Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by brkli

Msia CO2 emissions increase to 272.9 MMT

brkli — Sun, 05 May 2024 15:09:22 +0800

In 2022, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy consumption in Malaysia amounted to approximately 272.9 million metric tons, an increase compared to the previous year. The amount of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel energy consumption in Malaysia was at its highest in that same year.

During Najib's tenure:
2013: 234.1 million metric tons
2014: 243.2 million metric tons
2015: 247.1 million metric tons
2016: 252.6 million metric tons
2017: 241.2 million metric tons

After Najib:
2018: 251.2 million metric tons
2019: 255.8 million metric tons
2020: 247 million metric tons
2021: 255.7 million metric tons
2022: 272.9 million metric tons

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1394260...rom-energy-use/

retire COVID-19 forum

brkli — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 22:26:34 +0800

since the COVID-19 forum is was stated as temporary. furthermore, the forum is essentially loaded with "wild theories", a repost of someone reposting of a content from some social media, stating their personal opinion. all these "discussion" is more or less kopitiam level discussion (discussion with personal opinion and etc). and since mod doesn't really filter out facts posting form "kopitiam level discussion" posting it COVID-19 section, it does not help a bit. certain actual news will be covered and mix with other false/unverified information. even "real world issue" forum have better rules compare to this more serious "COVID-19 forum".

cluster cases down....

brkli — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 23:03:47 +0800

... and now enter sporadic covid-19 cases in malaysia era...

QUOTE

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 — Some 60.8 per cent, or 170,173, of Malaysia’s 279,932 Covid-19 cases reported from January 1 this year to yesterday were sporadic, Dr Adham Baba said today.

This indicates widespread community transmission of the virus, even as epidemiologists have warned that a fourth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic in Malaysia is inevitable.

“The top three states that need to be controlled are Selangor (65,215 sporadic cases), Kuala Lumpur (19,834 sporadic cases), and Johor (17,974 sporadic cases),” Health Minister Dr Adham mentioned in a press conference today, referring to infections reported between January 1 and April 25 this year.

A sporadic infection is a positive Covid-19 case whose origin is unknown and not linked to a cluster. Sporadic cases illustrate just a small proportion of a much larger outbreak in a locality with hidden Covid-19 infections. Unlinked cases also reflect low capacity in contact tracing that is unable to match such cases to others.

Last month, Dr Adham introduced five strategies to “flatten the curve” of Covid-19 infection during the country’s state of emergency scheduled until August.

That includes initiatives to reduce the number of daily Covid-19 cases to below 500 by mid-May — a highly improbable target at this point — and to reduce the number of sporadic cases, which was expected to be fuelled by increased screening for Covid-19 in the community.

MOH aimed not only to increase the number of tests, but also increase the capacity of private and government labs that can process the RT-PCR test.

Malaysia has recorded a total of 395,718 total Covid-19 cases as of today, including 2,776 new infections in the past 24 hours.

The number of Covid-19 patients requiring intensive care has increased to 300, including 133 on ventilator support. Thirteen new Covid-19 deaths were also reported today, leading to an overall death toll of 1,449 fatalities.

Selangor reported the highest number of new Covid-19 cases in the country today at 762 cases, followed by Sarawak (615 cases) and Kelantan (343 cases).

https://codeblue.galencentre.org/2021/04/26...r-are-sporadic/

private hospital, patient need to pay for covid-19

brkli — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 10:31:38 +0800

2 weeks ago:
Ismail Sabri: Private hospitals can be directed to take in Covid-19 patients

now:
Private hospital patients to bear own Covid-19 costs

since patient pay for the treatment, isn't it the same as all other kind of treatment in private hospital?

so why do we need declare darurat for? do we need daurat for private hospital to treat certain kind of disease and etc? or because COVID-19 is "special" becoz we got Moo Moo.

Malaysia recognised as one of most successful in

brkli — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 11:10:55 +0800

QUOTE

PUTRAJAYA, July 6 — Malaysia has been recognised as one of the most successful countries in the world in handling and controlling the COVID-219 pandemic, said Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Addressing about 250 staff of the Prime Minister’s Department at their assembly after the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) here today, Muhyiddin said the success was due to the hard work and cooperation from the government and the entire Malaysian society.

“We are grateful that Malaysia has been able to sail through a very difficult time in dealing with the COVID-19 that has hit the world, including Malaysia.

“All this is because of the tremendous efforts we have put together, both at the government and the grassroots levels, handling it wisely, decisively and boldly to make quick and accurate decisions to prevent the disease from spreading,” he said.

He said the government has never underestimated any issue concerning the well-being of the people even though Malaysia had no experience of dealing with such pandemic for more than 60 years.

Muhyiddin also expressed his gratitude to civil servants and frontliners, including doctors, nurses, armed forces, police, the National Security Council, the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) and the Social Welfare Department, for their effort in tackling COVID-19.

He said Malaysia today was at the Recovery Movement Control Order stage which provides many opportunities for life to resume as usual.

“The current recovery phase we are going through is more challenging. It is one more stage that we have to look at carefully.

“Even though, (the problem of) COVID-19 is not resolved until a vaccine has been found, we have to move forward, maybe faster than other countries which are affected by the pandemic,” he said.

As of noon yesterday, the cumulative number of cases recorded in Malaysia is 8,663 with 121 deaths and only 77 active cases.

https://www.pmo.gov.my/2020/07/malaysia-rec...dling-covid-19/

so, have "faith" in our gomen..

DOUBLE STANDARD Tape

brkli — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 19:22:52 +0800

New product launch in Malaysia.. DOUBLE STANDARD Tape
[youtube]t06vT86YqEg[/youtube]

Benefits Received from Prihatin Stimulus Package

brkli — Wed, 06 May 2020 17:27:10 +0800

come vote.

moo moo grand plan

brkli — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 11:17:00 +0800

a lot people have been saying why PH no ban mass gathering or close border or even declare MCO during Jan - March 2020 time. yes we know that time the COVID-19 is not so serious yet.

but.. if you think again. if MCO is done early. there will or cannot be any sheraton move, unless all those oppo breaks the law.

and moo moo ban mass gathering and prevented the outbreak. there will be no MCO after sheraton move also, and PN need to face all the current oppo in the parliamentary meeting after cabinet formed.

and last but not least PH home minister have some power/control on things such as close border, ban mass gathering and etc.

so all these come in a "very convenient" fashion for PN and PN "rush"(well to me is plan) to declare MCO after cabinet formed and coincidence is not before, because if before, they will face issue to form cabinet due to the MCO restriction.

which one will end first, MCO or CB?

brkli — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 14:08:11 +0800

since it is evident that MCO is subtle to extension beyond months.

which you think will end first, as in country pandemic situation stablize or other mitigation plan able to successful in controling the situation..

edit:
MCO = malaysia's movement control order.
CB = signpaore's circuit breaker.

will malaysia be the next venezuela?

brkli — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 18:40:01 +0800

hyperinflation inkmabing due to deficit spending.

possible heavy money printing in future to support the "goodies" in the coming months?

bincangkan.

how many COVID-19 increase due to mass panic buy

brkli — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 09:53:59 +0800

how many?

how much pollution CNY cause

brkli — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 12:56:12 +0800

now go outside all hazy and weird smell..

Cent-GPS job study called into question

brkli — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 15:05:12 +0800

QUOTE

PETALING JAYA: A study conducted by the Centre for Governance and Political Studies (Cent-GPS) has courted controversy over its methodology after its research stated that Malays and Indians were discriminated against in the job market compared with their Chinese candidates.

In its study published on Thursday (March 7), Cent-GPS said that a job applicant’s race still played a major factor in employment in the private sector.

The study had sent 3,829 job applications to more than 500 jobs. In each of these 500 jobs, it said seven nearly identical résumés were submitted, but represented by different fictitious ethnic group candidates – three Malays, two Chinese, and two Indians.

The study claimed it ensured that all seven résumés had the same qualifications, experience, language ability (Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin), but differed in religious beliefs.

When The Star asked to clarify what it meant by “first draft résumés”, a Cent-GPS spokesman said, “Unfortunately, we cannot share the final résumés that were sent to companies as it would have implications on the universities that we had fictitiously inferred to have been part of.

“As explained in our FAQ, the pictures of the résumés that are going viral are actually ‘first draft résumés’ that we had displayed for reporters during the press conference. This was labelled and can be seen in the picture taken by The Malaysian Insight attached,” the spokesman said via email.

DAP's Parliamentary Research Office has also claimed that there were flaws in the study's methodological methods.

Below is its full statement:

Last Thursday (March 7), an Umno-linked think-tank, the Centre for Governance and Political Study released its study on the issue of racial discrimination in the job market. The way this study was released is suspect as the organisation chose to release snippets of its study online through its official Twitter account without making the whole research itself available publicly (it has made it available as of today).

Upon further scrutiny of the study, we have found multiple methodological flaws with the study, most notably the way the study presents its seven applicants as being similar in their academic and co-curricular attainment.

This is but the tip of the iceberg in inherent issues with the entire study’s overarching methodology which will be summarised here.

Methodological flaws

Considering the number of factors the authors were testing (race, appearance, and gender), seven résumés was far too little a number. There needs to be a control résumé to ensure that the experiment actually measures what is intended and is not due to some other reason.

For example, as photos of the applicant was included, a control study should have been conducted without photos to see the differences.

The same applies to using a series of race and gender combinations as there is no certainty as to which particular factor was the influential factor in the experiment. Ideally, each condition should be tested with a larger sample size and with multiple conditions to control extenuating factors (e.g. using various photos with different levels of attractiveness).

By just using a handful of résumés to check on multiple factors, there is very little confidence that any one factor can have a significant influence on callback rates.

The claims that the résumés were sent out at random are grossly incorrect. The study stated that they only applied to jobs that were shown by a job portal (this is in no way a form of random sampling as it relies on the job portal’s selection algorithm and excludes other employers).

They only utilized one online job application portal – Jobstreet, and the report did not give the details of the companies the résumés were sent to.
While it is understandable that the report would not want to publish the full names of each of the companies involved, it is still expected for them to provide demographic details of the companies involved (i.e. size of company, ownership, job scope, type of business, etc.).

This lack of transparency with the companies is problematic as it is difficult to tell what are the inherent biases or issues from the list of employers. There are too many factors that cannot be accounted for, which this report does not indicate such as the demographic and composition of employers within the study.

A major omission from the methodology is the manner in which the résumés were sent out as there was no clear mention of how companies are selected other than just following what was presented by the online job portal. There is no indication of how often multiple résumés were sent to the same company (i.e. would a company receive all seven résumés?) and whether each of the résumés were sent to a similar set of companies with similar demographics (i.e. are all résumés sent equally to a certain number of SMEs, bumiputra-owned companies, MNCs, etc.?).

This is sorely lacking in the methodology and opens up a lot of doubt about whether the résumés were distributed in a manner that may have skewed the results in a certain direction.

The use of a single model that is then “modified” to create various persons of different ethnicities, while novel, does not understand the nuances of ethnicity. Ethnicity is not merely the colour of a person’s skin and is a combination of several factors including facial features and even naming conventions that this study seems to be making light off.

The ideal method for this would be to pilot test a series of generic photos with a small group of individuals, ranking them based on some form of metric (e.g. attractiveness, trustworthiness) and then use several résumés and photos to represent different races rather than have one for each gender and race only.

If these principles were followed, the number of résumés would be several factors higher than the seven used here.

Many of the justifications for the methods used was often just explained without any supporting proof or solid reasoning behind them.

There was no reference to other studies that used similar methodologies nor was there any form of pilot or test studies mentioned that would provide more support for this study. The authors also failed to control the résumés’ design. Recruiters could have rejected the hijab-wearing candidate simply because it has pink circles which gives out a less professional outlook.

Instances of inconsistency

This can be seen when we compare the résumés of Gabriel Liew (Chinese male) with that of Thivakar Gunasegaran (Indian male).

Gabriel graduated with a Bachelor of Business in Banking & Finance from Taylor’s University and Queensland University of Technology, Australia while Thivakar graduated with a Bachelor of Business Accounting from INTI International University, Nilai.

The fact that the two résumés have similar qualifications from two differing institutions shows that the study does not have a strong enough control on this variable. This is made worse when one of the qualifications comes from a better-perceived overseas institution.

The study makes the blanket assumption that all private tertiary institutions are equal and fails to control or account for this as a possible factor in the callback rates.

The authors also failed to account for the other differences in the résumés of Nur Sakinah (Malay female, wears hijab) and Zulaikha (Malay female, no hijab).

Zulaikha was presented as a member of the English Debate Club while Nur Sakinah is presented as being a member of Persatuan Mahasiswa Islam, which might seem to be minor difference but would have played a role in the callback rate.

The study reported Zulaikha as having a 40% overall advantage over Nur Sakinah which the authors attributed to the fact that Zulaikha did not wear a hijab. This conclusion was made without any statistical testing to isolate the so-called “Hijab Factor” from other potential factors such as the different co-curricular activities.

Why this report is dangerous?

Crucially, the report presents itself as a continuation of a previous academic research paper that is arguably more credible and rigorous than this report. By doing this, Cent-GPS is attempting to give its report a facade of legitimacy, masquerading it as a genuine academic paper.

The report included four anecdotal statements from an newspaper article on workplace discrimination but it does not justify the inclusion of these particular anecdotes in the report.

If the report was genuinely concerned about discrimination, it should have expanded its scope to cover different types of discrimination systematically. The failure to do so points to an attempt to frame discrimination as something imposed by the Chinese.

As allegations involving the Chinese and Malays usually elicit strong emotions, it appears that the inclusion of these anecdotes were meant to stoke racial sentiments.

There is section in the report that highlights the main assumptions the researchers held with this study:

“We wanted to see if a candidate’s fluency in Mandarin really played a key role in getting a job. As highlighted above, many private sector companies argue that they do many dealings with China-based companies, so they would rather hire a Mandarin-fluent candidate. Is the Mandarin fluency really about the skills of the candidate to communicate with clients or is it a smokescreen for employers to pick and choose a certain candidate based on his or her race?”

These statements show plain and clear that the authors have adopted a biased view of the private sector and an arguably hostile outlook at virtually all private sector employers. There is an implicit assumption that all private sector companies are operated or owned by Chinese owners and that perception has poisoned and influenced every aspect of the report.

However, while the faux-academic nature of the report may be obvious to some, a great majority of the public do believe that the report is a bona fide academic paper. This can be seen from the responses to the report on social media, where many users have taken to citing the report as authoritative evidence on job market discrimination.

The situation is exacerbated by the media carrying the report without any critical analysis of the study.

It appears to be that the basis of this report is to reinforce stereotypical views of different ethnic groups and to further racially charged political agendas.

We do agree that there is a problem of racism with employment of Malaysia, as noted in the quoted report by Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid and Dr Lee Hwok Aun, and addressing these issues is important for the country as we move forward.

Dishonest studies like these do little to actually improve the current situation but instead pander to societal fears and further worsen inter-race relations. Sham studies like this need to be critically interrogated and the public needs to be educated better to be able to discern proper social science for faux studies that are meant to warp their worldviews.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019...-into-question/

Miti to speed up automotive incentives approval

brkli — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 14:06:58 +0800

QUOTE

KUALA LUMPUR: The Automotive Business Development Committee (ABDC) and the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) have agreed to work together to speed up the incentive approval process for carmakers.

Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Dr Ong Kian Ming said ABDC will take about two days to process and make recommendations to the Finance Ministry (MoF) on the incentive applications by carmakers under the Industrial Linkage Programme (ILP), and about a week for customised incentives. This is subject to complete information being submitted and satisfactory evaluation.
Ong said the present process flow and client charter of ABDC will be strengthened and shared with the industry to ensure timeliness and transparency of the process in evaluating incentive applications.
“The International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) will enhance the client charter so that there will be greater transparency and understanding of the deliverables that Miti will have with MAA in terms of the time frame of processing these applications within the context of ABDC and continue the engagement with stake-holders in this process,“ Ong told a media conference today.
This comes after MAA raised the issue of slow incentive approval by ABDC that have affected its members’ plans to launch new car models.
Miti and MAA have agreed that the cost benefit analysis (CBA) for energy-efficient vehicle (EEV) customised incentives applications will be reviewed to ensure fair and equitable evaluation process.
Ong said the CBA for ILP is done by the Malaysia Automotive, Robotic and IOT Institute (MARiii), adding that MAA has raised the need to be more transparent with the details of CBA.
“MARiii sees that there are many areas in the CBA that need to be explained in greater detail and updated to take account of new conditions in the car manufacturing and automotive sector. MARiii will continue to have close consultation with industry players in regards to details of CBA. I will undertake to work with MARiii and the industry to ensure that whenever details are requested for, the details are transparent and clear to all. If there are details which may not be clear to industry players, it may delay the approval process within ABDC.
“As a process of refining and updating the CBA, we want to make it as clear as possible to industry players so that the ABDC process can be sped up and the issues raised by MAA in terms of the delays will be minimised moving forward,” Ong explained.
ABDC meetings will be held twice a month, compared with once a month previously, and dates of the meetings will be circulated to the industry to reduce turnaround time of application processing.
ABDC will also continue the practice of inviting original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to ABDC meetings to seek further clarifications if needed.
It was also agreed that Miti is to consider expanding the scope of ABDC to include indirect tax incentive applications. This will involve close consultation with MoF.
Ong said the revenue loss by MOF from reduction in excise duty to carmakers can be regained by the increase in volumes as car prices are lowered.
“It’s a win-win situation for everyone. MAA members, OEMs can sell more cars; consumers benefit from lower car prices and MOF collect more in excise duty as a whole because of increased volume. This is something that we want to work towards for all the car models,” said Ong.
MAA president Datuk Aishah Ahmad, who was present at the media conference, said stocks of vehicles have built up due to the incentive approval delays, citing some MAA members that have 12,000 units in their yard.
“It’s important for the approvals to come up during the time frame that has been agreed upon. Moving forward, I’m sure all these issues that we had previously will be erased,” said Aishah.
She said the association had a fruitful meeting two days ago with Miti and ABDC agencies. “We hope in the future, whenever we request for incentives, in order to get pricing approvals, it will be speeded up.”
ABDC, an agency under Miti, was established to facilitate collective decision making in determining the quantum of incentives to be extended to OEMs. Members comprise representatives from Miti, MoF, Malaysia Investment Development Authority, MARiii and Royal Malaysian Customs Department.

https://www.thesundaily.my/business/miti-ar...rocess-KD432387

tldr; solution to slow approval = more meetings + invite more people.

keys to strengthen education system

brkli — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 09:50:49 +0800

QUOTE

Malaysia aspires to strengthen the education system by emphasising on more humanistic and value-driven education with the internalisation of the culture of happiness, love and mutual respect, said Education Minister Maszlee Malik.

He said the three cultures would hopefully create a fun, safe and positive learning environment where the social and emotional wellbeing of the school children are prioritised.

“Part of our efforts to build a value-driven education system include working with others outside the education system.

“Something like social and emotional learning cannot be the responsibility of schools and teachers alone, we are working with parents and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in this effort,” he said in his speech during the Education World Forum 2019 in London. His speech was made available to the local media today.

Speaking on the topic of ‘Social and Emotional Learning and New Developments in Pedagogies', Maszlee was among the 62 speakers from several countries at the three-day forum, starting yesterday.

Other prominent speakers were Azerbaijan Education Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, Gambia Basic and Secondary Education Minister Claudiana Cole, British Council chief executive Ciaran Devane and Education Fast-Forward co-founder Jim Wynn.

Adding further, Maszlee the government was also accelerating efforts to deepen parents’ involvement in educating their children.

“Currently, more than 90 percent of Malaysian schools have parents involved in the majority of school events. Moving forward, we plan to make these contact points more meaningful,” he said.

He also stressed the need for partnership with external stakeholders like NGOs and the private sector which had also been beneficial to the ministry's effort.

Maszlee also said he believed the adoption of digital technologies in education had accelerated the changes in behaviours, values and actions which in turn impacted the way they learn as well as their capacity to learn.

New jargons and terms like big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence are now dominating conversations around education policy, he added.

In the future, Maszlee said, the education work requires key industry players to be more collaborative and creative as well as important for educators to prioritize social and emotional learning among school children.

https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/461279

Pelita cease cigarette sales at outlets nationwide

brkli — Thu, 17 Jan 2019 16:18:53 +0800

BUTTERWORTH: Malaysia’s largest nasi kandar restaurant chain officially stopped selling cigarettes at its premises nationwide, yesterday.

Pelita Samudra Pertama (M) Sdn Bhd (Pelita) executive director Datuk K. K. Sihabutheen said that following a discussion with its cigarette distributor, both parties agreed to terminate their agreement on tobacco sales at Pelita’s 28 outlets.

“All Pelita restaurants are now smoke-free and we are also not selling cigarettes anymore. It was a friendly termination (of the agreement) and no compensation was required.

“(There is) no point selling cigarettes if our restaurants are now no-smoking areas. (But) our customers are happy with this,” he said when met at Pelita’s Chai Leng Park outlet here, today.

Sihabutheen admitted that the number of customers visiting Pelita’s outlets has declined since the smoking ban was implemented, but he remains positive that patrons will return.

He also revealed that Pelita had been selling RM300,000 worth of cigarettes per month at all its outlets.

“(But) cigarettes are (a bonus). It is not our core business,” Sihabutheen added.

The smoking ban at all food premises was gazetted on Dec 31 and took effect at midnight on New Year’s Day.

The ban was in line with the Control of Tobacco Product Regulations (Amendments) 2018 Act to protect the public from exposure to cigarette smoke.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/01/...lets-nationwide

Wan Saiful exposes Perlis Bersatu

brkli — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 15:24:52 +0800

https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/459222

QUOTE

National Higher Education Fund (PTPN) chairperson Wan Saiful Wan Jan has exposed the alleged wrongdoings in Perlis Bersatu.

His revelation comes after Perlis Bersatu announced that it is dropping the former academic as its state secretary.

In a Facebook posting this afternoon, Wan Saiful revealed how documents were falsified at the Perlis Bersatu office to make claims amounting to hundreds of thousands of ringgit.

The PTPTN chairperson said he made a police report regarding this but was urged to retract it. However, he did not name who had asked him to withdraw the report.

“I am not sure of the motive to have the report retracted. However, I was adamant and did not do so.

“I was also adamant not to get involved in arranging the giving of government contracts worth tens of millions of ringgit to a firm linked to the children of a Bersatu leader in Perlis.

“I was offered a large sum of money if I helped arrange the contracts. But I refused,” he added.

Wan Saiful said he would not compromise on the issue of integrity or cave in to pressure from those, regardless of their position in Perlis, who seek to acquire financial rewards through unscrupulous means.

“These issues have bolstered my commitment to help make Bersatu in Perlis better. I will continue to work for the betterment of the party. Malaysia Baru must continue as Perlis Baru,” he added.

Earlier today, Perlis Bersatu chairperson Amier Hassan said Wan Saiful was dropped because the latter was preoccupied with handling issues related to PTPTN.

"He is dropped as he is busy with the turmoil concerning PTPTN. The PTPTN (role) is heavy and there is a lot of work, and (party) work is not being coordinated, so we do not want to burden him.

"When I look at the communication problems and others (have arisen) because he has been so busy with PTPTN, so let him settle that (his work with PTPTN).

"It is not fair to burden him further," he told Malaysiakini.

PTPTN’s RM1 mil donation to zakat board

brkli — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 11:41:35 +0800

QUOTE

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...icions-says-c4/

PETALING JAYA: Anti-graft group Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) says the RM1 million cheque the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) gave to the Kedah Zakat Board to help zakat (religious levy) recipients raises “serious suspicion”.

PTPTN chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan was yesterday reported as saying a mock cheque worth RM1 million was handed to Kedah mufti Syeikh Fadzil Awang.

Malay Mail quoted Wan Saiful as saying that this “small step” would help strengthen ties between PTPTN, which is under the federal government’s purview, and the Kedah state government and alleviate poverty.

In a statement, C4 executive director Cynthia Gabriel said PTPTN had recently said it borrowed money from banks to fund some 2.9 million students and questioned how it still had funds.

“The total bank loan has amounted to RM51.2 billion with a very long repayment period,” she said, referring to a statement by PTPTN deputy chief executive officer (policy and operations) Mastura Mohd Khalid.

“This is the amount that PTPTN used as capital to continuously provide loans to students,” Cynthia said.

PTPTN chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan.
On Nov 23, the New Straits Times quoted Mastura as saying that PTPTN had since given out RM54.7 billion in loans to 2.9 million students by taking out loans (RM51.2 billion) from several financial institutions.

On Aug 12, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the amount of student loans owed to PTPTN was almost equivalent to the total debts faced by state-investment firm 1MDB, or some RM39 billion.

Biggest chunk goes to operational costs

Cynthia added that a study found that the biggest chunk of expenditure costs in Lembaga Zakat “goes to operations and management costs, as opposed to the poor” and questioned PTPTN’s decision.

“This move begs the question: why Kedah in particular? Is Lembaga Zakat Negeri Kedah running short of funds as compared to other states?

“Is this related to the PPBM annual general meeting tomorrow?”

Cynthia said this was “clearly a case of conflict of interest” and “abuse of power arising from political appointments and those tasked with dealing with government-linked funds”.

Wan Saiful is a member of PPBM’s Supreme Council and PPBM Perlis chief. He joined PPBM this March.

PPBM’s first AGM since the May 9 polls convenes tomorrow.

Cynthia claimed that Wan Saiful had also made a RM100,000 contribution to Perlis flood victims in the past under PTPTN’s corporate social responsibility programme as well.

“There has been a systematic conflict of interest perpetuated by the former BN (Barisan Nasional) government through political appointments in government agencies and GLCs.

“We note with concern the practice has continued to flourish under the current Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, as seen in this PTPTN and other issues,” she said.

“It is imperative for the PH government to address this issue immediately in moving towards Malaysia Baharu and in implementing its institutional reform agenda.

“It is important to note that the PH election manifesto makes several references to appointments to key positions that should be based on merit instead of political links.”

C4 called on the government to put a stop to political appointments “which will cause a conflict of interest and abuse of power” and put in place a clear policy or law to prevent such instances.

Earlier today, PTPTN announced that it is setting aside RM50,000 in the educational fund for accounts registered to the six firefighters who died in service this year during a rescue mission in Puchong.

APU is foreigner gateway to malaysia?

brkli — Sun, 23 Dec 2018 14:07:28 +0800

why i see so many IT "expat" from middle east, pakistan, iran and tec graduate from APU. Is it have some back connection to introduce in IT "expats" into the already saturated workforce in Malaysia?