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No. 4820 PP 2644/12/2009 (023092)

Monday
August 10, 2009
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Saudi shuts
TV offices
over racy
talk show
Smoother transition
THOSE TAUGHT MATHS AND SCIENCE IN ENGLISH
CAN CONTINUE TILL SECONDARY SCHOOL
to move slowly into the new sys-
tem,” he said, addressing concerns
expressed by parents who were
worried that some students would be
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has closed the greatly disadvantaged if the language
offices of a Lebanon-based television ERTH: Students who have of instruction was changed in mid-

channel controlled by a billionaire
reformist tycoon after a national
boasted of his sexual exploits on its
racy talk show Bold Red Line.
The company’s offices in the
commercial capital of Jeddah were
locked shut on Saturday on the
orders of Deputy Prime Minister
AFPPIX
P
been studying mathematics and
science in English can continue
to do so until they finish their
secondary school education, Deputy
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin
Yassin said yesterday.
He said students who had started
learning the two subjects in English
would continue to be taught in
English, and be given the option
and freedom to answer examination
questions in either Bahasa Malaysia
or English.
Muhyiddin, who is education
minister, said the issue had been
raised by his cabinet colleagues.
“We discussed the matter,” he
told Malaysian journalists covering
his five-day working visit to Perth
which ended yesterday.
“I want to allay the concern of
parents. We are adopting a soft
landing approach ... giving a chance
stream.
“They (the parents) should not be
unduly worried,” he said.
Recently, the government had
announced changes to the policy
where the teaching of mathematics
and science would be reverted to
Bahasa Malaysia in national schools,

Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, infor-
mation ministry spokesman Abdul
Rahman al-Hazzaa told AFP.
“It was because of the interview
with Mazen Abdul Jawad,” Hazzaa
added, referring to a July episode in
which Jeddah resident Abdul Jawad
discussed his free-wheeling sex life
and use of sex aids and toys.
The episode outraged conserva-
tives, and Abdul Jawad and two of
his friends who participated in the
show were arrested last week.
Police are studying what charges
to lodge. Saudi Arabia enforces a
strict version of Islamic sharia law,
which could form the basis of a
variety of charges against them.
The government action against
LBC had no immediate effect on
the ability of Saudis to watch the
channel, which is controlled by
liberal Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
But it was highlighted by the
Saudi press, which gave it front-page
coverage.
Abdul Jawad, an employee of
Saudi Airlines in his 30s, appeared on
the provocative weekly talk show in
mid-July discussing how he first had
sex at 14 with a neighbour, used sex
aids and liked to use his cellphone’s
Bluetooth function to try to pick up
women.
A five-minute segment posted on
Youtube showed a casually-dressed
Abdul Jawad lounging around an
apartment apparently in Jeddah with
three friends, and later heading out
in his car ostensibly to cruise the
streets of the Red Sea port. – AFP
and Chinese and Tamil in vernacular
schools from 2012.
The policy was implemented in
phases, beginning with Year One,
Form One and Lower Six students
in 2003.
Meanwhile, commenting on
reports that the education department
had withdrawn permission for the
SMK Sri Hartamas Parent-Teacher
Association (PTA) on Saturday to
convene an extraordinary general
meeting (EGM) to voice their opposi-
tion to the reversal of the policy to use
English as the medium of instruc-
tion for science and mathematics,
Muhyiddin said the department
officers should not have done so.
“We are quite open. They (the
department) should not overreact. I
am sorry. I apologise. I think it is not
fair (to withdraw the permission),”
said Muhyiddin, who expressed the
hope that department officials would
not do such things in future.
He said the objection to the re-
versal of the policy in a way showed
its success, but the government has
to reverse it, taking into considera-
tion the larger interests of students
in the country.
However, education director-
general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd
Dom defended the decision by SMK
Sri Hartamas not to allow its PTA to
Top attraction ... Residents gather to gawk at a bullet riddled farmhouse boarded up by hold the EGM.
authorities in Beji village in Central Java yesterday, a day after police anti-terror commandos laid siege on the He said the school principal had to
suspected terrorist hideout. They killed a male occupant which the local media have identified as the wanted give permission for an EGM and the
Asian terror mastermind Noordin Mat Top. Police believed Noordin was one of four occupants of the remote agenda must be about educational
farmhouse while officials conduct DNA test on the body. Reports on pages 2 & 10. development and not national policy
(see page 4).