Category: Sosial

Bags Of Raw Chicken Left Unattanded Outside Buffet City International Buffet Restaurant

Every morning around 8am, you can see bags of raw chicken left unattended, outside the door of Buffet City International Buffet Restaurant! This restaurant is near Pinnacle@Duxton.

I took some pictures. The restaurant was still closed when I took them. Look at this:

This is very unhygienic! What if stray animals or pests play around with the chicken?

The restaurant has to do something about this. It’s unfair for the patrons to eat food that was left outside like this. So unhygienic.

Concerned Citizen

*Editor’s Note: When contacted, the restaurant indicated that it was aware of the situation and is working with its supplier to resolve the problem. The supplier is facing a shortage in manpower in terms of drivers and deliverymen. With the shortage, the current driver, based on the planned delivery route, arrives earlier than the restaurant’s receiving timing. The restaurant pleads for understanding from the public and assures that it prioritises food hygiene. All raw materials sent to the restaurant are also thoroughly washed before being cooked.

November 20, 2014
Inter-Racial Marriages In Malaysia Risk Harming “National Harmony”

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — Marriages between Malaysians of different races risk harming “national harmony”, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said, noting that many such unions have resulted in bitter disputes over the religious statues of the couple’s offspring.

The Attorney-General noted that apart from these legal battles, such marriages have also led to claims of “racial discrimination”

The top lawyer added, however, that law reforms meant to solve such problems have yet to be approved.

He said interracial marriages also created the “new conflict” between civil law and Shariah law on the issues of unilateral conversion of children and child custody disputes where only one spouse converts to Islam.

“The increasing number of cases has also raised allegations of racial discrimination by the courts and authorities. The anguish to the families cannot be overstated and that is a fact.

“In this regard, the failure of the converting spouses to resolve the family arrangements prior to conversion and in fact, attempting to use the different jurisdictions of the civil and Syariah courts to their advantage, jeopardizes not only family harmony but potentially national harmony,” the top government lawyer said according to his written speech from the ILKAP National Law Conference 2014 last week.

Abdul Gani said the problem of enforcing conflicting orders from the civil courts and Shariah courts in such disputes then calls into question the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and police’s integrity, adding that this would hamper their ability to effectively carry out their duties.

Abdul Gani did not name any examples of such court cases, but there are two high-profile cases that have hit national headlines — the cases of non-Muslim mothers Indira Gandhi and Deepa Subramaniam, where both women’s Muslim convert ex-husbands ran off with their children.

In both cases, the Muslim convert ex-husbands cited the Shariah court orders granting child custody to them when refusing to comply with the civil court’s child custody orders in favour of their former spouse.

Despite recovery orders from the Ipoh High Court and Seremban High Court directing the police to act to find and return the abducted children to the non-Muslim mothers, the police have declined to take action and are now seeking the courts’ clarification instead.

Abdul Gani said proposed amendments to three laws were mooted in 2009 to ensure that matters such as child custody and child maintenance would be decided by the court where the marriage was registered.

“These amendments, however, remain pending,” he said, without elaborating further.

He listed down the three laws of Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976, the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Act 1984 and the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993.

Lawyers have argued that child custody matters for a marriage that was initially between two non-Muslims should be decided by the civil courts even if a spouse later converts to Islam.

This is because a marriage that started out as a civil union should end or have any related issues ruled upon in the civil courts, instead of the Shariah courts for marriages between two Muslims, the lawyers said.

Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

November 20, 2014
Is The PAP Government Being Selectively Pro-Family?

Kirsten Han is a Singaporean blogger, journalist and filmmaker. She is also involved in the We Believe in Second Chances campaign for the abolishment of the death penalty. A social media junkie, she tweets at @kixes. The views expressed are her own.

Singapore, we are told, is a pro-family country. The government actively introduces policies that will encourage young Singaporeans to get married and have children, and nuclear families are often given benefits in the form of tax rebates and subsidies.

Yet there are sometimes stories that make you doubt that stance.

The New Paper ran an article on 17 November about a family now torn apart: upon returning to Singapore and applying for a Long-Term Visit Pass, married couple Mr Y. C. Chen and Ms Li Qiaoyan realised that Ms Li had been served an entry ban. Her offence was not seeking permission from the Ministry of Manpower before getting pregnant and married. Ms Li is now back in China, while Mr Chen had to quit his job to care for their 10-month-old son.

Under Singapore’s current rules, existing and former work permit holders are required to obtain permission from the state before marrying Singaporeans. According to The New Paper, the Ministry of Manpower says:

“MOM reviews all marriage applications on a case-by-case basis. Factors taken into consideration include the economic contributions of the applicants, the ability of the applicants to look after themselves and their family without becoming a burden to the society or state.”

The New Paper also reported MOM’s position that “work-permit holders, as transient workers, ought to come to Singapore only for work”.

There are 980,8000 work permit holders in Singapore. It’s impossible that these men and women are here “only for work”; they don’t just come here to serve us food, work in our construction sites and clean our homes. They come here with all their likes and dislikes, their hopes, dreams and desires. They’re people. It’s hardly surprising that they might meet someone and fall in love.

Yet the state doesn’t seem to see them as the multi-dimensional human beings they are. It expects them to serve, and only to serve. When they fall in love and want to get married or have children, they are expected to apply to Singapore for permission, even though it should be none of the state’s business who anyone chooses to marry. The state will then decide if the work permit holder is a worthy (read: economically viable) spouse for the Singaporean.

This rule even applies to former work permit holders. Come to Singapore on a work permit and your desire to marry your partner – if he/she is a Singaporean – will always be dependent on special dispensation from the Controller of Work Passes.

Such rules and requirements show us that the state is, perhaps, only pro-a-certain-type-of-family. If you’re a non-Singaporean, if your “economic contribution” is deemed wanting, then maybe your family is not so important after all.

Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

November 20, 2014
Wong Kan Seng: Singapore Not Immune To Threat Of Radicalisation

SINGAPORE: Former Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said there is no immunity to the threat of radicalisation for any society, including Singapore.

Speaking at a seminar by the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies on Tuesday (Nov 18), Mr Wong said that the “vigilance of the security services must ultimately be augmented by the vigilance of the society itself.”

He said groups like Islamic State (IS) are savvy in their use of social media to propagate radical rhetoric and recruit fighters to their cause. He also urged governments in the region to step up efforts in the sharing of information and intelligence.

Mr Wong said: “13 years on from 9/11 and Singapore’s discovery of the regional JI (Jemaah Islamiyah) network, we are none the safer from the terrorism threat. The terrorism threat has not diminished, but has evolved and adapted to a more hostile security environment. It has also become more diffused with the rise of the phenomenon of self-radicalised or ‘lone wolf’ terrorists.”

He felt that the conflict in Syria and and the IS have given new impetus to existing regional jihadist groups like JI and the Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT), which have sent their members to Syria to fight.

Mr Wong said the manner in which foreign fighters flock to Syria reminds him of how Muslims around the world had similarly been drawn to fight in the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s.

He added: “The Soviet-Afghan war not only led to the creation of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation, but also a global fraternity of terrorist brotherhood. Many governments anticipate that the Syrian conflict will likewise lead to the emergence of a new generation of mujahidin and the perpetuation of the terrorism menace for many years to come.”

Mr Wong, who was also Minister for Home Affairs, recounted how Singapore had taken a multi-pronged approach to counter the threat of jihadist terrorism.

“Apart from investigations and exchange of intelligence with foreign security services, the Government held closed-door national dialogues with religious and community leaders to share our concerns on the terrorism threat and how we must not let it destroy our Singapore’s social cohesion,” he stated.

Mr Wong said there was also the awareness to go beyond the detention of JI members to counter the deviant religious teachings. A core group of religious teachers formed the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) to provide religious counselling for the JI detainees and their families.

To this end, Mr Wong said that for some “hardcore” detainees, results so far have not been positive, and that they will only be released once they are rehabilitated.

Overall, he said that while Singapore has been successful in keeping the terrorism threat at bay, the general public must continue to remain vigilant and stay united in the event of an incident.

“The irony is, the more successful we are in our counter-terrorism efforts, the more the urgency and cogency of the terrorism threat will diminish in the public’s consciousness,” said Mr Wong. “We need every resident to be vigilant against this threat. Should we one day be unable to stop a bomb from exploding or a murderous act by an ISIL supporter in Singapore, I hope Singaporeans will have the resilience to overcome the attack, cope with the crisis and maintain our social cohesion.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

November 19, 2014
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin: Don’t Kill Bahasa Melayu

CANBERRA: Deputy Prime Minster Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Bahasa Melayu had a place as the language of knowledge and it should not be sacrificed amid efforts to empower the English language.

In defending the government’s decision to revert the teaching of Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Melayu from English, the deputy prime minister made his stand clear on this.

“As a Malaysian, I don’t think my language should be killed just because I want to strengthen English language usage,” he said during the question-and-answer session with members of the Malaysian community and students at a gathering, here, Tuesday night.

The event held at the Malaysian High Commission premises in Canberra kicked off Muhyiddin’s three-day working visit to the Australian capital and Perth. He had flown into Canberra from Nagoya, Japan this afternoon after attending an international conference on education for sustainable development.

Muhyiddin, who is Education Minister, said his views on this matter were not because he is Malay as it had more to do with his concern over the issue of imparting and absorbing knowledge in an effective manner.

“This is not a question of my nationality because if Malaysia had not started that way (upholding Bahasa Melayu)…. it means for both subjects, Bahasa Melayu would just die,” he said.

Muhyiddin explained that he would not be fair to Malaysian students if the move to teach Science and Mathematics in English was continued given the constraints faced by the ministry.

He cited insufficient qualified teachers to carry out the task at hand as among the reasons the decision to revoke the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English was made in 2009.

He pointed out that many of the teachers were the product of a system in which the medium of instruction was Bahasa Melayu.

Muhyiddin said during the time that the policy was implemented, many teachers involved would automatically revert to Bahasa Melayu when students in Science and Mathematics classes failed to understand what was being taught, and this defeated the purpose of the introduction of the policy in the first place.

“Maybe in your school, it is okay but for many other schools, ít’s not okay, as the teachers are not qualified, so the students don’t understand. But what is wrong with Bahasa Melayu (to teach Science and Mathematics)? So now we’ve gone back to Bahasa Melayu.

“Ánd the students can understand. For me, I’m concerned about knowledge; Science is knowledge, Maths is knowledge. Language is the medium. So if you are concerned about English, I’ll teach you English,” he said.

Muhyiddin cited Japan which excelled in various fields of knowledge despite everything being in Japanese.

*Article first appeared on BERNAMA

Source: www.malaysiandigest.com

November 18, 2014