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KL to twin with city of noisy people?

December 24th, 2009
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I wonder what the useless paper’s writer would say to this news. After all, he is the one that said Indians are “noisy people“. So, would he want to have our capital to be associated with a city full of 8 million noisy people? Perhaps should make him an honorary consul and send him there! 🙂

Senior Malaysian officials are floating the idea to twin Chennai and Kuala Lumpur as sister cities to bolster the existing deep-rooted bilateral ties between Malaysia and India.

Officials in KL are believed to have proposed the idea and are likely to get the Cabinet’s approval to move the plan to twin both the fast-growing cities.

“It will augur well for both nations because we have very long-standing relations, especially with South India, where many of the Indian population have originated from Tamil Nadu.

“It will give a different political dimension to our relationship and boost the two-way trade and cultural linkages,” a high-level Malaysian official familiar with the proposal said.

However, the political arrangement would need the endorsement of India’s External Affairs Ministry in Delhi before the idea could be taken to a different level.

Chennai city in Tamil Nadu has established sister relationships with five other cities around the globe — Cairo, Egypt, Denver, United States (US), Frankfurt, Germany, San Antonio, US and Volgograd in Russia.

Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, has a population of over eight million while Chennai city itself has about 4.5 million people.

At least 14 major Indian cities have sister relationships with foreign cities worldwide. – Bernama

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Posted in BornInMalaysia, Indian

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lifeline for SJKT Ladang Bukit Bertam

December 24th, 2009
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Many people would have not heard about JKT Ladang Bukit Bertam till two days ago. This small estate school is quite low-profile (and under-enrolled). But surprisingly this school gave birth to one of our country’s first Harvard graduates – the late Datuk K.Pathmanaban, a former MIC vice-president and deputy minister. That his alma mater suffers this fate tells a lot about the status of Tamil schools and Indian community in the country.

The school which started in 1920s have been having low enrolment for last few years, which begets the question: what steps have been taken to alleviate the situation.  The school is located in the large Bukit Bertam Estate in Linggi. As with many other Indian enclaves in the past, the estate sees more foreign workers while the Indians move out to cities and towns. Unfortunately, the school doesn’t follow them too. So, what would you except other than dwindling enrolment? So, questions arise: what have been the Education Ministry and its agencies been doing all this while?

Up till yesterday, the school faced a possible closure. Now, would anyone be blamed if they thought that the inaction of the ministry and agencies is tantamount to aiming to close vernacular education? You don’t give enough money, you don’t take enough effort to convert them to fully-aided status, you don’t allow new schools to be built, and you are not bothered about relocation. So what does that mean? What would the public, especially the Indian community think? The action doesn’t reflect the words.

There are many schools with similar situation and its just a matter of time before a school closes down.

Oh ya, can blame the school right? Why never take action? Well, what action should the school take? Picket? HM to issue public statement and risk losing job?

What about MIC – what steps have they taken in last few years to solve this particular problem? We have to ask them since they are part of ruling state government for last 50 years. It seems that state MIC deputy leader V.S. Mogan will meet the state authorities.

Maybe its time for an Indian deputy education minister or minister to ensure some sort of balance is in place.

This is what the school parent-teacher association chairman D. Elangovan says, among others:

He said one pupil was supposed to join for the new term but her parents decided to enrol her in another school in Malacca.

Elangovan said that with foreigners making up most of the workers at the estate, it was pointless to maintain a Tamil school there.

“We hope the authorities will help us relocate to another place where the community needs a Tamil school. The school has teachers, textbooks and satellite TV and all these are being wasted,’’ he told The Star.

Elangovan said the school was located about 3km inside the sprawling oil palm plantation and this made it difficult for teachers.

The school moved to its present location from another site in the estate in 1978 with one class for each standard. But since then, the number of classes were reduced to only two as enrolment suffered.

Last year, there were only five pupils enrolled. This year, there were only three.

To make matters worse, Elangovan said the school had no canteen and its half-wooden structure was also unsafe due to termite infestation.

“Save SJKT Ladang Bukit Bertam School” ad hoc committee chairman Ramesh Patel suggested that it would be best if the school was relocated to nearby Kota, which had about 200 Indian families.

Luckily, 13 students registered yesterday, probably effort of teachers, PTA, parents, local MIC folks etc. to ensure the school can continue running for next year. Now, just to maintain the school, someone has to fork out extra cash to pay for transportation. Students have to study in  a school with termite infestation and no canteen.

Can you see something here: a poor community needs to part with funds to ensure the survival of a school for another year. Students have to be moved from another location and sacrificed to study in this school. This situation could have been averted if there was proper planning and action by the relevant authorities much earlier.

“Save SJKT Ladang Bukit Bertam” ad hoc committee chairman Ramesh Patel said 12 of the students would be ferried to the school from Rembau some 25km away every morning while another one was from the estate.

“We have no choice. It may be a temporary measure but it is the only way we can think of to keep the school going,” he said, adding that several parents contacted him after the school’s plight was highlighted in The Star yesterday.

… With the latest enrolment, the school will now have students in Year One up to Year Five.

Eight of the students are from the Vivekananda Home in Rembau while another four are from Batu Hampar.

State MIC deputy chief V. S. Mogan said the school’s sudden increase in enrolment was good news as it meant the school could continue to function as normal until its relocation was finalised.

“We are hoping to increase enrolment and are looking into getting students from Kota, Rembau to attend the school,” Mogan said.

“We have already identified some 30 students who are currently attending school in Tampin. This school is about the same distance away for these students and with free transportation it would be a better choice for them,” he said.

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Posted in Indian, Tamil-Schools

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MMA says 1Malaysia clinic illegal

December 24th, 2009
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Looks like the 1Malaysia community clinic gets some thumbs down. MMA says the idea of clinics being run by medical assistants and nurses are a step backward since its like Third World country set-up. Worse still, MMA says it was illegal for medical assistants or other unregistered medical practitioners to run a clinic under the Medical Act 1971.

I think “clinic” would be renamed to “center” or something suitable, after this comment by MMA.

More worrying is the thought that if MMA did not raise this concern, it would have gone undetected. Causes us to think what the Health Ministry was doing. Imagine if someone gets wrong treatment and sues the clinic or government. Who will take the fall?

I hope what MMA said is not true, but if it is?

The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has expressed grave concern over the setting up of the 1Malaysia community clinics as stipulated in Budget 2010.

It said the 50 clinics which were to be set up would be similar to those in Third World countries as they would be run by medical assistants and nurses.

“This in effect places their standards on the level of countries that have a scarcity of fully-registered physicians,” said MMA president Dr David K.L. Quek in a statement.

He said this was certainly a major step backwards for a progressive nation such as Malaysia.

Dr Quek said it was illegal for medical assistants or other unregistered medical practitioners to run a clinic under the Medical Act 1971.

“Furthermore, having them man these clinics undermines the healthcare service which will lead to possibly poorer standard of healthcare,” he said.

The policy, he added, also did not have sufficient input from stakeholders such as medical practitioners and even Health Ministry officials.

The clinics will begin operations next month to offer outpatient services like dressing for wounds as well as treatment for simple colds, coughs and headaches for urban residents.

Dr Quek said there were many “under-utilised” general practitioner clinics to cater for these needs.

“If the Government feels the 1Malaysia clinics have to be established, the least it could do is ensure these clinics are manned by registered medical doctors,” he said.

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deputy minister interview on BTN

December 20th, 2009
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Below is excerpt of interview between Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan and NST. I’m not sure how readers will interpret the replies by the deputy minister. It will be difficult to monitor thousands of the presenters or trainers involved in the camps, but it has to be done. I think the modules should be vetted by third party. And the presentation/explanation of the modules should be monitored. We also need to remember the participants are those who are dependent on the authorities (occupation or scholarship), so to expect them to openly question the presenters or content is difficult. One may only grumble in private, among friends.

Q: Feathers were ruffled by the labelling of non-Malays as pendatang. How could this have happened?

A: In the module, no one is labelled pendatang. But if the country’s history was taught, maybe it could have been mentioned. If the lecturer was talking about the past, then it’s different; that’s a historical context.

The social contract was drawn at that particular time when everyone agreed to it. That part takes up only five minutes of a two-hour session on Kenegaraan and Perlembagaan Negara.

That’s history, a small part of the whole story on how Malaysia was formed. It is an old episode. We have achieved independence. Indians and Chinese in Malaysia have become citizens.

Q: Why were BTN participants shown videos of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) demonstration?

A: Videos were shown during intermissions to keep participants occupied as speakers sometimes arrive late.

The one on past demonstrations, which included the Hindraf protest, was among a few videos shown to instil patriotism in participants.

There are also videos on the war in Palestine and patriotic songs. When we show the street demonstration videos, our message is that we don’t do things like that if we’re patriotic.

We tell participants that there are other ways to solve a problem instead of taking to the streets.

Q: Are participants made to sign agreements forbidding them to divulge what went on in the course?

A: No. Participants are only not allowed to bring recording instruments into the classrooms.

Q: Why then are there BTN videos of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and how did they end up on YouTube?

A: I don’t know. I haven’t even seen the video. I don’t know whether cameras were allowed into the sessions in the past.

Q: Some participants have alleged that the BTN course is a form of political indoctrination, or the government’s brainwashing tool.

A: Sometimes, when we talk about the country’s policies, some people assume that’s indoctrination. But for us, as government agencies, we have been entrusted with this task to talk about policies.

So we have to explain the rationale behind policies, from corporatisation and privatisation to education, agriculture, youth and poverty eradication.

If we don’t explain these to the participants, when are we ever going to do so?

If they take that as indoctrination, that’s too bad.

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Views on transgenders

December 20th, 2009
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This is an interesting article from NST. The views of various religions and also some transgenders were provided. What do you think about this issue?

TRANSGENDERS SPEAK OUT

Fatine Young: “Transsexuals in Malaysia have been treated like freaks or second class citizens for far too long. I hope the community becomes more accepting of transsexuals. “We just want to be what we are. Give us a chance to show that we can contribute to society too.”

Yuki Choe, 33, sales executive: “My biggest fear in the job part is not knowing what they are thinking of when they see me. People are trained to be polite, sometimes you do not know who hates you for who you are. “I hope society would be able to appreciate and accept people who are different, especially gender-wise. People should understand that gender variance is part of life, and not be limited to just strictly boy or girl. “Everyone is taught there are only boys and girls in the education system, all other variances are not acknowledged.”

Sugenya, 33, food outlet owner: “People look at us as if we are a joke. When they see a Mak Nyah, they automatically think ‘sex worker’. But actually we are not all like that. Some of us are highly educated and entrepreneurs. “There are many ‘pondans’ who are not brave enough to ’come out’ because their families beat them. But after they run away from home and with the help of hormone treatments, some families find it easier to accept. “But even then, they are only allowed to visit their family at certain times, in fear that relatives might drop by. “If the families support them by teaching and helping them find jobs, 50 per cent of them will not end up as sex workers.”

Elisha, 30, community sex worker programme manager: “You all have normal and peaceful lives, right? As humans, I want transgenders to have that same right. Don’t equate us to sex workers. “One day I hope transgenders will be able to have government jobs, especially in Parliament. “Myadvice to others out there is to not allow anyone to deny you of your basic human rights.”

Manja, 34, PT Foundation outreach worker: “It’s almost impossible to get a job in the government sector and it’s really difficult dealing with Immigration because the name on my passport does not match my physical appearance. “I believe the problems faced by transgenders is worldwide. All we want is the same rights as other women.”

WHAT THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS SAY

“From a Christian perspective, human beings are created by God, in the image of God. God created everything and He pronounced it as good. However, all of creation has gone wrong because the first human beings chose not to listen to God and since then we have a topsy-turvy world. “We who are not in their situation need to empathise with them and help find solutions rather than to judge them and say, ‘live with what you have’. That’s a simple phrase from this side of the fence, but insufficient. “We must try to understand them and help them as we have helped others in different situations, for we all suffer the consequences of our flawed common humanity. “We can’t sit in the judgment seat as if we are God. Our hearts should go out to them and work on finding a solution for their situation.” – Tan Kong Beng, Christian Federation of Malaysia executive secretary

“In Hinduism, these people are a creation of God. In our religious stories and book, there have been accounts of transsexuals who have been treated with due respect.. “Society accepted transsexuals then, especially because they were able to handle many different situations. “Today, we too have to respect every creation of God, giving them due dignity and respect.” – Dr M. Bala Tharumalingam, Malaysian Hindu Sangam deputy president

“Transsexuals are born like that and our birth is not in the hands of human beings. It’s not the choice of a person to be male, female or a transsexual. “The public should not blame him or her. It’s not like they are breaking rules and laws. They must be given respect just like you and me.” – Harcharan Singh, Malaysian Gurdwara Council president

“There is no such thing as a transsexual, people are either male or female. It is not something you can change. Even if a man wants to be a woman using surgery, it won’t work because you can’t change what God gives. “Some of these people are confused because of psychological reasons. Maybe in their family they were the only boy among nine girls, playing with their sisters and cooking. Those are some of the problems that contribute to this. “People must accept what is given, they should dress and behave accordingly so they are accepted by the public. When a man wears a girl’s dress, people will make fun of him. In Islam, it is haram. You can’t question religion.” – Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria, Perak mufti

“In Buddhism, we don’t interfere with personal affairs. At the same time, we respect their privacy and get involved only if they ask for help. We look into the matter and share with them. When someone asks for help, we maintain noble silence. It’s very personal. “In our area of discipline, when someone wants to be ordained, we ask if the monks can check their background. If the person wants to be a woman, we refer to a nun. If the person has unusual behaviour, we allow them to be ordained as a novice monk.” – Kekanadure Dhammasiri, Buddhist Maha Vihara Malaysia monk and counsellor

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Posted in BornInMalaysia, Religion

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