Archive for December, 2007

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

tourism ministry to hire more indians

December 27th, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


10% in two years time!

chinese – 9/1300 = 0.69%
indians – 19/1300 = 1.46%

Total = 2.15% are chinese and indian staff

Ministry to get more Chinese, Indian officers

source

THE Tourism Ministry plans to increase the number of its Chinese and Indian officers by 10% in two years’ time, reported Sin Chew Daily on Monday. 

Deputy Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai was quoted as saying that of the 1,300 officers working in the ministry and tourism departments, there were only nine Chinese and 19 Indians. 

He said the 10% increase would also help in penetrating the tourism market of China and India. 

He said having officers who could speak in native languages during their promotional activities overseas would definitely bring in more “sales” as there would be no language barrier. 

Lim said it was vital that civil servants be made up of various races holding high positions. 

Such a formation would become handy while dealing with any racial issue or achieving a higher level of economic development, he said. 

He added that certain government sectors had no Chinese officers and their information counters were often left unattended during festive seasons.

Comments Off on tourism ministry to hire more indians »

Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags:

Arrested blogger lodges report

December 27th, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


The blogger narates his ordeal in cucumatkilau.blogdrive.com as mentioned in this post.

Arrested blogger lodges report

source

By MANJIT KAUR and NIK NAIZI HUSIN

PETALING JAYA: Mohd Shukri Jamaluddin, the blogger who was arrested by police in Kuantan on Monday, has lodged a report for wrongful detention.  

He made the report at the Kuantan district police station in Jalan Mahkota here at 10.10pm yesterday. He was accompanied by a friend. 

The 36-year-old blogger, who is known online as Cucumatkilau, claimed in his blog that police broke down the front door to gain entry into his house before they took him away in handcuffs. 

The father of three claimed that the police failed to produce a warrant of arrest, and did not give any reason for his arrest.  

The former Umno member said police arrested him at 10am and released him two and a half hours later. Mohd Shukri said he was alone at home as his wife and children were in Johor.  

Mohd Shukri said five policemen ransacked his room and seized three cell phones, a laptop computer, his wallet and identity card.  

He said the police accused him of being a drug pusher. Mohd Shukri said he underwent a urine test at the police station and the result was negative. He added that the police returned all the items seized when they released him. 

Comments Off on Arrested blogger lodges report »

Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags:

Guru Nanak’s Birthday

December 27th, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


Sikhs mark Guru Nanak's birth

source

RAWANG: Month-long pray-ers to commemorate Guru Nanak's 538th birthday were held at one of the oldest Sikh temples in Malaysia.
Thousands of devotees flocked to the Nanaksar Temple from morning till evening to attend prayers for the Sikh founder.

"Hundreds of devotees came to attend the prayers and volunteered to cook for devotees throughout the month," temple president Ma- hinder Kaur said.

During the month, the Sikhs' holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, would be recited non-stop while religious hymns were sung during the evenings.

Other activities held were a blood donation drive and a procession of the holy book through Serendah town.
Guru Nanak, born in Punjab, preached on equality of all human beings, including women, and the concept of one God.

Comments Off on Guru Nanak’s Birthday »

Posted in Religion

Tags:

30 days since Indians united

December 26th, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


Yesterday marked the 31st day or one month since Indians in Malaysia took to the streets to protest against marginalisation and discrimination against them. As a mark of respect for Christians who celebrate Christmas, I decided against writing about the significant milestone (unlike some who organise the General Assemblies on religiously significant public holidays and have the gall to complaint about newspapers not being delivered!).Even though 20,000 to 30,000 people were physically present, there seemed to be much, much higher number of support from nearly 1.8 million Indians and also other Malaysians who understood their predicament. From my experience, very few of the people I met talked negatively on the rally, perhaps less than 10%. From relatives to friends to acquaintances, there was words of support for the organisers, HINDRAF and the rally participants, and volleys of condemnation againsts MIC, the police and certain segment of the government.
What is clear is that the Indians are using the newly found spirit and camaraderie to jump-start their lives, with or without the millions from the British government. For the last 30 days, HINDRAF have been a topic over thosais and teh tariks, at home and office. There is a new born awareness against discriminative policies and citizen rights.
But how long will this last? The main leaders are behind bars, and HINDRAF is clearly not a political party will millions to spend.
The torch is seen to be taken over by MIC and a handful of NGOs who before this were quite invisible. The ordinary Indian is left wondering where were this folks when bad things happened to them. Again, how long the torch is carried by the newly self-election champions is left to be seen.
The government had taken initiative to spew statistics, make promises (without the word “promise” in it) and set up committees and panels; all the usual stuff expected of a government. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.
All the players are playing their cards now. The trump card is still with the Indian community. How well would they remember the water canons and tear gases in another 30 days? More importantly, how well would they remember the last 50 years when the candidates come knocking on their doors?
What can the Indian community learn from the rally and subsequent voice of discontent raised by themselves? How can they make use of this energy to improve their lives and to ask for their rights? What is the role of the individual? Can this rally be used to turn the youths into better persons, the women into equally important contributors to economy, the men into educated and matured citizens?
Can the community force a reduction in crime statistics, suicide percentages, and school dropout rates? Can they work together, with or without HINDRAF to make this country a better place to live?
HINDRAF has set the pace. It is now the responsibility of the Indian community to ensure the sacrifices made by the group is not forgotten and left to rot.
Let’s see how things are after the 100th day.

2 comments »

Posted in Indian

Tags:

Blogger temporarily arrested in Kuantan

December 26th, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


Got this from a forwarded email. The blogger's experience is available on his site: cucumatkilau.blogdrive.com

Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Cops nab blogger in Kuantan
 

Crackdown on Bloggers begins?
Cucumatkilau, a PKR-proposed candidate during the last general election, has claimed that police broke down the door of his home in Kuantan yesterday morning before cuffing him and taking him to the police station . He claimed that the cops did not produce any warrant for his arrest and did not say why he was being arrested.
Blogger Datuk Ron alerted me of the incident some hours ago and has since done two postings (here and here) on the arrest.
Now, even before the arrest of the Hindraf 5 there had been talk that several bloggers would be arrested under the ISA. Obviously I didn't give such talk much credence. Let's just say I was more concerned about the "chilling effect" that it could have on the blogging community. I am still not ready yet to believe that the Government would actually be so naive as to target bloggers, but that's what people are going to talk about until/unless the cops issue an official statement and explain its action on Cucumatkilau and respond to his claims.
Back to Cucumatkilau. The 36-year old former Umno member said the cops came to his house at about 10 a.m. yesterday and released him about 10 hours later at 8pm. After his ordeal, he wrote in his blog cucumatkilau.blogdrive.com what looks like a Part One of his own account on what happened.
He headlined it Terkini: Operasi Menahan Bloggers Bermula (Latest: Crackdown on Bloggers begins).
Was he arrested because of his blogging? Cucumatkilau hasn't said in his posting if the cops had told him so but they did confiscate three cellphones and a laptop belonging to him when they arrested him. We do not know if these items have been returned to him.
Looks like we'll have to wait for Part Two …
pic of Cucumatkilau with Pas' Mat Sabu, one of the politicians nabbed in a belated crackdown [here] by the cops on Dec 9 against the Yellow March organisers.
at 1:53 AM 
 
Rocky Bru

Comments Off on Blogger temporarily arrested in Kuantan »

Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags: