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MAS, AirAsia all set to ink partnership deal Posted: 06 Aug 2011 11:02 AM PDT 2011/08/06 By Shahriman Johari, Azura Abas and Masami Mustaza news@nst.com.my KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines is set to partner Asia's largest budget carrier, AirAsia, in a deal that would allow the Malaysian air carriers to better compete against regional rivals, particularly Singapore Airlines. The announcement is likely to be made by the government this week, by Wednesday at the latest, said a source close to the deal. "It's a done deal and it would mean we could compete better," he added. The Edge business weekly magazine, which also quoted unnamed sources, said the two could form a "working partnership". This would involve Khazanah Nasional Bhd having stakes in both MAS and AirAsia's major shareholder, Tune Air Sdn Bhd. Khazanah Nasional Bhd declined to comment. With the possible partnership between MAS and AirAsia, the combined fleet size will be 179 aircraft. According to the data in planspotter.net, MAS has 96 aircraft, 18 under FireFly while AirAsia has 54 and AirAsia X operates 11 aircraft. Singapore Airlines has 106 aircraft. More destinations will also be covered should MAS and AirAsia pool their resources. To date, MAS flies to 88 destinations and AirAsia to 74 cities. Singapore Airlines, however, operates passenger services to more than 60 cities in more than 80 countries. It is learnt that MAS will swap shares with AirAsia in a move that could see AirAsia chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes getting a 20 per cent stake in the national carrier. This will allow both Malaysian carriers to rationalise their fleet frequencies and destinations within the country and abroad while ensuring MAS returns to becoming a premier airline. About a month ago, MAS surprised the market when it reported a first-quarter operating loss of RM267 million. This had led many analysts to forecast a net loss for the airline in the current financial year. MAS also hired Tan Sri Md Nor Yusof as its new chairman from Aug 1 this year. He was picked to be the airline's managing director in 2001 when it was near collapse and helped to push through a massive revamp to put the airline on a stronger footing. Another major airline in the region, Cathay Pacific, has 127 aircraft and flies to more than 111 destinations worldwide. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search.

WHY THE BAD ENGLISH? Posted: 06 Aug 2011 10:25 AM PDT 2011/08/07 By Rizalman Hammim nsunt@nst.com.my Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (second from left) and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan (left) being briefed by Bukit Serampang assemblyman Tahir Taat at SMK Maokil, Labis, yesterday. With them is school principal Noor Hashimah Hassan. — Picture by Shahrul M. Zain LABIS: Are teachers incompetent, or school books unsuitable? The Education Ministry will look at these factors to determine why students continue to have a poor grasp of the English language. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also education minister, said the ministry would review the curriculum with regard to the teaching of English as well as identify the reasons behind students' poor command of the language. Muhyiddin said even after learning the language for 13 years at primary, secondary and matriculation levels, some students still could not master English. "I have no answers for this problem. I will ask the (Education) director-general to review the English curriculum to find out the reasons behind the problem. "Is it because the teachers are not competent or there are not enough teachers, or because the books are not suitable?We can't ignore this anymore." He said this during his visit to SMK Maokil here yesterday. Present were Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan, Bukit Serampang assemblyman Tahir Taat and school principal Noor Hashimah Hassan. He said many parents were worried when the ministry changed its policy from the Teaching of Mathematics and Science in English (PPSMI) to the Upholding the Malay Language, Strengthening Command of English (MBMMBI) policy. "They were concerned that English would be ignored and considered as unimportant. "This is a wrong assumption. As the education minister, I have always stressed the importance of mastering English as a second language as it is a language for international trade." He said students must be given the opportunity and exposure to speak and understand both languages. During the visit, Muhyiddin presented awards to the school's top Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia students of last year. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search.

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Completion of KKIA upgrade now expected by first quarter of 2012 Posted: 06 Aug 2011 10:56 PM PDT KOTA KINABALU: Upgrading of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) has yet again been delayed and is now expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year. Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha said the contractors were struggling to meet the various earlier deadlines, especially in the expansion of the 2,988-metre runway and taxi-ways due to several factors. "There have been many constraints for the contractors, especially in the expansion of the runway as part of it is still being used for take-off and landing of aircraft. "There is very limited time as works are mainly done after midnight when the runway is closed," he told reporters after being briefed by Malaysia Airports Berhad on the current situation of the project, here, today. Kong hoped the contractors would put in more effort, including hiring more manpower, to meet the new deadline as KKIA was receiving more demands from international airlines to fly to Kota Kinabalu. He said due to those demands, the development of the airport, which was 89.78 per cent complete as of July 31, was now in a critical situation as it had become the second busiest airport in the country after Kuala Lumpur. - Bernama Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search.

Govt aims to reduce queues at KTM Komuter lines with new trains Posted: 06 Aug 2011 10:45 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: When the newly-acquired trains from CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive from China are put into service for the KTM Komuter lines by the end of this year, the government hopes to reduce the agonising wait of more than 30 minutes among train commuters during peak hours. Commuters on the Rawang-Sungai Gadut, Batu Caves-Port Klang, Sentul-Port Klang and Batu Caves-Rawang routes will benefit from the additional capacity from the trains, technically known as electric multiple units or EMUs. The first of the 38 EMUs will arrive next month and will be tested before they are put into service. About 100,000 commuters jam KTM Komuter trains daily during weekdays to travel in about 20 sets of EMUs of three cars each available to them. From a schedule of 15-minute intervals at one time, which theoretically required at least 36 EMUs to be provided each day by Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB), this has since slowed down to 20-minute intervals or, which theoretically means 25 EMUs. But KTMB does not even have the luxury of 25 EMUs. Since September 2009, their availability has been down to around 21 EMUs daily because of broken down trains which have not been repaired from 62 EMUs at one time. On bad and unfortunate days, this can sink to a precariously low of 15 to 18 EMUs per day. Hence, delays of 40 minutes or more on certain sectors are not uncommon with KTM Komuter trains always packed like sardines during weekdays. This also amplifies the fact that there is no shortage of passengers for KTM Komuter trains in view of its relatively cheap cost as it only costs RM6 from KL Sentral to Seremban. Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha told Bernama that the government had decided to improve the situation through a number of initiatives under the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) for public transport. The NKRA initiatives were launched in July 2009 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as part of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) towards achieving Vision 2020 and improving the government's service delivery to the people. Besides improving capacity, Kong said the measures were also to raise the daily ridership to 600,000 public transport commuters in the Klang Valley by the end of 2012. This target, he said, was 2.5 times more than the current ridership, "It's a tall order for us but we are working hard to achieve our target," Kong said. The current daily ridership is about 240,000 for public transport in the Klang Valley, estimated to represent 10 to 12 per cent of the total population in the country's busiest urban centre. Kong explained that the Klang Valley's public transport services had already been filled to the brim, particularly for rail services (KTM Komuter, RapidKL, LRT and Monorail). Such a pressing situation demanded the creation of an additional capacity for 360,000 more people to migrate to public transport from private vehicles, he said. Of the potential increase, 58 per cent or 207,000 will be for rail and 42 per cent or 153,000 will be for buses. Rail will be the biggest contributor, with KTM Komuter contributing around 95,000 passengers, the Kelana Jaya LRT line 62,000 and the Ampang LRT line 33,000. The first step towards improving capacity took place at the end of 2010 when new four-car train sets were introduced on the Kelana Jaya LRT line, the most congested rail line in the Klang Valley, from the previous two-car train sets. The initiative was to secure "quick wins" for the people's benefit under the NKRA for urban public transport. - Bernama Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search.

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PM's Kluang visit: A commentary Posted: 27 Mar 2011 03:59 AM PDT 2011/03/27 By Shahrum Sayuthi news@nst.com.my I WAS quietly amused when my hometown friend Fiona reacted with much enthusiasm when I told her that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was making a stopover at her alma mater, the Chong Hwa High School, during his visit to Kluang on Saturday. She is after all a DAP supporter and had not made it a secret to me who she voted for when she had cast her vote for the first time in the 2008 general election. "Oh my God! That's so great of him!" was what she text messaged me in return before proceeding to relate how when as a student she had, along with others, lined the street leading to her school when then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad went there in 1987. "That was the last time a prime minister visited our school. I remember it was a very hot day and we were sweating, but we were all so happy that a prime minister visited our school," she added. If Fiona was at the school on Saturday, she may have thought she had been transported back in time to that day. The over 2,000 students, in their all white uniforms, were equally enthusiastic in welcoming Najib. The highlight of Najib's visit to the school was when he mentioned in his speech the government's "landmark decision" to allow Unified Examinations Certificate holders with three credits including passes in Bahasa Malaysia and English, to take part in the special intake for the Chinese language degree course to become Mandarin teachers. The students cheered as he made the announcement. "We (the government) are committed to being fair to everyone and will continue to strive for this. Dreams will not be realised until we are at peace with one another," Najib had said. My colleague Chuah Bee Kim interviewed some of the students and teachers on how they felt about Najib's visit. Seow Yu Sheng, 15, a Form Three student said it was a memorable day as it was the first time he had seen the prime minister in person. "I am happy to see him. Furthermore, he was here today to launch our school's green programme which my teachers have always promoted among us," he said. Another Form Three student, Dana Lim, 15, echoed Seow's sentiment but lamented that Najib's hour-long visit was such a brief one. "My classmates and I nonetheless feel very honoured to have the prime minister at our school," Lim said. Liong Kok Kiong, 32, a geography teacher at the school for the past six years said the announcement made by Najib regarding UEC holders was very uplifting as it was a step towards the success of the 1Malaysia policy. "I also hope that Najib's visit will encourage more English language teachers to join our school as we need more of them here," he said. Later in the night, Najib attended a "dinner with the people" function at down town Kluang which was attended by more than 10,000 people. Such was the overwhelming response given by the crowd when Najib arrived at the function that Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman had to pause several times to compose himself while delivering the welcoming speech. Expressing his pleasure, Najib in his speech, suggested that judging by the crowd's response at the function and during his walk-about in several parts in Kluang earlier in the day, Barisan Nasional may probably recapture the lost ground it suffered during the coalition's disastrous outing in the 2008 general election. He told the crowd how an old Chinese lady gave him a 51-year-old Jalur Gemilang during the walk-about. "I was so touched because she told me that it was a gift for my effort in initiating 1Malaysia," he said to thunderous applause from the crowd. The prime minister probably had in mind that Kluang, with its huge Chinese community, was the DAP's first stronghold in Johor before it was overwhelmed there by BN in the late 1970s. However, in 2008, DAP captured the Mengkibol state seat there when its Ng Lam Hua defeated Gan Ping Shou of MCA by a majority of 1,281 votes. Ng had got 13,538 votes while Gan received 12,257. When Najib announced an allocation of RM105 million for the construction of a dam in Kahang to ensure no recurrence of a water supply problem which hit Kluang during last year's Chinese New Year, I immediately sent a text message to Fiona. After all, she was the one who had pushed for me to initiate extensive news coverage about the problem in the first place. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search.

Gamis students released after statements taken Posted: 14 Mar 2011 03:24 AM PDT Gamis students released after statements taken 2010/10/31 By Aidi Amin aidiamin@nst.com.my GUA MUSANG: Police today recorded statements from four university students who were detained for several hours yesterday for allegedly distributing political pamphlets in the Galas state constituency. Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Ismail Omar said the students, aged between 18 - 25 years old were taken to the district police station and released soon after. "We are investigating if the students are from Gua Musang or outsiders," he said after a briefing at the police operations centre here. He said they would also work with the Election Commission and the students' universities during their investigations. The students are from a group, calling themselves Gabungan Mahasiswa Islam SeMalaysia (Gamis) and were allegedly distributing brochures urging the locals to exercise their democratic right to vote. A spokesman yesterday said the group represented students from various universities and had come to Galas to observe the campaign process and also explain to the people certain national issues, including the 2011 budget and how it effects them. Higher Education Minister, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the detention of the students should not be politicised as they were merely detained for not possessing a valid permit to distribute the pamphlets. "The students were not aligned to any political party and were merely there to urge the people to come out and vote. They are acting on their own and nothing to do with their respective universities. "However, I would like to advise these students to go home and concentrate on their studies instead," he said when contacted. On another issue, Ismail also said the police had to date received four reports on minor incidents involving the parties contesting the by-election here. "I urge all parties to adhere to the laws and prevent any untoward incidents," he added. Air your comment on this issue: Gamis students released after statements taken Log in with your Facebook account or use the form below to comment. New Straits Times reserves the right not to publish offensive or abusive comments and those of hate speech, harassment, commercial promos and invasion of privacy. Your IP will be logged and may be used to prevent further submission.The views expressed here are that of the members of the public and unless specifically stated are not those of NST. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search.

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Badminton: Be wary of Lin Dan's antics Posted: 06 Aug 2011 05:12 PM PDT 2011/08/07 K.M. Boopathy boopathy@nst.com.my Lee Chong Wei (left) has proved to be Lin Dan's most feared rival. NATIONAL coach Rashid Sidek believes that Lee Chong Wei will be at his best in the World Championships which begins in London tomorrow but winning the men's singles crown will depend more on the form of Lin Dan. Lin Dan, who has won everything at stake on the international stage, has been playing mind games with his opponents by withdrawing from competitions and showing a lack of motivation. "Lin Dan has been playing psychological games with his rivals and he is able to do it because he has won everything in badminton. Chong Wei has to watch out for his antics again," said Rashid. "When people think Lin Dan is the favourite, he can lose early but when he is not the favourite, he proves everyone wrong. "Nobody quite has the experience and skills to handle the pressure of a major event like Lin Dan and this makes him the most dangerous player despite the fact that he has slowed down." Chong Wei is chasing his first major title while Lin Dan is a three-time world champion. "The good thing is Chong Wei has always treated Lin Dan seriously and has avoided falling into the trap of underestimating him. "Having said that, I feel that this year's World Championships will see Chong Wei at his best since he made his debut in 2005. "We hope it would be a grand finish for Chong Wei, and hopefully Lin Dan doesn't become the spoiler again." Rashid said Chong Wei has some difficult early matches and China's Chen Long, whom the Malaysian is expected to meet in the last eight, will be formidable. It will work in Chong Wei's favour if Lin Dan falters in the last eight, where he is expected to meet Japan's Sho Sasaki. Rashid pointed out that the Olympic champion had shown his vulnerability on a few occasions. "Lin Dan also has some tough matches in the earlier rounds and if he loses, that will see a momentum shift to Chong Wei," added Rashid. "Chong Wei's toughest early round opponent is Chen Long but he has the edge." Chong Wei and his Malaysian teammates had their first training session at the Wembley Arena late yesterday and will have another session today before the competition begins tomorrow. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search.

Swimming: Cai Lin wants more Posted: 06 Aug 2011 05:10 PM PDT 2011/08/07 Ajitpal Singh ajitpalsingh@nst.com.my KHOO CAI LIN KHOO Cai Lin may have dipped under the Olympic invitational time to qualify for next year's London Games in the 800m freestyle but she has no intention of slowing down. The swimmer hopes to sizzle in the World University Games (Aug 11-22, Shenzhen) and Indonesia Sea Games (Nov 11-22). Under the new qualifying format, a swimmer has two ways to qualify for the Olympics - beat the Olympic qualifying time known as Category A or beat the "Olympic invitation time". Any swimmer who meets the much faster Olympic qualification time merits an automatic entry to London while a swimmer who beats the invitational time is also eligible for entry. But it will depend on a ranking system and a country can only have one representative in each event. Cai Lin met the invitational time at the Malaysia Open in April when she clocked 8:49.28 to dip under the invitational time of 8:51.82 in the 800m freestyle. She is, however far from satisfied and is already targeting a better performance in the world varsity meet and Sea Games. The 23-year-old was hoping to improve her time in the recent World Aquatics Championships in China but she failed miserably by clocking 8:57.17. "I felt confident in the world meet but I was overzealous. I made a mistake by being too fast at the start and thus failed to maintain my momentum," said Cai Lin during the launch of Herbalife's new product - NW Formula - at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. "I have a 50-50 chance to qualify for my second straight Olympics as I have yet to qualify under Category A (Olympic qualifying time). "I can't be satisfied because I have yet to qualify for the 400m freestyle and even in the 800m." The automatic qualifying times for the 400m and 800m are 4:09.35 and 8:33.84 respectively. On her target at the World University Games, the Selangor-born swimmer said she hopes for a respectable performance. "I went straight into the pool after returning from China. Training has been intense and tiring," added Cai Lin. The qualifying period for the Olympics ends next June. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search.

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UDA Holdings acting managing director dies Posted: 30 Jul 2011 11:27 PM PDT [unable to retrieve full-text content]UDA Holdings Bhd acting managing director Muhammad Radzi Mohd Basar, 53, died at a hotel in Kuantan about 6am today.

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