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Indian population dwindling

June 12th, 2008
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Make babies, not war 🙂 Hmm…you have to get married first of course!

Its not easy to raise kids nowadays. We hear stories of our parents or grandparents raising 6 or 10 children those days, but now, raising 2 children itself is a challenge due to high cost of living.

Coupled with entry of women into workforce and higher literacy rate for women, the marrying age is getting higher and higher. Marriage at age of 16 or 20 is history. Now, marriage ideas start blooming at late 20s or even early 30s. The, there’s wedding cost to think of. I doubt that a relatively simple Indian wedding can be done within 20K budget per bride/groom.

Other communities also face this problem, especially the Chinese. Some chinese guilds are offering incentives for couples to get married.

The Malays are still doing well, due to government support, larger population, polygamy, and also support for single mothers.

I don’t suppose MIC can start some of incentive, can they? 🙂

THE Indian population is on the decline and action must be taken to stop this, MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said, in a Tamil Nesan front-page report.

He said the current Indian population stood at 7.8% and this was expected to fall to 7% in five years.

Samy Vellu was speaking to reporters after opening Pahang MIC’s 62nd annual delegates conference in a hotel in Genting Highlands yesterday.

He said currently, the Government gave allocations based on the population of the Indian community.

source

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Minister uses public transport

June 12th, 2008
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Earlier, I wrote that MPs should be forced to take public transport. Looks like one of them already had. MP Johor Bahru and Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs took ERL from Putrajaya to KL Sentral. Of course the comfort of the stations and the ERL is better than road transport, so there won’t be much complaint about cleanliness, dust etc. However, even ERL is getting packed nowadays as areas surrounding in Salak Tinggi become more populated. There are also people travelling from Putrajaya to KL or Bandar Tasik Selatan. Perhaps its time to lower ERL’s ticket price.

NST and Star both provided some comments from Shahrir.

Shahrir takes ERL

Picture courtesy of Sin Chew Jit Poh.

 

According to him:

A single ticket to Putrajaya costs RM9.50 and a return ticket costs RM15. Considering Putrajaya is about 30km from the city, the fare is reasonable.

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PPP plans fund for tamil schools

June 12th, 2008
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About three weeks back, Murugiah talked on creating a foundation called Tamil Schools Foundation. Now he talks about setting up a fund. What I don’t understand is why need to meet Prime Minister and Education Minister if money for the fund is to be sourced from donations from public and corporate figures.

Secondly, along with proposing such funds, PPP should also focus on getting schools to be fully-aided and try not to burden the community by asking for more money.

Not only independent committee, but a transparent-based set-up – from collection to disbursement. Nowadays, nothing seemed to be independent.

BTW, will Samy allow this or continue with his “sole champion of the community” mantra?

IPOH: The People’s Progressive Party is proposing to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein that a fund for Tamil schools be set up. It suggests seeking donations from corporate figures and the Indian community.Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s department Senator T. Murugiah, who is the PPP National Youth chief, said the fund would help schools in poor condition and lacking facilities. “The fund will finance the construction of facilities in such schools, which are suffering a drop in enrolment. The lack of facilities is one reason parents refuse to send their children there.”

Murugiah said the fund would be managed by an independent committee with similar committees formed at the state level to disburse aid.
“There is no political motive for setting up the fund. Our goal is to make Tamil schools conducive for teaching and learning, whether or not the schools are located in opposition-held states.”

source

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MIC team to study KL Plan 2020

June 12th, 2008
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One of those instances where MIC announces something beyond the usual stuff. Hope something good comes out of the study. The “needs of the Indian community” refers to places of worship, crematorium and Tamil schools, I guess.

Its also good to notice that MIC wants to focus on poor people and students especially on housing matters. I would also suggest that efficient transportation, Internet facilities, waste management, crime prevention, and environmental issues to be addressed as well.

KUALA LUMPUR: The MIC has set up a special committee comprising architects, lawyers and professionals to study City Hall’s draft plan for 2020.President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said it would make recommendations to City Hall to ensure that the needs of the Indian community were addressed.

Speaking at the opening of the Federal Territory MIC delegates’ conference here yesterday, Samy Vellu said City Hall should ensure that housing developers allocated land for places of worship, including temples. “There should also be proper infrastructure facilities to conduct rituals for the deceased in their residential areas, especially for those who live in flats,” he said.

He said City Hall should also provide hostels for students from rural areas who study in secondary schools or colleges in the city.

Samy Vellu also urged City Hall to allocate flats for the lower middle-class, rather than only to those below the poverty level.

He added that the MIC was fortunate that it had Federal Territories deputy minister Datuk M. Saravanan to ensure their requests to City Hall were addressed.

Samy Vellu said even though many squatters now enjoyed modern and comfortable housing, there were still others who lived as squatters.  “We want an undertaking that adequate housing facilities be provided in areas nearer to work as well as schools when the people migrate to the city,” he said.

source

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Should EVERYONE change their lifestyle to reduce fuel price impact?

June 11th, 2008
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I first heard the suggestion about reducing salary of ministers via an email sent to TV3, last week. And voila, the PM announces a 10% reduction in entertainment allowance for cabinet ministers plus limitation in vacation destination. This is being followed by other states such as Pahang, Terengganu, Malacca, and Sarawak. Sarawak even plans to reduce salary of its ministers, BN assemblymen, state speaker etc. by 10%, while Pahang MB hinted at 30% reduction of entertainment allowance.

Lim Kit Siang was talking about reducing more“why stop at just 10%” and asked to cut allowance by half, so I wonder what the Pakatan states will do. Follow suit or do something else? How will the opposition MPs show their support? Will they sacrifice more or will they just sit back and blame the government for the situation?

UMNO Youth  member suggests cutting 10% of salaries of all ministers, deputies an civil servants. Hmm, then how many civil servants will  be under poverty line again?

Looking at the responses on TV, print and online media (even Kalabakan MP Ghapur Salleh Kinabatangan MP Bung Mohktar acknowledged), the rakyat themselves are not fooled by this superficial reductions. They would feel that leaders should “leader by example” and not do damage limitation exercise by announcing such matters after people are angry over price hike.

I personally think that all ministers and MPs should be forced to use public transport. Let them ride in RapidKL or Metrobus, along our Indonesia and Bangladeshi workers, students, wage earners, and pensioners. Let the ministers take Star LRT or Komuter, and get “close” to the rakyat. Komuter carries 90,000 people daily, LRT and Star 300,000 people, and RapidKL about 400,000 people according to this report. Imagine the amount of PR the ministers and MPs can generate.

Ask them to return the government cars and just make monthly claims for transportation costs. Oh, worried about crime and time being wasted? Well, welcome to the real world! If ministers in other countries can take public transport, I don’t see any valid reason why ours can’t do so. We are not a war-torn or under-developed country. Our police have high success rates. Our citizens are polite and helpful people. We have first class facilities. So, why not? » Read more: Should EVERYONE change their lifestyle to reduce fuel price impact?

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