Archive for the ‘BornInMalaysia’ category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

KL to twin with city of noisy people?

December 24th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


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

Comments Off on KL to twin with city of noisy people? »

Posted in BornInMalaysia, Indian

Tags:

MMA says 1Malaysia clinic illegal

December 24th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


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.

Comments Off on MMA says 1Malaysia clinic illegal »

Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags:

low ranking staff involved in military theft

December 23rd, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


The Defence Minister said this:

He said investigations had so far revealed that low-ranking officers were involved in the crime.

“Those directly involved in the case were enlisted men with the rank of sergeant and below.

“So far, no high-ranking officers have been implicated but should any be found to be involved, action will be taken,” he told reporters after launching buses of the National Service Training Department at Wangsa Maju here yesterday.

I don’t really agree with the idea of low ranking staff being involved. This would be the audit team did not do its work properly, there’s no proper measures to check inventories, etc. Definitely someone should be in charge of all this procedures.

He also clarified on the cost of the engines:

Dr Ahmad Zahid also confirmed that two engines were stolen, with each costing RM50mil if they were new.

“But since they are not new, the value has depreciated,” he said.

It was pointed out that the plane may cost less than the engine itself if it was indeed RM50 million. Not sure how true that is.

And then, he focused on bloggers:

“I do not want bloggers to try to distort any facts with all sorts of speculation and analysis on the matter.

I think he should first ask the media to report properly. He should also ensure the official statements are accurate and detailed. Who mentioned the engine costs RM50 million? Was it bloggers? Who said brigadier general and 40 others were sacked? Bloggers too?

Comments Off on low ranking staff involved in military theft »

Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags:

EPF scheme for self employed

December 23rd, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


So, EPF is launching a scheme for the self-employed. There are many self-employed people in Malaysia, and they come from all walks of life. Some may earn tons of money, while others barely scrape through day after day. For some of them, this would be a good scheme as it offers a channel to save money for retirement. For some others, there will be skepticism since they may know channels that give higher returns than EPF. Or, maybe worried that if they save a lot, income tax people will come looking for them 🙂 The really skeptical group would say that government lacks money, and this is one way to generate fund to mobilise development projects. Well, each to his own.

No one is forcing the contributor to save, so its entirely up to the person to consider this scheme. If you prefer other instruments like unit trust, ASN/ASB, real estate, precious metals, FD etc, so be it.

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) will launch the 1Malaysia Retirement Saving Scheme on Jan 3 to help the self-employed cope with income inadequacy during retirement.

EPF chief executive officer Tan Sri Azlan Zainol said the scheme, announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak during the tabling of the 2010 Budget in October, was to care for the welfare of the self-employed who had no formal retirement savings scheme.

It was designed to provide individuals without a fixed monthly income with financial security in their old age, he said in a statement.

The scheme was also open to self-employed individuals such as hawkers, night-market traders, real-estate agents, freelancers like disc jockeys and fitness instructors, singers and actors and online business owners.

“The Government is sensitive to the fact that adequate retirement savings remains a major concern for all Malaysians, in particular the self-employed, especially those without a fixed monthly salary.

“The 1Malaysia Retirement Saving Scheme offers this group of contributors flexibility in determining how much they can afford to save for their retirement,” he said.

Azlan said that unlike the conventional EPF saving scheme, the amount contributed into the 1Malaysia Retirement Saving Scheme was entirely at the contributor’s discretion.

“Contributors can opt to set aside a minimum of RM50 or a maximum of RM5,000 per month as retirement savings.

“Contribution is voluntary and contributors are also not required to contribute savings on a monthly basis but rather what and when they can afford,” he added.

Azlan said contributors would receive annual dividends declared by the EPF, in addition to a 5% contribution from the Government subject to a maximum of RM60 per year over the next five years from 2010-2014.

Those interested can apply for the scheme at any EPF branch nationwide, or download the KWSP 16G (1M) Form from the EPF website at www.kwsp.gov.my from Jan 3.

The forms are to be returned at any EPF branch or by mail.

However, individuals who are not EPF members have to register with the EPF first.

Existing EPF members who turn self-employed are also eligible and may opt for this new scheme.

Comments Off on EPF scheme for self employed »

Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags:

don’t know the largest mammal in the world?

December 21st, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


Bookmark this category
The DJs in THR Raaga’s morning “Guys or Girls” contest repeated the same question last week and today – what is the largest mammal in the world (in tamil, of course). I’m surprised that the listeners who participated do not know the answer! Either they can’t understand the question (the guy today said cow after misunderstanding the Tamil word for mammal) or really don’t know this kind of general knowledge. I think instead of asking names and ingredients of foreign food, brands of perfume or footware, or names football team/players, It would be much more beneficial to ask questions that educate the listeners about science, general knowledge, country etc.

3 comments »

Posted in BornInMalaysia, Indian