Another idiotic comment from our Minister. Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi, the Deputy Education Minister deserved to receive the flakes from all quarters for his idiotic comment on the English language. I'm sure his children are probably studying in foreign universities using English as the learning medium. An ability to master another language doesn't mean a person is unpatriotic.
Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi’s comment that the private sector should use Bahasa Malaysia and not English has been criticised by many quarters.
Chairman of the centre for public policy studies at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said Malaysians need to move fast to become what the Prime Minister had called a high-income nation.
“When you deal with foreign investors, most if not all will certainly not understand our local language.
“We have to be pragmatic and progressive in this era of globalisation.
“Malaysia cannot be regressive and stay in isolation as a middle-income nation,” he said yesterday.
On Tuesday, Dr Mohd Puad reportedly said Malaysians in the private sector should use Bahasa Malaysia and not English.
The private sector, Dr Puad said, had tarnished the image of the national language by not using Bahasa Malaysia.
Parent Action Group for Education chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said Dr Puad’s suggestion was a retrogressive one and would defeat the Prime Minister’s call for the people to move forward to turn Malaysia into a high income nation.
“In fact, as the international lingua franca, the use of English had even exceeded the use of Chinese and Indian languages as the international language of communication.
“Certainly, our private sector needs to attract foreign investors here and they must communicate in English,” she added.
Malaysian English Language Teaching Association president Dr Ganakumaran Subramaniam said English was a necessity for the private sector to do business with global industry players.
“To ask the private sector to communicate in Bahasa Malaysia does not make business sense,” he added.
Ter Leong Yap of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Malaysia said as English was the common communication tool among businessmen, problems in the usage of the language would become a barrier to business growth.
Kota Belud MP Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said Malaysia was losing its edge to China, Vietnam and even Laos and if English was going to be the language of international communication, then the country could not afford to lose out.
He said there was no intention by the private sector to be unpatriotic, but it needed to move fast to ensure business success in a time and financially-sensitive environment.
“The Deputy Minister’s comment is off-target, and to generalise the notion that someone is unpatriotic for not using the national language, especially when they are involved in trade, is far off.
“One size doesn’t fit all,” he said.
The Herald, the Catholic weekly newsletter which had its 2010 publishing permit approved in August, is in a bind as it has received another letter stating its application has not been approved.
The Herald editor Father Andrew Lawrence said they received a second letter in September informing them of the latest development.
“The letter from the publishing division of the Home Ministry, dated Sept 5, also wants us to make an application for the refund of RM800 for the weekly permit which we had paid.
“We had, on Aug 3, received a letter stating the ministry had approved our permit for 2010 and even allowed us to print in four out of the five languages we had requested,” he said, adding that they were not allowed to print the newsletter in the KadazanDusun language.
He said the September letter did not state if their earlier approval had been cancelled or rescinded by the ministry.
In a recent murder case at Kampung Kuala Sungai, Kedah, most national dailies published a photo of the suspect being escorted by the Policemen. And at the background laid the victim body sheltered with umbrellas. One of the umbrella has the BN logo.
Of course everyone know that it is a crime case and the BN has nothing to with it but Utusan Malaysia opted to censor the photo. So now we know that photos from the Utusan Malaysia can never be the real one, just like their news pieces (like bad mouthing the Opposition). Utusan Malaysia has made a real aristocracy on journalism.
Photo from the Star. Go to the Star article at Estranged hubby ‘prefers to die’ with 73-year-old partner
Photo from Utusan Malaysia. Go to the Star article at Enggan bercerai: Lelaki tikam isteri
Please print the articles from the Star and Utusan Malaysia before the editor from UM removed it. And please spread this link.
The High Court has set Dec 14 to fix the date for injunction hearing over the RM500mil defamation suit filed by Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat against Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing.
Deputy registrar Hilmiah Yusof set the date in her chambers Wednesday after meeting counsel Ronnie Tan and Harjit Sandhu who acted for Ong. Both men mentioned the case on behalf of Tiong’s lawyer Prem Ramachandran who was not present.
Speaking to reporters later, Tan said Hilmiah had ordered both parties to file affidavits before Dec 14 for the hearing of an injunction application.
Tan said the injunction application was filed by Ong to stop the defendant from spreading any slander or libel against him.
Ong had on Aug 24 filed the suit at the High Court civil registry here through his legal team.
The suit was filed over unfounded and malicious defamatory allegations made by Tiong that Ong had received RM10mil from him for MCA activities following the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) disclosure.
In his statement of claim, Ong demanded that Tiong fully withdraw his defamatory remarks and publish an apology in major Malaysian newspapers of all languages.
The purpose of such statements, he said, were to tarnish his name.
Such remarks, he said, were published with the element of mala fide by Tiong to obstruct the fair and just investigation over the misuse of funds in the PKFZ issue and the role played by Tiong’s company in the controversy.
The Borneo Post reported that Sarawak has sought the help of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to address the issue of children of mixed parentage in the state who have supposedly been denied bumiputra status. Supposedly? It is a fact otherwise this issue will not be highlighted in the local media.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu said he wrote to the Prime Minister on the issue several days ago. Being a Dayak Bumiputera himself, Alfred Jabu has the power to push for the State constitution to be amended instead of asking help from the PM.
He highlighted the case of SPM top scorer Marine Undau, whose application for a place in a matriculation programme was rejected because of her mixed parentage.
“I believe the Prime Minister can solve the problem,” he told reporters after performing the ground-breaking ceremony for the proposed RM220mil City One shopping mall project here on Wednesday.
Jabu said one way to address the issue was to amend the Federal Constitution.
Another Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam also backed the proposed amendments of Article 161(a) of the Federal Constitution which stipulates that for a child born in Sarawak to be classified as bumiputra, both his or her parents have to be bumiputra.
However, the Sarawak State Constitution states that a child is considered a bumiputra if one of his or her parents is a bumiputra.
Besides Undau, two similar cases involving Awang Adrian Awang Kasumar (SPM 10As scorer) and Daniel Ibau were highlighted by the media.
Several quarters have urged the Federal Government to standardise the different definitions of bumiputra status in Peninsula Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak as inter-racial marriages are common.
A child born in the peninsula will be accorded bumiputra status as long as one of his or her parents is a bumiputra. In Sabah, a child is classified a bumiputra if his or her father is one.
Related posts:
* State cabinet committee’s bluder on Bumiputera status
* 1Malaysia 3Bumi status definition
What’s in store for these children? James Masing says Marina’s case a test of state cabinet committee’s power on Bumiputera status. Masing should be asking that question to Sarawak YB who married non-Dayak. Such YB are the Chief Minister himself, Dr Jerip Susil or Dr Tiki Lafe.
Has a state cabinet committee which decides on who are rightfully Bumiputera in Sarawak erred all these years?The committee, which meets twice a year, has given its endorsement for Bumiputera status to hundreds of Sarawakians who are born to mixed-marriages, but the plight of Marina Undau has raised serious concerns about its authority. A member of that committee is Land Development Minister Dato Sri Dr James Masing and he could not help but worry whether the committee’s decisions were in line with the federal constitution which should be supreme.
He is concerned that if it was true that what Article 161a of the federal constitution says is that in Sarawak both parents must be native in order for their child to be Bumiputera, all the committee’s decisions would have been undone.
“The committee decides based on the ethnicity of either one of the parents. If the father is a native, then the child must be native or a Bumiputera. But the article says that both parents must be ‘exclusively’ native, so what does that mean? Have we been doing something illegal? “ he asked when interviewed by The Borneo Post yesterday.
“If Article 161a of the federal constitution is correct, then has the Sarawak government acted ultra vires the article? What happens to the newly declared Bumiputeras? Is their status to be nullified?”
He said if his understanding of the article was correct, there would be tremendous political and socio-economic ramifications on all Sarawakians of mixed-parentag, who had benefited from the many privileges accorded to the Bumiputera.
“It’s not just education we are talking about here,” he said, adding that he had recently been approached by many Sarawakians who were concerned about their Bumiputera status.
