4 theSun
news without borders
1Malaysia banana leaf food festival for Deepavali in London
LONDON: For the first time, a Ma-
laysian restaurant which has been
operating in London for four years, is
organising a “Banana Leaf Food Festi-
val” based on the 1Malaysia concept
in conjunction with the Deepavali
celebration.
The festival will be held at the
briefs
Tips from police for a
safe Deepavali
KUALA LUMPUR: The public was advised
to take precautionary measures to safe-
guard their property before leaving for the
Deepavali celebrations and not to depend
too much on the police.
Selangor deputy police chief Datuk
Thaiveegan Arumugam said that besides
informing their neighbours before leaving
home, they should also inform the local
police station, switch off the porch lights,
and inform the newspaper and bread
vendors to stop delivery.
These were basic and simple steps
which the people should know and ap-
ply, he said after concluding the T Baton
course at the Gombak police headquar-
ters here yesterday.
He said the police would do their
rounds but they could no be focusing on
particular persons or places at all times.
– Bernama
More parents want
children sent for NS stint
TAWAU: More parents are now keen
to have their children sent for National
Service (NS) Training programme,
National Service Training Department
(PLKN) Director-General Datuk Abdul
Hadi Awang Kechil said.
He said some parents, whose chil-
dren’s names were not in the list of
those called up for NS training, would
appeal to the department so that their
children would get to participate in
the programme.
In fact, he said, the department
was now busy entertaining requests
from parents, including ministers and
deputy ministers, for their children
to be included in the NS training
programme.
“The society’s perception of the
programme has changed, from the
Awana Restaurant at 85 Sloane Av-
enue, London, from now until Oct 21.
Owner of Awana Restaurant, Eddie
Lim, said the festival was organised
to promote local Malaysian cuisine
in London, as well as to celebrate
Deepavali Malaysian style.
“Although Awana Restaurant has
early stage when parents gave vari-
ous excuses so that their children will
be exempted from the programme,”
he added after closing a workshop on
character building for NS trainers at
the San Shui PLKN camp here yester-
day.
A total of 3,816 NS trainers partici-
pated in the workshop. – Bernama
‘Army personnel must
pursue higher education’
KUALA LUMPUR: It is imperative that
members of the armed forces (ATM)
pursue higher education in various fields
to enable them to be competent and
efficient in managing high-technology
equipment.
Army chief Jen Tan Sri Muhammad
Ismail Jamaluddin said knowledge and
education, whether military or academic,
was important in battling sophisticated
and contemporary war strategies.
“The military’s sophisticated technol-
ogy equipment is not a fac-
tor in winning a conflict or
war, but it is driven by skills
and knowledge,” he said
at the launch of ‘Karnival
Pembangunan Minda ATM
2009’ here yesterday.
Muhammad Ismail said
the ATM Higher Educa-
tion Scheme, which was
introduced in 1980 for
officers and other ranked
personnel, had produced
almost 3,000 graduates
to date.
The graduates
comprised those with
diploma and PhD in
various fields.
The army chief also
disclosed that 608
armed forces person-
nel had graduated in
Information Technol-
ogy Management from
the K-Force distance
learning programme.
– Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR
Saturday - 24 Oct 2009
11am - 1.30pm
Venue : Plaza Pantai, KL
Admission is FREE (KL)
but strictly by registration only due to limited space.
Website: www.welnex.com
been serving halal Malaysian cuisine restaurant.
since it began operating in 2005, the In conjunction with the festival,
festival is organised to bring Malaysian customers would be served food
food closer to local residents as well like varuval (chicken), meen poriyal
as tourists,” he said. (fried fish) and sambar (dhal curry) on
He said the 1Malaysia concept in banana leaves.
the festival would be reflected with A pre-launch of the festival was
the unity shown by customers at the held last Saturday and the guests in-
TI-M to hold EGM
to address problems
Jobless
rate to go
down 4%
by year-
end
by Maria J.Dass
pg 6 newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PETALING JAYA: Transparency Internation-
al Malaysia (TI-M)’s executive council (exco)
has decided to convene an extraordinary
general meeting (EGM) as soon as possible
to address issues plaguing the organisation
and to step down and pave the way for new
elections, if necessary.
The decision to convene an
EGM was made during an exco
meeting on Monday night, act-
ing president Datuk Mohamed
Iqbal told theSun.
“The meeting was to ratify
and endorse decisions made at
the Oct 5 meeting where TI-M
president Datuk Paul Low re-
signed,” he said.
“The decision to hold an EGM
was made because the exco felt
that members needed an explana-
tion about the issues at hand,” he
added.
TI-M has been mirred in con-
troversy following the publication
of the Transparency International’s
Global Corruption Report (GCR)
2009 on Sept 23, 2009.
The release of the report by Low
without the consent of the exco, and
the resulting fallout eventually, led
to his resignation.
Mohamed Iqbal, in his state-
ment, defended the integrity of the
organisation, which he said has been
questioned by various parties and
subjected to unfounded allegations,
of late.
He maintained that the report had un-
dergone all the necessary checks including
double-blind peer review, fact checking and
libel check, which are standard procedures
applied to the entire report, carried out by the
Koh hopes Malaysia’s ranking
in e-govt implementation rises
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s 11th ranking worldwide
in the implementation of e-government should
not make civil servants complacent, Minister in
the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Dr Koh
Tsu Koon said.
He said although Malaysia’s improved ranking
Saturday - 14 Nov 2009 from 25th in 2007 to 11th last year was good,
11am - 1.30pm countries like the Dominican Republic and Brazil
Venue : Plaza Pantai, KL
had done better, coming in 9th and 10th respec-
tively.
“We hope that the high commitment placed
on the 1Malaysia concept – People First, Perform-
ance Now – will further improve our ranking,” he
said after opening the 1e-Government Conference
2009 at Putrajaya International Convention Centre
(PICC) here yesterday.
The minister was commenting on Malaysia’s
achievement based on the grading index study on
the electronic government by Brookings Institute
of the United States.
He said Malaysia’s ranking for this year would
46-48/52 be known by the end of the month or latest by
| WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 14 2009
cluded fashion designers, Datuk Jimmy
Choo and Datuk Bernard Chandran,
and artiste Gabrielle, whose popular
songs include Dreams, Rise and Out
Of Reach and Beverley Knight.
Lim said the festival could be
viewed at www.awana.co.uk. – Ber-
nama
TI secretariat in Berlin, Germany.
He said the TI secretariat’s GCR editorial
team sent the final draft of the report (pending
libel check) to TI-Malaysia, as well as to report
author Greg Lopez and Low for sign-off on
Dec 12, 2008.
However the entire process within TI-
Malaysia had taken place without the benefit
of the matter being brought to the purview
and scrutiny of the exco of TI-Malaysia, he
explained referring to the publication of the
report on Sept 23.
“This led to the resignation of then presi-
dent Datuk Paul Low on Oct 5 and I, as deputy
president, have been asked by the exco to be-
come acting president,” Mohamed Iqbal said.
He said the threat of legal action by some
parties over the GCR 2009 Malaysia country
report and the questions over its accuracy
had led to allegations of conflict of interest
and speculation about the way the matter was
handled.
“In order to address these public reactions,
an emergency meeting was called on Oct 5
specifically focused on the Malaysia country
report for CGR 2009,” Mohamed Iqbal said,
adding that Low voluntarily offered to take
full responsibility for not having requested ap-
proval of the final draft report from the exco
and resigned.
Low’s resignation was followed by Tan
Sri Robert Phang’s resignation as an exco
member and TI-M founding member and
inaugural president Tunku Abdul Aziz as an
ordinary member.
Phang resigned in protest against the non-
consultation with the exco before the GCR
was released.
Tunku Abdul Aziz, meanwhile, resigned
in protest against Low heading the Port Klang
Authority’s Corporate Governance ad-hoc
committee, which he deemed was a conflict of
interest given Low’s then life membership in
MCA. Several of the party’s leaders have been
linked to the Port Klang Free Zone scandal.
early next month.
Koh urged civil servants to double their efforts
and not to compromise the good attitude and
approach when serving the public.
“We must not only apply sophisticated
technology to upgrade efficiency but must be
sensitive and courteous in all matters by putting
people first.”
On e-government, he said the system should
be expanded by putting up more kiosks to make
it the source of information to the people.
“1e-government is for 1Malaysia as it will
be more effective and cover more areas, giving
people access to information. This will strengthen
ties between the government and the people.
“With the use of satellites, people in Sarawak’s
remote area of Bario now have access to inter-
net.
“Previously, it took three or four days of walk-
ing through forest to reach it (Bario) but now, it is
linked to the outside world. This will further boost
the 1Malaysia concept,” he said. – Bernama