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Canteen closed at Ipoh GH during fasting month?

August 11th, 2011
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Surprised to read this situation which was report last week, but then, looking at the way things are going, not surprised anymore. Can anyone update if the canteen is still closed? Does this infringe on the rights of anyone? Of course, you can say that one can find food at other places.  But then, why should one be forced to look for food in other places? And this is in Ipoh, not some 90% Muslim dominated area. Sign of things to come?

If non-Muslim entrepreneurs are given opportunities to take up a booth or two at the hospital at reasonable price,  I think can avoid this issue.  The Muslim operators would have difficulty running business on fasting month since majority (let’s say 60%) of their customers won’t be around.

Malaysia Nanban reported that many non-Muslims who visited the Raja Perempuan Bainun Hospital in Ipoh were shocked to find the canteen closed temporarily for the current fasting month.

Tronoh state assemblyman V. Sivakumar who visited the hospital yesterday said the closure of the canteen had affected the non-Muslims, especially the in-patients, visitors and employees of the hospital, as they had to look for food elsewhere.

The hospital’s management, he said, must also cater to the needs of other races.

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/8/4/nation/9235500&sec=nation

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2011 IPTA intake statistics

July 21st, 2011
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Below are the statistics obtained from newspaper articles. We assume the figures are correct.

53 new courses introduced.

11 of them are technology based (20.75% of the new courses) and offered at UMP, UTem, UniMaP and UTHO.

41,267 seats offered for 2011 intake (increase of 1.9% compared to 2010).

27,001 females (65.4%) and 14,266 (34.6%) male students make up the 41,267 seats.

There were 64,703 applicants  and 53,216 (82.2%) of them met the minimum requirements of obtaining a CGPA of 2.0 and above. The balance of  11,487 applied even though their CGPA was below 2.0 (trying the luck).

In short, 64,703 applied. 53,216 qualified (82.2% of all applicants) and 41,267 were offered place (77.55% of qualified applicants).

Breakdown of qualified applicants (53,216):

  • 39,998 (75.16% of qualified applicants) Bumiputera
  • 10,677 (20.06% of qualified applicants)  Chinese
  • 1,813 (3.41% of qualified applicants) Indian
  • 728 (1.37% of qualified applicants)  Others.

Breakdown in terms of places offered (41,267)

  • 29,838 (72.30% of places offered) Bumiputera
  • 9,457 (22.92% of places offered) Chinese
  • 1,511 (3.66% of places offered) Indian
  • 461 (1.12% of places offered)  Others
In terms of percentage vs population, the bumiputera were over-represented, while the Indians and Others were under-represented. The Chinese were fairly represented. This based on population ratio of 65% Bumiputera, 23% Chinese, 7% Indians and 5% Others.

Success rate in terms of [place offered] vs [number of applicants]

  • 29,838 out of 39,998 (74.6%) Bumiputera (lower than the average of 77.55%)
  • 9,457 out of 10,677 (88.58%) Chinese (higher than the average of 77.55%)
  • 1,511 out of 1,813 (83.34%) Indian (higher than the average of 77.55%)
  • 461 out of 728 (63.32%) Others (lower than the average of 77.55%)

Breakdown in terms of stream

  • 21, 954 (53.2%) science stream
  • 19,313 (46.8%) arts stream

There were 6,294 excellent candidates (not sure of the definition “excellent) which were offered places for 8 competitive/critical courses. (Note: category “Malay” was provided instead of Bumiputera).

Dentistry had the lowest places allocated (2.765) while Mechanical Engineering had the most (25.44%).

Medicine – 983 places (15.62% of excellent candidates)

  • 581 (59.10%) Malay
  • 339 (34.49%) Chinese
  • 50(5.09%)  Indian
  • 13 (1.32%) Others

Dentistry – 174 places (2.76% of excellent candidates)

  • 91 (52.30%) Malay
  • 77 (44.25%) Chinese
  • 4 (2.3%) Indian
  • 2 (1.15%) Others

Pharmacy – 283 places (4.50% of excellent candidates)

  • 151 (53.36%) Malay
  • 125 (44.17%) Chinese
  • 7 (2.47%) Indian
  • 0 (0.00%) Others

Chemical Engineering – 919 places (14.60% of excellent candidates)

  • 648 (70.51%) Malay
  • 217 (23.61%) Chinese
  • 45 (4.90%) Indian
  • 9 (0.98%) Others

Electrical and Electronic Engineering – 1,163 places (18.48% of excellent candidates)

  • 923 (79.36%) Malay
  • 209 (17.97%) Chinese
  • 18 (1.55%) Indian
  • 13 (1.12%) Others

Mechanical Engineering – 1,601 places (25.44% of excellent candidates)

  • 1251 (78.14%) Malay
  • 311 (19.43%) Chinese
  • 20 (1.25%) Indian
  • 19 (1.19%) Others

Law – 367 places (5.83% of excellent candidates)

  • 221 (60.22%) Malay
  • 105 (28.61%) Chinese
  • 37 (10.08%)  Indian
  • 4 (1.09%) Others

Accounting – 804 places (12.77% of excellent candidates)

  • 509 (63.31%) Malay
  • 269 (33.46%) Chinese
  • 18 (2.24%) Indian
  • 8 (1.00%) Others

Overall breakdown of the excellent students allocated places in critical/competitive courses:

  • 4375 (69.51%) Malay
  • 1652 (26.25%) Chinese
  • 199 (3.16%) Indian
  • 68 (1.08%) Others

Number of Orang Asli candidates = 38

Number of OKUs (Physically disabled) = 49

Number of national/state athletes: 990

3,018 candidates with CGPA 4.0 (assuming this is STPM + matriculation leavers) have been allocated places: 973 in USM (which has its own intake application) and the balance 2,045 in the other IPTAs.

However, no breakdown was given in terms of the intake channels (STPM vs Asasi vs Matriculation). That would be an interesting statistics.

More students will enter university this year with the introduction of 53 new academic programmes.

With this, there will be 41,267 seats offered by 20 public varsities, marking a 1.9% increase from last year’s intake.

Higher Education Department director-general Prof Datuk Dr Rujhan Mustafa said 11 of the new programmes were technology-based.

“The 11 programmes will be offered at Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Universiti Teknikal Melaka, Universiti Malaysia Perlis and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn,” he said in a press conference at the ministry yesterday.

A total of 64,703 applicants applied for the upcoming September intake and from the total, 53,216 (82.2%) met the minimum requirements of obtaining a CGPA of 2.0 and above.

Meanwhile, there will be a staggered intake at public varsities this year from between Sept 3 to Sept 10.

… Applicants can check their application status by visiting the websites of the ministry or the Universities Admissions Unit website.

Alternatively, students can call the ministry’s hotline at 03-8883 5858 or do a status check via SMS by typing UPU RESULT and sending the SMS to 15888.

Public varsities will issue official offer letters to successful applicants from today and applicants are required to confirm their acceptance by July 22.

Applicants who failed to obtain any offer may submit e-appeals at http://upu.mohe.gov.my until July 24.

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/7/16/nation/9114501&sec=nation

 

Another article I referred to is below:

… Seperti tahun sebelumnya, bilangan pelajar perempuan mengatasi bilangan pelajar lelaki, di mana 27,001 calon perempuan iaitu 65.4 peratus berjaya mendapat tempat di IPTA, berbanding 14,266 atau 34.6 peratus pelajar lelaki.

“Dari segi calon yang ditawarkan tempat mengikut kaum, seramai 29,838 daripada 39,998 calon atau 74.6 peratus adalah Bumiputera, 9,457 daripada 10,677 calon atau 88.6 peratus adalah Cina, 1,511 daripada 1,813 calon atau 83.3 peratus India dan 461 daripada 728 calon atau 63.3 peratus dari kaum-kaum lain.

“Dasar pengambilan dan pemilihan kemasukan ke IPTA bagi Program Pengajian Lepasan Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM)/Matrikulasi/Setaraf (Ijazah Pertama) adalah berasaskan prinsip meritokrasi dengan mengguna pakai 90 peratus markah akademik dan 10 peratus markah kokurikulam untuk menentukan nilai merit seseorang calon,” katanya dipetik Bernama Online.

Rujhan berkata, daripada 41,267 calon yang berjaya, seramai 21, 954 (53.2 peratus) adalah calon aliran sains dan 19,313 (46.8 peratus) adalah calon aliran sastera.

Menurutnya, sebanyak 6,294 calon cemerlang ditawarkan untuk mengikuti lapan kursus kompetitif iaitu Perubatan seramai 983 calon (Melayu-581, Cina- 339, India-50 dan kaum-kaum lain-13), Pergigian sebanyak 174 calon (Melayu-91, Cina-77, India-4, kaum-kaum lain-2), Farmasi sebanyak 283 calon (Melayu-151, Cina-125, India-7), Kejuruteraan Kimia sebanyak 919 calon (Melayu-648, Cina-217, India-45, kaum-kaum lain-9).

Kejuruteraan Elektrik & Elektronik sebanyak 1,163 calon (Melayu-923, Cina- 209, India-18, kaum-kaum lain-13), Kejuruteraan Mekanikal sebanyak 1,601 calon (Melayu-1,251, Cina-311, India-20, kaum-kaum lain-19), Undang-undang sebanyak 367 calon (Melayu-221, Cina-105, India-37, kaum-kaum lain- 4) dan Perakaunan sebanyak 804 calon (Melayu-509, Cina-269, India-18, kaum-kaum lain- 8).

Sementara itu, Rujhan berkata seramai 38 Orang Asli, 49 Orang Kelainan Upaya (OKU) dan 990 atlet negeri dan negara turut ditawarkan tempat di IPTA selaras dengan hasrat kerajaan melahirkan graduan holistik yang mampu merealisasikan agenda dan wawasan negara.

Beliau berkata, 3,018 calon cemerlang yang mempunyai Purata Nilai Gred Kumulatif (PNGK) 4.0, sudah pun ditempatkan di 20 IPTA, iaitu seramai 2,045 calon di 19 IPTA manakala bakinya di Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) yang merupakan universiti APEX.

source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/mobile/bahasa/article/41267-ditawar-tempat-ipta-mula-pengajian-september/

 

 

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Why black out misleading and incorrect text?

July 19th, 2011
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I always thought that if a publication contained misleading or wrong information, you can ask the publisher to print a correction/apology or sue the publisher later.

So, I’m a bit confused with the article below. First it says the authorities blacked out certain text, then it says the authorities contacted the publisher to black out the texts. Which is correct?

Maybe The Star understood the statements wrongly? Maybe the Home Ministry should black out this article in tomorrow’s paper. Come to think of it, there are many misleading articles everywhere, starting from school text books to magazines, from newspaper ads to posters. Wonder if we have the man power to sift through all those materials and black out those misleading and incorrect texts. Maybe can introduce a KPI for this – number of reading materials vetted. Anyway, the issue is still under investigation, so one wonders, what revelation was obtained to decide that its misleading or incorrect? If the text were to be found correct in future, would the authorities be held responsible for tampering with truth or some other crime?

Anyway, this being the world of Internet, you can read the actual article here:

http://www.economist.com/node/18959359?story_id=18959359&fsrc=rss

I’m not sure that readers of the Economist would be easily misled. We are not talking about school kids or illiterate rural folks. The readers can easily get the original copy from the Internet once they see the blacked out sections. It just piques the readers interest.  Not sure which genius thought of this idea in the first place.

The Home Ministry blacked out parts of The Economist’‘s article on the recent Bersih 2.0 rally for being incorrect and misleading.

Its Publications Control and Quranic Text Division secretary Abd Aziz Md Nor said the sentences contained incorrect statements and could mislead readers.

He said the decision to instruct the magazine’s publisher to black out the sentences was made after consulting the police.

“We went through the article and found the incorrect statements.

“Subsequently, we told the publisher to black out those sentences,” he said when contacted Tuesday.

Abd Aziz said they received the July 16 edition about a week before it went on sale for clearance, which, he added, was the normal procedure.

The article chronicles the July 9 rally, including the arrest of more than 1,600 people.

source:  http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/7/19/nation/20110719201159&sec=nation

The blacked out texts were:

– ‘and one man died of a heart attack’, in the first paragraph. [so, how did the man die?]

– ‘The march itself was then banned, although the authorities offered Bersih a stadium to meet in – and then withdrew the offer’, in the second paragraph [wasn’t stadium mentioned?]

– ‘The heavy-handed police tactics have provoked a lot of anger; the government has conceded an official investigation into claims of police brutality. In one instance (caught on film), police seemed to fire tear gas and water cannon into a hospital where protesters were sheltering from a baton charge’, in the fourth paragraph. [not sure which part of this is wrong. the word used was “seemed” for the hospital part. Maybe its the word “heavy-handed”]

Maybe its a good time to revamp the said division. But then again, maybe those officers were just following orders. Just doing their jobs.

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awareness program for urban poor

July 18th, 2011
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With nearly 70% of Malaysians living in urban areas, the focus should be also given to urban poor.  Not only in low-cost apartment areas,  but also in other housing areas and  squatter areas.

A good number of urban poor are not aware of the government’s welfare aids which they are eligible for.

To correct this, Deputy Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk M. Saravanan yesterday held a fair to launch a “clinic” at the Desa Tun Razak flats to collect data on socio-economic problems faced by the city’s low-cost flat dwellers. The subsequent clinics will be held at all 25 low-cost flats in the cty.

K. Ramakrishnan, a labourer who earns RM700 a month and has a son attending Primary One, said he was not aware the government had a school uniform aid for the poor.

“I just heard Datuk Saravanan mention in his speech that there is such a scheme,” said Ramakrishnan.

“It would ease my burden if I received help to buy school uniforms and books for my son. But I was not aware of this as nobody informed me.”

Ramli Ismail, a vegetable seller, said the government should make this information more widely known.

“The clinic is a good effort and an eye-opener. There were many things I was not aware of, so there should be more of these programmes,” said the 48-year-old.

Mohd Zakaria Yusof, 42, said programmes like this should be organised more often.

“Don’t make it a ‘once in a blue moon’ thing. Some of us are uneducated and not sure where to go to seek help, so we appreciate this sort of effort from the government,” said Zakaria.

Saravanan said: “We would like to hold these clinics every Sunday, although this may be difficult because Ramadan is approaching. We want to complete these clinics in three months so that by the end of the year, we would have collected the data we want.”

Saravanan said Barisan Nasional lost a lot of votes at low-cost housing areas in the March 2008 general election because the government did not do much to address the plight of the poor there.

“That’s why I told the Prime Minister that we need a detailed study on the issues faced by those residing in low-cost flats.”

He also admitted that government agencies involved in giving aid to the poor should be more pro-active in reaching out.

“Many people are not aware of the various aids we have for the poor. For example, the hardcore poor do not know they don’t have to pay their flat’s rent. They also don’t know there are entrepreneurship programmes where we give training and loans to set up small businesses.”

Residents of the Desa Tun Razak flats yesterday flocked the many booths set up at the clinic yesterday.

Among the agencies present were the Welfare department, and KL City Hall’s housing department, poverty eradication department and health department.

http://mmail.com.my/content/78065-urban-poor-learn-about-eligibility-aid

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Bersih rally participation estimate by PoliTweet

July 18th, 2011
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This is an interesting calculation based on tweets. They estimate the crowd to be about 45ooo. I think if the footage from helicopters are released (untampered), then we can get a accurate estimate.

refer the website at : http://www.politweet.org/site/july9rally_crowdmap.php

 

 

PETALING JAYA: Crowd estimates for the July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally are almost as contentious as the rally itself. Various figures have been bandied about. Just about everybody has their own estimation – the organisers, police and the media.

Now, one man has come out and said that with his mathematical calculations, the figure is around 45,000 and 50,000. He is Politweet founder, Ahmed Kamal Nava.

Politweet.org, a research organisation that studies Twitter interactions between Malaysian citizens and politicians, had mapped out the number of people who attended the rally using polygons.

But before proceeding to draw the polygons, a timeline of events needed to be established.

Ahmed Kamal told FMT that his primary source to determine the timeline of events were tweets and also pictures posted on Twitter as these pictures, unlike the ones posted on Facebook or other websites, had the integral time stamped on them.

“Using the images from the photo gallery as a reference, I started to draw the polygons covering the area on a map. I used some photos found online, if they were of higher quality, and matched them up with my established timeline,” he said. He established that at about 1pm to 2.30pm the crowd was at its largest.

“The crowd estimation is based on this peak period for different areas within the same time frame. This is to avoid double-counting because crowds were moving, growing and shrinking between 1pm and 4pm,” he said.

“Using the polygons, I was able to use a custom tool to estimate the covered area in square feet. With the factors stated on the website, it was possible to gauge how many people were gathered.”

“Polygons were then generated based on the photos taken within that time frame in different parts of the city,” he said, explaining the methodology used on Politweet’s website.

“The area covered by the polygon was calculated using a separate tool, and this area was then divided by a factor based on how dense the crowd was,” he added.

“If the crowd was standing close together, the factor was one person for every 4 sq ft (one person/4 sq ft). If the crowd was moving about, or a mix of people standing close and far, then it was one person for every 5 sq ft to 6 sq.ft. The factors used are stated for each map.”

He had focused on three areas of the city during the peak period – Puduraya, KLCC and Sungei Wang Plaza. The other “hot spots” such as Pasar Seni were either counted as a subset of these three areas or fell under the “others” category.

“Crowds that were close to Puduraya (such as at the Agro Bank at 12.30pm) are assumed to have joined the Puduraya crowd,” he said.

“Smaller groups were recorded at other areas such as Jalan Raja Laut, Pasar Seni, and Jalan Maharajalela and are all assumed to be within the ‘other’ group of 2,000. This also includes people who stayed behind in Petaling Street when the majority moved to Puduraya at 1pm,” he added.

source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/07/14/bersih-rally-maths-puts-crowd-at-4500-to-50000/

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