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Monday, March 29, 2010
Mara declares 10 defaulters bankrupt
KUALA TERENGGANU: Mara will take stern action against those who default on their loans as they deprived others of getting aid, Mara director-general Datuk Ibrahim Muhamad said.
He said Mara would work with the Immigration Department to stop these defaulters, whose arrears amounted to a whopping RM500 million, from leaving the country.
"Some of them are exempted from paying their loans after scoring good results in examinations but have yet to apply for the exemption.
"If they apply for the exemption, the amount could be just around RM200 million," he said after opening the Mara Education Carnival 2010 for the eastern zone here .
He said Mara had declared 10 loan defaulters bankrupt when they failed to repay their loans within the timeframe given. -- Bernama
He said Mara would work with the Immigration Department to stop these defaulters, whose arrears amounted to a whopping RM500 million, from leaving the country.
"Some of them are exempted from paying their loans after scoring good results in examinations but have yet to apply for the exemption.
"If they apply for the exemption, the amount could be just around RM200 million," he said after opening the Mara Education Carnival 2010 for the eastern zone here .
He said Mara had declared 10 loan defaulters bankrupt when they failed to repay their loans within the timeframe given. -- Bernama
Sunday, March 28, 2010
'I Expect a Currency Crisis or Semi-Crisis': Jim Rogers
The worst of the economic crisis is not over and a currency crisis can happen this year or the next year, because the problem of too much debt in the system has not been solved, legendary investor Jim Rogers told CNBC Monday.
The current recovery is just a consequence of the fact that consumption fell so dramatically in 2008 and people have to buy things they need in 2009, Rogers told "Worldwide Exchange."
"How can the solution for debt and consumption be more debt and more consumption? How can that be the solution to our problems?," he said.
Video: Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC Monday that when Lehman Brothers failed he thought “thank goodness they’re finally letting somebody collapse.”
"I would expect there to be a currency crisis or a semi-crisis this fall or next year. It's crony capitalism, Bernanke and Greenspan have brought crony capitalism to America … but that's not going to solve the world's problems," Rogers added.
There are still "gigantic amounts of horrible, horrible debt that hasn't been dealt with" in Central Europe, while hopes that China will pull the world out of recession are overblown, according to Rogers.
"China saved up a lot of money for a rainy day, it's raining and it's spending it," he said. "But China cannot pull out America or India or Europe from all this. Their economy is a 10th of the US. Hallelujah, let them do good things but they're not going to save the world."
The Federal Reserve has tripled its balance sheet and the US government's debt skyrocketed, which may cause currency problems next year, while protectionist tendencies have already started, he warned.
10 Banks Should Have FailedRogers on CapitalismInside the Financial CrisisAlternative InvestingRoach: Fed Must Police ExcessMarc Faber: Let Big Banks Fail AIG Dead, Other Banks Zombies: HendryMore European News
On Monday, China has requested World Trade Organization talks over US-imposed duties on Chinese-made tires, which China has branded protectionist.
"We're going to have some serious problems in currency markets, we're going to have serious problems in the world markets if we see protectionism rising and rising again," he said.
The current recovery is just a consequence of the fact that consumption fell so dramatically in 2008 and people have to buy things they need in 2009, Rogers told "Worldwide Exchange."
"How can the solution for debt and consumption be more debt and more consumption? How can that be the solution to our problems?," he said.
Video: Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC Monday that when Lehman Brothers failed he thought “thank goodness they’re finally letting somebody collapse.”
"I would expect there to be a currency crisis or a semi-crisis this fall or next year. It's crony capitalism, Bernanke and Greenspan have brought crony capitalism to America … but that's not going to solve the world's problems," Rogers added.
There are still "gigantic amounts of horrible, horrible debt that hasn't been dealt with" in Central Europe, while hopes that China will pull the world out of recession are overblown, according to Rogers.
"China saved up a lot of money for a rainy day, it's raining and it's spending it," he said. "But China cannot pull out America or India or Europe from all this. Their economy is a 10th of the US. Hallelujah, let them do good things but they're not going to save the world."
The Federal Reserve has tripled its balance sheet and the US government's debt skyrocketed, which may cause currency problems next year, while protectionist tendencies have already started, he warned.
10 Banks Should Have FailedRogers on CapitalismInside the Financial CrisisAlternative InvestingRoach: Fed Must Police ExcessMarc Faber: Let Big Banks Fail AIG Dead, Other Banks Zombies: HendryMore European News
On Monday, China has requested World Trade Organization talks over US-imposed duties on Chinese-made tires, which China has branded protectionist.
"We're going to have some serious problems in currency markets, we're going to have serious problems in the world markets if we see protectionism rising and rising again," he said.
Blues over education system — Teacher’s Blues
MARCH 28 — Of late, there have been calls and suggestions to have the proposed single-stream school system implemented in our education system.
We have been made to believe that for a multiracial, multi-cultural and multi-religious country like ours, getting our younger generation to freely mix, play and study together under one school roof with the national language as the common medium of instruction would serve to promote national unity and instil in our kids the 1Malaysia spirit.
Well, undoubtedly having a single-stream school system is an ideal goal that we should all strive for. However we need to first address the many ills and shortcomings plaguing our education system before we even contemplate such a move.
National unity and misconception
To begin with, it is both naïve and simplistic to claim that making our students conversant in the Malay language will by itself forge national unity and instil in them a strong patriotic spirit. It has been pointed out that this is a misconception as many countries with a common predominant language are bedevilled by communal strife, making national unity an elusive dream.
Forging genuine national unity means more than mere racial tolerance and being fluent in the national language; it involves deep communal understanding, a deep sense of fair play, genuine respect and sincere acceptance of the cultural and racial diversity in this beloved land of ours. Just ask those Malaysians (now adults and busy pursuing their careers) formerly educated in the vernacular Chinese primary schools who secured an A in their UPSR Malay paper and were still made to waste one precious year in attending remove classes not too many years ago (although this irrational move has now been scrapped) - simply because they failed to get an A for their Chinese paper - how they feel about this issue and you will get the point.
Secondly, let’s not merely talk about change for the sake of change without examining the root causes that are responsible for racial polarisation and the drastic decline in the quality of our education system. Our education system has a “grade inflation” syndrome where grade As are so easily secured with questionable standards and marking methodologies so that we have students awarded scholarships to study in foreign universities simply because they secured so many wonderful As in their SPM papers. Yet many of these students failed to measure up when subjected to open and robust competition at varsity level without the benefit of quotas and positive discrimination.
Malaysian parents desire quality education
Having a single-school system is fine for Malaysian parents in general, provided that the quality of teachers and teaching standards are in place, open-minded, practical and dynamic school heads selected based on merit are entrusted to run such schools, no unwanted religious overtones are allowed to prevail in such schools causing unease among non-Malay students and there is a favourable school environment where wholesome education and sound learning can take place.
Such schools would even be more attractive if the POL (pupils’ own language) classes are given serious attention and the school heads have enough autonomy, with the blessings of their respective Parent-Teachers Associations, to select from a broad-based, flexible and creative curriculum. Malaysian parents in general desire quality education for their kids. I wonder if a single-stream school system can live up to such expectations.
This seems like a tall order. We should reflect on the time when English-medium schools of the 1950s and 1960s were the preferred choice regardless of ethnicity. The increasing demand for private and international schools today is surely an indicator that our national school system falls far short of public expectations.
And the fact that 15,000 Malaysian students are currently attending schools daily across the causeway and some 60,000 pupils from other ethnic groups, notably Malay kids, are enrolled in Chinese primary schools speak volumes for the fact that sound and solid education is what Malaysian parents want for their kids, irrespective of race. Surely, the thousands of Malay parents who chose to send their kids to Chinese primary schools can’t be accused of not being patriotic or not having the interest of the nation at heart?
Now, for all the perceived shortcomings and flaws in their school system, the Chinese primary school teachers in general tend to be hard working, have good work ethics and often take a no-nonsense approach in educating their young charges. Parents with children in such schools are happy that if their kids work hard, the latter would be placed in better classes based on academic merit the following year and not along racial lines or quotas. And that their kids, with their impressionable young minds are unlikely to be subjected to extreme religious views or suffer from sexual assaults by their so-called teachers.
Teachers poor in quality, curriculum irrelevant, administrators political
On the other hand, let me just quote a line from Zaid Ibrahim’s latest book “I, too, am Malay”, where he wrote, inter alia “ …We are afraid to admit that the teachers, most of whom are Malays, are poor in quality, that the school curriculum is irrelevant and the administrators too political…” (Page 245). With so many national schools in such a bad shape, any wonder why the calls for a single-stream school system just do not go down well with many knowledgeable and practical Malaysian parents?
Over the years, we have seen far too many poor choices for the many important jobs in the teaching profession, right from the running of education departments to schools, and perhaps higher up at the Ministry level. If we just bear in mind how much havoc one mistake in recruiting a bad candidate for teacher training can create in the schools over a period of 30-odd years of teaching service, you can well imagine the damage done to our education system with the lax recruitment of teacher-training candidates made possible by over-zealous implementation of the New Economic Policy over so many years. It is only of late that the policy makers realised the folly of such short-sighted moves, but the damage has already been done to the education sector.
Once in the system, many of these poor quality teachers subsequently get promoted to head this and that section, department and school, and soon enough, the tyranny of mediocrity becomes an established fact in our education system. And when over 95 per cent (to be generous) of our Education Ministry’s staff are headed or manned by one ethnic group, will the policy planners be open-minded and far-sighted enough to deliberate on important policy matters with the overall interest of all Malaysians at heart?
The answer cannot be very encouraging, not when in spite of so many calls to scrap the impractical Moral Studies and give students more flexibility in choosing the subjects they like under the so-called open certificate exam system, things remain largely intact. Otherwise, the maximum 10-subject for SPM would easily accommodate Chinese and Tamil languages and literature - if the impractical Moral Studies and humdrum History (half of the Form Four syllabus is focused on Islamic civilisation) are not made compulsory subjects for SPM students.
It is well said that the heart of education begins with the education of the heart. The proposed single-stream school system will remain a pipe dream as long we do not have enough enlightened, courageous, practical and far-sighted minds in the Education Ministry who are prepared to realise this dream.
We have been made to believe that for a multiracial, multi-cultural and multi-religious country like ours, getting our younger generation to freely mix, play and study together under one school roof with the national language as the common medium of instruction would serve to promote national unity and instil in our kids the 1Malaysia spirit.
Well, undoubtedly having a single-stream school system is an ideal goal that we should all strive for. However we need to first address the many ills and shortcomings plaguing our education system before we even contemplate such a move.
National unity and misconception
To begin with, it is both naïve and simplistic to claim that making our students conversant in the Malay language will by itself forge national unity and instil in them a strong patriotic spirit. It has been pointed out that this is a misconception as many countries with a common predominant language are bedevilled by communal strife, making national unity an elusive dream.
Forging genuine national unity means more than mere racial tolerance and being fluent in the national language; it involves deep communal understanding, a deep sense of fair play, genuine respect and sincere acceptance of the cultural and racial diversity in this beloved land of ours. Just ask those Malaysians (now adults and busy pursuing their careers) formerly educated in the vernacular Chinese primary schools who secured an A in their UPSR Malay paper and were still made to waste one precious year in attending remove classes not too many years ago (although this irrational move has now been scrapped) - simply because they failed to get an A for their Chinese paper - how they feel about this issue and you will get the point.
Secondly, let’s not merely talk about change for the sake of change without examining the root causes that are responsible for racial polarisation and the drastic decline in the quality of our education system. Our education system has a “grade inflation” syndrome where grade As are so easily secured with questionable standards and marking methodologies so that we have students awarded scholarships to study in foreign universities simply because they secured so many wonderful As in their SPM papers. Yet many of these students failed to measure up when subjected to open and robust competition at varsity level without the benefit of quotas and positive discrimination.
Malaysian parents desire quality education
Having a single-school system is fine for Malaysian parents in general, provided that the quality of teachers and teaching standards are in place, open-minded, practical and dynamic school heads selected based on merit are entrusted to run such schools, no unwanted religious overtones are allowed to prevail in such schools causing unease among non-Malay students and there is a favourable school environment where wholesome education and sound learning can take place.
Such schools would even be more attractive if the POL (pupils’ own language) classes are given serious attention and the school heads have enough autonomy, with the blessings of their respective Parent-Teachers Associations, to select from a broad-based, flexible and creative curriculum. Malaysian parents in general desire quality education for their kids. I wonder if a single-stream school system can live up to such expectations.
This seems like a tall order. We should reflect on the time when English-medium schools of the 1950s and 1960s were the preferred choice regardless of ethnicity. The increasing demand for private and international schools today is surely an indicator that our national school system falls far short of public expectations.
And the fact that 15,000 Malaysian students are currently attending schools daily across the causeway and some 60,000 pupils from other ethnic groups, notably Malay kids, are enrolled in Chinese primary schools speak volumes for the fact that sound and solid education is what Malaysian parents want for their kids, irrespective of race. Surely, the thousands of Malay parents who chose to send their kids to Chinese primary schools can’t be accused of not being patriotic or not having the interest of the nation at heart?
Now, for all the perceived shortcomings and flaws in their school system, the Chinese primary school teachers in general tend to be hard working, have good work ethics and often take a no-nonsense approach in educating their young charges. Parents with children in such schools are happy that if their kids work hard, the latter would be placed in better classes based on academic merit the following year and not along racial lines or quotas. And that their kids, with their impressionable young minds are unlikely to be subjected to extreme religious views or suffer from sexual assaults by their so-called teachers.
Teachers poor in quality, curriculum irrelevant, administrators political
On the other hand, let me just quote a line from Zaid Ibrahim’s latest book “I, too, am Malay”, where he wrote, inter alia “ …We are afraid to admit that the teachers, most of whom are Malays, are poor in quality, that the school curriculum is irrelevant and the administrators too political…” (Page 245). With so many national schools in such a bad shape, any wonder why the calls for a single-stream school system just do not go down well with many knowledgeable and practical Malaysian parents?
Over the years, we have seen far too many poor choices for the many important jobs in the teaching profession, right from the running of education departments to schools, and perhaps higher up at the Ministry level. If we just bear in mind how much havoc one mistake in recruiting a bad candidate for teacher training can create in the schools over a period of 30-odd years of teaching service, you can well imagine the damage done to our education system with the lax recruitment of teacher-training candidates made possible by over-zealous implementation of the New Economic Policy over so many years. It is only of late that the policy makers realised the folly of such short-sighted moves, but the damage has already been done to the education sector.
Once in the system, many of these poor quality teachers subsequently get promoted to head this and that section, department and school, and soon enough, the tyranny of mediocrity becomes an established fact in our education system. And when over 95 per cent (to be generous) of our Education Ministry’s staff are headed or manned by one ethnic group, will the policy planners be open-minded and far-sighted enough to deliberate on important policy matters with the overall interest of all Malaysians at heart?
The answer cannot be very encouraging, not when in spite of so many calls to scrap the impractical Moral Studies and give students more flexibility in choosing the subjects they like under the so-called open certificate exam system, things remain largely intact. Otherwise, the maximum 10-subject for SPM would easily accommodate Chinese and Tamil languages and literature - if the impractical Moral Studies and humdrum History (half of the Form Four syllabus is focused on Islamic civilisation) are not made compulsory subjects for SPM students.
It is well said that the heart of education begins with the education of the heart. The proposed single-stream school system will remain a pipe dream as long we do not have enough enlightened, courageous, practical and far-sighted minds in the Education Ministry who are prepared to realise this dream.
Friday, March 26, 2010
RMN’s Scorpene submarine can now dive
SINGAPORE, March 26 — The spanking new Royal Malaysian Navy Scorpene-type submarine KD Tunku Abdul Rahman, which recently suffered technical setbacks, is now ready for dive trials.
Its designer and builder, DCNS, said today, the submarine had completed its first sea trials off the Malaysian coast, following scheduled maintenance at its home port in Teluk Sepanggar, Sabah.
In a statement here, the company said the trials confirmed the boat’s readiness for underwater service. It said following maintenance, KD Tunku Abdul Rahman was floated out and made ready to resume its training schedule, including dive trials by the Malaysian crew off its home coast.
“These trials demonstrate that the Royal Malaysian Navy has successfully established the country’s first ever submarine force,” said Pierre Quinchon, head of DCNS Submarine division.
The contract between the Malaysian Government and DCNS for two Scorpene submarines and associated logistics and training was signed in June 2002.
The second submarine, KD Tun Abdul Razak, currently in Toulon, is scheduled to sail from France to Malaysia in May.
Apart from Malaysia, two other countries have ordered the Scorpene submarines — Chile (two units) and India (six).
The Scorpene was designed by DCNS and developed jointly by DCNS and Spanish naval shipbuilder Navantia. — Bernama
Its designer and builder, DCNS, said today, the submarine had completed its first sea trials off the Malaysian coast, following scheduled maintenance at its home port in Teluk Sepanggar, Sabah.
In a statement here, the company said the trials confirmed the boat’s readiness for underwater service. It said following maintenance, KD Tunku Abdul Rahman was floated out and made ready to resume its training schedule, including dive trials by the Malaysian crew off its home coast.
“These trials demonstrate that the Royal Malaysian Navy has successfully established the country’s first ever submarine force,” said Pierre Quinchon, head of DCNS Submarine division.
The contract between the Malaysian Government and DCNS for two Scorpene submarines and associated logistics and training was signed in June 2002.
The second submarine, KD Tun Abdul Razak, currently in Toulon, is scheduled to sail from France to Malaysia in May.
Apart from Malaysia, two other countries have ordered the Scorpene submarines — Chile (two units) and India (six).
The Scorpene was designed by DCNS and developed jointly by DCNS and Spanish naval shipbuilder Navantia. — Bernama
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Malaysia`s DiGi Telco Cheating An Estimated Half Billion A Year
Malaysia's DiGi mobile phone telco is cheating its subscribers by an estimated half billion Malaysian dollars a year.
Tests show that the unscrupulous cell phone operator is sending calls to voice-mail even when the phone is receiving a strong network signal.
Calls being made to DiGi mobiles are routed to voice-mail without any delay whatsoever, thus not allowing for any switching times.
When a client does not respond to calls that DiGi does pass through, the time before being routed to voice-mail is very short, compared to other oversea operators, not allowing the mobile phone user sufficient time to answer incoming calls before the caller is routed to voice-mail.
Each time a call is routed to voice mail from a Digi phone, the caller is billed 12 cents, and charges for calls routed to DiGi voicemail from other operators may be even higher.
The company robs users double in many cases, as Digi users are forced to call their voicemail, again whilst being billed, in order to retrieve messages left by callers who would have otherwise reached the subscribers handset, were it not for the tweaking of systems to route callers to voicemail.
The costs to overseas callers into Malaysia are estimated to be several billion dollars per year.
Moreover the company has been found to be billing subscribers for services that were cancelled, such as the monthly Internet service for post-paid business companies, at 68 Malaysian dollars per month.
The company requests that cancellations are faxed to them, but then does not proceed to cancel and continues to bill for those services.
DiGi pre-paid mobile charging is however fairer than the other operators, in that although charged at a rate of 10 cents per 10 kb, as soon as $5 Malaysian is reached, there is no further charge for the day. If more than 100MB data is transferred in a day, the speed may be throttled.
Mathaba advises DiGi users to call customer service on 016-2211800 to demand deactivation of voice-mail, as well as requesting to prolong your calling tone. Users are also advised not to subscribe to any special caller ringing tones as these may not be prolonged.
DiGi has some 8 million subscribers in Malaysia making up a little over a quarter of the total mobile phone subscriber base in the country and is 49% owned by Telenor.
Mathaba has found extensive cheating by all 3 large Malaysian mobile telcos, which rate worse than those of its neighbors Singapore and Thailand.
Unlike its two neighbours to the north and south, the Malaysian mobile Internet is both unreliable and costly, much of the time failing to perform, with 3G and 3.5G having slower actual throughput speeds than Thailand's EDGE.
Calls on Skype phone from mobiles on Celcom and Maxis proved generally impossible according to tests conducted, whilst Digi's EDGE performed reliably even for Skype voice calls, similar to Thailand where 3G is generally not available due to licensing issues.
Digi is now starting to operate 3G and 3.5G broadband which we have not yet tested, but provides good GPRS/EDGE coverage, whilst Maxis and Celcom provide mobile broadband services that extensively rip off subscribers as is being reported in other news articles.
Users of mobile operators in Malaysia are invited to leave comments below, and the Telcos are urged to redress this situation, provide a working customer service without cost to subscribers and to compensate users for failure to provide services billed for.
Digi is called upon to provide exact and verifiable figures and come clean about its revenue from voice mail, how many calls are routed to voice mail each day, its switching policies and technical parameters, and to make it easy for its users to opt out of the service by default.
Technicians and employees of the company who wish to share further information in confidence, may make use of our secure contact form - communications via this form is encrypted and not visible to ISP nor telco within Malaysia.
Tests show that the unscrupulous cell phone operator is sending calls to voice-mail even when the phone is receiving a strong network signal.
Calls being made to DiGi mobiles are routed to voice-mail without any delay whatsoever, thus not allowing for any switching times.
When a client does not respond to calls that DiGi does pass through, the time before being routed to voice-mail is very short, compared to other oversea operators, not allowing the mobile phone user sufficient time to answer incoming calls before the caller is routed to voice-mail.
Each time a call is routed to voice mail from a Digi phone, the caller is billed 12 cents, and charges for calls routed to DiGi voicemail from other operators may be even higher.
The company robs users double in many cases, as Digi users are forced to call their voicemail, again whilst being billed, in order to retrieve messages left by callers who would have otherwise reached the subscribers handset, were it not for the tweaking of systems to route callers to voicemail.
The costs to overseas callers into Malaysia are estimated to be several billion dollars per year.
Moreover the company has been found to be billing subscribers for services that were cancelled, such as the monthly Internet service for post-paid business companies, at 68 Malaysian dollars per month.
The company requests that cancellations are faxed to them, but then does not proceed to cancel and continues to bill for those services.
DiGi pre-paid mobile charging is however fairer than the other operators, in that although charged at a rate of 10 cents per 10 kb, as soon as $5 Malaysian is reached, there is no further charge for the day. If more than 100MB data is transferred in a day, the speed may be throttled.
Mathaba advises DiGi users to call customer service on 016-2211800 to demand deactivation of voice-mail, as well as requesting to prolong your calling tone. Users are also advised not to subscribe to any special caller ringing tones as these may not be prolonged.
DiGi has some 8 million subscribers in Malaysia making up a little over a quarter of the total mobile phone subscriber base in the country and is 49% owned by Telenor.
Mathaba has found extensive cheating by all 3 large Malaysian mobile telcos, which rate worse than those of its neighbors Singapore and Thailand.
Unlike its two neighbours to the north and south, the Malaysian mobile Internet is both unreliable and costly, much of the time failing to perform, with 3G and 3.5G having slower actual throughput speeds than Thailand's EDGE.
Calls on Skype phone from mobiles on Celcom and Maxis proved generally impossible according to tests conducted, whilst Digi's EDGE performed reliably even for Skype voice calls, similar to Thailand where 3G is generally not available due to licensing issues.
Digi is now starting to operate 3G and 3.5G broadband which we have not yet tested, but provides good GPRS/EDGE coverage, whilst Maxis and Celcom provide mobile broadband services that extensively rip off subscribers as is being reported in other news articles.
Users of mobile operators in Malaysia are invited to leave comments below, and the Telcos are urged to redress this situation, provide a working customer service without cost to subscribers and to compensate users for failure to provide services billed for.
Digi is called upon to provide exact and verifiable figures and come clean about its revenue from voice mail, how many calls are routed to voice mail each day, its switching policies and technical parameters, and to make it easy for its users to opt out of the service by default.
Technicians and employees of the company who wish to share further information in confidence, may make use of our secure contact form - communications via this form is encrypted and not visible to ISP nor telco within Malaysia.
Monday, March 22, 2010
6b Amanah Saham 1 Malaysia units still available
KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — Six billion Amanah Saham 1 Malaysia (AS1M) units are still available for public subscription, to date.
Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) president and group chief executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman said the Bumiputera and Indian quota made up the bulk of the remaining portion.
Saying that the subscription pace had not changed much since ASM1 was launched in July last year, he said the take-up rate was the fastest among the Chinese.
“Only eight per cent or 238 million units of the three billion units allocated for the Chinese community is still available,” he told reporters after announcing the income distribution for Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) here today.
He said the equity income fund enjoyed brisk sale among the Chinese community as not many funds offered by PNB are open to non-Bumiputeras.
“Many people are still waiting for the maiden dividend to be announced. They want to compare with other funds, under PNB, to determine if the returns from AS1M are as attractive as other unit trusts,” he said.
Hamad Kama Piah said Bumiputeras are more comfortable investing in Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) and Amanah Saham Didik.
The AS1M, a fixed price fund of RM1 per unit, is open to all Malaysians with 50 per cent allocated to Bumiputeras, 30 per cent Chinese, 15 per cent Indians and other races, five per cent.
The fund is the fifth launched by PNB after the ASB, ASM, Amanah Saham Didik and Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020. — Bernama
Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) president and group chief executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman said the Bumiputera and Indian quota made up the bulk of the remaining portion.
Saying that the subscription pace had not changed much since ASM1 was launched in July last year, he said the take-up rate was the fastest among the Chinese.
“Only eight per cent or 238 million units of the three billion units allocated for the Chinese community is still available,” he told reporters after announcing the income distribution for Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) here today.
He said the equity income fund enjoyed brisk sale among the Chinese community as not many funds offered by PNB are open to non-Bumiputeras.
“Many people are still waiting for the maiden dividend to be announced. They want to compare with other funds, under PNB, to determine if the returns from AS1M are as attractive as other unit trusts,” he said.
Hamad Kama Piah said Bumiputeras are more comfortable investing in Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) and Amanah Saham Didik.
The AS1M, a fixed price fund of RM1 per unit, is open to all Malaysians with 50 per cent allocated to Bumiputeras, 30 per cent Chinese, 15 per cent Indians and other races, five per cent.
The fund is the fifth launched by PNB after the ASB, ASM, Amanah Saham Didik and Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020. — Bernama
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Rakyat Kelantan kahwin warga asing meningkat
KOTA BARU, 21 Mac — Jumlah rakyat Kelantan sama ada lelaki atau wanita yang berkahwin dengan warga asing didapati meningkat setiap tahun dengan warga Thailand dan Indonesia menjadi pilihan utama.
Pengarah Jabatan Imigresen Kelantan, Che Bahrom Hamzah berkata melalui rekod pihaknya, seramai 4,342 orang lelaki dan wanita Kelantan berkahwin dengan warganegara asing pada 2007 dan 4,971 orang pada 2008.
Pada tahun lepas pula, 4,804 kes dilaporkan, katanya kepada Bernama.
“Walaupun jumlah perkahwinan menurun tahun lalu, namun ia hanya sedikit dan masih menunjukkan rakyat Kelantan meminati pasangan hidup daripada warganegara asing,” katanya.
Che Bahrom berkata warga Thailand dan Indonesia menjadi pilihan kerana selain soal rupa paras yang dimiliki wanita asing, kemungkinan faktor kedudukan negara yang berjiran dan berhampiran turut menjadi puncanya.
Bagaimanapun beliau berkata kes perkahwinan wanita Kelantan dengan lelaki asing lebih banyak menimbulkan risiko ekoran terdapat warga asing yang semata-mata mahu mendapatkan taraf kerakyatan negara ini.
“Walaupun bukan merupakan kes tertinggi, tetapi banyak kes yang dilaporkan berlaku di mana lelaki warga asing menghilangkan diri selepas tiga bulan berkahwin.
“Ini berlaku apabila lelaki asing yang muda berkahwin dengan wanita tempatan yang sudah berusia di mana apabila perkahwninan sudah mencecah tiga bulan dan lelaki asing berjaya memiliki taraf kerakyatan, dia akan terus menghilangkan diri,” katanya.
Che Bahrom berkata terdapat juga kes warga asing pulang ke negara asal mereka apabila berlaku pergaduhan suami isteri. “Mereka akan meninggalkan isteri atau suami tempatan mereka,” katanya.
Namun beliau berkata ramai juga perkahwinan rakyat tempatan dengan warga asing kekal bahagia
Pengarah Jabatan Imigresen Kelantan, Che Bahrom Hamzah berkata melalui rekod pihaknya, seramai 4,342 orang lelaki dan wanita Kelantan berkahwin dengan warganegara asing pada 2007 dan 4,971 orang pada 2008.
Pada tahun lepas pula, 4,804 kes dilaporkan, katanya kepada Bernama.
“Walaupun jumlah perkahwinan menurun tahun lalu, namun ia hanya sedikit dan masih menunjukkan rakyat Kelantan meminati pasangan hidup daripada warganegara asing,” katanya.
Che Bahrom berkata warga Thailand dan Indonesia menjadi pilihan kerana selain soal rupa paras yang dimiliki wanita asing, kemungkinan faktor kedudukan negara yang berjiran dan berhampiran turut menjadi puncanya.
Bagaimanapun beliau berkata kes perkahwinan wanita Kelantan dengan lelaki asing lebih banyak menimbulkan risiko ekoran terdapat warga asing yang semata-mata mahu mendapatkan taraf kerakyatan negara ini.
“Walaupun bukan merupakan kes tertinggi, tetapi banyak kes yang dilaporkan berlaku di mana lelaki warga asing menghilangkan diri selepas tiga bulan berkahwin.
“Ini berlaku apabila lelaki asing yang muda berkahwin dengan wanita tempatan yang sudah berusia di mana apabila perkahwninan sudah mencecah tiga bulan dan lelaki asing berjaya memiliki taraf kerakyatan, dia akan terus menghilangkan diri,” katanya.
Che Bahrom berkata terdapat juga kes warga asing pulang ke negara asal mereka apabila berlaku pergaduhan suami isteri. “Mereka akan meninggalkan isteri atau suami tempatan mereka,” katanya.
Namun beliau berkata ramai juga perkahwinan rakyat tempatan dengan warga asing kekal bahagia
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Fifa revenues burst through US$1 billion mark
ZURICH, March 20 — World football governing body Fifa’s annual income passed the US$1 billion (RM3.4 billion) mark for the first time last year and president Sepp Blatter said the money would be used to develop the sport around the world.
“We don’t want to have the money here,” Blatter (picture) told reporters yesterday. “We do not give it back to the rich, we give it to those who don’t have it.
“We don’t make the rich richer; we help those who have less.”
Blatter said that Fifa’s finances had attracted less attention as they had improved over the years.
“We are in a very good situation so it’s not so interesting any more. Despite the last year feeling the effects of the financial crisis which started in 2008, we are comfortable, but I wouldn’t say we are rich.”
Fifa said its expenditure for the year was US$863 million, leaving a surplus of US$196 million.
Blatter said one of Fifa’s first moves would be to distribute US$200,000 to each of the 208 national federations. Chile and Haiti, both struck by big earthquakes this year, would get extra money, he said.
In addition, he said, smaller nations would continue to get regular help through Fifa’s development project known as Goal.
Fifa’s finance chief Markus Kattner said the budget for 2011-2014 envisaged a total revenue of US$3.8 billion and expenditure of US$3.6 billion.
He said 74 per cent of expenditure would be spent on football development projects and the organisation of Fifa competitions. — Reuters
“We don’t want to have the money here,” Blatter (picture) told reporters yesterday. “We do not give it back to the rich, we give it to those who don’t have it.
“We don’t make the rich richer; we help those who have less.”
Blatter said that Fifa’s finances had attracted less attention as they had improved over the years.
“We are in a very good situation so it’s not so interesting any more. Despite the last year feeling the effects of the financial crisis which started in 2008, we are comfortable, but I wouldn’t say we are rich.”
Fifa said its expenditure for the year was US$863 million, leaving a surplus of US$196 million.
Blatter said one of Fifa’s first moves would be to distribute US$200,000 to each of the 208 national federations. Chile and Haiti, both struck by big earthquakes this year, would get extra money, he said.
In addition, he said, smaller nations would continue to get regular help through Fifa’s development project known as Goal.
Fifa’s finance chief Markus Kattner said the budget for 2011-2014 envisaged a total revenue of US$3.8 billion and expenditure of US$3.6 billion.
He said 74 per cent of expenditure would be spent on football development projects and the organisation of Fifa competitions. — Reuters
Friday, March 12, 2010
The Malaysian Maverick - Ebook
The Malaysian government has not banned the book but it withheld hundreds of copies of the book before it can hit the bookshops, Malaysian people are deprived of the freedom to learn the truth of the Mahathir years. We therefore make the scanned copy of the book available here, to overcome the dirty tactic of the UMNO-BN government. This is clearly a loss of income to the respectable author, Barry Wain. Therefore only low-quality scanned copy is made available. If you can afford it, please purchase your copy from Singapore or Amazon. Thank you.
Chapter 1 PDF
Chapter 2 PDF
Chapter 3 PDF
Chapter 4 PDF
Chapter 5 PDF
Akan datang
Chapter 6 PDF
Chapter 7 PDF
Chapter 8 PDF
Chapter 9 PDF
Chapter 10 PDF
Chapter 11 PDF
Chapter 12 PDF
Chapter 13 PDF
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
World’s mega-rich adding wealth, Carlos Slim No 1
NEW YORK, March 11 — Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim is the world’s richest person, knocking Microsoft founder Bill Gates into second spot, as the wealth of the world’s billionaires grew by 50 per cent over the last year, Forbes magazine said today.
It is only the second time since 1995 that Gates has lost the crown, the magazine said, estimating Slim’s net worth at US$53.5 billion (RM182 billion), compared to Gates’s US$53 billion fortune, while investor Warren Buffett came in at No 3 with US$47 billion.
The trio regained US$41.5 billion of the US$68 billion they had lost the previous year, Forbes said.
The number of billionaires around the world has nearly recovered in 2010 after dropping by a third last year during the global financial crisis. There are now 1,011 billionaires, compared with 793 last year and 1,125 in 2008.
The net wealth of those billionaires grew to US$3.6 trillion from US$2.4 trillion last year, but is still down from 2008’s US$4.4 trillion, according to the 24th annual Forbes list, which took a snapshot of wealth on Feb 12 to compile its ranking.
The average billionaire is now worth US$3.5 billion, up US$500 million from last year. And the number of women on the list rose to 89 from 72 last year.
“The global economy is recovering and it’s reflected in what you see in the list this year,” Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes, told a news conference. “Financial markets have also made an even more impressive comeback from the lows of just about a year ago, particularly in emerging markets.”
“Asia is leading the comeback,” Forbes said.
The number of billionaires in the Asia-Pacific region grew by 80 per cent to 234 and their net worth almost doubled to US$729 billion, which the Forbes ranking attributed to the area’s “swelling stock markets and several large public offerings during the past year.”
Two Indians round out the top five richest people in the world — Mukesh Ambani, with a petrochemicals, oil and gas fortune of US$29 billion, and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who is valued at US$28.7 billion.
The biggest gainer on the list was Brazilian mining magnate Eike Batista, 53, with US$27 billion, up from US$7.5 billion. He made his riches through the initial public offerings of several companies. He is planning to take his shipbuilding and oil services firm OSX public next week in an expected US$5.6 billion offering, which would be Brazil’s second biggest ever IPO.
Of the 97 billionaires making their debut on the Forbes list, 62 are from Asia, while for the first time China is now home to the most billionaires outside of the United States.
“The United States still dominates, but the United States is lagging,” Forbes said. “It is not doing as well as the rest of the world in coming back.”
“The global boom that we experienced from the early 80s ... which was temporarily derailed in 2007, now looks like it is beginning to get back on track. But Asia and a handful of others are surging, relatively the United States and Western Europe are lagging.”
The top homes to billionaires are New York with 60 and Moscow with 50, followed by London with 32.
There are 55 countries represented on the Forbes list with billionaires from Pakistan — clothing exporter Mian Muhammad Mansha — and Finland — manufacturing mogul Antti Herlin — making an appearance for the first time, while Turkey, Russia and India regained billionaire numbers lost last year.
There were 164 billionaires returning to the list in 2010, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is also the world’s youngest with a US$4 billion fortune at the age of 25.
The second-youngest self-made billionaire is Japan’s Yoshikazu Tanaka, 33, who made US$1.4 billion from social networking firm Gree. The oldest is 99-year-old Walter Haefner from Switzerland who has US$3.3 billion.
The sixth-richest man is Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison with US$28 billion. At No 7 is the richest man in Europe, Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury goods group LVMH, who has a fortune of US$27.5 billion.
“The bling is back,” said Forbes Senior Editor Luisa Kroll of Arnault’s wealth.
Rounding out the top 10 is Spanish clothing retailer Inditex founder Amancio Ortega with US$25 billion and German supermarket king Karl Albrecht, who is valued at US$23.5 billion.
While Gates’s and Buffett’s fortunes far exceed most others in the top 10, Forbes Senior Editor Matthew Miller said their fortunes would be far greater if they hadn’t given away a lot of their money.
“They would be far richer today if it wasn’t for their tremendous philanthropy,” he said. “Buffett would be worth at least US$55 billion ... and Gates’ net worth would exceed US$80 billion had it not been for his philanthropy.” — Reuters
It is only the second time since 1995 that Gates has lost the crown, the magazine said, estimating Slim’s net worth at US$53.5 billion (RM182 billion), compared to Gates’s US$53 billion fortune, while investor Warren Buffett came in at No 3 with US$47 billion.
The trio regained US$41.5 billion of the US$68 billion they had lost the previous year, Forbes said.
The number of billionaires around the world has nearly recovered in 2010 after dropping by a third last year during the global financial crisis. There are now 1,011 billionaires, compared with 793 last year and 1,125 in 2008.
The net wealth of those billionaires grew to US$3.6 trillion from US$2.4 trillion last year, but is still down from 2008’s US$4.4 trillion, according to the 24th annual Forbes list, which took a snapshot of wealth on Feb 12 to compile its ranking.
The average billionaire is now worth US$3.5 billion, up US$500 million from last year. And the number of women on the list rose to 89 from 72 last year.
“The global economy is recovering and it’s reflected in what you see in the list this year,” Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes, told a news conference. “Financial markets have also made an even more impressive comeback from the lows of just about a year ago, particularly in emerging markets.”
“Asia is leading the comeback,” Forbes said.
The number of billionaires in the Asia-Pacific region grew by 80 per cent to 234 and their net worth almost doubled to US$729 billion, which the Forbes ranking attributed to the area’s “swelling stock markets and several large public offerings during the past year.”
Two Indians round out the top five richest people in the world — Mukesh Ambani, with a petrochemicals, oil and gas fortune of US$29 billion, and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who is valued at US$28.7 billion.
The biggest gainer on the list was Brazilian mining magnate Eike Batista, 53, with US$27 billion, up from US$7.5 billion. He made his riches through the initial public offerings of several companies. He is planning to take his shipbuilding and oil services firm OSX public next week in an expected US$5.6 billion offering, which would be Brazil’s second biggest ever IPO.
Of the 97 billionaires making their debut on the Forbes list, 62 are from Asia, while for the first time China is now home to the most billionaires outside of the United States.
“The United States still dominates, but the United States is lagging,” Forbes said. “It is not doing as well as the rest of the world in coming back.”
“The global boom that we experienced from the early 80s ... which was temporarily derailed in 2007, now looks like it is beginning to get back on track. But Asia and a handful of others are surging, relatively the United States and Western Europe are lagging.”
The top homes to billionaires are New York with 60 and Moscow with 50, followed by London with 32.
There are 55 countries represented on the Forbes list with billionaires from Pakistan — clothing exporter Mian Muhammad Mansha — and Finland — manufacturing mogul Antti Herlin — making an appearance for the first time, while Turkey, Russia and India regained billionaire numbers lost last year.
There were 164 billionaires returning to the list in 2010, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is also the world’s youngest with a US$4 billion fortune at the age of 25.
The second-youngest self-made billionaire is Japan’s Yoshikazu Tanaka, 33, who made US$1.4 billion from social networking firm Gree. The oldest is 99-year-old Walter Haefner from Switzerland who has US$3.3 billion.
The sixth-richest man is Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison with US$28 billion. At No 7 is the richest man in Europe, Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury goods group LVMH, who has a fortune of US$27.5 billion.
“The bling is back,” said Forbes Senior Editor Luisa Kroll of Arnault’s wealth.
Rounding out the top 10 is Spanish clothing retailer Inditex founder Amancio Ortega with US$25 billion and German supermarket king Karl Albrecht, who is valued at US$23.5 billion.
While Gates’s and Buffett’s fortunes far exceed most others in the top 10, Forbes Senior Editor Matthew Miller said their fortunes would be far greater if they hadn’t given away a lot of their money.
“They would be far richer today if it wasn’t for their tremendous philanthropy,” he said. “Buffett would be worth at least US$55 billion ... and Gates’ net worth would exceed US$80 billion had it not been for his philanthropy.” — Reuters
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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