ADENAN: RESPECT IS THE WORD

Introducing the United Bumiputera Heritage Party Head of Information Bureau, Tan Sri Adenan Haji Satem.  He has been in the world of politics since he was 32 years old. During the 80's, he was the champion for issues relating to NCR land and for his vast political experience he was appointed as the Special Advisor to the Chief Minister's Department and also an assemblyman for Tanjung Dato.  

 
RESPECT IS THE WORD

25 Nov 2010 Ong Wei Ling

 

KUCHING: The respect for each other’s race, religion, culture and tradition, is the mainstay of Sarawak’s peaceful existence since time immemorial.

Saying this was Special Advisor to the Chief Minister, Tan Sri Datuk Amar Adenan Haji Satem, when asked by a foreign participant of an international conference on ‘Minority and Majority:

Language, Culture and Identity’ to reveal what it was that kept Sarawak peaceful and its multiracial people living in harmony with each other.

He said that despite all the differences in race, beliefs, culture and practices, Sarawakians could still agree with each other on a wide range of subjects, and in a worst case scenario, could still find a middle path acceptable to all.

The two-day conference which ended yesterday was organised by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s (UNIMAS) Centre for Language Studies and Malaysian Association of Modern language. The sponsors were Sarawak Convention Bureau, Bank Rakyat and Yayasan Sarawak.

During a question-and-answer session later, Adenan said that the Malay language was not just a language for the Malay but was the lingua franca of the South East Asian region.

A foreign academician had asked him about the use of the language in the country and its usage in the school system and in language relations in Malaysia.

In Malaysia, he said, there were many types of schools - international schools, national schools, binary schools and religious schools. “There is nothing that can stop these schools from developing because they follow the same (government) policy”.

He also said that one must not be too proud of one’s language and refuse to accept other languages. A good example, he added, was the almost extinct Sanskrit because its speakers in the olden days refused to accept other languages and cultures. “English in comparison is very practical and is open to any culture, and so too is Bahasa Malaysia,” he added.

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Cyber-Tyranny or Cyber Stupidity?

from themalaysianinsider.com

Anti-tower Facebook page block is own fault, not censorship

 
By Zurairi Abd Rahman
October 21, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Facebook has been accused of censorship by the owners of a Facebook page dedicated against the proposed 100-storey skyscraper by Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (PNB).

“While new media offers room for social movements, the authoritarian governance by the Internet giants like Facebook has sunk to a new form of censorship,” bursts one of the creators in a report earlier by Malaysiakini, setting off incendiary reactions from the Malaysian Twitter community.

Despite allegations of “cyber-tyranny”, the block may have less to do with censorship but more to do with its meteoric rise.

Started the day after the Budget 2011 speech by Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the fan page now sports 36,843 fans of likeminded Malaysians at the time of writing, and swelling still.

The page administrators have been barred from posting new content yesterday — a pop-up states “Your publishing rights have been blocked due to a violation of the Pages Terms of Use”.

Facebook users can still “like” the fan page, and access to it has not been obstructed in any way.

The owners claim to be victimised, but a quick look at the Terms & Conditions page for Facebook Fan Page reveals that “Pages are special profiles that may only be used to promote a business or other commercial, political, or charitable organisation or endeavour”.

Put simply, a fan page may only represent a specific brand or organisation, none of which is represented by the “1M Malaysians Reject 100-storey Mega Tower” page.

A look at the help page on “Warnings” also suggests that the owners might be blocked from posting any contents since they might have sent messages “at a rate that is likely to be abusive”, or spamming.

Lately, Facebook also has gone on an exercise to convert generic and unofficial fan pages that rakes up thousands of fans to community pages. Community pages concentrate on topics which are discussed by a lot of people, and won’t be maintained by a single author.

If this is why the fan page was blocked, the solution to the block would be as simple as verifying themselves as legitimate owner of the page to Facebook, thus making it “official”.

In any case, Facebook states that a block will be temporary, and lasts between a few hours to a few days. Any attempts to use the blocked feature will only result in a longer block.

The 100-storey tower protesters would do best to keep their calm, and be patient.

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Tasmanians Impressed with Sarawakians Logging Practice

The logjam incident caused a bad name to the Sarawak timber industry.  'They' claimed that we are not ethical in managing our resources especially the logging activity. 

 

Here we have the Tasmanian coming up to see for themselves if we managed our forest badly.  

To my surprise, they were impressed with our forest management and logging practice.  Below is the report published in the local newspapers.

 

Tasmanian govt on mission to Sarawak
Utusan Borneo
by Zoee Hillson. Posted on October 19, 2010, Tuesday

KUCHING: The Tasmanian government is on a fact-finding mission as part of an effort to refute allegations by environmentalist against Ta Ann Holdings Berhad’s operations in the Tasmania, Australia.

FACT FINDING: Harriss (right) in a discussion with Awang Tengah (centre) and Len Talif after the courtesy call at Wisma Sumber Alam.

Member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council Andrew Paul Harriss said yesterday that allegations by some environmental groups against Ta Ann were scathing and unreasonable.

He also said the allegations were damaging to Ta Ann and the state’s timber industry as a whole.

“It’s fair to say that some environmental groups in Tasmania have been unreasonable and too critical of Ta Ann and they have tried to bring that back to forest practices in Sarawak.

“We seek to rebut that allegation based on proper information gathering and proper technical assessment,” he said when met by reporters after paying a courtesy call on Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan at Wisma Sumber Alam here.

Harriss added that this was his third visit to the state to gain an insight intoTa Ann’s credibility and performance.

“So, we have a delegation here to understand exactly what Ta Ann logging practices are like in Sarawak and also the broader operation industry in Sarawak,” Harriss said.

“Ta Ann is a credible organisation and an organisation of integrity. I’m satisfied with that and this trip is just an upgrading of knowledge on the ongoing operations.

“We are satisfied with Ta Ann’s operations in the past and the information we gather this time confirms that satisfaction.”

He said they were very impressed with Ta Ann’s operations in Tasmania and added that the forest industry was the state’s fundamental economic driver.

“They’re employing many Tasmanians in the local community and 10 per cent of our total workforce in Tasmania is employed in the forest industry operations,” Harriss said.

He also said Tasmania was opening a wide opportunity for the forest industry operators from around the world, including from Sarawak.

VicForests director Robert Patrick Smith, Ta Ann Tasmania director David Riley and Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) chief executive officer Datu Len Talif Salleh were also present during the courtesy call.

 

 

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