Tag: Singapore

Datuk M. Nasir Bergelar Doktor

SINTOK (Kedah): Seniman Datuk M. Nasir menerima Ijazah Kehormat Doktor Falsafah (Pengurusan Industri Kreatif) daripada Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) di sini kelmarin.

Beliau yang ditemani isterinya, Datin Marlia Musa, menerima penghormatan itu di Majlis Konvokesyen ke-27 universiti tersebut.

Semasa berucap selepas menerima ijazah itu, M. Nasir berkata komposer dan penerbit lagu perlu menjalankan satu kajian yang mendalam mengenai cara Korea mempromosikan budaya K-Pop dan mempelajari cara mereka membawa muzik setempat ke persada global.

Beliau berkata budaya K-Pop yang telah menjadi sensasi global ialah satu contoh baik bagi mengeksport seni Malaysia, terutamanya muzik, kepada dunia.

M. Nasir berkata walaupun kumpulan muzik K-Pop tidak dibentangkan sesuatu yang berbeza daripada genre pop umum, kemampuan mereka memasarkan produk adalah luar biasa.

“Kami perlu mengkaji bagaimana orang Korea melakukannya dengan muzik K-Pop,” katanya.

Penyanyi dan penulis lagu mapan itu berkata penulis lagu perlu belajar cara mengurus aspek perniagaan dalam seni mereka.

“Kami boleh menghasilkan lagu-lagu yang hebat tetapi kami tidak akan ke mana jika kami tidak tahu bagaimana meletak dan memasarkan produk kepada penonton tukikan dan awam,” ujarnya.

M. Nasir turut memuji penghibur Malaysia yang menebar sayap ke pasaran asing dan berkata lebih ramai yang perlu digalakkan berbuat sedemikian.

“Kita perlu bekerja keras menyesuaikan muzik kita dengan pasaran antarabangsa dan menggunakan saluran yang betul untuk mendedahkannya sehingga orang dari negara lain akan jatuh cinta dengan produk kita,” ujarnya.

Beliau turut mengucapkan terima kasih kepada UUM kerana menganugerahkan beliau dengan Ijazah Kehormat Kedoktoran dan berkata ia merupakan satu pengiktirafan yang besar bagi industri tempatan.

Naib Canselor UUM, Profesor Datuk Dr Mohamed Mustafa Ishak, berkata M. Nasir telah dipilih oleh senat universiti kerana sumbangan besar beliau kepada industri kreatif.

“Industri kreatif, seperti muzik, mempunyai potensi ekonomi yang besar bukan sahaja untuk pasaran tempatan, bahkan di peringkat antarabangsa juga.

“Kami perlu modal insan yang terlatih untuk menguruskan industri ini dan bawanya ke tahap yang lebih tinggi. Sebab itulah UUM memperkenalkan Ijazah Sarjana Muda dalam bidang Pengurusan Industri Kreatif ini,” ujar Dr Mustafa.

Selain M. Nasir, UUM juga menganugerahkan ijazah kehormat dalam pengurusan pembangunan kepada mantan presiden Kongres India Malaysia (MIC), Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu. – The New Straits Times.

Source: www.beritaharian.sg

November 10, 2014
Government Ministries Refuse To Hire 60 Year Old Retirees

The Government is trying very hard to extend the employment of those aged 60 and above.

However, the effort seems focused on those already in employment at the age of 60, then continuing on to 62 or 65.

Various schemes in place are not meant for those in their early 60s who retired earlier and now want to get back to work after a gap of one to two years.

I retired last year at age 59 and, having turned 60 this year, decided to get back into the workforce.

I tried applying for positions in various ministries and government agencies.

There was usually no reply, except for a handful of rejections, even for positions such as administrative assistant.

I have more than 30 years of experience working in a multinational company in the oil industry and have done some lecturing at a polytechnic recently.

Yet, when I applied to be a relief teacher, I received a rejection from the Education Ministry.

I didn’t even get a shot at an interview.

Perhaps the Manpower Ministry could look at how to get the “young elderly” aged 60 to 65 employed.

Surely it shouldn’t exclude those who have retired and later want to work again and are willing to accept lower wages.

Lui Chiew Yee

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

November 10, 2014
Sisters In Islam: Malaysia Not A Theocratic Dictatorship

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 — Women’s advocacy group Sisters in Islam (SIS) has told minister Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom that Malaysia is a democracy and not a theocratic dictatorship.

The Muslim women’s rights NGO also said shariah laws are man-made and therefore not infallible, pointing out that the recent court challenges by SIS against a fatwa and by a group of Muslim transgender men against a state shariah law prohibiting cross-dressing were challenges to the “unjust and inefficient” Islamic legal system in Malaysia.

“We would like to remind the minister that Malaysia is a democratic country, not a theocratic dictatorship,” Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, a member of SIS’ board of directors, told Malay Mail Online.

“Our Federal Constitution guarantees the fundamental liberties of every citizen including Muslims. The rule of law applies to everyone, and everyone has a right to seek redress in the courts if they feel they have been unfairly treated,” she added.

SIS also expressed alarm at the call by Jamil Khir, who is the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic affairs, for all Muslims to defend their faith from liberal ideologies “by any method”.

“Does this mean he is giving the go-ahead for anyone to take vigilante action against those the minister deems un-Islamic, including violence? Does this mean that should anyone physically attack such persons, the state will take no action against them?” Marina asked.

Jamil Khir said yesterday that in a “new wave” of assault, Muslim transgenders and SIS are colluding with Islam’s enemies to put its religious institutions on trial in a secular court.

The minister was responding to two recent court challenges where state Islamic authorities were cast into a defensive role, with one initiated by SIS at the High Court here against a Selangor religious edict, or fatwa, declaring their organisation and its members “deviants”.

The other was a separate case mounted by a group of transgender men who were convicted of cross-dressing under the Negri Sembilan state shariah law, which they won at the Court of Appeal Friday.

A three-judge panel at the Court of Appeal had unanimously ruled Section 66 of the Negri Sembilan Syariah Criminal Enactment 1992 to be unconstitutional as it violated the three Muslim men’s right to freedom of expression.

Jamil Khir said Islamic institutions like the state Islamic councils must work together to face “this new wave against Islam”, claiming that there is an “agenda” outside the country’s predominant religion aiming to twist the faith of Muslims.

Malaysia’s religious authorities have long derided liberalism and pluralism, with Friday sermons nationwide claiming a conspiracy by “enemies of Islam” to manipulate Muslims through ideas like secularism, socialism, feminism and positivism, in addition to the two.

Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

November 10, 2014
Indonesians Who Serve NS After Taking Up PR May Lose Indonesia Citizenship

Jakarta – TNI (Tentara National Indonesia or Indonesian army) is investigating the Indonesian citizens who serve as part of the Singapore army. It was found out that some of Indonesian citizens who take Permanent Residence of Singapore are conscripted into the compulsory National Service (NS).

TNI headquarters would not want to rush to take action against these citizens but according to the law, a citizen should not serve a foreign troop. This may result in forfeit of their Indonesian citizenship.

“Everyone has a right to change his nationality but it is just a pity when they join foreign troop while still being a citizen of Indonesia.Whether this concerns nationalism issue, we need to investigate further, “said TNI Commander General Moeldoko during Indo Defence in Kemayoran, Jakarta on Thursday (11/06/2014) as quoted by Detik.

Indo Defence 2014 is a tri-Service defence expo & forum which is happening from 5 – 8 November 2014 at the Jakarta International Expo.

Source: Detik.com

Source: www.globalindonesianvoices.com

November 10, 2014
The PAP’s “aim number one” 60 years ago

The People’s Action Party (PAP) was formed on 12 November 1954.

This year thus marks the party’s 60th anniversary.

According to the PAP Facebook page:

“Lee [Kuan Yew] formed the socialist People’s Action Party (PAP)… with a group of English-educated middle-class colleagues and pro-communist trade unionists…”

The next year, 1955, the PAP nominated five candidates for the Legislative Assembly elections. Described as “action candidates” by The Singapore Free Press then, four of the five were:

And before the PAP was officially formed, in fact one month before – on 28 October 1954 – the Straits Times reported the party’s aims as a political organisation.

The Straits Times reported the PAP’s “aim number 1” as:

“The repeal of the Emergency Regulations heads the list of aims and objects of the People’s Action Party…”

The PAP, however, never did repeal the Emergency Regulations.

The Emergency Regulations were the precursor to the Internal Security Act (ISA) which the PAP Government, after it came into power, used to arrest and jail its political opponents, including those which it had partnered with – such as the “pro-communist trade unionists” – when it formed the party.

According to this online entry:

British colonial Malaya introduced the Emergency Regulations Ordinance 1948 on 7 July 1948 during the Malayan Emergency in response to a Communist uprising and guerrilla war. The regulations allowed the police to arrest anybody suspected of having acted or being likely to act in a way that would threaten security without evidence or a warrant, hold them incommunicado for investigation, and detain them indefinitely without the detainee ever being charged with a crime or tried in a court of law.

The successor to the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance 1955 (“PPSO”), was introduced a result of the 1955 Hock Lee bus riots by the Labour Party government in Singapore. There was strong opposition to the PPSO by the party then in opposition, the People’s Action Party (“PAP”).

In 1958, Lee Kuan Yew of the PAP accused the Lim Yew Hock government of using the PPSO to stifle political dissent.

In 1960, three years after Malaya’s independence, the Emergency was declared over. However, the Malayan Internal Security Act 1960 (“ISA”) was passed in place of the PPSO with much of the same powers. During parliamentary debates on the Act, Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman stated that the ISA would only be applied against only the remaining Communist insurgents. The Malayan Communist Party and its insurgents eventually surrendered in 1989.

Nonetheless, the ISA was retained in Malaysia.

The drafter of the Malayan ISA was Hugh Hickling, a British lawyer, author and professor.

In 1989, he commented that he “could not imagine then that the time would come when the power of detention, carefully and deliberately interlocked with Article 149 of the Constitution, would be used against political opponents, welfare workers and others dedicated to nonviolent, peaceful activities”.

Nonetheless, he commented that he supported review of the ISA but it was not for him to say if the law should be scrapped, as “you’ve got a multi-racial society [in Malaysia] in which emotions can run high very quickly”.

When Singapore joined the Federation of Malaya in 1963, the Malayan ISA was extended to Singapore. The Act was retained in Singapore even after its separation from Malaysia in 1965. The current version of the Act is known as Chapter 143 of the 1985 Revised Edition.

In 1991, then deputy prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said the government “will seriously consider abolishing the Internal Security Act if Malaysia were to do so”.

Source: National Library Archives

In September 2011, Malaysia announced that it was repealing the ISA.

A month after Malaysia’s announcement, Singapore’s deputy prime minister Teo Chee Hean, told Parliament on 19 October 2011, that “[for] the foreseeable future, Singapore will need a law containing provisions like those in the ISA, including preventive detention, to empower the Government to pre-empt and prevent serious threats to our security.”

“The precise form the law takes may evolve with time and circumstances,” he said. “But for the present, the ISA is a shield that we need that protects us against these threats, allowing us to deal with them swiftly and effectively before they cause us serious and possibly permanent harm.”

The PAP’s “aim number 1” at its founding – to repeal the security laws – thus remains unfulfilled.

Among the PAP’s other pledges at its founding 60 years ago was “[the] restoration of the right to assemble in public; for any purpose that does not intend force’.”

Public assembly in Singapore remains banned, unless a police permit is granted.

Straits Times, 28 Oct 1954

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

November 8, 2014