Najib marks 100 days with people-friendly measures

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak marked his 100th day as Prime Minister by announcing 11 people-friendly measures – including a toll discount for frequent users and a new trust fund – to address some longstanding public grievances.

Thousands of people packed a hall at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre to listen to Najib announce the 11 “goodies”:

The PM and the people: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak mingling with supporters at his ‘100 Days of Najib With the People’ celebration at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Saturday. He announced 11 special goodies for the people during the event. — RAJA FAISAL HISHAN / The Star

> a 20% toll discount for frequent users who pay toll 80 times a month or more via the Smart Tag or Touch ’n Go, effective Sept 1;

> some 44,000 low-cost houses under the Program Perumahan Rakyat in the Federal Territory offered for sale to existing tenants;

> a 50% discount on licences for petty traders in the Federal Territory;

> a RM150mil allocation for the Tekun scheme, which is a fund for entrepreneurs, and another RM15mil specifically for young Indian entrepreneurs;

> more than 7,000 individual taxi permits approved, with another 3,000 to be approved in the coming three months;

> crime prevention (details to be announced at the end of the month);

> expediting birth registrations, with 92% of the 36,000 applications in Sabah, and 80% of the 19,000 in Sarawak approved since 2005;

> clearing the backlog of citizenship applications, with 46% of the 34,000 cases already resolved;

> improving connectivity and access to basic utilities in the rural areas;

> reducing the cost to obtain a B2 motorcycle licence (under 250cc), including riding lessons, to RM211 effective Sept 1. It currently costs around RM500 to RM700 to attend lessons and the test; and

> setting up a new trust fund, Amanah Saham 1Malaysia, with a maximum size of 10 billion units. Those above 18 are eligible to invest. Under the Amanah Saham Wawasan scheme, 10,000 poverty-stricken urban households under the E-Kasih list would receive 10,000 units per household by 2010.

Century tree: Najib planting a tree to mark his first 100 days as Prime Minister Saturday. Looking on are wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Najib said the toll discount was only an interim solution as the toll rates were being comprehensively reviewed.

On halving the licensing fee for petty traders, he said 69,000 traders in the Federal Territory would benefit from it. It used to cost between RM10 and RM700 a year.

“I urge other states to emulate this move to reduce the burden on petty traders during the economic crisis,” he said.

For Sabah and Sarawak, Najib said the Government would double the 750km of roads built under the Ninth Malaysia Plan to 1,500km under the 10th Plan.

“The piped water supply, which covers 52% of Sabah and 61% of Sarawak currently, will also be increased,” he said.

Taken from The Star Online

It is Bahasa again but more emphasis will be placed on learning English

PUTRAJAYA: The Government has decided to reverse the Teaching of Mathematics and Science in English policy and revert to Bahasa Malaysia in national schools and Chinese and Tamil in vernacular schools.

More emphasis would also be placed on English, including the hiring of retired teachers, assistant teachers for bigger classes and having additional periods.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said this meant that from 2012, students in Years One and Four and Forms One and Four in national primary and secondary schools would study the two subjects in Bahasa Malaysia while those in vernacular schools would be taught in their mother tongue (Chinese and Tamil).

“We want to have a ‘soft landing’ which is why we will begin only in 2012. This will allow us time to make the necessary preparations,” he told a press conference at the ministry when announcing the reversal of the ETeMS policy or better known by its Malay acronym, PPSMI.
Asked why the ministry was not starting with a new cohort of Year One students, Muhyiddin who is Education Minister, said there was time to fine-tune the policy.
“There is still two-and-a-half years to prepare.

“Some members of the Cabinet made an observation that those in Form Four may be affected but that’s okay because we can still make changes so they continue their studies in two languages,” he said.

Muhyiddin said the ministry would do “whatever we can to make it as soft as possible for these students.”

“This is why the ministry is staggering the changes that will happen.
“It was quite sudden when the PPSMI was introduced previously,” he said.
The PPSMI policy was implemented in phases, beginning with Year One, Form One and Lower Six students in 2003, under former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tenure.
The first cohort who completed six years of primary schooling and studied the two subjects in English received their Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) results last year.
Muhyiddin said that to ensure the implementation of the new policy did not affect the first batch (who started studying the two subjects in English in primary school in 2003), they would continue to study Mathematics and Science bilingually (in English and Bahasa Malaysia) until 2014.

He stressed that the reason for the reversal in policy was due to objective considerations and not political ones.

“It was based on empirical studies and other specialist reviews,” he said.
Based on studies conducted in 2008, he said, the ministry found that only a small percentage of teachers fully used English to teach the two subjects.

“On average, the percentage of those using English during Mathematics and Science periods was around 53% to 58%,” he said, adding that only a small number of teachers were proficient.
Muhyiddin said studies carried out by local universities found that students’ mastery level of English during the entire policy was around 3% while the level among rural students was low.
“Based on these observations, the Government is confident that Mathematics and Science should be taught in languages understood by students, which is Bahasa Malaysia in national schools, and Chinese and Tamil in the respective vernacular schools,” he said.

On whether the decision goes against Dr Mahathir’s vision, Muhyiddin said he and senior ministry officials had a three-hour meeting explaining the problems faced by those involved.

Taken from The Star Online

Transformers: The Veiled Threat

TITLE :Transformers: The Veiled Threat
WRITER :Alan Dean Foster
PAGES :281
PUBLISHER :Del Ray
YEAR :2009
ISBN :9780345515926
PRICE :RM 35.90
AVAILABLE AT :MPH Bookstores, Popular

SYNOPSIS :Life on earth has changed forever, as humans and their courageous robotic allies, the Autobots, must warily work together to protect the planet from the destructive forces of the evil Decepticons. At the headquarters of NEST, tech sergeant Epps and captain Lennox both guard and assist cyberneticist Kaminari Ishihara and the brooding Russian AI genius Petr Andronov as they explore the differences between organics and bots. All around them, alliances fray, distrust grows, suspicions mount, and traitors come out of the shadows.

Meanwhile, Optimus Prime, the powerful leader of the Autobots who is also part of NEST, plays defense, as battles flare up from Australia to Zambia. But escalating Decepticon attacks will culminate in a final confrontation from which no one—man or machine—will emerge unscathed.


COMMENTS:

PRO
Recommanded for Tranformers' fan who wants to know the story right after the Megatron's death and before its resurrection. And you can know the names of Autobot and Decepticon which came to earth (right after the first movie) but dont make it into the second movie (Transformes: Revenge of the Fallen)

CON
The story is too short.


Rating:
7.0/10 - Some battles occur in 6 continents. Some casualities on both sides; Autobot and Decepticon. It explains what is NEST is actually. The die hard fans of Transformer will like this book, perhaps.