Pak Lah and Protocol

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz said her suggestion that the media and the people should stop addressing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi by his pet name "Pak Lah" has been misunderstood.

Malay Mail reported that Many of the people interviewed by the newspaper said there was absolutely nothing wrong in calling the Prime Minister "Pak Lah" as Malaysians see it as a term of endearment that reflects the Prime Minister's place in the hearts of his people.

Rafidah, however, said closeness or endearment has its place because when it involved the country's No 1 leader, protocol must be taken into consideration.

There is totally nothing wrong calling our Prime Minister, Pak Lah. Pak is the shorter and more friendly term of Bapa (or Bapak), meaning father or someone elder, wiser and respectable. We used to call our uncle or our elders, Pak Mat, Pak Ali, Pak Ngah or Pak Long.

No one could deny the fact that Pak Lah is well respected. By calling him Pak Lah does not reduce the respect the people have for him or in any way lower his status as the country’s number leader. A man like our Prime Minister, does not need long titles (with due respect to the title awarding parties) to boost his dignity, respect and honour. His actions shine better.

Protocol is the sequence of addressing, seating arrangements and how one shows his or her respect. Name alone doesn’t mean much in this aspect. It is the actual act of respecting that counts. The PM’s wife when interviewed by media addressed herself as Kak Endon instead of Datin Seri or Datin.

Our beloved PM and his wife, who always have the people at their hearts, have set a very humble and noble example. We should all change our name seeking culture and follow what is more acceptable by the general public.

Only individuals who crave for fame, titles and status are particular about how they should be address. These are the people who make complaints when they are not uttered the word Datuk. These are the people who corrected their friends, colleagues and relatives when their titles are not mentioned. These are the people who are willing to pay for the titles. Since they have paid for it, they want others to know and to mention it, to make their money worth. Here goes again the stories of commercial datuks.

Kak, Rafidah, thank you. We would prefer to call our PM Pak Lah, unless he personally says no, which we doubt he would.

With a few Tan Sri Dato’ Seri or Datuk Seri Panglima in the same function, how much time each speaker spent just to address their title. Take for example, calling Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Lajim Haji Okin is equivalent to address Pak Lah 7 times!!!

Muzimei in Sabah!!!

Shenzhen Daily on November 18, 2003 reported the following:

More than 160,000 netizens had logged on to Blogcn.com to read a woman journalist's online sex diaries by last Tuesday and the number grew by 6,000 daily, Monday's Yangcheng Evening News reported.

"I record my life faithfully, despite disturbances and men's repulsion," 25-year-old Li Li wrote in her diary Monday. The links to her diary have been shut down twice after thousands of netizens insulted her on the Net.

A columnist with the Guangzhou-based City Pictorial magazine, Li began publishing her online diaries under the pen name Muzimei on June 19. The diaries revealed the details of her one-night stands with different men. She did not become a hot click until she disclosed in August her affair with Wang Lei, one of the most popular rock-and-roll singers in South China who also has a bar in Guangzhou.

Some 87 percent of subjects thought she was exposing her privacy to become well-known, as revealed by a survey on Netease. Some people, however, said she had the right to choose her own lifestyle and her existence was proof that Chinese society became more tolerant. Most people criticized her as irresponsible, possibly harming children and the men involved with her.

Excerpts of Muzimei’s encounter with Wang Lei

多P不一定是几男几女在一个空间里大汗淋漓。
周五夜，还是枕木（它一定痛恨我赋予它的淫窝形象，又如何）。
我闲坐吧台，后面一桌有个认识的家伙，是与非门乐队的。1999年他在蓝调共和弹贝司时，就认识了当时狂爱弹吉他的郭炎的我。这么多年过去了，还在酒吧混啊，都一样啊没出息。所以我们连招呼都没打。
有人过来搭话，哦，是王磊。开场白真没创意：“这么孤独，跟我们一起坐吧。”
“都有谁？”
他说了2个名字，一个是已离开《南方体育》的家伙，一个是拖拖拉拉一直没跟我做爱的水瓶座设计师。
“要是今晚你们搞淫乱派对，我就去。”
“要是你叫多一个女的，我们就搞。”
“靠。”
凌晨2点不到，王磊说走，一起走？一起走。
“去哪啊？”
“回家。”
“回你家还是回我家。”
“你家在哪？
“中大旁边。”　
“有点远，不如去我家。”
“你家更远，从东圃回来得大半天。”
“从你家回我家也一样。” 唠叨了一阵，我说王磊，不如就地解决吧，做爱这么简单的事。
就地，就在枕木附近的阴暗角落。
他掀起我的白裙子时，我说穿裙子真方便啊！
他说把屁股翘起来，把腰下下去。
这样的Dogy式很多人爱用，但在户外操作总有些不着边际。
很快就爽完了。王磊说环境不太好，也没有音乐。
我说王磊你身体也不太好，不然我们一路走，走到哪干到哪。
1998年，我还为了王磊的“不插电”午夜狂奔，却见结业招牌。
1999年，我还听王磊的《一切从爱情开始》，崇 拜得不得了。
2000年，我看画报做的王磊一个采访，王磊说喜欢大屁股的女人，我还想我屁股小，王磊肯定不搞。
2001年，我在王磊的“碟瓦”，听他唱歌听得掉眼泪，却只跟王磊他哥套上近乎。
一定不要觉得一个男人太牛逼，不然有天他跟你一样弱小。
几个月前的淫乱聚会，王磊降到了70分，就地解决后的王磊只剩50分。
真替他不值，沦落到被我出卖的地步……


Muzimei might, to certain people, set a bad example to others. But we should also question those who have done far worse than her but do not have their stories published. Just because their stories do not make it to the front page of the papers doesn't mean these people are right. Some paid to cover their ugly sides from being exposed.

Muzimei can't clap without another hand from the men who was thinking of free lunch. Egoistic men, blame yourself first before condemning Muzimei.

Muzimei's story should send a strong signal to all the rich and famous, ministers, YBs, politicians and Datuks (both genuine and commercial), BEWARE! There might be a similar Muzimei in Sabah to record all her sexual encounters with these people. Not only vivid details would be revealed. Photographs taken might be posted as well.

If you do not want the world to know, behave fast before it is too late.

Datukship and Zero Corruption

There are a lot of interesting stories about the datuks, especially those who received their datukships through backdoor. Besides paying and lobbying for datukships by all means, they also buy news coverage to be appeared in local dailies for a simple function like fullmoon or birthday for children. Some even compete in newspapers for the number of congratulations messages. One particular datuk has more security guards than the Prime Minister. It is not difficult for the public to guess what this datuk is doing, or what he wish to be protected from.

Such childish acts of these bunch of undeserving datuks has finally caught the attention of the general public. People are starting to voice out their objections, opinions and suggestions to avoid the society been flooded with commercial datuks. The people could tolerate no more with datuks who do not know how to behave, who with their arrogance and ignorance have tarnished the good name of the Sultans and TYT who have awarded them with such titles. They do not know how to pay respect even to the title they have longed for.

It is certainly a good sign that people are starting to openly question the rationale of awarding datukships to undeserving individuals. After the blogger brought up the issues of datukships in Sabah could be bought and lobbied, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato’ Rais Yatim said 10 states in Malaysia recorded instances of datukships been offered for sale. Awang Selamat in his Utusan Malaysia Bisik-Bisik column also talk about similar issues. Jeffrey Ooi in his Screenshot blog highlighted the same issues.

The world has changed and is very much different from the days went through by our parents or grand parents. A datuk or even a village head is almost like a king in his own society. He is so powerful that he could do anything he likes. But gone were the days where people pay respect blindly to those who carry certain titles. Even respect for the royal family members is filtered. Respect, honour and dignity, like we always know, can never be bought. It has to be earned. Respect, honour and dignity come from the heart, not from the mouth or a mere bow. Sincere respect comes with praises and well wishes.

With the advancement of technologies, improper acts of those riding hide on the social status are always been observed, evaluated and scrutinized. Words might not be enough to convince but these days whatever one does could always be openly or secretly recorded using a digital camera or even mobile phone with camera features. The public eyes are even brighter with the help of modern technologies. So beware, datuk, if there are claims, there are more than enough proofs to substantiate. When the time comes, all these evidence will be disclosed, not only to the local community, but to the world.

There have been enough examples of misbehaviour of the rich and famous which affect the ordinary folks (not that these datuks are extra-ordinary). The public is not busybody or jealous as long as their rights and intelligence are not challenged. If they keep ridiculing the public, abusing their status then they are pushing the public to the limits.

What has been exposed so far on the “commercial datukship” is only an edge of the iceberg. More shocking news are expected. These exposure have resulted many angry reactions from those undeserving datuks, heads of state and politicians involved. The more they cry foul, the more truth will reveal. “Siapa maka lada dia rasa pedas”.

In line with the Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s call for achieving zero corruption, all these questionable datuks should be thoroughly investigated. A webpage should be set up for the public to feed such information. Give the general public opportunity to supply valuable information on who and how so and so gets his or her datukship. Let the public inform the authorities on what these individuals have done in the past and are doing in present. Let also the public chance to reveal the extent of abusing of power and status by these datuks.

With such information gathered from the public, it won’t be difficult for the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) to act, unless, of course there are individuals who wish to protect other individuals. If transparency were to be practised (with due respect to the Sultans and TYT), corruption in datukship dealings could be avoided.

In order to achieve the zero corruption objectives, there must not be any double standard in handling the matter. No one should be spared the investigation or review. Such will help to clear the deserving datuks their good names and regain the confident and respect of the people. We rather have few, but respectable datuks.

Commercial datukship is the breading source of corruption. When a datuk (grand father) rots, the anak (son), cucu (grand children), cicik (great grand children) and cicik (great great grand children) are rot down the line.

If one could use corrupted practices to obtain a datukship, there is no reason why he would not use his titles to corrupt others for bigger and better benefits and advantages.

Speeches Must Be Short, Precise and Interesting

Many of us have experienced boring speeches given by ministers. Some are long winded, beating around the bush. Some speeches are given without theme and objective, let alone not relevant to the function the speaker is attending.

Therefore, it is not surprising that at most functions, the only one listening to the speeches is the young inexperience reporter. The senior ones would get the speaker’s text at the end of the speech. The rest of the audience are either dozing off, reading unrelated materials or playing with SMS.

VIPs who are invited to speak during functions are normally annoyed and irritated by the attitude of his or her audience for not paying attention. The organiser might be blamed for not telling the audience to behave themselves. True, being the guest, they might have the right to feel disappointed but they too, must find out the reasons why.

Most audience does not pay attention during speeches is due to the problem caused by the speakers themselves. Speakers make a lot of mistakes which put their audience to sleep. The common practice is to start off a speech with a long list of greetings and salutations. By the time he finishes his greeting list, almost half of the time allocated has been used up. Imagine if there were 5 speakers and 6 with the master of ceremony, and each one make a long list of greetings, how bored could one get into?

We should only specifically greet the guest of honour and the chairman or organiser before starting a speech. The rest of the audience, be they datuk or whatsoever, should only be greeted generally. The best way would be “ladies and gentlemen”. Unless those datuks feel that they are not gentlemen, they should be happy to be greeted that way.

Even though some datuks are very sensitive when their presence is not specifically acknowledged, the society must not let this practice been continued. Genuine datuks are normally humble and understanding. Only those ‘title-cazy’ datuks are sensitive. These bunch of datuks, are the one where their datukships are questionable. There is no reason why the society should pay respect to these commercial datuks.

Some ridiculous people even have three four titles attached to their name and expect all their titles to be mentioned. If we have a few of these people in a single function, how much more longer the time is needed to acknowledge them before a speech could begin?

In line with the call of Prime Minister to cut red-tape in government department, it is right to also give short greetings and go straight on to the content of the speech. This will surely improve on efficiency, save time and avoid being branded as a boring speaker.

Of course, speakers themselves, especially ministers and VIPs, must learn to give short, precise and interesting speeches. Being a minister or someone important, or even having the authority doesn’t necessary mean having automatic power to capture the audience’s attention. Attention during speeches, is like respect. It ought to be earned and not force upon. If a speech is read like a primary school student, then the speaker (reader) must be prepared more audience falling asleep.

A good speaker interacts with his audience, speaks with sincerity, keeps to its objective and delivers with good intonation.

Datuk Boleh Dijual Beli

Utusan Malaysia melaporkan dua berita berkenaan dengan penjualan Datuk.


1. Ada penerima anugerah Datuk beri habuan wang - Rais
Oleh: ZULKIFLI JALIL

PULAU PINANG 11 Nov. - Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim mendedahkan terdapat sebahagian penerima anugerah Datuk memperoleh darjah kebesaran itu setelah memberi habuan wang ringgit menerusi `kaki' atau ejen masing-masing.

Tegasnya, perbuatan itu dilakukan dengan alasan menerusi gelaran tersebut, mereka berupaya membuka peluang perniagaan yang lebih besar dan berada dalam `kelas perniagaan' yang tersendiri.

Sambil menyifatkan ia sebagai serius, beliau meminta Menteri-Menteri Besar supaya segera mengatasi gejala itu dengan menyekat kebanjiran penerima anugerah tersebut seperti yang berlaku sekarang.

Katanya, Menteri Besar sebenarnya boleh berperanan menasihati Sultan supaya mengutamakan nilai dan standard penerima menerusi penapisan yang ketat berlandaskan merit perkhidmatan, jasa dan sahsiah tanpa tertakluk kepada `jual-beli'.

``Saya dapat maklumat jelas bahawa dalam kebanyakan kes, anugerah Datuk ini diperoleh setelah diletakkan wang ringgit.

``Ini rasuah sebenarnya, dan kalau dituruti pandangan Perdana Menteri (yang mahukan rasuah dibanteras), amatlah wajar jika ia diberi perhatian oleh Menteri Besar.

``Sungguhpun anugerah Datuk ini diberi oleh Sultan, Menteri-Menteri Besar sebenarnya berhak menasihati Sultan supaya bilangannya (anugerah) tidak dikeluarkan (secara berlebihan) dari apa yang dianggap munasabah serta mencerminkan penapisan yang teliti,'' katanya ketika dihubungi hari ini.

Beliau mengulas laporan Utusan Malaysia mengenai kebanjiran penerima anugerah kebesaran terutama Datuk yang tidak bernilai dan dilihat sebagai fenomena biasa jika diberikan secara sewenang-wenangnya.

Berdasarkan rekod, pada tahun lepas sahaja, seramai 6,314 orang menerima bintang kebesaran serta pingat daripada 13 negeri dalam Persekutuan Malaysia.

Daripada jumlah itu, 531 orang mendapat bintang kebesaran membawa gelaran Datuk dan ia tidak termasuk yang diberikan oleh Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Rais berkata, beliau kadang kala hairan kerana ada kalangan penerima anugerah Datuk didapati tidak ada kena mengena dengan negeri berkenaan malahan ada juga sesetengah penerima terlalu muda serta belum membuktikan jasanya kepada negara.

``Tetapi oleh kerana `sumbangan' wang ringgit dan habuan tertentu, seseorang itu diberikan gelaran.

``Saya khuatir lama kelamaan rosaklah budaya Melayu sebab yang memberikan anugerah inipun adalah pihak berkuasa Melayu,'' katanya.

Rais berkata, gejala dalam pemberian anugerah Datuk juga turut berjangkit kepada mereka yang dikurniakan pingat Jaksa Pendamai (JP).

Katanya, beliau yang dipertanggungjawabkan untuk mengendalikan pemilihan lebih 3,000 JP di seluruh negara untuk beberapa pelantikan sebagai Majistret Kelas Kedua mendapati sebahagian besar penyandang jawatan itu tidak memenuhi kriteria yang ditetapkan.

Rais berkata, beliau menyedari pendedahan yang dibangkitkannya mungkin sensitif kepada orang lain, namun ia adalah soal budaya dan nilai yang perlu dihadapi dan difikirkan secara bersama.

Tegas beliau: ``Sebenarnya tidak ada undang-undang yang boleh mengehadkan (jumlah penerima Datuk) kecuali di peringkat Persekutuan yang boleh dihadkan mengikut budi bicara Perdana Menteri.

``Perdana Menteri diyakini akan menyelaraskan penganugerahan ini selaras dengan dasar menghapuskan rasuah yang diamalkan oleh beliau,'' katanya.

2. 10 negeri dikait `jual' Datuk -- Pulau Pinang, Selangor, Johor difahamkan tidak terlibat - Rais
Oleh: ROZILAN SALLEH

KUALA LUMPUR 12 Nov. - Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim berkata, hanya tiga buah negeri sahaja iaitu Johor, Pulau Pinang dan Selangor difahamkan tidak terlibat dengan `penjualan' darjah kebesaran termasuk yang membawa gelaran Datuk.

Rais berkata, perkara itu diperoleh berdasarkan maklumat yang diserahkan kepadanya.

Bagi 10 lagi negeri, beliau menjelaskan perkara itu diketahui berlaku.

``Yang lain-lain, walaupun tidak semua tetapi diketahui ada terlibat dan telah menjadi pengetahuan umum,'' katanya kepada Utusan Malaysia di sini hari ini.

Rais diminta mengulas lanjut pendedahannya semalam bahawa terdapat sebahagian penerima anugerah Datuk memberi habuan wang ringgit menerusi `kaki' atau ejen masing-masing.

Menurut Rais, beliau mengetahui bahawa jumlah `yang agak besar' dibayar oleh segelintir pihak untuk mendapatkan anugerah berkenaan.

Bagaimanapun beliau enggan menyatakan secara terperinci jumlah yang dibayar kepada `kaki' atau ejen berkenaan kerana menurutnya tidak mahu `menjadi punca berita'.

``Ini bukan soal setimpal atau tidak bayaran itu tetapi untuk mendapatkan gelaran itu tidak sewajarnya dengan cara bayaran,'' ujarnya.

Dalam pendedahannya semalam, beliau menegaskan perbuatan itu dilakukan dengan alasan menerusi gelaran berkenaan, mereka berupaya membuka peluang perniagaan yang lebih besar dan berada dalam `kelas perniagaan' yang tersendiri.

Utusan Malaysia melaporkan kebanjiran penerima anugerah kebesaran terutama Datuk yang tidak bernilai dan dilihat sebagai fenomena biasa jika diberikan sewenang-wenangnya.

Berdasarkan rekod, pada tahun lepas sahaja, 6,314 orang menerima bintang kebesaran serta pingat daripada 13 negeri dalam Persekutuan Malaysia.

Daripada jumlah itu, 531 orang mendapat bintang kebesaran membawa gelaran Datuk, tidak termasuk yang diberikan oleh Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Rais juga mengakui mungkin ada pihak yang tidak senang dengan kenyataan kerasnya berhubung isu itu.

Katanya, terdapat pihak yang menghubunginya melalui telefon dan meminta tidak memperbesar-besarkan isu itu yang menurut mereka adalah kuasa kerajaan negeri.

Namun, tegasnya, perkara itu perlu didedahkan bagi memelihara institusi raja-raja daripada lumpuh dan tidak disegani lagi pada masa akan datang.

Katanya, kerajaan negeri dan raja-raja Melayu mempunyai kuasa dalam menentukan pengurniaan anugerah kepada mana-mana pihak menurut undang-undang, namun perkara itu perlu mengikut garis panduan.

Menurutnya, walaupun tidak disentuh pada mesyuarat Kabinet hari ini tetapi kemungkinan beliau akan membangkitkan perkara itu pada masa akan datang.

Langkah itu bagi membolehkan satu garis panduan berhubung penganugerahan darjah kebesaran diperkenalkan di peringkat Persekutuan sebelum diikuti negeri-negeri, jelasnya.

Beliau memberitahu, soal bukti berhubung pendedahan itu tidak perlu dibangkitkan memandangkan isu berkenaan membabitkan soal kemasyarakatan dan nilai hidup yang perlu dipertahankan untuk menjamin nilai darjah kebesaran berkenaan.

``Kalau perkara ini berleluasa, kita akan bertindak ikut undang-undang,'' katanya.

Beliau turut menyatakan rasa gembiranya dengan kesediaan Kerajaan Kedah untuk mengkaji dan memperkemaskan peraturan pengurniaan anugerah kerajaan negeri seperti yang diumumkan oleh Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Syed Razak Syed Zain.

Scrutinise Nomination Of Candidates For Awards, Says Abdullah

Realising the seriousness of state awards being abused, PM Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called on those responsible for nominating candidates for state honours to scrutinise the process to ensure that the recipients are really qualified.

The prime minister, however, acknowledged that the award of state honours is the prerogative of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the rulers.

"We must ensure that those we propose to the Agong or the rulers are those who have really contributed their service, have done something good for which they should be honoured," he told a news conference here.

Asked to comment on a report on the abundance of award recipients of awards, especially the datuks, he said: "Those making the recommendations must scrutinise when considering the matter."

He also criticised individuals who lobbied for state awards when they had not done anything for any state.

"That's what makes it difficult sometimes," he said.

MASSA, a sister publication of Mingguan Malaysia, which tallied that a total of 6,314 titles were given away by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the 13 states in Malaysia last year, out of which 531 were Datuks.

Drilling down, Pahang was most generous in dishing out datukship (93), followed by Melaka (79), Pulau Pinang (56), Perak (53) and Sabah (51). Johor was the least with new Datuks, only two were award in 2002.

If we are all serious about protecting the awards from being given to undeserving individuals, probably the time has come to review on all the existing Datuks. Check the past and present records, activities and background to determine if they are realy qualify, or still qualify, for those titles.

Datukship must never be a permanent title once it is awarded to any individual. If the Selangor state government could withdraw the titles from two datuks, the other states should also review their datuks.

The public has a choice as which datuk to be respected. We will not pay respect to crooks, gangsters, thieves, robbers, drugs pushers and others who were involved in illegal activities but given the titles. If certain people thought that they could fool the general public or to hide their illegal activities behind those state titles and awards, they are making a big mistake. Some titles are only 'money recognition' because they are bought. They will never get the recognition of the public, who see better.

If these titles are not reviewed and mass production of datuks continues, do not surprise that one day no one will appreciate these awards and no one will show any respect. No one would even lobby or pay for it anymore!

Musa Denied Datukships in Sabah Could be Bought

Bernama quoted Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman as saying Sabah's datukship is only for those who deserve it based on their contributions to the state or country.

"We will ensure only those who deserve will get the award," he told reporters after officiating the Nadwah Nuzul Quran here Wednesday.

He was commenting on the statement made by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim Tuesday of some people having allegedly paid money for their datukship.

"So, there is no question of buying datukship, especially in Sabah," he said.

Asked whether it happened in the past, Musa who took over the chief ministership on March 27 this year, said, "That, no comment."

For Musa to make such a statement, he is either

1. misled by his men
2. out of the Sabah and does not know the reality that is happening
3. has something to hide and trying to protect those unqualified Datuks

If it is not a secret that datukships could be bought and lobbied in Sabah, Musa's statement came as a big joke.

Malaysia Cocoa Festival 2003 Far From Reaching The Standard

The five days Malaysia Cocoa Festival 2003 was concluded last night with a colourful closing. State Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry, Datuk Abdul Rahim Ismail declared the festival closed on behalf of the Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

Although the festival has been upgraded from Sabah Cocoa Fest to Malaysia Cocoa Fest, nothing much has been upgraded nor improved. In fact it was downgraded due to the last minute withdrawal of Malaysia Cocoa Board. Even though MCB's withdrawal did not have much impact on the event but it left many people wonder what was the real motive behind.

Another interesting point to note is that, the former Chief Minister Datuk Chong Kah Kiat, who was scheduled to speak during the opening did not turn up. Chong instead sent his assistant, Datuk Karim Bujang. Even the present CM, Datuk Musa Aman who was supposed to perform the closing ceremony, sent his representative, Datuk Abdul Rahim Ismail.

One wonders whether the absence of the two former and present Chief Ministers has anything to do with the withdrawal of MCB. If they are both being supportive of Tawau being the place for one big national event, they should show their presence. Could it be a mere coincident or it has been planned that way and telling the people that the state was not in favour of the Malaysia Cocoa Festival to be held during fasting month?

Datuk Musa must have forgotten that he talked about upgrading the agriculture sector the improve on state avenue. He said the state could not rely on timber anymore as it is a sunset business. If he has been sincere in what he said during the tabling of 2004 budget, Musa should personally attend the closing ceremony.

Nevetheless, the head of state, Tun Datuk Seri Panglima Hj Ahmadsyah Abdullah was sporting enough to officate the festival and spent more than an hour touring the exhibition booths. He did not seem bothered with the lame excuses given by MCB that the reason for their withdrawal was due to their request for postponing the function to after the fasting month was rejected.

The general public was sympathetic towards the organisers due to the 'sabotage' at the last minute. However, the organisers did not perform up to their expectations of producing a national level event. Almost all the programmes were recycled from last year's Sabah Cocoa Fest. There was nothing new and some even took for granted while carrying out their duties which caused some delays and hiccups.

There were thousands of people packing the Tawau Community Hall to watch the finale programmes. However when they realised that the programme lined up were nothing new from the previous year, they left even in the middle of Datuk Abdul Rahim Ismail's boring speech. There were less than half of the audience left during the last performance which was supposed to be the strongest attraction.

Talking about speeches, it seems that both Abdul Rahim Ismail and Karim Bujang, gave long winded, boring and monotonous speeches. They were practically reading like school children. Another minus point for the organiser for inviting unmotivated speakers and VIP.

Even though the organisers claimed to have spent more than half a million for the event, to most people it did not reach the national standard. Probably the organisers should, in future, widen their scope of inviting more experience and more innovative people to form their committee. Without including new blood, and keep forcing outdated ideas and presumption, Malaysia Cocoa Festival will go no where.

One very interesting point to add is that the organiser found an very competent master of ceremony, Lee Chye Ewe. He is fluent in many languages and handled both opening and closing ceremony well. He easily beats many radio and television broadcasters. It was no wonder that more praises went to the MC instead of the performances.

Abduction In Kunak, Another Setback For Sabah

November 05, 2003 10:03 AM
By Newmond Tibin

LAHAD DATU, Nov 5 (Bernama) -- Fisherman Mohamad Jumlie, 40, of Kampung Panji, near here is no greenhorn.

Years of experience in navigating the waters off Sabah's east coast especially Lahad Datu, Kunak and Semporna has made him knowledgeable about the area, which is rich in marine resources.

He knows when it is a good time to go out to sea, find shoals of fish and take shelter during adverse weather.

Even then, when met by Bernama recently, he admitted that he still did not know all the estuaries in the area.

This includes the Sungai Sabahan in Kunak, which caused a scare early last month following the abduction of six workers of the Borneo Paradise Resort.

"I've heard of the river but I don't know which one is its estuary. I didn't know that a resort is there. I knew about it when I read the newspaper about the abduction...I was shocked. How could such a thing happen," said Mohamad.

Only one of the six workers managed to escape his abductors while the fate of the others is still unknown although unverified reports said they were killed in a shooting incident outside the town of Languyan on Tawi-Tawi island last Oct 27.

The fact that they were brought to southern Philippines seemed to confirm the suspicion of former Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Norian Mai of local criminals being in cahoots with outsiders.

The abduction led to various speculations among the local population but, one thing is sure, they want an end to it.

The abduction carried out by 10 gunmen on the night of Oct 5 was the third incident of its kind to have occurred in the east coast of Sabah.

Two earlier incidents involved the abduction of 21 people including nine Malaysians from Pulau Sipadan in April 2000 and three Malaysians from Pulau Pandanan in September the same year.

So far, no one knows who is behind the latest abduction although there were reports linking it to a group of kidnappers operating in southern Philippines, including the Abu Sayyaf group.

The incident highlights the fact that criminals will always act when there is an opportunity to carry out their evil scheme.

The long and porous border make patrolling difficult while the criminals only need one to three hours to escape into international waters from any of the small islands dotting the waters of the Sabah's east coast.

If there is truth of a link between local criminals and their foreign counterparts, then the challenge for the authorities is not just to patrol the coastal waters to prevent intrusion but also to severe the link.

Social activist Patrick Sindu said that "our defence could be as formidable as Mount Kinabalu" but it makes no difference if the locals were helping outsiders to commit crimes.

"The incidents at Sipadan, Pandanan and Kunak are lessons for us to unite and work together with the security forces to ensure such incidents would not be repeated," he said.

Patrick also urged the authorities to be firm against any quarters found harbouring illegal immigrants.

Resort owners should also stop the practice of employing foreigners as security guards and instead to recruit the locals, he said.

The local population feel the security patrols along the Sabah's coast should be more than enough to ensure safety.

But things do happen.

The abduction will not end if there are still armed groups who believe that they can make money from such activities.

The third abduction can still be dismissed as an isolated case but it is another breach of our waters of marine rich resources.

-- BERNAMA

Sad Stories In Schools

School term for the year 2003 is almost coming to an end. In fact some of the secondary schools have already closed to give way to the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Persekolah Malaysia (STPM) examinations.

Students and teachers are the happiest when school holidays approaching. They can finally take a long rest after about 10 months of hardwork. Teachers who are posted far away from their hometowns have already left for home. Others are planning for the vacations.

However, there are thousands of students who have to sit for their examinations and teachers who have been assigned to invigilate the examninations. They might need to be a little patient until their examinations over.

Some parents are relieved that they can now rest for a while for not having to juggle between work and school, sending children for tuitions and art lessons. Some mothers have been full time drivers sending and picking children from school. Then later part of the day sending them out again for tuitions, computer class, art lessons, dancing and a lot more. To them they too can take a rest during the school holidays.

Some parents, on the other hand, are having problem for not knowing what to do with their children during the two month holidays. Working parents especially, might have problem not being able to spend time with their children during school holidays. They are worried to leave their children at home alone, but what choice do they have?

These are the yearly scenario of students, teachers and parents. We are all very familiar with these year in year out. There are, however, more to this cycle which affect all of us.

School text books, reference books, and workbooks publishers are rushing to push out their products to all corners of the country. For text books they have spent a lot of money hiring well known authors to write for them then getting them approved by the Ministry of Education. If their text books are approved, they are sure to have a lot of money rolling into their bank accounts for at least 5 years before the books are reviewed.

The process might look normal, but a lot of the text books written by 'big names' are found to have lots of mistakes, irrelavant and contradicting facts, which are both misleading and humiliating. Unless the teachers using those books are very careful, knowledgable and responsible, they might just impart the wrong facts to their students. Some mistakes were never noticed even until the books expired.

This is the case when textbooks are written purely for commercial purpose. The contents are not that important. The most important issue is whether the book is accepted by the Education Ministry. If the approved textbooks are found to have so many mistakes, written for unsuitable level, it is not difficult for the public to guess the hanky panky things happening during the process of approval. If anyone would like to challenge to this, then make the approval of text books transparent or better let the public too take part in reviewing the books before approval.

For the reference books and workbook, no approval is needed from the Ministry of Education. What is needed is only the endorsement of the the headmasters or teachers concerned. That is why teachers and their superiors in school have been very popular during this time. They are most wanted by the book salesmen.

In order to get the school using their reference books and workbooks, salesmen, when failed to convince the teachers, offer many perks, such as commissions, computers, furniture, holiday package and many more depending on the negotiation. Some schools or teachers openly accepted the offer (bribe to be exact) but some receive it quietly outside.

The schools and teachers concerned are most likely to be influenced by the perks that they are offered when making decision on which workbooks and reference books to use. Their decision is less likely basing on the contents, quality of the book and the suitability for their students. That is the why many parents complained about too many homework, too many books for a single subject, heavy school bags. Some parents even complained that the textbooks are hardly touched by the teachers. The reason is, the teacher's noble profession has been compromised, commercialised and enterprised.

The poor students and parents have no choice but to follow whatever the school or teachers decide. Once the school makes it compulsory for the students to buy certain books, their parents have to fork out all the money with protest. Here is how registration fees during the new school term is ever increasing. Imagine how much parents who have many school going children have to pay at each beginning of the year. Bonuses, if any, will never be enough for their children's books, let alone to enjoy.

The story does not end there. Enterprising teachers openly look for students for tuition in class. Some show favourtism towards their tuition students. During tuition, they would intentionally or otherwise concentrate on questions which they would set during the school tests or examninations. Thus making their tuition students score high marks in order to impress their parents. It also helps to advertise and promote for the teachers to have more tuition students.

With the increasing number of workbooks and reference used, both in primary and secondary schools, most school based examination questions are taken directly from these books. With the advancement of photocopy machines and computers, teachers take the easiest way out by replacing heading with the name of the school on top of the sample examination papers taken from reference books. Gone are the days where teachers set their own question paper to really test the students' understanding and achievement.

Unfortunately, when teachers fails to teach but been taught by others for personal interests and benefits, we could expect what will happen to the younger generations. If we do nothing about it, we too are responsible for all these.

No one would deny that there are still good teachers around, but sadly the number is decreasing. If there is anything the Ministry of Education wants to improve, then look into this unhealthy culture both within the ministry and schools. Education officers should visit the schools more and not just practicing arm-chair planning. Stop talking about any upgrading courses for teachers, or implementation of new policies without first bring back the noble way of teaching. Stop pushing the teachers with administrative and unimportant surveys and blue prints but let them go back to their chore business, teaching.

Terima Kasih Tun Dr Mahathir

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