers to get land and house

September 13th, 2011
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After waiting for 20 over years, hopefully their dream will come true. If we can provide so much for the proposed refugees from Australia, surely we can do at least equally or better for our own citizens.

 

For the 150 former Tanah Merah Estate workers and their families, news that the state government is to acquire land to build houses promised to them two decades ago is definitely a cause for celebration.

Many of the former workers, who are now renting houses in low-cost schemes outside the estate, had almost given up hope that the pledge made to them years ago would be honoured.

M. Mariamah, 72, a rubber tapper, is looking forward to moving into one of the houses the state plans to build on the 6ha site in Tanah Merah near here.

“After years of waiting and hoping, the homes promised to us will finally be built.

“Many of us were born there and it is where we raised our children, too … but once we retired, there was no choice but to leave the estate,” she said at her son’s house in Taman Jimah Jaya.

MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan gave him the good news during a meeting at the MB’s office in Wisma Negeri in Seremban last week.

Dr Chua said the pledge to help the estate workers own houses had been made by a former Barisan Nasional representative, but could not be fulfilled due to several factors.

It was learnt that the state government would spend some RM2.7mil to acquire the land from Sime Darby.

R. Govindasamy, 55, said he was glad the long wait was over.

“Almost 80% of the residents of the low-cost houses in Taman Jimah Jaya were former Tanah Merah Estate workers.

“Many of us could not afford to buy our own homes and had no choice but to rent low-cost houses nearby,” he said.

G. Malliga, 52, who was a general worker at the estate, said she had been renting a three-bedroom low-cost home for RM200 a month since leaving her job due to health problems.

Port Dickson local council member Datuk King C.F. Lim, who met with some of the former estate workers and their families yesterday to share the good news, said he was grateful to Dr Chua and Mohamad for making good on the promise.

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/9/13/nation/9463330&sec=nation

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