Belia Nadi Negara

Sepanjang bulan Mei terdapat peristiwa-peristiwa yang penting untuk belia antaranya ialah pada 17 hingga 19 Mei 2013 telah diadakan Hari Belia di Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Tiga hari kemudian satu lagi acara paling besar untuk belia seluruh Malaysia telah diadakan iaitu Festival Belia 2013 yang dianjurkan di Putrajaya bermula dari 13 Mei sehingga pada 26 Mei 2013. Apa yang menarik kedua-dua aktiviti ini berlangsung setelah berakhirnya pilihan raya umum ke-13 dan kabinet Malaysia baru saja ditubuhkan. Pada perasmian Festival Belia di Putrajaya dirasmikan oleh Menteri Belia dan Sukan yang baru iaitu Khairy Jamaluddin.

Menurut statistik terkini menunjukkan golongan belia membentuk 40 % (11.9 juta) daripada jumlah penduduk negara ini. Sesungguhnya, golongan belia adalh golongan yang akan diberi perhatian dan menjadi fokus utama dalam setiap dasar dan juga pelan rancangan negara. Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak menyatakan bahawa hubungan golongan belia dengan kerajaan penting dalam pembangunan negara. 

Menurut beliau hubungan belia dan kerajaan penting untuk pembangunan negara, itu perlu diakui. Ia juga membantu mereka memahami peranan mereka kepada negara ulas Perdana Menteri.

Beliau turut memberi penegasan bahawa golongan belia tanpa mengira fahaman politik perlu bekerjasama dengan kerajaan untuk membentuk sebuah negara yang membangun. 

Belia merupakan pewaris dan tunjang kepada kelansungan masa depan negara. Golongan ini mempunyai banyak potensi dan bakat, adalah baiknya sekiranya potensi dan bakat mereka diasah dan digilap agar dapat dibangunkan secara holistik sekaligus dapat melahirkan modal insan yang mahir, berpengetahuan tinggi, berbakat, kreatif dan berinovasi. 

Menyedari kepentingan golongan belia ini, Ketua Menteri Sabah menyatakan kerajaan di bawah pimpinan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib awal-awal lagi sentiasa peka terhadap peranan belia itu sendiri. Kerajaan bersedia memberi apa juga bentuk keperluan bantuan kepada belia agar mereka mendapat manfaatnya. 

Dalam ucapan perasmian Hari Belia pada 18 Mei yang lalu, Musa berkata adalah amat penting memahami peranan mereka sebagai pemangkin perpaduan dan pendukung semangat kenegaraan sesuai dengan tema Hari Belia 2013 213 iaitu "Belia Inspirasi Negara". Demi menyokong golongan belia, Kerajaan Sabah telah menyediakan peruntukan sebanyak RM240.89 juta dana untuk kegunaan dalam melaksanakan pelbagai program melibatkan belia.

Secara keseluruhannya, belia dan kerajaan saling memerlukan antara satu sama yang lain. Hubungan yang baik terjalin antara mereka boleh member impak positif dalam pelan penerusan pembangunan negara . Sejajar dengan itu, potensi dan bakat yang ada pada golongan ini perlu dibangunkan, diasah, dibimbing serta diberi latihan secukupnya agar insan yang memenuhi keperluan wawasan 2020 dapat dilahirkan.

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Social Media in Malaysia: An Opinion

Star Online news organised chit chat with several individual to talk about social media in Malaysia especially after the GE-13. They are lawyer Syahredzan Johan, digital strategist Niki Cheong, senior asset management analyst Kavilan Nakaswaram, and ex-private secretary to Datuk Seri Idris Jala Shahid Shayaa. The moderator is Star online news editor Martin Vengadesan. 

There are eight questions asked by Martin. Only the significant questions will be included here. One of the question asked is after 2008, one of the Internet's biggest social media influences were bloggers. Since then, Facebook and Twitter have become major players. Is social media use at its peak, or will it become even more influential? Has the impact been a positive or negative one, and should people like Papagomo be able to say whatever they want with unrestricted freedom.

Zara answered the question by referring in the past. She say that restrictions upon freedom of speech were very political in nature. She did not think that anybody can be allowed to say whatever they want. The boundaries that she would support are, for example hate speech. But there must be a healthy debate regarding the restriction of freedoms, There shouldn't be a top-bottom approach where one authority decides what limitations to put on freedom of speech and then protect people from said information.

The chat was continued and this time the question asked is about the establishing of social media improved communication in Malaysian society. I kind of agreed with the statement from Niki. He say that finally, everyone has a platform to speak up. Looking back at the past there are no platform like nowadays. Today, we had blogs and everything change. People out there can voice out their opinion freely. Shahid give more information regarding the question. According to him, with social media, we need to embrace the good, the bad and the ugly. It's a polarity to be managed, not a problem to be solved. Social media encourages you to voice opinions. 

Another question asked is does social media lead to a disconnect from reality. Among the answers are the problem is when people use social media as a gauge to judge something. In the context of government, GLCs etc, they don't really connect or tend to have distorted view of how social media works or why people tweet a certain way. For example, I heard from a lot from the Barisan side saying Pakatan controls social media! But no one can control social media. No one can buy it, no one can own it. 

Last question asked by Star Online news is about their closing thought on their social media use and the scene in Malaysia. Their opinion are it actually takes up a lot of your time. It's good to have panels like this to have closure. Online debates don't really have closure. Syahredzan say social media, to him, is a godsend. Tweeting is not just something you do because you want people to hear you. He use it because he want to get information. Niki close the discussion or chit chat with his opinion that the magnitude of impact that social media has on the expansion of social ties is quite fantastic. Human beings are all so grounded in a physical way by geographical boundaries. You don't get new information from your bunch of friends because they're all talking about the same thing. But social media has allowed us to break free from clustering. Last time, to get information, you need to find one link. But now, this link exists in so many different forms. It's not just in an acquaintance, but in a tweet, a hashtag, a search. That whole social ties concept makes social media so fascinating.

Complete discussion can be found here http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/6/4/nation/13192247&sec=nation

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Syarat Kemasukan Ke Malaysia

Wargenagara asing sama ada datang ke Malaysia atas urusan perniagaan atau pun untuk tujuan melancong dan sebagainya adalah tertakluk kepada syarat-syarat tertentu sekiranya ingin memasuki negara Malaysia. 

Seseorang pelawat hendaklah memenuhi syarat-syarat yang telah ditetapkan sebelum memasuki Malaysia. Terdapat lima perkara utama yang penting kepada sesiapa sahaja yang berminat ke Malaysia. 

Pertama adalah warganegara asing tersebut mesti mempunyai Pasport atau Dokumen perjalanan yang sah. Setiap seorang perlu mempunyai pasport atau dokumen perjalanan antarabangsa yang diiktiraf dan sah untuk masuk ke Malaysia. Mana-mana pasport atau dokumen perjalanan yang tidak diiktiraf oleh Kerajaan Malaysia, perlu mempunyai Dokumen Sebagai Ganti Pasport. Untuk pengetahuan Pasport boleh di pohon di mana-mana Pejabat Perwakilan Malaysia di luar negara. Pemegang-pemegang dokumen perjalanan seperti Surat Akuan Pengenalan, Laiiser Passer, Titre de Voyage atau Sijil Penduduk Tetap sesebuah negara perlu memastikan bahawa kepulangan mereka ke negaranya atau negara yang mengeluarkan dokumen tersebut adalah terjamin. Dokumen-dokumen tersebut mesti laku enam bulan ke atas dari tarikh masuk ke Malaysia. 

Kedua adalah warganegara asing tersebut mempunyai visa. Visa adalah satu jenis endosmen dalam sesebuah pasport atau mana-mana dokumen perjalanan asing yang diiktiraf yang menunjukkan bahawa pemegang telah memohon terlebih dahulu di mana-mana Pejabat Perwakilan Malaysia di luar negara. Visa yang dekeluarkan bukanlah merupakan satu jaminan yang mutlak bahawa individu tersebut akan dibenarkan masuk ke negara ini. Keputusan akhir adalah terletak kepada budi bicara Pegawai Imigresen yang bertugas dipintu masuk. 

Ketiga adalah warganegara asing tersebut mempunyai tiket perjalanan balik yang sah dan perbelanjaan yang mencukupi. Setiap pelawat diperlukan juga untuk membuktikan kemampuan kewangan untuk menyara dirinya di Malaysia bersama-sama dengan tiket perjalanan pulang yang telah ditetapkan untuk balik ke negara asal atau ke negara lain. 

Keempat adalah bukan migran larangan. Mana-mana orang yang diiktiraf dibawah Seksyen 8 Akta Imigresen 1959/1963 tidak akan dibenarkan masuk ke Malaysia walaupun mempunyai Pasport atau dokumen perjalanan yang sah, visa, tiket perjalanan dan perbelanjaan yang mencukupi.

Yang terakhir adalah mengisi kad masuk dan keluar Malaysia. 

Ini adalah merupakan sebahagian syarat-syarat sebelum memasuki negara Malaysia. 

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Wildlife experts want Malaysia, Indonesia to collaborate so that Sumatran rhinos can meet and mate

KOTA KINABALU: With just about 100 Sumatran rhinos around, wildlife researchers want Malaysia and Indonesia to urgently work together so that the rhinos get to meet each other, mate, reproduce and get off the critically endangered list.

“The Sumatran rhino population is facing a decreasing trend with the isolated populations in Indonesia (Sumatra and possibly Kalimantan) and Malaysia (Sabah)," said wildlife research NGO Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA) executive director of BORA Dr Junaidi Payne."Although habitat loss and poaching are the reasons for the decline, today's reproductive isolation of individuals, too sparsely scattered even within protected areas, is the main threat to the survival of the species," he added.

Payne was the co-author of a paper published this week in the scientific journal Oryx, in which researchers demonstrate the vital necessity to consider the remaining populations of Sumatran rhinoceros in Sumatra and Borneo as a single conservation unit.The paper was the outcome of a joint study by BORA, the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Cardiff University and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC).

DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens, the paper's lead author, said a cohesive approach in the Sumatran rhino conservation efforts made sense."For a species such as the Sumatran rhinoceros, where time is of the essence in preventing extinction, we must ask to what extent should genetic and geographical distances be taken into account in deciding the most urgently needed conservation interventions," said Goossens.

"Genetic differences are minimal and we strongly believe that the observed differences do not justify keeping the Sumatran and Bornean populations as separate management units,'' he said.
'A study of the Javan rhinoceros showed low genetic diversity in that population and that there was a critical need for population expansion for the species to survive,'' Goosens added.
He said despite clear results demonstrating that the Ujung Kulon (Indonesia) and Cat Tien (Vietnam) rhino populations represented separate evolutionary significant units it was argued that demographic considerations should override genetic issues in the short term.

'The Indonesian and Vietnamese governments were urged to exchange Javan rhinoceroses before it was too late. No action was taken and, in Cat Tien National Park, the last individual in Vietnam was found dead in April 2010," explained Goossens.

"We certainly do not want the same thing to happen to the Sumatran rhinoceros and we, therefore, strongly recommend to act now and exchange gametes such as semen and ovocytes (and possibly individuals) between the captive populations of Sumatran rhinoceros in Sabah (Tabin), Sumatra (Way Kambas) and Cincinnati Zoo, when it is still possible," said Goossens.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said state authorities had working with foreign researchers including rhino reproduction biologists from Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife Research.

"We understand the need to exchange gametes between countries, Malaysia and Indonesia. Actions to initiate genome resource banking and artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization are underway in Sabah and elsewhere," added Ambu.

"We are seriously considering sending Tam, our captive male rhinoceros, to Cincinnati Zoo in the US to breed with their mature female," added Ambu.

"By doing so, we will make an historical step towards the survival of one of the most charismatic, ancient and enigmatic large mammals; a species that Sabah is not prepared to see extinct," he added.

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PM declares half-month bonus for civil servants, pensioners get special payment

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced a half-month bonus with a minimum payment of RM500 for civil servants and a special payment of RM500 for pensioners.
The payments will be made on Aug 9, he said. Hari Raya Aidilfitri is expected to fall on Aug 19.
The bonus and special payment will benefit 1.27 million civil servants and 657,000 government pensioners.
Najib said the payments were being made in view of the financial capability and fiscal position of the Government.
He said the payments would involve an estimated cost of RM2.2bil.
“The Government always has deep concern for and gives much emphasis to the welfare of civil servants,” he said, adding that he hoped the payments would help the people celebrate Aidilfitri.
The bonus has traditionally been paid out at the end of the year to help civil servants buy school essentials.

Read More :  http://thestar.com.my

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