Remember the British Intervention - Now read RECYCLING PANGKOR

by 
Howl Pillay

June 11 20202

Shame on our politicians! Once again it looks like we need help from 
outside to fix our problems.

Remember the Pangkor Treaty circa 1874?

A quick refresher and we are on our way..

Sultan Ali rules Perak from Sayong on the Perak River. His palace is a modest 
house with thatched roofing amidst a few coconut palms. Compared to the 
rich merchants in Singapore and Penang the Sultan is a poor man indeed. 
Bo lui la!

Nothing wrong here for world trade has by-passed him. The tin mines in 
the north, at Larut, worked by rival groups of Chinese, are controlled by a 
powerful chief Ngah Ibrahim working closely with rich merchants in Penang. 
No, not Jho Low la!

The death of Sultan Ali in 1871 sparked a fight for the throne, 
ignoring established procedures. 
Clearly a gomen official had forgotten to revise the SOPs governing these 
matters. All the claimants smell money, big money, so SOPs don’t count 
anyway.

But first a side story. When Sultan Ali was dying he requested to see his 
daughter Raja Tipah, married to the Raja Muda, Abdullah, one of the 
claimants. Fearing a plot, Abdullah refuses to take her home up the Perak 
River.

Angry, she says: “ I will follow any man brave enough to take me 
to my father”. We are not sure if she said, “I want to advise you 
something”. 
Raja Daud of Selangor, pretending to take her to Sayong, takes her 
instead to his kampong. 
They elope!

Abdullah does nothing to avenge himself except divorcing Raja Tipah. 
Big mistake! You can hear the boos along the Perak River all the way to 
the estuary, his power base. In steps Yusuf from Senggang, the second 
claimant, senior to Abdullah.

The third claimant, Bendahara Ismail whose powerbase is in Upper Perak is 
strictly not royalty although married to one. Twice he had been bypassed for 
promotion to Raja Muda. 
Now an elderly man, his followers egg him on: “Boleh Boss, apa na malu?”

Now for the fourth claimant, Ngah Ibrahim of Larut, the wealthiest of the 
chiefs, closely associated with the Chinese in Penang, and he supported 
Ismail the third claimant, harbouring thoughts of becoming Sultan himself 
one day.

No, we are not talking about the present but the past. History! All the big 
shots are now summoned to Sayong (not Sheraton la!) to bury Sultan Ali and 
choose a new one. Abdullah demurs, knowing Yusuf was waiting upriver 
at Senggang, with evil intent.

In Abdullah’s absence, the chiefs chose the third claimant as the Sultan, 
and the suspicion is that the chiefs wanted a pliable man like Ismail to rule 
over them for their own selfish ends. The weaker the Sultan, the stronger 
the warlords. 
Beware! 

Then the Chinese start fighting again viciously, over tin. The Sultan, the 
claimants and the chiefs realign their loyalties until friend becomes foe and 
foe becomes the enemy of my friend or whatever.

Finally, fearing a general unrest and citing ‘commercial interests’, one 
Andrew Clarke with that fearsome white moustache did some Chinese 
bashing a at Pangkor followed by more of the same dished out to the 
Malay chiefs but again it all sounds familiar.

Abdullah turned up at Pangkor requesting a Resident in return for becoming 
Sultan; Sultan Ismail was invited but was a no-show and Yusuf was not even 
invited. 
So Sultan Abdullah ruled in the south and Sultan Ismail, the north, hanging 
on to the regalia.

If you are confused by now, start reading the papers, nevermind history. 
So how do we go from here is the billion ringgit question. We are done with 
Sir Andrew Clarke and the Brits. The Americans are rioting and the Russians 
are sorting out the Arabs. 

First look for a nice small round table. Then double the ECRL price, smiling at 
the Chinese. That done, increase patrolling the waters around Pangkor using 
our submarines. Then look up a costume shop for Victorian-era props and 
costumes.

Almost done! Now let us invite Comrade Xi Jinping to ‘kow-thim” our 
warring parties, still at it after 150 years as to who should succeed and 
who should wait for his turn while the rakyat are reduced to a feudal 
condition, living on handouts.

Just to frighten our great chiefs into cutting a compromise for the common 
good and making a sacrifice for succeeding generations, we must insist 
Comrade Xi sport a white walrus moustache bought from that costume shop 
I told you about. 

One last thing, a hundred years hence, a history exam question may read 
like this:

Soalan - Sewaktu negara kita dilanda oleh politik gila kuasa sekitaran 
tahun 2020, pemimpin Cina yang membantu penyelesaiannya ialah:

1. Deng Xiaopeng

      

2. Michael Cheng

3. Lee Kachiang

   

4. Xi Jinping

5. Mahathir bin Muhyuddin

     

The Bangala, Nepali, Rohingya, Myanmarese, Indon, ain't heavy he is my Brother

These are unprecedented times, so let us not condemn people collectively as we would not like to be condemned either.

WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER.

arrested illegal foreign workers

Like us these are people so let's treat every mother's son with respect and let's give them their dignity, they are human too and they deserve it.

This is the reason of this global calamity, we have to examine ourselves,and look at every other human being as our brother, regardless of race or creed.

The tiny spec called the corona virus a mciro spec has sent us to our homes to sit down and reflect our attitudes to the earth and all its inhabitants.

The earth is ours,it belongs to all its inhabitants, we are part of that and so are these people amongst us.

Do not forget we are in this together, and I really wonder how many of us are being looked after (caregiver) by an illegal immigrant at this time.

We have the head of UMNO Hamid Zahid come out and make the most stupid remarks you may have eveer heard time nd time again and he is aspiring to be our Prime Minister and yet millions of Malaysians support him while millions of other Malaysiansa dare not come out to tell him what an  a confounded idiot he is just because he is the President of UMNO. They are just plain scared that this idiot may become the Prime Minister of Malaysia and they'll ahve to reckon with him. They'd tolerate that fool and they wqill not condemn the race, but one Rohingya has to come out and make a stupid statement and we blame not only him but his whole community as well.

We have to learn to stop collectively bullying people who are defenseless, poor, many ignorant, many who are here not because they chose to come here as illegal immigrants but who were cheated to part with huge sums of money to come here with the lure of great paying jobs and comfortable lifestyles only to find out that they were cheated the minute they land on Malaysian shores, put yourself in their shoes and imagine the despair.

Many more come here as legal workers and a lured by other agents to work foer others with the promise of better salaries only to find out that once they do it their work visas are no longer valid and are at the mercy of these unscrupulous  agents. They too ar thrown into despair and that too by people perhaps their own countrymen whom they trusted, they to are thrown into despair.

Are the Malaysian authorities also acting in concert with these agents?

There are many reasons ot believe they are?

Contributing to the development of the nation.

Every move made by these workers who are now illegal and brought into this country with false documents for which they mortgage lands and assets with money lenders in their home countries to pay agents with these fake papers to try and legalise themselves will cost money too, from the meager earnings they earn here, and dos they resort to every trick they know to earn as much as possible to pay to legalise themselves, pay their huge loans back home and send money to their dependents back home who have placed their trust on these workers.

Please stop for a moment and and imagine yourself in this plight, away from home where everybody is a stranger, where everybody is out there to exploit you because of the situation you are in, where even your own countryman who purportedly is trying to help you is only out there to make a fast buck out of you and reflect on what you'd do to get yourself out. 

This my friend is the situation the Bangala, the Nepali, the Rohingya, the Myanmarese, the Indinesian and most other foreign illegal worker in this country is faced with.

To add insult to injury these chaps are harassed by authorities who take money out of them at every opportunity they can.

Even legal foreign workers are nto free of harassment of the local authorities, they are stopped at almost every turn and their papers checked as though foreigners form the biggest part of local criminals.

Local criminals are aplenty and they come in all shapes and sizes and from every strata of society, they form the bigger part of the criminals in this country, and the Police should actually be using their resources to target these, they come from the highest offices int he land t the lowest and the latest revelations indicate the biggest crime rates are among those who occupy among the highest offices in the land. 

These Illegals  are the most vulnerable and the poorest in our society, if they have or seem to have accumulated wealth it is because the circumstances forced them to be that way, if they are marrying more and more Malays girls to live in this country it is also the circumstances force them to, and the local Malays girls find them better than the locals so do not deprive them that.

Many of them have come forward  to be tested for the covid 19 virus, we had given them an assurance that the test data will not be used to hunt them out of their homes like foxes from foxholes and let us be honourable  enough to give them that at least. Have we no honour?

The Rohingyas yes I have had y misgivings too, they are economic migrants, but those who are here as refugees must be treated with dignity, work with them to ensure that, and work with Myanmar and Bangladesh  for their repatriation either directly into Myanmar or via Cox Bazaar or to third countries.

These are desperate times  we have to think of ourselves as humanity and not the way Mahathir Mohammed thinks, that as full of hate, he isa religious bigot and bigotry will only take us into greater suffering and conflict.

I remember the time he proposed to shoot the boat people from Vietnam on sight and to sink their boatsm, that is how wicked and thoughtless this man is, it shows his true colors, he si not someone who loves peace he does nt even understand the word.

He is filled with hate, that is why the other Burmese refugees are not evnen recognized as refugees even though the UNHCR recognises them such.

In detention

We have to be more humane in our treatment of refugees, he knows how humane European countries are to Muslims, they are more humane than he can ever imagine to be, when he pretends to be humane he has evil political intentions in his heart so let us distance ourselves from him politically and socially he is evil and do not follow the tyrant with wicked and evil intentions.

Like one Malay recently asked on social media if he is really so sympathetic tothe Rohingya ask him to ask his daughter to marry one of them.

Let us not forget that in this nation all the recent developments in this country from the days of the KLCC have been built on the blood and sweat of the foreign worker and a substantial part on the back of the illegal foreign worker.

Let us genuinely care and lift these people from their misery if not at any other time at least at this time of this global calamity, let us give them hope.  

The Bangala, Nepali, Rohingya, Myanmarese, Indon aint heavy they are my brothers.

  

BAD NEWS - THE TRUTH IS APRIL 14 TOO RISKY - EXTEND MCO TO END APRIL

Government's management of lock down shoddy and careless.

 The government must extend the movement control order to end April, better safe than sorry, other exigencies must take second place, it is the lives of people wee are talking about.

 If you are hoping like most Malaysians to have this MOC lifted by April 14 I am asking you to hope otherwise because if it ends on April 14 we are in for dire consequences, many of us in the 60's and beyond age group will not be here come April 14 next year.

Smack right in the centre of the city enhanced lock down today with 17 cases recorded today 30 March

The Director General of Health has already warned that the worst is yet to come, there are other potential clusters, of people coming back from holidays overseas for one but I think the most potent is from those who come back after the "balek Kampung" on the first day of the MOC and the still to be tracked tabligh participants.

The balek kampung crowd would surely have included tabligh participant and knowing that was a possibility  which the Inspector General of Police allowed the crowd to control him and gave in allowing them to break the MOC on its first day. If he did not realise the consequences of his actions which are actually his fault having come on TV to tell people that they could cross state borders if they applied at the nearest police station which they did in droves and he caved in because of the inability of the police to handle the situation and waived the requirement to allow them all to go.

The actions of the IGP showed a man who was really ignorant of the Malaysian psyche, a person ignorant and unable to control  situations he gave them the excuse to run and they took that opportunity a senseless and irresponsible move for which he must either resign or be sacked.

A dangerously large gathering comprising participants from Korea and Japan

Those cross border movements on the first day of MOC sanctioned by the police has created a scattering of the virus  throughout the peninsular and to make matters worse there still are people from the tabligh gathering not accounted for, so is it surprising with what we are seeing in Kluang, and  parts of Selangor.

If the MOC is lifted workplaces and schools will become the next clusters and from there we will experience more deaths.

School children who are placed in the care of grandparents can bring the virus home  and infect the grandparents, children can also pass the virus from parents or vice versa from pick it from parents   who mix with workers who have contracted this from the tabligh cases or other clusters and the holiday returning schoolchildren and workers will in turn infect their classmates or coworkers who will bring it home to their parents and grandparents and a viscous circle will result a circle from which there is no escape. The possibilities of infection are just too complex.

This Government has messed it up, they have messed up the whole thing and are only making it worse without effective control.

I am not blaming any religion, but the authorities were stupid to allow with Tabligh gathering to take place,  sources are telling us it was the influence of one Preacher a controversial preacher that drew such a huge crowds to the tabligh gathering, this controversial preacher has been subject to much controversy in Malaysia, the story could nto be confirmed but from what is happening it looks very likely.

If it was not him why is he not coming forward to say something about it? He is treated as such an authority, he is given so much prominence, he can even take on Malaysian politicians, and has a train of body guards, so why did he not come out?

Why has he turned so quiet, in fact there are a number of them, who have in recent times preached hate,  the likes of Riduan Tee, the Zamri Vinoth and of course the Zakir Naik where are these people, there are infected people out there and they will infect others, who in turn will infect others, they may die from their own infections,  I have been saying it time an again to draw them in the government must grant some kind of immunity to those who are illegal immigrants to allow them to come in freely but to date there has been no sign of such amnesty.

Looking at the situation it is really deafening the silence of the likes of these people and that of Hadi Awang, where is he the self proclaimed champion of  Islam in the country.

The disease is being spread by the tabligh cluster and soon we eill lose track of it and it will be named other clusters, it is now in its fifth tier so we can imagine how far it has gone, have these people the leaders of this tabligh and the authorities who approved it, by their carelessness been complicit? If they have they should be there in the forefront calling on these people to turn themselves in, or these people will be as devastating as  the worst war machines in our society, they will turn the sityuation here to one worse than Italy it is already on that course.

The attendees of the tabligh  not reporting in  are walking time bombs already set off in our midst and in all honesty how can we really expect to contain this virus by April 14 it is almost impossible. When we went into lock down I predicted that by April 1 we will hit 3,000 cases and the figures as they now stand are not too far.

The Director General of Health is doing a fantastic job, the medical staff, doctors, nurses, attendants, mortuary workers and all the rest  are too, they are risking their lives  and  yet we are tolerating MOC violators, how can we? Have we no thought for those who are risking their lives in the front line and pleading and pleading to say at home? 

These are signs of a powerless government, it does not know its priorities, leave alone understand the gravity of the situation we now face, to force the lock down rigidly will make them lose votes they feel  it may drive people against the government but at the end of the day when we overcome this calamity it will be a different story. This government lacks will because it knows it is a government not formed by the will of the people, so their every move is to ensure it buys votes or so they think.

The DG of health can only recommend measures he is not the subject matter specialist in controlling the MOC tht is supposed to come from the Home Minister, his DG and the IGP, and that effectiveness will help the DG bring this under control. As it is it has been messed up, and this has reulted in the current situation the Police have failed in bringing all those who attended the tabligh to test even to this day and if we continue this way the pandemic will hit us even more violently than Italy and the US.

Our measurement must be done on a per capita basis not just mere numbers and we'll realise how really terrible our situation really is.

This government with half backed ministers all around are exactly like Chickens without a neck, running around aimlessly, they present a sham of an economic stimulus package just to win the hearts of people, that these packages will only turn some of them rich does not matter they want the weight taken off their shoulders, till they can make a run for it.

This Government has by its own volition acknowledged it is an illegitimate government, when the Prime Minister or should I say the illegitimate Prime Minister said, "we may not be the government you elected but we still care for you" 

The question is how can  there be a government in this country which is a Parliamentary Democracy a government other than the government that is elected by the people, if there is, then that government must be illegitimate, so it is abundantly clear that this is an illegitimate government, not "of the people nor by the people so how can it be for the people?"

The people are now run by a group of people who decided to choose themselves and place themselves in power via the back door  and govern even without the authority of Parliament.

The nation is void of leadership of any kind, the people are faced with a calamity  the likes of which we have never ever seen or experienced and it is run by self serving individuals who do not respect the sanctity of the ballot box, an who can say so too, and who sit there.

It is most likely that come  April 14 this government will begin its downfall and the downfall of the nation, economic conditions will force it to lift the MCO, it will succumb to economic pressures, its refusal to listen to industry who are also suffering and helping them survive will force to reopen economic activity to the fullest and in doing so set the corona virus Covid 19 free to roam and ravage the common people of this country.

CATACLYSM - ANGRY MOTHER EARTH HAS COME A CALLING WITH VENGEANCE

A FIRST FOR THIS GENERATION

On Earth for all creation not just humanity

REFLECTION.
by Francis T Rozario

 THE LAST CALAMITY
Not many know, but some of us have seen the calamity of the second world war. Some of us have parents who have suffered extremely during this war,  as POWs, as forced labour in the "Death Railway," in then Burma (now Myanmar) others through hunger, malnutrition, fear and strife, others in prison.

Malaya as it was then known and probably in Borneo too, of which part is Sarawak and Sabah  were also part of the conquest.

In Malaya the suffering was extreme every suspect was either tortured or killed or both, my father was a prisoner of the Japanese then, he was tortured, a term that would have consequences on his health later in life.

From what has been told to me by my mother, and friends who lived during the time I can probably only imagine how terrible it was and what people then endured.

To keep families alive people spied for the Japanese, sometimes even exaggerating their stories and resultantly  those  on whom these stories were told to the Japanese suffered torture and even death.

Food was scarce but people got along, they ate tapioca if they had no rice, rice was scarce, and so too many other essentials.

Many Malaysians were beheaded, and my father told me one story the lesson I would use later in life.

Two men  walked past a Japanese sentry, they refused to bow to the soldier standing guard there, and were called back and hit and asked to bow, they refused, one of them told the Sentry "I only bow to God," the others are equals and I do not bow to them. The sentry hit the man and kicked him and hit again with the but of his gun, the man fell down, the other lifted him up, he in turn was hit and butted as well more viciously.

They were asked to bow again, and by this time there were a group of Japanese soldiers standing by, they were all insisting these men bow to the sentry and they refused.

When they found that these men were not willing to give in they called a  few passers by forced them to dig two graves for these two men and beheaded them.

In 1976,  I worked for a Japanese organisation, it was customary for us to talk to our respective workers, in our sections in the morning, before the talk it was customary for the workers to bow to us and in return we bowed to them, I scrapped that requirement for the people in my section. When asked by my Japanese section head why we were not doing it, I gave him the same reply that brave man gave the Japanese Soldier in world war 2 it was an honour to do that, the Japanese shook his head and went off, after that they knew why I did not bow at them either, I wished them in Japanese they'd spontaneously  bow at me but I never bent down to bow to them and they understood.  

Those times in world war 2  were a time of disaster, calamity, death, distress, fear, loneliness, hunger, pain and more.

 IN THIS CALAMITY ME AND YOU ARE THE ONLY TARGETS - NOTHING ELSE NOW JUST ME AND YOU.

Reflect these times today with the advent of a micro virus we call Covid 19, the conditions  are the same I suppose as in any other calamity and that is for today, it can  get worse, worse if we do not join together as one and fight this unseen enemy by respecting mother earth,  and no matter what anyone says - that it came from China or from the United States or from Timbuktu it is a virus sent to us for our part in the desecration of the earth by mother earth.

Now the Earth is fighting back and it will,  with in all its fury, with all its power and  force and it is doing so with but just a tiny spec- the virus, now we witness the havoc it can bring not to the rest of nature but just to  a select group, a chosen race - called Humanity - only us,  see how how precise mother earth  is.

To her we are all the same, she makes no distinction, it does not matter if you are Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or of  any other religion you are spot on you belong to that one race called Humanity, you are the target of mother Earth there is no distinction so we fight this together or perish together and say goodbye to Humanity..

Mother Earth is giving us that chance that is why we are locked down, the lock down is forced upon us to stay at home and reflect, reflect and change our ways  or face the consequences. 


NOTE: Not the Animals, not the Birds, not the fishes, not the worms, not the waters not the trees but you and me are the specific targets of mother earth.

Why us O God?

It is no longer a war of nation against nation but of Mother earth against her most wicked ungrateful residents - humanity, who have refused to live up to the terms of their tenure here on earth.

                                                                                                                 

Large scale destruction of land and air

Mother Earth is no enemy she gave  us in abundance we were not satisfied, we raped her, took everything she provided for granted,destroyed and wasted it, destroyed it without a care and  in abundance too, putting the planet and all other living creatures and plants in danger of extinction.

She tolerated us but now she can bear it no more and time has come for her to put things right, a fight for the rest of nature, the birds, the Bees the trees, the animals,the fish the waters, the air  and the rest but  not us we must be taught a lesson,we either learn or be doomed, she has leashed but just a tiny spec a truly formidable weapon but with  chance for us to resolve to do things better and repent.

The Euphrates once thought to be part of Paradise

This is why the older generation has been picked for this scourge as the most vulnerable, because it was this group (we) to be more precise my generation  that contributed most to the pillage of the earths resources without a care for how it affected  the earth and future generations.

Yes, we must admit that it was us the bloody baby boomers who created this chaos, don't point your fingers to anyone point it to yourself if you are over 50 and say, "mea culpa, mea maxima culpa" (it is my fault my most grievous fault).

We may not have been actively involved in the rape of the earth, but by our collaboration - being workers, doing work in such industries, being involved in any way whatsoever as customers or peddlers of goods and services  that  used these pillaged resources of earth in one way or another,  were party to it, and more so by our silence even if  we thought it was bad and we could not fight the system, most of us joined it in one way or another anyway.   

Pillaged without  care

MOTHER EARTH IS NOT WICKED - FOR NOW IT IS BUT A SLAP ON THE WRIST.

Yes, this Covid 19 outbreak is for now but a slap on the wrist and we had better take this slap on the wrist seriously.

The  next generation is watching they will come to the realisation if we do not and they will disown us, they will trample on us and get rid of us like a heap of rubbish  their destinies are at stake so who can blame them. We have to take it back for them or face the dire consequences a punished and a cursed generation, that is us.

Our children learned what care for the environment means , they have learned and are still learning of how to care for our natural resources. They are learning that money is not everything, less and less of them are even keen on owning a house, they want to see the earth in all its glory, they want to travel, they want enjoy the natural resources many of them have never seen, they want it there for them and their children and their children's children, they can't have it if we continue with these selfish ways and they'll know it soon enough.

I had a friend who once told me that his nephews an nieces visited the family home in Ipoh, they were naturalized Singaporeans, and they spent  a whole day looking at those big birds in the surrounding of the house and when told they were chickens they could not believe it, this is a very true account, and ironically it happened to my grandchildren here in Klang ... imagine in Klang.

Now we are forced by mother earth to reflect, reflect on our selfishness, our pride, our greed, our carelessness, to reflect on our values, on how much we care for ourselves our neighbours, our community, our surroundings, our natural resources, our children and their future here on earth, on the less fortunate, on the prisoners, the down trodden, the sick the lonely, the orphans the widows, the tramp on the street, the beggar, the drug addict, the prostitute, the hungry and the dying, and to resolve to take care of all of them, for if we don't, even to  the the least of these we are doomed. Examine the situation carefully.

Our greed has driven us to this edge

This caring will make us  less lavish, we'll do away with what is not absolutely needed,when we cut  our lavishness we will protect the environment, we use less of its resources, we will not pillage, and in caring we will have more friends - true friends, we will be happy together, for what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his own soul, we have to discard our greed.  

We are forced into solitude today, a time forced upon us for that reflection, we must come out of this fully aware that it is not I,  for I can't live alone without the others.

The resources are for all living creatures by mother earth nothing there is mine or only for the human race, we have to share them amongst ourselves, we are all earthlings and everything on earth is meant to be shared by all earthlings, the trees, the animals, the birds, the insects, it belongs to all of God's creation if we are going to take it only to fulfill our own selfish greed, it will become untenable and we will no longer belong, we will be wiped out, the balance has to be preserved, if you look at it carefully if we take out the top of the food chain that is us the rest below will thrive. 

Mother earth can go back to be the red hot barren rock she once was without all living creatures, but she is saying why should I, these other  creatures did no wrong and reserve the right to inhabit the place without this selfish and thoughtless group - Humanity.

The choice is ours live and continue as inhabitants of this beautiful earth, or become extinct or prepare to go live in another earth without all these resources - go to Mars perhaps but that too a select few will be chosen and if we can't get over this we can never live on Mars either not Humanity we are too selfish for our own survival.

At the end of the day it's, "what is there in it for us the whole of the earth rather than what is there in it for me" or just humanity.

The dog, the pig, the chicken , the crow , the shark, the tiger, the dolphin, the lion, the Zebra, the cow, the worm, the birds, the bees the butterflies everything counts, the trees, the air we breathe the waters of the sea and the land the earth belongs to them too, and what we take from the earth must not exceed what we absolutely require for ourselves, because it belongs to all creation.

WITH ITS BILLIONS MAKE SOCSO RELEVANT IN THESE TIMES

GOVERNMENT MUST STOP TEXT BOOK SOLUTIONS FOR HR PROBLEMS

 by; Francis T Rozario
3/24/2020   21.49

The latest initiative to allow workers to withdrew five hundred ringgit per month from their EPF is a akin to telling the workers to go pay themselves with monies they have saved for their retirement.

It is well known that Employees Provident Fund savings are insufficient to sustain most contributors when they retire, and if this government has not realised this they are out of touch, terribly out of touch.

To make matters worse the the Ministry of Human Resources  has come out with statements saying Employers must pay workers their salaries which is understood as full salaries.

The  ministry is providing text book solutions and we do not need a Minister to come announce that.

SOLUTION PROVIDED BY LAW.

The law on wages regarding lawful deductions can be used to address this situation, and the Minister of Human Resources has to apply wisdom studying the implications of the current situation using the proviso of section 24 (7) to allow for  deductions of wages either in part or in full by the employer during this period  a proviso the Director General of Human Resources has the authority to use and implement..

Section 24(8) however stipulates that such deductions shall not exceed fifty percentum in any one month and considering that the current situation if the MOC remains at two weeks the employer bearing fifty percent  may seem fair.

However in this period of downturn in sales and the double whammy  of this shutdown  may make the situation  a burden too heavy for the employer to bear.

Covid 19 is without precedence accordingly the measures we take should have none either if industry is to survive.

Malaysia has never witnessed or experienced such a situation, it is a calamity that has has no precedence, and to deal with it we have to take measures never before taken and every Malaysian will have to support the best measures available for us to ensure that this can be done, to meet the basic needs of the Malaysian worker and the survival of industry on which the nation and the worker are dependent on.

Employees must not be left in despair, certainly not at such times, they must have the security of their wages to allow them to look after their families, put food on the table and look after their other essential needs, it is a time for survival not high living.

SECURITY OF TENURE EVERYONE'S RESPONSIBILITY 

Having said that, employees must also realise the fact that this can only happen as long as they are employed, continued employment is a necessity that cannot be ignored and they too have to make sacrifices on their part.

If employers are squeezed excessively they may resort to retrenchment of the workforce, and even closing down of the enterprise, that will put employment at risk, and at  times like this when we can't expect too much foreign direct investment unemployment will grow and we can't afford that.

 This is a situation where the employer, the employee and more so the government has to play its part, the government just can't stand aloof and pass moves that actually benefits no one like the latest initiative allowing the withdrawal of RM500 per employee from the EPF.

This EPF move is literally telling the worker to pay himself so where is the care from the Government?
The government should instead turn to SOCSO, and make it more relevant, this is what Social Security is after all.

There must be no Sacrifice of the MOC to try and lessen this burden on Employer and Employee.

In an attempt to lessen these burdens to employer and employee the government should not sacrifice the lock down or what we call the MOC, that has to continue and judging from our present position maybe for another four weeks at the minimum with more stringent controls if we have to get this act in order to curb the spread of the disease.

Lessening the controls of the MOC to try and right the despair of the employer and the employee is  tantamount to abandonment of its duties by the government , and we do not want that, neither should we accept it.

MAKE SOCSO RELEVANT - IT NEVER  HAS BEEN

In Malaysia we have the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) to which both Employer and Employee pays a mandatory subscription to every month.

As stated earlier this Covid 19 outbreak has no precedence, so our actions will also be ones without precedence.

The government should scrap the EPF withdrawal plan of Ringgit Malaysian five hundred a month an get SOCSO to pay its members up to thirty percentum of their wages  for period of 12 months or until such time the situation returns to normal which ever is lesser to be reviewed at the time.

SOCSO has the funds and the government should use it, there is far more than 100 billion in assets alone in SOCSO.

If this is done and the Director General of Human Resources allows for the deduction of fifty percent in salary at this time, the employer can reduce his burden by  30 percent and the worker will receive  his fifty percent.

This is is the most meaningful exercise in Social Security  by a  Social Security  Organization, so go ahead please make SOCSO relevant. 

The Government does not need laws or  a precedent for this,  Covid 19 pandemic is without precedent and to do it is governing and that is precisely why we have a government.

To do their part, workers will have to sacrifice all the paid annual leave they are entitled to for the year to mitigate their loss of salary, this the worker has to do to be seen as contributing 
as a serious partner in this exercise.

The Government has to  lessen tariffs on Electricity and other utilities and suspend HRDF contribution for the period,  it is absurd to make such payments in a period training will grind to a halt except for very specific cases, this will also lessen the burden on the employer.

SOCSO contributions should be suspended during this period, and the arrears can be collected by SOCSO in installments when the situation normalises over a similar period as that of the the suspension.

EPF contributions shall continue during this period at existing rates, with Trade Unions and employee relations Managers in the non Unionised sector encouraging employees to increase their own contribution.

If these measures can be put in place Trade Unions must support it, but this is not to be a precedent for future negotiations on terms and conditions of service nor for the promulgation into law of these  conditions these will remain unprecedented measures for an unprecedented global calamity.

These are special measures taken at a  special time in our history and the history of the world we will learn with it.






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ONE STREAM EDUCATION, BE SERIOUS, LIGHT IT UP!!

Those who follow my articles know that I am almost totally anti UMNO.

 But I'l call a spade a spade when i see one, and I'll support UMNO's Razlan Raafii  who has echoed the wishes of Many Malaysians including me and even the Regent of Johor Tenku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim on a "ONE STREAM EDUCATION SYSTEM".

DON'T END IT THERE, AND DON'T TRASH IT HERE EITHER, BE COMMITTED TO IT BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT WE NEED.

 

Malay College Kuala Knagsar -It has to be opened for the good of the Malays

 Dwell on our Strengths

To do this we have to use our strengths, and one of our our biggest strengths which we must recognise  is,  the UEC system of education,  again calling the spade a spade.

I am not saying to make others learn Chinese, although that may be a good thing to encourage, because that language alone drives your brain into analytical mode, it is a language that is made of characters rather than alphabets so we must give thought to it, serious thought, ever wonder why Chinese are so good at Mathematics? .

 BAHASA HAS TO HAVE ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE
Of course Bahasa will not only be the compulsory language but we must get our young to love Bahasa it is our language and it should continue to be compulsory.

On the other hand Tamil is the oldest language in the world not Sanskrit, and Bahasa has its roots in that language not Jawi or Arabic   so we have the best of all the worlds and English in Malaysia though it has deteriorated leaps and bounds to the extent that a growing number of Indonesians especially Javanese are speaking the language very well these days we have to bring back focus on this language, it can be added as a choice if one chooses not to do POL.

Reintroduce the Bulan Bahasa Kebangsaan, the competitions,  the Songs etc, bring into light and let them celebrate our language - Celebrate BAHASA KEBANGSAAN KITA..

As far as the UEC system goes  I am saying use the expertise,   teaching methods, curriculum learning and teaching culture into the one stream of our education system, call on the Chinese Educationists to contribute, and contribute they will.

They will not only contribute but become active proponents to the idea of one stream as long as they are not threatened and their inclusion to learn from them will be seen as great milestone in our education history.

Malays are already flocking to Chinese Schools they'll accept if politics is out.

 Use the best resources.
To drive the people, the Education at National level, have   the UEC stream and the current Examination stream and allow pupils to choose from both like the AEB and the Cambridge streams in the UK. The UEC stream has earned it.

Let Schools choose one stream or the other, let it be managed at the national level by separate administrators  then it will result in competition at that level the very top, the government only funds the two systems, and we'll see a real healthy growth of education in Malaysia via competition, two systems one Examination if that is possible to be set by the Examinations syndicate based on a common  syllabus.
 

Send selected teacher trainees of all races to China to learn Chinese and other subjects to become teachers, pick those who have a genuine and sincere desire to cultivate their fellow Malaysians regardless of race and creed, so they can not only teach Chinese but Science and Mathematics, learn why the Chinese (not Malaysians) are so entrepreneurial, and develop our future generations.

Send successful teacher trainees with the right qualifications, attitude and aptitude to countries like the US, Germany, UK and France to learn how they develop their children, be like Japan before world war 2.

On the cultural front involve everybody the Malaysian culture is evolving, Nasi Lemak, Roti Canai are on the Nasional breakfast  menu, we eat mamak mee, mee Melayu and so on, we have the equivalent of Ang Paw with the Malays as Duit Raya, Chinese use kebaya annd kubarong we also pray in Malay,  it is evolving for  truly Nasional Malaysian culture we have to involve everyone.

Stop segregating pupils according to race,  encourage the Malays pupils who form the majority to mix with other children as we used to do before and to this end Sports and other cultural activities play a huge part.

Bring in Educationists from India and the UK to seriously look and help manage our Teacher training programmes and if need be let them head thesew Institutions.

We have to look at our strengths and even the Tamil School (that I have been very critical about in the past ) have now improved their standards tremendously, their students are winning the National and International awards, and their levels in Bahasa, English Mathematics have even surpassed the other type of National Schools. How did they do it given the great disadvantageous positions these schools were in less than a decade ago. 

There are still some remnants of the  Mission Schools, how effective they will be is hard to tell, they contributed f=very effectively to our education system before.

Take politics and race out of education

The quest for one stream must come by tapping the resources of all people in our society and there is a real possibility of that being achieved if,  the Ministry of Education involves all the parties involved in Education system and stop playing a racial game here.

We must be focused here on what is best  for the development of the country into a first world country.

Take politics out of education, Malay parents who know and are not easily politically misled send their children to Chinese and Indian Mathematics  and Science teachers to get them to improve their

Have more of this.

standards in these subjects, 

Disregard race, take politicians out of the equation, make it a crime to criticise and gain political advantage on race and religion in National Education, if we are serious about making our young quality graduates who can really positively and effectively  contribute to the nation and our development.

If we continue with our "tiga suku" politically driven education system we have today, this country is doomed to be a failure.

2020 Missed  2030 in danger of going he wrong way
We have already missed 2020 and I dare say with our focus on unimportant issues in our education system, our total lack of insight into what is really needed of our graduates for development of the country economically, technologically and the needs of enterprise a situation we have been in since  at least the early 80's,   by 2030 we will successfully sink into world nation. and that will be thanks to our politicians, our so called technocrats, and our leaders, who to this day insist on playingthe race card even with education our children.

Why? and the only reason one can attribute this to is that they can't be bothered, just find out ewhere their Children are being educated.

We can't have people like Mazlee heading education, please Mahathir, I think you have done that on purpose to spite everyone else since we did not let you take the portfolio of education with your Prime Ministers you put this man who seems not to have an inkling of really improving education and the core issues regarding that and National Development there.  

Russia can bring in the best Areo-space technology in the world into to Malaysia as Putin has just said, but all we will be able to do is to continue to be followers and not innovators and leaders,  we'll forever, be followers at this rate . take a look of how we fared with your favourite project in -the Auto Industries,   we are still reliant on foreign models, foreign technology and lack the ability to design, innovate and create new technology and a big part of that blame was to have Proton be led by inadequate people since its inception. 

 Made in Malaysia or China?

Proton for all its present worth is driving high because of China, Chinese technology  and Chinese Management, is that what  you planned for? Do want to continue to do just that?

Don't blame the Malays blame yourself, you allowed bureaucrats lead the industry, people without any experience in cars,   although we had people who owned and managed motor assembly plants successfully and they would have been the logical choice for progression bt you played the race card and see what has happened.

You could not have insulted us more.

We are calling a made in China product assembled in Malaysia a Malaysian product, how nice.

Education  should be the domain of the best,  the educators and policy makers must come of the crème de la crème of our society in this field and if that is not available buy them from Singapore, India, Finland anywhere where we can find the really best. 

Teachers, policy makers and and other educationists must be rewarded well enough that they do not have to look for other means of earning money like becoming private tutors which is so commonand so lucrative these days.


One Session Schools
One Session schools from 8.30 a.m to 4.30 pm.with break-times in the aggregate of one hour.

Build more Schools, have a only one session in schools, reintroduce sports at a serious level, and school hours should be stretched longer with breaks.

No morning school and afternoon school. only one session, one serious session. Reward teachers well and have performance driven incentives fo them, level the playing field.

Regulate class sizes, .

 Ban Homework
Ban home work for children like they have done in  Finland even China espouses to do so.
Children should not be burdened to the extent they find school a bore, or something weary.
Allow them to have a say on the subjects they'd like to pursue make them part of their education

Bring in sports seriously into the school curriculum, inculcate the spirit of competition, sports also gets students into the mindset of being competent and we need it to develop   well balanced educated young men and women  not to mention good sportsmen and sportswomen.

The authorities must show that they are serious, by involving all parties and if on merits another race will provide the best candidate to lead such initiatives it should go to that person, it is not race we are talking about we are talking about a truly and sincerely Malaysian system of education - one stream.
This is not NEP or privileges it is getting the best for our children all our children

Politicians should stay away let this body set up to do it decide and come out void of all political involvement are we matured enough to do that.

We need almost a total revamp of  our educational systems.

The Education Ministry will be the custodian of Education policy but the setting up of the policy must be the work of the Educationists, this will minimise  political interference. 

The Education minister will secure the budgets required prepared by the System administrators and managers, there should be no interference other than if it involves issues other than education.

Infrastructure could be the responsibility of the Ministry and mechanisms and rules must be in place to ensure that the Minister or any politician does not use his position to get the administrators to do their bidding.   

Why Politicians  Should be out 
Since Independence we have not really improved our education system, it has gone from bad to worse, and if it continues we are really going to become the sick man of ASEAN and maybe Asia.

Even Vietnam will supersede us  soon if they haven't already. 
Whilst our other ASEAN nations are improving leas and bounds we can't say the same for ourselves.