8 theSun | TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3 2009

news without borders

‘Authorities ignored
complaints of soil erosion’
by Opalyn Mok
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
GEORGE TOWN: He had been
warning the authorities about soil
erosion in the area for months but
was ignored. Heavy rainfall on
Sunday finally brought Penang War
Museum owner Johari Shafie’s fears
to life when a landslide obstructed
parts of the main road leading up to
the museum.
Johari has now lodged a
report with the police and the
Malaysian Anti-Corruption
Commission (MACC) detailing
how his complaints of soil ero-
sion stemming, he said, from a
nearby hillside development,
to the Penang Island Municipal
Council, the land office and
the Public Works Department
(PWD) were ignored.
Johari first lodged a com-
plaint about two months ago.
“I reported to the authorities
the development as the developer
is obviously encroaching on gov-
ernment reserve land by clearing
the land and risking a landslide,
but no action was taken,” he said.
BERNAMAPIX
was not jeapordised.
“I had no choice but to lodge a
police report on Sunday night as it
involved the public’s safety. I have
also this morning submitted a 15-
page report on the whole soil erosion
and landslide issue together with
the police report to the MACC for
further investigation,” he said when
contacted yesterday.
A copy of the report was submit-
ted to the Penang chief
minister’s office for further action.
As a result of the landslide, the
road to the museum is currently
inaccessible to vehicles, and visitors
have to walk about a kilometre to
reach it.
“I hope the authorities will im-
mediately clear up the landslide as
the road is under their purview,”
Johari said.
Work on the luxury housing
project next to the museum started
late last year.
Johari said it was only in the last
few months that the developer had
encroached on government reserve
land and started clearing it.
When contacted, state execu-
tive councillor and Batu Maung
state assemblyman Abdul Malik
Kassim said he had been informed
of the soil erosion a few months
back.
“I was also informed of the
landslide on Sunday and took
immediate action to inform the
council and the PWD. They are
now doing rectification work on
the site,” he said.
Abdul Malik has also asked the
council and the PWD to come up
with a complete report on the soil
erosion and landslide.
On Johari’s claims that the
developer was encroaching on
government reserve land, Abdul
Malik said he was not aware of
the matter.
The Penang War Museum
was opened to the public in
2002. It was built in the 1930s
and was once a British military
fortress.
The museum was also used
as a prisoner camp during
the Japanese occupation. It is
open for two sessions – 9am
to 6pm and 7pm to 11pm.
Visitors having to walk a
kilometer to reach the museum.
Ladang
Midlands
School stays
where it is
SHAH ALAM: The Ladang Midlands
Tamil School will remain at its present
location in Section 7 here and will not
be relocated to the I-City as proposed
by the previous state government.
Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri
Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said yesterday
relocating the school to the I-City
– a RM2 billion ICT-based premier
commercial development in Section
7 – would only jeopardise the efforts
of the developer, I-Berhad, to pull in
local and foreign investors.
“The total land area of I-City is
less than 100 acres (40.5ha) and the
developer need not necessarily put
up schools on the land.
“The state government will not
practise discrimination against
anyone who intends to invest in
the state’s property development,”
he told reporters after a monthly
assembly of Selangor government
departments.
On Saturday, Shah Alam MIC Youth
leader and political bureau chairman
M. Saravanan had said that the previ-
ous state government had allotted
1ha with freehold title at the I-City to
the Tamil school.
Saravanan, who was for the move,
alleged that the opposition-led state
government had sold the land to a
third party, based on information

Johari said he felt compelled to received from the school administra-

Johari points out soil
do something to ensure that the tion.
erosion on a road leading
safety of visitors to the museum Selangor executive councillor Dr
to the museum.
Xavier Jayakumar, however, denied
this and said the land allotted to the
Tamil school was unsuitable as it was
located in the midst of factories.
The school is currently located in a
one-storey building. – Bernama

Telling halal gelatine from

the non-halal
by Bernard Cheah
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
GEORGE TOWN: Universiti Sains Malaysia has
developed a technique to determine whether
gelatine in medicine capsules is halal.
The technique, developed by researchers
from the university’s School of Pharmaceutical
Sciences, involves identifying the unique protein
markers in soft and hard capsules to determine if
they come from a porcine or bovine source.
USM School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Assoc Prof Dr Gam Lay Harn said the proteins
are extracted from the gelatine capsule and
separated using gel electrophoresis.
“Through this method, we can identify if the
capsule is made out of porcine or bovine gela-
tine,” she said, adding that the technique does
not only determine the type of gelatine, but the
percentage of it in the capsule as well.
The technique, the first of its kind, is the result
of one year’s research and cost about RM300,000
to develop.
“It is helpful not only to those who are con-
cerned about taking halal (products), but also to
Hindus and vegetarians as well,” Gam said at a
press conference at USM yesterday.
She said there are other methods in the mar-
ket to identify pig DNA, including the polymerase
chain reaction technique.
“However, sometimes DNA can be damaged
in the gelatine preparation process or in the
capsule, which might create a false negative or
false positive in the process.”
Gam said the university had offered its serv-
ices to several pharmaceutical companies in the
country as well as the National Pharmaceutical
Control Bureau.
She said the method had been patented in
Malaysia and that the university was in the proc-
ess of getting it patented internationally through
the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
The dean of the school, Assoc Prof Dr Syed
Azhar Syed Sulaiman, said the method could be
extended to the food industry to tell halal from
non-halal food.
“But we need to find a method to extract the
protein in food first,” he said.

Teacher jailed and fined Japanese woman nabbed

for molesting pupils
PEKAN: A teacher was jailed three months jail
and fined RM13,000 by a magistrate’s court
here yesterday for molesting two female pupils
four years ago.
Magistrate Emma Shahriana Ali meted out
the punishment on Shaharudin Mat Hasan, 38,
from SK Belimbing here, after finding him guilty
of having molested the nine-year-olds in SK
Sri Makmur’s computer laboratory in Pekan in
August 2005.
He had kissed the girls besides fondling their
breasts and private parts. He was arrested on
Oct 17, 2005, charged on Oct 25, 2005 and was
released on RM6,000 bail before being trans-
ferred to SK Belimbing. – Bernama
for drug possession at KLIA
NILAI: Customs officers arrested a Japanese
woman after they found 4.7kg of syabu in
her luggage upon her arrival at the KL Inter-
national Airport from Dubai last Friday.
KLIA Customs director Azizah Ibrahim
said yesterday the drug was recovered after
the officers scanned three pieces of luggage
belonging to the 30-year-old woman who
had flown in at aboard an Emirates flight.
Azizah asked the people to convey infor-
mation on drug smuggling to the Customs
Department via the toll-free line 1-800-88-
8855 or 06-7917792/7587, saying informants
would be rewarded if the information led to
arrests and seizure.– Bernama