MY: Bernama news 13 Jun 96

[Faruq abd ul-Rafi]

* ..BERNAMA NEWS SERVICE FOR MALAYSIAN STUDENTS
* .. (Thursday, June 13, 1996)
*
* 1. SHORTER TIME FOR STUDENTS TO IDLE AFTER EXAMS
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: The period between the end of major school
examinations and start of year-end holidays has been reduced to
one month at the most under a new schedule next year, Education
Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.
* Certain examinations now ended some three months before the
school holidays and it was found that teachers and students did
not make the best use of their time in the intervening period, he
said.
* "The ministry views seriously parents' complaints that the
teaching and learning process slackens each time after an
examination," he told a news conference here.
* Najib said teachers used the time to clear up their work,
including administrative matters, while students tended to play
in class or skip school.
* "We find that students lost their mood because the momentum
of studying had peaked at the end of an examination," he said.
* He said next year's Penilaian Tahap Satu (PTS) for Standard
Three pupils would be held on Oct 23 while the Ujian Penilaian
Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) from Oct 24 to 27, leaving a gap of only
about one month between the end of the examinations and the start
of year-end holidays.
* The Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) is scheduled for Nov 8 to
15, about one to two weeks before the year-end break.
* The Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi
Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) are scheduled to begin on Nov 22 to
coincide with the school holidays.
* Najib said that last year the UPSR was held from July 25 to
27, meaning a gap of 12 weeks between the end of the examination
and start of school holidays while there was a four-week "lapse"
after the PMR.--Bernama
*
* 2. CABINET APPROVES THE SETTING UP OF CLICOM
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: Science, Technology and Environment Minister,
Datuk Law Hieng Ding said the Cabinet had approved the setting up
of a training centre on Climate Computing (Clicom) here for the
World Metereological Organisation (WMO).
* The centre would provide technical training and facilities in
climate computing for 16 countries in the southwest pacific
region which includes Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and New
Zealand.
* "Malaysia should be proud to be chosen by WMO for the setting
up of the centre. It is indeed an honour and a recognition for
our efforts in the field," he added.
* Law said Clicom could be set up at the Metereological
Services Department anytime and Malaysia would only be
responsible for covering the cost of equipment maintenance of
RM20,000 yearly.
* Other WMO member countries to be served by Clicom are
Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Papua New
Guinea, the Philippines, Portugal, the Solomon Islands, the
United Kingdom, the United States and Vanuatu.
* He said the Cabinet also agreed to increase Malaysia's
contribution to the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
endowment fund to US$100,000 (about RM250,000) from between
US$5,000 and US$10,000 yearly.
* Malaysia had received awards, research and travel grants
worth US$67,000 from TWAS, he said. -- Bernama
*
* 3. ANWAR URGES COOPERATIVES TO MERGE FOR ECONOMIES OF SCALE
*
* PETALING JAYA: Cooperatives need to plan for potential
mergers and amalgamations to reach economies of scale in order to
maintain and sustain quality service to members, Datuk Seri Anwar
Ibrahim said.
* The Deputy Prime Minister said large and strong cooperatives
are the ones that will usually survive the pressures of
competition.
* "This is evident in many industrialised countries such as in
North America and Europe where cooperatives are competing with
the private sector," he said when opening the second meeting of
the International Cooperative Alliance Regional Assembly for Asia
and the Pacific here, today.
* Anwar said big amalgamated cooperatives, to maintain
efficiency, can form chapters or clusters to run their sub-units
effectively.
* He also told cooperatives that profits should not be their
only aim.
* Their activities should be viable to provide better and
quality services to the members, he said.
* Anwar said as the success of cooperatives depended on strong
organisation, human resources and finance, there was a need for
cooperatives to adapt themselves to the demands of the new global
environment of liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation.
* He said they should strengthen their management vis-a-vis
other business and commercial entities to get a greater share of
economic opportunities.
* "This is made urgent with technological advancement where
telecommunications and information technology has become
immensely sophisticated and information has become obtainable
instantaneously," he said.
* Anwar said there was a need for the 500 million cooperative
members in Asia and Pacific to work together as a force that
could shape the structure of Asian society.
* In Malaysia, the movement's importance was borne out by the
fact that the 3,500 registered cooperatives with 4.1 million
members were involved in all types of business, he said.
* Some 200 cooperative representatives from 26 countries are
attending the two-day meeting hosted by the National Cooperative
Organisation of Malaysia (Angkasa). -- Bernama
*
* 4. M'SIA MAY TURN TO OTHERS FOR DEFENCE SUPPLIES: HAMID
*
* LONDON: Malaysia told Britain it will turn to other sources
for its defence requirements if London does not transfer its
technology in the field of defence parts.
* Malaysian Defence Minister Datuk Syed Hamid Albar told
British Defence Secretary Michael Portillo here that his country
would also look for other sellers if Britain did not keep to the
schedule in delivering Malaysia's defence purchases.
* Syed Hamid, is here for a nine-day official visit.
* Speaking to Malaysian journalists, he said he told Portillo
that although Malaysia obtained a lot of its defence supplies
from Britain, further purchases depended on London's ability to
transfer its technology as had previously been agreed to.
* There had been some delays in Malaysia's defence programmes
due to Britain's inability to supply the Malaysian orders on
schedule, he said.
* For instance, he said the delivery of the Frigate vessel to
the Royal Malaysian Navy that was to have taken place in March
this year had been deferred to August next year due to weapon
systems interface problems.--Bernama
*
* 5. POS MALAYSIA OVERCOMING SHORTAGE OF POSTAL ORDER
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: Pos Malaysia Sdn Bhd is taking steps to
overcome shortage of in particular Postal Order of RM5, RM10 and
RM50 denominations.
* Its Customer Service General Manager Abdul Karim Abdul Rani
said Pos Malaysia hoped to the get the supply at the latest by
the end of next week.
* The shortage of aerogrammes were also expected to be resolved
with the delivery of new stock at the end of the month and would
be made available to the public on July 1, he said in a statement
issued here.
* Abdul Karim said the shortage of stamps in particular those
of 5 sen and 10 sen denominations had been resolved.--Bernama
*
* 6. GOVERNMENT DROPS CITY AIRPORT PROPOSAL
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: The government has dropped a proposal to
convert the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) station in Sungai
Besi here into a city airport.
* Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik said the
Cabinet decided it is not viable to build a commercial airport so
close to the city.
* "We explored the possibility and found a few negative
things," he told reporters after a post-Cabinet ministry meeting.
* "First, there are already a lot of tall buildings nearby
which would make it difficult for planes to take off and land
within the vicinity," he said.
* "Then, the land there is very valuable. Therefore, it is not
wise. It's like going into the city centre to plant `kangkung' (a
local vegetable)," he added.
* He said it is sufficient to have two international airports
at the city outskirts -- the Sultan Abdul Aziz Airport in Subang
and the KL International Airport in Sepang which is under
construction.--Bernama
*
* 7. THREE-CORNERED FIGHT FOR BUKIT ASAHAN
*
* JASIN: Barisan Nasional (BN) will be challenged by DAP and
PAS in the Bukit Asahan state by-election on June 22.
* BN's R. Raghavan, 55, PAS' Minghat Mamut, 51, and DAP's Loh
Ah Boo, 38, were named as the candidates at the end of
nominations at the Selandar community hall, near here.
* Independents J. Appalasamy, 37, and Lau Kim Heng, 45, who
had registered as candidates during an earlier round of
nominations, withdrew from the contest.
* The fresh nominations were ordered after Abdullah Haji
Lasim, 55, of PAS, one of four people who registered as
candidates during nomination day on May 23, passed away before
the scheduled polling date of June 3.--Bernama
*
* 8. M'SIA TO HAVE OWN BLUEPRINT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: Science, Technology and Environment Minister
Datuk Law Hieng Ding said that Malaysia must soon formulate its
own Agenda 21, a blueprint for sustainable development towards
the 21st century.
* He said the agenda would serve as an important guide for the
country's future sustainable development.
* "The policy can also be used as a platform to measure the
achievement of the development projects implemented thus far
after the Rio Summit," he told reporters after the Cabinet
meeting here.
* Law said the Malaysian version of Agenda 21 must be prepared
in time for next year's Commission of Sustainable Development
(CSD) meeting.
* Agenda 21 was established at the Rio Summit in 1992. Since
then, Malaysia has implemented some of the agenda in its
development programmes through the adoption of various policies.
-- Bernama
*
* 9. SPECIAL BRIEFING FOR UMNO YOUTH LEADERS
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: A special briefing on the Umno Youth's "Program
Pembelaan Rakyat" will be held at the end of the month, its
leader Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik said.
* He said party's president, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad had
agreed to the briefing for Umno youth leaders at all levels.
* The programme would identify problems facing the people and
forms would be distributed to 165 Umno divisions, he said after
chairing the movement's political bureau meeting at Umno
headquarters here.
* Abdul Rahim said completed forms would provide accurate
information on problems pertaining to housing lots for the
low-income group, anti-inflationary measures, food supply and
social ills.
* He said the analysis made, based on the data collected, would
be presented to Dr Mahathir and party's deputy president Datuk
Seri Anwar Ibrahim. -- Bernama
*
* 10. IDS AND UPM SIGN MoU FOR RESEARCH WORK IN SABAH
*
* KOTA KINABALU: The Institute for Development Studies (Sabah)
and the Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) signed a Memorandum
of Understanding on Wednesday which enables the two to carry out
research on various development activities.
* Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister Abdul Rahim Ismail
witnessed the signing ceremony.
* In his speech, Rahim commended the effort initiated by IDS
and UPM and said that the scope of research in Sabah was
tremendous.
* Rahim said with its wealth of experience and expertise,
particularly in the agricultural sector, UPM could contribute to
the State while IDS which has been in existence slightly over a
decade could play an effective role as the government's
think-tank.
* He said with the signing of the MoU, both UPM and IDS could
give the needed boost for the State which is pertinent as the
State Government goes full steam to make Sabah an industrialised
State by the year 2010 in line with the Outline Perspective Plan
for Sabah.
* UPM vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Syed Jalaludin Syed Salim
said the university's Faculty of Economics and Management and IDS
had identified areas where they both could work together as
strategic partners.
* He said one of the immediate projects involves the management
of a Commonwealth Top Management Programme in Kota Kinabalu in
August. - NST
*
-- BERNAMA