NONSENSE CLAIM OF LITTLE DEVELOPMENT IN TELANG USAN

MIRI: A few youth leaders from Telang Usan dismissed claims made by two constituents that there had been little development in the huge rural constituency as baseless.

The secretary of PBB Telang Usan youth Usat Bilong when contacted for his comments on the statements made by Philip Kalang and Danny Lawai on December 29 in the Borneo Post refuted their claims that there had been little development in Telang Usan for the last 9 years as baseless, to say the least.

“They failed to see that the constituency had been under the opposition for one term prior to the 9-year period they are talking about when independent candidate Kebing Wan defeated Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Robert Anyie in the state election of 1996. It was only in 2001 when BN candidate Lihan Jok defeated incumbent Kebing Wan that BN wrested the seat from the opposition. Therefore, for the first five years after BN regained Telang Usan there was literally no development for the constituency because of the government's five-year plan. Even the Baram member of parliament Dato Jacob Dungau Sagan admitted this fact in his speeches to the people in his constituency many times. So, people like Philip and Danny should stop making insinuations that the state assemblyman Lihan Jok should be blamed for what they claimed to be lack of development in the constituency,” said Usat.

Usat, a self-employed man from Long Banga one of the farthest Kenyah longhouse in Telang Usan observed that the last ten years had seen tremendous development coming right to the doorsteps of the remotest part of the interiors.

“When I was just a child living in the longhouse I never dreamed that one day vehicles could come right to our doorsteps in Long Banga like now. In those days it would take our people maybe ten days to travel to the nearest town by river. Now, it only takes ten hours to travel to Miri city by road and only a few minutes by air with thrice weekly flight. Similarly, for Philip and Danny who were from Long San and Long Semiyang respectively. Long San nowadays is accessible both by air and by roads. Long Semiyang is accessible by roads. Long San has a rural clinic and a secondary school and a primary school. So why are they complaining that there had been lack of development with all these infrastructures in place right in their own backyard? I believe they have a subtle smear campaign against the incumbent assemblyman prior to the coming state election,” asserted Usat.

Usat came to the defense of incumbent assemblyman pointing out that Lihan has proven to be the most hardworking assemblyman the constituency had ever known.

“He was known to travel from Miri in the wee hours of the morning by 4WD vehicle just so he could be with his constituents in ulu Telang Usan. He did not have the privilege of travelling by helicopters as some assemblymen or members of parliament who are ministers. I believe his record would show that he had visited his constituency more often than most and coincidentally he was instrumental in bringing micro hydroelectricity power supply to Long San and Long Semiyang together with Long Beruang, a Penan longhouse. So, Philip and Danny should be grateful to Lihan for his efforts because their longhouses are the direct beneficiaries of government projects,” said Usat.

Another youth leader, the Telang Usan PBB youth exco Dominic Nyurang said the people of Telang Usan must give their support to the government for whatever development plan the government has for the constituency.

“Supporting the government would mean supporting the incumbent assemblyman who is in the government. On the other hand, making baseless claims of lack of development for the constituency is saying that the government is not developing the constituency which is not true. We have the Long Lama Rural Growth Centre (RGC) coming up and the Kedaya Telang Usan is a government project of developing ulu Telang Usan. I believe more is expected in the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) for Telang Usan because the effect of the era of opposition is gone. That means, more rural projects can be submitted now that BN had been in power for two terms in Telang Usan. Even now, the constituency had seen a lot of development such as internet access and telephones in many parts of the constituency like the e-bedian, the e-jekitan and the e-bruang. Our people must take one thing at a time. We can't expect drastic change. But I believe more developments in the constituency in three or five years. I appeal to the people especially to support the mega-project the Baram dam project because with the implementation of this project a lot of infrastructure projects such as road water and electricity supply project will follow. If the people of Baram reject this project, the government can always pull the project elsewhere. This was what happened when the people of Baram voted against BN both in parliamentary election and state election during Harrison and Kebing eras respectively,” said Dominic.

Dominic is from Akah-Patah the area that is going to be affected by the dam project. ENDS.

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Caption: BASELESS: Usat Bilong

PAKATAN RAKYAT LOGO

MIRI: The opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is throwing a dinner on 9 January 2009 to celebrate the registration of the alternative alliance to the Barisan Nasional (BN) and the launching of the party's logo tomorrow. (Saturday 19 December).

The launching of the logo will be in Shah Alam before about 500 delegates.

“ This is a historic occasion for the alliance because this is the first dinner under PR in Sarawak, for that matter in the country. And with the registration of the opposition political alliance of PAS, DAP, PKR and at the state level SNAP the country is witnessing the emergence of a two-party system in the country,” said the PKR Miri branch chairman Dr Michael Teo.

The venue for the dinner is the Boulevard restaurant and it is scheduled to start at 6:30pm,disclosed Teo.

The organising committee is targeting about 90 tables for guests and tickets for the dinner are on sale now. The price is RM38 per person.

He told this to reporters during a press conference at the party's office yesterday.

Also present were the DAP Miri branch chairman Fong Pau Teck, the SNAP president Edwin Dundang, the PAS Miri branch chairman Suan Sambas, PKR bureau chief from KL Dr M.R. Summugam.

Teo said the alliance political leaders will feature during the dinner giving political talks. Among the speakers are the former Perak state assembly speaker Sivakumar, former health minister Dr Chua Jui Meng who is now in PKR, newly appointed PKR state chief Baru Bian and PKR advisor Daniel Tajem. From SNAP, speaking to the crowd will be Dundang himself and senior vice president Kebing Wan.

“This will be one of the many avenues which we willuse again and again to promote, popularise and strengthen PR as a new political alliance between PKR, DAP, PAS and SNAP. The birth of PR after more than 50 years of democracy in the country is the birth of the two-party system in Malaysia.PR is a loyal opposition of the DYMM Agong's government. It is established to operate and behave within the limits of democracy and freedom as provided by the Federal Constitution. It is not against the government. Those who allege so does not understand how a parliamentary democracy operate. Therefore, PR is to provide the people with the choice which political party they want to rule the country. Now with the era of a two-party system on the horizon, the people have a clear choice between BN and PR,” said Dundang.

During the press conference, Teo also explained the meaning of the PR logo.

He said the logo with the orange colour depicts sunrise which means the dawning of a new day for Malaysian politics. The five petals symbolised the five major races in Malaysia that is Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazandusuns and Dayaks.

On another matter, the PR is gearing up for the state election which is due in 2011 but most political observers believe it will be held next year.

“We definitely will work on consensus as far the choice of candidates from the alliance is concerned,” pointed out Teo. ENDS.

Caption: PR LOGO: Teo showing the logo with from left Fong and Dundang.

Calling OKU from Orang Ulu community

The “We Love, We Care, We Share” programme launched collaboratively last year by PBB Wanita & Pemuda Telang Usan and PDK Eda Beran continue its project of helping the needy in society specifically in the Baram parliamentary constituency by giving out Christmas goodies to registered special people or known as Orang Kurang Upaya (OKU) locally this Saturday 19 December 2009.

“We invite the target groups to come to the venue which is at Dynasty Hotel from 9am until 5pm to register themselves. Please bring along relevant documents like IC, birth certificate and OKU certificate from the Welfare Department. This project is for the hardcore poor in the huge Baram district,” said the organising chairlady Elizabeth Deng who is also the PBB Telang Usan Wanita chief.

She told this to the Borneo Post during a press conference yesterday. Also present were the PBB Telang Usan youth chief councillor Dennis Ngau Jok.

The main objective of this programme this year is to register the target group who are from Baram district but currently staying in Miri.

"This is to enable the target group receive assistance from the government through the Welfare Department. There are a lot of OKU from the Orang Ulu community who have yet to register themselves with the department. By not doing so, they deprive themselves from receiving government assistance," explained Dennis.

Last year this programme saw the organising committee receiving hundreds bags of rice from generous members of the public in Miri for distribution to the OKU in the Baram district.

Next year, the organising committee may take a different approach to assist the needy in society.

The Telang Usan assemblyman Lihan Jok is expected to officially launched the programme at 4pm on the same day. ENDS.

Caption: Dennis Ngau Jok

holistic approach to education:Hou

MIRI: The ministry of higher education is taking a holistic approach in education to ensure the right quality and quantity of graduates are produced at the right time to meet the demand in the job market.

“We make sure all the courses offered in the institutions of higher learning are of the right quality and we have the mechanism to screen the courses made available to our students to avoid job mismatch,” said the deputy minister of higher education Dr Hou Kok Chung.

He told this to reporters during a press conference after officiating the inaugural Curtin International Business Conference 2009 held at Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus.

He said the jobless graduates scenario in the country is not that alarming, pointing out at least 76 per cent of graduates land a job after six months of graduation.

"We are happy with this statistics because the remainder of the students may be continuing their further studies taking their masters degree and even to doctorate level," explained Hou

He said the government is making the effort to reduce the gap between jobless graduates and the employment available in the market.

One of the strategies is to offer courses that are relevant to the current market needs so that graduates are more employable when they seek for job in a competitive work environment.

"We also advise students to choose courses properly in the universities so that they are marketable," said Hou

The government have a programme under the ministry of human resource called Train and Place programme currently going on for jobless graduates in the country seeking to reduce the unemployment rate among fresh graduates in the country.

At one time, the jobless graduates was said to hit a record high of 80,000.

Earlier in his speech at the official opening ceremony of the conference, Hou said the government recognises the need for successful human capital development and is committed to spearhead a concerted effort to transform the national education system at all levels from pre-school through higher education.

“Developing human capital with attributes such as desire for knowledge, critical and innovative thinking, creativity and competitiveness, reinforced with high moral and ethical values, to meet both the national and international level demands, becomes a national mission,” said Hou.

Present at the opening ceremony were the Pujut assemblyman Andy Chia, the pro vice-chancellor and chief executive of Curtin Sarawak Professor Dr John Evans, the dean of Curtin Sarawak Professor Joan Gribble, the conference convenor Shamsul Kamariah Abdullah, the chairman of Curtin Sarawak Sdn Bhd Datu Dr Hatta Solhee and the city mayor Lawrence Lai.

There were about 100 participants and a total of 108 paper presented during the conference, themed “Business Sustainability in the Era of Globalisation”. ENDS.

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Caption: OFFICIAL LAUNCHED: Hou beating the gong to signal the start of the conference with other guests looking on from left Chia, Evans, Kamariah and Hatta.

Curtin's researcher wins big

MIRI: Lew Tek Yew, a lecturer in marketing and management at Curtin University of Technology, Sarawak campus was presented the Best Paper Award at the recent International Conference on Business and Information (BAI 2009) held in Kuala Lumpur.

The award was presented to Lew in recognition of the high quality of his research paper submitted to the conference entitled ‘The Relationships between Perceived Organisational Support, Felt Obligation, Affective Organisational Commitment and Turnover Intention of Academicians Working with Private Higher Educational Institutions in Malaysia’.

Lew’s paper was among 16 papers shortlisted for the award from a total of 500 paper submissions from 32 countries throughout the world. Each submission was peer-reviewed by at least two anonymous reviewers.

The aim of the annual BAI Conference is to serve as a forum for scholars of the business and information disciplines to discuss and exchange views. It is jointly organised by the International Business Academics Consortium, Academy of Taiwan Information Systems Research, and College of Business, National Taipei University.

Last year, Lew also won the best paper award at the 4th National Human Resource Management Conference 2008 organised by the Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia, and the State Government of Negeri Sembilan.

Lew’s research interests lie in human resource management (HRM) practices, services marketing, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, perceived organisational support (POS) and employer-employee relationships.

He has produced a large volume of publications including book chapters, refereed journals and conference proceedings, at the national and international levels.

His publications have covered varied subjects such as urban tourism marketing, the relationships between HRM practices, POS, affective organisational commitment and turnover intention; transformational leadership amongst enterprises in Miri, antecedents of needs and job satisfaction among bank employees, managing expectations and perceptions of service quality among local and international students in an offshore branch campus of an Australian university, enhancing Miri's image as a new tourist destination through the media, and adoption of deep learning approaches by students pursuing higher education in Sarawak.

At Curtin Sarawak, Lew teaches management and marketing related subjects, including Principles of Management, Organisational Behaviour, Human Resource Management, Marketing of Services, Consumer Behaviour and others.

Prior to joining Curtin Sarawak, he was engaged in the banking industry, dealing in commercial credit processing and evaluation, management and marketing of financial services.

“This award recognises not only my own achievements but also the exceptional research performance and significant research contributions of Curtin Sarawak academic staff as a whole. Since establishing its first offshore campus in Miri, the university’s research output has been recognised at the national and international levels. Such awards will motivate our academic staff to continually excel in research and contribute towards Curtin’s reputation of producing quality research and its strategic aim of becoming one of the top 20 universities in Asia,” said Lew.