10  theSun | WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 25 2009

news without borders

M’sians dissatisfied with sex

by Loo Sim Ee
newsdesk@thesundaily.com

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian men and women in

general, it appears, are not satisfied with their sex
lives, with 62% of men and 73% of women having said
so in a survey. Only 38% of men and 27% of women
said they were completely or very satisfied.
The Asia Pacific Sexual Health and Overall Well-
ness survey indicated that Malaysians were more
dissatisfied with sex than their counterparts in 12
other Asian countries, with the average result in
13 countries showing that 57% of men and 64% of
women were not very satisfied with their sex lives.
It also found a correlation between the levels
of erection hardness (EH) and sexual satisfaction in
men, based on the Erection Hardness Score (EHS)
developed by the European Association of Urology.
About 40% of Malaysian men who reported hav-
ing lower EHS scores (grades 1-3) are not satisfied
with sex, and thus engaged in less intercourse,
compared with 60% who claimed to have a grade
4 EHS score, showing that greater satisfaction with
EH is linked to greater satisfaction with sex.
According to the survey, the importance of sex
did not diminish as Malaysians aged, with 58% of
men and 57% of women over 40 saying sex is still
important.
Conducted by Pfizer in the Asian region from
May to July last year, it was aimed at collating
information on the sexual health and well-being of
men and women in the Asia Pacific.
Missing man found buried in another man’s grave
by Charles Ramendran
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
KUALA LUMPUR: A man who was reported miss-
ing more than three months ago was yesterday
found murdered and his remains buried in a grave
that belonged to another dead person, in a Chinese
cemetery in Port Dickson.
The mystery of the missing man was solved
following the arrest of 11 men by Kuala Lumpur
police over the last two days.
Kuala Lumpur CID chief SAC II Ku Chin Wah said
that on Monday nine men believed to be members
of the notorious 08 Gang were arrested and police
recovered two loaded semi-automatic pistols and
2kg of ganja from them.
The survey – conducted in an online ques-
tionnaire – also seeks to understand where sex
ranks on a list of life priorities and to explore the
hypothesis that better sex is associated with more
MIC members protest
outside Gerakan HQ
intimate and better relationships, health, self-image
and a happier life. A total of 102 Malaysian men and
100 women aged 24 to 75 took part.
Survey consultant and researcher Dr Rosie King
said the reason Malaysians are dissatisfied with sex
is that it did not rank very high in a list of 17 priorities.
Men ranked sex at number 8, and women at 14.
“Fewer than half of Malaysian men and 58%
of women who are completely or very satisfied
with sex had described their health as excellent or
very good, proving a strong association between
satisfaction with sex and positive perceptions of
physical health,” she said.
The Asian regional results showed that India has
the highest number of men and women satisfied
with sex – with 70% completely or very satisfied
with their sex lives – and Japan the lowest, with
just 10% reporting satisfaction.
King, also a sex therapist and relationship
counsellor, said there was a slight uniformity in
the survey, with all participants concerned about
sexual satisfaction, which could influence their
satisfaction with other life priorities.
“The results convey a strong message that
sexual health is equally important to the overall Atchuthan (right) with
quality of life as any other part of life is, and it is protesters.
important for people to talk about and seek help
for issues with sexual health.”
by Himanshu Bhatt and Bernard Cheah Gerakan as the media had already been alerted.
newsdesk@thesundaily.com Samy Vellu was touring Bukit Selambau,
GEORGE TOWN: A small group of MIC
where a state by-election is scheduled for April
7, when a message asking MIC supporters to
He said in a follow-up operation two more men members staged a protest in front of the gather outside Gerakan’s Penang headquarters
were caught and police learnt that they were be- Penang Gerakan headquarters yesterday despite was circulated.
hind the death of the missing man, who was shot a call by MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu “I don’t support this,” he later told reporters
and killed at an apartment in Sungai Besi. to refrain from doing so. in Sungai Petani.
Ku said early yesterday, investigators assisted Led by MIC Reservoir Gardens branch chief “I told them not to do it, but youth are like that.
by the police forensics team and members of the M.K. Atchuthan, they demanded that Gerakan We have already settled this matter at the national
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital pathology and its president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon apolo- level,” he said, asking party members to consult
department went to the cemetery and exhume the gise for comments made on Samy Vellu’s status him before acting on any sensitive matter.
body of the missing man from the grave identified as MIC president. After visiting villages and Tamil schools in
by the suspects. “Outsiders have no right to comment on Bukit Selambau, Samy Vellu held a special meet-
He said the victim’s brother had lodged a police internal party members,” Atchuthan said in the ing with the parent-teacher associations of nine
report in Seri Kembangan in November last year presence of reporters and policemen. Tamil schools in the area at a hotel here.
over the disappearance of the man. The group was responding to Gerakan vice- Also present were Kedah MIC chairman
Yesterday, the brother identified the remains president Huan Cheng Guan’s call to Samy Vellu Datuk V. Saravanan and deputy chairman Datuk
as that of his kin from a necklace found on the to step down to make way for younger people. S. Ganeson.
body. Asked if they were aware of Samy Vellu’s Pressed for details of MIC’s shortlisted
request that the protest be called off, the pro- candidates for the by-election, he said the party
testers said they were. had yet to submit names to Prime Minister and
Atchuthan explained that the group had de- Barisan Nasional president Datuk Seri Abdullah
cided to peacefully present a memorandum to Ahmad Badawi.

Bosses’ contribution to
HRDF may be halved
KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Resource Minis-
try is considering a 50% reduction in employers’
contribution to the Human Resource Develop-
ment Fund (HRDF) in an effort to alleviate their
burden in an economic slowdown, minister
Datuk S. Subramaniam said here yesterday.
He said employers currently contributed
about RM400 million annually to the fund – set
up to train and retrain workers – and a 50%
reduction would allow them to save some
RM200 million.
“All industries have to contribute an HRDF
levy except for the electronic, electrical and
textile industries. These three have been
given an exemption for six months from Feb
1, one that could be extended depending
on economic conditions. All other industries
contribute 1% of the total of their employees’
salary. We are thinking of reducing this to 0.5%,”
he told reporters after opening the Federation
of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) Industrial
Relations Conference 2009.
Subramaniam also said the government
was ready to retrain some 80,000 workers
expected to be laid off by the end of the year.
Some 20,000 people have lost their jobs since
October last year.
“They can be trained in skills relating to the
industry in which they had worked. That way,
they can remain in the same line of expertise
when the situation normalises. Now what we
have to do is identify a mechanism to prevent
complete retrenchment. While in training, these
workers will be given an allowance.
“I have asked the FMM to help in drawing
up a formal mechanism for the operation of
the scheme as we do not want it to be abused.
It would be a win-win situation, where work-
ers get trained and the industry gets a better
trained worker.” – Bernama

By-election for Batang Ai state seat

KUCHING: There will be another by-
election, the fifth since the general
election last March. This follows the
death of Batang Ai assemblyman
Datuk Dublin Unting Ingkot (pix)
yesterday, nine months after a stroke
that left him in a coma.
Unting, 55, who was state sports
and agriculture assistant minister and
Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) vice-presi-
dent, was hospitalised after the stroke
in May last year. He is survived by his
wife Datin Froline Moriah Demies
Impoi, two sons and a daughter.
Election Commission chairman
Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said
there had to be a by-election as the
Sarawak state assembly was only
over two years old and according to
the state constitution the assembly’s
term would end in July 2011. “Which
means there are more than two years
to go. So a by-election is necessary,”
he said in Putrajaya.
In the last state election in 2006,
Unting won the predominantly Iban
seat in Sarawak’s south after defeat-
ing Nicholas Bawin Anggat of the
Sarawak National Party with a 806-
vote majority. – Bernama