TwoSen

 
WE HAVE been reading in newspapers recently that the government is in the process of making it easier for professionals to get permanent residence in Malaysia; even international students excelling in their studies will soon be able to get PR. 

But what about the foreign spouses of Malaysian citizens? We are in the country for decades on a Long-Term Social Visit Pass, and our visas state that any form of employment is strictly prohibited. We are not here for social purposes, but in the capacity of principal care-givers and providers for our Malaysian families.

Spouses of Malaysian citizens face a whole range of challenges with regard to the application and renewal of the “social visit pass” and application for permanent residency, leave alone citizenship. 

Apart from the frequent renewal of visas for non-citizen spouses for decades, we need to have our Malaysian spouses physically present even for renewals. This puts pressure on our families, especially if the sponsoring Malaysian spouse is ill or away on business.

Female spouses are required to furnish immigration with a letter from our spouses granting us per-mission to work! Then again, a spouse who is estranged from the Malaysian or whose spouse has passed on, cannot get an endorsement to work for want of this letter. What then becomes of their Malay-sian children who are dependent on them? Who will provide for them? 

At present spouses pay double the charges for healthcare in government hospitals, and unemployed spouses cannot open individual bank accounts. We pay tourist rates at tourist attractions, though we are resident in Malaysia; what more if we wish to study
further, we will pay international student rates! All this despite being a part of the Malaysian family.

Many foreign spouses were excited when they read in the media that the Home Ministry had expedited approvals. However, upon checking with immigration, we could not get a confirmation as to when a letter would be sent to us – alas more than six months later, our letter boxes remain empty.

In recent times, we have seen positive steps in certain areas, such as permitting Malaysian women overseas to register their children at the Malaysian high commission. However there is still scope for review in areas pertaining to hastening the process for permanent residency.

In the interest of many Malaysian families, it is expedient that guidelines, policy and procedure are clearly elucidated with regard to the permanent residency and citizenship of foreign spouses of Malaysian citizens, to provide a stable environment and prevent hardship to their families.

Source: The Sun – July 16, 2010

I REFER to the report on the Home Ministry offering RM1 million in cash rewards to police stations with the best record (July 15).

Without the cash rewards, does that mean police officers can take their sweet time to fight crime?

Aren’t they already receiving salary and allowances? This is sending a wrong signal!

Source: The Sun – July 16, 2010

Source: The Sun – July 16, 2010

DEMOCRACY means maximum participation of citizens in the election process. We have an issue in Malaysia as voter registration is not compulsory as in many countries. Even those who are registered do not caste their votes. Voter turnout is at an average of 60 to 70%.

A government elected by a majority of its citizens can only come about by making voting compulsory or prescribing a penalty for failure to register – which seems to be a remote possibility in Malaysia. So we can only fall back on education on the importance of voting.

The process of registering voters must be carried out aggresively. There should not be complaints that deliberate attempts are made not to distribute forms to the relevant parties. Abuses or attempts to cheat or duplicate can be detected with a sophisticated system in place. Any attempt to prevent people from registering by any means is against democracy.

A maximum number of voters during a general election means optimum democracy at work.

Source: The Sun – July 16, 2010

 

REFER to “PSD scholarship system flawed” (Letters, July 13). My daughter shares the same predicament as “Disillusioned”.

Source: The Sun – July 15, 2010

 
WE REFER to “Census hiccups” (Letters, July 12). The Statistics Department appreciates your concern and cooperation with regards to the Population and Housing Census, Malaysia 2010.

Enumerators are appointed by the Census Commissioner’s Office and  trained on understanding the questions, concepts and definitions, communication skills and other matters about the census.
The department in its training programme has instilled in the enumerators that the sequence of the set of questions should be followed. But this was not so according to the complainant’s letter.

The department apologises for the hiccups faced.

There are 51 questions in the questionnaire from four main parts as follows:

Part A - House address -1 question
Part B - Living quarters particulars -11 questions
Part C - Household particulars - 9 questions
Part D - Personal particulars - 30 questions

The process of enumeration is carried out using three methods that is: face-to-face interviews and self enumeration whereby the respondents are given the choice either to fill up the form using hardcopy or on-line via e-census. Self-enumeration method has been introduced to improve the data collection process in Population and Housing Census Malaysia 2010.

Enumerators are required to ask all the questions during their visits. In a face-to-face interview, the enumerator will ask the questions and immediately fill up all the information gathered from the respondents into the questionnaire.

Each enumerator will carry a name tag tied to an orange lanyard with the census logo during the visit.

The enumerators have been instructed and trained to go through and ask all the questions in sequence as printed in the form for every person in the living quarters. They should not skip any questions unless the questions are irrelevant to that particular household. On the question pertaining to household income, the head of household should inform the enumerator only the total income of household which is collected in a range form and not the exact figure.

As for the incident at the complainant’s living quarters during the enumeration, we would like to investigate the matter. Please provide us with details of the visit including the address.

For further queries, contact

Source: The Sun – July 15, 2010

Source: The Sun – July 15, 2010

I WISH to highlight my objections to the proposed building of a 19-storey service apartment with 400 units in Section 17, Petaling Jaya.

The vacant plot is now leased out and operated as a car park. Next to the car park is the Section 17 morning market.

I am sure many residents of Section 17 would also disagree with development plans that are detrimental to the surrounding neighbourhood and add to the congested traffic woes of this area.

On a normal weekday, the Sentosa square is packed with cars because it has a commercial bank, 10 eating outlets, sundry shops, clinics, restaurants and many other businesses. During weekends this place is even busier as the weekend market draws a lot more people to the market and residents have to bear with a lot of vehicles that double park indiscriminately.

And with the building of any apartment or condominium there would always be cars of visitors or tenants that park outside the building even if the proposed service apartments have a car park. I cannot imagine the chaos in this quiet area as such vehicles would clog up this peaceful place.

I  urge MBPJ (Petaling Jaya City Council) to reconsider such development plans as this peaceful residential area, one of the oldest in PJ, does not need it. I would encourage all residents to oppose this development plan as MBPJ would have an open discussion on the proposed development at 10am today in the Bilik Gerakan, MBPJ building, Jalan Yong Shook Lin.

I am saddened with the change that PJ is undergoing because any development in the name of progress will have repercussions as the victims of progress are always the rakyat who have to bear with lightning fast policy changes and  development plans that are approved overnight but the consequences on the environment, society and nation would be felt for a long time.

Source: The Sun – July 15, 2010

EFFORTS by the Higher Education Ministry to attract excellent foreign post-graduate students and offering them jobs as lecturers after graduation  is a very good move. However, the ministry must monitor these foreign students, and their supervisors.

One recent case involved a foreign student who obtained his doctorate degree in engineering from a Malaysian public university even though his research project had been exposed as a fraud. The student from a neighbouring country had been awarded a scholarship and was involved in the development of a lightning rod in 2004 that included the use of a laser device.

While the appearance of the lightning rod was new, its theory of operation was based on a technology, known as the early streamer emission (ESE) technology, that had been discredited by western scientists 10 years earlier.

Although the nature of the laser device was not made public at the early stages of its development, it was finally exposed as a fraud by the student’s supervisor, a senior professor and director of an institute, when he was questioned about it by a lightning expert during a Lightning Location Seminar in Port Dickson in 2007. This was revealed in the post-seminar record made by the host, TNB Research Sdn Bhd.

Before this exposure, the student had been involved with exhibiting the lightning rod with his supervisor in Kuala Lumpur, Germany and Switzerland. The lightning rod won several gold and bronze medals at these exhibitions because the foreign and local judges were not experts in lightning protection and were not aware of the discredited status of the ESE technology or the true nature of the laser device.

Although the invention had been publicly exposed as a scientific fraud, the supervisor and the student were never disciplined by the university authorities, by the Higher Education Ministry or by the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry which funded the project.

The student managed to get his doctoral degree in engineering from the university but his thesis was not posted on the university’s website like other doctoral theses.

The student was recently recruited by the university as a senior lecturer and posted to the same institute where he had conducted his research.

Although it is commendable that the Higher Education Ministry attracts talented foreign students with scholarships and qualified foreign lecturers with teaching assignments in local institutes, it should reject students shown to be dishonest and lacking in intellectual capacity. It should also reject foreign lecturers who had obtained their doctoral degrees through dubious means.

If this country is to become a magnet for foreign post-graduate students, then the ministry should ensure that there is no hanky-panky research in our public universities and that our post-graduate supervisors are people of high academic standing and integrity. It should also investigate the university’s top management who allowed these dubious activities.

Otherwise our universities may just become degree mills that churn out dubious masters and doctorate degrees to the gullible public.

Source: The Sun – July 15, 2010

THE spat between BN and PR leaders regarding the budgetary “possibility” of providing free water to consumers is missing the point raised by environmentalists when we were opposing the Sungai Selangor dam.

Certainly, a precious social utility such as water should belong to the people and not to private interests. Water is a public good and it is the people’s right to have access to clean water and to ensure that the sources of clean water are properly protected.

The Sungai Selangor dam has not only destroyed irrevocably a region of pristine natural environment in Kuala Kubu Baru but has destroyed the ancestral homes of the orang asli who lived there. Selangor ratepayers are now paying the price of the dam.

During our campaign against the dam, we stressed the urgent need to focus on water demand management. Water demand management includes targets set for per capita water use, and reductions in non-revenue water.

Giving away free water makes a mockery of water demand management. In fact, water demand management would involve making sure those who wash their precious cars everyday pay more for the luxury.

That may not be populist but it is what we expect of a responsible government that protects our resources and does not tell us that we need to pay for yet another dam because the current reservoirs are inadequate.

When Malaysians start collecting our plentiful rain water for their gardening and cleaning needs, only then will we be on our way to becoming an  environmentally conscious people and to have a sustainable lifestyle.

Malaysia is blessed to be among the countries in the world with abundant rain water yet we are also the worst squanderers of this natural resource.

A comprehensive water policy would include changes to building by-laws, through subsidising the installation of water saving devices in business and residential properties and through giving industry incentives to switch to water-efficient technologies.

As the richest state in Malaysia, Selangor rate payers expect the best quality of life and the best standard of governance to go with it.

The current debates about whether the state is going bankrupt do not humour us. The deputy prime minister may have his own agenda but the PKR’s own leader, Azmin Ali’s warning to the state government at the state assembly on Monday that it’s spendthrift ways have to stop does not speak well of sustainable governance in the state.

He mentioned an instance of the state government spending RM500,000 on a single official ceremony and that the state reserves have dipped below RM800 million. I still remember the PR Speaker telling off state excutive councillor Ronnie Liu for spending RM10,000 on durian feasts for his constituents.

Who knows what else goes on … Is this corruption, or do free handouts count as corruption only when they are given out close to an election?

Source: The Sun – July 14, 2010