Friday, November 30, 2007

Global UGRAD Exchange Program

This is a great opportunity for those who are currently studying in universities in Malaysia and want to spend half a year or one year in U.S.
 
Just got this email from U.S. Embassy, that they will select 10 students for 1-year program and 10 students for 6-month program of Study in the USA: 2008 Global Undergraduate Exchange Program. 
 
The deadline of applications is 8th January 2008. To get the word document form, just email me.
 
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STUDY IN THE USA!

2008 GLOBAL UNDERGRADUATE EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Looking for an enriching undergraduate experience in an American college or university?

The global UGRAD program provides scholarships for one semester or one academic year of U.S. study in a non-degree program. 

Successful applicants can expect an in-depth exposure to U.S. society, culture and academic institutions.  Participants will be enrolled full-time in undergraduate course-work with opportunities for ongoing interaction with U.S. faculty and student peers, and for exposure to U.S. academic and classroom culture. 

Courses on topics including academic research and writing, critical thinking, time management, note-taking, studying for and taking tests will be offered.

Students will be provided with opportunities to participate in up to ten hours of community service activities per semester.  Additionally, an internship will be offered to all academic-year participants during the program.  Internships will be related to each participant's field of study and/or career plans.  Upon completion of the program, participants are required to return to Malaysia and continue their studies.

ELIGIBILITY:

Scholarships will be granted to students who currently are enrolled in an undergraduate degree program in their home country, and who have completed their first, second, or third year of undergraduate study.

TO APPLY:

Please complete the application form attached and ensure that the application package reaches us by January 8, 2008.  The completed application package should include the application form, academic transcripts, letters of reference, and TOEFL score report.

All applications should be submitted to:

Global UGrad Program Coordinator
Public Affairs Section

U.S. Embassy

376 Jalan Tun Razak

50400 Kuala Lumpur

Deadline: 8th January 2008

Recent Demonstrations

Recently, our country, or at least, Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, has been plagued by several demonstrations. Is this healthy? What would this impact our country? Should we support these demonstrations? Do we, as common Malaysians believe in these demonstrations? Would these bring effects? Would this build harmony among Malaysians or create tension?

I am posing tons of questions for everyone to ponder. For me, I would like to choose the middle ground.

Being a common civilian, I definitely hope for a peaceful country, which means that I hope that there won't be any demonstration, which would affect people's life. KLCC and Ampang Park LRT has to be closed for several hours last Sunday due to Hindraf's demonstrations. There were lots of road blocks that caused a lot of discomfort to commoners.

Some might argue that those pre-emptive actions by government is not necessary. For me, I would say that a certain level of pre-emption should be carried out, but may be not at the extent that is being carried out today. Train stations could still be opened, and business goes on. Those who are involved in demonstrations should practice restraint and not resort to violence. I know majority are not violent, but these kind of activities are very prone to fights or tensions. We just need some very few people to cause that to happen.

On the demands or the reasons that cause the demonstrations, I would say that while it is good that we need to have those minority voices to be heard, I would prefer more suitable ways of handing over memorandum or ways to spread awareness. Being from Eastern culture, negotiation could be a better way. Engagement with our leaders, could be a way to solve the problems. While those demonstrators' hope is to bring attention to the problems, such action might affect our tourism significantly.

What is the middle point? What should we do in the long run?

Above just my two cents.

London Fish Tales

Today's lunch, Coreen treated me to London Fish Tales, the latest restaurant in KLCC 2nd Floor Food Court. It is the same chain as Manhattan Fish Market, Tony Roma's, Sushi Groove, Hainan Kopitiam etc.

I personally think that London Fish Tales is definitely very worthwhile, especially with the price and the size of the food. A very large portion of Pacific Dory Fillet (longer than 25 cm) that I took, with some fries, came at a price of RM9.90. This is a great price especially at KLCC.

Do try it out!

APPLE Call Warrants

Today, finally got to know that we only managed to get 10% of the total placements that we put in for OSK Apple Call Warrants. Seems that it is very overly subscribed. So, would definitely looking forward to the IPO day on 11th December.

Finally, I will be owning a little portion of a US Call Warrant.

Mensa Penang Scholarships Talk

Mensa Penang will be organizing a Scholarship to Study in U.S. talk on 1st December, Saturday, 2:30pm to 4:30pm at Caring Society Complex in Penang. I will be helping to share my experience for that seminar. If any of you are in Penang and are interested to attend, do hope to see you there!

Among the aspects that I will be speaking on would include:-
a) Life in U.S.
b) Scholarships available from Malaysia/Singapore to study in U.S. Universities
c) Scholarships/Financial aids from U.S. to study in U.S. Universities
d) Application tips for applying to study in U.S. Universities

For some of the scholarships information, you can visit:-
ReCom.org (The Worldwide Malaysian Students Network
Tinkosong.com
Malaysia-Scholarship.com

Good Luck!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The 1st National Youth Entrepreneur Convention 2008

YouthMalaysia.com will be organizing The 1st National Youth Entrepreneur Convention 2008 on 19th January 2008 (Saturday) at Putra World Trade Center .

It is to inspire and impact Malaysian youth community! There will be a lot of prominent figures to speak, especially many youth entrepreneurs.

Among the keynote speakers:-
1. YB Dato' Seri Azalina Othman Said, Minister of Youth and Sports
2. YB Datuk Ong Tee Keat, Deputy Minister of Higher Education
3. YB Dato' Liow Tiong Lai, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports

Among the Youth Entrepreneurs:-
1. Mr. Joel Neoh Eu-Jin - Founder of YouthMalaysia.com and Winner of NTV7 The Firm
2. Mr. Kevin Zahri - Fitness Trainer and Business Owner
3. Mr. Timothy Tiah Ewe Tiam - Co-Founder of Nuffnang
4. Mr. Raj Ridvan - Co-founder & International Director of Science of Life 24/7
5. Mr. Kenny Sia - Blog owner of KennySia.com
6. Mr. Ng Khai Lee - Co-founder of TheCicak.com and Winner of KLUE Blue Chill Award
7. Ms. Xandria Ooi Xhan Tii - TV Host/Emcee/Journalist
8. Mr. Chris Tan Chur Pin - Proprietor of Chur Associates and Executive Secretary of SME International.
9. Mr. Kid Chan - Founder and Director of Kid Chan Studio
10. Ms. Oh Joo Nee - Founder of Lets' Dance Studio and Winner of Nescafe Kickstart TV Show
11. Mr. Kenny Goh Chee Ken - Co-founder and CEO of Macro Kiosk Berhad
12. Mr. Shahul Hameed Dawood - CEO of People Source Sdn Bhd

For full event details and sign ups, go to here

Open Letter by Kian Ming to Tok Pa

Ong Kian Ming, co-blogger of Education Malaysia and a PhD student at Duke University has written an open letter to Tok Pa, our Minister of Higher Education in Education Malaysia and Malaysiakini on our Higher Education Policy and ways to improve our local institutions of higher learning.

I would say that Kian Ming has brought up a number of interesting and valuable points for our Ministry of Higher Education to act. I definitely concur with Kian Ming that Tok Pa has taken the right step to focus on improving the quality of our institutions of higher learning, rather than blaming the ranking methodology. That's definitely a step ahead, and hopefully, we can get all the institutions of higher learning to work hard towards improvement.

The full letter by Kian Ming can be read here in Education Malaysia or in Malaysiakini

I reproduce it below:-

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Open letter to Tok Pa
Ong Kian Ming
Nov 27, 07

Dear Minister of Higher Education,

I was encouraged by your letter published in the Star on Nov 14, addressing the issue of our public universities falling out of THES top 200 list of universities in the world. I was encouraged because you did not dwell on the how changes in methodology used by QS, the company responsible for compiling the data, might have affected the ranking of Malaysian universities in the THES survey.

While understanding the technicalities of why our public universities have dropped off the top 200 list may be important to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of our public universities, I believe that from your many travels to top universities worldwide, you know that our public universities are very far from being anywhere close to the top 200 universities in the world, however measured.

I have also been encouraged by the way your ministry has been very focused in its approach to transform our public universities as specified by the National Higher Education Strategic Plan and the corresponding National Higher Education Action Plan 2007 - 2010. The goals set out in these plans are realistic and if achieved, will certainly make significant improvements to our public tertiary education system.

At the same time, I am aware that political considerations and restrictions can prevent even the best plans from being fulfilled and hinder a politician's ability to speak honestly. For example, you mentioned that: “Still, massification of higher education was the right choice for a young, developing country that had to ensure its citizens access to education and thus, a brighter future.”

Was the indiscriminate expansion of higher education necessary in the context of Malaysia? Is this not one of the reasons why there are currently a large number of unemployed and unemployable Malaysian graduates in the market, largely the result of them not being able to pick up the requisite skills to make themselves employable? Would an emphasis on vocational and technical education for those who are not academically-inclined have made more sense instead of pushing these students into courses which they have little interest in and is, at least, partly responsible for making some of them unemployable?

Was the practice of “awarding” and building universities in every state in Malaysia not a political tool for “rewarding” voters in these states? Did it not lead to quantity at the expense of decline in quality?

At the same time, I would guess that it was not possible for you to say that the “massification” of higher education in Malaysia went along with policies which prevented qualified Malaysian students from getting the courses of their choice.

This resulted in them leaving for universities overseas and less qualified candidates “flooding” the gates of our public universities. In addition, a large number of above average students were also awarded scholarships by the government and government-linked companies to study overseas, leaving our public universities almost denuded of top students.

I am also sure you realise that the “massification” of higher education in Malaysia not only decreased the quality of our students. The same phenomenon was taking place among the ranks of the faculty. Lecturers were promoted indiscriminately based on “know who” rather than “know how” and that promotion policies were also responsible for driving many qualified academics to universities overseas, leaving the ranks of many faculties relatively denuded.

The notion that a Malaysia public university can even be anywhere close to the top 200 universities in the world is somewhat laughable given that less than 50 percent of most faculties in our public universities have PhDs. While having a PhD is not necessarily a prerequisite for doing good research, it is an important indicator of proper training for good research, having worked and learned from experienced supervisors and completing a major piece of
research work.

Is it so surprising that our public universities have low peer review and citation scores when many members of the faculty are not trained to publish and produce cutting-edge research? When this is combined with a culture which does not reward publications and punish non-publication, it is no surprise that our faculty has and will continue to score low on peer review and citations per faculty.

How can you change this? I think the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) and public universities are already taking some steps to address this starting with the push to send more Malaysian faculty members overseas to complete their PhD. But even then, the process by which non-PhD holders currently lecturing in our public universities can obtain funding from the MOHE to do their PhDs overseas is still far from transparent.

From anecdotal evidence I've heard from some of our readers, the process is still very much driven by “know who” rather than “know how” and sadly, by racial quotas instead of by ability.

If this practice continues, I would not be surprised if the percentage of sponsored students obtaining their PhDs would be less than 50 percent, again leaving the MOHE in the quandary of not being able to achieve its 60 percent target of PhD holders by 2010.

While your strong words of inculcating a “publish or perish” culture is encouraging, it will have little “teeth” if it is not seriously implemented in our public universities. Our public university lecturers are almost “unfireable.” Hence, a threat of “publish or perish” is not seen as credible unless real action is taken.

Does this mean that you are willing to slowly “weed out” the non-performers in our public university system replacing them with highly motivated and better qualified academics? Only time will tell.

The road ahead is fraught with challenges, both internal and external. As events and trends in the world continue to develop and evolve, our public universities are in danger of being left behind. At the same time, internal political constraints and considerations make it even more difficult to change from within. Your job is not one which I envy and I applaud you for at least taking positive and concrete steps to effect change, hopefully at a substantive rather than a cosmetic level. But I fear that the restraints that is the Malaysian political system will eventually get the better of your good intentions, at great expense to our country.

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This article represents the opinion of Kian Ming.

Recommended Books by MCA

The following are few of the books recommended in Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) website. MCA has played a very crucial roles in promoting lifelong learning among fellow Malaysians, especially among Chinese community. I have found the recommendations of the following few books been very apt.

The 5 recommended books are:-
1. The Making of the Malayan Constitution - Joseph M. Fernando
2. The Price of Peace: True Accounts of the Japanese Occupation - Foong Choon Hon
3. The New Villages in MalaysiaL The Journey Ahead - Lim Hin Fui and Fong Tian Yong
4. Tun Sir Tan Cheng Lock - MCA Publicity Bureau
5. Valley of Hope: The Sungai Buloh National Leprosy Center - Phang Siew Sia and Wong Chau Yin
6. God of the Earth - Ho Thean Fook

The links are at MCA Website

Call Warrants of US Share in Malaysia

Since Google call warrants have been launched in Malaysia, OSK is taking another steps to launch another two call warrants of U.S. shares in Bursa Malaysia. This allows Malaysians opportunities to own shares in U.S. markets, or rather rights to buy shares. The two latest U.S. call warrants to be launched are Apple and Exxonmobil.

This definitely shows that our market has been opening up. For the past few months, interesting counters have been launched in Malaysia and our market is now providing opportunities for Malaysians to own a piece of action for shares around the world. That gives us opportunities to really diversify our investments and also take on more higher risk investment.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Malaysia Festival of the Mind II

Obtained the following in a Malaysia Mental Literacy Movement mailing list. It could be an interesting talk. For those of you who live near Kampar, you could check it out!

Don't forget to check out Malaysia Festival of the Mind II on 22nd and 23rd December at UTAR, Kampar campus too!


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In conjunction with the Malaysia Festival of the Mind II on 22 & 23 December 2007, the Malaysia Mental Literacy Movement (MMLM), Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman (KTAR) and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) are jointly organising a complimentary talk entitled ‘Face & Destiny: Understanding Yourself & Others’ conducted by Joey Yap.

We would like to cordially invite you to the complimentary talk. The details of the talk are as follows:
Date : 14 December 2007 (Friday)
Venue : Auditorium, KTAR Perak Branch Campus
Jalan Kolej, Taman Bandar Baru, 31900 Kampar, Perak.
Time : 5.00 pm – 6.00 pm

Please find the enclosed attachments pertaining to the talk. For more information, please visit www.utar.edu.my or contact us at 03-7625 0328.

Thank you.

Best wishes,
Secretariat
Malaysia Mental Literacy Movement (MMLM)

Bakri Musa's Aligning Private Aspirations with Public Good

Obtaining this article of Bakri Musa from a mailing list. I would say that the following article is definitely interesting, especially on various ways he brought up in paragraphs 13-15. Start counting the paragraphs, or better still, read the articles.

Several points brought up, like giving scholarships to Malaysians who manage to get into elite universities, without restricting on courses of study, is definitely a fantastic suggestion. Besides that, the suggestion to provide preferential treatment to companies that reflect the racial structure of Malaysia is interesting. I doubt on whether this could be efficiently operated though, although it seems an interesting and fantastic concept.

Do enjoy reading
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Aligning Private Aspirations with Public Good

M. Bakri Musa

Bravo to Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Mohamad Hasan! In awarding RM25,000 to each first-class honors graduate of local public universities, he clearly demonstrated where the priorities should be. He went further and forgave the students’ loans if they were given by his state agency.

To put that cost in perspective, at a total of about RM300,000 it is less than the inflated cost of one corrupt school laboratory construction project. Yet the benefit far exceeds that of any school computer lab, even if it were well built. As a bonus, unlike a poorly built building, this award program poses no danger to anyone.

Malay leaders, especially those in UMNO, continually lament on the generally backward status of our people despite decades of ever increasingly generous preferential treatment. Unfortunately that is all they are capable of doing – lamenting. Occasionally a bright leader might emerge who in a show of bravado would chastise and upbraid us by degrading our cultural heritage and questioning our biological endowment.

Only very rarely would a leader like Mohamad Hasan do something right, like having an appropriate mechanism in place and aligning the incentive system that would encourage the development of those qualities that we desire in our people. My complimenting Hasan would I hope encourage other leaders to follow his fine example.

Mechanism Design Theory

It is instructive that this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to three economists whose collective intellectual contributions under the rubric of “Mechanism Design Theory” help us understand better the real world in which we humans interact. Their insights could help us create our own institutions that would encourage the development of desirable behaviors and traits in our people by realigning our private and public incentives accordingly.

To purist disciples of Adam Smith, the open marketplace, guided only by the omnipresent “invisible hand” that would smack those who make the wrong decisions and pat those who had the right ones, is the best mechanism to ensure this. However we all know that competition – and thus the marketplace – is hardly ever “pure.” Unrestrained, the human tendency is to collude and conspire. Unrestrained “pure” capitalism would produce only conscienceless capitalists of Dickens’s era. We still see those characters today, in such places as China, resulting in millions of children being poisoned by their cheap but dangerous toys.

Malaysia too, under its “world’s happiest Prime Minister” Tunku Abdul Rahman, was enamored with unrestrained free enterprise, at least as understood by him. The result was disastrous, and no sane Malaysian would want a repeat of the May 1969 tragedy.

To economists of that era, like the eminent Ungku Aziz, the problem of poverty, specifically Malay poverty, would be solved if only we could remove the stranglehold of the monopolists and monopsonists. Broke them we did, with Pernas, Petronas, and other ‘Nases in the form of the various government-linked corporations. We also legitimized the “natural monopolies” in providing essential public services like utilities.

Unfortunately, those monopolists, whether state-sponsored or guided by individual greed, behave essentially in the same manner. Meaning, the public is ill served by them. It turned out that nothing improves service as much as competition. This applies to air travel as well as healthcare. Witness the improvement in air travel with the approval of Air Asia to compete with government-owned Malaysia Airlines. The healthcare of Malaysians is also much better served with the presence of a vibrant profit-making private sector.

Preference Falsification

Mechanism design theorists recognize the world as it is and take humans as we are. That is, we are neither saints nor satans and that we respond to incentives in what we believe to be in our best self interests, our public declarations notwithstanding. What we consider as incentives however may vary. To capitalists, interest income is a powerful incentive to save; to devout Muslims, an invitation to a life of sin and thus a definite disincentive!

A more monumental problem is that what we profess publicly may at times be at variance to what we believe or want privately, a phenomenon economist Timur Kuran refers to in his book, Private Truths, Public Lies, as “preference falsification.” This is the greatest barrier to formulating sound public policy.

The insight of mechanism design theory is in implicitly recognizing this and designing institutions that would best align public and private goals. This could be reconciling the seller wanting to maximize his profit and the buyer demanding the cheapest product; to universities upholding meritocracy and admitting only “top” students over the demands of influential alumni in “legacy” admissions favoring their children. On a broader public order, it could be the government wanting the greatest revenue from its broadwave spectrum to making sure that the public is well served.

In my book An Education System Worthy of Malaysia, I suggest ways how we could encourage excellence among our students by guaranteeing them scholarships when they manage to secure admissions to elite universities of the world. Not only that, we would give them the freedom to choose whatever field of study they wish in order to pursue their dreams. They and Malaysia would benefit from such a policy, a congruence of public policy and private aspiration.

In a later book, Towards A Competitive Malaysia, I suggested that public contracts be preferentially awarded to companies whose work force reflects the greater Malaysian society regardless whether the company is foreign or locally owned. It matters not whether the company is a subsidiary of Temasek or Guandong State Development Corporation, if its workforce reflects the greater Malaysian society, which in a practical sense means enough Malays at all levels, it would get preferential treatment.

This would align the public goals of attracting foreign investments, getting the best contractors, and integrating the private sector work force with the private one of encouraging Malays to pursue practical subjects so as to make them employable. We thus effectively align incentives such that private gains are compatible with the pubic good, or to use the language of the mechanism design theory, “incentive compatibility.”

Locally, our leaders may want to groom “glokal” Malays, but they unhesitatingly “protect” their children and even in-laws, a clash of stated public goals with individual’s private agenda! By rewardingly generously those who excel scholastically, Mohamad Hasan is attempting to reconcile public policy with private aspirations by designing his own mechanism or institution albeit on a very tiny scale.

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This article is by Bakri Musa and it does not represent my opinion, or whether my agreement/disagreement with what was brought up.

David & Er Fei's Wedding!

Congratulations to David Chuah and Quah Er Fei for their wedding yesterday. They have definitely decorated their wedding ceremony very interestingly, with garden setting. My first wedding in a garden. They put in a lot of efforts in making the decorations look very striking in their wedding ceremony! They imported the flowers from Singapore, with a bouquet each for each table. With wine on each table, as well as bottomless drink, from plain water, soft drink, orange juice, beer, wine to hard liquor. Everything is complete. They even put a bunch of grapes on each table. We even wondered whether it was real and it was real!

The ceremony attracted guests from far and near, with some even from Canada and Australia. That just shows how wide range their friends are. It is a wedding of 2 Accenturians, attended by Beng Choon (Country Managing Director) and many other partners, senior managers, managers, consultants and analysts. It is a gathering of Accenturians!

They did some powerpoint slides, in full Accenture spirits and they found each other within the firm as well.

Instead of the usual numbers on the tables, they name each tables by wine or aeroplanes. That is definitely unique and can see people going around looking for their wine/aeroplane names.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Letter by Mark Disney on Local Universities

This is a letter by Mark Disney to Malaysiakini. The link is here . This letter offers a different perspectives on the ranking and it offers several constructive suggestions on how we can improve our local institutions of higher learning.

Without reproducing the entire letter, I am quoting the suggestions on how to improve our local institutions from the letter.

To read in full, do refer to the link above.

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Varsity rankings are like beauty contests
Mark Disney


We can all play this game, but to kick off, I offer a few feasible steps to improvement:

Mindset changes

This must start at the undergraduate level where restrictive cultural mindsets need shaking up. Postgraduate work, research and development, commercialisation and publication levels all need attention but this is a somewhat separate issue from undergraduate teaching, which has to be a lot livelier and more student-centred.


Recruit the best

Ensure that our top students wish to and are able to enter the IPTAs and that our best brains remain in Malaysia to teach them. This means changes to the current admissions policies based solely on STPM and matriculation – how about A' Levels, UEC, SDAM or SAT? It also means cutting back on the number of government-sponsored overseas students, at least at undergraduate level.

If our brightest and best-connected (calling all politicians, corporate figures and senior civil servants) went to government universities, then standards would have to improve. Currently, everyone bemoans the fact that our universities are race-obsessed but this is only one schism. What people seem to forget is that they are socially and economically divided too, with most well-to-do parents from all races opting for private or foreign universities.


Differentiate

We desperately need centres of excellence that function under a different set of rules from the others. Some should be research-focused, others teaching-centred and others specialist institutions. Admittedly, this is already happening but we need a quantum leap because we can't wait another generation.


Incentives for staff

Top researchers and top teachers should be appropriately rewarded. They also need greater academic freedom or why would the good ones wish to remain? The tendency to treat all academic staff as civil servants with set pay scales, duties and promotion procedures means that you will get a civil service-style mentality and quality. This observation also applies to students. Nobody should be surprised that our graduates seem timid and immature when they are treated like school children at university.

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Women's Leadership Scholarships

Lifting this from Tin Kosong as well.

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The Women’s Leadership Scholarship (WLS) (formerly the Native Leadership Scholarship) program creates educational opportunities for women who are grassroots leaders, organisers and activists from the Global South and/or from indigenous groups. WLS invests in women’s leadership by supporting non-doctoral graduate education in human rights, sustainable development, and public health.

For further information, you can contact:

Laura Mapp, Program Manager
Women’s Leadership Scholarship
Channel Foundation
603 Stewart St., Suite 415
Seattle, WA 98101
USA
Tel: (00)1-206-621-5447
Fax: (00)1-206-621-2664

Alternatively, you may also contact Professor Chan Chee Khoon (Email: ckchan50@yahoo. com) from Health & Social Policy Research Cluster, Women’s Development Research Centre (KANITA), Universiti Sains Malaysia.

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Women's Aid Organization is seeking for researcher

Lifting this from Tin Kosong , hopefully could help to spread the words around.

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Vacancy for a Women's Aid Organization (WAO) researcher

WAO is currently looking for an experienced social researcher in qualitative studies in the research topic of Help-Seeking and Post-Crisis Change among Domestic Violence Survivors in Malaysia : Identifying Barriers and Enabling Factors.
This research project is expected to commence in December 2007/January 2008. Time frame of the project is approximately 18 months.
*Minimum qualification: Master’s Degree, PhD holder or equivalent preferred.
Please kindly send in your application to wao@po.jaring.my or contact Ivy Josiah, the Executive Director of WAO at +603-7957 0636 for further enquiries.

Letter to the Editor by Mansor Puteh

Mansor Puteh, an alumni from Columbia University attended the 3rd Cornell Club of Malaysia Dinner Talk Series. He wrote an article to be submitted to NST for Letters to the Editor. This is re-published here with Mansor Puteh's consent.

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'APPOINT IVY LEAGUERS AND OXBRIDGE GRADUATES AND SCHOLARS AS ADJUNCT PROFESSORS OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES', SAYS PAK LAH.
By Mansor Puteh


I was invited to attend the Cornell Club of Malaysia dinner held at the Putrajaya Convention Center (PJCC) on 10 November, with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and wife, Datin Jeanne Abdullah as the honored guests, where Pak Lah was invited to deliver a speech and answer some questions from the floor.

I was proud to be the only person from the local film industry to be able to attend such a function, for having studied at Columbia University in New York City.

It was a good opportunity for me to be able to be in such an exclusive group of Malaysians and to be able to share views with them, not only on education but also, many other things of national and international interests.

Unfortunately, the main gist of what Pak Lah had spoken in the function was sadly omitted by the media that had come to cover the event, where they mostly concentrated on other minor issues that he had also touched which had nothing to do with education.

I thought the main gist of the comments that he had made was in answer to a question posed by a member of the Club, Yeoh Chen Chow who had stood up to ask what could the Ivy Leaguers and Oxbridge graduates and scholars in the country could contribute to the development of the country, and in particular relation to the new economic corridors that the government had announced.

This sort of question should rightly not have been asked by an Ivy Leaguer but a senior official in the ministries of education and higher education or top political parties in the government, especially when the deliberate in their annual conventions, if they indeed have the nation's well-being at heart, instead of partaking in it for personal glory and to get a laugh and crack some silly jokes.

Earlier, the president of the Harvard Club of Malaysia, Tan Sri Lin had asked a question on how the government intends to source for labor, meaning qualified and highly skilled labor in order to meet with the new demands posed by the creation of the various corridors.

The answer to this question had already been stated by Pak Lah in his earlier speeches elsewhere, and he took the opportunity to make further clarifications on what he had earlier explained to a different crowd, although Pak Lah only talked about the laborers and not the experts and other qualified personnel.

And for the answer to the other question, he said that Ivy Leaguers and Oxbridge graduates and scholars could be appointed adjunct professors at the various public universities in the country.

Unfortunately, there was no one from the ministries of education or higher education who was around to take note of it, so that they can act on such a suggestion.

This is with the hope that they could share their experience working in the private sector and having studied at the top universities in the world.

It was also a sheer coincidence that this matter had been raised, when two days earlier, when the Times Higher Education Supplement had released their new list of top ranking unversities in the world, where for the first time no Malaysian university had made it to the top 200.

An unfortunate incident like this had caused some consterantion amongst the vice-chancellors of all the public universities and the minister of higher education, Mustapha Mohammed and other well-meaning individuals who had started to offer their two-sen's worth of opinions and other unsolicited views on the matter.

Unfortunately, no one had bothered to seek the views of those who had already made it there to study at any of the top ranking unversities for their views, which will mostly be totally different than those that had been offered or wildly guessed by those who did not study in any of these universities.

This had also prompted me to suggest to the president of the Cornell Club of Malaysia, Dr Mohd Yusof Ismail to organize a forum to discuss this issue of pressing concern so the government and Malaysian public can find out what ails the local public universities and how despite that they are still able to produce graduates who are capable of being accepted to further their studies there, despite them not being in the top ranking universities list.

Our universities may not be ranked at the top of the world class universities, but this does not mean our students or graduates are not of high caliber, to be able to gain admission into any of the top universities worldwide.

And there are now thousands of them who had the opportunity to study at such universities, but unfortunately, their expertise and talent and other academic achievements have not been fully exploited and utilized.

It is therefore, relevant now than ever before, that Pak Lah had brought out the issue of appointing some of the Ivy Leaguers and Oxbridge graduates and scholars who are in the private sector including those who had retired to be enlisted so that they can still offer themselves towards the enhancement of the stature of some of our private unversities and other institutes of higher learning, and allow them to share their knowledge with the younger generation.

If this cannot be done, then the private sector stands to gain the most from them, instead of the universities where they, too, can be of some use.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Congrats for getting into Undergraduate Management Association

Congrats to a friend of mine, whom I believe do read my blog as well for getting into her university's business school's Undergraduate Management Association. Congratulations!

Am very happy for you, although I do not write your name here (not sure whether you would want me to write, so to be safe, better do it this way). You should know who you are.

Congrats! It is always my pleasure to see my juniors being able to do well and above and beyond what I could imagine myself could do.

Congrats!

SAT and SAT2

Guess a number of those who just sat for SAT Reasoning Test or SAT2, have just gotten the results today. I have heard mixed responses from those who have gotten the results.

Some are pretty happy with the outcome and some are not. Good Luck to all of you who are sitting for SAT in December.

For those of you who didn't do well, do not lose hope on your applications. Do try your very best in your applications. The hope is still there. Do work hard on your other aspects of your applications, be it your application essays, recommendation letters etc.

Good Luck!

Constitution

Last Sunday, went to attend a talk by Mr. Quek Ngee Meng , who is a lawyer, as well as the Acting Director of Lifelong Learning .

The session definitely opened my eyes on various aspects of constitution. I won't dare to say that I am an expert of constitution now. I am definitely far from it. But the session definitely boosted my basic knowledge of it.

He went through the various processes that went through, before constitution was made. The process of Reid Commission, as well as the various memorandum submitted by various groups in Malaysia. He shared the couple delegations to London and also the process of negotiating the constitution - mother of all law in Malaysia.

He shared with us on other pertinent issues like citizenship, special positions for Malays and bumiputera (in constitutions, the actual words used is special positions and not special rights), language and religion.

It is refreshing to know a little background of constitution. It is definitely my hope that every citizen of Malaysia should pick up constitution and try their best to learn as much as possible. It should also be part of our national curriculum too!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Tan Sri Sidek Hassan's Sharing

Just came back from a sharing and Q&A session by Tan Sri Sidek Hassan, organized by MIT Club of Malaysia. It is a gathering of many top notch Malaysian Alumni of various top universities and it is definitely a good exchange with Tan Sri Sidek Hassan, who is the Chief Secretary of Malaysia.

The title is "Enhancing Malaysia's Competitiveness through Effective Government Delivery". I would definitely summarize that Tan Sri Sidek has done fantastically great in addressing the issue. He has definitely earned the respect of many attendees, who gave him standing ovation at the end.

Being the top man of a civil service of 1.2 Million people is definitely not easy. Imagine there are thousands of government departmnets/agencies at various locations and it is not easy to manage everything to be perfect.

He used to come from Ministry of International Trade & Industry and hence he always cite his mentor, YB Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz, who have definitely stamped her mark on him.

Tan Sri Sidek, with his no-nonsence attitude, wants civil service to deliver with integrity, or rather he put it must deliver with integrity.

He showed us how while Malaysia has improved on various metrics, our ranking drops. And it is due to other countries are moving much faster than we are. There is no excuse on that, except buck up and fight back.

Pemudah was set up and Tan Sri Sidek is the co-chair together with Tan Sri Yong Poh Kon, Chairman of Federation of Manufacturers, Malaysia (FMM). That task force is to improve our delivery system and reduce bureaucracy.

Tan Sri Sidek stressed upon service and want civil servants to challenge themselves and solve problems within shortest time possible. Enhance responsibility and respond speedily. He stressed many times of utilizing emails, instead of snail mails. He stressed that he checked his email , sidek@pmo.gov.my , all the time, including weekends.

He wanted all government agencies to provide prompt services and do not give excuse for delays. Everything should be done within the time frame set by the charter.

The key themes are implement, monitor and enforce.

Eventually, for civil service to improve, it would be about sharing, learning and developing and utilizing teamwork and communication.

There has been discussions on whether Malaysia is getting the best crops and whether the civil service is getting the best crops and the discussion on scholarship holders being employed in civil service.

Tan Sri Sidek mentioned that the current starting salary of degree holder at RM2,800+ is significantly more than private sector.

He mentioned of example of Datuk Dr. Rebecca who jump from Superscale C to be Deputy Secretary General of MITI within a few months.

He stressed that he wants his staff to use the way Datuk Seri Rafidah does. Everything has a deadline, which specify clearly what day, what date and what time.

When responding to emails, use Reply All and not Reply, as he wants visibility and monitoring of everyone doing work.

He talked about how Selangor State Government has made promises on their websites and they should be monitored by public and ensure that they are being achieved.

He cited an example when he visited a local council, when he saw a couple of papers inside a Suggestion Box. He asked for the key, but the key was not available. The person is not around. And when he took out the feedback forms, one of them is 40 days old. And that means, the suggestion box has not been opened for at least 40 days.

He talked about getting Harvard and MIT Professors to train the 2nd echelon leaders who are in their 40s and have another 10 years to go in civil service. 300 of them are trained for one week each month for 4 months. That would hopefully be able to develop a large number of leaders.

He stressed on his commitment to train the leaders, especially through INTAN and training those Deputy Secretary Generals etc.

For those with suggestions/feedback/complaints on civil service, do email Tan Sri Sidek, if it warrants his attention. His email is sidek@pmo.gov.my .

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Book Fair at Mines International Convention Center

From today to 25th November 2007, there will be a Chinese book fair at Mines International Convention Center. There would be a bunch of interesting talks as well. I do not have the list of seminars with me, but do try to check it out.

I believe there is a nominal entrance fee of RM2 or so. It is to be donated to about 10 schools in Malaysia from all medium of instruction.

Hope to see more people inculcate a reading culture!

Enjoy! Happy Weekend!

Want to know more on Constitution?

Mr. Quek Ngee Meng, Director of Lifelong Learning will be giving a seminar on this Sunday, 18th November 2007 2pm-6pm at South Lake City Lifelong Learning Center on Malaysian Constitution.

It would be a very interesting seminar where he would be sharing with us our rights and responsibility, as enshrined in our constitution.

It would cost RM20, and hope to see some of you there. I would be there too as a participant of the seminar.

English in Maths and Science

Tonight, China Press has a coverage of the UPSR students answering their Maths and Science papers. Education Ministry did a calculation on the number of students answering in English or bilingual and the number is still quite disappointing.

For Science, there are only 1,324 students out of 496,773 students answer in English. If you do a calculation, it is a mere 0.27%. That's sad, as these students have learned their Maths and Sciences in English for the past 6 years.

For Maths, there are only 1,075 students out of 500,620 students who answer in English. The percentage is even lower at 0.21%. That's definitely frustrating.

Is the move to teach in English bringing any effect. If only 0.2%-0.3% of students bother to answer in English, this raises a few questions. Whether the teacher teaches in English? Whether the students understand in English? Whether the quality of English language manage to be improved? Whether the effort to teach Maths and Sciences in English for primary school is justified, if only so few students are answering in it.

And there are also some students who answer in both their mother tounge and English. To me, this is rojak. We shouldn't have encouraged this. It really means that the students are mixing the language around. For Science, 89,875 students answer in bilingual, which is 18.1%, whereas for Maths, 51,760 students answer in bilingual, which is 10.3%.

Perhaps a solution for this could be to have certain questions set in mother tounge and certain questions set in English and the students have to answer in the required language for each question. This would enable the transition to be more structured and achieve the objectives, to strengthen students' quality in Maths and Sciences and also English Language.

iZZi Wireless Internet Coverage

I have been subscribed to iZZi wireless internet since a few months ago, and I have to really say that I am very disappointed about the internet services. It really sucks, especially in terms of uploading. It took me almost an hour to upload my last comment in my blog.

The moment I wrote more than 1-2 paragraphs, it just takes forever to load and then fail. This is definitely disappointing. The promise of iZZi to have a coverage of 1 Mbps, is definitely no where in sight and even though they promise of 128kbps for upload, often, I am talking about 10-20 kbps and mostly failed.

It has been frustrating. This is just to give me an avenue to comment on the internet. Malaysia, as we are growing fast, really need to ensure that we can supply fast internet. It really means a lot towards the productivity. Like just now, the 1 hour wasted, and I am talking about just to send a comment to my blog, is definitely not worthwhile. Why can't internet service be much much better, be it Streamyx, 3G, or other wireless or the upcoming WiMax. Really hope that we would have some solutions that would really solve this problem.

As a consumer, I am very disappointed with internet coverage by iZZi. It stated that the base station at KL Sentral would be ready by mid August, and it is November now and they have been moving the deadline from time to time.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Higher Education Ministers' Reaction on Unis Ranking

Thanks to Education Malaysia highlighting of this Higher Education Minister's open letter response in The Star on 14th November 2007.

I would reproduce this letter in full below. I personally like the response from Tok Pa quite a lot. It is a good way to respond, bite the bullet and work hard to redeem the quality of our institution of higher learning.

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Plan to shape varsities of world class
By MUSTAPA MOHAMED

IT is that time of year again. The latest Times Higher Education Supplement - Quacquarelli-Symonds (THES-QS) World University Rankings were published on Nov 8 and, as in previous years, have drawn much attention in Malaysia.

More so perhaps, as the 2007 results do not include any Malaysian university in the list of top 200 universities.

As Ben Sowter, head of research at QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd, the British company that conducts the survey has said: “In many places our advice was taken and understood ? but in Malaysia, the reduced performance of Malaysian institutions became a source of great focus for both the media and politicians.”

The reaction this year is therefore inevitable as some have concluded that the performance of Malaysian universities has dropped further.

Some may also feel that the current rankings are the result of an egalitarian education policy. Still, massification of higher education was the right choice for a young, developing country that had to ensure its citizens access to education, and thus a brighter future.

Now, however, we have begun to direct our attention to enhancing the quality of our institutions and championing academic excellence.

As our Prime Minister has accurately pointed out, in order for Malaysia to become a hub of educational excellence, we need universities recognised as outstanding and of world-class quality.

The THES-QS rankings are based on six criteria: peer review (40%), citations per faculty (20%), student to faculty ratio (20%), recruiter review (10%), international faculty ratio (5%), and international students ratio (5%).

The citations per faculty criterion is particularly important as an increase in citations can lead to greater peer recognition and hence better peer review scores. These can also generate greater interest among scholars to teach at a given institution, thus raising international faculty ratio scores too.

I am, of course, concerned about the standing of our universities internationally.

Left unchecked, perceptions may form that our exclusion from the THES-QS top 200 reflects a low standard of education – even though Sowter goes on to report that “the drop (in rankings of Malaysian universities) is entirely attributable to the combination of methodological enhancements and improved response dynamics in the rankings themselves.”

Malaysia has made great strides in higher education but we have not yet produced world-class universities.

Malaysians therefore must gain an accurate sense of where we stand today, and the changes being driven by the Higher Education Ministry to bring us to the next level.

As I write this, I have just finished meeting with some Malaysians working and doing business in Vietnam. As with other such visits I have had elsewhere, I am reminded that Malaysians working abroad, most of whom have studied in our local universities, are able to do very well anywhere in the world.

Malaysian institutions have also begun to export our education abroad. This too is reflective of the advances we have made in the quality of our higher education.

So does this mean that we are doing all right and can ignore international university rankings?

No. We cannot be satisfied with present performance. As we are running, others may be running faster. The race is getting tougher and this notion must sink into all our institutions.

The ministry recognises that our universities are not yet world class, so there is still much to be done, and it must be done with the greatest possible sense of urgency.

While changes and improvements to education systems take time to mature, this does not mean that we can take our time to bring about change and improvement.

I am encouraged to note that in the last few years, vice-chancellors have come to accept international university rankings as important guides to performance and a gauge of their progress in building the human capital Malaysia needs to remain globally competitive.

Our universities must establish a strong academic reputation and the crux of the matter lies in having our academics recognised and cited as they publish their work in high-impact and refereed journals.

Four universities have been granted research university status to accelerate this. Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia have been given additional funding and revised terms of governance so that they can pursue research excellence.

Vice-chancellors must therefore ensure that their institutions uphold the academic tradition to “publish or perish”.

The rationale for the apex university initiative is to strive for excellence. The apex university concept is not about declaring an existing university world class. Rather, it is about identifying one or two institutions with the greatest potential of reaching such levels, and focusing resources for them to compete with the best in the world, and hence be recognised as world class.

It is for this reason that the ministry has launched its National Higher Education Strategic Plan and the corresponding National Higher Education Action Plan 2007-2010. The action plan is an initiative in the pursuit of excellence while improving quality all round.

The success we have with these plans lies in the quality of our delivery, and the vice-chancellors must lead their institutions to play their part in translating the action plan into reality.

This has to be done quickly and effectively.

# Datuk Mustapa Mohamed is the Higher Education Minister.
-----

General Election

Sin Chew Jit Poh predicted that General Election would happen any time from January 2008. Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya is said to be ready for election in 1.5 months, which would mean end of December.

So, have you registered yourself as a voter? You should definitely get yourself registered. If you register before December 31st this year, you would get to vote, if election falls after 1st April 2008. So, do definitely do so! It is part of your rights as a Malaysian. Be a responsible citizen!

On this upcoming General Election, how would the vote swing? Would Barisan Nasional be able to maintain their 90% majority seat? Would opposition be good enough to deny 2/3 majority of Barisan Nasional? I personally would still think that BN would be able to win this election quite convincingly. Perhaps might not be hitting the all-time-high of 90% of seats, but I am quite confident that with all the track record that BN has produced, it should be able to win at least 80% of seats.

For all state elections, BN should be able to breeze through, perhaps with intense competition in Kelantan.

How would the election manifesto for both BN and opposition be?

Lets wait for the election!

Chinese in Civil Service in Malaysia

As we all know, the proportion of Chinese in Malaysian Civil Service has been dropping from year to year and this is definitely a cause of concern. The % of Chinese among all civil service applicants is just a mere 1.78% (8,662 Chinese applicants out of 486,802 total Malaysian applicants), when Chinese constitute about 25% of Malaysian population. While total Chinese who get accepted constitute close to 18.66% (641 out of 3,435) There is definitely something that needs to be done, to rectify this error.

Today, YB Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, MCA President has announced of 5 measurements to encourage Malaysian Chinese to join Civil Service.

1. There will be much greater publicity on civil service recruitment through Chinese and Tamil media, be it newspaper, tv etc.

2. Annual requirement of civil servant through www.spa.gov.my

3. Absorption of JPA scholars into civil service

4. Increase number of JPA scholarships, especially for those studying at IPTAs.

5. Greater publicity of joining civil service through roadshows at various institutions of higher learning.

This is definitely a welcoming step. It would go a long way to ensure that our civil service is balanced.

To all Malaysian Chinese youth out there who is contemplating joining civil service, do give it a shot!

Health

Blogged earlier on health and it is indeed important..

Today, just got a shocking news. One of the very dedicated council members of American Universities Alumni Malaysia got a stroke, and I am really hoping that he would recover soon. He has played a very crucial role to help us during Discover U.S. Education - KL '07 too! Really hope that he would recover soon. This is definitely shocking. Would pray for his recovery.

Life is definitely uncertain and things are definitely happening and moving so fast. Just can't imagine.

I am going for my medical checkup this Saturday. Would pray for the best!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

What should I blog?

Since this is my personal blog, what should I blog on? I have been asked by many or given comments that my blog is too dry.. Nothing fancy.. Just normal posts...

Some do come by to read about news or event announcements...

Some, I am not sure why they come in... :P

But guess, this is my portal, so I think it would be on sharing what is in my mind... What I care about...Events that are happening around in Malaysia mainly and the world, events/announcements that I think I could help do some public service announcement to promote it, and also on any random stuff that I can get my hands on..

Do hope to see more people leave comments... It is always nice to see people read and respond to!

English Language to teach Maths and Sciences

What language should Maths and Sciences be taught? What would be the best policy? Should our country allow the teachers the freedom to choose? Should primary school students' Maths and Sciences be reverted to mother tounge?

How about for Secondary School? What is the benefit of learning Maths and Sciences in English? Help the students to learn English better? I seriously doubt so. However, having the foundation of Maths and Sciences in English would help students seek help and look for reference and reduce the effects when students go to universities.

My opinion would be for students to learn it bilingual for primary school, but for secondary school, it should be done fully in English. For primary and secondary school, efforts should be made to strengthen the language command. Would literature help? Should students be encouraged to read more? Can the rural folks cope? Are the teachers well-trained to do so? How about the students' motivation? Would the students be encouraged or discouraged to speak English by their peers?

A more important question, is learning English crucial? Can our Malay language or Mandarin be as important? Isn't it that developed nations like France, Germany, Japan, Korea have a developed status for their language. Can our national language be so?

Malaysian Universities

After our Prime Minister is willing to take the bite on the dropping of ranking of our universities, our Higher Education Minister, YB Datuk Mustapa Mohameed and also USM Vice Chancellor, Datuk Prof Dzulkifli also admit that there is a lot of room for us to work on and improve.

There is no point in blaming the changing of criteria. True, it might affect a few extra ranking, but the bottom line is that we have a lot to improve. Especially in terms of citation, we are no where near there. We do improve lately, but there is still a lot to go. The next aspect would be to grow the Masters and PhD education, to train the next generation of academician. We might need to take the step to hire a lot of top notch professors (perhaps spend some millions), to bring in the talent and try to get fellow Malaysians to learn more and develop.

YB Datuk Mustapa also mentioned that Apex University is not a step for us to declare that our university is world class. But on the other hand, it helps to choose 1 or 2 universities, where a lot more resources going to focus on it, and try to bring up its standard. As of now, we have 4 research universities that rank top 4 in the country - UM, USM, UKM and UPM and follow closely behind is UTM.

So, would really hope that we could find ways/ideas to strengthen our public universities and private universities.

Some of the points that I would recommend:-
a) Much greater alumni network - having the alumni to go back to share with the students and to guide them
b) More industry/public network/collaboration - have more industry people to go to universities to share with students real life experience and also more colloborations between the research labs and industry
c) Encourage students to do internship from 1st year holiday
d) Guide students to learn more soft skills.
e) Allow students to take more diverse courses

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

DiGi + Time?

There has been news around that says DiGi would merge with Time, especially with Time, under the backing of Khazanah, owns the precious 3G spectrum! Would this rumours turn out to be true?

Yes! It is true! It has been announced! There will be a tie-up between DiGi and Time! DiGi has offered to lease the 3G licence from Time for a total of 27.5 Million DiGi share, worth a whopping RM654.5 Million. That's a great deal of money!!!

Would this be a worthwhile buy? Is DiGi spending too much for the spectrum? Would this be good for handphone users?

Selangor MB presents Broom to 2 City Councils

Selangor Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Dr. Muhammad Khir Toyo presented a broom to Hulu Langat District Council and Klang Municipal Council for their bad performance last year.

This is one of the very few times that our leaders reprimand in public the bad performance of certain leaders. This is definitely a wake up call to various council heads that their performance is being monitored.

While I personally fully support this award to reprimand those councils which under-perform, I would think that giving the "award" for 2006 in November 2007, would be too late. To create the effects, it should be presented in January or February.

By now, 2007 is about to end already and it would be too late for them to buck up!

American Universities Alumni Malaysia 30th Anniversary

As a follow up to my earlier post at here on American Universities Alumni Malaysia looking for prominent U.S. Universities Alumni, right now, the event planning is quite on track already.

The 30th Anniversary of American Universities Alumni Malaysia (AUAM) would be on 16th December 2007 (Sunday) 7:30pm at Crowne Plaza Mutiara Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

The guest of honor would be Perak Crown Prince, Raja Dr. Nazrin Shah ibni Sultan Azlan Shah. It would be a fantastic occasion to listen to Raja Nazrin again, after his speech during Malaysian Student Leaders Summit!

The ticket is currently selling at RM120 per piece. If anyone is interested, do let me know. Corporate table is available at RM1,500 as well.

Hope to see many people present to listen to this fantastic speech.

Would Raja Nazrin make further statement on his call for all Malaysians to go back to Constitution?

Malaysia Sudoku Society Inaugural AGM

Special Announcement for Malaysia Sudoku Society!

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Special Announcement

Join us at the Inaugural Annual General Meeting of the MALAYSIA SUDOKU SOCIETY,
and be a founding member.

Registration Fee: RM30
Annual Fee: RM20

Date : 15th December 2007 (Saturday) Time : 3:00pm
Venue : Auditorium 2, National Science Center, Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

Temporary Website : http://malaysiasudoku.blogspot.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Malaysia Sudoku Society is also looking for someone to help to design its website! A simple website would do. Malaysia Sudoku Society is willing to pay a token sum for it! It is a NGO, so don't expect much, but it would be a good contribution to community!

U.S. Universities Interview Tips

Got an email from a friend, fellow ReCom member , who chose to be anonymous. He sent me links to MIT Educational Counselors' Interview Briefing, which would be very useful to those who want to apply to top U.S. Universities. Check it out here .

Would also share what is available from Cornell. Check it out here

Do definitely browse the following link for more articles.

MIT Articles

Good luck for all of you who are preparing for your applications!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Human Capital

Times Higher Education Supplement just released the new ranking last week and I have blogged earlier on the poorer performance of our local universities. Prime Minister touched on it as well during the Cornell Club of Malaysia's Dinner.

Instead of the typical Malaysian way of finding excuses, Prime Minister admitted that he is saddened by the drop in ranking and he was saying that while he is hoping for improvement of our universities, the ranking has been sliding over the past few years. He wanted all our fellow Malaysians to work together to help our local universities to grow and improve.

Prime Minister, when being asked on how we could leverage on the Malaysian talents, especially many Malaysians who are alumni of prestigious universities, he suggested that those people could take up Adjunct Professor at local universities. He suggested much greater collaborations between industry and our local institutions of higher learning.

He encouraged fellow Malaysians in the audience, to bring up suggestions to him, on how to improve the quality of education in our country. It is a national mission for all of us to value add. Prime Minister mentioned that 2 very important key words are Human Capital and Value Add.

He encouraged many of those who are in the audience, who are already long in the corporate world, to continue to develop oneself. Without continuous improvement and learning, we would not be able to value add.

Speaking on this issue, I recall an article I read in Sin Chew today. It is on a survey of starting salary of our fresh grad. It is very sad with the current situation. Among those who have graduated from local universities (public and private), as well as colleges, community colleges and technical institutions, only a mere 45% manage to find a job within 6 months of graduation. Another 18% further studies, 1% take up additional skill sets/training, 6% waiting for job, and this means a staggering 30% of them fail to get any job offer within 6 months.

What is more staggering is the pay of those who did manage to get an offer. Only a mere 27% of them manage to get a pay above RM2,000 a month. 44% get between RM1,000 and RM2,000. 24% get a pay between RM500 and RM1,000 a month, whereas a remaining 5% get a pay below RM500 a month. This is definitely shocking, especially these degree and diploma holders are earning quite low pay.

What is wrong? What is the mismatch between what provided by institutions of higher learning and what the market needs? Is it because of our employers are paying too little? Is it because of our graduates are under-qualified? Is it because of the language issue? Is it because of the attitude of the graduates?

What say you?

Fuel Subsidy

With oil prices surge near USD100 per barrel, one of the hottest issues in the world today, would be the oil price. Perhaps, this is the hottest topic, other than the subprime crisis.

What impacts oil price would have on Malaysia, or we as the common citizen of Malaysia, or even as a global citizen? When oil prices go up, the cost of everything would go up, as oil is almost indispensible in every aspect. Luckily USD has been weak lately, and USD100 with an exchange rate of USD1 to RM3.33 would mean about 15% saving compared to if USD1 to RM3.80.

Prime Minister, during the Q&A of Cornell Club of Malaysia's Dinner touched on this issue of subsidy. Prime Minister quoted that currently total fuel subsidy for 2007 is RM35 Billion. That's slightly more than USD10 Billion. If we divide by total Malaysian population, that's a subsidy of RM1,400 per person per year, assuming we have 25 Million population. That's about RM4 per person per day. Quite a staggering amount!

Besides fuel subsidy, Malaysia also subsidizes many daily necessities, from rice, to cooking oil to salt to sugar to .... . That's another RM5 Billion a year. Quite a lot of money. If that money is effectively utilized for appropriate usage, that would develop do a great deal of good to our economy.

One point mentioned by Prime Minister is quite important. Prime Minister said that today, Malaysia is competitive with fuel subsidy and other subsidy in place. What if we take away the subsidy? Is Malaysia still competitive? Prime Minister actually say that we might actually not be competitive.

Currently, due to the subsidy, our companies operate on a lower cost structure, and hence we are competitive. However, if we are going to fight head-on, without any subsidy, can we match other corporations around the world, or around the region? Can we value add sufficiently to improve our productivity level?

What say you? Hope to hear more comments~!

Prime Minister's Speech in Cornell Club of Malaysia Dinner

Below is the full speech of Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi during Cornell Club of Malaysia's Dinner. The speech is informative, but nothing much new.

The speech was made on 10th November 2007 at Putrajaya International Convention Center

”THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS: IMPETUS FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR IMPLEMENTATION UNDER THE RMK9 AND BEYOND”

BISMILLAHIR RAHMANIR RAHIM

ASSALAMUALAIKUM WARAHMATULLAHI WABARAKATUH AND GOOD EVENING

DR. MOHD YUSOF ISMAIL
PRESIDENT, CORNELL CLUB OF MALAYSIA

DISTINGUISHED GUESTS

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN


1. ALHAMDULILLAH, ALL PRAISE AND GLORY ARE FOR ALLAH S.W.T., FOR IT IS WITH HIS BLESSINGS AND GUIDANCE THAT WE ARE GATHERED HERE TODAY.

2. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE ORGANISERS FOR INVITING ME TO THIS EVENT. TONIGHT, I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR PLANS. I BELIEVE THIS IS AN OPPORTUNE TIME TO DO SO, AS THESE CORRIDORS BEGIN THE CRUCIAL PHASE OF EARLY IMPLEMENTATION.

3. I HAVE CHOSEN TO SPEAK ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS AS MY VERY FIRST SPEECH FOLLOWING THE RECENT UMNO GENERAL ASSEMBLY. THIS SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS SUBJECT MATTER TO MY GOVERNMENT AND TO THE NATION.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

4. IN MARCH 2006, I ANNOUNCED THE NINTH MALAYSIA PLAN, WHICH MARKS THE START OF THE SECOND PHASE OF OUR JOURNEY TOWARDS BECOMING A DEVELOPED NATION BY THE YEAR 2020. IN THIS PLAN, I OUTLINED THE FIVE THRUSTS OF THE NATIONAL MISSION AS A STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR MALAYSIA OVER THE NEXT 15 YEARS AND BEYOND.

5. THE NATIONAL MISSION HIGHLIGHTS THE NEED FOR INVESTING IN HIGHER VALUE ADDED ACTIVITIES, AS WELL AS IN DEVELOPING FIRST-CLASS HUMAN CAPITAL. IT ALSO EMPHASISES THE NEED FOR BALANCED GROWTH, AND THE IMPERATIVE OF UPGRADING THE MALAYSIAN QUALITY OF LIFE. FINALLY, THE NATIONAL MISSION PRIORITISES THE NEED FOR IMPROVING OUR INSTITUTIONAL FOUNDATIONS AND DELIVERY MECHANISMS.

6. IN THIS REGARD, THE FIVE THRUSTS OF THE NATIONAL MISSION PROVIDES THE STRATEGIC FOUNDATIONS FOR THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS. INDEED, I CONSIDER THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS TO BE AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF MY ECONOMIC STRATEGY FOR THE NATION.

7. WE HAVE ALREADY LAUNCHED THREE REGIONAL CORRIDORS IN THE PENINSULA: THE ISKANDAR DEVELOPMENT REGION IN SOUTH JOHOR; THE NORTHERN CORRIDOR ECONOMIC REGION IN PERLIS, PULAU PINANG, KEDAH, AND NORTHERN PERAK; AND THE EAST COAST ECONOMIC REGION IN KELANTAN, TERENGGANU, PAHANG, AND MERSING IN JOHOR. ANOTHER TWO CORRIDORS IN SABAH AND SARAWAK ARE IN THE FINAL STAGES OF PLANNING, AND WOULD BE LAUNCHED SOON.

8. THE REGIONAL CORRIDORS MARK A NEW APPROACH IN DEVELOPMENT PLANNING FOR OUR NATION. THIS EVENING, I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR PLANS.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

9. THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA HEAVILY EMPHASISES THE CONCEPT OF GROWTH WITH EQUITY. IN THIS REGARD, THE REGIONAL CORRIDOR PLANS CONSTITUTE A RENEWED EMPHASIS ON THIS VERY IMPORTANT IDEA.

10. ONE ASPECT OF EQUITABILITY IS THE NEED TO ADDRESS INCOME GAPS. OVER THE DECADES, MOST OF THE DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA HAS BEEN CONCENTRATED IN THE TRADITIONAL CENTRES OF KUALA LUMPUR, PULAU PINANG, AND JOHOR BHARU. IN FACT, DEVELOPMENT IN THESE AREAS HAVE BEEN VERY RAPID. IN A STUDY THAT IS DUE TO BE PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY CENTRE (N.P.C.) VERY SOON, WE HAVE DISCOVERED THAT WE ARE FAST REACHING THE POINT WHEN WE CAN MAKE APPLE-TO-APPLE COMPARISONS BETWEEN KUALA LUMPUR AND SINGAPORE.

11. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT. IT MEANS THAT IF KUALA LUMPUR WERE VIEWED AS A STAND-ALONE CITY-STATE LIKE SINGAPORE, OUR VERY OWN K.L. WOULD BE A DEVELOPED NATION IN ITS OWN RIGHT. IT ALSO MEANS THAT FOR MALAYSIA AS A WHOLE TO BE A DEVELOPED NATION BY THE YEAR 2020, WE NEED TO BRING THE REST OF MALAYSIA UP TO PAR WITH KUALA LUMPUR.

12. IN ORDER TO DO THIS, WE NEED TO ADDRESS THE LARGE GAP IN INCOME THAT EXISTS ACROSS VARIOUS GROUPS IN MALAYSIA. THE INCOME RATIO BETWEEN URBAN AND RURAL HOUSEHOLDS HAS ACTUALLY DETERIORATED FROM ONE TO 1.81 IN 1999, TO ONE TO 2.11 IN 2004. BECAUSE THE BUMIPUTERA COMMUNITY IS LARGELY LOCATED IN RURAL AREAS, THE INCOME GAP BETWEEN BUMIPUTERAS AND THE NON-BUMIPUTERAS IS ALSO STUBBORNLY HIGH. IN BOTH CASES, THE GAPS IN INCOMES CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE GREATER ECONOMIC GROWTH OF MALAYSIA’S URBAN CENTRES – PARTICULARLY IN THE KLANG VALLEY – COMPARED TO THE RURAL HINTERLAND.

13. THE OTHER ASPECT OF EQUITABILITY IS THE ERADICATION OF POVERTY. WE HAVE SET OUT VERY AGGRESSIVE TARGETS FOR POVERTY ERADICATION. BY 2010, WE PLAN TO ELIMINATE HARDCORE POVERTY. DURING THE SAME TIME, WE HOPE TO HALVE THE OVERALL POVERTY RATE DOWN TO 2.8 PER CENT.

14. RECENTLY, DURING THE UMNO GENERAL ASSEMBLY, I ANNOUNCED THAT POVERTY ERADICATION WOULD BE THE PRIORITY FOR THE SECOND PHASE OF THE NINTH MALAYSIA PLAN. FOR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES UNDER THE BANNER OF THE BARISAN NASIONAL, THEY WOULD BE EVALUATED PARTLY ON THEIR PERFORMANCE IN HELPING TO REDUCE POVERTY IN THEIR CONSTITUENCIES.

15. BOTH FROM THE LOGIC OF INCOME PARITY, AS WELL AS POVERTY ERADICATION, THE APPROACH OF BROAD-BASED REGIONAL GROWTH IS THEREFORE PARAMOUNT. HENCE, THE REGIONAL CORRIDORS PLACE GREAT STOCK IN PROMOTING NEW CENTRES FOR REGIONAL GROWTH.

16. ON ONE HAND, THE CORRIDORS ARE AIMED AT BUILDING ON THE EXISTING STRENGTHS OF TRADITIONAL GROWTH CENTRES SUCH AS KUALA LUMPUR, JOHOR BHARU AND PULAU PINANG. AT THE SAME TIME, THE CORRIDORS WOULD ALSO PROMOTE THE RISE OF NEW GROWTH CENTRES. THESE WOULD INCLUDE PADANG BESAR AND KULIM IN THE NORTHERN CORRIDOR; KUANTAN AND KUALA TERENGGANU IN THE EASTERN CORRIDOR; AND NUSAJAYA AND SENAI IN ISKANDAR. THE RISE OF THESE SATELLITE GROWTH CENTRES WOULD ENSURE MORE BROAD-BASED ECONOMIC GROWTH, AND HENCE GREATER EQUITABILITY.

17. THE REGIONAL CORRIDOR STRATEGY ALSO PLACES GREAT EMPHASIS ON THE PROMOTION OF RURAL AGRICULTURE. RESEARCH, LOGISTICS, AND MARKETING SUPPORT WOULD BE PROVIDED TO HELP TRANSFORM RURAL AGRICULTURE, BY CONNECTING THEM TO THE WIDER GLOBAL MARKET. BY DOING SO, WE HOPE TO PROMOTE GROWTH IN RURAL INCOMES, THEREBY HELPING TO CLOSE THE INCOME GAPS BETWEEN VARIOUS SECTIONS OF MALAYSIAN SOCIETY. ULTIMATELY, THE REGIONAL CORRIDORS WILL BE THE RISING TIDE THAT LIFTS ALL MALAYSIAN BOATS TOWARDS DEVELOPED NATION STATUS BY THE YEAR 2020.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

18. ANOTHER NATIONAL PRIORITY WHICH ALSO INFORMS THE THINKING BEHIND THE REGIONAL CORRIDOR PLANS IS THE NEED FOR COMPETITIVENESS. WE ARE NOW OPERATING IN A GLOBAL, OPEN ENVIRONMENT WHERE THE COMPETITIVE PRESSURES ARE INTENSE.

19. THIS EMPHASIS ON COMPETITIVENESS UNDERPINS OUR DECISION TO INVOLVE THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN THE OVERALL PLANNING, AS WELL AS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION AND EXECUTION OF THESE CORRIDORS. WE NOTE THAT A NUMBER OF INITIATIVES IN THE PAST HAVE FAILED TO GALVANISE THE PRIVATE SECTOR INTO ACTION. THIS HAS LEFT MANY PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES BEING UNDER-UTILISED AND SOMETIMES LEFT ABANDONED.

20. TODAY, THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS ENCOURAGED TO PLAY A LEADING ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CORRIDORS. THIS WOULD ENSURE THAT THE PLANNING FOR THESE CORRIDORS WOULD BE BUSINESS-DRIVEN AND SUSTAINABLE. AT THE SAME TIME, PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION WOULD ENSURE THAT BOTH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INVESTMENTS ARE MADE WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF A COMPETITIVE AND COMMERCIALLY-ORIENTED CORRIDOR DEVELOPMENT.

21. THERE IS ALSO ANOTHER ASPECT OF COMPETITIVENESS THAT IS ALSO IMPORTANT: THE NEED TO FOSTER NATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. WE NEED TO PROMOTE THE ENTIRE ECOSYSTEM OF INVESTMENTS, INCENTIVES, HUMAN CAPITAL, AND OTHER FACTORS THAT PROMOTE THE GROWTH OF NEW STRATEGIC SECTORS. THEREFORE, WE HAVE ALSO POSITIONED THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS AS VEHICLES FOR INCUBATING AND NURTURING NEW INDUSTRY GROWTH.

22. FOR EXAMPLE, IN ISKANDAR, WE HAVE IDENTIFIED KEY SERVICE SECTORS SUCH AS FINANCE, EDUCATION, I.C.T., LOGISTICS, HEALTHCARE, AND THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES.

23. IN THE NORTHERN CORRIDOR ECONOMIC REGION, WE ARE EMPHASISING THE GROWTH OF MODERN AGRICULTURE, TOURISM, ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN, AND LOGISTICS INDUSTRIES.

24. IN THE EAST COAST ECONOMIC REGION, WE WILL BE PROMOTING THE GROWTH OF PETROCHEMICALS, MODERN AGRICULTURE, AUTOMOTIVE, AND TOURISM INDUSTRIES.

25. BY PLACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THESE STRATEGIC SECTORS WITHIN THE ECOSYSTEM OF THE REGIONAL CORRIDORS, WE HOPE TO PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETITIVE INDUSTRIES THAT WOULD SPAWN REGIONAL AND EVEN GLOBAL CHAMPIONS IN DUE TIME.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

26. ANOTHER IDEA WHICH INFORMS THE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE REGIONAL CORRIDORS IS THE IDEA OF “LEVERAGE”.

27. IN THE REGIONAL CORRIDOR STRATEGY, A KEY ASPECT OF OUR DEVELOPMENT APPROACH IS THE NEED TO LEVERAGE ON EXISTING STRENGTHS. FOR EXAMPLE, OUR PLANS FOR THE SATELLITE GROWTH CENTRES IN THE VARIOUS CORRIDORS DO NOT ARISE IN A VACUUM. INSTEAD, WE TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE EXISTING STRENGTHS OF OUR NATION.

28. LIKEWISE, OUR SECTORAL APPROACH IS ALSO FOUNDED ON THE CONCEPT OF LEVERAGE. WE DO NOT INTEND TO START NEW INITIATIVES FROM SCRATCH. INSTEAD, WE AIM TO BUILD ON OUR EXISTING ECONOMIC STRENGTHS TO VENTURE INTO NEW AREAS. FOR EXAMPLE, OUR FORAY INTO PALM-BASED BIODIESEL IS BASED ON OUR EXISTING POSITION AS A GLOBAL POWERHOUSE IN PALM OIL PLANTATIONS AND REFINING. ANOTHER EXAMPLE IS OUR RECENT FOCUS ON THE HALAL INDUSTRY, WHICH LEVERAGES ON MALAYSIA’S STRONG LINKAGES WITH THE MUSLIM WORLD, AS WELL AS OUR EXISTING STRENGTH IN GLOBAL LOGISTICS.

29. IN KEEPING WITH THE IDEA OF LEVERAGE, WE WARMLY WELCOME INVESTMENTS INTO THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS FROM ALL COMERS. WE WILL ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET FOR BOTH DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN PARTNERS, FROM THE REGION AS WELL AS FROM BEYOND.

30. IN THE CASE OF THE ISKANDAR DEVELOPMENT REGION., WE PLAN TO LEVERAGE ON THE PROXIMITY TO SINGAPORE TO CREATE A NEW GLOBAL METROPOLIS IN SOUTHERN JOHOR THAT MALAYSIANS CAN BE TRULY PROUD OF. IN THIS REGARD, SOME PARTIES HAVE EXPRESSED THEIR CONCERNS AND RESERVATIONS. IN MY MIND, THESE CONCERNS ARE UNFOUNDED.

31. WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO HARBOUR FEARS ABOUT OUR OWN CAPABILITIES TO MAKE OUR CORRIDORS WORK. WE HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE, WE HAVE THE SKILLS, AND WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO ENSURE SUCCESS.

32. WE NEED NOT FEEL UNDULY WORRIED OR ASHAMED ABOUT WORKING WITH OUR NEIGHBOURS FOR MUTUAL BENEFIT, IF WE NEED TO. WE SHOULD BE MORE ASHAMED IF WE CANNOT OVERCOME POVERTY AND BACKWARDNESS OF OUR OWN PEOPLE. WE MUST BRING THE LIGHT OF DEVELOPMENT INTO EVERY CORNER OF MALAYSIA; THIS IS MY GOVERNMENT’S PLEDGE TO THE PEOPLE OF MALAYSIA.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

33. THE FUTURE STRETCHES AHEAD OF US IN A MATCHLESS HORIZON. BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE: THE ROAD AHEAD WILL BE LONG, STEEP AND HARD. BUT IF WE AIM TO STAY TRUE TO OUR PROMISE, THEN WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO STAY THE COURSE.

34. IT IS NOW TIME FOR AGGRESSIVE IMPLEMENTATION AND FOCUSED EXECUTION. WHEN THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS TAKE ROOT AND BRANCH OUT IN THE NEAR FUTURE, WE WILL BE ABLE DELIVER THE FRUITS OF DEVELOPMENT TO EVERY MALAYSIAN. WE WILL THEN LITERALLY CHANGE THE FACE OF MALAYSIA, INSYA-ALLAH. LET US THEREFORE WORK TOGETHER AND TOIL TOGETHER, SO THAT IN 50 YEARS’ TIME, IT SHALL BE SAID THAT OUR GENERATION MADE SURE THAT NO MALAYSIAN WAS LEFT BEHIND.

35. MAY ALLAH S.W.T. BLESS OUR EFFORTS, AND MAY HE STRENGTHEN OUR WILL TO DO WHAT IS BEST.

THANK YOU.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Prime Minister attends Cornell Alumni Dinner

Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi graced the Cornell Club of Malaysia 3rd Dinner Talk Series. It is definitely a great recognition to Cornell University, when Prime Minister chooses to address Cornell alumni, the day after UMNO General Assembly.

10th November 2007 definitely goes down to history. The first time Cornell's name is mentioned in all major newspapers in Malaysia.

Prime Minister spoke mainly on 2 issues:- Regional Corridors and Human Capital Development.

Would put all the newspapers link here. Would write on what PM covers later on.

Bernama
The Star - Article 1
The Star - Article 2
NST - Article 1
NST - Article 2
Sin Chew Jit Poh
China Press - Article 1
China Press - Article 2
Nanyang Siang Pao
Berita Harian
Utusan Malaysia

NST definitely made a fool of itself, when it wrote "He was speaking during a question-and-answer session at the Cornell Club Dinner Talk Series, organised by The Oxford Cambridge Society, Malaysia. ".

I am not sure how NST deduced that Cornell is suddenly one of the colleges of Oxbridge or a branch campus of Oxbridge etc. It is wierd that NST made this blunder, when throughout the whole event, it was clearly mentioned that it is Cornell Club of Malaysia that organized it, and no other newspaper made similar blunder.

Since it is almost 3am, I won't comment on PM's speech and response to Q&A now. Would write it later.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

World Aids Day - Volunteer

Obtain an email on a awareness event for World Aids Day. If you are interested to volunteer, hope to see you contact the organizer!


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Dear friends,

Greetings! The Most Happening Event is coming to town..

Its the Event you would not want to miss out to be part of. Its also the Event that has created a stir for past few years, & it was the talk of the town in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia for the month of December 2005 till today.

No.. its not any event that is for the sake of passing by without anyone notice, gays or straights alike.
No.. its not any event that is for the sake of earning merits, as the scope of influence no other events can match.
No.. its not any event that the gay community would want to miss out, it is more happening than any club party in town.

YES.. Its WAD's RED CARNIVAL 2007 @ Sungei Wang Plaza. WAD stands for World AIDS Day, which is in 01 December 2007 (www.ptfmalaysia.org).

The Red Carnival will be on 1 & 2 December 2007 (Saturday & Sunday) with the theme: "STOP AIDS. Keep the Promise" for the course of fighting the HIV/AIDS off the shore of Malaysia, with emphasis to focus on the Young adults in particular.

You can be part of this happening event this December 2007 as you can volunteer & make a difference in your life & the life of others who benefited directly or indirectly from your involvement.

Our Volunteer Recruitment is open to you and your friends, from NOW till late 18 November 2007. You can email in your response to me, Jeremy Kwan, at jeremekwan@yahoo.com or Chun Ting at chunting927@yahoo.com with your full name (as in IC) + IC No., Contact no. cum Email address and how many persons.

Example: Jeremy Kwan Wing Kien (IC: 690330088316). Contact No. 012-3456789. Email: jeremekwan@yahoo.com and No of Pax: 10 Paxs.

The Volunteers Briefing sessions will be two weeks before the event, either on weekdays evening or weekend evening, to be announced later.

Please tune in for more details at www.ptfmalaysia.org, which I believe you would not want to miss out on. Do keep your calendar marked for this most happening event in December 2007.

Do STOP AIDS & Keep the Promise as you are the leader for the future. Do believe you can be an inspiration that lead your life & others, & that you can make an influence through your involvement in this year event.

Do not hesitate to contact me at 03-4044 4611 from Wednesday to Sunday (from 9:00am to 6:00pm) if you have any query. You can also email me or Chung Ting, or go to our website at www.ptfmalaysia.org for more info.

Keep the flame burning. STOP AIDS. Keep the Promise.

regards, Jeremy Kwan -
"STOP AIDS. Keep the Promise"
@ Sungei Wang Plaza - Fiesta Walk on 1 & 2 December
in conjunction with the International World AIDS Day 2007
PT Foundation Kuala Lumpur.
Tel. 03-4044 4611
Fax 03-4044 4622
Website: www.ptfmalaysia.org

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Malaysian Universities

Guess most of us, who have been reading newspapers have been rocked by a reality. None of the Malaysian universities manage to get into Top 200 of the Times Higher Education Supplement ranking. While it is just a mere ranking, it does impact a lot! Universiti Malaya and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia both drop out of top 200. Universiti of Chulalongkorn from Thailand do drop out of top 200 too.

What goes wrong? Universiti Malaya drops from 85 to 169 to 192 to 246 position. UKM goes up from 289 to 185 last year, but drops to 309 this year. USM goes up from 326 to 277 last year, but drops to 307 this year. UPM goes up from 394 to 292 last year, but drops to 364 this year.

The criteria for this year is 40% Peer Review, 10% Recruiter Review, 20% Faculty:Student Ratio, 20% of Citations, 5% International Students, 5% International Faculty.

Universiti Malaya has improved in terms of Recruiter Review, International Students and International Faculty. In terms of international students, total international students go up from 1126 to 3073. Really within a year, UM is now full of international students. For international faculty, it has gone up from 115 to 323. Thesis or publications have gone up to more than 3,000 too, although this figure is still very low, and is one of the main reasons for UM low ranking.

So, whose fault is it? What kind our local universities do? Does this drop of ranking mean our quality continue to slide? Does this mean that others are growing faster than we do? What really goes wrong? We should really go down into the details to find out and really work hard!

Lets look at the ranking. My alma mater, Cornell drops from 15 to 20. NUS drops from 19 to 33, whereas Peking University drops from 14 to 36. Stanford University drops from 6 to 19, whereas UC Berkeley drops from 8 to 22. MIT drops from 4 to 10, whereas LSE drops from 17 to 59. Washington University in St. Louis drops from 48 to 161. Macquarie from 82 to 168.

So, if everyone is dropping, which universities went up? Imperial College from 9 to 5. Princeton from 10 to 6, University of Chicago from 11 to 7. University College of London 25 to 9. McGill 21 to 12. Penn 26 to 14. University of Hong Kong 33 to 18. Carnegie Mellon University 35 to 20. King's College London 46 to 24. Brown from 54 to 32 etc.

So, does this ranking matters at all? What causes those certain universities to drop a lot? Does those % ratings matter? Would student:faculty ratio matters a lot? Would 10 student:1 faculty vs 7 student: 1 faculty matters a lot? It might not, but the ranking would show greater difference.

Moving forward, what can we do to strengthen our universities? Would these 4 research universities continue to slide or can buck the trend and improve? What needs to be done? What kind of KPI needs to be institutionalized? Can the public support their alma mater more?

Friday, November 09, 2007

Health

Thanks for everyone who is checking... My health is getting a little better. My blood pressure is getting a little lower. So, that's a good news!!! Would try to control the stress level and make sure that I would be able to handle it!!!

Thanks for all the care and support. Really appreciate it!!!

To all of you out there who haven't taken good care of health, don't forget that health is very important.

Congrats to Poh Yi

Congratulations to Poh Yi~! I know you can do it! Congrats for making it into one of the top management consulting firm in the world!!! Am very proud of your achievement!!!

It is great to keep on getting the good news from my juniors who have managed to scale greater heights and manage to get into very reputable universities/firms. It definitely shows that Malaysians can do it, if they are able to be provided opportunities!!!

Congrats again!!!

Thursday, November 08, 2007

UMNO General Assembly

Attached is the full speech by Prime Minister, YAB Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the Opening of UMNO General Assembly.

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Alhamdulillah, with God’s will, we are convene for the 58th UMNO General Assembly.

2. Our assembly this year takes place in the glow of the 50th Merdeka celebrations. This is also our first assembly for the next 50 years. Beginning the first national elections, UMNO, as part of the Alliance and subsequently Barisan Nasional, has formed the national government based on the principle of power sharing. It also spearheaded the drive towards independence.

3. The Malayan Government, considered to be lacking in experience, faced myriad challenges. Twelve years after independence, the nation was riven by racial riots that threatened its survival. Thanks to mutual understanding and a strong spirit of cooperation, we overcame this test. That dark time in our history became a valuable lesson that taught us the need to strengthen our unity.

4. In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Government introduced three major measures. First, the Rukun Negara was introduced as a national ideology to ensure national unity and safeguard the integrity of the nation. Second, the New Economic Policy was designed to develop our economy based on fair and equitable growth. Finally, the Barisan Nasional was introduced as an effective and inclusive political vehicle. The implementation of these three measures has brought success, guaranteed our survival and brought us the prosperity that we enjoy to this day.

5. Today, Barisan Nasional enjoys the support of the majority of Malaysians. We have formed the government continuously for 52 years. This achievement is testament to the party’s wise leadership and its committed membership. It is also the result of the cooperation we have formed with non-Malay communities, on the basis of power sharing and mutual understanding – an action plan that is realistic and pragmatic, giving priority to nation building and the welfare of the people.

ACHIEVEMENT OVER 50 YEARS

6. UMNO has done more than merely lead the government for 52 years. It has succeeded in building Malaysia into one of the most successful nations in the world, with an average growth rate of 6.3 percent per annum over fifty years. When we gained our independence, we ranked among the poorest countries in the world. Now, we are classified as a high human development index nation.Our nominal per capita income is RM20,900 – a 26 fold increase from the time of Merdeka.

7. The Government’s policy of encouraging private sector growth has resulted in total trade exceeding RM1 trillion for the first time earlier this year. We have recorded a positive balance of payments for 109 consecutive months.Our foreign reserves are now USD98.2 billion. Stock market activity is active and the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index has reached historic heights, touching 1413 points. Malaysia is recognized by the World Economic Forum as the fifth most competitive country in Asia.

8. These achievements are the result of our willingness to work hard. With the commitment of party members and the solid backing of the people, with the understanding of the public sector and in partnership with the private sector, I am confident that our competitiveness and productivity will continue to improve.

STRENGTHENING ISLAM

9. UMNO is committed to strengthening Islam and will not apologise for doing so. Islam promotes moderation. During the General Assembly in 2004, I laid out the ten principles of Islam Hadhari, an approach that was understood and supported by the component parties of Barisan Nasional. This proved that the approach to Islam as promoted by UMNO is fair.

10. Calls to return to the spirit of the Federal Constitution should be viewed in a positive light, interpreted with wisdom and without prejudice. The Constitution must be viewed as a whole, and selected clauses cannot be interpreted in isolation or out of context. The Constitution provides that Islam the official religion of the Federation but there is freedom to practice other religions.

11. Guided by the spirit of the Constitution, Malaysians of different religions must exercise mutual respect. Islam exhorts Muslims to respect the followers of other religions as stated in verse 108 of surah Al-An’ aam:

And do not revile those (beings) whom they invoke instead of God, lest they revile God out of spite, and in ignorance.
(al – An’aam:108)

12. It must be stressed that every action will cause a reaction. The disrespect and extremism shown by one party will elicit a similar response from another party. Violence by one side will breed violence from the other. Therefore, if we want our religion to be respected and understood, let us, in UMNO, show exemplary behaviour by respecting the followers of other religions and their needs.

13. We give assurance that UMNO will not endorse a narrow interpretation of Islam. UMNO opposes the culture of violence, we oppose a political culture that can disrupt the daily lives and commercial affairs of the ummah. Islam must not be downsized to fit the needs of a political organisation.Islam cannot become the exclusive domain of any single group.

14. UMNO believes that Islam will not grow, nor will it be respected if it is confined to rituals. If we fight for Islam, armed only with slogans and rhetoric, we will not achieve excellence. Indeed, the application of Islam through the prism of shallow minds and narrow interpretations can cause discomfort not only among non-Muslims, but among Muslims themselves. Overzealous enforcement can give Islam a negative image. Failure to understand the needs of adherents of other religions and denying them their rights runs counter to the spirit of the Federal Constitution.

As for such (of the unbelievers) as do not fight against you on account of (your) faith, and neither drive you forth from your homelands, God does not forbid you to show them kindness and to behave towards them with full equity: for verily, God loves those who act equitably.
(al-Mumtahanah: 8)

15. Islam must be explained to its followers, but also to non-Muslims. Islam must be identified as a religion that dispenses justice, prohibits inequity and rejects violence. There is nothing wrong with Islam, the error lies in the misguided actions by those who fail to interpret Islam and those who fail to practice it with open minds and rational thought. Muslims should concentrate on building on what makes Islam attractive. The Government’s stand is that Islam will be respected if it develops intellectual excellence, emphasises the pursuit of knowledge and concentrates on attaining economic success.

16. We have received international acknowledgement for our success in developing the Islamic financial system and in building a Halal hub, and these efforts are no less important that our individual obligations, our fardu ain. These efforts illustrate that Islam is contemporary and relevant in the modern economy. In fact, research in economy, science and technology are encouraged. We should give priority to these pursuits, instead of wasting time on polemics and rhetoric about rituals. Islam and the Ummah will be developed more quickly when Muslims can show excellence in the economy, science and technology.

17. Malaysia has continued to take great strides on become a premier global Islamic centre. In the Islamic Capital Markets, Malaysia accounts for two thirds of the world’s Islamic bonds, amounting to USD47 billion. In line with the Malaysian International Islamic Finance Centre (MIFC) initiative, Malaysia has liberalised the Islamic finance sector to encourage the participation of foreign institutions in banking, capital markets and takaful. In addition, we have taken a leadership role in establishing institutions such as the Islamic Financial Services Board and the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF). The IFSB, which has a membership of 125 countries, works to coordinate regulations and standards internationally, whereas INCEIF is a university-level institution that develops human capital to meet the needs of the Islamic finance sector.

18. Malaysia is also committed to becoming a world class halal hub. The Government has been active in promoting the products and services of Halal Malaysia while strengthening its Halal certification. Our commitment is shown through the establishment of the Halal Industry Development Corporation to spearhead and coordinate a variety of initiatives. Malaysians, particularly Muslims should not forgo opportunities in the halal industry, which can potentially yield substantial returns. The size of the global halal market is RM2 trillion and there are more than 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. In addition, it is a communal obligation, a fardu kifayah for us to raise the status and increase the usage of halal products and services.

GOVERNMENT LINKED COMPANIES

19. In order for Government Linked Companies (GLCs) to achieve their objectives, the Government introduced a GLC Transformation Programme on 14 May 2004. Their consequent success has been tremendous.The market capitalisation of the top 20 GLCs has increased by 74 percent to RM253 billion and has had a significant positive impact on the performance of the performance of Bursa Malaysia. The companies involved have shown tangible improvements in their financial results and the restructuring of their operations. Some have strengthened themselves through acquisitive growth, some have successfully ventured overseas. The gains made by GLCs have bolstered investor confidence domestically and internationally.

20. The improved performance of GLCs benefits many people. Funds such as the Employee Provident Fund, Lembaga Tabung Haji and Permodalan Nasional Berhad, that all hold substantial shareholdings in many GLCs have received increased returns, which are distributed to deposit holders and investors in the form of dividends and bonuses. To illustrate, since the transformation process began, dividends declared by Lembaga Tabung Haji have risen from 4.3 percent in 2003 to 4.75 percent last year. Similarly, EPF have declared higher dividend rates – from 4.75% in 2004 to 5.15% in 2006.

21. As corporations with ties to government, GLCs must understand national aspirations. GLCs must jointly shoulder the responsibility of developing a Bumiputera Commercial and Industrial Community, creating a vendor system and creating effective partnerships with Bumiputera enterprises. There is no conflict between being profit oriented and developing Bumiputera capacity in the economy. Today, there are many Bumiputera individuals and corporations that possess skill and capability.There is no reason for them to be excluded.We should not exclusively put our trust in foreign companies and experts. 22. GLCs should be at the vanguard of efforts to enhance the abilities and credibility of Bumiputeras. GLCs must play a role to catalyse the transfer of technology from overseas to local and Bumiputera firms. I am proud of what the GLCs have achieved. I will be prouder still when GLCs play an active role in expanding the Bumiputera Commercial and Industrial Community and accelerating the transfer of technology to local companies. Their success story will be complete when GLCs can complement their role in economic development by contributing to Bumiputera socioeconomic programs.

PUBLIC SERVICES

23. The civil service is the prime mover of the government, covering every aspect of national development – from the economy to education to security. Indeed, an efficient civil service is critical in translating the vision of the Government into tangible benefits for the people. The Government will continue to take steps to improve the quality of the public service. The recent pay rise was one such measure. The introduction of service contracts and key performance indicators for secretaries general and heads of key agencies will also increase the level of accountability in the public sector.

24. The Government values the important role that is played by the Civil Service. That is why the Government agreed to raise civil service salaries, a rise that involves an additional annual emolument of RM8 billion. The Government views this substantial expenditure as a long term investment to ensure that the civil service continues to retain the best talent, capable of offering the highest standards of service.

25. Some improvements have already taken place. Following the establishment of flying squads, 98 percent of the backlog of land dealings since 2001 has been cleared. Now, tax returns can be filed through the internet and tax refunds via the “e-filing” system are made within 30 days. The issuance of passports and identity cards, which used to take two weeks, is now done within a day. The approval of building plans are now given within 142 days and Certificates of Completion and Compliance are issued within 134 days, a vast improvement on the length of time it took to issue Certificates of Fitness.

26. There are clearly weaknesses that must be remedied before we can attain the excellence to which we aspire. But importantly, we are now committed to change and prepared to make the necessary corrections. Improvements will be continue to be made to increase efficiency and improve the delivery system. The establishment of the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business or PEMUDAH has had a direct impact in increasing the competitiveness of the business environment.

27. The response to the Auditor General’s Report is proof that a dynamic change is taking place. It is a clear illustration of the power and capability of the relevant agencies to monitor and enforce. The stand of the Government is that frank reports such as the one prepared by the Auditor General will make the improve integrity and efficiency in the civil service. I am happy with the quick action taken by the Anti Corruption Agency and I am certain that many public servants support these actions, which protect the dignity and integrity of their profession.

28. In this connection, I want the civil service to always realize that their purpose in to serve the public – primarily the poor, the uneducated, and those without rank or position. This is the biggest and most important constituency. They must be treated with friendliness and respect. The power of administration must be given to speed up processes, not slow them down, especially for the powerless.

DEVELOPING GROWTH CORRIDORS AND TAPPING NEW POTENTIAL

29. The development corridor concept is a new approach aimed at generating comprehensive and widespread economic development. The nation’s development would be unbalanced if growth was solely concentrated in urban areas. Our cities would become overcrowded, while rural Malaysia would be neglected. The regionally based growth corridors will tap new potential and elevate efforts to eradicate poverty. More importantly, each corridor exploits unique local characteristics and natural competitive advantages. For example, the Northern Corridor will concentrate on agriculture and tourism will feature prominently in the East Coast and in Sabah.

30. The development corridors also adopt a new approach by involving the private sector more actively in development plans. For example, it has been reported that 70 percent of industrial areas within the Northern Corridor remain unused due to lack of demand.Therefore, we have ensured that the private sector is directly involved in the planning and implementation of the Corridors. This is to ensure all investments are commercially oriented and can generate appropriate returns, apart from delivering the benefits of development to the people.

31. The launch of the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) on 4 November 2006 ushered a new era in the country’s development. It has been designed to become a services hub, principally in the areas of creative arts, education, health care, financial and consulting services, tourism and logistics. It is expected to propel the southern Johor region to become a dynamic metropolis.

32. Both the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), covering Perlis, Penang, Kedah and northern Perak and the East Coast Economic Region (ECER), which encompasses Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and the district of Mersing in Johor will feature a variety of sectors, aimed at eradicating poverty and improving the quality of life of the people and to eradicate poverty. We also want to ensure that the progress is distributed to the whole of the country, including the states in East Malaysia. In this connection, development corridors in Sabah and Sarawak will be established to take into account the needs and aspirations of the two states. Eradication of poverty will be the main focus of these two corridors.All these corridors are aimed at improving the lives of the people by ensuring that they taste the fruits of success.

33. The philosophy behind the development corridors is that no one should be left behind. Economic sectors and geographical regions that are currently lagging behind will be developed quickly.Additional income and new sources of income will be generated and new sources of wealth will be harvested. When our plans succeed, it will transform the face of Malaysia. Development will not just be concentrated to major urban centres, but will instead be spread to every area of our nation.This is our noble ambition.

34. There are fears that these development corridors, especially the Iskandar Development Region will threaten the future of the Malays. To me, this is an antiquated view. Perhaps in the past, we were laggards in our own land. This is not the case now. We now have many Malays who are well educated and have become doctors, lawyers, accountants and even astronauts. A class of Malay managers, capable of successfully running businesses has emerged. Therefore, the presumption that the IDR will harm Malays is an insult to the ability of Malays to compete on the global stage. Through Yayasan Hartanah Bumiputera and other agencies, qualified Malay entrepreneurs will be given ample opportunity to participate in the development of IDR.

35. The NCER has been well received by the people of the North. Similarly, the ECER has elicited a positive response from the people on the East Coast, including the PAS government in Kelantan. Our efforts are evidence of the Government’s sincerity in bringing development to all parts of the country. We put aside politics to improve the quality of life of the people and to lift them out of poverty. The economic corridors are part of the Government’s national agenda – proof of the determination of the Barisan Nasional government to develop the entire nation for the well being of the people.

36. These development corridors should be seen as a larger plan to vault every Malaysian – Malays especially – to greater prosperity. In the past, we have been speaking about towering Malays – and this is what we want – Malays who are unafraid to take on the world. We will never sacrifice the interest of Malaysians and Malays. The investment that we will attract from all over the world will accelerate our economic growth and the benefits will be enjoyed by all. And we will provide the necessary facilitation and encouragement in order to enable all Malays who want to compete in these Corridors the ability to do so.

37. In the Corridors, agriculture in Malaysia will be given a new face and a fresh approach. Structural changes will be introduced, especially to allow greater Malay participation in the supply chain. Malay farmers are still restricted to harvesting primary products. Their work is labour and time intensive, but yields low value returns. Agriculture encompasses so much more than this – it involves the provision of quality seedlings, modern equipment, technology, transportation, packaging and branding, wholesaling, retail, to name a few components. Today, the supply chain is not yet controlled by Malays, much less Malay farmers. The Government will work towards effecting a transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, which through the use of biotechnology and ICT sector will be more productive and profitable. Through this new approach, the agriculture sector will have a direct impact on our fight against poverty and will increase people’s incomes.

DEVELOPING HUMAN CAPITAL AND ACHIEVING POTENTIAL

38. The development of quality human capital is critical to build competitiveness and to achieve national development goals. As a developing nation, Malaysia faces many competitive pressures and challenges in the 21st century. In the current environment, success comes to those who value-add themselves. This is true for individuals, corporations and nations. To realise our country’s aspirations, a substantial effort must be made to develop human capital and consequently enhance our competitiveness, productivity and capacity to innovate.

39. Our youth are like unpolished gemstones. They will inherit our nation and will determine its fortunes in the years ahead. They must possess intellectual capacity, knowledge and culture .They must possess physical well-being and strong morals.Our youth must be prepared to lead our nation to greater heights.

40. We are currently effecting a quantum leap to develop human capital, and increase our productivity and innovation, so that we can attain developed nation status by 2020. We are transforming our education system at all levels – from pre-school to higher education.It is a complex task that involves many stakeholders. The Education Development Blueprint, 2006 – 2010 that was launched on 16 January 2007 provides the strategy and guidance to deliver quality basic education that is relevant to present needs.

41. Since the pre-Merdeka era, national schools have been conceived as the instrument to educate a multiracial population. This remains our objective. National schools will be strengthened to become the school of choice for all communities. Rural schools will be given quality teachers as well as infrastructure and facilities that compare will urban schools. Schools will excel in academic performance, co-curricular activities and sports. Cluster schools will become the benchmark in our drive to build a quality education system.

42. The Higher Education Strategic Plan was launched on 27 August 2007. The Plan forms the basis for the development of higher education until 2020. Through the Plan, the transformation of higher education will be sparked, in consonance with national development aspirations. It is the wish of Government for institutions of higher education to create an atmosphere that is competitive, premised on performance and meritocracy. Institutions of Higher Education must be able to produce graduates that will attract employers in the global marketplace. These institutions should also produce quality research that possesses high commercial value.

43. We have taken steps, among them providing more autonomy to Public Institutions of Higher Education in order to make them more efficient and effective. Audits of academic performance will be carried out to determine ratings for each institution. We have also embarked on a programme to develop an “apex” university.

44. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in generating economic growth. They need human capital that is trained with the relevant skill sets. Technical and vocational training will be structured to meet the needs of industry.

45. Religious schools are also instructed to provide variety in their curriculum and broaden their scope. Students in these schools will be supplied with knowledge, experience and skills that enable them to meet the human capital needs in a globalised economy that puts a premium on knowledge.

46. I want to see UMNO members turn the human capital development program into a jihad – for the party, for their families and for themselves. Each UMNO member must set a target to create a group of Malay professionals and technocrats. Each member must ensure that their children are enrolled in institutions of higher education.

BUILDING SELF CONFIDENCE, ERADICATING POVERTY

47. In 2020, it is important for Malays not to be left behind, marginalized in a nation that is already developed. We are working hard to avert this outcome.

48. Worry, fear and a sense of being under threat occurs when Malays are insufficiently prepared. For as long as Malays remain unambitious, they will fear meritocracy. The feelings of inferiority, nervousness and insufficiency are poisons that have been injected into the Malay mentality since colonial times. These poisons must be removed.Malays, when given the proper guidance and fair opportunity, are prepared to compete.

49. We have been independent for 50 years. Malays in the modern day are prepared to work hard. Many are prepared to compete globally. We should not be underestimated.We will equip Malays to take the nation to a higher level over the next 50 years. Let us aspire to greater heights and believe in our own abilities. Let us endeavour with the full confidence that Allah will bestow victory to those with armed with noble intentions, are willing to work hard and are prepared to change. God did not create Malays to be weaker or less intelligent than other peoples. The name of the first Malaysian to go into space is Sheikh Muszaphar – a Muslim and a Malay, chosen by the selection panel in Russia from a large, multiracial pool of candidates. Today, Malays have master many professions, lead many organizations and head many institutions. The success of this nation is a testament to the wisdom and greatness of Malay leadership.

50. The Malay community must create a critical mass of educated and skilled Malays, so that we can contribute more effectively in a variety of economic sectors. Intrepid Malays will be able to see the New Economic Policy from a perspective that will no longer alarm non-Malays. We should champion the fulfilment of the objectives of the NEP, ensuring the development of deep professional and middle classes among the Malays, so that Malaysian society is no longer divided by profession. The NEP was never intended to rob anyone’s rights. Although it has been 37 years since the introduction of the NEP, we have not made Malays rich by seizing the wealth of the non-Malays. The list of the richest individuals in Malaysia is still led by non-Malays. All parties should work towards achieving the objectives of the NEP.

51. In our quest to balance racial composition in the private and public sectors, let us not forget the other important goal of the NEP – eradication of poverty. The country will not achieve true peace and harmony while we have large numbers of poor living among us. Poverty can cause political instability, street demonstrations, high rates of crime and serious social problems.Poverty eradication programs are for all – irrespective of race or religion. Capacity building and value adding through effective education programs will elevate people from poverty. Poverty eradication programs will be given intensive attention in the second half of the Ninth Malaysia Plan.We hope that in the not too distant future, the term “poverty” will be obsolete – a word only to be found in dictionaries. Elected representatives must give high priority to poverty eradication – their success in doing so in their respective constituencies will be one of their key performance indicators.

OVERCOMING FEARS

52. Society is currently faced with a number of fears, among them: crime and inter-religious and communal issues. Crime in Malaysia is caused, among others by social problems and in some cases as a result of the influx of illegal immigrants. Media reports of crimes have heightened the public’s awareness, but the dramatic manner in which the news is presented gives the impression that this country is no longer safe. Higher crime rates and the approach taken by the media will affect the nation’s image. The Government is aware of the problem and in both the Ninth Malaysian Plan and the 2008 Budget, a large allocation has been granted to the Police. It should be understood, however, that the large personnel increases required by the Police cannot be filled overnight. It takes time to hire and train new police personnel. While this is happening, the country and society must be supportive of the Police and refrain from undermining the public’s confidence in the force.

53. Maintaining security is a responsibility of the Government, one which can be carried out more effectively with the support of the public. Tackling social problems such as drug abuse, smuggling, human trafficking requires the cooperation of all parties. The spirit of “citizen patrols” that was once commonplace must be revived. Malaysian society, which has now become accustomed to material comforts must never lose the community spirit. The call of the Government to reactivate the “Rukun Tetangga” must be answered. The work of the police must be supplemented by public assistance. A strong national spirit must prevail as we confront increasing crime rates. I am confident that if neighbourhood patrols are restarted, the incidence of break-ins and thefts will decrease dramatically. I ask all UMNO members, and the members of Barisan Nasional component parties to step forward and set an example in assisting the Government to combat crime.

54. The harmony between the various communities and religions in Malaysia is not an optional luxury – it is a necessity. We have no other choice. Fifty years ago, our independence movement was successful because of the wisdom of Tunku Abdul Rahman (Almarhum) and his colleagues who introduced the concept of power sharing.

55. We have been independent for fifty years. Now, those who are born in Malaysia are Malaysians citizens.They were born and have grown up knowing only Malaysia as their homeland. The time for championing parochial interests in over. Issues must be addressed on the basis of the interests of the nation and the Malaysian people as a whole.

56. During the 2006 UMNO General Assembly, UMNO allowed the media to provide live coverage of the proceedings. For the first time, the world was given a window to view Malay political rhetoric. Only a small number of speakers raised issues that perhaps touched on communal sensitivities. The speeches by the President, Deputy President and the leaders of the Youth, Wanita and Puteri movements, as well as the other debaters spoke on issues from a national perspective and represented the majority view within UMNO. I believe that similar extremist sentiments are voiced by members of political parties that represent other communities. However, in the spirit of building a unified nation, the consensus of moderation and mutual respect outweighs extremist tendencies.

57. Those who would wish to inflame communal sentiments have sensationalised the words of a few UMNO speakers. The act of unsheathing and kissing a keris is part of our cultural heritage, but it’s meaning has been twisted to spread fear among non-Malays, and the image of UMNO and Malaysia has been smeared overseas. On behalf of UMNO’s leaders and members, I give assurance that UMNO will never breach the spirit of the understanding that has been agreed with the other communities at the time of Merdeka. Opportunities in Malaysia are available to all. There is a future for every Malaysian in this country.

58. By the same token, other communities must appreciate the sensitivities of the Malays. Basic matters relating to the sanctity of religion, beliefs and practices, Malay interests and the social contract between the communities are sacred to us and should not be raised. Similarly, the basic issues that were agreed upon at the time the Federal Constitution was drafted are non-negotiable.

59. UMNO does not engage in duplicity.We do not change our tune to suit the occasion or the audience. We are ready to seek intelligent resolutions and win-win outcomes when dealing with sensitive issues relating to race and religion. Nevertheless, for these issues to be addressed effectively, it is more appropriate to have these discussions behind closed doors. Sensitive issues must be handled objectively, rationally and maturely. UMNO and its colleagues in Barisan Nasional must never be ensnared by religious and racial issues raised by the opposition. We are the party that controls Government, we administer executive power. We should never allow ourselves to sink to their level.

TOWARDS 100 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

60. In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of our independence, with the grace of Allah, I was given the honour of revisiting the historical journey undertaken by Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra. Beginning with the events in Bandar Hilir in Malacca, until the proclamation of MERDEKA at the Merdeka Stadium.

61. Malaysians should be thankful for the dignity and sovereignty that our nation possesses. We can be proud of how we have progressed since we attained our freedom. Much of this stems from the wisdom of our leadership, beginning with Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, followed by Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, Tub Hussein Onn and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. I was given the responsibility to lead four years ago.

62. This region once achieved greatness during the Malay Empire of Malacca. But it Malacca only lasted a century. After its fall, we were colonised for almost 500 years a period when our destiny was determined by foreign powers. In the 50 years after Merdeka, we have managed to govern ourselves and rekindle the glory of Malacca. Malaysia has emerged once again as a sovereign nation, esteemed and respected. But we do not want our success to last for only 100 years. We want to perpetuate our excellence.

63. I am grateful that I have inherited a Government that has achieved much, especially in the area of our physical infrastructure development. In fact, the challenge that confronts me is to add value to the success that has already been achieved. I have therefore decided to work towards developing the software for our nation through cultivating first class human capital.W e have introduced various formulae, restructured organisations and established new institutions. Fresh policies have been put in place and adjustments have been made to suit changing circumstances. The four years that I have held the reins of leadership is a relatively short span of time in our life as an independent nation and I realise that we still have some distance to travel before we meet the targets that we have set ourselves. In addition, there are new challenges emerging, such as the increasing price of fuel and other commodities and political instability in strategic regions such as the Middle East. Still, the positive signs that I see in Malaysia fill me with optimism.

64. We must be aware of our people who are becoming better educated, have more access to information and want more transparency, democratic practices and a bigger role for civil society. Media is undergoing a revolution. Information is now distributed through multiple channels. In this context, we must be intelligently balance the need for media freedoms with the basis for political stability that we have enjoyed. The Government wishes to see the media industry grow into an industry that is progressive and open, an industry that can carry out its responsibilities with integrity and responsibility. Perhaps one day in the future, the media can assume the responsibility of self regulation by its own professionals.

65. We must strengthen and rejuvenate political cooperation through a genuine spirit of power sharing. We must educate our future leaders to continue with the nation building agenda. The failure to prepare capable successors will leave a void that will be eagerly filled by our opponents.

66. It is the responsibility of today’s leaders to institute smooth continuity of leadership. UMNO is strong and stable because of the attention given to groom future leaders. During the time of Tun Abdul Razak (Allahyarham), much emphasis was given to talent spotting. Young leaders were given the opportunity to serve. They were educated and guided.This is why when both Tun Dr. Ismail and Tun Abdul Razak passed away suddenly, UMNO was equipped with a new echelon of leaders that was prepared and tested. No one lives forever. Responsible leaders will think about the nation’s future. For the sake of the country’s future, we must give priority to programs that develop potential leaders of tomorrow.

67. The fate of the nation in 2057 will depend on what we do today.The National Mission must succeed and this will only happen when our people are strong. They must be equipped with knowledge and become masters of technology. They must be cultured and possess strong morals.

68. A country that celebrates 50 years of independence must be populated with a free people – a people who have the belief and confidence in their future. Its people must shoulder the responsibility of defending its freedom; a people who live in harmony between communities and religions; a people who are broad minded and big hearted.

69. The next 50 years must be fully optimised by the Malays, by all Malaysians. The Federal Constitution must continue to be the bedrock of our nation and the Rukun Negara our guiding principles. We want to ensure that the country remains united and society remains equitable, infused with the spirit of togetherness and power sharing. We want to build a cultured and civilised nation through the approach of Islam Hadhari, which contains universal principles. We want an advanced nation that continues to progress, steered by the National Mission.

70. The National Mission has five main thrusts – moving the economy up the value chain, developing first class human capital, addressing persistent socio-economic imbalances, improving the quality of life and strengthening institutional capacity – all of which are universal, constant requirements for national building. The strength of our human capital will determine the success of the Mission. It will determine whether we achieve developed nation status and progress further.

71. Let us all build a nation that enriches every citizen, regardless of race or belief. Let us be a nation where everyone enjoys balanced development. Let us carry our nation to the peak of distinction.

72. When we celebrate our centenary of independence in 2057, Malaysia should be counted as one of the countries with the highest levels of human development. We should be ranked as one of the most competitive economies in the world with first class human capital, infrastructure, institutions and administration standards, insya-Allah.

73. I pray to Allah to provide guidance and inspiration to us to carry out our responsibilities and exercise our communal obligations, our fardu kifayah. I pray that our leaders and the future of both UMNO and Malaysia do not fall under the control of those who wish to bring destruction. May our Assembly be blessed by God.

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