Build Belaga-Ng Merit Road to prevent more river tragedies’

December 24, 2015, Thursday Lian Cheng, reporters@theborneopost.com

Datuk Wilson Ugak Kumbong

KUCHING: Hulu Rajang MP Datuk Wilson Ugak Kumbong wants the construction of Belaga-Ng Merit Road to be expedited to prevent more tragic accidents from happening along the Rajang River.

He wants the 153-km road which is to be constructed under the ‘Jiwa Murni’ programme to be given top priority and there should be no delay in getting the project started.

“The road is scheduled to be kicked off in January next year. And I hope there would not be any delay in the project. The project should be started as soon as possible,” Ugak told The Borneo Post yesterday.

Ugak was responding to a tragic boat accident on Tuesday evening at Long Buyun in which a longboat capsized and one passenger died, three were still missing while five managed to swim to the shore.

“Year after year during festive seasons either during Gawai or Christmas, unfortunate incidents like this *happened.

“While the memory of May 2013 express boat accident which took many lives is still vivid, now I have to witness children losing their lives again,” said Ugak.

Ugak said the place where the accident happened was only 50 metres away from the spot where two passengers drowned and two were still missing during a similar incident in May 2013.

“Once we have Belaga-Ng Merit Road, these longhouse folks will have the choice of using land transport. If there is basic infrastructure such as a connecting road, they will not be forced to use this treacherous part of the river to go back to their longhouses.”

He said though it had been raining in Kapit, water level in the river was still low.

“I hope by today (yesterday) or tomorrow, all the missing victims will be found,” said the first term federal lawmaker.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/12/24/build-belaga-ng-merit-road-to-prevent-more-river-tragedies/#ixzz3vJvyasOi

Another tragedy in the Rajang

December 24, 2015, Thursday Yunus Yussop, reporters@theborneopost.com

Strong waves, strong current cause boat carrying 9 people to capsize, 1 dead, 3 missing

The body of a woman recovered by the SAR personnel being pulled to the shore.

BELAGA: A longboat ferrying nine passengers capsized in Batang Rajang near Rumah Long Buyun in Belaga around 7 on Tuesday evening, resulting in four people reported missing while five others managed to swim to the shore.

It is believed that the boat sank after it was hit by strong waves.
Search and rescue (SAR) personnel recovered the body of 31-year-old Sahirza Mahir from Kampong Masapol Sipitang Sabah around 11am yesterday.

She was among the four female passengers including a four-year-old girl who went missing after the longboat capsized.

The body has been taken to Belaga polyclinic by police personnel.
The search continues for the other three missing passengers identified as Sumitasen Thomas, 15, Adriana Rosnah, 12, and Nur Amirsha, 4.

It is believed that they were on their way to Rumah Tanjong, Long Pawah in Belaga for vacation.

According to Edwin Minggu, 30, from Rh Tanjong Long Pawah, around 11am he and other villagers who joined the SAR operation spotted a body floating about 100 metres from the scene.

The five persons who survived the boat mishap were identified as Liam Kelilit (skipper), 50; Bungan Nyaleng, 50; Agnes Liam, 33; Olivia Ploma Thomas, 8 and Ayu, 4.

The boat used by the victims which was recovered by the SAR team.

‘Incident occurred not far from where an express boat capsized last year’

Agnes Liam lodged a police report about the incident at 3.49am yesterday, after which three police personnel led by Sub-Inspector Yusup Naraue rushed to the scene in a police boat.

A police source said the incident occurred not far from where an express boat capsized last year.

A distress call from Belaga police station was received by Bintulu Fire and Rescue Station (Bomba) at 8.27am yesterday.

Bintulu Bomba station chief Di Hata Gobel said, with assistance from the local villagers and Belaga volunteer firefighters, the SAR operation was immediately launched.

He said more volunteer firefighters from Belaga would be mobilised to assist in the SAR operation which was also joined by Civil Defence Department personnel.

The scene is located about one hour’s drive from Bintulu and another one hour by boat depending on river conditions.

As at press time, the SAR operation has been called off and will resume today (Dec 24) for safety reasons.

The location where the boat capsized.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/12/24/another-tragedy-in-the-rajang/#ixzz3vJs5pIcM

My comments:
With the construction of Bakun hydroelectric dam, the Rejang river is no longer safe for boats like the one shown in the picture.  How can our government allow such boat structure without any safety measures to ply the river?  I wonder if there is any law regulating the boat standard.

To be frank, I won't dare to take the kind of boat to travel on the Rejang river. It is just like dicing with death.  But the rural people have no choice and so ....

Sarawak DAP questions use of state funds to repay debts of its subsidiaries

The Malaysian Insider

22 December 2015

Sarawak DAP today questioned the usage of the state's development fund to repay the debts of its subsidiary companies.

Its state leader Chong Chieng Jen also accused the state government of circumventing the scrutiny of the legislative assembly, adding that such move would made it difficult to determine if corruption was involved.

"In the case of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the federal government transfers valuable land to 1MDB for the company to sell and repay the debt but in the Sarawak’s case, it is a direct allocation of development fund for these subsidiary companies to repay their loans,” the Kota Sentosa assemblyman told a press conference today.

He said for projects that were directly financed from the development allocations in the budget, the government had to list out and be answerable in the state legislative assembly on the details of the projects.

"However, under this mode of financing – through a loan taken up by the state government – the state is circumventing the requirement to be answerable to the assembly on the details of the projects."

Since 2006, the Sarawak state government had, on average, allocated more than RM1 billion of its development fund into an account called “Government Contribution Towards Approved Agencies” trust account, including a sum of RM1.418 billion in the Budget 2016.

“The state government has been very secretive on the operation of this account and has evaded many questions asked by me since 2010,” Chong said.

It was revealed in recent state legislative assembly meeting that billions of ringgit in the said account were used to repay the loan taken up by the state government through five of its subsidiary companies, namely Sarawak Capital Assets Sdn Bhd, SSG Capital Resources Sdn Bhd, SGOS Capital Holdings Sdn Bhd, Equisar Sdn Bhd and Sarawak Technology Holdings Sdn Bhd.

The financial statements of the “Government Contribution Towards Approved Agencies” trust account from 2011 to 2014 were tabled in state assembly recently showed that the state government had borrowed a total RM1.7 billion and US$3.373 billion (RM14.5 billion) for the past 10 years.

He said though it was stated in the financial statements that the loans were “Grants for Financing Various Projects”, there was no mention on the details of the said “projects”.

“Because the projects are financed through loans of the Sarawak state government’s subsidiary companies, technically, the state was not accountable to the assembly on the fundamental question whether the projects actually exist.”

Chong said he would pursue this issue for as long as he was an elected representative.

“The only way by which the state government can stop me from asking the questions is to stop me from getting re-elected,” said Chong, who is facing charge of participating in Bersih 4 rally.

He faces disqualification as an elected representative if he is convicted.

Chong had been raising questions on the missing development fund which he described as the “budget black hole”.

The state government had taken the matter to court suing Chong for defamation. It is now appealing the case which was struck out by the High Court. – December 22, 2015.

Mahatma Gandhi Biography Anti-War Activist (1869–1948)

Mahatma Gandhi Biography

Anti-War Activist (1869–1948)

 Synopsis

Born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India, Mahatma Gandhi studied law and advocated for the civil rights of Indians, both at home under British rule and in South Africa. Gandhi became a leader of India’s independence movement, organizing boycotts against British institutions in peaceful forms of civil disobedience. He was killed by a fanatic in 1948.

Early Life

Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, Kathiawar, India, which was then part of the British Empire. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, served as a chief minister in Porbandar and other states in western India. His mother, Putlibai, was a deeply religious woman who fasted regularly. Gandhi grew up worshiping the Hindu god Vishnu and following Jainism, a morally rigorous ancient Indian religion that espoused non-violence, fasting, meditation and vegetarianism.

Young Gandhi was a shy, unremarkable student who was so timid that he slept with the lights on even as a teenager. At the age of 13, he wed Kasturba Makanji, a merchant’s daughter, in an arranged marriage. In the ensuing years, the teenager rebelled by smoking, eating meat and stealing change from household servants.

In 1885, Gandhi endured the passing of his father and shortly after that the death of his young baby. Although Gandhi was interested in becoming a doctor, his father had hoped he would also become a government minister, so his family steered him to enter the legal profession. Shortly after the birth of the first of four surviving sons, 18-year-old Gandhi sailed for London, England, in 1888 to study law. The young Indian struggled with the transition to Western culture, and during his three-year stay in London, he became more committed to a meatless diet, joining the executive committee of the London Vegetarian Society, and started to read a variety of sacred texts to learn more about world religions.

Upon returning to India in 1891, Gandhi learned that his mother had died just weeks earlier. Then, he struggled to gain his footing as a lawyer. In his first courtroom case, a nervous Gandhi blanked when the time came to cross-examine a witness. He immediately fled the courtroom after reimbursing his client for his legal fees. After struggling to find work in India, Gandhi obtained a one-year contract to perform legal services in South Africa. Shortly after the birth of another son, he sailed for Durban in the South African state of Natal in April 1893.

Spiritual and Political Leader

When Gandhi arrived in South Africa, he was quickly appalled by the discrimination and racial segregation faced by Indian immigrants at the hands of white British and Boer authorities. Upon his first appearance in a Durban courtroom, Gandhi was asked to remove his turban. He refused and left the court instead. The Natal Advertiser mocked him in print as “an unwelcome visitor.”

A seminal moment in Gandhi’s life occurred days later on June 7, 1893, during a train trip to Pretoria when a white man objected to his presence in the first-class railway compartment, although he had a ticket. Refusing to move to the back of the train, Gandhi was forcibly removed and thrown off the train at a station in Pietermaritzburg. His act of civil disobedience awoke in him a determination to devote himself to fighting the “deep disease of color prejudice.” He vowed that night to “try, if possible, to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process.” From that night forward, the small, unassuming man would grow into a giant force for civil rights.

Gandhi formed the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 to fight discrimination. At the end of his year-long contract, he prepared to return to India until he learned at his farewell party of a bill before the Natal Legislative Assembly that would deprive Indians of the right to vote. Fellow immigrants convinced Gandhi to stay and lead the fight against the legislation. Although Gandhi could not prevent the law’s passage, he drew international attention to the injustice.

After a brief trip to India in late 1896 and early 1897, Gandhi returned to South Africa with his wife and two children. Kasturba would give birth to two more sons in South Africa, one in 1897 and one in 1900. Gandhi ran a thriving legal practice, and at the outbreak of the Boer War, he raised an all-Indian ambulance corps of 1,100 volunteers to support the British cause, arguing that if Indians expected to have full rights of citizenship in the British Empire, they also needed to shoulder their responsibilities as well.

Gandhi continued to study world religions during his years in South Africa. “The religious spirit within me became a living force,” he wrote of his time there. He immersed himself in sacred Hindu spiritual texts and adopted a life of simplicity, austerity and celibacy that was free of material goods.

In 1906, Gandhi organized his first mass civil-disobedience campaign, which he called “Satyagraha” (“truth and firmness”), in reaction to the Transvaal government’s new restrictions on the rights of Indians, including the refusal to recognize Hindu marriages. After years of protests, the government imprisoned hundreds of Indians in 1913, including Gandhi. Under pressure, the South African government accepted a compromise negotiated by Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts that included recognition of Hindu marriages and the abolition of a poll tax for Indians. When Gandhi sailed from South Africa in 1914 to return home, Smuts wrote, “The saint has left our shores, I sincerely hope forever.”

Fight for Indian Liberation

After spending several months in London at the outbreak of World War I, Gandhi returned in 1915 to India, which was still under the firm control of the British, and founded an ashram in Ahmedabad open to all castes. Wearing a simple loincloth and shawl, Gandhi lived an austere life devoted to prayer, fasting and meditation. He became known as “Mahatma,” which means “great soul.”

In 1919, however, Gandhi had a political reawakening when the newly enacted Rowlatt Act authorized British authorities to imprison those suspected of sedition without trial. In response, Gandhi called for a Satyagraha campaign of peaceful protests and strikes. Violence broke out instead, which culminated on April 13, 1919, in the Massacre of Amritsar when troops led by British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators and killed nearly 400 people. No longer able to pledge allegiance to the British government, Gandhi returned the medals he earned for his military service in South Africa and opposed Britain’s mandatory military draft of Indians to serve in World War I.

Gandhi became a leading figure in the Indian home-rule movement. Calling for mass boycotts, he urged government officials to stop working for the Crown, students to stop attending government schools, soldiers to leave their posts and citizens to stop paying taxes and purchasing British goods. Rather than buy British-manufactured clothes, he began to use a portable spinning wheel to produce his own cloth, and the spinning wheel soon became a symbol of Indian independence and self-reliance. Gandhi assumed the leadership of the Indian National Congress and advocated a policy of non-violence and non-cooperation to achieve home rule.

After British authorities arrested Gandhi in 1922, he pleaded guilty to three counts of sedition. Although sentenced to a six-year imprisonment, Gandhi was released in February 1924 after appendicitis surgery. He discovered upon his release that relations between India’s Hindus and Muslims had devolved during his time in jail, and when violence between the two religious groups flared again, Gandhi began a three-week fast in the autumn of 1924 to urge unity.

The Salt March

After remaining away from active politics during much of the latter 1920s, Gandhi returned in 1930 to protest Britain’s Salt Acts, which not only prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt—a staple of the Indian diet—but imposed a heavy tax that hit the country’s poorest particularly hard. Gandhi planned a new Satyagraha campaign that entailed a 390-kilometer/240-mile march to the Arabian Sea, where he would collect salt in symbolic defiance of the government monopoly.

“My ambition is no less than to convert the British people through non-violence and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India,” he wrote days before the march to the British viceroy, Lord Irwin. Wearing a homespun white shawl and sandals and carrying a walking stick, Gandhi set out from his religious retreat in Sabarmati on March 12, 1930, with a few dozen followers. The ranks of the marchers swelled by the time he arrived 24 days later in the coastal town of Dandi, where he broke the law by making salt from evaporated seawater.

The Salt March sparked similar protests, and mass civil disobedience swept across India. Approximately 60,000 Indians were jailed for breaking the Salt Acts, including Gandhi, who was imprisoned in May 1930. Still, the protests against the Salt Acts elevated Gandhi into a transcendent figure around the world, and he was named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” for 1930.

The Road to Independence

Gandhi was released from prison in January 1931, and two months later he made an agreement with Lord Irwin to end the Salt Satyagraha in exchange for concessions that included the release of thousands of political prisoners. The agreement, however, largely kept the Salt Acts intact, but it did give those who lived on the coasts the right to harvest salt from the sea. Hoping that the agreement would be a stepping-stone to home rule, Gandhi attended the London Round Table Conference on Indian constitutional reform in August 1931 as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference, however, proved fruitless.

Gandhi returned to India to find himself imprisoned once again in January 1932 during a crackdown by India’s new viceroy, Lord Willingdon. Later that year, an incarcerated Gandhi embarked on a six-day fast to protest the British decision to segregate the “untouchables,” those on the lowest rung of India’s caste system, by allotting them separate electorates. The public outcry forced the British to amend the proposal.

After his eventual release, Gandhi left the Indian National Congress in 1934, and leadership passed to his protégé Jawaharlal Nehru. He again stepped away from politics to focus on education, poverty and the problems afflicting India’s rural areas.

As Great Britain found itself engulfed in World War II in 1942, though, Gandhi launched the “Quit India” movement that called for the immediate British withdrawal from the country. In August 1942, the British arrested Gandhi, his wife and other leaders of the Indian National Congress and detained them in the Aga Khan Palace in present-day Pune. “I have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside at the liquidation of the British Empire,” Prime Minister Winston Churchill told Parliament in support of the crackdown. With his health failing, Gandhi was released after a 19-month detainment, but not before his 74-year-old wife died in his arms in February 1944.

After the Labour Party defeated Churchill’s Conservatives in the British general election of 1945, it began negotiations for Indian independence with the Indian National Congress and Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League. Gandhi played an active role in the negotiations, but he could not prevail in his hope for a unified India. Instead, the final plan called for the partition of the subcontinent along religious lines into two independent states—predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

Violence between Hindus and Muslims flared even before independence took effect on August 15, 1947. Afterwards, the killings multiplied. Gandhi toured riot-torn areas in an appeal for peace and fasted in an attempt to end the bloodshed. Some Hindus, however, increasingly viewed Gandhi as a traitor for expressing sympathy toward Muslims.

Assassination

In the late afternoon of January 30, 1948, the 78-year-old Gandhi, still weakened from repeated hunger strikes, clung to his two grandnieces as they led him from his living quarters in New Delhi’s Birla House to a prayer meeting. Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse, upset at Gandhi’s tolerance of Muslims, knelt before the Mahatma before pulling out a semiautomatic pistol and shooting him three times at point-blank range.
The violent act took the life of a pacifist who spent his life preaching non-violence. Godse and a co-conspirator were executed by hanging in November 1949, while additional conspirators were sentenced to life in prison.

Death and Legacy

Even after his death, Gandhi’s commitment to non-violence and his belief in simple living—making his own clothes, eating a vegetarian diet and using fasts for self-purification as well as a means of protest—have been a beacon of hope for oppressed and marginalized people throughout the world. Satyagraha remains one of the most potent philosophies in freedom struggles throughout the world today, and Gandhi’s actions inspired future human rights movements around the globe, including those of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States and Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

日照丰沛的我国，未来还需要核电吗？

163

核能发电课题儘管尚未在我国引爆，但我国考虑发展核能却是不爭的事实。大马核能机构（MNPC）料在明年展开核能课题的全国宣传，为核电厂铺路的法令將在3月提呈国会，而当局在確认建址后才会收集民意。

同时，东盟多国都有发展核电的打算，越南已决定建设2座核电厂，印尼及泰国分別计划在2020年及2031年完成建设；若取得人民同意，我国则预计在2025年建设首座核电厂，发电容量为2GW。

我曾询问大马核能机构首席执行员莫哈末占嘉法，日照丰沛的我国，为何需要核能发电？他说，再生能源面对无法持续发电（intermittent）的问题，但用户不能因为没有日照，就不用电，为了稳定电供，必须选择核能。

然而，日本在福岛核灾后改用电力回购制收购民间绿能，环境能源研究所（ISEP）的饭田哲也就揭露，日本的再生能源在2011年3月事件发生后就暴增97%，2014年的太阳能发电量从9GW飆升至24GW，另有60GW的太阳能发电已获批准，等待安装。

饭田哲也说，24GW的太阳能发电量已成功让日本度过夏日的用电高峰，而九州电力公司更曾在用电需求低时，要求种子岛的民营太阳能发电厂停止发电7小时，避免供电失衡而断电。

此外，隨著全球多国转向再生能源，再生能源的储电技术也开始起飞。日本东芝正致力开发以氢电池储存太阳能的技术，各国科学家也在开发「人工光合作用」技术，將太阳能转为氢燃料。

在使用再生能源多年的欧洲，爱尔兰奥法利郡罗德岛就设置了飞轮（flywheel）混合能源储存系统。2017年启用的该系统將能协调来自风力、太阳能等地电力，划时代地解决「再生能源电力无法储存」的问题。

回过头来，我国若是打算在2025年才建设首座核电厂，当时的再生能源技术可能已是今日无法想像的境地，无法持续发电的问题也可能已经解决，发电成本更肯定会持续降低。

届时，日照丰沛的我国，是否还需要核能发电？到时候若坚持核能发电，又是否等于將別人弃之敝屣的技术，捡回来使用？这岂不是捨本逐末、捨近求远吗？

巫统史观的意识型態机器

136

巫统大会过了，巫伊结盟来了，就连所谓的「第二刘蝶广场」也开张大吉了。净选盟的滚滚五十万黄潮东逝水，浪花淘尽英雄狗熊，反而三几十人的红潮突起，从巫统大会的「小红书」开始红起，还烧到了「大家购物中心」。背后的「那些事儿」，也和巫统的权力保卫战息息相关。

从警方到公务员系统，甚至大部分的马来群眾都默默的认可了「巫统史观」的核心价值；否则，国阵和在野党222位国会议员当中，竟无一名马来议员公然反对「第二刘蝶广场」之设，也足以教人拍案惊奇了。
非马来人在「巫统史观」底下，固然被列为「外来者」和二等公民，马来人思维更深陷巫统史观的隱形监狱，只能在巫统、伊斯兰党和公正党打转；一日不打开牢笼，巫统即使败选，巫统史观仍然主宰了绝大部分马来人的心灵。

而打造巫统史观的四大神器，就是教科书、干训局、马来报与博物馆。清真寺的作用反而被高举宗教旗帜的伊党掌控了，尤其是巫统没有一位在精神、道德上足以作为典范的「魅力型领袖」，更是如此。

马来人与土著佔大马人口60.3%之谱，但在大马的环境，却是「一个土著，各自表述」；非穆斯林土著与穆斯林土著的命运並不一致，就连拿政府工程和 申请奖学金也有不同的待遇。教科书对「非穆斯林土著」的题材著墨不多，以致不少大马人仍然把土著、伊斯兰教视为「不可分割的一部分」，实在是大错特错。把 「非穆斯林土著」列为土著，旨在强化巫统史观之论述，既土著是大马的主要人口，是真正的主人。

即便是马来穆斯林，在巫统史观主导下，他们只能在单一的教科书中接受巫统「建党建国」的伟大论述，没有机会理解英殖民时期的其他马来政治运动，如马 来左翼和马共的歷史。大多数华人青年知道陈平是马共总书记，大部分马来人却不知道马共主席是一名叫阿都拉西迪的马来穆斯林，马共还有一支以马来人为主的游 击队（第十支队）。官方教科书里的马共，几乎成为华人专属，与马来人无尤，这在识者眼中当然是一大笑话，但却是官方想要达致蒙昧群眾的手段。

官方教科书如此，马来民间也鲜有不跟巫统史观唱反调的歷史读本，长期以降，思想定格，也难以突破意识型態的牢笼，「只有巫统能维护马来人」的政治口 號也就被植入脑海，成为马来人的集体记忆。308,505两届大选的马来选票仍控制在巫统手里，与此息息相关。许多马来人仍然无法想像，没有了巫统以后的 世界；可见巫统史观荼毒之深。

教科书己將马来人和非马来人划分为不同的马来西亚公民，政治口號搞再多的1Malaysia，也就无法取信于人。说到底，这不过是一种博取选票的公 关手段。也因此，在政客和跟班高唱「一个大马，以民为先」，扮起白脸的时候，长期宏扬巫统史观的国家干训局（BTN）也就扮了黑脸，宣称华人与印度人为 「外来者」，两路夹击，软硬兼施。

干训局是国家机构，干的却是党务；吃的是公粮，吐的是党话。它长期向大学生和公务员搞思想工作，宣扬马来人主权和贬低其他族裔的地位，形同巫统史观的宣传机器，在资讯时代终于踢到了铁板。不愿接受洗脑的学员甚把內容放上YouTube，揭翻了底牌。

自此，巫统史观也就受到非马来人青年的挑战，也影响了国阵的政治版图；马来青年奔向火箭的动作，更是对巫统史观开了一枪。

STU not in favour of bringing in English teachers from India

December 15, 2015, Tuesday

SIBU: The idea of engaging the services of English language teachers from India does not augur well with Sarawak Teachers Union (STU), in that the move may deprive local graduates of the opportunity to teach the subject.

Union president Jisin Nyud believed that such chance should be given to local graduates.

“If these (local) teachers are insufficiently competent, we still can send them for up-skilling, just like what the ministry is doing now.

“It’s not that we’re saying the teachers from India are not proficient; it’s just that by recruiting locals, the government could save costs,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Jisin believed that there were so many things that could be done to improve schools, “if we had allocations”.

“However, if we really want to improve in schools, then the Dual Language Program (DLP) can serve as one of the solutions and it should be extended to all schools,” he added.

Jisin was commenting on Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan’s recent statement that the government was committed to increasing the number of English language teachers through various means, including the English Language Teachers From India (ELTI) programme.

His remarks were made in replying to a supplementary question from Senator Datuk Boon Som Inong in Dewan Negara.

Kamalanathan was quoted by Bernama as saying that retired English language teachers still had the opportunity to teach again, as an effort to overcome the shortage of teachers in that subject.

He, however, pointed out these teachers were only willing to teach close to the location of their residence.

On this, Jisin said some of them might not mind being posted outside their areas, but several factors had to be considered.

He understood that the retirees might not be able to move around as much as they could during their younger days.

He also agreed that in schools, these contract retirees should not be given other tasks aside from teaching.

“In this aspect, we need to consider (assigning) retirees who are within the vicinity (of the school). Apart from making full use of their experience and knowledge, we also want these retirees to be healthy.

“For the selection process, it is better for it to be done by the district education office and also schools,” he suggested.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/12/15/stu-not-in-favour-of-bringing-in-english-teachers-from-india/#ixzz3ukr7MVVl