Malaysia LAH

Malaysia LAH 3



Friday 15 April 2016

GST proves to be unpopular topic at Workers’ Day gathering in Kuching 2015

GST proves to be unpopular topic at Workers’ Day gathering in Kuching 2015


BY SULOK TAWIE

KUCHING, May 1 — At a national-level Workers’ Day gathering here, the prime minister got a first-hand feel of how unpopular the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak was booed when he touched briefly on the GST when addressing the crowd at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) today.

  “The GST is for the good of the country’s development,” he said. This was immediately greeted by boos from some workers in the back of the hall.
Unperturbed, Najib carried on with his speech.
“We have no intention to burden the people. We are always looking at ways and means to help them,” he said, adding the government would take care of the welfare of the workers in the country accordingly.
“If our country is getting wealthy and our national income increases, we want all workers to benefit.
“Without the role played by the workers, our country will not succeed or become more wealthy,” he said.
Asked to comment on the behaviour of the workers later, Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot said, “The word GST, I think, is very unpopular with the people, but the blame must be on the traders for the rise in prices of many goods.”
He said over 2,000 goods are not covered by GST, but the traders charged six per cent GST across the board on all goods.
“My point is that GST is a good policy, but the traders are manipulating it to make more profit, even on goods which are not covered by GST,” he said.
He felt that the government, especially the Customs Department, needs to explain more on the implementation of GST.

“But then again, no amount of explanation will be enough as long as the traders continue to manipulate GST to make more profits,” he said.
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/gst-proves-to-be-unpopular-topic-at-workers-day-gathering-in-kuching

Sunday 14 February 2016

Najib Razak Worst Finance Minister in Asia This Year

Najib Razak Worst Finance Minister in Asia This Year

http://thecoverage.my/news/najib-razak-is-the-worst-finance-minister-in-asia-this-year/

Tuesday 29 September 2015

Reject seeds of bigotry, extremism

KUDOS to Farah Ann Abdul Hadi for the gold medal she contributed to the SEA Games national team. Clearly, she practised hard, and put herself through gruelling training and a disciplined regime to be able to deliver such a stellar performance in the competition.

Therefore, negative comments from some quarters focusing on the “decency” of her outfit are lame and unnecessary.

 Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin probably put it aptly when he responded by saying that we were not in a position to judge anyone from the Almighty’s perspective. It is a shame that such bigotry exists among some Malaysian Muslims.

What Islam teaches about preaching and spreading Islam is totally the opposite of how some Muslims feel compelled to spread the true message today. Islam promotes external and internal peace of one’s being with the Almighty.

It is about seeking the truth of our purpose and existence in this world and the hereafter. It is not a religion where one imposes one’s beliefs onto another human being. Prophet Muhammad, in conveying the one message of Islam, never demonstrated that ridicule or humiliation would endear Islam to non-believers. His approach was through the example of his impeccable values, such as honesty, compassion, understanding, humility, moderation and total surrender to the One Creator.

 This is the true way of how Islam managed to be propagated and adopted by billions of people on this planet beginning from one person, who was illiterate but had the best of behaviour and conduct as a human being.

Unfortunately, some Muslims, perhaps in their zeal to prove to others their level of piousness, or whatever other reasons, have forgotten the values taught by the Prophet. In their unthinking haste, what they achieve is portraying a skewed view of Islam.

 Is it any wonder then that Islam is associated with violence, rigidity and unreasonableness by some non-Muslims?

 Incidents, such as the “wearing sarong rule” in the Road Transport Department and comments towards Farah Ann, should be rebutted strongly and not repeated. While these may be isolated cases, it does reflect the seeds of extremism and bigotry taking root in our Muslim society’s psyche.

This must be eliminated altogether over time. Allowing such extremist attitudes to foster will only breed narrow mindedness and bigotry in society. Malaysian Muslims are better than this.

They should strive to be an example of moderation, compassion and reasonableness, rather than narrow mindedness and hastiness.

 Sugiman Sabri,Kulim, Kedah

Farah Ann Abdul Hadi

Farah Ann Abdul Hadi shows off the medals she won at the Women’s Gymnastic Artistic Apparatus event at SEA Games 2015 in Singapore.

Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/reject-seeds-bigotry-extremism
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/reject-seeds-bigotry-extremism

Khir Toyo gets 12-month prison sentence


Khir Toyo gets 12-month prison sentence


1.9K2923
Hafiz Yatim

 
The Federal Court has sentenced former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo to one year in jail after dismissing his appeal against his graft conviction last week. 
 
 

Khir Toyo apologises but maintains he is innocent of corruption

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/khir-toyo-apologises-but-maintains-he-is-innocent-of-corruption#sthash.o1keOcKr.dpuf
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/313880

Khir Toyo apologises but maintains he is innocent of corruption - See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/khir-toyo-apologises-but-maintains-he-is-innocent-of-corruption#sthash.o1keOcKr.dpuf

Saturday 18 April 2015

Bullying in Malaysian schools

Acts of bullying is still increasing in the Asian world; it is taking its place through different countries with Malaysia being one of them. With referring to any act that cause any person harm or leaves the person feeling powerless with no ability to defend himself, Malaysia is taking its researches to a higher level in order to fight the bullying acts. Having a high percentage of kids being bullied at schools that reached 64%, Malaysia is trying to prevent bullying with its different shapes and types whether direct bullyingindirect bullying or cyber bullying. Learn about Bullying in Malaysia. 

Bullying in Malaysian schools:

Supposedly schools should be the place where the children have their best memories, start making their lifetime friends, and start interacting and having their places in the world. The school’s life asks for a wide social interaction, but that does not happen in the cases of bullying that takes place in the schools. The schools that bullying appears in usually shatters all the previous dreams of having a good memories and good friends for the child, because it will be replaced with acts of hatred, acts of leaving the child powerless,  with no friends to sit with, talk with or even have fun with.
Unfortunately the school bullying phenomenon in Malaysia is increasing; the act of bullying is defined to as any ill behavior that is repeated by one student or a group of students towards another, leaving that person helpless. The school bullying also takes different forms, it can be verbal such as calling names, or gossiping about the victim, it can be physical such as hitting, spitting, or shoving, and it can be cyber bullying which takes place through the technological devices.
Bullying in Malaysian schools, like any other country happens the most, it takes place anywhere in the school, and comes in different shapes and forms like for example the name calling, labeling or teasing which some consider more painful than the physical punches because they get hurt from the inside, they will keep remembering what they have been called for a long period of time. The name calling and the teasing usually happen by the children because they know they will never get caught as they didn’t leave any scar behind and they tend to do it when the teachers or parents are not around. There is also the exclusion which makes the victim feels so much alone, so much not likable and so much not needed around, and this usually affects him/her afterwards, as they feel like they don’t want to be around people anymore.
Threatening is one famous type of bullying because it can be verbal or written or it can be send as an audio or video through the internet, which might be part of the cyber bullying as well. And there is the physical bullying which include any act that will cause physical apparent harms on the victim like bruises, torn out clothes and appearances of blood.
According to a study that was done on the schools in Malaysia, it was found that 93.5% of the students in secondary schools were being bullied at indirectly, while 68.2% admitted that they were being bullied at directly, and all of them agreed that most of the bullying acts that happen in the schools take place in the classrooms, and the boys being more involved in these acts more than the girls are. The same study showed that 53.2% were being involved in the bullying acts themselves, while 79.4% were being victims of those acts, some of them were being bullied in a physical way while others were being bullied at in a psychological way.
The problem with the students who bully other people is that they believe to have above average self esteem which leads them to adopt such behaviors, other characteristics of the bullies might include:
  • Impulsive, hot headed personalities
  • Lack of empathy
  • Difficulty in conforming to rules
  • Positive attitude towards violence, which is the most dangerous one of them and mainly leads to that person bullying others.
The victim of such acts also appears to have some effects from bullying acts:
  • Loss of interest to go and attend school classes, and that might be some kind of fear from going to school and facing the person bullying him. And that leads to drop of this person attending school and therefore drop in the grades.
  • Loss of interest in the social life, or in making new friends, that person might lose interest in leaving his/her alone comfort zone at all.
  • The person’s inability to control his anger.
  • Entering the phase of depression
  • The victim might also suffer from loss of sleep, poor appetite, and suffering from headaches and stomach pains.
  • In case of the victim being engaged in the physical bullying acts, there might be an appearance for bruises or scratches.
According to a research that was done by the UNICEF communications in Malaysia, it was found that not only the bully and the victim suffer from such acts, but sometimes in the cases of the appearance of a witness, it might affect them as well, and might lead to:
  • Their feeling of being helpless because they don’t know what to do or how to react to what is happening in front of them.
  • They might feel guilty for not taking an action or trying to help in some way.
  • They might feel that they are the bully’s next target, and some might even have nightmares about it.
  • The witnesses might fear some specific places in schools that they witnesses bullying acts in before.

Preventing school bullying in Malaysia:

Bullying whether it was verbal, physical or cyber, it usually leads to depression, low self of esteem, fear of going to school or knowing new people, and worse the fear of interacting with people and engaging in the social life. But what’s worse than that is the time when the victim thinks that the only way to stop being bullied at is to end their lives, to commit suicide. To avoid such act, students should be open to learn and that only comes in a community that makes the child feel safe and comfortable physically, emotionally and intellectually. When the student feels safe he will open up easily to learning and discovering, to interacting with his peers and teachers, and to sharing his opinions and stories.
The UNICEF communications in Malaysia is working hard against the acts of bullying in schools, and one of the things it did was piloting the School Bullying Prevention Program that increase the school safety, in partnership with HELP university college and the Ministry of Education. This program is a six months long that was implemented in three schools in the Klang Valley, the program was supposed to put some policies and activities that will help the students to respond and prevent bullying acts, as well as teaching them some life skills to keep them more confident in dealing with aggression. This model was based on the Olweus School Intervention Modelthat has been successfully introduced in different parts of the world, which meets the following needs:
  • Timely and effective interventions of victims of bully incidences.
  • Implementing anti-bullying programs in schools.
  • Teaching students and making them fully aware that bullying is not at all an act that is acceptable and permissible.
  • Training not only students but teachers and parents as well to know what the bullying behavior exactly is and how should they deal with it.
  • Give the children, teachers and parents some accurate information about what bullying is, it’s factors and effects, how it should be treated and prevented.
UNICEF believes that as much as schools are important in building a society for the children where they feel safe and confident and reduce their likelihood of being victimized by the bullies, it also believes that the family member have a more critical role.

Cyber bullying in Malaysia:

It is agreed on that cyber bullying is the most dangerous kind of bullying which in some countries come after the schools, as it can take place any time during the day, it can even reach a person in the killing dark of the night, it does not require the appearance of the victim. Cyber bullying is referred to as using the internet or any other technological devices such as mobile phones to send harmful and aggressive messages through e-mails, text messages or social media, leaving the victim feeling harmful and powerless. Malaysia is ranked the seventeenth highest in the online bullying with one in four of the children saying that they have suffered from cyber bullying, and 77% of them agreed that cyber bullying is one of the newest ways the bullies use to target their victims. People should distinguish between cyber bullying which is usually happening between children and youth andcyber harassment and stalking which is usually done among adults.
Cyber bullying does come in different forms, such as:
  • Unwelcomed text messages that can be threatening for the person.
  • Sending e-mails and the bully usually changes his real name on the internet to stay anonymous for the victim.
  • Using social media to share the victim’s pictures and information.
  • Using mobile phones to record or take videos for the victims and share them to make them feel ashamed and uncomfortable
Since Malaysia believes that cyber bullying was increasing due to the preponderance of the youth who share their personal information and passwords on the social media networking websites, as Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah said. He also mentioned that Cyber Security Malaysia had introduced various measures to raise awareness on cyber bullying among internet users especially student, such as organizing the Safer Internet day since 2010 in order to teach the students how to use the online technology in a more responsible way.

Workplace bullying in Malaysia:

Malaysia believes that some acts is not considered bullying and might be part of the working culture if it was not considered unacceptable by the employee, but if it was against the employer’s rights, then in this case it is considered an act of bullying. Halim Mansour, the Malaysian Trade Union Congress general secretary says that nowadays the kind of workplace bullying is different from the one found in schools, it is when the employers are not given proper protection, not enrolled to social security (SOCSO) and Employee Provident Fund (EPF), and face sexual harassment acts and violence of their basic rights as per the Malaysian Employment Act.
The problem with the workplace bullying is that most of the employers do not know their total rights, therefore they don’t know when they are being bullied, and that is one reason why every company should write down its program to introduce its rules and regulations, working culture, benefits and rights for its employees.

Bullying stories in Malaysia:

One of the bullying stories in Malaysia actually took place in work, when the brand manager Adilah, who was 28 years old, was sexually harassed by her boss who was usually giving her comments about her body, and asking her to drive him home several times with inviting her to come up to his apartment when he was all alone. This goes against Adilah’s religion since she is Muslim. Adilah left her work soon after she was again asked to share a room with two males on a business trip.
Another story that was the reason behind the emergence of the internet is the case of the school girl who was being attacked by about 10 girls who started kicking her on the staircase after they were playing with their mobiles having “selfies” and even posing with flashing the “peace signs” in front of the camera. The girls were dragging the victim, kicking her and pulling her hair, that even the girl appeared in the video trying to protect her face from their punches. The police were investigating the accident afterwards to know what happened and the reasons behind such incident.

Tuesday 6 January 2015

4 wanted for spreading false news on floods

4 wanted for spreading false news on floods

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is looking for four individuals to assist in its investigation into the spreading of false news on the east coast floods through social media and messaging apps.
This comes following the rampant spread of false news, including claims that a Manek Urai school used as a relief centre had collapsed, claiming many lives.
Police have since denied the incident and another claim that 40 patients in Kuala Krai Hospital had died because of a lack of oxygen supply following the floods.
The individuals – three women and a man – have been asked to give their statements to the authorities immediately.
They are:
1.       Norizan Osman (660113-03-5810). Last known address: A-1-6 Desa Bangsawan Jln 27/117A, Off Jln Budiman, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras 56000 Kuala Lumpur.
2.       Siti Hawa Mat Yunan (940125-03-5320). Last known address: Kg Seneng Jelawat, Bachok 16370 Kelantan.
3.       Nik Hasnan Izani Husain (750923-03-6275). Last known address: Kampung Bukit Mas, Tanah Merah 17500 Kelantan.
4.       Raja Rubiah Raja Abu Bakar (600106-01-5286). Last known address: No. 21, Jalan Jaya 1, Taman Jaya, Bandar Tun Razak, 56000 Kuala Lumpur.
Those with information should contact MCMC investigation officer Mohamad Syukri Jamaluddin (019-2869515) or Rafina Mimi Muhammad (019-2869471). – December 30, 2014.
- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/4-wanted-for-spreading-false-news-on-floods#sthash.1omGiC85.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/4-wanted-for-spreading-false-news-on-floods#sthash.1omGiC85.dpuf

Tuesday 30 December 2014

NSC handling of flood criticism shows denial syndrome, says DAP

NSC handling of flood criticism shows denial syndrome, says DAP

The National Security Council's (NSC) response to public criticism about how the federal government had handled the flood disaster epitomises Putrajaya’s denial syndrome, said DAP.
Its national publicity secretary Tony Pua said the NSC had also raised more questions than answers when it defended the government against the criticism.
"I cannot help but feel both vindicated and mildly amused with the strident response the NSC issued to rebut criticisms against its poor management and preparation against the country’s current flood disaster.

They even took the trouble to name me four times in the lengthy reply, accusing critics of 'making their remarks from the bench' who 'are full of pomp'," he said in a statement today.
Pua, who is also Petaling Jaya Utara MP, said he could respond to the NSC rant, paragraph by paragraph, but he would only focus on the two key points in the response issued two days ago.
The first was the NSC's inability to take criticism, Pua said, as if it could do no wrong and no one else, even an MP, should comment on it if they were not involved in the government's disaster management operations.
"The NSC cannot be more wrong. While the public are not directly involved in NSC operations, it is certainly our duty to highlight these issues if the NSC does a terrible job.
"We highlight the issues not for the sake of embarrassing the NSC and the government, but to tell those in power that they can  right those mistakes, buck up and mitigate the problems faced by the people," he said.
Pua also said he did not quote rumours in the social media when he criticised authorities over their response to the floods.
"The NSC accused me of making wild allegations by quoting unfounded rumours in the social media, saying that it felt especially sorry that a public figure like Tony Pua would stoop to quoting information from an unreliable source to lambast the government, particularly towards the NSC.
"I reviewed my two prior press statements again and I did not find myself quoting any such rumours.  Instead, I quoted Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, who is also Kelantan Umno chief," he said.
Pua agreed that there would often be unpredictable challenges in managing disasters, but NSC had failed to demonstrate any urgency in its leadership as a “commander” and was "terribly slow in responding to the rapidly escalating crisis."
Secondly, he said the complete lack of preparedness and urgency to deal with the crisis was exposed by NSC’s own statement.
"It appears that NSC was only interested in taking a leaf of the Prime Minister (Datuk Ser Najib Razak) to imply a threat of 'libel' against me."
The NSC in its statement suggested that Pua could face a libel suit for claiming that Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had only met the NSC on December 27, 2014 to deal with the flood situation; and that no prior meetings were held.
It said several meetings had been held prior to the beginning of the monsoon season, with the first meeting chaired by Muhyiddin on January 3 this year.
A second meeting was chaired by Minister at the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim on October 13 this year, and a third  at the working level on the same day, chaired by the NSC secretary.
Pua noted that the meeting chaired by Muhyiddin on January 3 was nearly one year ago, and suggested that it could have been to discuss the floods in December of the previous year instead of preparing for the coming one.
"The fact that the NSC admitted that there was only an additional two meetings held on October 13 this year since a year ago only proved that the NSC clearly did not put great importance or emphasis on managing the annual flood crisis.
"The severity of this year’s flood only starkly exposed NSC’s lackadaisal preparations and caught the Najib administration with its pants down," he said.
Pua said NSC's own statement proved the need for a detailed public post-mortem once the current crisis is dealt with.
"It is hence important for us to support both the call by my colleagues, (Seremban MP) Anthony Loke and (Gelang Patah MP) Lim Kit Siang, for a emergency parliamentary sitting to debate the crisis and to set up an independent Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate into the cause and management of the worst natural disaster to hit Malaysia in recent years," he said.
In a statement to defend the federal government from critics, the NSC said the floods which led to the displacement of over 200,000 people in the East Coast states were "abnormal" and were causing major obstacles and problems to the relief efforts by the government.
NSC also said it was disturbed by the allegations made over social media and in web portals, including a commentary published by The Malaysian Insider; and described such criticism as being politically motivated.
Malaysia is dealing with one of its worst floods in history. Almost a quarter of a million people have reportedly been displaced in several states, namely Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Perak. – December 31, 2014.