Why now, educationists ask on govt move to scrap PT3

Educationists have voiced concern over the government’s move to abolish the Form 3 Assessment test (PT3) and replace it with classroom assessments (PBD), questioning among others the timing of the decision and Putrajaya’s readiness for such a shift.Anuar Ahmad of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) said several issues should be addressed before any move to PBD, including the large number of students in any given class and the extra work it would mean for teachers already struggling with lessons-related tasks.“If we make a comparison with developed countries, abolishing PT3 can be considered,” he said. “But that is not the issue. The issue is the timing. Is now the right time to do away with PT3?“When the education ministry scrapped PT3 in such a hurried manner before making any detailed preparations for the implementation of PBD, this means that it was an inappropriate move.”PT3 was the second major exam to be scrapped following the decision to abolish the Standard Six Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah or UPSR examination in April last year.It was introduced in 2014 as a replacement for the Penilaian Menengah Rendah or PMR exam.Anuar suggested that PT3 be abolished in 2024 in order to make way for PBD.“Many things need to be prepared ahead of time to ensure the effective implementation of PBD, and that it doesn’t just burden the teachers and students,” he said.For example, he said, teachers should be given training and assistant teachers appointed for classes of more than 40 students.“And take another look at the syllabus, especially at the primary school level, so that learning activities can be made more fun,” he added.Student activity modules that support the implementation of PBD should also be developed, he said, and parents given a rundown of the new assessment method.Fellow educationist Azlin Norhaini Mansor said the main objective of PBD was to monitor the progress of individual students, not to compare one student with another.Azlin, from UKM’s Centre for the Study of Leadership and Education Policy, said this was both relevant and in line with the goals of the National Education Philosophy.Voicing her support for the implementation of PBD, she nevertheless cautioned that several matters should be given attention.For one, she said, there must be transparency in terms of PBD reports. She also said that students’ ability to answer examination questions should be monitored.“There are some who indirectly want to ensure that students achieve the minimum level of understanding for each subject in any way, just to maintain the school’s level of academic performance and to avoid any action in the event of a decline in academic quality,” she said.She also spoke of isolated cases in which teachers said that they were not allowed to give grades below the minimum level, even though they felt that the students had not reached anything higher than this.On the ability to answer test questions, Azlin said the abolishment of both the UPSR and PT3 examinations meant that students no longer received formal lessons on how to answer general exam questions.“How ready will they be to sit for SPM?” she said, referring to the Form 5 exam taken before students graduate from secondary school.“Will they be able to answer any questions in any exam?”Azlin said such tests instil a sense of competition among students and push schools to do their best.“This motivates students to concentrate on their studies so that they can do well in their exams,” she said. “How will such competitiveness be instilled for SPM?”Anuar meanwhile sympathised with the 400,000 students who had been working over the past two years to prepare for PT3, which was scrapped about three months before the exam was meant to take place.“Imagine how much parents spent on tuition fees and other matters to prepare their children for PT3,” he said.“This might seem like a small matter to us, but just think how they might feel.”For him, the priority should be to settle the technical and operational details related to PBD.“Don’t rush into doing away with PT3,” he added. “Otherwise, everything will be thrown into disarray.”


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'Nothing to stop them': Parents worry about addict children after govt delists nicotine

Rudziah's son Akmal was just 16 years old when he made his first vape purchase, after watching videos of the practice on YouTube.
Now, Akmal is 19, and his mother fears that he is addicted.
"He used to spend all his time playing PUBG," she said, referring to the popular video game.
"But now, all he wants to do is vape."
Akmal started off with watermelon and tropical mango flavoured vape with a nicotine strength of 2%, buying the cartridges online or at nearby stores.
By the time he had finished secondary school, he was using an e-cigarette device containing up to 12.5% nicotine.
Rudziah, who runs a hair salon in Kota Warisan, Selangor, said she had heard that this amount was considered very high and was far over the legal limit.
Last week, the health ministry said it had delisted liquid or gel nicotine as a poisonous substance, a move which critics said would open the floodgates to problems linked to an expected increase in youth and children addicted to the substance through vape.
The decision came ahead of a tax on vape products announced in the 2023 budget.
Muhammad Shahrudin, from Setapak in Kuala Lumpur, said his two oldest children began vaping last year at the age of 17 and 19 respectively.
Speaking to MalaysiaNow, he said they had easy access to e-cigarette devices at the shops near the family's apartment.
"My daughter is always showing me the colour changes in her e-cigarettes, or the customised icons on the screen. Some of them are imported from abroad.
"This is truly an epidemic for our teenage children. Why exempt nicotine from the Poisons Act?" he said, adding that his daughter had developed asthma after she began vaping.
Dr Sharifah Maya, a medical doctor with three children, said the medical profession had long been manipulated by the tobacco industry.
She added that the government's move would only add to the burden on the public health sector.
"We need to remember that children and adults are wired differently," she said.
"Children get addicted to nicotine much more quickly than adults. Exempting nicotine from the Poisons Act is a big concern for the country."
Sharifah's youngest child who is only 15 years old has already said several times that he wants to try vape after seeing his older brother and others around him use e-cigarette devices.
In order to deter him, Sharifah and her husband doled out many lectures and told him that he would get in trouble with the authorities if he vaped at such a young age.
"If the nicotine exemption goes through, what will he have to fear?" Sharifah said.
"The law itself will give him the green light to vape. We know what will happen if this continues. It's clear. So the government should think twice about this."


Age no proof of maturity, says Hadi after Undi 18 delay

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang says his party has no issue with the delay in implementing the minimum voting age of 18, in response to criticism of the Election Commission’s (EC) announcement yesterday.“We agree. What is important is that we want people who are mature to choose a mature government,” he told reporters in Marang, Terengganu, after delivering his weekly pre-dawn lecture.Hadi added that PAS was not affected by the delay in allowing those aged 18 to vote.“If people are still immature, they could elect an immature government,” he said.He said maturity is subjective, including the belief that a person attains maturity at the age of 18.“Voting depends on maturity. It’s not about voting at the age of 18. There should be maturity,” he said.Yesterday, the EC said the move to lower the voting age to 18 would likely be implemented only after Sept 1, 2022.EC chairman Abdul Ghani Salleh said while preparations are on track, current developments and the fact that the country remains under movement restrictions due to Covid-19 had affected its plans.Hadi said the notion that 18 is the right age to be eligible to take part in elections is derived from the Western concept of democracy, and not based on maturity.“We cannot be influenced by the West.“In Islam, there is such a thing called the age of maturity. One can attain maturity at the age of 16, 18, it can also happen at the age 25.“In fact, there are people who are 40 but who have not matured,” he said.Hadi also said he would accept Umno’s invitation to attend the party’s general assembly which begins tomorrow.The Umno leadership is set to decide whether the party will continue working with Perikatan Nasional, the coalition of which PAS is a part.Hadi said PAS maintains the view that there should only be one-to-one contests against Pakatan Harapan at the next polls.He said the election was critical in order to strengthen the government’s majority.“We want to form a strong and fair government because at the moment, the government does not have a big majority, only a simple majority. We need a big majority.“But a big majority is not the main goal, what is important is that the government is just.“Our strength depends on our fairness to the people,” said Hadi.


Ringgit value will continue to fall for now, says economist

The ringgit is expected to continue its fall in the near future due to the strengthening performance of the US dollar, an economist says.
Lee Heng Guie, executive director at the Socio-Economic Research Centre, however said that its drop in value would be temporary.
Speaking to MalaysiaNow, he said the ringgit would bounce back once the performance of the US dollar begins to decline, when the Federal Reserve slows the rate of its interest rate hikes.
Until then, he said, the ringgit would likely continue under pressure as buying interest in the greenback remains strong.
On Sept 7, the ringgit opened at 4.5010/5035 against the US dollar from 4.4970/4500 at the close of the previous day.
This was its lowest level versus the US dollar since the Asian financial crisis in 1998, as more investors shifted to safe havens due to the uncertain global economic outlook.
On Sept 9, meanwhile, it opened slightly higher at 4.4960/4995 against the US dollar compared to 4.5010/5040 at the close of the previous day, due to Bank Negara Malaysia's third increase in overnight policy rate (OPR) this year.
The hike of a further 25 basis points took the OPR to 2.5%.
Nevertheless, the ringgit opened lower again on Sept 12, at 4.4970/5010 from  4.4965/4990 at the close of Sept 11, due to strong sentiments for the US dollar.
"In the near term, the ringgit will be under pressure," Lee said.
"It's not just about fundamentals, but also confidence, sentiment play and, most importantly, whether the dollar has peaked, which is the point where the Fed will start to go slow on the interest hikes."
As many expected the rate of the US dollar to rise even faster, he said, investors were putting their money into the country's currency assets.
He added that the strengthening of the dollar had affected the performance of other currencies in addition to the ringgit.
Lee said the ringgit gains on Sept 9 were no guarantee that it would maintain its upward momentum as there was always the possibility of profit-taking activities.
"For me, it is still volatile," he said. "Unless the investors feel that the dollar has peaked – 'I think it cannot go higher than this'.
"Then maybe there will be some profit-taking on the dollar, and other currencies will strengthen a bit."
He said the situation also showed that the depreciation of the ringgit was due to external factors.
On the increase in OPR last week, Lee said such hikes had been done in stages, and described the move as appropriate given that Malaysia's economy was on the path to recovery.
He said the rise was also in line with market expectations, adding that the OPR would likely continue increasing to at least 3% or 3.25% by next year.
"The OPR is still low, even though Bank Negara has raised it three times," he said.
"It's still lower than it was pre-pandemic. The time has come for us to begin taking some risks. If the country is faced with a new crisis, the central bank can reduce the OPR again rather than allow it to remain at a low level."
On whether the OPR hikes could help boost the ringgit's performance, Lee said it would depend on the Fed's moves to balance inflation.
"They could go as high as 4%," he said. "If they go to 4% and assuming that we stay at 3%, there would be a difference of 100 basis points or 1%. And 1% matters a lot.
"There will be a potential risk to the ringgit."
He also said that any increase in OPR next year would depend on the country's economic performance and inflation projections, in addition to external factors.


No intention of bringing back GST, says govt

The government says it has no intention of bringing back the goods and services tax (GST) at this point as it is focusing on public health, maintaining economic resilience and ensuring economic sustainability.Speaking in the Dewan Rakyat today, Deputy Finance Minister Mohd Shahar Abdullah said the matter would be studied.“We can see in the budget for 2021 that we are focused on other measures to reduce leakage,” he added.He was responding to Mohamad Sabu (Amanah-Kota Raja) who asked the government to state whether the GST would be reimposed next year given the present instability.The 6% GST was introduced in April 2015 under the Najib Razak administration. It became a point of contention among the public which helped the opposition topple the Barisan Nasional government in the 2018 general election.After taking over Putrajaya, Pakatan Harapan (PH) said it would abolish the GST and replace it with the sales and services tax (SST).This was part of a wave of economic reforms promised by PH, led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad.The SST has been in effect since September 2018.


Putrajaya announces measures to ease Covid pressure on hospitals

Putrajaya today announced measures to ensure that hospitals in the Klang Valley can cope with the increase in patients in the wake of rising numbers of Covid-19 cases.Speaking at a press conference today, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had agreed to an additional allocation of RM100 million for the outsourcing of health services in the Klang Valley.He said measures to ease the pressure on hospitals include increasing the number of beds for facilities in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, as well as making use of three medical teaching universities – Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Putra Malaysia – bringing the combined bed capacity in the Klang Valley to nearly 5,000.He said the Tuanku Mizan Armed Forces Hospital had also activated its Disaster Management Zone at its basement lot, in addition to increasing its capacity to deal with a surge in patients.Meanwhile, Hospital Sungai Buloh and Hospital Ampang have been functioning as full Covid-19 hospitals since June 23, he said.He said other hospitals remained as Covid-19 hybrid hospitals with the exception of Hospital Shah Alam which would stay a non-Covid-19 hospital.The Malaysia Agro Exposition Park (MAEPS) low-risk quarantine and treatment centre in Serdang, Selangor, meanwhile will be fully utilised as a hospital, with more oxygen tanks for an additional 1,500 patients.Emergency bed capacity will be increased from 486 to 591 beds while ICU bed capacity will be boosted from 280 to 349 in Selangor, and from 90 to 117 in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.Adham also said there were supplies of 6,891 oxygen tanks in Selangor, 53% (3,413) of which are used for Covid-19 patients.Another 1,000 tanks will be sent to the MAEPS quarantine centre.


Lawyer fails in bid for leave to challenge Anwar's pardon

A lawyer today failed to obtain leave from the Federal Court to challenge the legality of the royal pardon granted to Anwar Ibrahim in 2018.
Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who led a three-member bench in a unanimous decision, dismissed Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz's applications for leave to appeal after finding that the matter was now academic.
"The court below made a finding of fact that the Pardons Board was properly constituted. We concur that the questions proposed by the applicant did not meet the threshold requirement under Section 96 (a) and (b) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.
"The issue of non-justiciability is settled and this case does not warrant departure from the precedence," the top judge said when delivering today's decision via online proceedings.
The other judges on the panel were Federal Court judges Nallini Pathmanathan and Vernon Ong Lam Kiat.
On the advice of the Pardons Board to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tengku Maimun said the apex court found that there was no basis to suggest any misrepresentation in the advice offered.
The top judge said on the issue of conviction, the court found that the pardon document made no reference to the fact that the conviction was set aside.
"There is no question of the court's power being usurped. Finally, we find that the matter has been rendered academic. Both applications are therefore dismissed with no order as to costs," she said.
Tengku Maimun made the ruling after hearing submissions from Khairul's lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, J Leela, who represented the prime minister, and senior federal counsel Suzana Atan, who acted for Pardons Board.
On Sept 21, 2021, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeals brought by Anwar and the Pardons Board of the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur to strike out the lawsuit filed against them by Khairul.
A three-man Court of Appeal bench comprising justices Has Zanah Mehat, Indera Mohd Sofian Abd Razak and Lee Heng Cheong held that Khairul did not have the right to question the clemency and the advice given to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for the granting of the pardon to Anwar.
On Sept 21, 2020, Anwar and the Pardons Board lost their bid in the High Court to strike out the lawsuit.
Khairul filed the originating summons on Feb 26, 2020, naming the Pardons Board and Anwar as respondents, claiming that several unconstitutional actions had been taken to ensure that Anwar received a pardon that released him from prison following the 14th general election.
He claimed that the pardon granted to Anwar by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong contravened Articles 42 (4) and (5) of the Federal Constitution in view of the fact that pardons granted by the Agong should be based on the advice of the Pardons Board which Khairul argued had not yet been formally formed following the general election on May 9, 2018 and the formation of the new government.
Anwar was sentenced to five years’ jail for sodomising his aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan. The conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Federal Court on Feb 10, 2015.


Biden angers China with vow to defend Taiwan

President Joe Biden vowed Monday that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily if China attempted to take control of the island by force, prompting Beijing to warn that America was “playing with fire.”Speaking in Tokyo, Biden compared China’s threat to self-ruled Taiwan to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, delivering his strongest remarks to date on the issue amid rising tensions over Beijing’s growing economic and military power.Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he gave the unequivocal reply: “Yes… That’s the commitment we made.”“We agreed with the One China policy, we signed on to it,” Biden said – referring to Washington’s diplomatic recognition of Beijing as the sole government of China.“But the idea that it can be taken by force is just not appropriate,” he said of Taiwan. “It would dislocate the entire region and would be another action similar to Ukraine.”Beijing, which considers Taiwan a rebellious province and has recently intensified military pressure on the island, warned that Washington is playing a risky game.Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin declared that China “has no room for compromise or concession,” when it comes to its sovereignty and territorial integrity.The US is “playing with fire,” warned the Chinese State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office.Washington is “using the ‘Taiwan card’ to contain China, and will itself get burned,” said Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for the office.Zhu “urged the US to stop any remarks or actions” that violate previously established principles between the two countries.Comparing Taiwan to UkraineBiden’s remarks, in a press conference together with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, offered democratic Taiwan its loudest reassurance in decades but also brought more uncertainty to the US stance.Since switching recognition to Beijing in 1979, the US has committed to providing Taiwan with the means to defend itself but has kept a “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily.The policy was designed both to keep Beijing from declaring war and to stop Taiwan from formally declaring independence.But a growing constituency in the US advocates a switch to “strategic clarity,” believing an explicit promise to defend Taiwan is needed to deter an increasingly assertive and powerful Beijing.Biden compared Taiwan’s situation directly with Ukraine, which has received billions of dollars worth of arms and aid from the US since the Russian invasion on Feb 24.He said Western sanctions on Russia must exact a “long-term price,” because otherwise “what signal does that send to China about the cost of attempting to take Taiwan by force?”He warned Beijing was already “flirting with danger right now by flying so close and all the manoeuvres undertaken” – referring to a growing number of Chinese sorties, naval exercises and other power projections in the Taiwan Straits.‘Policy has not changed’US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin insisted however that US “policy has not changed.”Biden “reiterated that policy, and our commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Austin said.“He also highlighted our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act, to help provide Taiwan the means to defend itself,” he added.Biden’s remarks overshadowed his rollout of a new, 13-nation regional trade framework aimed at offsetting Chinese commercial power as well as Tuesday’s meeting of the Quad group, an endeavor by India, Australia, Japan and the US to check China’s growing naval power in the Indo-Pacific region.Kishida meanwhile called for stability in the Taiwan Strait and said Tokyo was committed to boosting its defense spending.“Japan will fundamentally strengthen its defense capacity, and to back that up will significantly increase its defense spending,” he said.“We don’t rule out any options, including (acquiring) the capacity to counter-attack,” he added.


Chinese nationals linked to KLIA commotion have returned home, says MACC chief

The Chinese nationals linked to the commotion at KLIA last week returned to their home country yesterday, said Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Azam Baki.
"We have recorded the statements of the two women, and we cannot stop them from returning home," he told reporters in Putrajaya.
Azam said MACC had recorded statements from 14 individuals on the incident: the two Chinese nationals, one VIP, eight immigration officers and other witnesses.
He said the issue of corruption emerged after one of the women was contacted by a Chinese man who claimed to be an agent of a company appointed by the KLIA management to handle those who had been given not-to-land (NTL) notices by the immigration department.
"I confirmed that there was an external party involved in contacting the woman in question for the purpose of helping to buy a plane ticket and setting a management fee, so we will conduct an investigation and track down the agent," he said.
He said MACC’s investigation found there was a company responsible for managing travellers who had been served with NTL notices at KLIA since 2017.
However, he said the commission wanted to find out whether this was being done according to procedure or otherwise.
Azam said 41 Chinese nationals, including the woman, were slapped with NTL notices on the day of the incident.
"MACC is also looking into the system and procedures on the issuance of NTL notices, including the process that must be followed until the Chinese woman was granted entry (into the country)," he said.
In another development, Azam confirmed that MACC had received information about a National Registration Department officer who allegedly asked for money to issue citizenship certificates.
"We will start an investigation as soon as possible," he said.


No sanctions against transfer of 1MDB funds to PetroSaudi, bank officer tells court

A bank officer told the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday that the bank she worked for found no sanctions against the US$10 million transfer from 1MDB to oil and gas company PetroSaudi International Ltd (PSI) in Mei 2011.Assistant vice-president of global market operations at Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Bhd, Fatehah Md Salleh, 39, said that on May 27, 2011, they received documents from the front office of the global markets division regarding foreign exchange instructions for 1MDB.Fatehah, the 22nd prosecution witness, said the instruction was to forward US$110 million in 1MDB funds via Deutsche Bank Trust Company America to JP Morgan Chase New York and eventually credit to the RBS Coutts Bank Ltd account number 11116073.2000.The account was allegedly owned by PSI, according to a letter signed by 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.“We then conducted a background check on the owner of the account using the preventive crime research (PCR) system and the HotScan system on PSI and RBS Coutts, which revealed there were no sanctions against conducting the fund transfer to the company,” she said.During cross-examination by counsel Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed, representing former prime minister Najib Razak, Fatehah confirmed that the PCR system was the bank’s internal verification system to detect red flags regarding accounts.In a previous proceeding, the court was told that the account 11116073 was owned by Good Star Ltd, a company initially said to be a PSI subsidiary but later exposed as a company linked to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low.Meanwhile, Nur Hasnee Taha Mdd Nordin, vice-president of global market operations at the same bank, said RM3.487 billion was transferred by 1MDB to Deustche Bank through five transactions on Sept 30, 2009.Hasnee, the 21st prosecution witness, said the money was transferred by 1MDB for foreign exchange transaction purposes to buy US$1 billion (RM3.487 million), and that US$700 million was then transferred to RBS Coutts and the remaining US$300 million deposited into JP Morgan’s account as instructed by 1MDB.Nur Hasnee also confirmed the transaction from 1MDB to Deutsche Bank on May 27,2011 with a total of RM335.115 million transferred from the AmBank account owned by 1MDB, for the purpose of foreign exchange transactions to purchase US dollars worth US$110 million.He said the funds were then transferred to JP Morgan Chase New York’s account and then to the RBS Coutts account, to be credited into the account with the number 11116073 as instructed by 1MDB to Deutsche Bank.Najib, 68, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes worth RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.The trial in front of judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah will continue June 13.


One-day strike won’t endanger patients, say contract doctors

The group of contract doctors planning a walk-out at the end of the month if the government does not respond to their requests has sought to assure that the move will not jeopardise the health of patients at their hospitals.A representative of the “Hartal Doktor Kontrak” movement, Dr Fauzi Rahim, said arrangements had been made with senior doctors, specialists, consultants and permanent doctors to allow the hartal or strike to take place without affecting their patients.“Many specialists are able to accept a strike,” he said. “They have encouraged us to go for it, saying they will cover for us.“The hospital structures will not be 100% affected, but the medical officers will still feel the slowdown in their facilities,” he said at a virtual press conference today.He also reiterated that a strike would be the last resort after the second phase of action, involving discussions with the outpatient departments and hospital directors.The movement’s spokesman Dr Mustapa Kamal A Aziz, meanwhile, said they would do their best not to jeopardise the healthcare system.When asked if they would be held responsible if Covid-19 patients die as a result of their walk-out, Kamal said they had tried their best not to mobilise contract medical officers from Covid-19 hospitals unless arrangements could be made.“We understand that the pandemic is an emergency. We do not want to endanger the patients,” he added.He also said that the majority of contract doctors supported the idea of a strike.He said the government would have to face continued walk-outs by contract doctors if no solution is given.“This is not about us but about the future of the healthcare system,” he added.“The waiting time for patients now is six hours – imagine if every doctor left the public healthcare sector to return to the private sector in the next 10 to 20 years.”Mustapa also said they had a legal team ready in case any of the group’s members were made subject to disciplinary action by the authorities.


MIC event organiser, BN leaders who attended to be issued compound for violating SOPs

The organiser of the MIC Brigade launching ceremony, held at Educity Stadium, Iskandar Puteri, yesterday, faces the possibility of being issued a compound for violating the SOPs on Covid-19.Expected to face similar action are Barisan Nasional (BN) treasurer general Hishammuddin Hussein, Johor BN chairman Hasni Mohammad and MIC president SA Vigneswaran who were present at the event.The matter was announced by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin through his official Twitter account.“I have instructed officers from the health ministry, Putrajaya, to issue compounds to Hishammuddin, Hasni, Vigneswaran, key leaders present (at the event) and the organiser under Act 342.“The health ministry will continue to monitor (compliance with) the SOPs in conjunction with the Johor state election,” he said.A journalist from Bernama who covered the event had found that the SOP on physical distancing was not observed, with the chairs arranged closely.An estimated 3,000 people attended the event, all of whom wore face masks.The Johor state election will be held on March 12, with nomination on Feb 26 and early voting on March 8.


11 convicted of gang rape in 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots go free

Eleven Hindu men jailed for life for the gang rape of a pregnant Muslim woman during Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002 have been freed on remission, officials said on Tuesday, drawing condemnation from the victim's husband, lawyers and politicians.
The men were convicted in early 2008 and released from jail in Panchmahals in the western state of Gujarat on Monday, when India celebrated 75 years since the end of British rule.
The Gujarat violence, one of India's worst religious riots, led to the deaths of more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims. Gujarat was then led by current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as chief minister, and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party still rules it.
Panchmahals' top bureaucrat told Reuters that the district jail advisory committee had recommended the release after considering the time the 11 had spent in jail and their good behaviour.
"The fact is they had spent close to 15 years in jail and were eligible for remission," Sujal Jayantibhai Mayatra said.
Indian laws allow convicts to seek remission after 14 years in jail, officials said.
Media footage showed a man feeding the convicts sweetmeat outside the jail after touching the feet of one of them, a mark of respect.
The husband of the victim told Reuters they were disappointed because the riots had also killed many family members.
"We have lost our family and want to live in peace, but suddenly this has happened," Yakub Rasul said. "We had no prior information about their release, either from the courts or the government. We only learnt about it from the media."
Opposition politicians and lawyers said the release contradicted the government's stated policy of uplifting women in a country notorious for violence against them.
"The remission of the sentence of convicts of a gruesome crime like gang rape and murder is morally and ethically improper," said senior lawyer Anand Yagnik. "What is the signal we are trying to send?"


Plan to reopen schools shows Malaysia transitioning to endemic phase, says Radzi

The reopening of schools in stages from Oct 3 according to the phases of states under the National Recovery Plan (NRP) indicates that the country is now transitioning towards an endemic phase, says Education Minister Radzi Jidin.He said the approach in phases also showed that the country would return to normal.“In the context of these NRP phases, we are bringing the country back to normal by ensuring that the procedures and rules we have introduced can be complied with, and schools can be reopened safely,” he said at a joint press conference with Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein today.On the meeting with the ministries of defence and health as well as the National Security Council, he said it was to ensure that the planning and implementation of schools reopening could be carried out smoothly and in an orderly manner.He said the planning was important for all parties to ensure the safety of everyone, particularly students, when schools reopen.On Sunday, Radzi announced the reopening of schools using a weekly rotation method, with the attendance capacity for students set at 50% to reduce the number in classes and the risk of Covid-19 transmission.For states under Phase Two of the NRP, only primary schools with special needs pupils at special needs public schools and integrated special education programmes will reopen, while for secondary schools, only Form Six students in their second semester who will be sitting for the STPM examinations at the end of October will return to school.Asked about action to be taken against teachers who decline to get vaccinated, Radzi said this was still under discussion with the Public Service Department, and would be announced later.“We see that the number of those who choose not to be vaccinated is around 2,500 people, and we will make sure that they will not be involved in face-to-face teaching, but will be given other tasks, and there will definitely be action taken against them,” he said.


Guan Eng’s upcoming trial, DAP’s Achilles heel?

While DAP appears to be the most stable party following the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, the prospect of its star politician Lim Guan Eng being found guilty of financial crimes could cost it dearly in terms of its reputation.DAP has always been seen as the party of choice for a large majority of urban Chinese, and it has fallen back on this traditional support base amid the crises and conflicts over the last two decades in the coalitions it joined.But that could change with Lim’s arrest by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in August, and after the details of what could be the biggest corruption case of the year were published on social media.Singapore-based analyst Oh Ei Sun told MalaysiaNow that the legal action against Lim had strengthened the common narrative given to the Malays, that DAP is a corrupt party.“It reaffirms Umno’s portrayal of DAP as corrupt,” Oh, a former political secretary to former prime minister Najib Razak, told MalaysiaNow.He said the party would need to consolidate its support among the non-Malays, the base which has ensured its survival each election despite the turbulence of coalition politics.Lim has been charged with soliciting bribes and abuse of power during his time as Penang chief minister in relation to the controversial undersea tunnel project.The 7.2km tunnel will be the first undersea road link in the country, connecting Butterworth in the mainland to George Town on the island. The construction is a joint undertaking between the state government and Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd.In February 2013, the DAP-led Penang government issued a letter of intent to consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd to undertake a massive infrastructure project.The comprehensive development was part of the state government’s strategy to mitigate traffic congestion. It was also touted as a way to improve social-economic links.Other bidders included IJM Corp Bhd, WCT Holdings Bhd and Gamuda Bhd.As consideration for building the tunnel and bypass roads, Zenith BUCG was to get a 30-year toll concession as well as 110 acres of reclaimed land from the Eastern & Oriental Bhd’s (E&O) Sri Tanjung Pinang 2 (STP2) development.Some 50 acres of the land is located along the shoreline towards Gurney Drive while the remaining 60 acres will be located on a man-made island.Critics accused Lim of bulldozing the project through despite protests from environmentalists.In 2014, Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, chairman of Consortium Zenith, said the feasibility study for the undersea tunnel would take about a year to finish as it was “an environmentally sensitive issue for which we need to get Detail Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) approval”.The cost of the study was to be paid through a land swap deal, reportedly worth RM305 million.Despite the state government’s insistence that not a single sen was paid, in January 2018, its Public Works Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng admitted that RM208 million had been paid for the feasibility study and road design through the transfer to Consortium Zenith of two pieces of prime seaside freehold land at Seri Tanjung Pinang.The cost to produce the report for a simple 10km paired road with a construction cost of RM377 million was billed at a staggering RM208 million.Meanwhile, the cost of the much more complicated tunnel, costing RM3.6 billion, was only RM97 million.In January 2018, Lim, as the Penang chief minister, said the feasibility study for the tunnel was 92% complete.As of August, the tunnel study was still nowhere to be seen.Critics point out that despite this, condominium blocks with a gross development value of RM800 million and the Wellness City of Dreams at Bandar Tanjong Pinang, with a gross development value of RM15 billion, have sprung up on land given as payment for the tunnel study.Critics also say that the project was not awarded via request for proposal (RFP), but the Penang government insists it was through open tender.In an open tender, parties bid on the same project with the specifications provided by the client.In an RFP, the client does not provide any plan or project specifications for the parties to bid on. The client only has a rough idea, leaving bidders to submit different proposals.As such, critics said that since the entire Penang Transport Master Plan was done through RFP, the public had no means by which to scrutinise or compare the proposals.A set of leaked investigation papers against Lim contains serious allegations of corruption and kickbacks, documents later confirmed by MACC as authentic.State DAP leaders have not commented on the contents of the leaked papers.At the centre of the case is why Consortium Zenith paid RM19 million in cash to a middleman in 2017 in an attempt to stop MACC investigations.Despite admissions to bribery and corruption, Consortium Zenith was not penalised for continuously missing the agreed timelines.Nur Hasliza Mohd Salleh contributed to this report.


Daily caseload dips again to 22,535 as 87 more deaths reported

Another 22,535 Covid-19 cases were recorded yesterday, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 3,823,571.There were 25,356 recoveries, taking total recoveries to 3,468,888.There are now 320,876 active cases, of which 309,214 or 96.4% are undergoing home quarantine.Meanwhile, 2,574 (0.8%) are at quarantine centres while 8,704 (2.7%) have been hospitalised.A total of 384 are in ICU with 222 in need of respiratory assistance. ICU utilisation throughout the country stands at 57.8%, with Covid ICU utilisation at 43.8%.Another 87 deaths were reported, including 25 who were brought in dead. Total deaths now stand at 33,807.


Iran defies outcry with second protest execution

Iran on Monday executed a second man in connection with protests that have shaken the regime for months, defying an international outcry over its use of capital punishment against those involved in the movement.
Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, had been sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad for killing two members of the security forces with a knife, and wounding four other people, the judiciary's Mizan Online news agency reported.
It said he was hanged in public in the city, rather than inside prison.
He was executed just over three weeks after he was arrested in November, rights groups said.
The hanging also came only four days after Mohsen Shekari, also 23, was executed on Thursday on charges of wounding a member of the security forces in the first case of the death penalty being used against a protester.
The executions drew a sharp rebuke from Iran's arch-foe the US, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying they "underscore how much the Iranian leadership actually fears its own people".
Iran calls the protests "riots" and says they have been encouraged by its foreign foes.
Mizan published images of Rahnavard's execution, showing a man with his hands tied behind his back hanging from a rope attached to a crane. The execution took place before dawn and there was no sign that a significant number of people witnessed it.
The director of Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said Rahnavard "was sentenced to death based on coerced confessions after a... show trial".
"The public execution of a young protester, 23 days after his arrest, is another serious crime committed by the Islamic republic's leaders," he told AFP.
New EU sanctions
The protests were sparked by the Sept 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish-Iranian arrested by the morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.
The protests represent the biggest challenge to the regime since the shah's ouster in 1979 and have been met with a crackdown that activists say aims to instil public fear.
EU ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday stepped up sanctions on Iran over the crackdown.
The targets of the new EU sanctions included state broadcaster Irib, its director and a TV news anchor for airing forced confessions of detainees.
Army commander-in-chief Abdolrahim Mousavi, the deputy interior minister, and regional commanders of the Revolutionary Guard Corps were also hit with asset freezes and visa bans.
Iran sought to preempt the EU move by imposing sanctions of its own against the heads of the UK's domestic spy agency and military, along with British and German political figures.
US-based dissident Masih Alinejad charged that "Majidreza Rahnavard's crime was protesting the murder of Mahsa Amini.
"The regime's method of dealing with protests is execution," said Alinejad, adding: "EU, recall your ambassadors."
The office of the UN rights commissioner said it was "appalled" by the news of Rahnavard's execution.
Reports ahead of the execution had described Rahnavard as a young fitness fanatic and a successful amateur wrestler.
Rights groups including IHR have said images have shown he was beaten in custody and forced into a purported confession broadcast on state media.
The protest monitor social media channel 1500tasvir said his family had been informed of the execution only after it was carried out.
It published pictures of a last meeting between the condemned man and his mother, saying she had left with no idea he was about to die.
A spokesman for UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said he viewed the circumstances surrounding this latest execution as "particularly cruel," and that he, along with the UN Human Rights Office, would seek to prevent any further executions.
'Risk of mass execution'
Iran's use of the death penalty is part of a crackdown that IHR says has seen the security forces kill at least 458 people.
According to the UN, at least 14,000 have been arrested.
Iran is already the world's most prolific user of the death penalty after China, Amnesty International says.
Public executions are however highly unusual in the Islamic republic, and one in July was described by IHR as the first in two years.
Prior to the two executions, Iran's judiciary said it had issued death sentences to 11 people in connection with the protests, but campaigners say around a dozen others face charges that could see them also receive the death penalty.
Amnesty on Saturday warned that the lives of two more young men sentenced to death – Mahan Sadrat and Sahand Nourmohammadzadeh – were at imminent risk.
Amiry-Moghaddam warned of "a serious risk of mass execution of protesters" and urged a strong international "response that deters the Islamic republic leaders from more executions".


New cases dip to 732, death toll up by 6

A total of 732 new infections were reported today, taking total confirmed Covid-19 cases to 22,957.Of these, 535 were recorded in Sabah. Selangor followed with 116 new cases and Kuala Lumpur with 26.Penang had 12 cases, followed by Negeri Sembilan and Labuan (nine), Kedah and Perak (seven), Putrajaya (six), Melaka (three), and Kelantan and Pahang (one).No new cases were reported in Johor and Sarawak.Active cases stand at 7,827 or 34.09% with 102 in the ICU and 31 in need of respiratory assistance.Meanwhile, 580 patients were discharged from hospital, taking total recoveries to 14,931 or 65.04%.However, six more deaths were also reported, pushing the virus toll to 199 or 0.87%.


Malta first EU nation to achieve herd immunity against Covid

Malta has vaccinated 70% of its adult population with at least one Covid-19 shot, becoming the first European Union country to achieve so-called herd immunity, Health Minister Chris Fearne said today.The tiny Mediterranean island of more than 514,000 has had an average of three new virus cases each day in the past week. Two new cases were reported on Monday.“Vaccines are being administered at a rate of one every five seconds,” Fearne told a news conference. “42% of the adult population has received two doses.”Vaccination is currently open to all residents of the densely-populated nation over the age of 16. Fearne said children aged 12 and over would also be inoculated once European medical authorities give the go-ahead.He also announced that mandatory wearing of masks outdoors would be lifted on July 1 for vaccinated people as long as virus cases remain low. The health authorities had earlier announced that mask-wearing would no longer be necessary on beaches from June 1.Today, restrictions on gyms and swimming pools were lifted, while the closing time of restaurants was extended from 5pm midnight.Valetta is also due to introduce a vaccine certificate in the next few days, with authorities planning to use it from July to allow the country’s cultural and entertainment venues to return to normality.According to the latest data, there are six Covid-19 patients in Malta’s Mater Dei Hospital, with four of those in the ICU. Since the start of the pandemic, Malta has recorded 30,504 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 417 fatalities.The outbreak in the Mediterranean country appears to have improved amid its vaccine rollout, with fewer than 50 cases reported in each of the past couple of weeks.However, the small archipelago nation of Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, has emerged as the world’s most vaccinated country for Covid-19.Despite this, there has been a recent surge in cases, with many new active cases being fully vaccinated, the ABC reported last week.The outbreak is leading the country to begin reimposing restrictions.


North Korea says botched satellite launch was 'gravest failure'

North Korea has said its botched military satellite launch last month was the "gravest failure" at the ruling party's latest key meeting, state media KCNA reported on Monday.
The enlarged plenary meeting was held between Friday and Sunday, ordering workers and researchers to analyse the failed military satellite launch and prepare for another in the near future.
Those in charge of the satellite launch were "heavily criticised", the report said.
It marked the eight enlarged plenary meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, the country's ruling party.
The North Korean rocket plunged into the sea "after losing thrust due to the abnormal starting of the second-stage engine," Pyongyang said after the launch failure in an unusually candid admission of a technical problem.
North Korea also vowed it will continue to develop its nuclear capability and strengthen solidarity with other countries that oppose what it called the "US strategy for world supremacy."
The meeting also discussed ensuring self-sufficiency in food supply by increasing the country's agricultural output and meeting the annual grain production target.
Earlier this year, South Korea's unification ministry said the food situation in the North "seemed to have deteriorated".
The island country is under strict international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes and its economy has been further strained by strict self-imposed border lockdowns aimed at stopping Covid-19 outbreaks.


British PM ‘very confident’ England will end all Covid-19 restrictions in July

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted England will be able to fully reopen its economy and society in July.“We are very confident that we’ll be able to go through with step four of the road map, on the timetable that I’ve set out, with treating July 19 as a terminus date,” Johnson said.His comments came despite the latest figures from Public Health England showing cases of the Delta variant have increased 78% in the past week.The number of people with Covid-19 in hospital has almost doubled in a week, although patients are thought to be mostly people who haven’t been vaccinated or only partially vaccinated.However, several senior scientific advisers in the UK now believe the country is at the start of a third wave of infections.Meanwhile, everyone aged over 18 in England can now book a vaccine.Johnson urged young people to get the jab and he thanked them for their patience.“You’ve acted selflessly and sacrificed so much to save others in this pandemic. Now the end is in sight. Please get your jabs as soon as you can,” he said in a message posted via social media.Over the weekend large numbers of young people went for their jabs at centres set up in three of London’s large football stadiums.Thousands spent the day queuing for jabs amid warnings a third wave of infections is “definitely underway”.The Independent reported that long queues formed outside “super pop-up” vaccination centres at football grounds in London on Saturday as the vaccine programme was opened up to anyone aged over 18.A huge line was in place at the London Stadium in Stratford, east London, as people waited for their jab, while giant clinics were also set up at Tottenham Hotspur and at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea had 6,000 Pfizer doses ready to administer.Meanwhile the UK recorded a further 14 Covid deaths, and more than 10,000 cases for the third day in a row, as the Delta variant, first identified in India, continued to drive a spike in infections.Earlier this month, Johnson received his second dose of the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine.He posted a photo on social media showing him getting the shot and captioned it: “Second jab done. When it’s your turn, get the jab.”He had received his first dose of the vaccine at St Thomas’ Hospital in March, where the 56-year-old had previously spent several days in intensive care last year after being infected with Covid-19.


270 whales stranded on Tasmanian sandbar

Reuters is reporting that up to 300 whales are stranded on a sandbar off the remote west coast of the Australian island of Tasmania.Marine biologists are planning a rescue operation but government scientists say it appears that at least 25 of the animals, believed to be pilot whales, have already died.Rescuers with specialised equipment arrived at the site on Monday afternoon to assess the situation.Such strandings are not common but do happen. It is not known why whales, which travel together in large groups called pods, sometimes swim into trouble but they are known to follow a leader, as well as gather around an injured or distressed whale.In a happy ending to another lost whale story: a humpback whale that got lost up a crocodile-infested Northern Territory river has swum free after more than two weeks.Kakadu national park manager Feach Moyle said the whale managed to navigate its way out of the maze of shallow channels back into Van Diemen Gulf over the weekend.“It made its way out on the high tides and we’re pleased it appeared to be in good condition and not suffering any ill effects,” he told Reuters on Monday.


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72 foreigners arrested in early morning crackdown at Selangor wholesale market

Seventy-two foreigners were arrested by the immigration department in an operation at the Selangor wholesale market early today.The foreigners who were detained in the operation conducted between 1am and 4am comprised 39 UNHCR cardholders, 19 Bangladeshis, nine Myanmarese, three Indonesians, an Indian national and a Nepalese.Deputy Home Minister Ismail Mohamed Said said the foreigners, between 20 and 50 years of age, were arrested on suspicion of not having valid travel documents.He said the UNHCR cards possessed by the foreigners concerned were dubious.“Further investigations have to be conducted to ascertain the validity of the cards, as well as whether they have the necessary documents and work permits.“They will be taken to the Selangor Immigration Department for further action,” he told reporters after participating in the Ops Patuh operation to monitor compliance SOPs under the movement control order at the market today.He said authorities would continue to conduct Ops Patuh to address non-compliance with the SOPs in an integrated manner by focusing on the misuse of approval letters issued by the relevant ministries, departments and agencies.The operation also involved the participation of the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry.Its enforcement director, Azman Adam, said 42,552 premises nationwide had been inspected from June 1 until yesterday, during which compounds amounting to RM2.03 million were issued for various offences.


Russia rejects UN help as death toll from breached dam rises

Moscow declined United Nations offers to help residents affected by the flooding from the breached Kakhovka Dam, the world body said on Sunday, as the death toll rose and filthy water has forced the closing of beaches in southern Ukraine.
The collapse of the Moscow-controlled dam on June 6 unleashed floodwaters across southern Ukraine and Russia-occupied parts of the Kherson region, destroying homes and farmland, and cutting off supplies to residents.
The death toll has risen to 52, with Russian officials saying 35 people had died in Moscow-controlled areas and Ukraine's interior ministry saying 17 had died and 31 were missing. More than 11,000 have been evacuated on both sides.
The UN urged Russia to act in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law.
"Aid cannot be denied to people who need it," Denise Brown, UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said in a statement.
Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up the Soviet-era dam, under Russian control since early days of its invasion in 2022.
A team of international legal experts assisting Ukraine's prosecutors in their investigation said it was "highly likely" the dam's collapse was caused by explosives planted by Russians.
The Kremlin accused Kyiv of sabotaging the hydroelectric dam, which held a reservoir the size of the US Great Salt Lake.
Authorities in Odesa closed the once popular Black Sea beaches there, prohibiting swimming and the consumption of fish and seafood from unidentified sources.
"The beaches of Odesa have been declared as unsuitable for swimming due to the significant deterioration of the water... and real danger to health," Odesa's administration said on the Telegram messaging app.
Water tests last week showed dangerous levels of salmonella and other "infectious agents," Ukrainian officials said. Monitoring for cholera was also in place.
Although floodwaters have receded, the Dnipro River on which the Kakhovka Dam was built has carried tons of debris into the Black Sea and Odesa's coastline, causing what Ukraine called an "ecocide".
Levels of toxic substances in sea organisms and on the seabed are expected to worsen, augmenting the risk from land mines that are washing up on the shoreline.
"We can forget about a holiday season for a year," Ukraine's Suspilne broadcaster cited Viktor Komorin, head of Center for Marine Ecology, as saying last week.


Google ‘pay calculator’ to reduce pay of staff who do not return to office

Google employees in the US who decide to work from home full-time in the future could face sizeable pay cuts.Tech giant and innovative employer Google has developed a pay calculator that determines how much its employees should be paid depending on where they work from.The calculator shows employees how their salary would be impacted by not returning to the workplace and instead moving to a town or city cheaper to live in, and working from there remotely.Typically, Silicon Valley, where many tech giants are based, is a very expensive area in which to live, with long commutes to and from work being part of many employees’ daily routine.In the Covid-19 upheaval, employees not just in the US but around the world have become used to working from home and many would prefer that to continue rather than to return to the drudgery of “9 to 5” in the city.And if there is no need to go into the office, then there is no real need to spend a lot of money on housing within commuting distance of it. For many employees, cheaper and greener towns and smaller cities beckon.This could, however, result in Google calculator reducing their salary by anything up to 25%.“Our compensation packages have always been determined by location, and we always pay at the top of the local market based on where an employee works from,” a Google spokesman told Reuters.Worldwide, Google has more than 135,000 employees, and CEO Sundar Pichai said in April that the company expected 20% of its workforce to work remotely by the end of 2021.If Google calculates salaries in other countries based on the same formula used in the US, then staff around the world will suffer pay cuts if they opt to work from home, wherever that may be.And it’s not just Google gearing up for fewer employees choosing to return to the office.Twitter and Facebook have already imposed salary cuts on employees who opt to continue working from home or who move to less expensive and potentially less polluted areas to live and raise their families.Some financial companies on Wall Street are opting to insist on employees returning to the office.“If you can go into a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office,” James Gorman, chief executive of Morgan Stanley told Reuters. “If you want to get paid New York rates, you work in New York. None of this, ‘I’m in Colorado and work in New York and am getting paid like I’m sitting in New York City.’”On the other hand, most tech companies have not adjusted pay for remote workers. Yet.But Google employees have been warned that if they move away from the company’s offices to greener pastures, they are likely to face substantial pay cuts.


Malaysia’s road to creating its first vaccine

The Covid-19 pandemic which began washing over the world in late 2019 took many countries including Malaysia by surprise, pushing their healthcare systems to the brink and challenging their ability to handle a crisis of such magnitude.It also brought to the forefront the need for a vaccine to combat the waves of infection which have seen at least five million dead since the virus was first detected.While vaccines typically take anywhere from 10 to 15 years to manufacture, efforts were fast-tracked due the gravity of the situation and within a year, the first vaccine by Pfizer and BioNTech was rolled out and given emergency approval.Now, nearly two years after the virus emerged in China, concerns have arisen over the access of developing countries to the much-needed jabs, with vaccine hoarding and vaccine inequality among heated topics of debate in the international arena.In Malaysia, the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme has relied on a combination of jabs from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, CanSino and Sinovac.But efforts are also underway to produce locally made vaccines, with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob saying yesterday that the country could become a hub for vaccine production.Speaking at the launch of the National Vaccine Development Roadmap and Malaysian Genome and Vaccine Institute, Ismail said while research and development and vaccine production require heavy investment, such efforts have the potential to bring long-term returns for the country.However, Mohd Hair Bejo who researches vaccines at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) said efforts to develop a homegrown jab for Covid-19 had begun as early as March last year following discussions between him and the science, technology and innovation ministry.He said UPM already possessed the expertise in researching, developing and commercialising poultry vaccines for diseases such as Infectious Bursal Disease, Newcastle Disease and Fowl Pox.“Experiments using avian coronavirus or infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) as an inactivated model for a Covid-19 vaccine were carried out in collaboration with the Veterinary Research Institute (VRI) during the movement control order at the time,” he told MalaysiaNow.“The results were very positive where a candidate for viral deactivation could provide full protection against the pathogenic challenges of IBV,” he added.Hair was the first researcher in the country to diagnose the Gumboro virus, otherwise known as the Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) and the Fowl Adenovirus which hit commercial poultry in 1991 and 2005.His research contributed to the development of the MyVAC UPM93 and MyHatch IBD vaccines.For the production of a Malaysian-made Covid-19 vaccine, UPM is collaborating with the Medical Research Institute under the health ministry which channels the allocation of research grants for Covid-19 inactivation efforts.UPM has so far succeeded in isolating, identifying, reproducing and characterising Covid-19 using conventional and molecular techniques.Hair said the virus deactivation process had gone smoothly and a vaccine formulation has been produced.Next, UPM will study the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine inactivation candidate on mice before the commencement of Phase One clinical trials.“The production protocol of this vaccine candidate is based on a preliminary study of the IBV model in early 2020,” Hair said.“Studies show that animals injected with inactivated IBV are fully protected from the challenges of pathogenic IBV.”Those which were not jabbed, meanwhile, had a 100% mortality rate within four to six days after being injected with pathogenic IBV.According to the Gave vaccine alliance website, a total of 194 types of vaccine are currently in the experimental and animal testing stages.Thirty-four vaccines are undergoing Phase One clinical trials while 45 are in Phase Two trials.But the road to developing a vaccine does not end with successful lab trials – manufacturing is also necessary to produce the jabs on a mass scale.Solution Biologics, a subsidiary of Solution Group Bhd which is a partner of CanSino Biologics, produces the CanSino jab using the company’s facilities.Its CEO Mohd Nazlee Kamal said cooperation is needed across many fields in order to produce a homegrown vaccine.“Scientists need to work with experts from various industries, especially engineers,” he told MalaysiaNow.“Manufacturing requires a lot of engineers. We also need to scale up the process and to build up talents.”He said Malaysia could follow the lead of CanSino in terms of establishing a global network.He was referring to the founder of CanSino who used to work in the US and Europe before coming back to China when the adinovirus was developed with the Chinese military in Beijing.The adinovirus for CanSino was a collaborative effort between China and Canada.Nazlee also said his side was ready to work with the government for the provision of facilities to produce made-in-Malaysia vaccines.Hair meanwhile said the Covid-19 inactivation project was one of the biggest challenges so far in the production of local vaccines, as it is a pilot project that could pave the way for the creation of more jabs.“In general, the country possesses the expertise and strength needed in the research and development of vaccines,” he said.“We also have lab facilities which can be upgraded from time to time.”For now, though, efforts to produce a Malaysian vaccine for Covid-19 continue, with a patent to be filed by IMR, UPN and VRI.


Putin says Russia is open to diplomacy but won’t compromise on its security

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia was always open to diplomacy but put its own national security interests first and would continue to strengthen its military in the face of what he called a difficult international situation.Putin, speaking in a video statement released to coincide with the annual Defender of the Fatherland Day, did not mention his standoff with the West over Ukraine which has seen Western sanctions imposed on Russia after he decided to recognise the independence of two breakaway Ukrainian regions.But he used the appearance to send a message to the West about his stance over the issue all the same.“Our country is always open to a direct and honest dialogue and ready to search for diplomatic solutions to the most complicated issues,” said Putin.“But I want to repeat that Russia’s interests and the security of our people are unconditional. So, we will continue to strengthen and modernise our army and navy.”The US has accused Putin of massing more than 150,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders in preparation for what it fears could be a full-scale invasion. Russia has repeatedly denied plans for such an attack but says it has a duty to protect people living in the two breakaway regions.“We can see the difficult international situation and the threats posed by current challenges, such as the erosion of the arms control system and Nato’s military activities,” said Putin.“And yet, Russia’s appeals to build a system based on equal and indivisible security that would reliably defend all countries, remain unanswered.”


PM announces RM100 pay hike, cash aid for civil servants

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob today announced several incentives for civil servants including an additional RM100 to their annual salary increment (KGT) and special financial assistance (BKK) of RM700 for 2023.
He said the additional KGT of RM100 was for civil servants from Grade 11 to 56 and would be paid from January 2023 involving a total of 1.28 million recipients and a financial implication of RM1.5 billion.
"If the KGT for those in Grade 11 is currently RM80, in 2023 they will receive the basic KGT of RM80 and an additional RM100, bringing the total KGT to RM180," he said at the 18th Civil Service Premier Message Gathering (Mappa XVIII) attended by 4,000 civil servants and thousands of others online today.
He also announced the BKK of RM700 for civil servants of Grade 56 and below, as well as RM350 for government pensioners and non-pensionable veterans, also to be paid in January 2023.
"The grievances of civil servants are always heard by the government," he said amid cheers.
Mappa is an annual event where the prime minister delivers a message to civil servants from various public and civil services at the federal and state levels, as well as local governments and GLCs.
This year's edition was also attended by Chief Secretary to the Government Mohd Zuki Ali, director-general of public service Mohd Shafiq Abdullah and Cabinet members including Communications and Multimedia Minister Annuar Musa.
Cuepacs president Adnan Mat was also present.
At the event, Ismail also announced an increase of maximum days for the cash award in lieu of leave (GCR) to 180 days from the current 160.
"The government understands that because of the heavier tasks coming their way, many civil servants have not been able to take their annual leave.
"With this increase in GCR, they can save their annual leave for a cash award for their retirement later," he said.
The prime minister also announced an additional five days of special annual leave, bringing the total to 15, for education service officers who have served for more than 10 years.
He said this would benefit approximately 500,000 teachers who could use it for emergencies or urgent matters, or save it for a higher GCR cash award.
He also announced an expansion of the definition of family members for unrecorded leave due to the death of close family members.
"Prior to this, unrecorded leave for funeral affairs was only subject to the death of husband or wife, biological mother and mother-in-law, biological father and father-in-law and children, but now, the definition of family members is extended to the siblings, grandmothers and grandfathers of the civil servant," he said.
He also announced an improvement to the annual salary movement for officers who have reached their maximum salary.
"The government has agreed to improve the fixed rate of 3% received by officers who have reached the maximum salary to a new rate which will be standardised according to grade for all service classifications, effective Jan 1, 2022," he said.
Ismail said the Public Service Department (PSD) would issue a circular to provide a detailed explanation of the matter.
He said the government also agreed that the PSD should speed up its study on the public service remuneration system by taking into account the overall aspects of human capital development.
“The study should also cover all aspects of remuneration and services so as to be relevant to the current situation and the government’s financial capability,” he said.


PAS to continue alliance with PN in Johor aftermath

PAS will continue its alliance with Perikatan Nasional (PN) to serve the people while keeping an open mind about the results of the Johor state election on Saturday, its vice-president Idris Ahmad says.He said although PN only won three seats in the state legislative assembly – Bukit Kepong, Maharani and Endau – the coalition would continue to work together to nurture the concept of unity ahead of the 15th general election (GE15).“Do not measure results based on the Melaka and Johor state elections. We are still new together. We accept defeat and will prepare a plan to move ahead to face GE15. What is important is unity,” he said after an event in Bukit Gantang yesterday.In the Johor state election, Barisan Nasional won 40 of the 56 seats, followed by Pakatan Harapan (11), PN (three), Muda (one) and PKR (one).


Olympic kayaker tried to smuggle US$150 million of cocaine into Australia

An Australian Olympic kayaker and his brother have been found guilty of attempting to smuggle over US$150 million of cocaine into the country.In 2018, Nathan and Dru Baggaley had dreams of making it rich through a simple smuggling run, but Dru and another man ended up clapped in irons after a dramatic chase at sea in which they were pursued by the navy, air force, and police.Nathan had purchased a seagoing boat in which Dru and the other man, Anthony Draper, made an 11-hour journey to secretly rendezvous with a foreign ship loaded with drugs.However, after they transferred the packages of cocaine to their boat, they were spotted by surveillance planes and followed by a navy ship.Footage captured Dru throwing packages of cocaine overboard while Draper attempted to outrun the naval vessel, ABC News reports.They were finally captured by a police vessel off the Queensland coast and arrested by armed officers.In court, Dru claimed that he had thought he was collecting tobacco and not cocaine. He also said he was kidnapped by Draper and made to go with him to meet the smugglers’ ship. He said Draper threatened to harm his family if he didn’t help him.However, Draper claimed he was recruited by Dru to drive the boat and alleged he was told they were picking up “smoko” which he assumed was marijuana. He pleaded guilty to importing cocaine earlier this year but his sentence was reduced for testifying against the Baggaley brothers.Prosecutors say Nathan – a double silver-medallist at the Athens Olympics – was involved in the plan by purchasing the boat and fitting it with a satellite phone and a navigation system.However, in court he claimed that the boat was purchased with money given to him by Dru and said he was told it would be used to start a whale watching business. But his fingerprints were discovered on masking tape used to conceal the boat’s registration number.The misadventure wasn’t the first time the brothers have been charged with drug offences.They were previously convicted of involvement in a drug gang making hallucinogenic tablets. They were also convicted in 2009 on other drug charges.They will be sentenced later this month. According to ABC News, they could both face life in prison.


Japan finds another Moderna vial suspected to contain foreign substance

Japan’s Kanagawa prefecture said it has found another vial of Moderna Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine suspected of containing a foreign substance and has put the rest of the lot on hold.In a statement on Tuesday, prefectural authorities said a pharmacist found several black particles in one vial upon checking for foreign substances before the vaccine’s use.Japan suspended the use of 1.63 million doses of Moderna shots last week after being notified of contamination in some of the supply. Moderna and Spanish pharma company Rovi, which bottles Moderna vaccines, have said the cause could be a manufacturing issue, and European safety regulators have launched an investigation.Moderna has said no safety or efficacy issues had been identified from the issue.Kanagawa prefecture said the vaccine’s domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, had collected the vial with the suspected contaminant, and that about 3,790 people had already received shots from the same lot.More Moderna shots were temporarily halted in two regions of Japan this week for what appears to be a separate issue of bits of the vials’ rubber stopper breaking off when needles are incorrectly inserted.


869 new cases, death toll hits 300

Another 869 Covid-19 cases were recorded today, pushing total confirmed infections in the country to 42,050.Of these, 397 were recorded in Sabah, 236 in Selangor, and 141 in Negeri Sembilan.Penang recorded 27 new cases, Kuala Lumpur 19, Perak 12, Kelantan nine, Labuan eight, Johor eight, Sarawak six, Kedah three and Putrajaya three.Active cases stand at 11,446 with 82 in the ICU and 27 in need of respiratory assistance.Another 725 patients were discharged, taking total recoveries to 30,304.However, six more deaths were reported, bringing the virus toll to 300.


Umno ministers to remain in Cabinet, says PM

Ministers from Umno will remain in the Cabinet despite calls at the party’s general assembly last weekend for ministers and deputy ministers from the Malay party to resign ahead of a decision on its ties with the Perikatan Nasional bloc.Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said he had advised them not to resign, taking into consideration the interests of the people and the country.“At the moment, several Umno ministers hold important portfolios related to the main focus of the government.“Therefore, I do not want their resignation to affect all government plans to overcome the Covid-19 problem and to revive the country’s economy,” he said in a statement today.Muhyiddin said that Umno ministers had met him on Monday to ask for his advice on their position in the Cabinet following the decision at the party’s general assembly to cut ties with Bersatu in the 15th general election.Umno adviser Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah had said that ministers from the party should resign while those holding positions in government-linked companies should also step down.He said this would send a strong message to Muhyiddin that he no longer has the majority to rule.“How can he insist he has the majority when our people are withdrawing? All this while, he has had our support. If our people withdraw… and stop supporting the Perikatan Nasional (PN) leadership, I think they will just collapse,” Razaleigh, or Ku Li, told reporters in response to the presidential address.In his speech at the general assembly, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claimed that the decision to cut ties with the PN government reflected grassroots’ sentiments, repeating his allegations that Muhyiddin’s Bersatu had relegated Umno to playing second fiddle.Party leaders had earlier said that Umno would still remain in the government until the dissolution of Parliament to make way for the 15th general election.Muhyiddin today said the Cabinet would continue functioning as usual, and that all government initiatives would be carried out as planned.


Kenya braces for second wave – of ravenous locusts

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is warning that a resurgence of the plagues of locusts that devastated Kenya earlier in the year will aggravate food shortages currently affecting the population.It said that almost 25 million people are already suffering from severe food shortages caused by previous plagues devouring crops in their path.Desert locusts are considered the most destructive migratory pest in the world, devouring large areas of crops as well as livestock pastures. Clouds of them appear suddenly and carpet the countryside then fly off leaving bare soil and stalks behind them.The first wave hit Kenya earlier this year, unleashing a trail of destruction and savaging food production in many parts of the country.And now, while the rest of the world worries about further waves of Covid-19, Kenya is facing a second wave of locusts on a rarely seen scale.In August, the FAO said the year’s previous desert locust infestation was under control, and applauded Kenya’s efforts in fighting the plague.But the UN agency is now warning that the locust crisis could re-escalate in December as recent strong winds have been carrying mature swarmlets from southern Somalia into Kenya.“Although some of the swarmlets that have reached Kenya may have laid eggs before their arrival, there remains a risk of further egg-laying in sandy areas that have seen recent rainfalls,” said the agency, adding that if this is the case, hatching and hopper swarms can be expected by mid-December.It noted that breeding is continuing in neighbouring countries Somalia and Ethiopia where bands of hoppers – non-flying, nymphal stage locusts – are taking over huge areas, and a new generation of immature swarms could start forming soon and flying into Kenya, heading straight for anything and everything they can eat.


Altantuya’s family appeals to increase RM5 million damages award

The family of murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu is appealing for a higher compensation than the RM5 million awarded by the Shah Alam High Court.
In the notice of appeal filed on Jan 16 this year, Altantuya's family is cross-appealing against part of the High Court's decision on the quantum of damages.
On Dec 16 last year, High Court judge Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, now a Court of Appeal judge, allowed the suit by Altantuya's family and ordered former policemen Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar, political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, and the Malaysian government to jointly pay RM5 million in general, aggravated and exemplary damages to the family.
The judge also awarded interest at 5% per annum of the sum of judgment from the date of the filing of the lawsuit until the full settlement of the amount and legal costs of RM25,000.
On Jan 12 this year, the government and Razak filed their appeals against the High Court's decision on liability and quantum.
A case management for the Altantuya family's appeal was held before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Nadia Mohd Kamal today, who then fixed another case management date on June 13 for parties to update the court relating to the status of the grounds of appeal and notes of proceedings.
The appeals by Razak and the government are also fixed for case management on the same day.
Lawyer Simranjit Kaur Chhran representing Altantuya's family, when contacted, confirmed the next case management date.
On June 4, 2007, Altantuya’s parents Dr Shaariibuu and Altantsetseg Sanjaa, as well as their grandson Mungunshagai Bayarjargal, filed an RM100 million suit against Azilah and Sirul, Razak and the Malaysian government.
In their statement of claim, Altantuya's family said the model’s death resulted in them suffering mental shock and psychological trauma and sought compensation as well as exemplary and aggravated damages.
Sirul is currently being held at an Australian immigration detention centre, while Azilah is on death row at Kajang Prison.


New cases stick below 2,000 mark as 7 more deaths reported

Another 1,745 Covid-19 cases were recorded today, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 305,880.Selangor recorded 640 cases, Johor 376, Sarawak 139 and Perak 136.Sabah recorded 95 cases, Kuala Lumpur 92, Penang 90, Kedah 40, Pahang and Melaka 36 each, Kelantan 33, Negeri Sembilan 24, Terengganu five and Putrajaya three.Active cases stand at 24,025 with 195 in the ICU and 95 in need of respiratory assistance.Another 2,276 patients were discharged, bringing total recoveries to 280,707.However, seven more deaths were reported, pushing the virus toll to 1,148.


Group warns against using armed forces to arrest MCO offenders during emergency

Rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) voiced concern today over the announcement that armed forces personnel would be empowered to arrest and take action against those accused of breaching the government’s movement restrictions, saying this could lead to abuses which infringe the civil liberties of the people.LFL coordinator Zaid Malek said legitimate concern exists that allowing military personnel to arrest civilians could lead to excessive use of force, among others.“The armed forces are trained for combat in armed conflict against foreign invaders and are ill-equipped to deal with civilian arrests,” he said.“The powers to detain civilians should only be exercised by police officers, who have been trained to deal with such arrests. Army personnel must only be utilised to assist police officers in ensuring MCO (movement control order) compliance, as they have done throughout the MCO period last year.”The announcement on armed forces personnel was made by Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob in his daily update on the Covid-19 situation yesterday.In a statement, Zaid noted Ismail’s assurance that such powers are given by way of an “emergency ordinance” but said the minister had failed to provide details on the ordinance or clarify whether such an ordinance had already been promulgated.“Be that as it may, the government must be reminded that Article 150 (2B) of the Federal Constitution has limited the enactment of any ordinance to only when there exists a circumstance that necessitates its immediate creation,” he added.He referred to a video which went viral in December of army personnel appearing to abuse migrant workers for breaching a quarantine order.“While we do not suggest that all military personnel have conducted themselves in such a manner, the concerns raised by such incidents are very real,” he said.“Members of the public should not be treated as enemies and be dealt with by military personnel. MCO offenders should be treated in accordance with law by police personnel who are trained to do so, and their rights protected at all times.”


South Korea, Australia agree to step up defence cooperation

South Korea and Australia's defence chiefs agreed on Tuesday to step up defence cooperation, South Korea's defence ministry said.
Korean Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup met his Australian counterpart Richard Marles on the sidelines of the inaugural South Korea-Pacific Islands Summit in Seoul.
Lee expressed the South Korean military's willingness to join the Indo-Pacific Endeavour, an Australian-led multinational military drill, as well as Operation Render Safe, activities by the Australian Defense Force to remove underwater mines in the Pacific.
The two countries agreed to hold working-level meetings as part of steps to revise a memorandum of understanding signed in 2011 aimed at enhancing defence industry cooperation.
Marles also met with South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol and discussed joint efforts to expand cooperation with the Pacific Islands countries, a presidential spokesperson said.


Daily caseload at 211, no new deaths reported

Another 211 Covid-19 cases were recorded yesterday, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 5,037,995.
There were 272 recoveries, taking total recoveries to 4,990,977.
There are now 10,075 active cases, of which 9,663 or 95.9% are undergoing home quarantine.
Meanwhile, 0 (0%) are at quarantine centres while 402 (4%) have been hospitalised.
A total of 10 are in ICU with eight in need of respiratory assistance.
No new deaths were reported, leaving the death toll unchanged at 36,943.


Denmark tells over 1,000 Syrian refugees: Get ready to go home, Syria is now safe

Denmark has become the first European nation to tell Syrian migrants they must return to their home country, saying it is now safe for them there.The Scandinavian nation has already stripped 94 Syrian refugees of their residency permits after it said the capital Damascus and the surrounding area are now safe.Copenhagen has now also just reclassed the southern Rif Dimashq Governorate area of Syria as safe to return to, which means that a further 350 Syrian residents in Denmark will have their temporary protection permits reassessed, along with roughly 900 refugees from Damascus, EuroWeekly reports.Migrants will be sent to deportation camps but will not be forced to leave. However, rights groups say the government is trying to give migrants no other option than to return to Syria of their own accord.Mattias Tesfaye, Denmark’s immigration minister, said last month that the country had been “open and honest from the start” with refugees coming from Syria.“We have made it clear to the Syrian refugees that their residence permit is temporary. It can be withdrawn if protection is no longer needed,” he said, according to the Daily Telegraph.“We must give people protection for as long as it is needed. But when conditions in their home country improve, former refugees should return home and re-establish a life there,” he said.Denmark’s ruling centre-Left Social Democratic Party has taken a fierce anti-immigration stance in an effort to fend off anti-migrant challenges from opposition parties on the right which are gaining popularity among voters.Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has promised to aim for zero asylum seekers applying for residence in the country.Germany had previously ruled that convicted criminals can be deported back to Syria, but Denmark is the first country in Europe to say that all refugees can be returned when the time is right.Human rights groups have spoken out against Copenhagen’s move to send people back to a country that remains ravaged by war.“That the Danish government is seeking to force people back into the hands of this brutal regime is an appalling affront to refugee law and people’s right to be safe from persecution,” said Steve Valdez-Symonds, refugee and migrant rights director at Amnesty International UK, reports the Arab News.“This reckless violation of Denmark’s duty to provide asylum also risks increasing incentives for other countries to abandon their own obligations to Syrian refugees.”


Nostalgia and my father’s kebun

When I was quite young and my father still a working man, he bought a piece of land in the most isolated place possible. He did so for just one reason: to “berkebun”.My father grew up a farmer’s child. My grandmother would bring him to the padi field where the family made a living from the routine of planting and harvesting. The padi field also blessed his family with fish – by the time he was in secondary school, he had mastered the art of netting which, he boasted, was no small feat.As he grew up, he went on to get a good education. He managed to earn a scholarship and experienced life in the land of the orang putih.But perhaps as far as people go in life, they will return to the way they were. As an educator, my father taught economics but there was always an element of farming in his study and lessons. He would research the economy of farmers to the economy surrounding the trade of the land’s produce.The kebun was a way for my father to go back to his roots as an anak petani, although with a hint of modernisation. Then again, “hint” may be an understatement – the kebun is drowned in my father’s ideas for intertwining his roots with current technological advancements. He experiments with hydroponic and plant culture with proper piping, but most of these words just went over my head.I do not know how to translate the word “kebun” itself. It is certainly not a garden like those you see in the posh landscape of Kuala Lumpur or at buildings which show a pseudo-concern for the environment while themselves being disruptive developments. Perhaps it is more like a “dusun” or orchard. But then, one would probably imagine lush green trees with juicy fruit, and a heat that never touches the ground as the leaves canopy the area.My father’s kebun is far from that.The hot and dry land has killed off some of his durian saplings, invasive kerengga or weaver ants abound, the tall grass is filled with unfamiliar flying bugs, and the trees are dusted from the parched ground.Maybe the word kebun is exclusive to our family. It is both a territory and a concept that my father shared only with us, something that I as a son only understand and see from his intention for the land.The trees are spaced far apart from each other, giving the illusion that my father’s kebun is a barren land of weeds and perennials. However, lime trees are in abundance. There are a few varieties – limau purut, limau nipis and limau kasturi – but the only one I cherish from the garden is the limau purut because my mother used to make me bathe in the juice to cleanse myself from the syaitan or devil that made me do drugs and become depressed.I did not mind this because the baths were nice and my whole body smelt like lime for several days after. I was disappointed not to be able to take another bath in limau purut as the trees have since been conquered by nests of kerengga the size of my toe.Since both my parents are now retired, they are making up for time lost in the city by reliving their old lives in the kampung. The decades far from the kampung did not make it easier for them to adjust to the new routine. Kampung life is waking up way too early, before sunrise, for prayers and breakfast. This is followed by watering and gardening while the heat slowly rises, then lunch while waiting for the sun to edge away from the tops of their heads before they continue with their routine.Building a life out of greens was an underestimated expectation as they were used to a routine that began when the sun shines the brightest, protected from the heat by the cool of the air conditioner. The only worthwhile thing was the luxury of pension funds so that they don’t starve while waiting for their trees to bear fruit.Many of my acquaintances from my generation know what they are missing out on. They will never experience running barefoot on the cool dirt or swimming in muddy water when the day is hot. They will never be threatened with canes by old and wrinkly ustaz or taught by ustazah without tudungs. They did not experience the need to feed themselves by the produce of their own hands or the catch of the day. They are very much aware of that.And I observe how they thirst for the experience in the nostalgia of their parents. They compensate for it by creating their own experience with the progress they own. They dance barefoot in the rain because the pavement is hot under the prolonged heat, and the bodies of water available are an exclusive luxury. They get mad at each other over matters like tudungs but can only do so online because they are too shy to meet and physical threats are a punishable offence by law. They buy non-edible succulents and raise them as tchotchkes. The only feeding they get out of the plants is emotional feeding when the small, overpriced room without windows they live in gets too depressing.What may we go back to?My parents were raised in the age of exploring advancements. For the people of their time, they had the luck of going through an experience for the first time when their consciousness had been developed. They tasted the experience of a contrast in lifestyle, from kampung to city, the antique and advanced, and built a preference on the experience they had. They built nostalgia and made a choice to relive it with the kebun.Dina Zaman has said that nostalgia is no longer relevant in the 21st century. While there are still youngsters that live out in the country, many of us have tasted advancement and were raised without knowing what we advanced from. For us urban children, the endless development only means seeing progress from the perspective of someone that will never know a change in lifestyle. As we age, I wonder if we will have anything to ponder on. Will there be a harsh life for us to remember in reflecting on the good times we had and are having now? A nostalgia that we may recount and live our lives by later?Maybe I am still too young to reminisce the luxury of the aged. But I do wish for my generation to be spared of any nostalgia and the need to relive an experience that was never ours.Until then, semoga kita terus berbakti.


Sorry.


New cases stay above 2,000 as 3 more deaths take toll to 474

Another 2,068 Covid-19 cases were recorded today, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 115,078.Selangor recorded 776 cases (37.5%), of which 425 were from clusters and close contact screening.This was followed by Kuala Lumpur (457) and Sabah (254).Penang recorded 226 cases, Johor 112, Kelantan 53, Perak and Negeri Sembilan 51 each, Melaka 23, Kedah 20, Pahang 16, Terengganu 14, Sarawak eight, Putrajaya four and Labuan three.Active cases stand at 23,433 with 126 in the ICU and 54 in need of respiratory assistance.Three new clusters were detected: Rawa Akasia (Timur Laut, Barat Daya, Seberang Perai Tengah and Seberang Perai Selatan in Penang; 117 cases), Jalan Perindustrian (Kulai in Johor; 20 cases) and Rantau Semarak (Maran in Pahang and Gombak in Selangor; 18 cases).Another four ended, leaving 224 active clusters across the country.Another 2,230 patients were discharged, bringing total recoveries to 91,171.However, three more deaths were reported, pushing the virus toll to 474.


Malaysia expected to garner RM14.62 billion in new investments from US

Malaysia is expected to garner RM14.62 billion in new investments from the US following the trade and investment mission (TIM) led by International Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali.Azmin said many US-based companies had expressed their commitment to expanding their operations and footprint in Malaysia during his 10-day TIM which began on May 8.“We are going to make some major announcements in the next few days in terms of the total new investments that have been committed by these companies,” he told Bernama and TV3 reporters in Washington on Tuesday.Azmin has so far met several high-technology companies such as global semiconductor company Texas Instruments Inc and global materials supplier to the electronics assembly and semiconductor packaging industries Indium Corporation.He is scheduled to engage with more hi-tech industry players during his upcoming visits to San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles.Azmin said his ministry would continue its trade mission to attract more investments, and that the high-quality investments would create more jobs for Malaysian talents.Meanwhile, he said US trade representative ambassador Katherine Tai had welcomed Malaysia’s suggestion on the revival of the Investment Framework Agreement (Tifa), and that he was hopeful that both countries could come to a conclusion on the activation of the agreement in the near future.Azmin said Malaysia was principally open to further discussions on the matter with the US, as the last discussion on Tifa between the two countries was in 2005.“But of course, we need to see how Tifa can accommodate and mitigate the global challenges that we are facing now, such as (to ensure) supply chain resilience,” he said after a bilateral meeting with Tai on Tuesday.On the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) mooted by US President Joe Biden, which was raised during a separate bilateral meeting with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on Tuesday, Azmin said Malaysia was open to more discussions on the matter.“Being a small economy like Malaysia, we are open to more discussions on the matter, and we want to ensure that the spirit of Asean centrality will be respected, and ensure that all Asean member states discuss the matter thoroughly,” he said.A memorandum of cooperation on ensuring supply chain resilience was signed between Azmin and Raimondo following the bilateral meeting.Azmin said both Tai and Raimondo had agreed to increase dialogue and consultation between the US and Malaysia to address issues related to workforce governance practices, in line with the environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework, as well as international standards that would benefit Malaysian companies when competing in the global market.Following the bilateral meeting, Azmin and Raimondo also co-hosted a roundtable session with top US semiconductor industry players, where both leaders ensured resilience in supply chain despite soaring demand for semiconductors in the automotive, aerospace and medical device sectors.“These companies also assured me that they will continue to help develop the ecosystem with the participation of SMEs and local vendors in Malaysia,” Azmin said.