SABAH SHORTAGE OF 300 ENGLISH TEACHERS

THERE should not be any uncertainty that whether the Mathematics and Science subjects can be taught in using English language or not in Sabah when the school starts in January.

This was explained by the Sabah Education Director, Datuk Dr Muhiddin Yusin that his department is still trying to know which schools have the capacity to teach both the subjects in English. He said the school offering the English would have a tough time coping with the parents to have their children admitted to these schools.

The Education director futher said that the problem is aggreviated by teachers wanting to be transferred to the Peninsular but also wanted to transfer from one school to another within the state. He also said that there are many other problems to be sorted out before a school can offer to teach the two subjects in English. The shortage of 300 English teachers is a major headache and drawback in implementing the plans.

Edward Ewol Mujie of Sabah DAP has viewed the problem in implementing the English teaching in maths and science is nothing but all the bad planning and fickle-minded policy making. There is no proper planning and arrangement prior to implementing, and everything is last minute decision which took control over the event. The previous person decided on things, and the next person comes along and changed things all over. By the look of it the director is true that English to teach maths and science will not be possible by January.

Edward said if this is determined by the availability of the English teachers who can teach maths and science in Primary and secondary schools, why the Ministry of Education and its Minister did not find a possible solution well before any announcement. They just merely passed on the burden and headache to the local education officers. In return, the school children and the parents faced with the big problems now.

Edward suggests that there are ways that the Education department can solve the problem on the shortage of English teachers. The simple ways is to re-engage the retired English teachers on contract basis with better pay and to employ from overseas countries where English speaking teachers can be easily found. This can be done because in Sabah we used to have many oversea English teachers came from overseas to teach here, and they were good. Many of our Ministers were their students too. Edward said if the government can give away so many hundreds of million ringgits to the people under the BR1M at RM500

Per person, why can’t they spend the money to employ more good English teachers for the sake of our future generations?

The Education department should not delay this by way of excuses and saying that they are not ready. The department must quickly identify and make arrangement to get the subjects to be taught in English. You can wait but the student cannot! How can we build a new Malaysia with this type of system and attitude?

WHAT HAPPEN TO KG BATU LINTING KUALA PENYU?

CHEERS…. Hiew with Datuk John Ghani and his friends during the Christmas Open house.

THE PEOPLE urged the Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament, Hiew King Cheu to highlight their grievances concerning their hardship faced in the kampongs here in Kuala Penyu. The kampongs here are constantly having electricity power cut and frequent breakdown. This is happening more serious nowadays. The water supply here is even worst, because there is already three years that the pipes ran dry.

This was disclosed to the KK MP Hiew when he visited the kampongs and to attend the Christmas open house function held by Datuk John Ghani who lives in the Kg Batu Linting. The function was attended by nearly a thousand people including the Ex-Perak Menteri Besar and the MP for Bukit Gantang Datuk Nizar Jamaruddin, and the Assistant Federal Minister Datuk Lajim Ukim, he is also the MP for Beaufort.

The water supply problem in the Kuala Penyu kampongs near the beaches having shortage and absolutely no water is almost three years now. The people have to depaend on the rain water or even have to dig their own wells and using deep well-point to suck the underground water up.

Datuk John Ghani’s house is one of the typical examples. He uses well-point system to suck up the underground water for his house here, and sometimes when there is power cut, he will have to depend on electric power generators to start the electric well-point pumps.

There are many houses along the beach here and including a primary school with many students. All of them had been affected, but why the government did not come to solve the problem which was there for a long time?

The government could have forgotten about these Kuala Penyu small kampongs. The people said they are not important now, but when election comes the BN will come fast to ask for support. Very surprisingly, even Datuk Lajim has concurred on the water and electric supply problem in his speech, and he had also made complaint himself.

MP Hiew said no matter how small these kampongs are, and the people here should deserve the same treatment and welfare as any other Malaysian. It is unfair to neglect them and put them aside, and he said it is not difficult to bring in the water and steady electricity supply to these kampongs provided the people in charge especially those in the BN government is going to do their part as they are paid to execute their duties as the people representatives.

PETRONAS AKTIF PADA TAHUN ARNAB DI SABAH

Oleh : NEWMOND TIBIN

2011, atau Tahun Arnab pada kalender Cina yang melambangkan nasib yang bertuah, muncul sebagai tahun aktif bagi Petronas yang meningkatkan kehadirannya di Sabah.

Petronas telah mengumumkan pelaburan dan komitmen bagi melakukan perbelanjaan modal sebanyak RM45 bilion pada tahun ini bagi melaksanakan pelan terperinci minyak dan gas bagi Sabah, dengan melaksanakan beberapa projek huluan dan hiliran untuk tempoh beberapa tahun akan datang.

Pada 4 Ogos lepas, Pengurus Besar Petronas Wilayah Sabah dan Labuan Joseph Podtung berkata sesetengah projek itu telah bermula manakala yang lain dijangka dimulakan tidak lama lagi.

Beliau yakin projek jangka panjang itu dan bermodal besar serta menambah nilai sumber petroleum negeri itu akan menghasilkan perolehan lebih besar bagi negeri itu, selain perolehan dari royalti dan projek berkenaan akan menjadi pemangkin bagi pertumbuhan ekonomi sambil menyediakan pelbagai limpahan bagi manfaat sosio-ekonomi negeri itu.

Projek utama di bawah pelan itu, kata Podtung ialah Terminal Minyak dan Gas Sabah (SOGT) yang bernilai RM3.8 bilion, loji kuasa menggunakan arang batu 300MW bernilai RM1.5 bilion di Kimanis, kilang baja bernilai RM4.6 bilion di Sipitang dan Terminal Pembotolan Semula Gas Asli Cecair (LNG) di Lahad Datu bagi dijadikan bahan api cadangan loji kuasa 300MW yang baharu di kawasan itu. Terminal dan loji kuasa itu dijangka menelan belanja RM2.2 bilion.

Pengumuman itu mendapat reaksi positif semua pihak, walau pun ada yang berpendapat langkah Petronas di Sabah itu boleh ditambah baik lagi.

Ketua Menteri Datuk Seri Musa Aman, yang juga Menteri Kewangan Negeri, sambil mengucapkan terima kasih kepada Petronas, telah memberi jaminan bahawa kerajaan negeri akan memberikan sokongan dan bantuan untuk membantu memudahkan aktiviti berkaitan Petronas di Sabah.

Sebagai contoh, katanya Projek Kilang Loji Ammionia-Urea Sabah (Samur) milik Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd di Sipitang dijangka memberikan kontrak bernilai RM600 juta kepada syarikat dari Sabah di dalam pelaksanaan projek itu.

"Ini juga melambangkan kesungguhan Petronas menyediakan rakyat Malaysia di Sabah peluang untuk menjadi pemain di dalam perniagaan minyak dan gas," katanya.

Pada November, bekas yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Ahmadshah Abdullah berkata pelaburan Petronas itu akan memberikan impak yang besar terhadap ekonomi negeri itu yang boleh dibanggakan oleh rakyat Sabah. Projek mega itu dijangka siap pada 2013.

Penemuan beberapa telaga minyak di luar pesisir Sabah dijangka membantu menjana ekonomi negeri itu dan mewujudkan peluang pekerjaan bagi rakyat Sabah, katanya, sambil menyatakan sektor minyak dan gas serta tenaga negara dijangka memerlukan sekitar 21,000 pekerja sangat mahir menjelang 2020.

Anggota Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Bongawan Datuk Karim Bujang yang mengulas mengenai pengumuman itu pula berkata Petronas telah banyak berbudi kepada rakyat dan negeri Sabah.

Karim berkata beliau menyokong keputusan Speaker Dewan Negeri menolak usul pada persidangan Dewan Undangan Negeri awal tahun lepas oleh Adun Luyang dari Parti Maju Sabah (SAPP) Melanie Chia yang mengusulkan kerajaan negeri menyemak semula perjanjian royalti petroleum dari 5.0 peratus kepada 20 peratus.

"Saya percaya manfaat dari limpahan projek berkenaan lebih dari royalti yang diminta di dalam usul itu," kata Karim.

Sehingga Ogos tahun lepas, Petronas telah melabur RM61 billion di dalam aktiviti huluan dan hiliran di dalam sektor petroleum Sabah, yang sekaligus memberi sumbangan yang besar pada pembangunan negeri itu.

Tahun lepas, Petronas menemui minyak di luar pesisir Sabah, yang mengikut anggaran awal mempunyai rezab 227 juta tong minyak bersamaan (boe) dan ujian di tiga takungan yang berbeza menunjukkan kadar pengeluaran maksimum 8,200 tong sehari (bpd).

Persatuan Kontraktor Minyak dan Gas Sabah (SOGCA), yang turut mengulas, berkata industri minyak dan gas Sabah telah mendapat suntikan jangka panjang berikutan pelan Petronas membuat pelaburan berkenaan di Sabah.

Pada Forum Minyak dan Gas Sabah pada 4 Nov, Presidennya, Datuk Iskandar Malik telah melahirkan penghargaannya kepada Petronas kerana melaksanakan projek itu di Sabah, yang memberikan manfaat kepada rakyat sabah khususnya dan rakyat Malaysia secara keseluruhannya.

Presiden Pekilang-Pekilang Sabah Datuk Wong Ken Thau berkata industri itu dijangka meningkatkan sumbangan sektor pengeluaran terhadap keluaran dalam negeri kasar (KDNK) Sabah bagi tempoh lima tahun akan datang.

Wong menjangka Petronas akan memainkan peranan penting mencapai hasrat yang diingini di Sabah.

Petronas juga dilaporkan memberi keutamaan kepada rakyat tempatan di segi peluang perniagaan, terutama sekali dalam pengendalian stesen minyak Petronas.

Bekas peniaga stesen minyak Petronas yang beralih menjadi ahli politik, Jahid Jahim berkata kesemua stesen minyak Petronas di Sabah adalah 100 peratus milik orang tempatan.

Jahid, yang kini Menteri Muda Belia dan Sukan, berkata ini menunjukkan komitmen dan keseriusan Petronas untuk membantu dan memupuk rakyat Sabah untuk berjaya dalam perniagaan stesen minyak dan projek tanggung jawab sosial korporat (CSR) dan peranan Petronas dalam pusat latihan di Kimanis di dalam pengeluaran pekerja mahir, terutama bagi sektor minyak dan gas.

Bagi memenuhi keperluan melahirkan tenaga kerja pakar di dalam industri minyak dan gas, Petronas turut menjalin perjanjian dengan Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) pada awal tahun lepas bagi melaksanakan kursus ijazah Sarjana yang berkaitan.

MATANOI GROUP NOT LINK TO SAC

Dear Editor,

I REFER to the article published today on your website titled "Awas, Penyamun ‘Forex’ Di Keningau!" by James Kamiron in which a race bib is with the title ‘Sabah Adventure Challenge’ (SAC) is attached in your photograph with Matanoi staff.

To clarify, we signed a one year sponsorship agreement with the Matanoi Group in early January 2011 after they approached us about sponsoring our event for an undisclosed amount. There was an option to renew the sponsorship if certain criteria on our part as far as successful organization of our annual adventure sport event were attained.

In February/March 2011, an article appeared in the Daily Express about a company in Keningau that was involved in a Forex scam and several investors voiced their unhappiness about the conduct of an unnamed company.

We queried Matanoi about it and they denied it had anything to do with them and it was just rumors.

In early August 2011, I recieved an email from an an investor who had lost significant amounts of her investment in a Forex scam and asking me to view a Forex forum in reference to the said company and their associate companies.

After viewing the comments and the allegations being made about the company on the forums, we referred the matter to our lawyers who suggested we should not continue any form of sponsorship with the company in question and we wrote to them to inform them we wouldn't be seeking a continuation of any sponsorship on the 30th August 2011.

Since then, we have moved on and had no return replies from them or their representatives to our letter of the 30th August 2011.

As such, this email is to clarify our position on the matter and any photographs published on your website that associates Sabah Adventure Challenge to the Matanoi Group in your article suggests we too are part of some Forex scam and this is incorrect and untrue.

I am requesting you to kindly remove any reference to Sabah Adventure Challenge in your website article as we deem it to be defamatory and any reference to Sabah Adventure Challenge as being a part of any Forex investment or part of the Matanoi Group as also defamatory.

Your kind action would be appreciated. If you need further clarification on the issue, I will do my best to answer your questions but as far as our position is concerned. We are neither associated to Matanoi Group as a company nor to Matanoi Group in any shape, way or form other than them sponsoring our event last April 2011.

Yours sincerely,

AVTAR S.SANDHU

Race Director Sabah Adventure Challenge

Mobile: 013-8811757

Email: info@sabahadventurechallenge.com

(NOTE : Sabahkini.net have no intention to tarnished Sabah Adventure Challange with the Graphic; but the same time will only remove the graphic after SAC can produce Court Injunction against us. Please bear in mind that Sabahkini.net support BoG, No Internet Censor!)

SATU LAGI PARTI BARU DI SABAH

KEHANGATAN Politik semakin terasa berikutan pengumuman demi pengumuman dan desas desusu penubuhan Parti Baru di Sabah, sekalipun USNO masih terkial-kail menunggu kelulusan rayuan setelah ditolak oleh Pendaftar Pertubuhan Malaysia.

Berita terbaru, sebuah parti baru di Sabah STAR akan dilancarkan pada 6 Januari 2012 (Jumaat) di Dewan KDCA Penampang pada jam 12.30 hingga jam 5 petang. Kenyataan akhbar akan dibuat pada jam 4 petang hari berkenaan.

Jika ada pihak berminat untuk mengetahui lebih lanjut sila hubungi Tony Minggir di talian 019-8406888 kerana Press-Kit hanya akan diberi pada majlis pelancaran parti berkenaan.