‘English only’ ruling for Maths and Science in secondary schools put on hold

KLUANG (Johor): Following the Government's decision on the Mathematics and Science papers in the UPSR, secondary school students will not be forced to use English for these subjects in their examinations in the next two to three years.

The Education Ministry will review the teaching and learning syllabus as well as the co-curriculum and teachers’ education before deciding whether Malaysian students are ready for “English only” examinations.

The initial plan was to have Year Six pupils answer their Mathematics and Science papers completely in English from next year.

However, said minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, he had promised MCA leaders and Chinese educationists that he would make a decision by this year as to whether to go ahead with the plan.

“I am glad to have fulfilled that promise,” he told reporters at a Hari Raya open house at his home in Taman Sri Lambak here yesterday.

Present was Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, who had also voiced the view of the state Umno committee last year to put on hold the implementation of the “English only” ruling.

On Saturday, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that UPSR examination candidates would continue to have the choice of taking the two subjects in either English or Malay (or the vernacular language of their school.)

The Prime Minister explained that the schoolchildren had yet to attain proficiency in English.
Hishammuddin said secondary students would also continue to have the dual-language option although many of them have a “decent command” of English.

He said the weak students were mostly from the rural areas.

“I will not do things on an ad hoc and piecemeal basis. I want to do it (using English) as a whole.
“I want the foundation to be solid (at the primary level) before we look at the secondary schools,” he said.

He added, however, that many secondary students chose to do the papers in English. Citing matriculation students, he said 95% of them did their papers in English. Abdul Ghani, who is Johor Umno chairman, said putting on hold the implementation of “English only” papers for Mathematics and Science would allow students to master both English and Malay.

At its state convention last year, the party voiced its concern over the use of English for the two subjects. This drew comments from some quarters that it was a backward move and would not encourage young Malaysians to learn English. Asked about this, Abdul Ghani said: “Sometimes, it is a misconception. Sometimes, it is just some people trying to create issues.”

The Star

Funeral procession to draw 5,000 people

GENTING HIGHLANDS: More than 5,000 people are expected to follow the cortege of Genting Bhd founder Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong today.

The funeral procession will comprise family members, friends, business associates and well-wishers.The three-hour procession will start at 10am from Hotel Gohtong Jaya, about 2km from Gohtong Villa, and will end at the Gohtong Memorial Park.Prior to the procession, a private funeral service for family members, registered guests and non-governmental organisations will be held at Gohtong Villa from 7.30am to 9.30am.

During the private service, eulogies for the late tycoon will be given by MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting, Genting Bhd group deputy chairman Tun Hanif Omar, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation chairman Michael Thomas, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman president Tan Sri Ng Lay Swee and Tan Tat Chin of Tung Shin Hospital.

The cortege will leave Gohtong Villa at 9.30am, and family members and guests following the cortege from Hotel Gohtong Jaya will walk to the memorial park located 600 metres away.There, religious rites will be performed before the cortege heads for the Chin Swee temple as a sign of respect to the Chin Swee deity. The deity had apparently appeared to Lim in a dream and encouraged him to press ahead with the development of Genting Highlands Resort.

The cortege will then proceed to the Genting Hotel where all the company’s staff, led by Resorts Bhd president Lee Choong Yan, will bow as a sign of respect.The procession will then double back to the memorial park for the burial.Roads leading from Gohtong Jaya to the Genting Highlands Resort will be closed from 9am to noon today.

The New Straits Times

Teary homecoming for angkasawan

SEREMBAN: A flight delay stopped astronaut Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor from seeing his brother Sheikh Mustapha one last time before he was buried.

Dr Muszaphar comforting his sister-in-law Haryati Mohd Redza.Dr Muszaphar, who rushed home from Moscow where he was under quarantine after returning from space, was scheduled to arrive at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 2.10pm yesterday.But bad weather held up his flight in Moscow which caused him to miss his connecting flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur.He had to take the next flight which arrived at KLIA about 5.30pm. He went straight to the state mosque where his father, Datuk Sheikh Mustapha Abdul Shukor, was waiting before he was taken to the Tuan Haji Said cemetery where his younger brother was buried just hours earlier.It was an emotional scene at the cemetery when Dr Muszaphar hugged his mother Datin Zuraida Sheikh Ahmad and consoled his brother’s wife, Haryati Mohd Redza.

The family recited prayers at Mustapha’s grave before Dr Muszaphar, who planned to return home today to visit his brother in hospital, sprinkled petals and scented water on the grave.Dr Muszaphar said that although he was sad with his brother’s passing, he accepted it as a test from Allah.“I have to be strong for my family’s sake, especially my mother.”He dedicated his space mission to his brother “Ajil” whom he described as “a catalyst for his spirit and backbone of his success".“It can be said that Ajil was my fanatic fan. Since the start of my participation in the space programme, he had given me solid support,”

Dr Muszaphar said.Mustapha, 32, a project planner, fell unconscious after knocking into a pillar outside a restaurant last Friday in Jalan Klang Lama, Kuala Lumpur. He died at 6pm on Saturday without regaining consciousness. Some 250 family members, relatives and friends attended the funeral. Sheikh Mustapha said he spoke with Dr Muszaphar in the morning and it was decided that the funeral would proceed without him.“He was calm when informed of the death. He asked me to take care of his mother.”Sheikh Mustapha said his astronaut son would stay for a few days to attend the official homecoming reception before returning to Moscow for an inauguration ceremony scheduled for Nov 9.

Haryati, 28, said her husband was looking forward to Dr Muszaphar’s return.“He was really excited and was talking a lot about the space programme. “However, a few days before the accident, he was very agitated and kept asking where abah (father) was,” said Haryati.She said Mustapha had initially said that he did not want Dr Muszaphar to go to space.“It was as if he knew that they would never meet again,” said Haryati, who has two children with Mustapha, aged 3 and 2.At the airport, Dr Muszaphar was whisked into a waiting Proton Perdana moments after stepping out of the VIP arrival hall.

Waiting for him was a group of Umno Youth and Putera Umno members, who formed a barricade around him, and some 50 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia students. As photographers jostled for pictures, Dr Muszaphar, asked for comments, said: “I feel very empty, very sad but this is God’s will. What comes from Allah must go back to Him.”

The New Straits Times

MASwings takes off today

MIRI: Malaysia Airlines’ (MAS) subsidiary MASwings will take to the skies today under great expectations from the people of Sarawak, especially the tourism industry, which would now have no excuses not to work harder for the State.

The industry is hopeful that MASwings will solve the uncertainties that they faced, particularly in promoting destinations served by the rural air service (RAS) in Sarawak.
Much of this optimism lies in MAS’ experience with the RAS service before the rationalisation of domestic air services last year. As part of the rationalisation exercise, Fly Asian Express (FAX) operated the RAS from August last year.

Sarawak Tourism Federation (STF) president, Wee Hong Seng, told The Borneo Post yesterday: “We have high hopes for Maswings. I believe this is the moment all tourism members are looking forward to.

“They (MASwings) are going back to the same routes that MAS had mastered before. We hope that they will not only maintain what they have taken over from FAX, but they will also improve on their connections.”

Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud will launch MASwings’ inaugural flight in Mulu this morning, where he will also unveil its logo. Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy is also expected to be at the event.

The STF had been very vocal about the problems faced by the industry because of air accessibility in the State. Travellers faced with cancellations, delays and lack of interlining between flights.

Wee thanked the State Urbanisation and Tourism Ministry for its efforts in solving the air accessibility woes and also for being receptive to STF’s complaints and recommendations.
He was also pleased that in the run-up to the launching of MASwings, the company had sought the views of both the private and public sectors, and it had given the assurance that its doors will always be open to them.

“Before the implemention of their operations, they have the collective view from the tourism industry people. They talk to the top people and the people on the ground, because of that I am confident that not much will go wrong.

“If there is anything the industry wants to be improved, they have stated that they will give their full assistance,” said Wee.

Asked what MASwings can learn from Sarawak’s past experience, he replied: “I think they have seen how the industry had suffered. Learning from each other is the key thing. Whatever it is, we are in this together.”

In this respect, he said the industry members must now work harder to regain the ground that Sarawak had lost. He conceded that the industry, particularly in the State’s northern region, had suffered huge losses.

“We should now take up the opportunity to sell hard; no more excuses. Now we cannot say we have this and that problems. Everybody should work hard to push to gain lost ground,” Wee said.

When asked what STF had done to boost tourism in the State’s northern region, he said that it had last year signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Sabah Tourist Association to introduce the “concept of sharing tourism.”

He said that under the MoU the association’s members in Sabah would promote Sarawak to tourists that they could not accommodate. Having said that, Wee believed that with the improved air accessibility in Sarawak, the Borneo Package can be revived once Royal Brunei Airlines resume its service in the State. The package was disrupted when the airline ceased operating in the State. MASwings is Malaysia’s first commuter airline service, which would cater both the intra and interstate air travel needs of East Malaysia. It is expected to commence operation with four Fokker 50 and four Twin Otters.

This would serve a network of 23 destinations in East Malaysia as well as the Federal territory of Labuan. The number of aircrafts would then add up by October 28 to seven Fokker 50 and five Twin Otters.

The Borneo Post

Police plan high-tech beef-up to fight crime

KUALA LUMPUR: Police constables equipped with hand-held computers, micro cameras fitted into walkie-talkies and greater use of forensic tools – these will be part of a massive plan to beef up the force. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said police wanted to use high-tech devices and set up a network of camera surveillance to fight crime.

“The Bukit Aman control centre will use the latest high-tech devices and communication systems to relay, monitor and coordinate operations throughout the country,” he said in an interview with The Star yesterday.

The project, costing several billion ringgit, is expected to take off by the end of the year.
Under the project, the Bukit Aman control centre would not only be able to communicate and monitor operations on land but also from “surface to air or surface to sea”, Musa said.
This means that police helicopters would be fitted with sophisticated surveillance cameras that can feed images, even those taken at sea, to the control centre for tracking purposes.
Musa said: “We need an e-solution system that will enable us to communicate with our police helicopters, airplanes and marine police as well as with our mobile police vehicles, traffic policemen in patrol cars and on motorcycles.”

Even constables would be equipped with hand-held computers and micro cameras would be fitted in their walkie-talkies for monitoring purposes, he said.

“Police patrol cars will be fitted with mobile personal computers that will enable policemen to check and verify the status of a person as well as that of a vehicle on the spot instead of having to bring them to the police station and inconveniencing them,’’ Musa added.

It is learnt that the Government had looked into buying such a system after witnessing its impressive capability during a recent demonstration of its use in developed countries. Musa said the upgrading would pave the way for what he termed “Malaysia's Future Cops”, adding however: “The only difference is that it is not too far away.” The massive project, he said, would see every department in the police force going high-tech, including the forensics department.

He said the forensics department needed to be better equipped, as crime itself was getting very sophisticated. Citing the recent high-profile Nurin Jazlin case as an example, Musa said a police officer was sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States to seek help just to enhance the clarity of an image captured by a web camera.

“If we had the equipment here, we would be able to investigate faster.

“We must be one step ahead of the crooks at all times,” he said.

The IGP said that the FBI had agreed to help conduct courses, and 60 officers from the CID and the Commercial Crimes and the Narcotics Crimes Investigations departments had been selected to attend the courses.

The Star

Online Itemised Billing Statement For Prepaid Mobile Users

KUALA LUMPUR, -- Starting today, prepaid mobile phone users will be able to get their itemised billing statements online by logging on to their respective telecommunication companies' (telco) websites.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had instructed the telcos to make the service available to their customers following a decision by Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik recently.However, a prepaid user would not be provided with a standard billing statement like the one given to a postpaid user, an MCMC official said here today.

"Instead, they can check their bills and usage online. But if they want their billing statements to be sent to them, there will be a nominal fee charged," he said.The statement of usage is now available to Maxis and Celcom prepaid users whereas DIGI prepaid customers are already enjoying the service since April 27 2004.

The MCMC has set Oct 1 as the deadline for all telcos to comply with the new ruling but a check showed that Maxis has been providing the service to its prepaid customers since Sept 26.Maxis prepaid users need to sign up at http://www.hotlink.com.my before they can enjoy the free service while Celcom prepaid users can log on to http://www.celcom.com.my to sign in.

-- BERNAMA