By Tan Teck Joo
 |
| Exclusive: After Oh appointed as a SRC chairman for eight months, he decides to have an interview with Onlinews. |
KAMPAR - Flashback at the past, Student Representative Committee (SRC) in almost all the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) students’ perception was negative and served as a student body which unwillingly to fight for the students’ welfare at which they also deemed that SRC is the puppet of UTAR.
When SRC is in such a critical situation, a nobody guy named Oh Chin Eng, 22, a Journalism student is willing to bear this challenge to lead the SRC in order to prove the value of the existence among the students.
During the election period, Oh’s team “Empower” was facing several troubles such as receiving warning letter by the UTAR President, blaming by rival team, manifesto got rejected by the management and nearly disqualified to contest in the campus election.
Conversely, Empower won the majority of votes although there are 3.82 percent lower voting rate by students.
SRC must be unite, delicate and passionate
Q: What is your reason to contest in SRC election?
A: First of all, I want to have some changes since a lot of students are not satisfied with the current system.
Secondly, I have a confidence in myself that “Empower” team can represent students to voice up their problems.
Thirdly, I wish to create awareness among students that if you want to change something, we need to be united and stand together in order to be strong, then only we has the ability to make a change.
Q: What kind of the action or event that has been done by SRC so far?
A: As what my lecturer Miss Por said to me, if we want to change something, we need time to prove it. For example, democratization doesn’t happen in one day, we need to persevere and continue in our struggle.
I just got appointed for one month plus. We are still in the process of coming up with activities to cater all the students and to improve their university’s lives here.
We have organised a dialogue session with the students for the first time ever in the history of SRC UTAR Kampar but this event got less participation by students. Secondly, SRC provides email and Facebook page to let student to voice up their opinions and problems.
Thirdly, in the coming day, SRC will organize a Majlis Berbuka Puasa with the purpose of taking care and appreciate the small community which in the Muslims in UTAR, to foster unity and create better understanding among races.
And when all the mistakes are pointed to SRC, meanwhile Oh has his own said.
Q: What do you think that students claim that SRC is a failed organization?
A: In my opinion, SRC is a student representative body which legitimize by UTAR and student? Therefore, without students support, SRC cannot stand a strong view to fight for them.
We found that some students are ignorant and they refused to participate in any events that organized by the university, SRC or the clubs and societies.
However, students tend to complain via Facebook and other indirect instruments rather than to look SRC officially to solve the problem. So if the students feel that we are a failed organization, it will always be because students never show their support to us.
Q: Do you think that SRC in self can work well together?
A: Honestly, although SRC has 13 members, we are not strong enough because we are a coalition from different parties and some 6 of us actually didn’t go through the election but appointed by the Deans.
Thus, I emphasized that SRC must be unite, delicate and passionate to fulfill their promises to the students. I considered this term as a crucial one; we have a big responsibility to get the trust and support from students. We need to do some rebranding and some image cleansing. Frankly speaking, the name of SRC is stinks.
So I hope we can and the students can change their perception and acceptance towards us. At the same time, I hope that students can give us their feedback so that we can improve.
Q:Do you able to manage to arrange your time as both the SRC chairman and a Journalism student?
A: So far, I have spent quite lot of time in SRC and other external activities. So I was struggling to balance up my time. Yes, academic results can drop. Hence, I as a leader, I must arrange my time properly, so that I can work well in SRC and score well in academic.
Q: Do you feel regret that after you be in SRC?
A: After I become the SRC chairman, my life has changed, from nobody to somebody and I am now a public figure in my university. People know me. Whatever I do or wherever I go, people notice me. Thus, I have to really take care of what I do, what I say, what I wear and my image to avoid any bad perception to SRC.
So far, I have not felt regret yet, because I haven’t achieve what I wanted to achieve in my one year term yet. I will give all I have to serve the students.
By Tan Teck Joo
11 April 2011
 |
| Vettel successful continuing won two times champion in this season, made a perfect score. |
SEPANG, April 11 - Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel won a dramatic Malaysian Grand Pix without facing too much challenged from his rival.
Vettel ran a sensible race, handling his tyres well on Sepang's blistering circuit and coping with intermittent use of the Kers power-boost system in the second half of the race.
The German comfortably collected the 12th grand prix win of his career to stretch his championship lead to 24 points.
"The fight behind him is close but Vettel has such an advantage out front in the championship now," said BBC commentator Martin Brundle.
The German’s ability to stay comfortably ahead of rivals McLaren, Ferrari and Renault in a car he could not even employ the effective use of KERS (kinetic energy recovery system or power boost) for portions of the race made his rivals scratch their heads in charting out how to stop the rampaging Red Bulls.
Closest rivals McLaren are, however, determined to close the gap.
Button finished three seconds behind Vettel on Sunday but the Briton was never in contention to win once the Red Bull driver come out from his final stop with a 10-second lead.
“The Red Bulls’ pace is very good. He’s won two races out of two and nobody else has been consistent. He’s got a 24-point lead and that’s a lot after two races,” said Button, who was still, nevertheless, satisfied to grab his first podium finish.
The 24 drivers will re-enter the fray in just five days' time for Friday practice in Shanghai for next weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.
By Tay Pang Chong
10 April 2011
KAMPAR, April 10 - The Faculty of Science (FS) was finally achieved their first basketball championship after four years participant in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) sport carnival which will held in UTAR’s sport complex annually. The winners for the first and second runner-up were goes to Faculty of Information and Communication Technology Team A (FICT) and Foundation Team A.
The basketball competition was running on the knockout system and consisted of eight teams which representing their own faculty: Faculty of Art and Social Science (FAS), FS, Foundation Team A, Foundation Team B, FICT Team A, FICT Team B and Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) Team A and Team B.
During this competition, FS was defeated their opponents which are FAS and FBF Team A on the knockout stage of this competition and success proceeds to the final match versus with FICT Team A.
At the end, FS was defeated FICT Team A by 16 -7 scores in the final match and win their first basketball championship in UTAR sport carnival.
FS representative, Goh Khai Ming who was considered as the best performance player in all of the matches has gave his opinion after they achieve the championship.
 |
| We Won: FS posing with gold medals after winning the basketball competition in sport carnival. |
“I felt so excited now. We did not expect to win since our team is not the strongest team among all the participants,” said Goh.
He also highlighted that the technique bring them to victory is their teamwork but not rely on his own performance in the games.
“Have a good teamwork always is the key for me to success”, added him.
On other sides, one of the players from FICT Team A, Lee Kee Wei, 24, said that FS has really done a very out-standing performance in their games.
“They did well in the competition. Although my team been defeated, I still feel happy because I able to see my faculty have obtained this high achievement during my last year in UTAR and I felt proud of them,” said Lee.
Previously, FS was only ever achieved to first and second runner-up. This year FS has finally break the charm and advanced to the championship.
By Tay Pang Chong
9 April 2011
APRIL 9 - Lay back to the scenes of movie 2012, from there, we can see the seriousness effects of climate change and global warming. It just likes a revenge of nature toward humanity. However, the environment is still corrupting and damaging unceasingly by human activities although the outcomes might be serious as what was shown in movie 2012.
According to Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha (25 May, 2010), he said Malaysians was generated 17,000 tons of solid waste daily in year 2002 and the waste generated by Malaysians has risen from 19,000 tons in 2005 to an estimated 30,000 tons by 2020. This was showing an unsustainable pattern in Malaysia. Besides that, Malaysia also has 230 landfill sites in year 2008 and will reach its capacity within the next two years.
Therefore, what we do in these few years will determine our future. If there is no action before 2012 it will be too late to save our endangered environment and one of the ways for this issue is to go green which is becoming a trend these days with companies and organizations stepping forward and disclosing their so-called “green initiatives”.
S. Piarapakaran, the Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations’ (Fomca) Senior Manager for Environment, Energy and Water said being “green” is not just about the color and it is really challenging to go green.
“Environmental friendly technology is what green technology is all about. It reduces impact to the environment due to development process and consumption pattern,” he explained.
“In essence, green technology is inter-related in every aspect of our daily life and behavior,” he explained.
Anthony Tan, the Executive Director of Centre for Environment, Technology and Development (Cetdem) also concurred that green technology is any technology that helps to reduce the threat to the environment.
In this view, the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation have a plan which to include composting the food waste in the effort to shrink waste heaps. It is encouraging households to recycle their organic waste using the Takakura composting method, a cheap and effective way to compost waste that can easily be done at home.
“About 45% of our waste is organic material. If we don’t recycle this waste, it is just discarded. Through composting, we not only can get compost, but can reduce almost half of our waste, instead of sending it to the landfill,” Corporation chief executive officer Datuk Zaini Md Nor said.
Other than that, there are consist of several programmes and policies have been introduced to public in the effort of going green such as 3R (Recycling, reduce, reuse) policy, National Recycling Day (11st, November), NO plastic bag campaign and others relevant activities.
“Malaysia’s government is very serious in tackling this environment issue within the context of sustainable development. Therefore, we need the support and corporation of the societies to achieve the vision,” Zaini added.
(For more information of Takakura composting method, please visit to http://www.smc.gov.my/thm06.pdf)
By Corene Goh Wan Chen
8 April 2011
KAMPAR, April 8- Snatch theft often happen in Westlake accommodation. The incident was aroused victims’ stewed and dissatisfaction.
The accommodation is mainly rent for the students who study in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. The stolen cases have been occurred many times but till now there were still unable to have a solvent.
“This was already my second Adidas jacket has been stolen, it costs me about RM220 losses,” said Steph Lee, 23, with the angry face.
Lee added that this was third times her clothes get lost, there was no way for her to escape from snatch theft. She needs to hang her clothes outsides after she washed. She feels irritated that the victim was always her.
“It is useless to do a police report or inform to the Danish House as they did not bother on it,” added Lee.
 |
| Another victim, P’ng Geok Thye, 24: I'm very distraught when losing my beloved Levi’s jeans which costs RM150 after hangs up at outside. |
Besides, P'ng added that it was useless for him to report to the management for Danish House as it will not get any response and find back his jeans as his friend has such experience before.
“I should be more caution and will not leave any chances to the theft,” said P’ng.
Fong Teck Seng, 20, claimed that he very unsatisfied with the attitude of the officer from Danish House.
Fong Teck Seng, 20, claimed that he very unsatisfied with the attitude of the officer from Danish House.
He stated that when he reported to the officer that his laptop has been stolen, the officer replied him with immoral way and asked him just do a police report. He was told by the management that they can not do anything.
When he made the police report, the policemen just recorded as memo report only. He was very upset when receive such respond.
The management of Danish House said that they already enhance the security base and this is what they can do.
“There were so many people pass by the guard house everyday, and it is difficult to arrest the theft.
“We know that there was quite big amount student need to bear, so they should have the responsible to take care of their own property and should not blame us,” said by the customer service personnel of Danish House.
By Lee Pei Suang
8 April 2011
APRIL 8 - According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco is the second largest cause of death in the world.
About 650 million people in the world who smoke regularly today will eventually be killed by tobacco and even more shocking is that hundreds of thousands of people who have never smoked die each year from diseases caused by second-hand smoke.
To curb smoking in Malaysia, the government was launched a nationwide anti-smoking campaign in 2004, Tak Nak, which the main objective is to get people to stop smoking and to develop an effective communication campaign that will create a nation of no cigarette smokers.
However, it was recently revealed that about four million Malaysians of our adult population are addicted to smoking. This implicit the campaign which saw millions in taxpayers’ monies being used to create awareness among smokers on the negative effects of smoking has clearly gone bust when the statistics clearly show that smoking is a hardcore habit which ranks in the same category as other drug addictions.
So, why the Tak Nak Campaign will consider fall into failure?
According to a consumer group, the “fear tactic” has been adopted by Tak Nak campaign was no longer works when it comes to curbing smoking.
The Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations’ (Fomca) adviser Datuk Prof Hamdan Adnan also said the public have become immune to the gory pictures displayed in Tak Nak campaign.
 |
| The gory pictures were ineffective to influence the smokers. |
“The Tak Nak campaign poster that showed a crushed cigarette was instead reminding smokers to smoke,” he said.
On the other sides, MCA President Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek was explained that one of the reason is there were lack of infrastructure and education such as counseling for those who had quit smoking during the campaign.
“Questions such as where do we go from here or the effectiveness of the campaign are not answered. Similarly, once smokers give up the habit, there is no follow up action to that.
“We should focus our attention on these matters. In light of this, the Cabinet has agreed to review the second phase of the Tak Nak campaign,” he said.
In view of this issue, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Rosnah Shirlin said it would require a long period to achieving significant change in population behaviors as there are multiple internal and external factors to determine such prospects.
"The final impact would take a few decades to manifest as there is a lag period of about 20 to 30 years between tobacco use and health burdens,” she said.
Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai stated that the ministry did not intend to end the Tak Nak campaign but planned to make it an all-year–long campaign although it is ineffective currently.
However, Hamdan urged the Government to work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and look at new approaches to curb smoking rather than only rely on Tak Nak campaign.
“Interpersonal communications approaches such as holding talks in schools should also be employed. It remains to be seen whether such approaches will work but something definitely has to be done,” he suggested.
By Ng Ai Loon
April 8, 2011
APRIL 8 - What is your opinion towards our Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak concept, “one Malaysia”?
Honestly, I personally like it much. The concept of one Malaysia, no need to further explain, in short, it is a guiding principle to build a united and progressive Malaysian nation in 21st century. It is to inculcate the sprit and values of togetherness and a sense of belonging among Malaysian, regardless of race, religion, and creed.
As a Malaysian, i love my country which there is no war and any internal disorder. As a Chinese in Malaysia, i didn’t expect that i can be the first class citizen. But at least, we need a fairly treatment. However, does everyone have the same thought with me especially the non- bumiputra?
Recently, there is a case which was blaze out the Chinese and Indian community in anger. Siti Ishah, which is the principal claims the sentences that Chinese students are not needed in the school and can go back to China. Besides, she makes a teasing towards the Indian community belief as well.Does this consider as racist statement? Depends. However, Namewee, a rapper which was making response to this by creating a song was arrested and questioned for over 10 hours. Does he deserve this enforcement? Who knows?
However, in this issue, the concept of one Malaysia was bringing out by public. To appeal, to critic or to laugh at? What make senses? Probably is the unfair treatment between the person who make the sentences and who give the comment.
Where are Najib’s pledge and his slogan of one Malaysia when there could be such great contrast between the treatment meted out to the two errant school principals and Namewee?
“Why double standards against Namewee, questioned for over 10 hours, for his anti racist outburst as compared to treatment of the two errant school principals?” people ask.
For me, I don’t really deny that Namewee used the wrong way to express. Nevertheless, he did take the word out of many people mouth especially Chinese community.
However, this was linking me to another issue. Bank Rakyat which was imposed double standard interest against all non bumiputra Malaysians. This means that they are forced to pay higher and different interest rate if they are borrowing from the bank.
By this, how the government expect the non bumiputra to think calmly for this unfairly treatment? How the government trying to persuade the citizens that One Malaysia is feasible?
Going to the bottom of it, is the Bank rakyat does not heed the call of one Malaysia concept or the concept of one Malaysia is a lip promis?
Going to the bottom of it, is the Bank rakyat does not heed the call of one Malaysia concept or the concept of one Malaysia is a lip promis?
Again, do we love our country? I can answer you definitely, yes, we do. In badminton match, no matter the player is Lee Zhong Wei or Mohammad Hafiz Hassim, three races was shouted and cheer together.
If we love our country, we should love people within this society. In the other hand, we should not be provoked by the criticism. On the contrary, we should treat it as something constructive and positive and not something that could create disharmony among the people in the society.
If the people follow and live with this direction, One nation, one Malaysia, I hope and I do believe, it not far away and our country could be achieves it in the future.
