Bank Rakyat Chairman, Abdul Aziz nabbed over embezzlement probe

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/08/30/macc-picks-up-bank-chief-abdul-aziz-questioned-over-rm15mil-case-after-md-held/

MACC picks up bank chief 

PETALING JAYA: Bank Rakyat chairman Jen (ret) Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Haji Zainal has been detained for questioning over a RM15mil case, the second top level person from the bank to be hauled up by the MACC.

The bank’s managing director, Datuk Mustafha Abd Razak, was detained on Thursday and has since been remanded.

MACC investigation director Datuk Azam Baki confirmed that the commission had moved in yesterday.

“I confirm the arrest. It is to facilitate the ongoing investigation,” he said, declining to elaborate further.

A source told The Star that the chairman was detained at his office in Jalan Rakyat at about 1.15pm yesterday.

“Nearly RM1mil of the suspect’s cash in his bank account has been frozen pending the probe. We went to his office to detain him,” he said.

 

Jen (ret) Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Haji Zainal

The source added that the MACC did not rule out the possibility of freezing other assets belonging to the 65-year-old if the funds were found to be connected to any shady dealings.

“The commission will submit a request tomorrow morning (today) to remand the suspect,” the source said, adding that the graftbusters were aiming to obtain a lengthy remand.

The source said the duo were the only individuals from the bank who were being questioned by MACC over the case.

The chairman and the 48-year-old managing director were detained over a multi-million-ringgit book publishing contract and a project to upgrade the bank system.

The Star reported yesterday that a second banker was being sought by the MACC over the publishing contract and the upgrading project.

It is believed the RM15mil was given to a publishing company to come up with a coffee-table book about a prominent political figure. The deal was for the publisher to print about 20,000 copies but the number printed is said to have been much lower.

A source said that several bank accounts, totalling about RM10mil, have been frozen by the MACC in connection with the case.

 

Top executives: Mustafha (left) and Abdul Aziz. Datuk Mustafha Abd Razak

Another source told The Star that the MACC suspected several people of collaborating in the project.

“The MACC also wants the mastermind behind this,” the source said.

The MACC has been on crackdown against graft in high places in recent days.

On Aug 15, three government officers – one with the title “Datuk” and another “Datuk Seri” – were arrested by the MACC for graft, misuse of power and money laundering.

All three men, who were employed at a government department, a local authority and a government-linked company, were detained in Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Kelantan respectively.

All accounts belonging to them – with deposits totalling more than RM13mil – were frozen.

It is not known if the cases are related.

By Nadirah H. Rodzi The Star

Bank Rakyat chairman remanded over RM15mil graft case to be held for seven days

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/08/31/bank-rakyat-chairman-to-be-held-for-seven-days/

http://www.thestartv.com/episode/bank-rakyat-chairman-remanded-over-rm15mil-graft-case/

PUTRAJAYA: Bank Rakyat chairman Jen (ret) Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Haji Zainal has been remanded for seven days to help in the investigation into an alleged corruption case involving RM15mil.

Magistrate Nik Isfahanie Tasnim Wan Ab Rahman granted the request by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for the remand to run until Sept 5.

The 65-year-old is one of three people from the financial institution to be questioned over a multimillion-ringgit book publishing contract and a project to upgrade the bank’s system.

Nearly RM1mil of Abdul Aziz’s cash in his bank account has been frozen pending the probe.

It is learnt that two others from a publishing company have also been further remanded until Friday.

However, the bank’s managing director Datuk Mustafha Abd Razak and a former procurement officer, and another two owners of the publishing company have been released by MACC as investigations against them have been completed.

In the case, RM15mil was believed to have been awarded to the publishing company to come up with a coffee-table book about a prominent political figure.

The deal was for the publisher to print about 20,000 copies but the number produced was said to have been much lower.

In another case involving the alleged abuse of power over a multi­million-ringgit oil pipeline project, six people – five contractors and an officer from an oil-and-gas company – have had their remand extended until Friday.

Two others – a contractor and another officer from the same oil-and-gas company – were released.

Magistrate Nik Isfahanie also allowed for a 27-year-old man, who is the son of a contractor implicated in the case, to be remanded for five days until Saturday.

He was detained at the MACC headquarters when he showed up to give a statement at 5pm yesterday.

MACC has frozen 17 bank accounts, with deposits totalling RM5.5mil, in connection with the case.

It also seized a double-storey house, some jewellery, several luxury cars including four Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari, a Toyota, a Mercedes and a Volkswagen, as well as two motor­cycles.

The managing director of the oil-and-gas company is alleged to have taken a bribe from a sub-contractor for appointing him and approving a falsified invoice for the RM76mil project.

By  Martin Carvalho, Hemananthani Sivanandam, Royce Tan, and Joash Ee De Silva The Star/Asia News Network

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Supersized and overweight civil servants

 

The public waiting their turn for services at a government department. - Filepic

When those two words describe a nation's public sector, it means it's truly a burden on taxpayers.

POOR civil servants! If you watched Disney’s animated film Zootopia, you would have caught the hilarious scene where the heroes, a rabbit and a fox, rushed to the Department of Motor Vehicles to check out a licence plate, only to get very, very slow service from the sloths manning the counter.

It would appear this stereotyping of civil servants’ work ethic is universal, which is why the parody tickled audiences everywhere.

Now Malaysians have another reason to make fun of their civil servants: they’re too fat. At least the ones in Putrajaya are, according to the 2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) which showed it has the highest rate of overweight and obese citizens.

It’s an established fact that Putrajaya is populated overwhelmingly by government employees, which means those living and serving in the very heart of the nation’s administrative capital are rather unhealthy.

That’s a bummer because, design-wise, Putrajaya got it right. It was a winner in the 75,001­ to 150,000-population category for the Whole City Award under the International Awards for Liveable Communities 2012.

In the paper submitted for the awards, Putrajaya boasted of having “lush greeneries surrounding buildings, infrastructure, (12) parks and gardens.” What’s more, the same paper took into account the need to keep Putra­jaya folks fit and healthy.

It noted that 28% of the residents had a normal BMI (Body Mass Index), 36.3% were overweight, 27.4% obese and 8.3% were even underweight. That was in 2011.

Just four years later, 37% of Putrajayans are said to be overweight and their obesity rate is 43%, according to the NHMS findings.

These are alarming jumps and more so when there were efforts like the Healthy Parks, Healthy People programme to get the residents to exercise to stave off lifestyle diseases like hypertension and diabetes. Among the activities was the Putrajaya Inter-Park Ride monthly cycling event.

So what gives? Why are Putrajayans and Malaysians on the whole so fat? We hold the title of Fatties of South-East Asia; some reports say the whole of Asia.

Some people may, in a perverse way, hail having an overly well-fed population as a sign of a nation’s prosperity. After all, the fattest people in the world are the Americans.

A How’s Life? 2015 Report by the Organisation for Economic Coopera­tion and Development ranked the United States as the nation with the most obese population. It also had the fattest children and the unhealthiest teenagers by a wide margin.

The findings are said to be a blow to the Obama administration and First Lady Michelle Obama because they have been championing this cause for years, including reducing sugar and salt from school lunches.

So if both the US and Malaysian Governments couldn’t stem the fat tide in their respective countries, who can? I would say it’s still the government and we the people.

What we have is a terribly bloated public sector. The Star, quoting Prime Minister’s Office statistics, pointed out that at 1.4 million employees, it’s the largest civil service in South-East Asia.

Supersized and overweight. That’s a double whammy and the kind of Malaysian Book of Records we don’t need. So for a start, how about really downsizing the civil service? After all, why do we need so many civil servants to serve a population that’s way smaller than those in neighbouring countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand?

Next, I support calls to make it mandatory for civil servants to lose the fat and stay healthy. This is especially so for those who have yet to develop serious illnesses like diabetes. If need be, withhold promotions and salary increases if they don’t meet this KPI.

The reason why I am pushing for this is because civil servants get free medical services in government hospitals and clinics, even after retirement.

That’s a longstanding benefit which I don’t object to, since my retired police officer father is a beneficiary. But with a large, unhealthy government workforce, you can imagine the humongous medical bill we taxpayers are burdened with.

If nothing is done, it will become a bigger burden because, as doctors have warned, 20 years from now, those overweight and obese citizens will be suffering from all sorts of illnesses from stroke, heart disease and kidney failure to diabetes.

All that “will increase the health budget to an unsustainable level,” Malaysian Medical Association president Dr Ashok Zachariah Philip told The Star.

Thanks to my role as the primary caregiver to my elderly parents who suffer from various illnesses, I know how scarily expensive medical care can be for those without access to free treatments.

As a private sector employee, I am grateful to be working for a company that gives me good medical coverage. But I have also bought my own health insurance to prepare for the day when I retire and lose my safety net. In the meantime, I work at staying healthy and medication-free.

As I said, I do not begrudge the medical benefit for government servants. What I do begrudge are those who take it for granted, instead of taking responsibility for their own well-being.

If the Government can work on getting its workforce in shape, non-public sector citizens too can do their part by eating less and more healthily and getting off our butts.

Admittedly, it’s hard now to go out for a run or even a stroll because of the current heat wave and haze. But we can try taking the stairs instead of the lift, drink more water than teh tarik and yes, eat less of our beloved nasi lemak.

Proud as we are that Time magazine ranked it as the ninth healthiest breakfast in the world, we know better. A dish that tastes that good cannot be healthy!

I leave this thought with you: The OEDC report, which measures the personal and economic health of nations, found that the United States indeed topped the chart in personal wealth and even the number of rooms in American homes.

So yes, they have the wealth but where’s the health?


By June H.L. Wong

So Aunty, So What?

Aunty likes this quote by humourist Jarod Kintz: Obesity isn’t as cool as it used to be, back in the earlier centuries. Before it was a reflection on your gross income. Now it’s just gross. Feedback to aunty@thestar.com.my

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Putrajaya the obese-city! Address obesity urgently

 

Two men cycling in front of the Palace of justice in Putrajaya

Malaysia has the highest percentage of overweight people in South-East Asia and the bulk of them are in Putrajaya. A survey has found that two out of five Malaysian civil servants are obese. The news is not good for the country’s health.

KUALA LUMPUR: It has been long known that Malaysia is the fattest country in South-East Asia. Now, it has been proven that the administrative capital of Putrajaya has the highest rate of overweight and obese people in the country.

Findings from the 2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) placed Putrajaya as the city with the highest percentage of overweight, obese and abdominally obese people in the country.

The study also suggests that the administrative capital’s population has a 37% chance of being overweight, while the obesity rate stood at 43%.

Even more startling, the NHMS said government and semi-government employees took the cake as those struggling most with obesity, with a 40.3% rate.

This could mean two out of every five of Malaysia’s civil servants may be obese.

Malaysia’s civil service has 1.4 million employees, according to the Prime Minister’s Office, and is the largest civil service in South-East Asia.

Other obesity demographics pointed out in the survey were Indians (43.5%), married adults (33.8%) and those who only studied up to secondary school (32.1%).

The findings put the Government in a rather red-faced situation, as it works on reversing the climbing number of obese and overweight Malaysians.

“As the number of people with obesity increases, the nation now is facing an upward surge of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases,” the survey concluded, describing the Malaysian obesity epidemic as alarming.

Although a review of public health policy was not necessary now, it opined, the Government was asked to provide more supportive environments for Malaysians to lead healthier lifestyles.

Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Ashok Zachariah Phillip agreed, saying that the life of a typical government servant did not afford them much time or money to stay healthy.

“If you look at the strata, it’s usually the lower grade workers who are overweight because it takes money to keep fit. Government workers go to work at 7am, come back at 7pm and have no time between work and family to even think of exercising,” he said.

It doesn’t help either that basic essentials like white rice, sugar and oil are staple Malaysian diets and are unhealthy, he said.

“For us doctors, this could be a real headache 20 years down the road. We are going to have a growing population with stroke and heart disease, and kidney failures that will increase the health budget at an unsustainable level,” he added.

The Government needs to look into setting up more gyms in agencies and dish out incentives for employees to fight the bulge.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said the figures were worrying.

“I don’t think the people are in the best state of health,” he said.

He said general sedentary work has a correlation to obesity, a trend which government agencies, namely the police, were trying to counter.

“The police recognised this recently and have taken some effort to make sure they have lean policemen. They will try to take action to meet this target,” Dr Subramaniam said yesterday.

Malacca and Perlis are the states with second and third highest obesity rates. Sabah and the Federal Territory of Labuan were the slimmest states.

By Micholas Cheng The Star

Address obesity urgently

AMID the current heat wave, not only are we blue over the greens (The Star, April 4) with highland vegetables wilting and Ipoh’s famous pomelos shrinking in size, schoolchildren are also getting more obese with the sound advice from the authorities to stay indoors.

Presumably, many children will go in droves to air-conditioned malls and fast food restaurants for meals, which naturally will add to the problem of obesity.

Doctors say obesity is defined as the condition of being very overweight and having a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or higher. The BMI is a measure of the weight relative to the height.

Evidently, obesity is manifested in the abdominal fat around the waist of children and adults as well.

But we should not get unduly worried with the adults because they are mature and knowledgeable enough to take responsibility for their health.

However, the innocent children’s health is undeniably our responsibility. Like it or not, we are accountable and answerable for the obesity problem in their adult life.

Today we can see the startling increase in the number of obese children across the country. Yet many parents unfortunately are seemingly too busy to check their children’s diet, let alone their daily exercise like the recommended walk of up to 10,000 steps a day.

Perhaps schools should voluntarily take up the task of creating awareness about the high risks and health hazards of obesity.

One practical way is to do routine short workouts: get students to burn calories by doing some exercises in the school assembly or in class every day – even some stretching exercises will suffice.

Certainly, this will increase their metabolic rate, thus strengthening their mental ability to learn; reducing levels of stress and depression; and suppressing the appetite.

When the heat wave is over, I would say it is the ethical and moral responsibility of the school authorities to bring back the Physical Standard Tests for all students like the good old days and mobilise all the staff to run selected athletic events such as the 100m, 200m, long jump, high jump and shot putt. Set certain standards for the events.

It would be much better if the Education Ministry’s Sports Department sets the national standards for all these events, which was done in the 60s till the 80s by using the co-curriculum 001 and 002 cards.

Next, it is also incumbent upon the Education Ministry to make it mandatory for school canteens to display the calorie counts for all the food so that the children will learn how to make healthy food choices and to calculate the total calorie intake they require for a day (about 1,600 and 2,500 calories per day depending on their age, gender and activity level).Eventually, they will “graduate” to become smart healthy consumers.

Let’s take these critical measures seriously to save our children from potential health risks like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease and also some cancers.

This will invariably reduce the national health bill as well.

It was reported in “Putrajaya tops obese list” (see above) that we already have the highest percentage of overweight people in South-East Asia, and two out of five civil servants are obese.

Hence, invariably, the Government has to increase the health budget to cater for our increasingly ailing population if the obesity problem is not urgently addressed.

THOMAS KOK Ipoh

Related story: Healthy when young, healthy when old



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Pandas to soothe your nerves; Huge housing task; Are Malaysians creative naming them?

Pandas to soothe the nerves

As Malaysia rolls out the red carpet for the pandas, it is hoped that China’s panda diplomacy can also help ease political tension in the country.

ANYTHING about the Giant Pandas are a big hit and when it was announced by our Natural Resources and Environment Ministry on Monday that China had decided to loan two endangered baby pandas for a 10-year period, it made instant world news.

Pandas, from the bear family, are about the most easily recognised and loved animals in the world.
They evoke excitement from viewers who line up for hours outside the zoos from London to New York, Tokyo and Singapore, to get a glimpse of these furry and cuddly animals.

The baby pandas, about a year to three years old, are part of the loan system China has worked out since the early 1980s after concerns were raised over their loss of habitat, endangered status and the difficulty of breeding in captivity.

They are only loaned to countries that China has established strong and friendly relationship with or those that figure very highly on the list of countries deemed important to China.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had made the request when he met his counterpart Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in April when the two leaders opened the joint Malaysia China industrial park in Chengdu, Nanning.

The loan of the pandas, estimated to number about 1,600 in the wild and 268 in captivity, is an important gesture from China to Malaysia as well as commemorating the strong diplomatic ties between the two countries.

It is also to commemorate 40 years of relationship between China and Malaysia.

The political overtones are unmistakable.

Najib’s father Tun Abdul Razak made a path-breaking visit to communist China in 1974, shook hands with Mao Zedong and returned to call a snap election which the enlarged, new coalition Barisan Nasional won handsomely.

It was the first election after the May 13 riots in 1969 and the alienated Chinese community had backed Razak in the hope that the new Barisan Nasional he headed would usher in a new era in politics.

Forty years later, Najib is not hoping to win over the Chinese voters – most of whom are backing his political opponent Pakatan Rakyat – with his “panda diplomacy” with China but the successful arrival of the furry creatures is expected to definitively lighten the divisive atmosphere in the country.

Overall, Najib’s engagement with China and the continuing importance he is giving to China in trade, cultural and education matters will have a desirable effect on voters, including Chinese voters.

Having said that, pandas have always figured importantly in China’s diplomatic efforts.

The practice reportedly existed as far back as the Tang Dynasty when Empress Wu Zetian (625–705) sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor but in modern times, “panda diplomacy” really took off after US President Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to China.

China gifted two pandas – Ling Ling and Xing Xing – following that visit and the pandas generated world headlines and a mad craze in America.

Millions of people lined up to see them in Washington and in one stroke, China scored an instant diplomatic victory.

Japan reportedly dispatched two military aircraft to guard “Lan Lan” and “Kang Kang” when they entered its airspace on arrival from China as part of the now fine-tuned “panda diplomacy”.

West Germany rolled out the red carpet for its pair of pandas in 1974.

In the years since, the rare pandas have become firmly established as an important piece of China’s modern day diplomacy – to break the ice, ease tension and promote goodwill.

But it is not all diplomacy with pandas.

They have to be kept in special enclosures being built at the wetlands park in Putrajaya.

Pandas do nothing but laze around and eat special bamboos shoots (about 20kg a day) – their favourite and only food, which has to be imported from China or specially planted here.

They have to be kept in special, fully air-conditioned enclosure with climate controlled at temperatures ranging between 18°C and 22°C and humidity controlled at 50% to 60% all year round.

Ambient conditions have to be adjusted to simulate the four seasons similar to their natural habitat in south-western China.

According to one estimate, the cost can run up to RM20mil but the returns in the form of gate collection, research and diplomacy, far outweighs the cost.

The reverse is also true. Any mishap will spark a diplomatic uproar and ruin relations as well.

On arrival, the pandas will be quarantined for a month and five more months for acclimatisation before they are opened for public viewing.

Malaysia, the third country in South-East Asia after Thailand and Singapore to get the pandas, will also get the chance to name the pandas in a nationwide contest.

Hopefully, the arrival of the pandas, celebrated for breaking the ice between nations and exciting people, will also ease the tensions and divide in our nation.

COMMENT BY BARADAN KUPPUSAMY  baradan@pc.jaring.my

 

Huge task in housing pandas

By FLORENCE A. SAMY  florenceasamy@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: The arrival of the two pandas is exciting news but housing them here is no easy task and requires a big commitment, experts said.

For a start, the Wetlands Park in Putrajaya, which has been announced as the preferred location, would need to construct a proper indoor habitat for the two baby pandas which are of opposite genders.

The enclosure needs to be air-conditioned as the adorable but endangered mountainous animals are not used to living in a tropical climate.

“It must include a playground for the pandas to exercise and a den for them to sleep in. There must also be a back-up for the air-conditioning system as the pandas cannot wait for it to be repaired if the air-condition breaks down.

“It is better for a local keeper to head to China to be trained and be with the pandas for at least six months to study its habits, likes and dislikes before they are brought here,” experts said.

There must also be sufficient bamboo plants for them and it needs to be of a certain species.

A local team will head to China to study the bamboo species.

Chinese conservation experts are also here and will visit the site and outline strict specifications for the enclosure, sources said.

The park also needs to consider building a nursery and possibly an incubator for potential baby pandas since the two animals will be here for 10 years and may procreate.

China had agreed to loan the pandas to Malaysia for 10 years in recognition of the good bilateral ties and in conjunction with the countries' 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry announced the news of the pandas' arrival on Monday.

The Government will sign the agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) tomorrow.

Singapore, which is expected to receive two pandas later this year, is building a 1,500 sq m enclosure at its new River Safari park.

Wetlands International Malaysia senior technical officer Lee Shin Shin said the team in charge of the pandas' care should be properly trained and adequate allocation should be provided as it would be a long-term commitment.

She is however disappointed that huge amounts of money would be spent to bring the pandas over and said it could have been used for local conservation.

Her views were echoed by Malaysian Nature Society president Prof Dr Maketab Mohamed who disagreed with bringing the pandas here and said priority should be given to conserving local endangered animals.

Malaysians are getting bear-y creative

By TERENCE TOH
terence.toh@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: From the run-of-the-mill to the outlandish, Malaysians have been ringing The Star radio stations to suggest names for the giant pandas from China.

Fatimah and Abdullah, Duri and Riang, Satu and Malaysia, Teh and Tarik Malaysians are a bear-y creative lot!

The radio stations under The Star media group had invited listeners to suggest names for the lovable animals. They were inundated with colourful and cheeky responses.

         Amused: Yi Hui taking suggestions from listeners for names for the pandas.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak also received an enthusiastic response when he invited followers of his Ah Jib Gor on his Chinese Facebook page to suggest names for the pandas.

Najib's invitation drew 222 replies from the public as at 8.15pm yesterday.

Among the names suggested were Fufu and Yaya, Ali and Ahmad, Left and Right, Flower and Bing Bing, Salt and Spring and Nini and Lola.

At Red FM, deejay Lil Kev said many callers suggested the pandas be named after local heroes (Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat), famous couples (Romeo and Juliet), popular local food like Kaya and (roti) Tisu, Puttu and Mayam), and even after local politicians.

Athena Tan, better-known as DJ Yi Hui to listeners of 98.8FM, said many callers made references to popular Chinese phrases.

She said examples included Xing Xing and Fu Fu (from xingfu, the Cantonese word for happiness) and Sam Sam and Si Si (from sam si, meaning to think twice).

Yi Hui said she liked the sound Tuan Tuan and Puan Puan.

“I think that's really cute,” she said.

“Plus, it's a must-learn phrase for anyone coming to Malaysia.”

The loan is part of an agreement between the Malaysian Government and the China Wildlife Conservation Association to mark the 40th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between the two countries. The agreement will be signed tomorrow.

To celebrate the event and the arrival of the pandas, there will be a nationwide contest to name the animals.

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Giant Pandas are coming to Malaysia

China to loan 2 pandas to Malaysia for 10 years 

Images for Giant Pandas

PETALING JAYA: Malaysians will soon be able to see the iconic but endangered Giant Panda in real life. China will loan two baby pandas to the country for 10 years.

This follows an agreement between the Government and China Wildlife Conservation Association, in commemoration of the countries' 40th anniversary of diplomatic relationship, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said in a statement yesterday.

The agreement will be signed on June 15.

The pandas will be placed in a special exhibit in Taman Wetland, Putrajaya. Malaysians will also get the chance to name to pandas in a nationwide contest.

The ministry said the cooperation would enable Malaysia to conduct conservation research, adding that the presence of the pandas would promote public awareness on China's panda conservation efforts.

“This agreement shows Malaysia's commitment towards China's effort in increasing the number of endangered Giant Panda which is endemic in China, estimated currently about 1,600 only.

“This is in accordance to Aichi Targets 2010 under the Convention on Biological Diversity which promote conservation efforts in preventing species extinction,” the statement read.

The ministry said the close relationship between the two countries had enabled Malaysia to attract more foreign investment from China to boost the country's economy further.

“Through this cooperation too, Malaysia can conduct conservation research on the Giant Panda.

The strength of our local expertise will be enhanced through technology transfer by PRC in the field of artificial insemination, genetic and behavioural study on the Giant Panda,” it said.

The agreement was made following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Nanning, China, last April.

Najib had made the request during his visit there to open the Malaysia-China industrial park.

China news reports in April reported that Malaysia would spend a whopping RM20mil for the upkeep of the pandas.

The budget is expected to cover for the construction of an air-conditioned sanctuary for the pandas, importing bamboos from China for their meals as well to train local handlers for the animals.

By JOSEPH KAOS Jr  joekaosjr@thestar.com.my

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PTPTN student loan, Bersih 3.0, 'Occupy Dataran' ...

The case for PTPTN to stay....

Higher education is not a right but a privilege and the Government cannot provide subsidies for everything. And European countries famous for fully subsidising tertiary education are moving away from that system. 

A PROPOSED overhaul in the way tertiary education is funded in our country has added to the number of causes being combined with Bersih 3.0 due tomorrow.

The suggestion is that the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN), which provides loans to students pursuing their higher education, should be replaced by a fully subsidised system in which (most/all) students receive fully government-funded tertiary education.

PTPTN abolitionists charge that it is administratively inefficient and unfair to leave graduates with a mountain of debt, costly to the taxpayer because of low repayment rates (and subsequent costs of having to forcibly recover dues), and un-Islamic due to the charging of interest.

Though I was not a beneficiary of PTPTN, I routinely meet young people who are, through the education sub-committee of Yayasan Munarah, the royal foundation funded solely by private and corporate donations.

Since the start of our education fund last year, we have screened over a thousand applications for financial aid and I have personally interviewed hundreds of them at our office in Seremban.

Of the nearly RM500,000 disbursed so far, most cases involve the “topping up” of the amount students had already received from PTPTN, Mara and private sources.

In these 15-minute interviews, no student has ever complained about PTPTN; rather, the hardworking students often show gratitude to the fund, providing a contrast to the attitude of the Dataran Merdeka protesters.

What has impressed me in the denunciation of replacing a voluntary loan system with a compulsory subsidised system is that many commentators in the mainstream and alternative media object to the loss of individual responsibility that this will entail; young citizens will no longer feel that they owe anyone anything in exchange for the tuition, and this does not encourage responsible citizenship.

Higher education is not a right but a privilege, they say, and the Government cannot provide subsidies for everything.

Articles also point out that European countries famous for fully subsidising tertiary education are moving away from that system, though even so, those countries embedded competition between universities enabled by sponsoring students directly, rather than fully funding universities, so that a market mechanism is at work to reward the cleverest students and the best universities.

Indeed the potential impact of this proposal on our universities needs to be highlighted.

European universities possess much more autonomy than ours do – even if they are state-funded – allowing for areas of specialisation and different preferences to be accommodated.

Our public universities are not used to such competition, and may end up decomposing into a stultifying heap of monotonous, mediocre institutions unless autonomy is granted first.

The opposite approach is taken in the US, where universities are very independent and often expensive; but a deep tradition of alumni endowments for scholarships and bursaries enable academic merit to remain the main criteria of admission.

At the same time, one of the assumptions in effect in this whole debate is the idea that the primary purpose of tertiary education is to prepare one for a job that can pay back the cost of that education while contributing to national economic growth.

This offends the very principle of education for its own sake as well as the idea that the arts have merely an economic value.

I have long objected to Government attempts to engineer society by providing scholarships or loans for some subjects and not others.

If public money is being used to subsidise education, then it must grant every young Malaysian access to that money without discrimination.

I have met dozens of young Malaysians whose dreams of becoming historians or performers have been scuppered because they are discriminated against in favour of those who want to become doctors or engineers (tellingly, Aswara comes under the Culture Ministry, not the Higher Education Ministry).

The academic profile of the next generation of Malaysians should be shaped by their own preferences and perceptions of their futures, not by the dictate of someone with a crystal ball in Putrajaya.

If you agree that tertiary education funding should be designed to allow maximum freedom for students on the one hand to pursue the disciplines of their choosing without guilt, and institutions of higher learning on the other to compete amongst themselves – then it is more likely that this will be achieved by reviewing the current loan system (including repayment mechanisms), developing vocational options and granting much more autonomy to universities, including on financial matters.

> Tunku ’Abidin Muhriz is President of IDEAS.

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IT folk upset over draft Bill

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Many say proposal will cripple industry

By JO TIMBUONG and GABEY GOH bytz@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: Members of the Information Technology industry are up in arms over a proposed Bill that seeks to certify IT professionals, claiming it will cripple not help the industry.

Industry players said a draft of the Computing Professionals Bill 2011, released online on Thursday night, proposed that only registered IT professionals could create software or computer applications for government use.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) drafted the Bill, with the aim of maintaining a registry of certified IT professionals in the country.

It is a bid to ensure that only qualified professionals can work in the sectors classified under the Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII).

The CNII covers, among others, banking and finance, cyber-security, the national defence industry, healthcare, emergency services, food and agriculture, and utilities.

The Bill will recognise two categories of IT talents certified IT practitioners who do not have formal qualifications, and certified IT professionals who have the full qualification.



But some industry players are arguing that the proposed Bill would in effect hinder innovation and development across the board because CNII was very broad in its scope.

Willie Chan, founder of business software maker xIMnet Malaysia, said anyone should be able to create software or applications, not just certified practitioners or professionals.

“If a doctor who writes code as a hobby comes up with a software that can benefit the health industry, shouldn't he be allowed to market it to the Government?” he asked.

“If this draft passes into law, it will hinder such cross-pollination of ideas.”

Chan holds a degree in English Literature. Under the drafted Bill, he would be listed as only an IT practitioner, and would not be able to market xIMnet Malaysia solutions to the Government or its agencies.

Daniel CerVentus, co-founder of an online resource portal and community for entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs.my, believes that if such a situation were to develop, it would aggravate the country's brain-drain problem.

Mosti said the Bill did not aim to regulate the entire computing profession and was only applied to those identified as working in CNII sectors.

It also said registration was not mandatory.

Mosti will be holding an open day at its Putrajaya premises from 9.30am to 5pm on Tuesday to collect feedback and suggestions.