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Bonded Workers

July 28th, 2008
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From time to time we read about estate workers being treated like bonded workers or forced labourers. Sometimes terms like slaves are used. I remember about a case in Melaka few years back. And recently, the case in Segamat of all place (constituent of the Human Resources Minister!).

The term bonded worker means employers or contractors who threaten and cheat their employees into working for practically pittance. The family members are also forced to work, usually to settle some “debt”. Lack of education and being illiterate is one of the reasons why this problem still occurs.

Obviously, plantation owner who close two eyes are also part of the problem. And one have to ask, why the authorities don’t know about this problem. Perhaps more Tamil speaking officers should be attached to enforcement and inspection teams who go to the grounds.

Now the ministry is launching a massive crackdown on such employers:

Its Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said the ministry’s Manpower Department had also lodged police reports against those who treated their workers as bonded labourers.

“If there is still no action taken by the respective police stations where the estates are located, we will go right up to Bukit Aman (police headquarters),” he said in a statement yesterday.

Dr Subramaniam said the ministry was aware of the matter and had identified the contractors involved. “We will get the police to take action against them,” he said.

Dr Subramaniam said the ministry would ensure that the issue of bonded labourers would be resolved.

He also instructed all estate owners and management to immediately report to the police and the ministry if they come across contractors who ill-treated their workers. “This is a very serious matter and I want all parties to take note and report the matter immediately to the authorities. I will personally look into the cases,” he said.

The ill-treatment of estate workers came to light when a group of workers and their families from an estate in Segamat, Johor reported to the ministry and the police that their contractor had been abusing them, including forcing members of their family members to work.

Following the revelation, Dr Subramaniam visited the estate and ordered officials from the ministry to lodge a police report and instructed the Manpower Department to launch a crackdown on all estates to ensure that the workers were well taken care off. He also ordered all contractors to register with the Manpower Department beginning next month.

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Samy disagrees on community support for Tamil schools

July 26th, 2008
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MIBA president Sivakumar started the provocation by saying that:

If not for private donors and wealthy businessmen from the community, Sivakumar argues, half of the 523 Tamil schools in the country would have been closed down a long time ago. He cites a recent example where a hall for a Yahya Awal in Johor Baru, costing RM700,000, was built with public donations.

This made Samy Vellu quite unhappy obviously.

MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu has challenged the claim that half the Tamil schools in the country would have closed down without the support of wealthy Indians.
He was reacting to Malaysian Indian Businessmen Association president P. Sivakumar’s claim that if not for private donations and wealthy businessmen, half of the 523 schools would have closed down a long time ago.

“The subject of Tamil schools is very dear to me because I was a Tamil school student. Since I became a minister in 1979, I started studying the position of Tamil schools. In 1981, I came out with the first programmes for educational empowerment of the Indian community. I asked JKR (Public Works Department) and my officers to study schools that needed attention.”

“I then approached then prime minister (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) in 1984 for RM5.5 million from the Prime Minster’s Fund. At that time there was scarce funds for partially-aided schools. He approved RM6 million and we built nine Tamil schools with the money.”

Later, Samy Vellu said, he approached then finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin for funds and received RM4.5 million to build more schools. He said MIC was committed to continuously seek funds from the prime minister, education and finance ministers to keep on building Tamil schools to provide a better standard of education for Indian children.

“Recently, we secured a RM30 million grant and we have allocated RM11.3 million for building 10 schools in Selangor and 15 in the rest of the country, also costing RM11.3 million. Tenders are now being called. We have also obtained RM2 million for repairs of Tamil schools in Selangor this year while the government is building a RM1.2 million Tamil school in Kampung Lindungan on a 0.6ha site. The Education Ministry is also building 15 fully-aided Tamil schools costing RM11.5 million.”

From now until the end of next year, RM43.5 million has been committed for the upgrading and construction of Tamil schools, he said.

“For me, MIC is the guardian of Tamil schools and we have set up the MIED (Maju Institute of Educational Development), Yayasan Strategik Sosial to improve the lot of Indian children.”

He pointed out that it was through MIC initiatives that on July 1, the Cabinet Committee on Development of the Indian Community chaired by the deputy prime minister had agreed in principle that all Tamil schools should be converted to fully-aided schools.

I calculated RM98.7 million based on the numbers mentioned by Samy Vellu. Since 1984 till 2009 (26 years). That’s about RM3.796 million per year. Number of Tamil schools is 523.

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Government consider converting Tamil schools status if land issue settled

July 26th, 2008
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There was a meeting on Thursday to discuss about the partially-aided Tamil schools, chaired by Education Minister, Hishamuddin. Others included Devamany, Murugiah (PPP), Saravanan.

The meeting repeated the same mantra on the schools being on private or estate land, but this time there are plans to get those lands from the plantation/private companies and convert to government owned. With quite a number of schools on GLC lands, it should not be a problem, and should have never been a hurdle in the first place.

While the report says there are about 250 (or half the schools) were in private land, if I’m not mistaken, more than 320 schools (about 2/3) are partially aided.

There should also be efforts to relocate under-enrolled schools to other places. Education Ministry should set up a channel for residents/community to forward their requests. If there are ample number of potential students, let’s say 200 of them, then relocation must be seriously considered.

But what made me stand up was the news report in Minnal FM which says that MIC was thankful for government to converting schools after getting the land from plantations. This is quite misleading because the meeting highlighted the possibility only, and nothing has been done yet.

One have to ask why this effort is being taken now. What was the catalyst? Obviously Samy Vellu and MIC 😉

From the Star:

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government will consider converting the status of partially aided Tamil primary schools to fully aided, if the land issue can be solved.

Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the problem was that about 250 Tamil primary schools were presently built on estate land.
Status problem: Hishammuddin (right), Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department S.K. Devamany (middle) and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator T. Murugiah holding copies of the ministry’s reports on the status of Tamil primary schools after the meeting yesterday.

“We can’t have a fully aided school if the land doesn’t belong to us,” he told reporters after chairing a special committee meeting to overcome Tamil school issues.

He said the ministry had to identify if the land belonged to government-linked companies, private companies or individuals.

Besides land, he said, the Government also had to look at other issues such as the supply of teachers, upgrading of schools and under-enrolled schools.

“There is no point converting a school if it only has three pupils. This is why in our meeting, we identified the actual number of pupils and schools, schools which need to be upgraded or are overcrowded,” he said.

There are presently 523 Tamil primary schools in the country.

He said the committee found that the overall situation at Tamil primary schools was not as bad as painted by some parties.

“We are also working closely with the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry to upgrade the infrastructure of Tamil schools in plantations,” he said.

Hishammuddin said 171 applications had been approved in cases of children who do not have birth certificates as long as their parents obtained a confirmation letter from their village headman or the Village Development and Safety Committee (JKKK) head to allow them to go to school.

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No school because no birth certificate

July 18th, 2008
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The announcement that children with birth certificates can be enrolled in schools came in February. It was announced by Hishamuddin (and repeated by Deputy Prime Minister Najib) following cabinet decision:

I have instructed all schools to accept these children. I have asked the headmasters and teachers to put themselves in an accomodative position. “I do not want to hear any headmaster blocking or rejecting such applications

Students just have to get letter from village head or Village committee chairman, for example to get enrolled.

But, today’s Star highlights a case in Ipoh where children from a welfare home (note: registration status unknown) who are unable to attend school due to lack of birth certificate.

n_pg35tharsini.jpg
Caught in a bind: (From left) Tharsini, 10, N. Pandian, seven, S. Velan, 11, N. Roja, five and N. Dineshkumar, six, posing for journalists in Ipoh Thursday.

Her guardian (note: legal or not?) Babaji Indhu Adigalar (of the Arutperum Jothi Children’s Welfare Home) said that besides Tharsini, his four other charges aged between five and 11 years were also facing the same problem.

“I have been trying to enrol them into primary schools since 2004 but the children were turned away because they do not have birth certificates,” said the 60-year-old, adding that he had documents (note: acceptable documents?) proving the children were born in Malaysia.

Speaking to reporters from their home in Buntong here yesterday, Babaji said he thought his problems were over when the ministry made the announcement.

However, the children and I were again left disappointed when the schools that I approached refused to admit them as they claimed there had been no circular on the matter.

Babaji, who sought the assistance of Perak MIC (note: Why not Pakatan?), said the five children had been abandoned by their parents.

“Because of that, I face difficulty in getting them birth certificates,” he said, adding that attempts to get in touch with the children’s next-of-kin had failed. As a result, the children have only attended kindergarten.

State MIC chairman Datuk G. Rajoo said a check with the Education Department on Monday confirmed that such a circular had not been issued. “I urge the Ministry to do so fast as the children’s future is at stake,” he added.

Issue here: Outcome of decision made in February is not available. Delay of nearly 5 months.

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Scholarship quota a problem

July 17th, 2008
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The PSD scholarship allocation ratio issue is refusing to go away. Since Nazri revealed that all this while normal Malaysian were discriminated by being given only 10% of the scholarship amount, and only this year it has been increased to 45%, the privileged people’s representatives are up in arms. They have been using the “privilege” name but only giving it to certain race while the other privileged groups (in East Malaysia) were left out. And today, MP for Putatan, Sabah threatened Nazri – telling him not to make the Sabahans angry in the Dewan Rakyat (check the Hansard later). That’s because the independent MP keeps on mentioning his race’s rights, thinking that the reduced quota affects his race, forgetting that it affect all privileged people.Even Deputy Prime Minister Najib took a populist stance and said that the quota should be reviewed.

Few days back, Dr S.Subramaniam suggested that only academic criteria is used to determine scholarship recipients. He says:

No matter how good you are at your ECA or your interview performance, you should not be eligible for a scholarship for tertiary education with low academic results

He also gave a very surprising statement – “all Indians students who score 9As and above in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia will be given government scholarships, starting this year, to pursue their studies in local government universities and four local private institutions — Monash, Swinburne, Curtin and Nottingham universities” as decided in the cabinet committee for the indian community. However, I’m unsure if he meant ALL students with 9As and just mentioned Indian students in the context. Since NST also chose to accept the statement, UMNO Youth proclaimed that all students should be given scholarships if the government sets 9As as the benchmark. They said it should not be slanted towards a particular race. Now in this instance, can we say UMNO Youth is meddling in other people’s affairs? Oh right, they’ll say it affects them as well. They can always do that, but others cannot do the same. That’s fairness and justice for you.

If the government wants to use 9As as the main academic requirement, then make sure it applies to all races

UMNO Youth is worried that if given to all races based on 9As cutoff, it will affect government finances. But that’s the point, government only giving to Indians! Ahmad Ikmal of the UMNO youth further disagrees with Dr S.Subramaniam’s idea of using academic results, by suggesting that Public Service Department should also consider the family background and geographical factors. He also suggested that the top 50 SPM achievers be automatically awarded government scholarships to pursue a course of their choice to ensure that the best brains in the country were rewarded.

Well, when it comes to education, MCA will also wants to have its say. According to MCA Youth education bureau chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, who is also Deputy Education Minister, the decision to give scholarships for those who score 9As and above in their SPM applies to all!

This is blanket approval given by the government to recognise the students’ hard work

Alamak, that means someone misunderstood what Najib said in the cabinet committee or purposely misleading the Indian community. Third possibility – media misquoted! 🙂

Amidst all this, today Nazri announced in Parliament that government will set up a specific scholarship programme under the Public Service Department (JPA) for students who achieve exceptional results in their SPM examination for exceptional students regardless of race, religion or social standing. This was after being bamboozled from all corners due to the scholarship quota.

This is different from the normal scholarship programme, which is given out based on a quota system between bumiputra and non-bumiputra students

He said for example the cutoff results can be 15A1s.

He had a hard time defending the quota for this year (55:45) which according to him was based on racial composition of the country, examination results and family financial background. However, one of MPs said that EPU statistics indicate privileged are 62.1 percent while normal Malaysians are 30-something percent. Balance is “others”.

Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman said the ratio was a populist decision as it did not reflect the racial composition and could threaten the interest of the Malays and Bumiputeras while Pontian MP Ahmad Maslan said the PSD scholarship should not be awarded to students from rich families as the parents could afford to finance their children’s education. On the contrary, he said outstanding students from poor families especially those from the rural areas should be given more attention while the conditions loosened for them.

Nazri assured the MPs that Malay and Bumiputera students would account for at least 50 per cent of the scholarship recipients. Says Nazri:

We are not taking a populist stance but wanted to be fair when comes to performance as this cannot be compromised.

So, what would be the fate of the scholarship ratio? Expand the number of scholarships? Reduce the quota for normal Malaysians? Keep quiet until next year? Change the criteria to add location or other parameters?

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