6 theSun | TUESDAY JUNE 2 2009

news without borders

Another debtor tells

of being locked up
FOLLOWING the which she later learnt
recent rescue of three were used to sound
debtors who were Press Digest proof the room.
chained and locked up by Kong See Hoh She said she was
by along in a shophouse newsdesk@thesundaily.com chained at the neck
in Seri Kembangan for and given only bread
up to two months, a and water and a bucket
young woman came forward on Sunday to ease herself. She said loanshark runners
to tell of a similar ordeal she endured in slapped her until her face became swol-
October last year. len.
The 27-year-old mother of one was Huang lost all sense of time in the room
luckier – she was freed after family mem- and had no idea exactly how many days she
Abortion
bers settled her debts three days after she was locked up until she was released after doctor
shot dead
was abducted. her family paid RM4,000 for the RM2,000
Relating her story to Oriental Daily News, she had borrowed.
the woman – identified only by her sur- But that was not the end of her story.
in Kansas Sabah pygmy elephant
name Huang – said she initially borrowed She said that moments after she was
RM2,000, but the sum soon snowballed dumped near her house, another loan-
church
pg 8
for National Zoo
and she had to borrow more from other shark picked her up and took her to a KUALA LUMPUR: The National Zoo which insectarium and aviary,” he said.
loansharks. low-budget hotel in Pudu where she was is working on diversifying its attractions Ismail said the aquarium was expected
According to the report, Huang was confined in a room. plans to bring in the pygmy elephant from to be fully operational by the year’s end
being taken in a car by along runners to Her captors told her they would keep Sabah. and would not only showcase freshwater
see their boss when she was abducted by her there until her family settled her debts, Malaysian Zoological Association fish such as jelawat (pink tailed barb),
another group of along during a toilet stop but Huang gave them the slip and went into president Ismail Hutson said the pygmy baung (mystus nemurus) and patin (silver
at a petrol station near Sungai Besi. hiding. elephant, which could only be found catfish), but also prawns.
She was blindfolded and taken to an The loanshark resorted to shame tactics in Sabah, would be a major attraction The zoo has 5,437 animals from 482
unknown place where she was locked up and put up posters of her in many areas of especially for children. species.
in a room. the city. The harassment stopped only after “The National Zoo is intensifying Ismail also said the zoo was working
Huang said the room was pitch dark Huang’s family settled her debts which had efforts to diversify its attractions, includ- with the Tourism Ministry to promote
and empty, its walls lined with egg cartons, snowballed to more than RM30,000. ing setting up a freshwater fish aquarium, itself as a tourist attraction. – Bernama

Flu takes its toll on travel agency

THE A(H1N1) flu virus has claimed an
unwitting victim – a local travel agency
which has ceased operations after its
business nosedived by 90% in the last two
months.
For Travel Shoppe Sdn Bhd, which was
already reeling from the spillover effects of
the global economic crisis, the flu pandemic
was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“Most of the tours undertaken by Travel
Shoppe were to destinations in Southeast
Asia and China.
“With some of these countries being
declared flu-hit zones, on top of fears that
airports could be high-risk areas, many
would-be tourists decided against travel-
ling, thus greatly reducing the number
of our customers,” a spokesman for the
agency’s board of directors told Sin Chew
Daily on Sunday.
He said many who had signed up for
Chain e-mail issue resolved: EPF
tours cancelled their trips and had to be PETALING JAYA: An e-mail
refunded. alleging distress, frustration
The spokesman said the board of direc- and inconvenience caused
tors had tried its best to salvage the situation to a woman and her family
and turn things around but failed, and “we by the Employees Provident
have no choice but to stop breathing”. Fund when she attempted to
He said it was not fair to draw a compar- collect her deceased mother’s
ison between Travel Shoppe and another the contributions was base-
travel agency which went bust in 2007 after less and the matter has been
its funds were embezzled. resolved, EPF deputy chief
In a statement on Sunday, Travel Shoppe executive officer (Finance
said that as of last Saturday it had contacted and Customer Care) Hizwani
98% of its clients to explain the situation Hassan said.
and to help them make insurance claims. “EPF wishes to refer to a
It said the cessation of operations was to chain email from a member
facilitate the takeover and restructuring of claiming that the fund had
the company. lost her mother’s nomina-
tion and caused distress and
inconvenience to both her
father and her,” he said in a
statement.
Hizwani said that as an
organisation committed to
safeguarding the welfare of
its members, the EPF had
immediately embarked on
an investigation upon rec-
eiving the chain email from
concerned members.
“While we did not receive
the email from the original
sender, our investigation
successfully led us to her.
“It was found that the
sender’s father, who was the
named nominee, had already
withdrawn the EPF savings
of her mother.”
The EPF contacted both
father and daughter who
confirmed the situation, he
said.
The case was therefore
deemed to have been res-
olved and the daughter had
expressed her gratitude at
the actions taken by the EPF,
Hizwani said.
“We wish to advise mem-
bers not to forward emails
they receive regarding the
EPF that could lead to specu-
lation and unnecessary panic
among members,” he said.
Members are urged to
approach the fund directly
for queries or clarifications.
Visit any of the EPF’s 62
branches nationwide or
contact the Call Manage-
ment Centre at 03-8922 6000.
Alternatively, post your
enquiries at http://enquiry.
kwsp.gov.my.

Penang: International city

GEORGE TOWN: The state government has
set out to develop a blueprint for the transfor-
mation of Penang into an “international city”
by the end of the year.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the
blueprint would help arrest the “graceful
decline” of the state and the brain drain which
has inflicted it over the past 18 years.
“We want important stakeholders to be
involved in the production of a blueprint for
the future,” he said. “Looking ahead, it is criti-
cal to reverse the trend (decline).”
Lim said the development of the blueprint,
based on the “cornerstones” of political lead-
ership, economic transformation and human
capital, had been a progressive effort by the
state since last year.
Penang’s progress has slowed in various
sectors over the last few years, he said, point-
ing out as an example a reduction of the rela-
tive income of Penangites in recent years.
“Between 1999 and 2004, Penang family
incomes grew by 2.5% annually, while the
average for the whole country was 6.6%.
“In 1999, our income was 85% of what
Selangor residents were making. Just five
years after that, in 2004, we were earning
only 68% of what Klang Valley residents
made, Lim said after officiating the opening
of the Penang Outlook Forum 2009, themed
“Restructuring and Reshaping Penang”, at the
E&O Hotel yesterday.
The two-day forum organised by the
Socio-Economic and Environmental Research
Institute is being attended by over 200 partici-
pants including state executive councillors,
assemblymen, members of parliament and
municipal councillors.
The blueprint would also address family,
career, health and retirement plans to make
the state suited to economic as well as socio-
cultural activities.
“The blueprint is based on sustainable
development, focusing on eight key meas-
ures,” Lim said.
These measures encompass institution
building; a sound education programme; civil
society; innovation, research and develop-
ment; international benchmarks; reinventing
the government to work better with reduced
cost; maximising human capital; and adopt-
ing a public-private partnership model with a
win-win situation.
Lim said the institute’s chairman Datuk Dr
Sharom Ahmat and the organising chairman
of the conference, Bukit Bendera MP Liew
Chin Tong, would assist in the drafting of the
blueprint.