Archive for November, 2008

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HINDRAF Rally 1st Anniversary Prayers

November 14th, 2008
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Received via email:

RE: REMEMBERING MALAYSIAN UNITY DAY NOVEMBER 25TH

HINDRAF calls for nationwide prayers to be organised to commemorate the 1st year anniversary of UNITY amongst the marginalized, oppressed and suppressed Malaysian Indians over the last 51 years.

November 25th is a day no ethnic Indian in Malaysia would ever choose to forget for it reminds them of the struggle of these marginalized community against the state which came hard to suppress the legitimate voice of democracy. No Indian would forget the fact that a peaceful gathering correctly exercised under Article 10 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution and Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 was met by state violence and aggression.

We call upon all Malaysian Indians to organise prayers in their respective Temples and light up 18 Ghee Lamps each to signify the 18 demands submitted to the Prime Minister on 12th August 2007.

The purpose of this exercise is lessen the evils that is partaking in the current scenario in Malaysia and gain faith and confidence from the almighty to overcome these evils and move forward for the goodwill of the Malaysian people in fairness to all irrespective of their color, race, religion, creed or following.

The burning of these lamps is similar to a candlelight practiced throughout ancient time and it is not sacrilegious to anyone as it seeks the omnipresent power of the almighty to strengthen and boost our faith and confidence for the spiritual and moral path that we have embarked and overcome turbulence time to lessen the evils that are prevailing for the Malaysian society.

Kindly take note that mass prayers would be organised at the Batu Caves Temple for the southern region and Butterworth Mariamman Temple for the Northern Region on the 25th November 2008.

We invite all those who are unable to attend these temples to organise prayers at their respective temples. Though HINDRAF has been unlawfully declared illegal there is nothing the UMNO regime could do to stop us from organising prayers.  We welcome our fellow brothers from other faiths to organise similar prayers at their respective places of worships and seek the divine blessings for the continued struggle and success in our endeavour.

Let us unite on this day and show our oppressors we are UNITED MALAYSIAN INDIANS.

We invite all our supporters to send SMS’s to their friends to attend these prayers and be united on this day by wearing orange clothing as a mark of our unity.

P.Waytha Moorthy

Chairman

HINDRAF

14th November 2008

As I wrote earlier, Batu Caves could be one of the venues to celebrate the anniversary, for example, by conducting a prayer. And that’s what being proposed by HINDRAF. It doesn’t take a genius to propose such an idea.

So, Tuesday evening at Batu Caves. Have to leave early to avoid the traffic jam. Anyhow, for those worried of police violence, HINDRAF’s Waytha suggests that people organise such prayers at their own locations – be it  a church, gurdwara, temple or mosque.

Wearing orange? MIC Putera fellas wore orange today, but nothing happened!

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PAS to establish non Muslim wing

November 14th, 2008
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It seems that the non-Muslim wing would not be on par with the other wings. In other words, second class citizens la. Still unverified, but I think its true.

The wing will be an upgrade of the PAS supporters club.

The decision was taken recently, but not yet implemented.

According to the STAR:

The formation of a non-Muslim wing is a serious indication that PAS wants to distance itself from the premise of “Malay and Muslim unity” and it is a victory for the moderates and technocrats in the Islamist party, said a senior PAS leader who declined to be named.

PAS supporters’ club president Hu Phang Chiau who confirmed the setting up of the non-Muslim wing, says it was a breakthrough for the club members whom he claimed number around 18,000 now.

“We have PAS supporters who are Chinese, Indians and from the various tribes of Sabah and Sarawak,” Hu said in an interview.

He said the confirmation was received in a meeting which he attended together with the club’s patron Parit Buntar MP Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa and several members of its central committee.

“We are now formulating the structure of the wing (Dewan) such as the office bearers’ postions and to synergise it with the other wings such as its Muslimat (Women), Youth and Ulama Dewans,” said Hu who declined to say if he would head the wing.

He added that the party needed to convene a constitutional amendment, expected at next year’s “muktamar” where the non-Muslim wing would be formalised.

He said the party had yet to touch on the prospects of the wing members contesting on PAS tickets in the next election.

“We will discuss it in due process. Now, it is about setting up the wing first and the admission of non-Muslim as members.”

It also remains to be seen if the non-Muslim would be granted direct membership or be regarded as associate-members only, he said.

Obviously, if many non-Muslims join PAS, it will encourage PAS.

UMNO will be seen as the sole protector of the Malay community (which is redundant nowadays because not many pure Malays around). Some PAS hardliners will jump ship to UMNO, while PAS will have to thread carefully in order to manage its non-Muslim members.

Wonder what MCA/MIC/Gerakan will say. Probably will highlight that PAS had created many controversies relating to non-Muslims, and its just pure foolishness to join PAS.

As for DAP and PKR, it may erode their membership, but will strengthen Pakatan as PAS will be seen as less Malay.

Now, the interesting question is, how will PAS manage its non-Muslims? This will be an interesting chapter in PAS’s history.

Now, if they can improve on that 18,000 members first. How many non-Muslims would join PAS?

As for me, I’ll stay away as far away as possible from PAS. No offense to its members, but I’m not into joining a religious political party.

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2008 UPSR statistics

November 14th, 2008
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Sourced from NST and The Star.
There was a 4.4 per cent hike in the number of pupils who scored As in English, as compared with the national average of the past five years’ results. There was also a 4.8 per cent increase in competent students (those who scored A, B or C) in the language.

This year, a whopping 46.6 per cent of pupils chose to answer the Mathematics paper in English, while 31.1 per cent were confident enough to tackle the Science paper in English, compared with just 0.2 and 0.3 per cent respectively last year.

Results for the Mathematics paper, however, showed a 2.2 per cent decrease in both A scorers and competent students. Alimuddin dismissed any significance in the drop, arguing that it had very little to do with the teaching of the subject in English.

Performance in the Science subject only dipped by 0.7 per cent compared with the average over the last five years.

There is also an increase in the number of pupils scoring As in all subjects. Of the 518,616 pupils, 46,641 passed with flying colours.

“Apart from English, the pupils also generally did significantly better in Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese composition and Tamil composition.”

On why the ministry compared this year’s UPSR results with the average over the last five years instead of last year’s examination, Alimuddin said it was more accurate.

Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom said 159,234 pupils (31%) answered the Science paper in English while for Mathematics, the figure was 238,153 (46%).

Last year, the number of pupils who an­­swered the Science and Mathematics papers in English were 1,324 and 1,075 respectively.

“The 518,616 pupils who sat for the UPSR this year are the first group to have started studying the two subjects in English since the policy was introduced in 2003,” he told a press conference yesterday after providing an analysis of the UPSR 2008 results at the ministry.

Updated on 15th Nov: More statistics from NST:

The percentage of those scoring As has gone up by 1.4 per cent (9.2 per cent against 7.8 per cent in the last five years).

The number of pupils who obtained A, B or C has also increased by 2.2 per cent to 62.7 per cent.

“The level of confidence and comfort of our children in answering questions in English is obvious. For instance, 52.6 per cent or 266,076 candidates chose to answer in English, including 21.3 per cent who used both Bahasa Melayu and English.”

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Statistics of Penang civil service employment

November 14th, 2008
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The Star had a mild version:

The Penang government will ensure all races have the same rights and opportunities to join the public sector and that the recruitment of state employees is not dominated by a particular race.

Deputy Chief Minister II P.Ramasamy said that as of Sept 30, 7,092 people worked for the state government, its statutory bodies and local authorities and, of the total, 81.95 percent were Malays, 12.92 percent Chinese, 5.05 percent Indian and 0.08 percent other races.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Datuk Azhar Ibrahim (BN-Penaga) said that to be fair, the state government should also ensure the Malays were given the same opportunities to join the private sector which was dominated by other races

But Malaysiakini provided the explosive parts (excerpts below):

The fireworks started when Deputy Chief Minister (II) Dr P Ramasamy accused the Umno-controlled Public Service Department (PSD) of ‘tearing up’ job application forms submitted by non-Malays.

According to the former UKM lecturer, this was among the tactics employed by the Umno-dominated government to stop non-Malays from joining the public service and to ensure that the government sector is controlled by one community.

“It’s a lie that non-Malays lack interest in joining the government sector. The truth is they were denied the chance to join,” he said in response to a written question.

“There are instances when government officers have torn application forms of non-Malays,” he added, drawing flak from the opposition.

However, the deputy chief minister insisted that his argument was based on facts unearthed during his own research on the lack of non-Malay participation in the public service.

According to statistics disclosed by Ramasamy, the public service sector in Penang has a total of 7,092 employees, with 5,812 Malays (81.95%), 916 Indians (12.92%) and 358 Chinese (5.05%).

The state public administration has 2,886 Malays (92.16%), 165 Indians (5.27%) and 79 Chinese (2.52%).

Statutory bodies have 191 Malays (71.54%), 46 Chinese (17.22%) and 30 Indians (11.24%), while local municipalities have 2,735 Malays (74.1%), 721 Indians (19.5%) and 233 Chinese (6.3%).

Later, Ramasamy explained to the House that the state government would conduct a study to implement a new policy to rectify the ethnic and gender imbalanaces in public employment based on meritocracy.

To a question by Umno’s Azhar Ibrahim (Penaga) on whether a similar plan would be extended to the private sector, Ramasamy assured the state government’s commitment to wipe out racial and gender discrimination in all sectors.

When Azhar demanded for the state government to unveil its plan in the next assembly sitting, Ramasamy hit back that the opposition was not qualified to give a time frame for the new Pakatan government to resolve an issue.

Hmmm..quite an arguement!

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First images of solar system other than ours

November 14th, 2008
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Astronomers have managed to capture images of a solar system (one sun and 3 planets) – the first time ever!

This historic infrared portrait is the first to show a planetary system beyond the solar system. A trio of planets (faint dots indicated with arrows) orbits the young, massive star HR 8799, some 130 light-years from Earth. Each of these planets is several times as heavy as Jupiter and thought to be, like Jupiter, a gas giant.

Another team found the following:

The Hubble Space Telescope took this visible light image of what is almost certainly a planet (Fomalhaut b, inset) shown at two points along its orbit of the roughly 200-million-year-old star Fomalhaut (shown at center, its light was blocked to create the image). The star lies about 25 light-years from Earth and is twice as massive as the sun.

Source: Science Magazine

Read the full article at the Science News website.

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