Congratulations Taib-Ragad on Your Grand Wedding Reception 2011

Semicyber would like to share some moments from the Chief Minister of Sarawak wedding reception held in the New DUN Complex.  Attended by many VVIP across Malaysia.  A night to remember indeed!! 

Congratulations again to the lovely couple!!

Wedding of 2011 - A truly glittering wedding
Posted the New Straits Times 17, January 2011

HAPPY MOMENT: Taib and Ragad holding hands when entering their Grand Wedding Reception Hall at the DUN Complex

Datuk Seri Najib Razak congratulating Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and Puan Sri Ragad Waleed Alkurdi at their wedding reception in Kuching yesterday. — Picture by Azahan Rosli

CONGRATULATIONS: Head of State Tun Datuk Patinggi Abang Muhamad Salahuddin shares a light moment with Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and his wife Puan Sri Ragad Waleed Alkurdi. — Photos by Tan Song Wei and Jonathan Bullet

KUCHING: Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and his Syrian wife, Puan Sri Ragad Waleed Alkurdi, were all smiles as they arrived at the hall of the new state legislative assembly complex for their wedding reception.

The couple greeted some 500 guests as they walked into the hall beautifully adorned with fresh orchids, Taib in his black tuxedo and Ragad in her white wedding gown, holding a bouquet of roses.

Among the guests were Sarawak head of state Tun Abang Mohammad Salauhuddin Abang Barieng and wife Toh Puan Norkiah and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

Yesterday not only marked the wedding reception for the couple, it was also Ragad's 29th birthday.

Addressing the guests, Taib's son, Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir, said his aunt, Datuk Raziah Mahmud, who is Taib's sister, and her husband, Datuk Robert Geneid, introduced them.

Ragad was born in Damascus, but later moved to Riyadh at an early age. She studied interior design and likes fishing, singing and dancing.

The guests were enlightened when Mahmud recalled his conversation with Ragad five months ago in which she told him that she had dreamt she was going to be married to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia after he had whisked her away in a Rolls Royce.

Taib tied the knot with Ragad on Dec 18, last year at his residence at Demak Jaya, Petra Jaya. It was a private affair where only his family, relatives and a handful of cabinet ministers attended.

Taib's first wife, Puan Sri Laila Taib, a Polish-born Australian passed away in April 2009 of cancer. Married for 50 years, Taib and Laila have four children and 15 grandchildren.

Three of his children, Jamilah Hamidah, Sulaiman Abdul Rahman and Hanifah Hajar Taib, and their families were also at the reception.

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Sony PSP2 New Gadget to Replace Sony PSP-GO

Sony PSP2 is the new gadget that will hit us in  Q4 2011.  Below is the excerpt from the redmondpie reporter on this subject.

Sony PSP2 To Be As Powerful As PlayStation 3, Will Launch in Q4 2011?

It appears as if Sony is not going to let the Nintendo 3DS steal the show. Sony is expected to release the PSP2 within Q4 this year, possibly as early as October, and the first announcement is expected to be made January 27th.

It seems as this is going to be a high-end portable console. Sony has allegedly been telling licensees the device “is as powerful as the PlayStation 3”. The PSP successor will include a HD screen with twin-sick controls, and it may even incorporate phone functions, however this won’t be the primary use of the device. As this is what the PlayStation Phone or the Xperia Play will do. Sony is expected to release more information at GDC and E3, after the January 27th event. MCV reports there will be plenty downloadable content, smaller games and apps will be available via PSN. MCV also reports the PlayStation phone will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and it will only be capable of running smaller games.

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Sarawak Gets New Chief

The Chief of Staff for Rascom Camp has been announced. Congratulations to  Lt Col Kamarudzaman on his new appointment.  

However in another scene, the Cybertron, the new UMB BN Sarawak has also been established. The BN components in Sarawak has all agreed to appoint Abdul Aziz Adenan as the New Chief for UMB BN Sarawak. 

He is a also the PBB Youth Chief of Information, is a well-known computer literate and earlier  last year in 2010, had established the UMB PBB after witnessing the small by-election in Sibu. 

The time has come to unite all the BN Sarawak party component bloggers with the street bloggers to defend what it just!  With the appointment of the New Chief for UMB BN Sarawak, we will be looking at a drastic scenario where major component parties in BN Sarawak fighting in the cyber war and drilling for the coming election.

Congratulations to both New Chiefs and may the force be with you!!!

Lt Col Kamarudzaman takes over as new Ninth Brigade Chief of Staff

Posted on January 14, 2011, Friday The Borneo Post

SIBU: Lt Col Kamarudzaman Thani began his duties as the new Ninth Brigade Chief of Staff yesterday.

WITH FULL COMMITMENT: Mohd Nor (left) handing over duties to Kamarudzaman witnessed by Stephen (centre).

He replaced Lt Col Mohd Nor Kachut.

Mohd Nor will take up a new appointment in the Malaysian Army in Kuala Lumpur at the defense planning section this week.

In his speech, he called for full cooperation and commitment from the armed forces to improving the Ninth Brigade.

The hand over of duty was held at Rascom Camp at Mile 10, Oya Road yesterday.

Commanding Officer Of Ninth Brigade, Brigadier General Stephen Mundaw witnessed the handing over.

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What Happen to Non-Bumiputera Since 1960?

This is to answer why the government sector is lacking of non-bumi or non-Malays.  Report from Taipei Times showed that these people migrates to another countries. 

Malaysia struggling to prevent ‘brain drain’ as talent departs
Taipei Times

World Bank data show that while globally the number of migrants rose 2.4 times between 1960 and 2005, Malaysia’s diaspora registered a 155-fold increase

By Beh lih yi / AFP, KUALA LUMPUR

Computer engineer Wan Jon Yew with his wife and their baby girl pose in front of their apartment in Singapore on Tuesday.PHOTO: AFP

When computer engineer Wan Jon Yew left Malaysia in 2005 for a job in Singapore, all he wanted was to work in the city state for a few years before going home. Now, he says, he will never return.

With a family, a home and a car, he now plans to settle in Singapore for good — one of many Malaysians stampeding abroad every year in a worrying “brain drain” the government is trying to reverse.

“I wouldn’t consider going back to Malaysia, I won’t look back. If I were ever going to leave Singapore, I would migrate to Australia,” said the 28-year-old, who now has permanent resident status.

“It’s not about the money. I could have a better quality of life in Malaysia with my pay. I could have a semi-detached bungalow and have a maid there, but I would rather live in a government flat in Singapore,” he said.

Wan, who is ethnically Chinese, is one of some 700,000 Malaysians — most of them highly educated — who are currently working abroad in an exodus that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government is struggling to reverse.

The “brain drain” has a number of causes. Some have been lured by higher salaries, but others blame political and social gripes including preferential policies for Muslim Malays, who form the majority.

Many feel constrained by life in a country where the ruling coalition has been in power for half a century, and where progress on freedom of expression, the right to assembly, and tackling corruption has been slow.

A decades-old affirmative action policy which hands Malays and the indigenous groups privileges in housing, education and business, has been criticized as uncompetitive and improperly benefiting the elite.

As a consequence, many of those who have left are members of Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, who make up some 25 percent and 10 percent of the population respectively.

Last month Najib launched a “Talent Corporation” with incentives to woo back highly skilled workers and foreign professionals.

Malaysia has ambitions to transform itself into a developed nation by 2020, but a lack of human capital is a barrier to reaching that goal. 

World Bank data cited by the Malaysian press shows that while globally the number of migrants rose 2.4 times between 1960 and 2005, Malaysia’s diaspora registered a staggering 155-fold increase over the 45-year period.

“I don’t want my children to go through the unfair treatment,” said Wan, who believes Singapore offers “fair competition.”

“I’m not proud of being a Malaysian because I think the government doesn’t treat me as a Malaysian,” he said. “I would rather be a PR [permanent resident], a second-class citizen in a foreign country, than to be a citizen in my own country.”

Wan said his wife, an IT analyst, renounced her citizenship in July, joining a queue of about 30 Malaysians lining up to do so on that day alone at the Malaysian embassy in Singapore.

Commentators are skeptical over whether the government’s latest effort to reverse the “brain drain” will be successful.

“Money does have a significant role but the most important factor, I think, is opportunity. Malaysia is too politicized and opportunities are not evenly available to everyone,” political analyst Wan Saiful Wan Jan said.

In one example, he said academics are reluctant to work in local universities as they must sign a “loyalty pledge” barring them from, among other things, criticizing government policies.

Wan Saiful said the Talent Corporation will be “another expensive failure” if it does not tackle these structural problems.

“When I apply for a job, buy a house, register my children for school etc, why does it matter what my race or religion is? This should stop,” the analyst said. 

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DAP Guessing Game?

With the exposure of blunt story inside Sarawak Report, PKR Baru Bian is hiding away.  The fear of being summoned due to forging the SSM documents and publishing it with few edited pieces in their blogs. 

Chong and Baru Bian

This is the right time for DAP to take action and to gain back the majority after promising to give way to PKR's candidate.  The opposition fights among themselves to gain majority to be able to become the CM of Sarawak!? How can a chinese majority area be represented by PKR?  This is the issue being highlighted inside audie61's blog.  

Audie61 is convinced that DAP Chong Chieng Jen will not stand in Sentosa since SUPP Alfred Yap has turned that area into the grey zone for DAP?  DAP is rumored to put a new face coming from legal background, believed to have established a legal firm in Kota Sentosa?  Should they lose to SUPP Alfred Yap then they know the answer to spin that this is due to a new inexperienced choice?  

DAP Chong will likely battle SUPP in Padungan and trying very hard to convince PKR to fight elsewhere.  He is confident that he will likely hold the reigning title of The Idol of Chinese Youth.  He is clean and claimed that his fruits of labor could be seen in Kuching from the Spring shopping mall to Swinburne University Sarawak Campus establishment in Kuching?!!?

For more info please direct your cursor to these links below

1. Rajahmas
2. Kuchingitam
3. Audie61

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PBB Satok Youth BBQ Nite

KUCHING - 28 Dec 2010 -- PBB Satok Youth will organize a get together at their recently officiated office this 31st December 2010.  They will be having a karaoke singing competition, lucky draw and barbecue feast. 

All PBB Satok Youth members are invited to bring their families and friends for a delightful evening.  The barbecue will begin from 9:00 pm onwards until late.  The details is below.

Event: PBB Satok Youth BBQ Nite

Date: 31 December 2010

Time: 9:00 pm

Venue: PBB N8 Satok Headquarter, Jalan Kulas, Satok

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Saberkas is the Group for Youth

Congratulations to Saberkas who has set up their new branches all over Sarawak.  There will be no issue arises when organising activities since all has been made clear.  Youth will be targeted to play their parts by joining Saberkas to ensure a healthy and productive lifestyle.  

Apart from that, the seniors or veterans are also encouraged to bring in expertise identified in their branches to be trained and groomed to carry out the respective assignments when dealing with issues involving the youth.  This is a good way to promote the 1Malaysia  and also living in peace and harmony. 

SC would like to suggest to Saberkas to set up facebook and twitter account in order to reach the youth all across Sarawak.  These are the common tools for networking and socialising in Sarawak. 

Saberkas to set up 71 branches

by Eve Sonary Heng. Posted on December 22, 2010, Wednesday

BINTULU: Sarawak National Youth Organisation (Saberkas) has decided to set up 71 branches based on the total of State Legislative Assembly (DUN) areas in the state.

OFFICIAL LAUNCHING: Abang Johari (centre) together with secretary general Datuk Aidan Wing (third left), his deputy Datuk Paul Teo (third right) and others cut the cake at the launching ceremony.

President Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg said currently, Saberkas has 31 branches based on the number of districts throughout the state.

“This is one of our efforts to improve our role in developing our youths,” he said at the ‘1Malaysia Night’ held by Saberkas Bintulu Division on Monday.  He added that they had also decided to balance the composition of its members between the young and veterans.  He said those who were above 45 years old would train the younger ones in management matters.

“In order to make sure Saberkas remains strong and successful, capable leaders are still needed,” he said.

Abang Johari, who is also the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, said that age 45 was a suitable age gap between youths and veterans in the context of Saberkas.

“At the moment, the average life span of Malaysians is 70 years old,” he said.

Saberkas is a unique organisation made up of various races and therefore, is a good example for 1Malaysia foundation.  He said although the members came from various races, their goal remain the same, which is to work closely to help develop the state.

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