Posts Tagged ‘DAP’

Govt allocated RM64.84 mil for Tamil schools says Komala

November 13th, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


but she still did not answer the question on list of schools that are being helped. Is it on a ad-hoc basis based on first come first serve?

Anyway, it is well documented during the 9th Malaysian Plan (read it here, here or here) that  there's no specific mention on allocation for vernacular schools. Thus it is puzzling that suddenly there's an allocation of 64++ million for Tamil schools only. And on top of that another 100 million? Hmm…Does YSS know about this? Since they were involved in providing input to the plan way back in 2005 ?

UPDATE: According to NST report below, Komala mentioned that the RM100 million fund allocated was for government-aided schools – meaning chinese, tamil and religious schools. Furthermore, she said 163 schools received 11.6 million so far, meaning average of RM71165 per school.

TAMIL schools in the country are not left unaided as claimed by some politicians.

Education Ministry parliamentary secretary P. Komala Devi said the welfare of vernacular schools had never been neglected. Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, RM64.8 million had been allocated for the renovation, restoration and upgrading of Tamil schools.

A RM100 million fund has also been set up for government-aided schools. Komala said 163 Tamil schools had received RM11.6 million from this fund.

To a supplementary question by S.K Devamany (BN-Cameron Highlands), she said the fact that a budget had been allocated showed that no one had been sidelined.
“Schools and students are also given grants, food, free textbooks and tuition vouchers,” she said.

Gov't allocated RM64.84 mil for Tamil schools
source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/74740
Yoges Palaniappan
Nov 13, 07 6:20pm
The government has allocated RM64.84 million for fully-aided government Tamil schools under the Ninth Malaysian Plan, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Education Ministry G Komala Devi said on top of that, another RM100 million has also been allocated for these schools by the government.

"As of October, 163 government-aided Tamil schools have received RM11.6 million from the fund," she said.

Komala (BN-Kapar) was replying to a query from K Devamany (BN-Cameron Highlands) who asked the education minister to state the mid-term achievement of the Ninth Malaysian Plan on developing the infrastructure of Tamil schools.

In answering a supplementary question from Devamany, Komala said her ministry has an open mind and was always ready to assist all schools regardless of background and stream.

Opposition easily confused

Devamany asked if the ministry agreed with the accusation of a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department that the government does not care about the welfare of Tamil schools in the country.

He was referring to PPP president M Kayveas who stated that the government has ignored the plight of Tamil schools.

Komala said the ministry, besides allocating funds for a school's physical development, also provides grants for all students including free text books and tuition vouchers.

M Kualasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) asked Komala the reasons as to why the government has failed to provide the list of Tamil schools that will be built under the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

"Once, the education minister said that no Tamil and Chinese schools will be built under the plan, but every time a question is raised, ministry officials say that RM64.8 million has been allocated for Tamil schools. Where are the schools being built?" Kulasegaran asked.

To this, Komala responded by saying that the opposition is often confused with statements issued by the government.

"Although we have issued many statements, the opposition often goes back to a particular statement that is no more in standing.

"I would like to stress here that the education minister has good relationship with Chinese leader (MCA president) Ong Ka Ting and Indian leader (MIC president) S Samy Vellu. Their views are often taken into consideration before any decision is made."

shah alam temple demolished and media blackout

October 31st, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


The temple demolishment in Padang Jawa area (Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, Taman Karuppiah, Shah Alam) was first highlighted in the UMIC forum by one of the members. However, confirmation came in after 6pm, while SMSes started to arrive after 8pm.

I checked with an acquaintance in the print media yesterday night, who did not anything about it. Nothing was mentioned in the news at Vaanavil Bernama, TV2, TV3 buletin Utama, and Nightline. Nothing too in Star Online, NST, The Sun etc. Only report was in Malaysiakini. This was preceded by statements issued by Hindraf and MHS.

From what we have read, Hindraf paints a terrible picture of massacre level – equating MBSA with Myanmar's junta. Still, we have to take it with a pinch of salt.

Some reports mentioned that even MBSA staff were injured. Well, I guess the people didn't give any quarters.

Malaysiakini mentioned that the area was to be cleared – houses, temple and a surau as well. It also quoted DAP's representative saying that Samy Vellu mentioned Khir Toyo being stubborn (un-cooperative) and did not want to give any time for discussions. I suppose what made the people angry is the insensitivity shown by the government servants in dealing with the public.

MHS as usual issued a statement, which will be disposed into recycle bins as fast as they arrived in emails and print.  People may get fed up with this soon.

Since this was done in a hurried manner, I suspect money has a bigger role rather than an agenda  to get rid of Indians or to create racial tension. In the end, its all about the money trail or as it is often put "benefits to the rakyat" (read: certain rakyat only, especially those living in houses bigger than some schools). Of course, I have no proof. But if the law is on your side, would you still go bulldozing ahead and do things illegally?

The action by Khir Toyo does not bode well. After all the committees, discussions, task forces etc being created at federal and state level to amicably solve these kind of religious issues, he goes ahead and does as he likes. This flies in the face of MIC and MHS who called for restraint and asked the Indians not to retaliate in earlier cases throughout the country.

Well, I guess no one will be inviting Khir Toyo for Deepavali open house this year! Unless shameless Kamala Ganapathy, Komala, Samy Vellu, Palanivel etc. does an about turn and say that Khir Toyo is Pembela Rakyat India!

Statistics for 2007/2008 university intake

October 30th, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


total accepted: 40,116
Bumi: 24940 (out of 47057 – 53%)
Chinese: 12746 (out of 16,299 – 78.2%)
Indian: 2448 (out of 4754 – 51.5%)

24940+12746+2448 = 40134 (not equalling 40116). Let's ignore the difference of 18 students.

Bumi: 24940/40134 = 62.14%
Chinese: 12746/40134 = 31.76%
Indian: 2448/40134 = 6.10%

Interestingly, 68,220 people applied and about 58.8% got a place. Wonder what is the breakdown of the 41.2% who did not get a place. We should go through it and see how we can improve the percentage of intake.

source
He told Chong Eng (DAP-Bukit Mertajam) that of the 68,220 students who applied for places in universities for the 2007/2008 intake, 40,116 were successful.

Of these, 65 per cent were female. Applications from Bumiputera students totalled 47,057 but only 53 per cent were accepted. Chinese and Indian applications stood at 16,299 and 4,754 respectively and only 78.2 per cent and 51.5 per cent were accepted

New block for SJK West Country, but temple status unsure

October 27th, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


“However, the 0.4ha site for the Hindu temple has been changed to vacant land.”

RM330,000 new block for Tamil school

source

By ESTHER CHANDRAN

SJK (T) West Country Timur, a partially government aided school, will soon be able to accommodate its students into proper classrooms as a new block is being built on the school grounds. The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) chairman O. Kumaravelu said the new block cost RM330,000 to build. “A total of RM200,000 was do-nated by Datuk GN Chidapparam and RM40,000 was from Serdang MP Datuk Yap Pian Hon. “The remainder of the money was raised by the PTA through fund raising activities and from well wishers,” he said. The school, which has 365 pupils, currently has eight classrooms, principal C Jayaletchumy said. 

SJK West Country
Space constraints: The students of SJK (T) West Country Timur using the canteen.

Three of these classrooms are divided to accommodate two classes. Sometimes, the classes take place at the library or school canteen due to lack of classrooms. Last year, the school's enrolment was 307. Jayaletchumy said the new block would help accommodate the growing number of students. The project to build the new block began in March and is expected to be ready by mid Oct, Kumaravelu said. “There are six classrooms in the new block,” he said. The school at Section 5, West Country, Bangi is situated on the former West Country Estate grounds. 

When the state government acquired the estate to develop the area into the newer Bangi, the Indian community were promised 1.6ha for the Tamil school, 1.2ha for a Hindu cemetery and 0.4ha for a Hindu temple. It has been 18-years since the acquisition but the land has not been gazetted. Yap said the Hulu Langat Land Office sent a letter to the Ministry of Education in September asking for the school land to be gazetted. He added that Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo had agreed for the cemetery land to be gazetted as well. 

“However, the 0.4ha site for the Hindu temple has been changed to vacant land. “The Sri Maha Mariamman West Country Devotees Associa-tion will be applying to the land office for the 100-year old Sri Maha Mariamman West Country Temple to remain at its old site.'' 

He advised the temple committee, headed by Kumaravelu, to apply for the land to be gazetted. Yap also advised them to apply to the Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry for the 100 year-old temple to be preserved as a heritage site because of its long history.  Kumaravelu said the temple was recently registered under the Registrar of Societies.

A rose by any other name

October 23rd, 2007
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


Recently, I was involved in discussions on naming babies. Based on my observations, newborns are having more and more “exotic” and unique names. Why is this happening?

According to my wife, it is likely that the parents do not want to be reminded of someone else when the call out their childÂ’s name. For example, if I have a friend named Ganesh, I most likely wonÂ’t name my son Ganesh, according to her logic. So thatÂ’s why we seldom hear children being given their parentsÂ’ friends, grandparents, ancestors, relatives, leaders, religious/spiritual heads or other famous personÂ’s names.

My observation on the naming process reveals the following:

  1. Naming is complicated due to the various “ogies” – numerology, astrology, psychology, family interferencology.
  2. Religion/Race/Ethinicity/Caste also plays a role in the naming process
  3. Those who are more “educated” tend to give more “exotic” names. Perhaps to show that they are “educated” or symbol of “sophistication”?
  4. Names are more globalized in a sense that there will be elements of English/Western sounding words. Is it a plan to ensure that the child can easily migrate and adapt in other countries in the future?
  5. Use of Sanskrit words supposedly to reflect a more spiritual meaning of the name.

 Seriously, what happened to names like Saravanan and Ganesan? Or Nadeswaran, Ramanathan, Geetha, Saminathan, Gopi, Sivakumar, Perumal, Santhirasegar, Valluvan, Kanthasamy,  Muniswaran, Gomathi, Kavitha, Asogan, Valli, Saraswathi, Mullai, Srikanth, etc.? Are these names condemned to no further than 1980s and 1990s era only?

A newborn was given the name Rahul, which means sun (well, I didnÂ’t check on it). To me, Rahul sounds like Shah Rukh Khan’Â’s (or any other heroes) characters in Hindi movies. Why not just name the boy Surya (Nathan/Kumar/Kanth etc) and get on it with. I wonderÂ…

Another friendÂ’s sonÂ’s name sound like a girlÂ’’s name to me. I keep forgetting that itÂ’s a baby boy, unless the name is mentioned in full.

How about influence of India cinema? I Heard that Shreya is the number one chosen baby name in US for the Indian (Southern Indians?) community last year. Now my niece is named Shreeya as well 🙂

Anyway, as you may point out, itÂ’’s their child and they can name him/her any which way they like. I canÂ’’t agree more! As long as you donÂ’t make it difficult for me to pronounce it or IÂ’’ll just make up my own name for your kid. 🙂

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet – Shakespeare!