Source: Sabah Daily Express
Kota Kinabalu: Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun is concerned that the move to allow the teaching fraternity to get involved in politics will have serious repercussions on education in Sabah.
While he is not against the idea that was mooted by the Federal Government, he cautioned that if it is not properly managed, it could affect the education system in Sabah, which is still in its infancy.
He was commenting on the statement by Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, on Tuesday that beginning Aug 1, graduate education service officers (teachers) on Grades DG41 to DG48 will be permitted to engage in politics.
He feared that if the teachers were too engrossed in politics, they would neglect their duty as teachers.
"Bear in mind that they are paid to be teachersÉso, their main work is to teach," he told reporters in a press conference at Wisma Tun Fuad, here, Friday.
However, he said the move would probably set some guidelines as to the level of the teachers' participation in politics.
"Because if it is a full time occupation, then he (a teacher) has to resign (from his teaching profession)," he said.
To his understanding, Masidi said teachers are probably allowed to join a political party of their own choice and contribute their ideas to its development.
At one time, he said teachers played a very important role in the community they served not only as academic instructors but also as mediators to settle disputes, among others.
Nevertheless, he said the role of teachers had changed as the years went by.
He hoped the Government would monitor the teachers from time to time to determine whether it made a good decision to allow them to participate in politics.
He said if teachers could provide service to the people via their involvement in politics, then there is nothing wrong for them to do so.
In a political party hierarchy, he said it is only natural for anyone, including the teachers, to aspire for position.
"If this comes true, I just hope it would not affect their performance as teachers," he said.
Masidi also said not all teachers would have similar inclination when comes to political party.
Some may join parties of the ruling government while others the opposition.
In this respect, he hoped there would be no grouping among the teachers due to different political ideology.
"I am just worried of the repercussions (of the move to allow teachers to engage in politics) in Sabah," he said.
After achieving independence for more than 40 years, he said Sabah is still trying to catch up with the rest of the states in the country in terms of education.
Meanwhile, Pensiangan PKR deputy chief, Affendy Abdullah @ Angindih Tukang, described the decision to allow graduate education service officers to be involved in politics as an unwise move which would distract teachers from their duties.
"The announcement by the Chief Secretary to the Government was shocking, considering that the teachers' duties and responsibilities are already challenging which need their full attention.
"I agree with political analyst Prof. Aziz Bari that the Government's move is wrong and maybe a bit desperate on their side, to the extent of permitting teachers to join politics despite shouldering many responsibilities.
"This move is illogicalÉthe announcement has become a joke," said the former teacher, stressing that Regulation 21 of the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993 must be abolished.
Showing posts with label Daily Express. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daily Express. Show all posts
Monday, August 2, 2010
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Less than half Sabah's population comprise natives
Kota Kinabalu: Natives represent less than half the population of 3,131.6 million in Sabah as of this year, said Sabah Native Affairs Council (MHEANS) director Mohamad Said Hinayat.
He said the Kadazandusuns or Dusuns or Kadazans make up 551,300 of the 1,485,800 natives throughout the State.
The Bajaus or Samas or Bajau/Sama group, he said, constitute 28.4 per cent or 423,100 of the total number of Sabah natives.
"On the other hand, the number of Muruts in Sabah is about 104,300," he said when presenting a paper entitled "Sabah Natives Background and Customs Administration" at the forum on "Customs of the Dayaks in Kalimantan and the Ethnic Groups in Sabah" recently.
The remainder or 814,200 of the total number of natives, he said were classified as other Sabah Bumiputeras. He did not elaborate.
Based on the description provided in the Interpretation Ordinance (Native Interpretation) (Cap 64), natives are defined as those whose parents are Sabah orang asli or natives or anyone who is living as a member of native community where one of his parents or ancestors are natives.
"In relation to Sabah, a native is a person who is a citizen, is the child or grandchild of a person of a race indigenous to Sabah and was born (whether on or after Malaysia Day or not) either in Sabah or to a father domiciled in Sabah at the time of the birth," he said.
Natives in Sarawak, he said, are defined as "a person who is a citizen and either belongs to one of the races specified in Clause (7) in the Malaysian Constitution as indigenous to the State or is of mixed blood deriving exclusively from those races.
Mohamad said the ethnic groups in Sabah are namely:
- Kadazandusun or Dusun or Kadazan (92 sub-ethnic) - Bajau or Sama or Bajau/Sama (10 sub-ethnic) - Murut (29 sub-ethnic) - Brunei or Malay Brunei - Rungus (4 sub-ethnic) - Bisaya or Bisayah - Idahan or Ida'an (7 sub-ethnic) - Iranun or Illanun - Kedayan or Kadayan - Orang Sungai or Sungoi (28 sub-ethnic) - Lundayeh/Lundayah - Suluk - Tidong - Bulongan - Balabak/Molbog
He said prior to Sabah gaining its independence from the colonial masters between 1881 and 1962, customs administration were based on the Native Court presided by the Orang Kaya Kaya (OKKs), native chiefs, elders and penghulu (village headmen).
After Sabah won its independence between the period 1963 and 1999, the Sabah Bumiputera Affairs Unit (UHEB) was formed where the all customs, disputes and administration were run by the Native Courts, OKKs, native chiefs (KANs), native chief representatives (WKANs) and village chiefs.
Then from 1999 until now, Mohamad said native affairs come under the jurisdiction of the Sabah Native Affairs Council (MHEANS).
He said the entity and people vested with the power to settle cases involving natives were Sabah Native Affairs Office (PHEANS), Native Courts, OKKs, KANs, WKANs and village chiefs.
He said the Kadazandusuns or Dusuns or Kadazans make up 551,300 of the 1,485,800 natives throughout the State.
The Bajaus or Samas or Bajau/Sama group, he said, constitute 28.4 per cent or 423,100 of the total number of Sabah natives.
"On the other hand, the number of Muruts in Sabah is about 104,300," he said when presenting a paper entitled "Sabah Natives Background and Customs Administration" at the forum on "Customs of the Dayaks in Kalimantan and the Ethnic Groups in Sabah" recently.
The remainder or 814,200 of the total number of natives, he said were classified as other Sabah Bumiputeras. He did not elaborate.
Based on the description provided in the Interpretation Ordinance (Native Interpretation) (Cap 64), natives are defined as those whose parents are Sabah orang asli or natives or anyone who is living as a member of native community where one of his parents or ancestors are natives.
"In relation to Sabah, a native is a person who is a citizen, is the child or grandchild of a person of a race indigenous to Sabah and was born (whether on or after Malaysia Day or not) either in Sabah or to a father domiciled in Sabah at the time of the birth," he said.
Natives in Sarawak, he said, are defined as "a person who is a citizen and either belongs to one of the races specified in Clause (7) in the Malaysian Constitution as indigenous to the State or is of mixed blood deriving exclusively from those races.
Mohamad said the ethnic groups in Sabah are namely:
- Kadazandusun or Dusun or Kadazan (92 sub-ethnic) - Bajau or Sama or Bajau/Sama (10 sub-ethnic) - Murut (29 sub-ethnic) - Brunei or Malay Brunei - Rungus (4 sub-ethnic) - Bisaya or Bisayah - Idahan or Ida'an (7 sub-ethnic) - Iranun or Illanun - Kedayan or Kadayan - Orang Sungai or Sungoi (28 sub-ethnic) - Lundayeh/Lundayah - Suluk - Tidong - Bulongan - Balabak/Molbog
He said prior to Sabah gaining its independence from the colonial masters between 1881 and 1962, customs administration were based on the Native Court presided by the Orang Kaya Kaya (OKKs), native chiefs, elders and penghulu (village headmen).
After Sabah won its independence between the period 1963 and 1999, the Sabah Bumiputera Affairs Unit (UHEB) was formed where the all customs, disputes and administration were run by the Native Courts, OKKs, native chiefs (KANs), native chief representatives (WKANs) and village chiefs.
Then from 1999 until now, Mohamad said native affairs come under the jurisdiction of the Sabah Native Affairs Council (MHEANS).
He said the entity and people vested with the power to settle cases involving natives were Sabah Native Affairs Office (PHEANS), Native Courts, OKKs, KANs, WKANs and village chiefs.
Concern over 50 youths becoming smokers daily
Kota Kinabalu: The Education Ministry needs to look at the prevention of smoking in adolescence very seriously.
Making the call, Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) Vice-President, Assoc. Prof. Dr Mohamad Haniki Nik Mohamed, advocated prevention and said the Ministry must introduce topics or relevant activities to raise awareness among schoolchildren on the dangers of smoking.
"They may carry this knowledge through adulthood and increase their resilience to say 'No' (Tak Nak) to high-risk behaviour, including smoking, alcohol, bullying or rempit (illegal racing)," he said after presenting a paper on Pharmacotherapy/New Agents for Smoking Cessation at the recent Certified Smoking Cessation Service Provider (CSCSP) programme.
He was asked to comment on the increasing incidence of schoolchildren taking up smoking. Forty-five to 50 youths reportedly start to take up smoking daily. The programme was jointly organised by MPS and the Malaysian Academy of Pharmacy.
Dr Mohamad, who is the Chief Co-ordinator of the CSCSP, said the second preventive measure should stem from the behaviour of adults.
Saying children have a 2.5-time higher risk of becoming smokers when they have parents who smoke, he said adults who don't smoke or give up smoking will act as "role models" to their adolescent children.
He opined that the tobacco industry used this as a "loophole" to increase smoking among youths.
According to him, they (industry) previously launched a youth smoking prevention programme with the tagline "Smoking is an adult choice".
"Thus some of them have the urge to smoke when they see the tagline because they can't wait to become adults in order to smoke." "This is because young people tend to emulate or copy adult behaviour."
Quoting statistics from the Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS), Dr Mohamad said the mean initiation age (MIA) or starting age for smoking among current and frequent smokers was 13.6 years, similar between urban and rural respondents.
"Males started smoking earlier (13.6 years) versus females (14.1 for current against 14.4 years for frequent smokers)."
However, he said the MIA of experimental smokers was even much earlier - 12.9 years, earlier among rural (12.8 years) versus urban (13.1 years) respondents. "Males started smoking even earlier (12.8 years) than females (14.3 years)."
Dr Mohamad, who also heads the Pharmacy Practice Department of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) in Kuantan, is optimistic that the pictorial health warning to be imposed on cigarette packs from next year (as announced by Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai) will act as a greater deterrent compared with the text warning presently used on the side of the packet.
"It has little impact because people don't pay much attention to it but a picture is very good as it is worth a thousand words. It is very clear and tells the dangers of tobacco use, especially cigarette smoking. People will now see actually what would happen from smoking."
In addition, he said the move will prevent the cigarette pack from becoming the main advertising tool being used by the industry.
"Restaurant owners, for example, will be less willing to display the cigarette pack on the table in their establishments."
Asked whether the TV advertising ban on tobacco use has been effective, the Associate Professor said: "Yes, to a certain degree because advertising is mainly used as a trigger mechanism for smoking. I have asked smokers whether they think of cigarettes when they look at a brand name of the product related to tobacco. Their answer was 'Yes, of course'."
On the current trend of young women resorting to cigarettes, Dr Mohamad said there are a few reasons for this and one could be attributed to marketing strategies by the tobacco industry.
"Tobacco products especially cigarettes have been projected as a method to glamourise life and a form of entertainment, and more importantly to keep their weight down."
Dispelling this misconception, he said by right, smoking is not an effective and safe way to reduce or to maintain weight.
"There are more effective methods like proper diet management and exercises."
According to Dr Mohamad, the cigarette contains some chemicals that would suppress one's appetite. "So you don't eat as much when you smoke but you are at the health risk of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. This is all proven, so why do you want to smoke because of your weight when on the other hand, it exposes you to health problems?"
Dr Mohamad said young women were probably influenced by pictures of models who are slim and good-looking but they are puffing away in entertainment circles or the fashion industry. "Thus it repeats the vicious cycle where young ladies want to emulate the models, thinking it's part of their lifestyle."
He added that the trend could also be due to our social environment in urban centres. "More and more women are entering the workforce, and beginning to socialise, so when they see their male counterparts offering cigarettes, they (women) too want to do the same thing."
Earlier, in his paper on the "Epidemiology of Tobacco Use", Dr Mohamad said smoking causes an annual death of 10,000 people in Malaysia.
"About 10 to 20 per cent of all deaths in Malaysia are due to smoking.
Most of the deaths are due to heart disease, cancer and stroke," he told the participants.
Making the call, Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) Vice-President, Assoc. Prof. Dr Mohamad Haniki Nik Mohamed, advocated prevention and said the Ministry must introduce topics or relevant activities to raise awareness among schoolchildren on the dangers of smoking.
"They may carry this knowledge through adulthood and increase their resilience to say 'No' (Tak Nak) to high-risk behaviour, including smoking, alcohol, bullying or rempit (illegal racing)," he said after presenting a paper on Pharmacotherapy/New Agents for Smoking Cessation at the recent Certified Smoking Cessation Service Provider (CSCSP) programme.
He was asked to comment on the increasing incidence of schoolchildren taking up smoking. Forty-five to 50 youths reportedly start to take up smoking daily. The programme was jointly organised by MPS and the Malaysian Academy of Pharmacy.
Dr Mohamad, who is the Chief Co-ordinator of the CSCSP, said the second preventive measure should stem from the behaviour of adults.
Saying children have a 2.5-time higher risk of becoming smokers when they have parents who smoke, he said adults who don't smoke or give up smoking will act as "role models" to their adolescent children.
He opined that the tobacco industry used this as a "loophole" to increase smoking among youths.
According to him, they (industry) previously launched a youth smoking prevention programme with the tagline "Smoking is an adult choice".
"Thus some of them have the urge to smoke when they see the tagline because they can't wait to become adults in order to smoke." "This is because young people tend to emulate or copy adult behaviour."
Quoting statistics from the Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS), Dr Mohamad said the mean initiation age (MIA) or starting age for smoking among current and frequent smokers was 13.6 years, similar between urban and rural respondents.
"Males started smoking earlier (13.6 years) versus females (14.1 for current against 14.4 years for frequent smokers)."
However, he said the MIA of experimental smokers was even much earlier - 12.9 years, earlier among rural (12.8 years) versus urban (13.1 years) respondents. "Males started smoking even earlier (12.8 years) than females (14.3 years)."
Dr Mohamad, who also heads the Pharmacy Practice Department of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) in Kuantan, is optimistic that the pictorial health warning to be imposed on cigarette packs from next year (as announced by Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai) will act as a greater deterrent compared with the text warning presently used on the side of the packet.
"It has little impact because people don't pay much attention to it but a picture is very good as it is worth a thousand words. It is very clear and tells the dangers of tobacco use, especially cigarette smoking. People will now see actually what would happen from smoking."
In addition, he said the move will prevent the cigarette pack from becoming the main advertising tool being used by the industry.
"Restaurant owners, for example, will be less willing to display the cigarette pack on the table in their establishments."
Asked whether the TV advertising ban on tobacco use has been effective, the Associate Professor said: "Yes, to a certain degree because advertising is mainly used as a trigger mechanism for smoking. I have asked smokers whether they think of cigarettes when they look at a brand name of the product related to tobacco. Their answer was 'Yes, of course'."
On the current trend of young women resorting to cigarettes, Dr Mohamad said there are a few reasons for this and one could be attributed to marketing strategies by the tobacco industry.
"Tobacco products especially cigarettes have been projected as a method to glamourise life and a form of entertainment, and more importantly to keep their weight down."
Dispelling this misconception, he said by right, smoking is not an effective and safe way to reduce or to maintain weight.
"There are more effective methods like proper diet management and exercises."
According to Dr Mohamad, the cigarette contains some chemicals that would suppress one's appetite. "So you don't eat as much when you smoke but you are at the health risk of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. This is all proven, so why do you want to smoke because of your weight when on the other hand, it exposes you to health problems?"
Dr Mohamad said young women were probably influenced by pictures of models who are slim and good-looking but they are puffing away in entertainment circles or the fashion industry. "Thus it repeats the vicious cycle where young ladies want to emulate the models, thinking it's part of their lifestyle."
He added that the trend could also be due to our social environment in urban centres. "More and more women are entering the workforce, and beginning to socialise, so when they see their male counterparts offering cigarettes, they (women) too want to do the same thing."
Earlier, in his paper on the "Epidemiology of Tobacco Use", Dr Mohamad said smoking causes an annual death of 10,000 people in Malaysia.
"About 10 to 20 per cent of all deaths in Malaysia are due to smoking.
Most of the deaths are due to heart disease, cancer and stroke," he told the participants.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Hobbyists showcase games, activities
Kota Kinabalu: Hobbyists in the city came together at the Hobbycon 2008 held at Asia City Complex here, Saturday, to showcase various games and activities that many youths today are taking up as hobbies.
The annual convention, which continues today from 11am to 7pm, is organised by clickstartplay.com, a popular Internet forum among hobbyists in Sabah, to interact and share their interests.
The event aims to provide a platform for hobbies such as card games, board games, computer gaming, video gaming, toys, figurines and models collecting, to have a place in the Sabah community.
Julian Lee, who was involved in organising the event said: "The event is held to show the public the various interesting hobbies that youths can take up. It also aims to gather people of the same passion to rekindle their enthusiasm for their hobbies."
Among various attractions at the event were a card game tournament, dance performances and mini games. The event was held for the first time last year at the same venue and was also a popular attraction among youths.
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