The following is the latest news from Associated Press on the Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar last saturday.
Myanmar cyclone death toll soars past 22,000: state radio
1 hour ago
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar state radio says the cyclone death toll has soared above 22,000 and more than 41,000 others are missing.
Up to 1 million people may be homeless after Cyclone Nargis and some villages have been almost totally eradicated, according to the World Food Program.
Cyclone Nargis tore through the country's heartland and largest city, Yangon, early Saturday.
Aid agencies reported their assessment teams had reached some areas of the largely isolated region. But they said getting in supplies and large numbers of aid workers would be difficult.
***********************************************************************************
Are we going to do something to help out the people of Myanmar? After losing their homes; food, personal effects and medicines will be scarce and outbreak of disease will be looming. Some friends in the Buddhist circles are already in the move to get going some sort of relief to help the cyclone victims.
Do whatever you can. Ask your Dharma centres to have donation drive to collect funds for the victims. Will keep you all posted once I got the necessary information on the modus operandi to sent the funds/medicine/food/etc to Myanmar.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Economy or Business, ETA the same!
The blogsphere was abuzzed with the story of Penang CM Lim Guan Eng flying on economy class. Maybe it was not Guan Eng's publicity stunt, but maybe there are other elected officials who flies economy class but were not photographed by anyone?
On a flight related matter, sometime ago I happened to travel in a same flight with a deputy Minister. It is nothing unusual on bumping onto a deputy Minister in a flight but the flight was on AirAsia. Out of curiousity I asked him why he travels on a low cost carrier when the government can pay for his full fare flight on MAS?
It was his party election campaigning season and he explained that it was due to timing as he had to campaign in different places on the same day. Furthermore, the fare is from his own pocket. At least he knows party campaigning is not government official duties! Later, during queueing for boarding I was surprised when his personal assistant make a request to the air stewardess for his boss to jump queue and boarded first!
There was no express boarding that time and I think maybe similiar incidences gave Tony Fernandes the idea for the AirAsia Xpress Boarding for those prepared to pay extra RM20 two-way to board the aircraft first!
On a flight related matter, sometime ago I happened to travel in a same flight with a deputy Minister. It is nothing unusual on bumping onto a deputy Minister in a flight but the flight was on AirAsia. Out of curiousity I asked him why he travels on a low cost carrier when the government can pay for his full fare flight on MAS?
It was his party election campaigning season and he explained that it was due to timing as he had to campaign in different places on the same day. Furthermore, the fare is from his own pocket. At least he knows party campaigning is not government official duties! Later, during queueing for boarding I was surprised when his personal assistant make a request to the air stewardess for his boss to jump queue and boarded first!
There was no express boarding that time and I think maybe similiar incidences gave Tony Fernandes the idea for the AirAsia Xpress Boarding for those prepared to pay extra RM20 two-way to board the aircraft first!
Chinese and Tamil primary schools exclusive?
Minister of Education Hishammuddin was reported as saying that the current 10% quota for non-bumiputras students in government fully residential schools will not be increased. He justified this by saying that it is difficult to have a formula that can please everyone. He added if this matter is raised, people will also asked about the exclusivity of the religious schools, Chinese (SJKC) and Tamil(SJKT) national type primary schools.
I am not sure what the minister meant by exclusivity but I do know that the Chinese and Tamil primary schools welcomes anyone who wants to enrol their children in these schools. The exclusivity that I know of is that parents of Chinese primary schools have the "privilege" to contribute continuously to the financial needs of these SJKCs. I wonder if parents of Mara Junior College need to provide financial support to their children's respective government fully aided residential schools to upkeep the building and facilities in the schools?
To raise an irrelevant link between fully residential schools and the SJKCs and SJKTs based on presumption that "people" will make an issue out of this exclusivity, maybe is only in the mind of the Education minister himself. So, please address the issue directly and don't dragged innocent people to your shallow arguments!
If you are serious in creating a harmonious society amongst the Malaysian childrens, do the real thing by opening the enrolment of all government residential schools to all based on merits, just like the public universities.
I am not sure what the minister meant by exclusivity but I do know that the Chinese and Tamil primary schools welcomes anyone who wants to enrol their children in these schools. The exclusivity that I know of is that parents of Chinese primary schools have the "privilege" to contribute continuously to the financial needs of these SJKCs. I wonder if parents of Mara Junior College need to provide financial support to their children's respective government fully aided residential schools to upkeep the building and facilities in the schools?
To raise an irrelevant link between fully residential schools and the SJKCs and SJKTs based on presumption that "people" will make an issue out of this exclusivity, maybe is only in the mind of the Education minister himself. So, please address the issue directly and don't dragged innocent people to your shallow arguments!
If you are serious in creating a harmonious society amongst the Malaysian childrens, do the real thing by opening the enrolment of all government residential schools to all based on merits, just like the public universities.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Clown Around at Your Own Perils
The Cabinet decided to continue having live telecast of parliamentary sessions even though the antics and "performance" of some of MP during the initial live show last Wednesday prompted some, the PM included, asking the live telecast to be cancelled.
My take is, disregarding the live telecast or not, those antics and clowning around by some MPs are not the first time and I doubt it will be the last. It's a matter of who will be the star clown during the particular session. Although many are pointing to the Opposition MPs as the main players on last Wednesday's show with Kinabatangan MP Bung Mokhtar as the BN striker, many TV audiences I assumed, misses the antics of former BN MPs Badrulruddin of Jerai and Raja Ahmad from Perak.
Saying that the MPs are taking the opportunity to play to the gallery during the live telecast are not totally correct.It can be observed that quite a number of policitians survived their lack of wisdom, intellectuality and well research arguments by playing to the gallery most of time, not only during parliamentary or state assembly sessions but also their meeting with the media, with their constituents or political parties!
The live telecast of parliamentary sessions not only should be continued for 30 minutes each day but should cover throughtout the parliamentary sessions. Lets see if those publicity seekers verbal and physical antics can outlasts the technical strength of RTM broadcasting department. If an MP do not put in extra efforts to undertake well documented research to support with facts and figures to back up their debates in parliament, sooner or later they would run out of steam and people will lost interest and confidence on them.
The voters will outsmart those clowns in the long run. Keep on clowning around at your own peril!
My take is, disregarding the live telecast or not, those antics and clowning around by some MPs are not the first time and I doubt it will be the last. It's a matter of who will be the star clown during the particular session. Although many are pointing to the Opposition MPs as the main players on last Wednesday's show with Kinabatangan MP Bung Mokhtar as the BN striker, many TV audiences I assumed, misses the antics of former BN MPs Badrulruddin of Jerai and Raja Ahmad from Perak.
Saying that the MPs are taking the opportunity to play to the gallery during the live telecast are not totally correct.It can be observed that quite a number of policitians survived their lack of wisdom, intellectuality and well research arguments by playing to the gallery most of time, not only during parliamentary or state assembly sessions but also their meeting with the media, with their constituents or political parties!
The live telecast of parliamentary sessions not only should be continued for 30 minutes each day but should cover throughtout the parliamentary sessions. Lets see if those publicity seekers verbal and physical antics can outlasts the technical strength of RTM broadcasting department. If an MP do not put in extra efforts to undertake well documented research to support with facts and figures to back up their debates in parliament, sooner or later they would run out of steam and people will lost interest and confidence on them.
The voters will outsmart those clowns in the long run. Keep on clowning around at your own peril!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Enter the Big Brother
Brothers speaks the same language!
MCA President Ong Ka Ting suggested today in his maiden speech as a backbencher in parliament some measures to address issues related to the religious rights of non-Muslims. The Sun today reported Ka Ting's saying:
“In situations involving non-Muslims who became a Muslim due to marriage, they should be allowed to renounce Islam when the marriage has ended.
“Similarly, if a child who was unilaterally converted to Islam by one parent without the consent of the other parent, the child should be allowed to maintain his or her own religion.
He also brought up incidences whereby statements were made that the proposed legal amendments will affect and protect both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Urging the government to be transparent to avoid a repeat of the cases above, Ong said non-Muslims are not to be subjected to any form of Syariah law.
“And, for any disputes or overlapping areas between the jurisdiction of the civil and Syariah courts, civil laws must prevail,” he added.
Ong said in the case where one parent embraces Islam, the religion of a minor must be decided by both parents.
“Should a dispute on the child’s faith arise, the religion must remain as status quo until the child reaches the age of majority that is 18 years upon which the child decides.
“In the event the convert dies, the property comprised in the estate of the deceased prior to the date of conversion should be subject to the civil laws of inheritance and succession for the time in force,” he added.
If we can recall two years ago on 15 March 2006, his political brother Loh Seng Kok who was then the MP for Kelana Jaya spoke in Parliament on problems faced by non-Muslims in regards to places of worship, prayers recital guidelines and "imbalanced" history textbooks. Seng Kok's speech attracted strong reaction from his BN counterpart especially the Kelana Jaya Umno Youth division which stormed his service centre and demanded explanation from him.
Ka Ting and Seng Kok both had served as political secretaries to the then MCA president Ling Lion Sik. This means both of them having the same political father. While it was Ka Ting as the "Lao ta" (big brother) that gave the opportunity to Seng Kok to contest the Kelana Jaya parliamentary seat in 2004, it was also him that dropped his "Shih ti" (brother) as a candidate in the recent general election.
Anyway, the dropping of Seng Kok as a candidate was a blessing in disguise for him as the Kelana Jaya seat was won by PKR's Loh Gwo Burne a.k.a Videoman, beating the favorite candidate Lee Hwa Beng. At least Seng Kok knows that he was not rejected by the people of Kelana Jaya but his political brother!
As karma dictates it, now Ka Ting has to wear Seng Kok's shoes and speak out the same language loudly for the non-Muslims in parliament. Whether the situation will come full circle as two years ago awaits us in a week or two to see. The same sign already there. An Umno backbencher MP for Pasir Salak already ticked off Ka Ting in parliament. The next will be a visit from the Kulai Umno Youth to Ka Ting's service centre to confront him!
Hopefully by now Ong Ka Ting will understand why he need people like Loh Seng Kok to hold the frontline.
MCA President Ong Ka Ting suggested today in his maiden speech as a backbencher in parliament some measures to address issues related to the religious rights of non-Muslims. The Sun today reported Ka Ting's saying:
“In situations involving non-Muslims who became a Muslim due to marriage, they should be allowed to renounce Islam when the marriage has ended.
“Similarly, if a child who was unilaterally converted to Islam by one parent without the consent of the other parent, the child should be allowed to maintain his or her own religion.
He also brought up incidences whereby statements were made that the proposed legal amendments will affect and protect both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Urging the government to be transparent to avoid a repeat of the cases above, Ong said non-Muslims are not to be subjected to any form of Syariah law.
“And, for any disputes or overlapping areas between the jurisdiction of the civil and Syariah courts, civil laws must prevail,” he added.
Ong said in the case where one parent embraces Islam, the religion of a minor must be decided by both parents.
“Should a dispute on the child’s faith arise, the religion must remain as status quo until the child reaches the age of majority that is 18 years upon which the child decides.
“In the event the convert dies, the property comprised in the estate of the deceased prior to the date of conversion should be subject to the civil laws of inheritance and succession for the time in force,” he added.
If we can recall two years ago on 15 March 2006, his political brother Loh Seng Kok who was then the MP for Kelana Jaya spoke in Parliament on problems faced by non-Muslims in regards to places of worship, prayers recital guidelines and "imbalanced" history textbooks. Seng Kok's speech attracted strong reaction from his BN counterpart especially the Kelana Jaya Umno Youth division which stormed his service centre and demanded explanation from him.
Ka Ting and Seng Kok both had served as political secretaries to the then MCA president Ling Lion Sik. This means both of them having the same political father. While it was Ka Ting as the "Lao ta" (big brother) that gave the opportunity to Seng Kok to contest the Kelana Jaya parliamentary seat in 2004, it was also him that dropped his "Shih ti" (brother) as a candidate in the recent general election.
Anyway, the dropping of Seng Kok as a candidate was a blessing in disguise for him as the Kelana Jaya seat was won by PKR's Loh Gwo Burne a.k.a Videoman, beating the favorite candidate Lee Hwa Beng. At least Seng Kok knows that he was not rejected by the people of Kelana Jaya but his political brother!
As karma dictates it, now Ka Ting has to wear Seng Kok's shoes and speak out the same language loudly for the non-Muslims in parliament. Whether the situation will come full circle as two years ago awaits us in a week or two to see. The same sign already there. An Umno backbencher MP for Pasir Salak already ticked off Ka Ting in parliament. The next will be a visit from the Kulai Umno Youth to Ka Ting's service centre to confront him!
Hopefully by now Ong Ka Ting will understand why he need people like Loh Seng Kok to hold the frontline.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)