Miss MalaysianIndian Global 2008 Fiona to help organise charity events

/* October 7th, 2008 by poobalan | View blog reactions No comments »
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A bit more on Fiona Zuzartee, the winner of Miss MalaysianIndian Global 2008 (The Star):

The 1.6m beauty, winner of Saturday’s 2008 Miss Malaysia-Indian Global pageant, came across as an ambitious and articulate but a humble person.

The 20-year-old lass was also buzzing with confidence and professional patience.

“But I still got stage fright. I knew I was rambling during the question-and-answer session as I was not used to it yet,” she told The Star yesterday.

A shy but amicable person unless she was with small groups of friends, Fiona’s ambition was to open a fusion restaurant business in five years, something she learned to do while working as a supervisor at the Starbucks outlet at Assunta Hospital here.

Her real passion to be an airline pilot was derailed because of her family’s weak financial background.

Her parents — a charity logistics manager and an IT project manager — did not give her an allowance until she was in secondary school and had taught Fiona the value of money at an early age.

“I used to earn money from radio contests. The RM100 or RM200 I won, I would stretch it for a month,” she said.

Her lack of chance to pursue her dream of becoming a pilot spurred Fiona to organise a charity event to raise funds to help secondary school students pursue their tertiary education. The charity event will be part of her year-long obligation as a pageant winner that is to be involved in a large-scale community project.

HINDRAF 5 is worse threat that RPK?

/* October 6th, 2008 by poobalan | View blog reactions 4 comments »
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I was surprised to read that Raja Petra was allowed to attend the court case today, but so far none of the 5 detainees were allowed to do so. I’m sure there are loads of reports on HINDRAF and its leaders, don’t tell me not even one had been heard in court till now. I remember Manoharan’s appeal to represent himself (he’s a lawyer) in a case was also rejected. What does this mean? Raja Petra is not as dangerous as the HINDRAf 5?

UPM Temple under threat

/* October 6th, 2008 by poobalan | View blog reactions 1 comment »
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I think some of the local universities had a temple in their compound – maybe due to the fact that the universities were built on ex-plantation or forest areas, which housed Indian families nearby.

UTM Skudai’s temple had been relocated. UM’s one is still there. UPM’s one is now under plans to be removed because UPM wants the land back. The 80-year old Maha Mariamman temple (see it on map here) was located on a half-acre plot of land within the university’s ground, according to the temple’s land and building committee chairman K.G. Kuppusamy.

“We are requesting the university officials to reconsider taking back the land. Perhaps they can sell us the plot of land or provide us with an alternative land plus compensation of RM1.5mil to help rebuild the temple,” Kuppusamy said.He said discussions between both parties have been on-going since November last year.

Yesterday, some 200 people gathered at the Sri Maha Mariaman temple near to voice their worries over the temple land problem.

What would be the ideal solution for this issue? The temple is as old as the precursor of UPM, which was the School of Agriculture, officially instituted on 21 May, 1931 by John Scott. UPM itself was established in 1971. Basicall, you have an historic site. Perhaps it can be declared as a heritage site? As for community, I guess UPM students will frequent the temple, along with residents who live nearby. Sometimes, the in-house temples are venues for cultural and religious programs held by students. Not sure if its still the same.

Is this a state or federal issue? Since universities are granted certain amount of autonomy, can they decide on their own? Can state government reclaim the land if such situation arises?

PAS leader supports HINDRAF Raya visit

/* October 6th, 2008 by poobalan | View blog reactions 5 comments »
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I think the comment by Pas leader Abdul Hadi Awang is to offset the religious tone made by UMNO leaders and their related NGOs. The visit by HINDRAF to Hari Raya open house is being labeled as “insult to PM”, “insult to Islam’, “insult to Muslims”, “spoiling country’s image”, “causing anger among the Malays”, “rude”, “treachery”, “irresponsible”, and many more negative comments. Thus, this is seen as trying to incite the Malay community to go against HINDRAF. By having PAS support, this attack is somewhat nullified.

The Pas chief said the action by the the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) at the prime minister’s and cabinet’s Hari Raya open house on Wednesday was part and parcel of democracy. Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said it signalled a change in the democratic practices in the country that should be viewed positively.

“I don’t think it was rude. That’s democracy. In the United States, people demonstrate in front of the White House. It’s not like they caused a commotion or started fighting,” he said after the party’s Hari Raya gathering at the Tarbiyyah headquarters yesterday.

His comments were dismissed by Information Minister Ahmed Shaberi Cheek who said:

Describing Hadi’s understanding of democracy as off tangent, Ahmad Shabery said it was unbecoming of the PAS chief to liken the action by an illegal group as a normal practice in a democratic country like the United States.

“Do not liken demonstrations in front of the White House with the action of Hindraf supporters who had disrupted an Aidilfitri open house. It was the time for the Prime Minister, his deputy, and ministers to meet the people.

“The action had tarnished the hari raya celebration and the goodwill spirit advocated by Malaysians. We should not misuse democratic practices.

“Just because he is eyeing for votes from Hindraf supporters, he (Hadi) is willing to forget the sanctity of hari raya celebration,”

Same agenda but different approach for MIC and HINDRAF

/* October 6th, 2008 by poobalan | View blog reactions No comments »
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Dr S.Subra said that both HINDRAf and MIC are fighting to get the ISA detainees released, but they are using different approaches. MIC, he says, does not believe in “crowding” Hari Raya open houses.

“This sort of behaviour does not serve well for a united multiracial nation. It also does not reflect the true nature of our Indian culture,” he said.

Dr Subramaniam said the group had created discomfort at the function. Discomfort??? Taking a ride in LRT or RapidKL gives you more discomfort la!

He said everyone should emulate Opposition leaders such as DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, who, despite political differences, attended open houses and joined the festivities in true Malaysian spirit. Dr Subramaniam said the MIC would continue to talk to Abdullah, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Cabinet ministers to lobby for the release of the five. He said the MIC pursued the matter on humanitarian grounds and because of pleas made to the party by the families of the detainees.

NST covered the same news as well, but its headline screamed Hindraf went ‘over the limit’. However, the only time the word “limit” came in the article was when Dr S.Subra said:

He acknowledged that it was the group’s democratic right to be at the open house but noted that everything had its limits.

Looks like NST is also following Utusan now.

Meanwhile, Hindraf national event coordinator Kannan Ramasamy reiterated that they were invited to the open house and had been orderly. He said Dr Subramaniam should have inquired about the actual situation before commenting on the conduct of the Hindraf members.

By the way, Haris Ibrahim who was at PWTC documents his experience. As for Utusan, they continue to spin more misleading articles. Today, the police are being pressured to investigate, calls for tough action are being made (more politicians were commenting on Sunday’s edition), and a different part of Dr S.Subra’s interview was published. Utusan has deviated from the anti-ISA visitors to Hindraf-bashing. In fact, majority of the papers did not talk about Free RPK supporters nor offer any proof of the “protestors” shouting, fighting, or causing “discomfort”. Probably the police are fuming that their were made to look like fools in front of their political bosses, and the politicians are angry that their exclusivity was breached.