4
news without borders
Husna Yusop and Giam Say Khoon at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday
Nasharudin
denies
distancing
No discrimination in PSD
himself from
Nizar
PAS deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa has
scholarship awards: Nazri
THERE is no discrimination in
denied distancing himself from Bukit Gantang new the awarding of Public Services
MP Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin who Department (PSD) scholarships
was suspended after he called for the dissolution of to excellent students, Minister in
the Perak assembly in the House on Monday. the Prime Minister’s Department
When met in the parliament lobby, Nasharudin Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz said.
said Nizar’s actions were aimed at showing the “The government is fair in
world what was transpiring in the Perak assembly. this matter. When it comes to
However, he said, he had not been briefed on the question of excellence, we
Nizar’s proposed action beforehand. do not take into account race,
Asked if he agreed with the move, which resulted in ethnic group, religion or language
Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia suspending the spoken,” he told Lim Kit Siang
former Perak mentri besar for two days, Nasharudin
(DAP-Ipoh Timur).
said: “It was a spontaneous reaction from Nizar. To illustrate his point, Nazri
“It happened, so I would just accept it as it is. said 2,100 students had been
If he had informed us earlier, we would have been offered PSD scholarships for fur-
(more) prepared ... I was caught by surprise.” ther study overseas this year and
Apart from advice, no disciplinary action would of these, 1,176 were bumiputra
be taken against Nizar, he said. and 924 non-bumiputra.
PAS vice-president and Kubang Krian MP “Of the total, 417 awards were
Salahuddin Ayub said the suspension of three PAS for academic excellence, and of
MPs for two days was clear evidence of the party’s these, 135 (32%) were for bumi-
support for Nizar in his effort to have the Perak putra students, and 282 (68%) for
assembly dissolved.
non-bumiputras. So, there is no
“It was a spontaneous act by Nizar and showed
discrimination just because they
the seriousness of the situation in Perak,” he said.
are brown, yellow or black,” he
Khalid Samad (PAS-Shah Alam) also described
Nizar’s move as spontaneous as he had not dis-
said.
cussed his intention with the party. “As we can see, 68% of stu-
“I can understand his (Nizar’s) frustration.
He considers what happened in Perak a big
issue and a total disregard for the law. I think he
wanted MPs to realise that they are expected to up- What say you ...
hold their oath to defend the law and that includes
procedures of the Perak assembly,” he said.
Khalid said many MPs would agree that a point
Newsmen surround
Home Minister Datuk Seri
had to be made. Hishammuddin Hussein in
the parliament lobby for
Population, housing census
next year
comment on the suspension
of newly sworn-in Bukit
Gantang MP Datuk Seri
PUTRAJAYA: The Statistics Department will carry Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.
out a population and housing census next year, a He said it was good
scale census conducted every 10 years. that the Speaker had acted
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan
against Nizar for raising in
Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the government had
the House the issue of the
allocated RM212 million to conduct a census on
impasse in the Perak state
population, income, housing and others.
assembly, as it was time that
He said 29,000 part-time workers would be
MPs worked together and
employed to carry out the exercise for a year.
moved forward.
“Another 4,500 workers are being hired to
Hishammuddin said the
implement earlier projects under the Statistics
public wanted to see mature
Department,” he told reporters after launching the
debate among MPs. He said
Statistics Department’s 60 Years Celebration at the
he hoped such incidents
PICC here yesterday. – Bernama
would not recur and damage
the image of parliament.
briefs
Houses for
Felda settlers
THE proposal to build houses in
Felda settlements will enable a
new generation of settlers to own
houses and minimise a subsidy
borne by the government, Deputy
Minister in the Prime Minister’s
Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan
said.
“The government will be able to
minimise the burden of subsidising
infrastructure facilities in Felda
settlements and at the same time
allow more settlers to own houses,”
he said in reply to Datuk Abdul
Manan Ismail (BN-Paya Besar)
during question time.
For a start, Ahmad said, the
government planned to build apart-
ments in Jengka 11 in Pahang.
Several housing projects for
1,910 units had also been approved
in Jengka 19, Chini 3 and Triang 3 in
Pahang, Neram 1 in Terengganu and
Ciku 5 in Kelantan. Four of these
projects had been completed.
Year No. of recipients Bumiputra
2000 748 598
2001 761 609
2002 1,249 999
2003 1,643 1,314
2004 1,484 1,187
2005 1,300 1,040
2006 1,500 1,143
2007 1,800 1,170
2008 2000 1,100
dents in the academic excellence
category were non-bumiputra.”
Lim had, in a supplementary
question, asked why there was
injustice in the awarding of PSD
scholarships, citing the case of
a Chinese student in Johor who
scored 12As in the Sijil Pelajaran
Malaysia exam but was not given
a scholarship.
Nazri said Lim must under-
stand that although many students
scored straight As, the number of
scholarships was limited to 2,100.
Ahmad said the housing fa-
cilities would encourage settlers
to remain in the settlements and
prevent migration into urban
areas. – Bernama
Two bills withdrawn
TWO bills scheduled to be
tabled for second reading have
been withdrawn from the cur-
rent parliament sitting.
The Destitute Persons
Bill (Amendment) 2008 was
withdrawn by Deputy Women,
Family and Community Devel-
opment Minister Datin Paduka
Chew Mei Fun, and the Malay-
sian Timber Industry Board Bill
(Incorporation) (Validation) 2009
by Deputy Plantation Industries
and Commodities Minister
Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin.
No reason was given for the
withdrawals.
Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh
Timur) attempted to obtain an
explanation for the withdraw-
als, saying it showed a lack
of seriousness on the govern-
ment’s part.
However, Deputy Speaker
Datuk Ronald Kiandee said a
withdrawal of bills was allowed
in the House.
theSun | WEDNESDAY JUNE 17 2009
and the socially disadvantaged.
Non-bumiputra Total sum (RM in mlns) “Also, academic excellence
150 109 is based on a maximum of nine
152 96 main subjects, according to the
course of study applied for. This
250 116
is to ensure a level playing field.”
329 253 He said some schools such
297 281 as fully residential schools and
260 391 Mara junior science colleges
357 436 restrict the number of subjects
630 461 a student can take owing to the
limited number of teachers.
900 659
To another question from
Tan, Nazri said that only a small
To a question from Tan Ah Eng number of PSD-sponsored stu-
(BN-Gelang Patah) earlier, Nazri dents delayed their return home
said the government had come to work in the public service.
up with new policies this year to “Generally, every year a few
address the imbalance in the of them fail to return home, but
awarding of PSD scholarships and we view this positively because
problems in relation to the Overseas they could perhaps gain more
Degree Programme Scholarship. experience by working in devel-
“On Jan 14, the government oped countries. Eventually, they
decided that the JPA (PSD) spon- would still have to return and
sorship would be allocated based work with the government.
on four categories – academic “I don’t have the percentage of
excellence, racial population, this group, but the number is not
Sabah and Sarawak bumiputras, worrying.”
Govt serious
in tackling
conversion
issue: Nazri
AMENDMENTS to the laws
which will dictate that children of
parents, where one of them opts
to convert, must be raised in the
common religion at the time of
marriage will be tabled in Parlia-
ment during the current meeting
which is scheduled to end on June
30.
The laws are the Law Reform
ZULKIFLI ERSAL/THESUN
(Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976,
Islamic Law (Federal Territories)
Act 1993 and Islamic Family (Fed-
eral Territories) Act 1984.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s
Department Datuk Seri Nazri Ab-
dul Aziz said Attorney-General Tan
Sri Abdul Gani Patail had briefed
the cabinet committee on conver-
‘No favouritism in sion on the legislative changes on
agricultural aid’ May 5.
THERE is no practice of favouritism
in the selection of participants or
He said the setting up of the
cabinet committee proved that
aid distribution for projects under the government viewed the mat-
ter seriously.
the Agriculture and Agro-based
Industry Ministry, minister Datuk “Among others, the changes
involved annulment of marriage,
Noh Omar said.
children custody, children and
He said all farmers were enti-
tled to get fertilisers for their farms wife’s maintenance as well as
or any other aid regardless of their distribution of marriage assets,”
political beliefs. he said in reply to an adjournment
“We ask only that application speech by M. Kulasegaran (DAP-
forms be verified or supported Ipoh Barat).
by the village development and In April, Nazri announced the
security committee chairman, cabinet’s decision following the
the federal village development case of Indra Ghandhi who had
and security committee chairman sought the help of the Hindu
for Selangor, Kedah and Penang, Sangam branch in Ipoh after her
or the sub-district development husband K. Patmanathan (now
superviser for Kelantan. Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah) con-
“The support, however, must verted their three children with-
be based on merit,” Noh said out their presence and without
in response to a supplementary informing her.
question from Noraini Ahmad Kulasegaran, in his speech,
(BN-Parit Sulong). asked what happened to the
To an original question from committee and when the legal
Amran Abd Ghani (PKR-Tanah amendments would be made.
Merah), he said the govern- He also accused the govern-
ment would continue to use its ment of not being serious but
own channels at the state and more of having a political agenda
district levels for aid distribution because to date, the decision has
without depending on state- yet to be implemented.
appointed agencies. – Bernama