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Taxi drivers want government to address their problems

Posted: 13 Aug 2011 11:10 PM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Taxi Drivers Welfare Association today appealed to the government and the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) to look into their plight.

Its chairman, M. Manickam, said the association had submitted seven demands
to the government and SPAD, but had yet to get any response from them.

"Today, we are sending a memorandum, containing the seven demands, to the
government," he told Bernama here. Also present was People's Progressive Party (PPP) Information chief Datuk A. Chandrakumaran.

The demands contained in the memorandum included insurance scheme, the
Social Security organisation (Socso) and Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for taxi
drivers, special schemes to make it easier for taxi drivers to apply for housing

and personal loans, and a guideline on the daily permit payment by taxi drivers
to taxi companies.

Manickam said the absence of a guideline on the daily permit payment had
resulted in the taxi drivers paying more than what they earned. "The taxi drivers have to pay between RM19 and RM24 in daily permit payment to taxi companies, despite earning only between RM80 and RM100 a day and the company having to renew the permit once in seven years for only RM120," he added.

He said they want the daily permit payment for taxi drivers to be set at
RM10. The association, established in 2006, now has 120 members. -- Bernama

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Matta fair packs in the crowds

Posted: 13 Aug 2011 10:28 PM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: The three-day fair of the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) is packing in the crowds.

The fair, which began on Friday at the Putra World Trade Centre, registered
some 19,000 visitors on Friday and 29,800 visitors yesterday. Some 940 booths are offering promotional holiday packages in the country and abroad.

Several people interviewed said they were looking for attractive domestic
holiday packages. One of them is Juwana Mohamad Shakroni, 25, from Cheras. She said she and her husband were nature lovers and planned to take up a good offer to go to Teluk Batik in Perak.

A 25-year-old university student from Seri Kembangan, who wished to be
identified only as Muiz, said he wanted to buy a holiday package to Kota
Kinabalu for RM500. "I plan to go on the holiday with a friend," he said.


Pakistani national Aman Khan, 22, said he had come to the fair to buy a
holiday package to Sipadan Island off Sabah. A teacher from Klang, Ranjiv Ram, 31, was there to get a travel package to Perhentian Island which he said he wanted to visit with his wife on their third wedding anniversary.

Kavita, 28, from Petaling Jaya, said she was looking for a holiday package
to Sabah or Sarawak during the next school holidays.


"I am looking forward to enjoying the natural beauty as well as the seafood
there," she said.

Matta had set a RM100-million sales target for the fair. Its organising chairman John Tan had said that he expected 80,000 visitors at the event, surpassing the 76,300 visitors at the September fair last year which chalked up sales worth RM88 million. -- Bernama

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Price control scheme to deter unscrupulous traders

Posted: 13 Aug 2011 08:18 PM PDT

SEBUYAU: Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is to identify about 20 goods under the Aidilfitri festive season price control scheme he will launch on Tuesday.

Deputy Minister Datuk Rohani Karim said today the scheme would deter
unscrupulous traders from raising the prices of these goods which had a higher
demand during the festive period.


She did not name the goods but it is believed that they include chicken,
local and imported beef, eggs and red chilli.


The price control scheme would be in force for a week before Aidilfitri,
which is expected to fall on Aug 30, and a week after the festival, she told

Bernama.

The ministry launches the festive season price control scheme during the
period before and after all the major festivals.

Rohani, who is the MP for Batang Lupar, had earlier handed out "duit raya"

(Aidilfitri cash donations) of about RM15,000 from Bank Rakyat's business tithes
to about 100 villagers as well as mosques and suraus in Sebuyau. -- Bernama

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MAKE ENGLISH FUN

Posted: 13 Aug 2011 06:33 PM PDT

2011/08/14
By Satiman Jamin and Munifah Alwi
nsunt@nst.com.my

Questions have been raised about the weakness in the English language among
Malaysian students. Could it be low quality textbooks? Teachers who lack ability? Or even a lack of teachers?

Perhaps we should ask some American Fulbright scholars who are raising the bar in English among secondary school students in Malaysia.


By making lessons more approachable with fun activities, they could be showing the way to stop the continuing rot in English among students.

b>KUALA TERENGGANU: Strictly speaking, the 17 American Fulbright scholars posted in Terengganu secondary schools as English Teaching Assistants(ETA) are not qualified teachers.
Yet, they have been successful in improving the students' grasp of English, making even the most shy student to work up the courage to address a native speaker of the language.

The New Sunday Times went into their classrooms to observe them in action and discovered that, instead of sophisticated pedagogical approaches, the ETAs have been successful without even a syllabus.

So what is the secret of their success?


For Sekolah Menengah Agama (Atas) Zainal Abidin (SMAAZA) ETA Dakari Saeed Taylor-Watson, 24, it was as simple as engaging the students in two-way communication.

The textbook and learning by rote normally used in our schools are replaced by discussions and games.
"At first, the students were shy and unable to speak in English as their confidence level was low," he said.

However, after the first few students spoke, the others saw that the American really wanted to hear their opinion and before long, everyone was clamouring for a chance to voice his or her opinion.

Taylor-Watson made no bones about his lack of teaching qualification.

"Although I don't have any teaching experience and proper training as a teacher, I am trying hard to make learning the language a fun experience."

He said the students' communication skills had improved a lot since he started eight months ago. The students concur with him.

SMAAZA Form Two student Muhammad Naim Fadhilah Kamaruddin, 14, said he understood Taylor-Watson's lessons well.

"He speaks in simple English to help us understand," he said, adding that the games helped him improve his writing skills.

Nurul Anisah Mohd Zaki, 14, said the fun way the language was taught made everyone want to take part in class activities.

"The charades game that we played in class today improved our vocabulary as a friend was given an English word and we had to guess what the word was from his actions."

Local teacher Anita Chik said the students' grasp of the language had improved by leaps and bounds.

"The teaching techniques used by Taylor-Watson are really effective as my students' English exam results have improved since he came here,"

At Sekolah Menengah Agama Khairiah (SMAK) Lynn El Harake, 23, took the same approach.

"I am focusing more on their ability to speak and listen in English as the other teachers are focusing on the students' writing skills.

"In my opinion, the students generally can write well but they are lacking in their ability to listen and speak in English," she said.

To make the lessons fun, El Harake staged a fashion show in June, showcasing Islamic fashion that was modelled by her students, to an audience including students from other schools.

"It is a mutual learning experience because the ETAs are also learning new things from the students."

SMAK student Nor Mardhiyyah Azman, 15, said she felt no pressure at all in El Harake's class.

"If the discussion topic is too difficult for us, she will change it to an easier topic. We are also at ease as we can always speak our mind in class," she added.

The pressure, or rather the lack of it, could also be a factor in the ETAs' ability to capture the students' interest as local teachers have to keep to a tight schedule to finish the syllabus.

The local teachers' race against time was noticed by Nabihah Mohamed Hanafi, 15, who said it was probably the reason why local English teachers could not emulate El Harake's style of making the lessons more exciting.

"The other teachers will usually read from the textbooks and base the lessons on textbook chapters. They also teach at a faster pace as they need to finish the syllabus by the end of the year," she said.

The difference in focus between local teachers and the ETAs, as El Harake pointed out, could be the key to unlocking the secret of the Fulbright scholar programme's success.

About 40km away, SM Tengku Ampuan Intan (SMTAI) ETA Blair Daly, has taken the lessons out of the classroom and into the playing field.

Rather than restricting English to the classroom, the 25-year-old has made it into a living language to be used in the students' daily activities.

Daly sent out his students as cub reporters to find out the origin of their village names.

He was inspired by the "Places" column in the New Sunday Times and told his students to follow its format in writing the stories about their villages.

"To make it more fun, I made it into a competition so that the best stories would be put up in the school hall during English week," he said.

His effort was given a boost by the New Sunday Times when the winning story was published in the "Places" column.

"The students were very happy to see their names and stories in print. It made them feel like real reporters."

He got his students to push the envelope by taking them through a journey of discovery.

SMTAI students have never had a baseball team before but under Daly's guidance, the school now has one and they even went neck and neck with last year's district champions, emerging as first runner-up.

"Although we came in at second place, the students are very proud. They were the underdogs by a huge margin," he said.

At first glance, their second place medal was the only thing that the students got from playing baseball but in reality, they achieved something far more precious -- the whole team communicated in English with Daly throughout their entire baseball adventure.

The ETAs' "back to basics" approach in teaching the language shows that English is best learnt when students use it to communicate in daily life.

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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.

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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.

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Gamis students released after statements taken

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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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