MY: Bernama news 13 July 95
Faruq abd ul-Rafi
* .. (Thursday, July 13, 1995)
*
1. NAJIB:WE'LL MAINTAIN CONTROL OVER VARSITIES
2. MAHATHIR CRITICISES CUEPACS OVER THE SSB
3. PRIME MINISTER HUN SEN CALLS ON DR MAHATHIR
4. GOVT TO EXPOSE NAMES OF THOSE RESPONSIBLE
5. SAMPLES OF BURNT CABLES SENT TO NETHERLANDS
6. CHINA TO COOPERATE IN FIGHTING CRIME
7. MORE SPONSORS NEEDED FOR ENCYCLOPEDIA PROJECT,SAY ANWAR
8. CAMBODIA TO LEARN FELDA LAN DEVELOPMENT SCHEME
9. LOCAL COMPANY TO SALVAGE SUNKEN WARSHIPS OFF PD
10.UM PIONEERS COURSE ON GENDER STUDIES
11.SEVERAL NEW COURSES INTRODUCED AT UKM
12.SPECIAL AWARD FOR UKM DON
13.UTM ENTERS AEROSPACE RESEARCH
* 1. NAJIB: WE'LL MAINTAIN CONTROL OVER VARSITIES
*
* KUALA LUMPUR; The Cabinet decided that the Government will
still maintain control and autonomy over the nine universities
once they were corporatised.
* Education Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the
Cabinet decided on this after it had agreed to the ministry's
plans to corporatise the universities, which was submitted at
its meeting Wednesday.
* He said the Cabinet made this decision as it wanted to put to
rest all the uncertainties faced by students, parents, lecturers
and university staff over the status of universities after
corportisation.
* Corporatisation means that the universities will remain
non-profitable but will be managed as commercial and competitive
entities.
* Najib said the Government would have the last say in the
operation and administration of universities and its
administrators would have to refer to the ministry before
implementing any changes.
* "This is because we want to safeguard the interests of our
students and ensure that they would still be able to enjoy
quality education at an affordable price," Najib told reporters
after chairing his ministry's post-Cabinet meeting at his office
here.
* Najib said the miistry's secretary-general Datuk Dr Johari
Mat had been entrusted with the job of formulating a modality
which would be used by all universities.
* "I will be announcing the modality, its mechanism and the
implementation concept within the next two weeks," Najib said,
adding that the ministry would be consulting the Treasury,
Economic Planning Unit and the various universities to arrive at
a suitable modality.
* He added that the modality would then be presented to the
Cabinet before a date is fixed for the universities to be
corporatised. - NST
*
* 2. MAHATHIR CRITICISES CUEPACS OVER THE SSB
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad today expressed
regret that Cuepacs has chosen to ignore any explanation given by
the government regarding the New Remuneration Scheme (NRS).
* The Prime Minister said that Cuepacs had instead wanted the
government to totally do away with the NRS.
* "I am amazed at their stand," he said at the presentation of
excellent service awards to the staff of the Home Ministry, the
Registrar of Societies and the Civil Defence Department at the
Tunku Abdul Rahman Memorial here.
* Dr Mahathir said that the NRS was introduced to overcome the
situation where government employees did not have the opportunity
to have a look at the report on their performance as they were
considered confidential and therefore could not improve
themselves.
* He said that the government felt that to be fair to the
staff, they should be told their weaknesses.
* Through the NRS, he said, the staff still had a chance to be
promoted when he had improved himself. -- Bernama
*
* 3. PRIME MINISTER HUN SEN CALLS ON DR MAHATHIR
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen called on
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad here, Wednesday.
* An official of the Prime Minister's Department said the
Cambodian premier had a one-hour discussion with Dr Mahathir.
* Hun Sen arrived here on Monday for a-week long visit to
Malaysia. He is accompanied by Minister in Charge of thu % e
of the Council of Ministers Sok An.
* Sok An said the main purpose of the visit was to learn
Malaysia's experience in developing the country to its present
stage. -- Bernama
*
* 4. GOVT TO EXPOSE NAMES OF THOSE RESPONSIBLE
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: The government will expose the identities of
professionals and government officers breaching regulations on
construction of buildings, Housing and Local Government Minister
Datuk Dr Ting Chew Peh said.
* He said that the decision was made at Wednesday's Cabinet
meeting in efforts to curb the incidents of building collapse.
* The move was necessary because court action taken against the
culprits in the past had proven to be ineffective, he told
reporters at his office here.
* The names of those responsible would be revealed immediately
when a building under construction or those that had been
completed were found to be unsafe even though no incidents have
happened, he said.
* He said professionals comprising architects, engineers,
contractors, supervisors and government officers who approved the
projects should not blame each other when incidents happened, he
said.
* Instead, they must be more responsible by stepping up
supervision and monitoring of every stage of construction of a
building, he said.
* Government officers should not give shortage of manpower as
an excuse because they are required to do their job according to
the regulations, he said.--Bernama
*
* 5. SAMPLES OF BURNT CABLES SENT TO THE NETHERLANDS
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: Tenaga Nasional Berhad has sent samples of the
power cables damaged in the recent Penang bridge fire, which
disrupted electricity supply on the island for nine days, to an
independent laboratory in the Netherlands for analysis.
* Its executive director, Datuk Abdul Rashid Ahmad, said it was
part of Tenaga Nasional's on-going investigation to ascertain the
cause of the June 25 fire which struck the three power circuits
under the bridge.
* "We sent the samples a few days ago," he said after a
briefing on Tenaga Nasional's transmission and distribution
system to members of the media here.
* Abdul Rashid, who is also Tenaga Nasional's chief operations
officer, said the company hoped to get the necessary feedback
"soon enough" to enable it to report to the ministry concerned.
* He added that samples had also been sent to the Chemistry
Department. -- Bernama
*
* 6. CHINA TO COOPERATE IN FIGHTING CRIME
*
* PULAU PINANG: China's police will strengthen its relationship
with the Malaysian police in fighting crimes in both countries,
its Vice Minister for Public Security, Deputy
Commissioner-General Mu Xin Sheng said.
* He said with the closer cooperation, both sides could learn
from one another on criminal prevention.
* "Due to the economic reformation in both countries, the
police are facing similar problems of white colar crimes, drug
trafficking and smuggling.
* "I hope with the exchange visit by higher ranking officers of
both police departments, we could share some experience in crime
prevention," he told reporters after visiting the Pulau Pinang
prison here. -- Bernama
*
* 7. MORE SPONSORS NEEDED FOR ENCYCLOPEDIA PROJECT, SAYS ANWAR
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
said the effort to publish the first national "Encyclopedia of
Malaysia" is a bold move since it is not an easy task to document
the diversity of topics on Malaysia.
* The effort by project director Marina Mahathir and several
others to produce the 15-volume encyclopedia should be supported
by the private sector, he said at the prize presentation for the
logo competition of the encyclofedia at the Finance Ministry
here.
* Anwar, who is Finance Minister and the chairman of the
advisory board of the encyclopedia, presented the cash prize of
RM2,500 to first prize winner Tong Ming Jen from LimKokWing
Institute of Creative Technology School of Art and Design,
RM1,000 to second prize winner Cik Khestina Mohamed from Art
Directors Graphic Education and RM500 to third prize winner
Victor Chin Yoong Seng, also from the LimKokWing school. --
Bernama
*
* 8. CAMBODIA TO LEARN FELDA LAND DEVELOPMENT SCHEME
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: Cambodia is interested to emulate Malaysia's
agriculture development and the Felda scheme to provide land for
the landless, Foreign Minister Datuk Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi
said.
* "They are also interested in training their officers in
agriculture and we shall certainly give them opportunities of
study tours to Malaysia to expose them to some of the projects
that we are now implementing on the ground," he told reporters
after a meeting with his Cambodian counterpart, Ung Huot, at
Wisma Putra here. --Bernama
*
* 9. LOCAL COMPANY TO SALVAGE SUNKEN WARSHIPS OFF PD
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: A local company, Transea Sdn Bhd, Wednesday
signed an eight-month contract with the Culture, Arts and Tourism
Ministry to undertake underwater archaeological excavations of
two Dutch and two Portuguese warships which sank at Bambek Shoal,
off Port Dickson, in Negeri Sembilan.
* The government has allocated RM3.33 million for the project.
* The ministry's Deputy Secretary-General Ismail Adam and
Transea director Ong Soo Hin are the signatories.
* Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister Datuk Sabbaruddin Chik
witnessed the signing.
* The Dutch ships are "Nassau" and "Middleburgh" and the
Portugese vessels are Sao Salvador and the other one known by its
armada name of Don Duarte's.
* The ships are said to be on a combat mission for Melaka some
400 years ago when they sank.
* A committee comprising members of the ministry, Ministry of
Finance, Marine Department, National Archives and National Museum
will oversee the project with the assistance of a foreign
consultant.
* The Oxford University Marine Archaeology Research Department
and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia will also be involved in the
project.--Bernama
*
* 10. UM PIONEERS COURSE ON GENDER STUDIES
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: A new breed of social scientists who are gender
sensitive and therefore have a better perspective of social ills
that are gender-related is currently being trained under the
country's first gender studies under-graduate programme.
* The Gender Studies Programme (GSP) was started during the
1994/95 session under the office of Universiti malaya's Dean of
Arts and Social Science.
* According to the programme's joint co-ordinator Associate
Professor Rokiah Talib, the GSP is also possibly the first
undergraduate course offered by a university within the Asean
region.
* "Some universities in the Philippines, for example, offer
graduate courses in gender studies but Universiti Malaya is the
first to offer such a course for under-graduates," said Rokiah
after a cheque presentation and official opening of a three-day
gender studies exhibition at the university's Faculty of Arts and
Social Science. - NST
*
* 11. SEVERAL NEW COURSES INTRODUCED AT UKM
*
* BANGI: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has introduced
new courses and joint programmes for undergaduates and
postgraduates respectively for the 95/96 academic year.
* The Faculty of Information Science and Technology (Fist) and
the Faculty of Allied Health Science (FAHS) are offering six new
courses for undergraduates.
* This includes science and system administration, computer
industry and information science under the Fist, while audiology,
speech therapy and pharmacy courses are being introduced by the
FAHS.
* A postgraduate diploma course in administration of logistic
science (ALS) was also introduced at the centre for graduates.
* UKM is the first university to introduce audiology, speech
theraphy and ALS courses.
* The undergraduate programmes will take four years while the
postgraduate programme will take one or two years for a fulltime
student to complete.--NST
*
* 12. SPECIAL AWARD FOR UKM DON
*
* KUALA LUMPUR: Professor Sharifah Hapsah Shahabudin, head of
the Department of Medical Education (DME) in Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia, was named recipient of the special award
Commonwealth of Learning - International Council for Distance
Education (COL-ICDE) at the ICDE conference held in Birmingham,
England, recently.
* The COL-ICDE award committee president Ian Muridge said that
Sharifah Hapsah was chosen based on her success in the Distance
Education Programme which was introduced in the DME on July 1993.
The programme is currently going into its third year with 20
undergraduates.
* "This is the second award we have received to commemorate
the success of the programme in UKM," said Sharifah Hapsah.
* Sharifah Hapsah received her first award, the Fred Katz Medal
of Excellence two years ago. - NST
*
* 13. UTM ENTERS AEROSPACE RESEARCH
*
* JOHOR BAHARU: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) is to set
up a team to undertake research in the aerospace industry.
* Its Research and Development Division dean Prof Dr Baharom
Sanugi said the mvoe was in anticipation of the country's entry
into the industry, adding that the focus would be on air
transport and satellite technology.
* The team will be headed by Assoc Prof Dr Zulkifli Abdul
Latiff from the mechanical engineering faculty.
* "This team will also test and issue fitness and safety
certificates to aircraft," Baharom told reporters after opening
an information technology exhibition here.
* He also said that UTM would help develop the local car
industry.
* "We have done research to modify Proton cars in terms of
noise reduction and to improve passenger comfort, especially for
the Kancil and Proton models," he said. - Star
*
--BERNAMA