Author Archive

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Delay in conversion law changes

June 29th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


The council of Rulers who met today decided to get the views of state religious councils on the approval of changes to laws involved in conversion before making a decision. The Sultans are head of the religion in the states, so probably they want to discuss at state level first before putting it in front of the Council of Rulers.

The laws in question are Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976, Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993 and Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Act 1984. The amendments are postponed now until its cleared at both levels before brought into parliament.

Comments Off on Delay in conversion law changes »

Posted in BornInMalaysia, Religion

Tags:

Bukit Pala resident asks ADUN to resign?

June 28th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


Anil Netto reports that:

High Chaparral villagers hold protest outside Adun Rayer s and call for his resignation. They now want to meet the CM on Monday.

If the state government comes out with any sort of excuse, its a black mark for them since can’t fulfill election promise. 26 days left for some action. I’m wondering what is the response from MMSP, Penang Hindraf, and also other NGOs.

I agree with the comments by ex-Deputy Chief Minister of Penang on this issue. Its been more than a year and still no solution in sight. If they can’t solve the problem, they should have told the residents.

Also, NST reported the following:

On the Kampung Lorong Buah Pala issue, Dr Hilmi said the previous administration had discussed with the land owner and developer to help the 31 affected families then.

Meanwhile, the NST learnt that 11 of the 31 families had since taken up the offer made by the previous administration. Those who opted for cash were given between RM180,000 and RM200,000 for each family and have since moved out. Those who opted for houses, were given a RM10,000 start-up and a three-year rental prior to the completion of their new houses.

That means the balance 20 families did not accept the offers.  By some family accepting the offers, it weakens the case for the residents.

Comments Off on Bukit Pala resident asks ADUN to resign? »

Posted in BornInMalaysia, Indian

Tags:

Rulers Council to discuss law amendments on conversion

June 28th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


Remember the controversial cabinet directive on child conversion? Well, the latest news is that the amendments will be discussed in the Rulers’ Council meeting on Monday. Funny thing is, I never read anything in the papers about the proposed changes. Will it be made public at any stage before being brought to parliament?

Amendments to laws to accommodate the cabinet’s decision on conversion to Islam will be discussed by the Rulers’ Council on Monday.

The proposed changes, once endorsed by the council and passed by Parliament, will put to rest some of the issues relating to controversial conversions.

The three laws involved are the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976, Islamic Family (Federal Territories) Law 1984 and Administration of Islam (Federal Territories) Islamic Law 1993. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Maj-Gen (rtd) Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom said any amendments would have to be endorsed by the council first before they were tabled in Parliament.

The government has formed a five-man committee on conversion, although moves to introduce the changes started in 2007.

Apart from Jamil Khir, other ministers entrusted to look into the issue are Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, Senator Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam and Women, Family and Community Development Minister Senator Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

By the way, did Indira get her baby?

Comments Off on Rulers Council to discuss law amendments on conversion »

Posted in BornInMalaysia, Religion

Tags:

New category of PSD scholarships next year

June 28th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


From The Star:

A new category will be established starting next year for scholarships under the Public Services Department scheme to be awarded purely based on merit, regardless of race.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun razak said he was sure that such a category would be welcomed by all communities, including the Chinese.

“We are re-studying the distribution of scholarships under the Public Services Department scheme to introduce a new category.

“Starting next year, we will see the distribution of scholarships based purely on merit, regardless of race.

“We will announce it next year and with the plan to limit to 10 subjects, we expect to see a more level playing field,” he said in his speech at a dinner organised by both MCA and the Associated Chinese Chamber of Industry and Commerce here Saturday.

Najib said this would allow Malaysia’s best students to get aid to pursue higher studies.

“So we will get the best of best and the creme de la creme getting aid for higher studies.

“I believe this will be accepted well and it will allow each individual a fair chance to realise his full potential,” he said, adding however that he was not “letting the cat out of the bag” just yet on the scheme.

Well, need to wait for the cat to be let out. At the moment, can only speculate.

Comments Off on New category of PSD scholarships next year »

Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags:

Selangor gives aid to tamil schools

June 28th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


Charles Santiago (MP Klang) provides the details on his blog. Basically, the state government is “going to” build 10 pre-schools in Tamil schools.  According to Xavier Jayakumar, the effort will be jointly done with three NGOs, and expected 30-40 pre-schools to be established in three years.

According to him, about 42 percent of students who enter year one in SJKT do not know how to read and write, due to the inability of the low-income parents to send them to pre-schools. The state government will offer “discounts” to these parents.

Xavier presented RM1.6 million to 3 NGOs – Child Information Learning and Development Centre (Child)  (RM300,000), Education Welfare and Research Foundation (EWRF) (RM150,000) andTamil Foundation (RM182,250).

Among the schools targetted are : SJKT Taman Permata and SJKT Ladang Ampar Tenang, Dengkil; SJKT Ladang Bukit Raja, Klang; SJKT Ladang Sungai Terap, Kuala Selangor and SJKT Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi Sepang.

He added that approval and cooperation from parents, school and school board is needed. If there’s not approval, they will look for other schools. Teachers will hired and provided proper training.

Note: the amount given to NGOs did not total up to RM1.6 million. Another posting in his blog mentioned that 27 Tamil schools also received cheques, so maybe its included in the RM1.6 million. Let’s see if this appears in major papers later.

SJKT Bukit Darah also has plans to start a pre-school, so hopefully it can be included.

My question: doesn’t it require Ministry of Education (federal) approval on premise use, syllabus, teacher hiring, etc?

Comments Off on Selangor gives aid to tamil schools »

Posted in Indian, Tamil-Schools

Tags: