theSun | TUESDAY JUNE 2 2009
news without borders
Make
precise
decisions,
civil
servants
told
PUTRAJAYA: The govern-
ment has planned many
social physical programmes
but there is an urgent need to
prioritise the tasks within a
targeted time, Deputy Prime
Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin
Yassin said yesterday.
“While making quick
decisions are crucial and
important, the decisions must
also be precise,” he said in his
address at the Prime Minister’s
Department’s monthly staff
gathering.
Muhyiddin said Prime
Minister Datuk Seri Najib
Abdul Razak had lined up an
array of development tasks
covering education reforms,
economy, social changes and
others.
“All are important but
we need to see how we can
implement these effectively
to give the rakyat what they
want.
“We must carry out our
tasks responsibly, consider-
ately, sympathetically and
effectively.
The expectations of the
rakyat today are high, more so
during the current challenging
economic times,” he said.
“This is why we have to
address the issues at hand
efficiently so that no rakyat
is oppressed, ignored or
displaced from our efforts to
develop the country.
“And this is our biggest
challenge as members of the
administration to ensure that
all our solutions trickle down
to every layer of the rakyat,”
he said.
Muhyiddin said if things
failed to move, it was the
government that would have
to face the consequences.
He also outlined the impor-
tance of cooperation between
the various agencies in the
department to complete the
tasks and spend the alloca-
tions effectively for positive
results.
“What we have is collective
responsibility. No agency can
work on its own without the
participation of others, thus
it is important for us to have
a close working relationship
with one another.”
Muhyiddin said the current
main task is to steer the coun-
try out and away from the
global economic downturn.
M’sia looks at Indian method of teaching hadith
NEW DELHI: Malaysian Islamic
scholars are studying India’s method
of propagating the hadith and plans
are afoot to set up a hadith centre
based on the Indian model.
A delegation from the Islamic
Development Department Malaysia
(Jakim) led by Federal Territory
mufti Datuk Wan Zahidi Wan Teh
visited two Islamic institutions in
the northern state of Uttar Pradesh
to get a deeper understanding of the
teaching methods of the hadith – the
words and deeds of the prophet.
Voters tired of PKR antics: Muhyiddin
by Maria J. Dass
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PUTRAJAYA: The low voter turnout
in the Penanti by-election on Sunday
is an indication of how tired the voters
are of Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s antics,
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhy-
iddin Yassin said yesterday.
He also said the Barisan Nasional
USM asks for report on ‘technical error’
by Bernard Cheah
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
GEORGE TOWN: Universiti Sains
Malaysia has called on its departments
which were involved in the “technical
error” involving applicants for entry to
the Apex-status university to produce a
report on the matter.
Acting vice-chancellor Prof Ahmad
Shukri Mustapa Kamal said yesterday
the report will be given to the univer-
sity administration and the Higher
Education Ministry.
“We regret that the error had oc-
curred, which has caused a lot of prob-
lems for applicants and their parents.”
He also said that the Higher Educa-
tion Ministry will set up a special task-
force to look into the issue.
“We will cooperate with the task
force on the investigation,” he said.
On Sunday, some 200 applicants
with their parents turned up at the
university only to discover that they
The group held discussions with
scholars from the Darul-Uloom
Deoband and the Nadwatul Ulama
in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar
Pradesh, last week.
“We want to understand more of
the concept, methodology and the
curriculum of teaching the hadith
in these two private institutions,”
Wan Zahidi told Bernama.
“India’s way of propagating
the hadith is still in its traditional
form and had produced some good
scholars and clerics.
would be taking a “new approach”
when campaigning for the upcoming
the majority dwindled even without
the Barisan Nasional’s participation,”
Manek Urai by-election. he said, adding that this was a sign that
“The people are bored with what
PKR is doing and the results of the
the BN still enjoyed some support in
Penanti.
Penanti by-election are a clear indica-
tion of this,” he told reporters after a great, because without a BN candidate,
visit to the Malaysian Maritime En- it should have been able to garner
forcement Agency here.
“Although the PKR candidate won,
more votes.”
were not among the 3,599 who were
offered places in the university.
However, the university had “ac-
cidentally” displayed the names of
8,173 eligible candidates, who met
the minimum criteria for enrolment
into the university’s programmes, on
Friday. Upon discovering the technical
error, the university had uploaded the
correct list the following day.
Those who made it into the pro-
grammes were either contacted via
short message service (SMS) or called
by the university. An offer letter has
been sent to the 3,599 successful ap-
plicants as well.
“We are finalising the list of appli-
cants who accepted the university’s of-
fer and sending them to the University
Admission Unit (UPU). We also hope
that the rest (who did not get the offer)
will be evaluated by UPU,” Ahmad
Shurki said.
The university will hold discussions
with UPU to allow other qualified ap-
“The government wants to set
up a house of hadith in Malaysia
this year and we are looking at the
Indian concept.”
Wan Zahidi said the centre
is likely to be set up at the Darul
Quran, a training institute in Kuala
Kubu Baru, Selangor.
“We want Malaysia to develop
in all aspects, we need a balanced
development, not only materialistic
development like in the West. So a
person can be a professional and
also know the teachings of the
“So PKR cannot claim that it is
In the by-election, which registered
Muhyiddin chats with the
ministers in the Prime
Minister’s Department at
the monthly gathering.
plicants to take the places of successful
applicants who have rejected offers
from the university, he said at a press
conference in USM here.
For any inquiries on the matter, the
university can be contacted at 04-653
3141, 04-653 3327 or via e-mail at
admissions@notes.usm.my
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister
(II) Prof Dr P. Ramasamy lamented
how USM could have made such a
mistake.
He expressed hope that the univer-
sity would help ensure that applicants
who failed to secure a place in the
university will be accommodated into
other universities through the UPU.
“We (the state government) are fol-
lowing up on this,” he said, adding that
DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang will bring
up the matter with Higher Education
Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled
Nordin and the relevant authorities
during the upcoming parliament seat-
ing.
Quran and the hadith. This is very
important,” he said.
Established in 1866, Darul-
Uloom provides religious teachings
to about 4,000 students. Kelantan
Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz
Nik Mat was an alumnus of this
centre.
India is home to nearly 150
million Muslims and Darul-Uloom
is considered a major religious
and academic centre which dis-
seminates Islam to the world.
– Bernama
3
a voter turnout of only 46.15%, PKR’s
Penang deputy chairman, Dr Mansor
Othman, obtained 6,052 votes, beating
his nearest rival, independent Nai-
Kan Ari, by 5,558 votes. Two other
independents, Aminah Abdullah and
Kamarul Ramizu Idris, received 392
and 56 votes respectively.
Muhyiddin said the results also
showed that the people did not like to
be played out in terms of the demo-
cratic systems in place.
“The voters nowadays are very
knowledgeable and qualified to make
assessments on what is brought up
during the campaigning, whether
these are the truth or lies,” he said.
“They (PKR) actually took this
platform to hit out at the BN and not
to speak about their aims and plans
for the people there. But the signal is
quite clear that the voters are fed up
with this sort of stuff.”
On the forthcoming Manek Urai
by-election, Muhyiddin said: “We are
going to use a new approach and we
are already moving in as it is important
for us to get close to the people.
“We will be introducing new ways
of dealing with the voters to get the
utmost impact.
“I’m responsible for this and we
have a very good team led by (Ke-
lantan Umno liaison chief) Datuk
Mustapa Mohamed and we hope with
this new approach we will get the best
results.”
Earlier, Muhyiddin said the Malay-
sian Maritime Enforcement Agency
is well-equipped to carry out its task
of monitoring the waters around the
country.
“They are hoping to increase their
personnel strength to 5,000 from the
present 4,012,” he said, adding that
the Public Services Department has
been tasked to look for the additional
personnel.
‘Community
college
graduates
more likely
to get jobs’
SHAH ALAM: Community col-
lege diploma holders stand a
better chance when seeking jobs
since they are equipped with
vocational training and technical
skills, Deputy Higher Education
Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdul-
lah said on Sunday.
He said the diplomas were
issued on work-based learning,
whereby undergraduates also
received input from industries
when undergoing practical train-
ing at their places.
“It looks like most of them
are already assured of employ-
ment at places where they had
undergone practical training
even before their graduation.
This is proof of the value of such
diplomas,” Saifuddin said after
handing out diplomas to 301
students from 11 community
colleges nationwide at the Sul-
tan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah
Polytechnic here.
The recipients are the pioneer
batch graduating from the col-
leges since such courses were
introduced in 2007.
Saifuddin said companies pre-
ferred to employ those who had
gained experience during practi-
cal training in their factories.
Diploma programmes offered
at such colleges vary from auto-
motive, fashion and design, and
hotel and catering to computer
technology and electrical tech-
nology. – Bernama