Let's Turn Everyone into Sneaks and Spies, Shall We?

Jawi launches enforcement hotline

By Adli Shahar August 22, 2008 Categories: Hotline

The Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) will assign more enforcement officers to combat social problems in the city.

It will add another 100 officers to the 30 they have now.

Director of Jawi Datuk Che Mat Che Ali said the reinforcement will be after Hari Raya Aidilfitri this year.

“There is a huge social problem in KL. We want to check that,” said Che Mat during the launch of Jawi’s hotline service at Jejantas Hall, Kompleks Pusat Islam yesterday.

The hotline is to allow the public to report offences such as gambling, prostitution, sodomy, consumption of alcohol, khalwat (close proximity) and zina (illicit sex).

Che Mat added there were complaints from the public that they were not serious about eradicating social problems.

“Now we are offering them a channel. The public must now help us. This is not something we can do entirely on our own,” added Che Mat.

Jawi has been receiving about 30 complaints per day about syariah offences. With the hotline, they expect more.

The hotline is a toll-free line and open 24 hours everyday. The hotline number is 1800-88-1771.

“We need to place officers on stand-by 24 hours a day and hence, the need for more,” he said.

Jawi will respond to all calls once they have established the authenticity of the complaint.

It will work in tandem with police.

For the coming Ramadan, Jawi will conduct routine patrols and place posters to remind Muslims to observe the fast.

When asked to comment on Muslims working in outlets serving alcohol, Che Mat said these workers should start looking for alternative employment.

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I guess corruption, stealing,lying, cheating, Mat Rempit-ing, taking drugs are not social problems? Oh, I know, they'll say these aren't within their scope of work. Funny, I always thought Islam prohibited stealing, lying and cheating.

So folks, please do take your time to look into your neighbours' bedrooms and report them. This is exactly what we need to ensure good neighbourliness and community spirit.

In Johor, apparently they throw young girls into the slammer for having non-Muslim boyfriends.

And in Kedah...

The Star Online > Nation

Friday August 29, 2008

Kedah bars rock, reggae, pop and dangdut concerts

By SIRA HABIBU

ALOR STAR: It’s goodbye to rock, reggae, pop and dangdut concerts in Kedah.

The Pakatan Rakyat state government has imposed a blanket ban on such concerts until further notice because, it said, such shows could have a negative influence on youths.

“We do not condone any gelek-gelek (gyrating movements) on stage,” said state executive councillor Dr Ismail Salleh

“We are currently formulating a comprehensive guideline for concerts.

“Until then, concerts of such nature are banned,” he told The Star here yesterday.

Dr Ismail, who is state PAS liaison committee member, said the state government was not against entertainment.

“We just do not want to allow the type of entertainment that could negatively influence people,” he said.

Dr Ismail said concerts involving nasyid and patriotic songs were allowed.

He said the Ambang Merdeka concert at Stadium Darul Aman tomorrow night would proceed.

“We have invited artiste Roy and Kopratasa band to sing patriotic songs,” he said in response to a last-minute cancellation of a daytime mini-concert in Menara Alor Star recently.

Dr Ismail said the guidelines on concerts set by Jakim would be implemented in Kedah.

“The federal guidelines are there but, so far, only Kelantan has implemented them,” he said.

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Ho hum...slowly, slowly...we turn into...Afghanistan...

And we thought it was just us...

The growing cowardice of online anonymity

By Richard Bernstein

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

NEW YORK: Anonymous sources are of course among the newspaper reporter's best friends, without whom the cause of informing the public would be severely set back.

But anonymity is also a tremendous aid to the resentful, the scandalous and the cowardly, and the signs are that the tidal of wave of anonymous comment made possible by the Internet is getting even bigger.

Or that, at any rate, is the impression that some recent reporting on the rising vogue of college gossip Web sites would indicate.

One site, called JuicyCampus.com, which maintains message boards on 59 university campuses, has been attracting special attention. As a recent article in Radar Magazine put it, JuicyCampus.com is "a virtual bathroom wall upon which college students across the country scrawl slurs, smears, and secrets, true or otherwise, about their classmates."

In one feature, to take one modest example, the site asked for replies to the question: Who are the sluttiest girls at Cornell? As of this week, there were 47 postings in response, several of which gave names, apparently real ones.

All of the postings, needless to say, were anonymous, and that would appear to be the main point. It's bad enough to tarnish reputations and to publish insults, but if the people doing so identify themselves, there is at least a possibility of censure and accountability.

But the Internet not only makes the anonymous pejorative possible, it also bestows a certain techno glamour to what ought to be a guilty snicker. "C'mon, give us the juice," JuicyCampus.com says on its home page. "Posts are totally, 100 percent anonymous."

To be sure, there are often good reasons for anonymity: an employee of a corporation who uses a company intranet site to criticize senior management or to expose misbehavior at the top could fear for his job if he had to provide his name. In the news business, anonymous sources are ethically tricky, and the better papers handle them with care. But sources are commonly promised anonymity in exchange for information that would otherwise be kept secret.

But what the Internet and its cult of anonymity do is to provide a blanket sort of immunity for anybody who wants to say anything about anybody else, and it would be difficult in this sense to think of a more morally deformed exploitation of the concept of free speech.

An illustration, admittedly personal: Some time ago, I complained to Amazon.com about reviews posted on its site that offered what I felt were viciously negative and factually incorrect views of a book I had written.

Anybody of course is entitled to say what he or she wants about a book, including one written by me. It's the anonymity that Amazon grants to its reader-reviewers that I objected to, on the grounds that anybody who wants to say something nasty about somebody else's work ought to have the little bit of bravery needed to say it under his or her name.

When I wrote an e-mail to that effect to Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon's head and founder, I received a reply from Amazon's customer relations department saying that it allowed anonymous reviews as a way to encourage discussion. My reply was that, under the guise of encouraging free expression and unhindered debate, Amazon was really encouraging cowardice instead.

At the time I earned my living as a book critic for The New York Times, which, needless to say, did not allow me to hide behind a shield of anonymity in my own reviews. If I did have negative opinions about a book - and I often did - I could be held responsible if, in fact, my opinion was unjustified or unfair, or if I was avenging myself against someone who had once written negatively about me.

Amazon's reader reviews are an old story. What is more recent is the Internet's encouragement not just of scandalous and malignant personal commentary but racist remarks of the sort that have for years been branded outside the scope of acceptable discourse.

Reading JuicyCampus.com, for example, I found this remark, anonymous of course: "Are there any black guys who aren't dumb jocks?"

There was much worse stuff along these lines, unprintable here even if only to illustrate how the grant of anonymity can lead to the regression of public discourse. It almost makes one nostalgic for the days when people who uttered racist slurs were all too happy to identify themselves.

Concerned about the effect of JuicyCampus.com, prosecutors in New Jersey have lately been investigating the site for consumer fraud - on the grounds that it promises in its terms and conditions that no offensive content will be allowed on the site even while it conspicuously provides no enforcement of that promise.

In fact, to get JuicyCampus on the grounds of consumer fraud would be a bit like the feds getting the gangster Al Capone on tax evasion. But the law does make it very hard to hold Web sites legally accountable, even for libelous opinions. This is because the U.S. government's Communications Decency Act grants immunity to Web site operators for false or slanderous information they publish when that information has been provided by third parties.

In other words, the law would seem to contain its own sort of Catch-22: the Web site itself can't be held legally responsible for defamatory statements, but neither can anybody else, since the defamatory opinion was expressed anonymously.

There have been other illustrations of the use of anonymity in recent years of questionable moral value. One was the decision of the publisher Random House a few years ago to publish the novel "Primary Colors," the best-selling satire of Bill Clinton, by "Anonymous." It was a brilliant marketing ploy, the suggestion being that the author was an administration insider who could be harmed if his identity were known.

In fact, as it turned out, the book was written by Joe Klein, a very talented and worthy political journalist but one whose well-being did not require that his identity remain secret.

But that was in the days when there was a certain assumption that people who were anonymous needed to be so for some reason. Now that the Internet has made anonymity almost standard, it's unlikely that anybody would make that assumption anymore.

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Notes:

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Copyright © 2008 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com

Except for...?

The Star Online > Nation

Monday August 25, 2008 MYT 8:43:36 PM

Let's scrap gender discriminatory laws: PM

By NELSON BENJAMIN and MEERA VIJAYAN

JOHOR BARU: Laws and regulations that are gender discriminatory will need to be reviewed to ensure equal opportunity for women. (ALL of them? Syariah ones too?)

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that women today held key positions not only in the Government but also in the private sector.

“If there is any sort of discrimination, this is due to certain laws which need to be reviewed,” he said, adding that such matters would need to be looked into by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry. (And what about the Special Adviser on Women's Affairs??)

“In fact, excluding me and the Second Finance Minister (Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop), the eight other key people involved in the upcoming Budget were four women and four men,” he added. (That makes 6 men and 4 women...)

Previously when he was in the civil service, there were few women holding key positions, Abdullah in his speech during the launch of the national level Women’s Day celebrations.

He also announced an RM10mil incentive to enhance the implementation of the Home Managers training programme.

“The Government is supportive of efforts and initiatives which help in family building and is willing to allocate more resources for such programmes,” he said, adding that he hoped that women would take advantage of such programmes.

Abdullah also paid tribute to women who have excelled in their respective fields such as Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz and Securities Commission chairman Datuk Zarinah Anwar.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said the Home Managers programme was aimed at creating professional housekeepers.

“We will now start on creating the curriculum and hope to begin the programme by year end. We are looking for anyone who loves to do housework,” she said, adding that the one- to two-week free training would be outsourced. (Can men do this too?)

Dr Ng said that she would suggest that a recommended monthly wage of RM800 to RM1,000 be set and stressed that these “house managers” should not be equated to domestic servants.

“We are also not doing it as a care programme, but as part of the service economy.

“There are many women who are working outside and need help,” she said, adding that this would also allow more women to enter the workplace. (So it's NOT a care programme?)

Dr Ng said that participants in the programme would also be required to undergo medical screening and background checks to ensure they had no prior criminal records. (OK....how is that different from our current domestic workers?)

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© 1995-2008 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)

Slumming it...and Getting Educated

(Slum street scene, Dhaka.)

My last stop in Dhaka was a particularly enlightening one. I wanted to see projects by BRAC (originally short for Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee but now is simply known by its initials), the largest NGO in the world with over 100,000 employees. Founded in 1972 by an economist Fazle Hassan Abed with a mission to alleviate poverty and empower the poor, BRAC is now so well-established and successful that it now runs BRACBank, BRAC University, BRAC Insitute of Governance, 50,000 schools, offers comprehensive healthcare to 31 million people, runs Aarong which sells high-quality handicrafts made by poor rural women and is now doing work in other countries in Asia and Africa.

Early one morning I went with BRAC staff to one of Dhaka's slums to visit one of their schools and a safe delivery centre. It had rained the night before so the slum's streets were muddy. No cars can navigate inside it because the 'streets' were simply not wide enough. The solution was to walk or ride a rickshaw. Since I wasn't wearing the right walking shoes, I got to ride in my first ever rickshaw since probably the beginning of time...

You don't realise how lively a slum can be until you explore one. This slum was like a small city, full of shops selling everything its dwellers may need. There were grocery shops, fruitsellers, barbers, coffeeshops, clothing stores and a myriad other small businesses. Vendors also ply the streets selling their wares; I bought some well-crafted kitchen wooden utensils from one. They cost 14 thaka (about 50 sen) in all.

(The BRAC schoolroom)

After riding through several streets, we finally came to the BRAC primary school (there are other schools run by NGOs in the slum too). About 50 children sat on the floor in a one-room schoolroom, brightly lit by the sunshine outside. These girls and boys, aged between about 6-12, spend about 4 years in this school, learning the same curriculum that would take 5 years in regular schools.

But the difference is that this school is informal. They are geared to the children's situation, is interactive and fun and aimed at getting the children educated enough to eventually join regular mainstream schools. And the amazing thing is this: when they do join the mainstream schools, they do better than the kids who had been there longer.

The kids I saw were certainly happy to be at school. They began with a game where, as the whole room chanted, each child took turns to name a different country. Perhaps for my benefit, 'Malaysia' came up twice. They then all sat in their places on the floor ( there are no desks), their small pile of books stacked neatly in front of them. Asked what their favourite subjects were, some answered, " Bangla", "Maths", "English!" Indeed, they were not shy in the least to speak in English, shouting out " howarrryouuuuu??", "Whatisyourrrrnammme???" gleefully. They asked me questions about where I came from, where did I go to school and what my favourite subjects were and were just delighted to host a visitor who was in turn delighted to meet them.

(Kids getting cosy with their visitor)

And to think, BRAC runs 30,000 schools like this all over Bangladesh!

Regretfully leaving them, we then went on to visit a small healthcare centre. Many of the slum women deliver their babies at home which can be unsafe for both mother and baby. So BRAC started a system where trained midwives visit homes, identify pregnant women and encourage them to deliver babies at birth centres they set up in the slums. These birth centres may not be as modern as what we are used to but they are clean and there are trained female birth attendants. If there should be any problems, they know how to refer to the nearest hospital. In this way, both infant and mortality rates are lowered.

Even more interesting, the midwives have an opportunity to make some money by selling medical supplies to the households such as over-the-counter medicines, sanitary pads, vitamins. This is generally the excuse to visit the homes and they then take this opportunity to make note of the general health of each household, including whether there is a pregnant woman or not. These midwives are also from the slum community so they are very well-accepted by the people there. and they also educate their community folks about hygiene and prevention of illnesses and family planning.

It reminds me of the early days of our own country when we used to have more community-based health workers who know their community folks very well. Perhaps we still have these in our rural areas. I wonder whether squatter settlements have access to such facilities.

Empowering the Margins

To say that Bangladesh is a populous country would be something of an understatement. It has about 150 million people squeezed into 133,910 square kilometers. (By comparison, the US is 9.1million sq km and 300 million people and Russia, over 16 million square km with 141 million people). This gives it one of the highest population densities in the world. And boy, when you're sitting in a Dhaka traffic jam, you really feel it.

Wending my way through the horrific traffic, I managed to visit two NGOs which are doing good work in their respective fields. The CREA-Modhumita HIV prevention and treatment centre is housed in a building in Lalbagh, Old Dhaka. Here, a small group of doctors and counsellors help drug users get off their addiction and also educate them about HIV. Housing both male and female drug users for three months, the doctors and staff work to not only get their residents off drugs but also to get them jobs after rehabilitation as well as reunite them with their families. Those who have family support afterwards tend to stay off drugs much longer than those who don't.

(Talking to male recovering drug users at CREA-Modhumita.)

I sat with the residents to ask them how they felt being there. It was easy to tell who had been there a while and who had just arrived. The former looked healthier and calmer while the more recently-arrived looked thin and more nervous. They all seemed to know exactly how many days they had been in there, readily answering '84 days' or '19 days' as the case may be. But they seemed to be universally appreciative of the opportunity to get their lives back, as well as to be in a safe place with decent medical care and food.

Asked what message they had for others using drugs and still on the streets, they stressed the importance of being safe, knowing the dangers of HIV.

(The shy women at Modhumita telling me their stories.)

There are not as many women in residence at Modhimatu but they have more difficulty in getting their lives back together. More sensitive about the presence of cameras than the men, we had to negotiate to keep their faces out of the photos before we could start talking. Many of them had worked in garment factories, some had become involved in prostitution. One shy young woman who understood English fairly well had once been a dancer and actress on TV. But they too felt grateful for the opportunity to get cleaned up and maybe, just maybe, get back on track again.

(The Durjoy team, Shahnaz Begum, President, in white, Hazera Bagum, in purple. The sign above us means 'Dhurjoy Children's Care Centre')

Not too far away from there, I visited a rather special NGO, Durjoy Nari Shangar. This translates into 'Victorious Women's Association' but the women of Durjoy are not your average women's association types: they are all sex workers. Shahnaz Begum is an attractive dignified woman who is President of DNS while the very pretty and lively Hazera Bagum is Project Director of the Durjoy Children's Centre. (Hazera had met me the night before at a UNAIDS function and despite my inability to understand Bangla, had chattered away at me insisting that I visit her centre. I could not resist.)

As can be imagined, sex workers in Bangladesh have lives well below the radar of most people. Marginalised, harassed, ignored and neglected, they suffer abuse at every turn. Worse still, their children suffer from being almost totally ignored by society.

In Bangladesh, father's lineage is most important in determining a person's identity.As most children of sex workers are unable to claim their lineage, they become non-persons, unable to obtain papers and therefore to do what other children do, including go to school. This is one of the reasons that Durjoy Nari Shangar was set up in 1999, to fight for the rights of both sex workers and their children. Today DNS has over 3500 members, all sex workers.

Thus far, without much fuss and fanfare, DNS has quietly been advocating for their rights, obtaining funding from various foreign donor organisations for the centre which I visited. One of the chief problems that the sex workers faced was what to do with their children while they were at work. Some have had their children kidnapped while waiting for their mothers on the street. Others have been forced to bring their kids into the same room as them while they worked.

(Little dancer, Durjoy Children's Centre)

In order to serve this need, DNS set up the Durjoy Child Care Centre specifically to cater to the sex workers' children. In a brightly lit but very bare room, the children played, sang, recited poetry and danced for their visitor, smiling all the way. They were proud to show off their English, these poor undernourished children, unlike our shy people at home.

(Shahnaz and I and the kids of Durjoy)

Like everyone I met in Bangladesh, the women and children of Durjoy were naturally hospitable, insisting I have tea and cookies. Shahnaz and Hazera are understandably proud of what they have achieved with their centre but worried that their funding would soon run out. Would there be anyone in the world who would be keen to help sex workers and their children in Bangladesh?

Grameen Bank: How Mutual Trust Can Be Profitable

(Banesa and her cows.)

Banesa Khatun, about 35, is a wealthy woman in Dholla Singair village about 40 minutes outside Dhaka. She owns eight cows, 27 rickshaws, a small biogas plant which uses cowdung to produce gas for cooking, a fridge and a TV in her small but comfortable two-room home.

Mayful is also wealthy. She has a cow worth about USD1000, a grocery shop in a local market, owns land and a house in which she lives with her husband, a son and daughter and their spouses.

And Lovely, aged just 16, is doing well with her handicraft business as well as helping with her father's chilli business, and hopes to make enough money in a year to go back to school.

(Dholla Singair Grameen centre meeting. Mayful tells her story.)

All these women are members of Grameen Bank in their village. Twenty-two years ago, Mayful, the chief of her village borrowers' group, borrowed 1500 thaka (about RM75 by today's exchange rate) and bought a cow. Selling the milk from her cow, she made enough to repay the loan and more and with the next loan of 30,000 thaka, she set up a grocery shop with her son while her husband started a mobile popcorn selling business. After successfully repaying that loan, she was able to increase her credit each time with the bank until today she is eligible to borrow 100,000 thaka.

Banesa has the same story. The first time she borrowed 5000 thaka ten years ago, she bought one rickshaw to rent out. Today, she can borrow 100,000 thaka and owns 27 rickshaws. (And as it is only men who cycle the rickshaws, this means she's boss to at least 27 men!) She sells milk from her eight cows and is now thinking of supplying biogas to other homes in her village.

I visited Dholla Singair village and met with the Grameen group there and they told me time and time again how microcredit has changed their lives. This bore out what the bank's staff were telling me in a briefing at the local Grameen centre.

The Grameen Bank system is organised in a pyramid structure. At the very bottom (but also the most important part) are the members, 8-10 of whom make up a group. Group members must fulfill three criteria: they must be poor, must be permanent residents of the village and must NOT be blood relatives to each other. The reason for the last condition is to ensure that each member belonged to different households and families so that as many households will benefit as possible. If two sisters want to become members and they each have their own families, they must join different groups.

8-10 groups make up a centre, and 60 centres make up a branch. Above them are just supervisors. The purpose of the groups is just to give each other encouragement to borrow and repay the loans; loans are always given to individuals, not groups.

The Dholla Singair branch has thus far disbursed 425 million thaka worth of loans to 4904 borrowers from 78 centres! That's more than RM21 million....and all to poor people with no collateral. How amazing is that?

(A villager pumping clean water from a pump. In many Bangladeshi villages, there is a problem with water that is tainted with arsenic, rendering it undrinkable.)

The staff, who seem to be universally passionate about what they do, explained to me that in Bangladesh, nobody is idle. People there are all doing some income-generating work, whether it's making handicrafts, selling tidbits, pulling rickshaws or something. But to give them a chance of increasing their income, a little financial support helps.

"Poor people don't betray the bank," they told me, "They trust us and we trust them."

The system is set up so that it is entirely borrower-centred. The first time a borrower takes a loan, she ( and it's almost always a she) has a ceiling of 10,000 thaka. She pays it back at a manageable weekly rate and when she has successfully completed repaying, a new ceiling for a loan is fixed. Each ceiling is tailored to the individual. Based on this system, the default rate is an astonishing 0.01%! And at least part of that reason is because the borrower not only knows that if she successfully repays her loan, she is then eligible for a bigger one but also because the borrowers also own the bank. Thus their success is tied to the bank's success and vice versa.

And Grameen is such a successful bank that it now has expanded into other businesses including Grameenphone, the largest phone company in Bangladesh. It is a profitable business. How does it make money? It charges interest.

But the principle behind the interest is very different from most conventional banks. The interest on a Grameen loan is a whopping 20%. BUT as the borrower repays each week, the interest decreases until it reaches a flat 10%. There is no compound interest. If a borrower repays early, then the interest is based on only that duration and no more. This makes it very easy for the borrower to calculate how much to repay. If they borrow 1000 thaka, they know that they need to pay 100thaka interest for every year of the duration of the loan. If a borrower for some reason cannot pay, the interest stops when it reaches the same as the principal ( but then this rarely happens).

In fact, there are five types of interest on Grameen loans:

1. Basic loan with 20% interest, and 10% flat ( as explained above)
2. Housing loan, with 8% interest and 4% flat.
3. Education loan, with 5% interest. This loan is repaid only after one year after graduation when the borrower has gotten a job.
4. Beggars' loan - NO interest.
5. Centre house loan - to build a house for centre groups to meet. Also NO interest.

They also have a system where potential defaulters are spotted early. Groups are trained to spot 'symptoms' among their members, such as late attendance at meetings and late repayments. If one potential is spotted, centre managers will go and find out what the problem is and after that, ask the borrower how she would like to pay back. There is no such thing as seizing of property and all that.

(Girls crossing a small river on a simple bamboo bridge, Dholla Singair)

I have to say that I was really impressed by what I saw and heard. Walking around the village, I visited Banesa's home and Mayful's grocery store. Although Malaysians may still consider them poor, their lives have improved so much with these loans. And these enterprising women are also making a difference to their families' lives, keeping their families together and ensuring their children can go to school.

(One enterprising villager has bought a sattelite dish and is providing cable TV to her neighbours! Here, they are installing the cables.)

What is interesting is how their husbands have accepted this. As I talked to the women in their centre house, the men hovered outside trying to peek in. I met one husband who was minding the children and cows while his wife ran an errand somewhere else. Banesa's husband sat inside their home watching TV while she showed me proudly around.

(The Grameen ladies of Dholla Singair and me)


And I noticed one big difference with our kampungs: in this Muslim village, people keep dogs.

Chittagong: Watching Girls Blossom

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Bangladesh was to visit a new project called the Asian University for Women. Several years ago I met a Bangladeshi man named Kamal Ahmed who is President and CEO of the AUW Support Foundation and who had this vision to provide girls from poor families a university education. In many developing countries in Asia, primary and some secondary education is free or very cheap so many children get to do their basic school education. But they don't get to continue to university because they cannot afford it.

So Kamal managed to muster funding from some American sources, set up an International Advisory Board with lots of luminaries including Thoraya Obaid, the head of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), a Bangladeshi Advisory Board which includes the Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus, got the Bangladeshi Government to donate 130 hectares of land just outside Chittagong and four months ago the AUW's Access Academy began classes.

Last Wednesday I woke at five in the morning to catch a small propeller plane to Chittagong which is Bangladesh's second biggest city and its port, along with some of the members of the Bangladesh board. It happened that the Cabinet was also meeting in Chittagong so several Advisers were on the flight with us. Driving from the airport into town, the sight of huge ships anchored just a few feet away from the road was quite awesome.

The AUW's Access Academy is housed in a rented office building at the moment. The AA is a one year pre-university programme aimed at getting the students ready for university. The girls are chosen on the basis of merit, from poor families and must have leadership abilities. At AA, they take classes in English, Maths, computer skills and..get this, Critical Thinking. Teachers are mostly volunteers from the US, young women recruited through WorldTeach, an organisation based at Harvard U. In fact, the Dean of AA is Helen Claire Sievers, the former Executive Director of WorldTeach. The Executive Director of AA is Dr Regina Papa, a wellknown and experienced educationist from India.

(Dola talking about her Dad and her dream to be an artist)

I sat in a English composition class and listened to a 20-year old Bangladeshi girl called Dola do a photo presentation on her and her father. Using drawings and photographs, Dola talked about how she had dreamed of being an artist but her father would not allow her to pursue it. This she illustrated with a beautifully done sketch of a man but it was unfinished to symbolise her thwarted dream. But she said she knew her father loved her and wanted the best for her. So she will do her best in her studies and take up art again one day.

I was almost in tears listening to Dola. Only four months ago, she arrived at AA from her village speaking very little English. Now here she was, confidently presenting her story to a stranger in near-perfect English and expressing her thoughts with a sophistication I had not expected.

(Students making the case for women's rights..)

In another class, a Nepalese girl was doing a powerpoint presentation on women she admired (Valentina Tereshkova, Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa, George Eliot and Babu Chiri Sherpa, a woman who has climbed Mt. Everest ten times.) After that, she and a Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi girl showed a short video documentary they did where they had interviewed a beggar woman on the streets of Chittagong who had been left by her husband because she has TB ( which is also why she had quit her job at a garment factory). She had a young son who was being cared for by her in-laws but she could not see him because her in-laws would beat her. Her story was so sad and in the documentary the girls tried to tell her where she could go to get help. Their conclusion was that we have to fight for women's rights so that women like the poor beggar did not have to suffer.

Again, these girls are aged between 17 and 20 and had only been there for four months. In that short time, with the right guidance, it was obvious that these girls, 128 of them from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Cambodia, were blossoming.

(Computer lab at AA)

I visited their dorms which housed 4-6 students in each neat room. The girls from different countries are all mixed in the rooms and after some early bouts of homesickness, they settled in and became great friends. In fact I told them that, apart from the Cambodians who obviously look different, I could not tell what country the rest came from.

(A lively Indian dance by students.)

In the afternoon, after a short speech that I did, the girls performed some dances and songs. These young girls who had never left home and had hardly been in a city sang, danced and recited poetry with a confidence that I rarely see in girls that young at home. It really made me feel that this university idea is a brilliant one.

Just before dinner and with the light fast fading, we went out to the proposed campus about 20 minutes outside Chittagong. It's a beautifully green and hilly site and when the campus is ready, it will be a very comfortable and great place to study. I felt goose pimples at the idea that I was standing at the site of what will be a great university with very noble aims one day. Meantime the Board is doing all the legal paperwork and raising funds to build the university which will provide a liberal arts education for a maximum of 3000 students eventually. I am sure they will succeed.

I only had 24 hours in Chittagong but the one thing I kept being asked over and over again was: is it true that Dad's ancestors came from there? I didn't know the answer to that but it's very easy to feel kinship with Bangladeshis who are invariably a friendly and hospitable people. They hold Malaysia in extremely high regard and I found expressions of this over and over again. As I left the hotel where we had dinner to go back to mine, a woman ran up breathless with a huge bouquet flowers in her arms. Apparently she had been chasing after me all over Chittagong just to give me the flowers and only just then managed to catch me. Nobody knew who she was but all she wanted to do was to give them to me as a gesture of welcome. How sweet is that?

Buzzing in Bangladesh

(The press interest at my first press conference in Dhaka.....isn't it just wild?)

Hi folks, sorry for the long silence but I am in Dhaka, Bangladesh and the schedule drawn up for me is so hectic that this is the first time that I have been able to get to my computer at all.

I was invited by the Bangladesh Centre for Development, Journalism and Communications to speak at a seminar on Gender Equity and Media. Along the way I mentioned to some people at UNAIDS and at the Asian University for Women that I was coming and my schedule grew and grew until it's left me with virtually every minute accounted for.

My trip didn't have an auspicious beginning. I arrived on the direct MAS flight from KL at just past midnight local time where I was received by my hosts from BCDJC and AUW. I was treated like a real VIP, taken to the VIP lounge to wait for my luggage. We waited...and waited...and waited...and then the local MAS people sheepishly told us that my suitcase had not arrived. Further checking revealed that it had been left in KLIA. So much for VIPness!

There was nothing to do but get to my hotel and go to bed. But I had a dilemma. Having never lost my luggage before, I did not take care to bring any clothes or toiletries in my hand luggage. So there was the hotel staff scurrying around at 1 in the morning for toothbrushes and a t-shirt for me to sleep in. Thank you Westin Dhaka!

The next day I had a meeting with the Foreign Adviser (Minister). There was no way that I could turn up in my travel clothes which consists of t-shirt, loose pants and a jean jacket. So a quick trip to the shops was arranged and that was how on my first day in Dhaka, I was dressed in salwar kameez, like any good Bangladeshi girl.

Luckily my suitcase did arrive by noon on my first day so I finally got to clean my face properly and wear my own clothes again.

(World-renowned sarodh (25-string instrument) player Ustad Shahadat Hossain Khan performing at a welcome dinner for me. Ustad Shahadat was just in KL performing at a Bangladeshi festival.)

Bangladesh is an interesting place, far more than we give it credit for. Since January 2007, it has had an Interim Government which is provided for in its Constitution. Basically they got so fed-up of all the politicians they had that they threw them all out and installed a government of politically-neutral professionals who are called Advisers. The interim Prime Minister is called Chief Adviser. They are there only for a specific length of time only and in December this year, there will be elections to elect a new Government.

Meantime however the Interim Government has actually been doing a good job. In the time that they have been governing, they have probably done more good things than all past governments combined, passing no less than 80 reforms that people have long wanted. They have done things in that short space of time that politicians have been saying couldn't be done in 50 years!

Yet, as the Chief Adviser insisted today when I called on him, at the end of the year they will hand it back to the politicians after elections because that is the democratic thing to do. In the meantime, the main project that the Interim Government has carried out is to register every single eligible voter ( all those over 18, which makes 80 million voters in a nation of 150 million people) with a photo ID to prevent election fraud. How amazing is that?

Given our recent political turbulence, having an Interim Government made up of serious professionals uninterested in politics sounds very attractive indeed! Wish we had a Constitutional provision like that!

As I was doing advocacy work on behalf of the Asia Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV and Development (APLF), I had the opportunity to call on the Advisers for Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Health and Welfare and will also see the Women's Affairs Adviser before I leave. Bangladesh has a much smaller AIDS problem than we do but that's no reason for complacency. So my job was to share our experience in Malaysia and stress that they have to act now. And they seemed willing to listen to someone from outside with the experience, and also from another Muslim country.

But besides fulfilling these obligations, there were some things which I really wanted to do. I'll post another day on my visit to Chittagong but I had the opportunity to once again meet with Prof Mohamad Yunus, the Nobel Peace prize laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank. As always, he is such an inspiring person. We discussed many things, mainly about micro-credit (which I have blogged about before) but one thing he said stuck with me: We are all 98% the same and only 2% different but we find millions of words to describe the differences and very little words to describe what we share.

(Me and Prof Yunus at his office at Grameen Bank. There is also an exhibition in the building on the history of Grameen's microcredit programme as well as one on Prof Yunus and the bank receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. It is incredibly moving...)

Tomorrow I am going to visit a Grameen bank project and talk to the women who have been beneficiaries of the project. Will report on that later. Have to get an early night for a change.

Topsy-Turvy Thinking

The Star Online > Nation
Saturday August 9, 2008

More people using bikes a cause for worry

By V.P. SUJATA

PUTRAJAYA: A 30% rise in motorcycle registrations between January and June suggests more people are turning to two-wheelers in the face of rising fuel prices.

However, the trend has Road Safety Department director-general Datuk Suret Singh worried. Accidents involving motorcyclist had also increased in the same period, he disclosed.

He pointed to a 12% increase in fatal accidents involving motorcyclists in the first six months of the year compared with the corresponding period last year.

Suret Singh was speaking to reporters here yesterday after announcing the “Jom Klik” campaign that is to be launched in three weeks. The campaign is to encourage motorists to use seat belts, and motorcyclists their helmets.

“Motorcyclists are most at risk of meeting with fatal accidents,” he said.

“If one shifts to a car, the risk is about 17 times lower; from car to bus, 30 times lower; from bus to rail 325 times lower, and from rail to air travel, 6,000 times lower.”

Based on this, and the need to save money on fuel, he suggested that more people use public transport, as the industry needed a boost. It would also give public transport operators a reason to improve their quality of service.

He noted that over the years although there were an additional one million vehicles and 600,000 drivers each year, the number of accidents remained more or less static.

In 1996, there were 6,304 accidents, and last year 6,282, he said, adding that even accidents involving injuries fell by 37% over the period.

Suret Singh also said that the department was working closely with the Automobile Association of Malaysia on a road safety programme providing affordable services for all Malaysians.

It is currently helping to promote the association’s child and baby car seat for rental at RM40 a month.

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You can't really blame people for wanting to save fuel by switching to motorcycles. But to say that that's too dangerous makes no sense ( and he contradicts himself by then giving statistics that show that accidents have decreased). Yes, we should move to public transport but it's not to boost the industry and give them an incentive to improve services. The reason why we don't like using public transport is precisely because the services are lousy. If they improved them then we would use them more and the industry would naturally get a boost. But saying that we should use public transport to give them a boost is illogical. Public transport is there to make our lives easier; we are not here to make public transport operators richer.

Surely, the way to improve motorcycle safety is not to tell us to go back to cars. Better driving on the part of both bikers and car drivers is surely key. Obeying traffic rules would be a good start. And we can't take planes from one side of town to the other just to be safe.

But we can't blame this guy for his topsy-turvy thinking since it's the norm these days. Here's a fine example where punishment is considered for peaceful people while hooligans are protected by police. Ironic that they interrupted Puan Mehrun Siraj who can defend their cause in a much more intelligent manner than they can by a longshot.

(Folks, I am off to Bangladesh for a one-week work trip. Hope to post reports from there.)

With Women Leaders Like These...

...is it any wonder women in Malaysia aren't getting anywhere?


The Star Online > Nation

Tuesday August 5, 2008

Rafidah to let Shahrizat take over in mid-2009

KUALA LUMPUR: A deal has been struck that will see a smooth power transition of the Wanita Umno chief's post with Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz announcing that she will step down by mid-2009 and hand over the leadership to her deputy Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. (But the elections are in December...so is this so that she can have six months of farewell parties?)

She hoped that with the transition plan, there would be no contest for the movement's top two posts this year.

“I will give up my post as Wanita chief latest by mid-2009 and hand it over to my deputy,” she said at the opening of Wanita Umno meeting with the top leaders at PWTC here yesterday and said

“Wanita Umno members must give undivided support to the chief and the deputy chief. Some people may question why I'm not following the transition power plan between the party president and his deputy scheduled for 2010. That is the transition plan involving the Prime Minister.

“I am just handing over the post of Wanita chief. I have no power. I have no post in Cabinet. I would like to appeal to Wanita Umno at the division level to accept this proposal.”

She said the proposal needed the consensus of Wanita Umno divisions to be successful.

“This is to avoid a split and ensure a smooth change of leadership.”

Later, Rafidah elaborated saying that: “ What I'm proposing is a formula whereby Shahrizat and I will win uncontested during party polls this December.Then, latest by June Shahrizat will take over my post. And when she takes over Wanita will be united.

“When I took over, I was faced with a divided Wanita. It took years to build the ranks. Shahrizat will receive Wanita that is unified.”

She said she made the decision two weeks ago when she was recuperating from a knee surgery.

Asked if there was a need for Wanita leadership to discuss the proposal, she:

“No need. No need. That's enough. That is my decision.”

She said she raised the matter during Wanita exco meeting and there had been good support.

In the event of challenges from a third party, she said :”I'm not going to contest. But we are saying no contest for chief and deputy chief posts. This is my formula, as agreed by Jat (Sharizat). “

Shahrizat said she thanked Rafidah for the trust given to her to take over the post.

“The president has advised me that it's best that I accept the offer for the sake of the unity and continuity. I listen to my chief and I believe that the grassroots will also listen to the party president's advice.”

She said she hoped that Wanita exco and grassroots members would accept the president's advice.

“I will not go against the party president's advice. We are confident that Wanita will also heed his advice.”

Party president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told Wanita Umno it was important to be united in the matter.

“This is important to ensure that the movement remains strong and can carry out its duties and responsibilities in facing challenges.”

He said he was surprised when Rafidah made the announcement but he was relieved that Shahrizat accepted the proposal. (She doesn't tell him things like this?)

Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who was at the meeting, said the plan “reflects maturity and wisdom in the party.”

“I've given my endorsement to the transition process. I regard it as an orderly leadership move,” he told reporters. (And where is Azalina in all this, I wonder?)

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So once again, democracy is 'dealt' out of the way. No consultation, no contest, no complaining. If this is the way to be united, I bet anything at this very moment, all sorts of dissident factions are huddling together already. Joceline Tan seems to think so.

When will women learn that only in a democracy, which respects gender diversity and is inclusive and gives everyone opportunities, will women make any headway? How democratic is it that when we make up half the population, our representation at the top echelons of political decisionmaking is so pitiful? So by buying into non-democratic means of selecting leaders, they are only helping to entrench the barriers against women.

Meanwhile over in MCA, members are actually considering nominating a woman for President...of the entire party, men and all! Obviously some people have vaulted into the 21st century. But I wish there wouldn't be so much hand-wringing about it, least of all on the part of the candidate. Just go for it la...!

I must say I didn't quite know what to make of this Wanita Chief though:

The Star Online > Nation

Tuesday August 5, 2008

It’s okay to be stripped for medical check, says PKR Wanita chief

KUALA LUMPUR: First, PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim complained of being stripped while being examined at the KL Hospital. Yesterday, PKR Wanita chief Zuraidah Kamaruddin said that it is “okay” if a person is stripped to check for medical evidence.

“If the doctor asks you to open your mouth so that he can inspect it, then you must open your mouth.

“If stripping was a part of the procedure, then it should be done,” she said, adding that one must follow procedure.

She also expressed hope that HKL would uphold its integrity in doing its job.

“We hope the hospital will carry on showing professionalism in its work without fear or favour, or discriminate by race and religion,” said Zuraidah.

Earlier, she presented 10 bouquets of flowers to HKL deputy director (medical) Dr Lailanor Ibrahim, who accepted the flowers on behalf of director Datuk Dr Zaininah Mohd Zain.

To a question, Zuraidah, who is also Ampang MP, denied that her visit was a form of pressure on the hospital.

“We have confidence that HKL will come out with a report that is honest and true,” she said.

She also said the visit to HKL was part of a road show for Himpunan Keluarga Merdeka on Aug 30 organised by the PKR women's wing.

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Beats me what that's all about...

Stopping the Stunting of Students

These days I'm starting to wonder if The Star has become cheeky with its headlines because they seem to make it a point to show up politicians' inanities. Besides this one below, they also had one that said Students 'Grill' the PM (and yes, they put the word within quote marks, not me.)

Sunday August 3, 2008

Khaled: Political parties will stunt growth of students

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government believes that allowing university students to join political parties will restrict their development into holistic first-class human capital, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin said. (And somehow when they leave university and then join political parties, they wondrously become well-developed human beings?)

He said that if students were allowed to join political parties, they would have to adhere to the party's policies and would not be allowed to offer their own independent opinions on issues raised. (aah.....guess it depends on which party and how they view their young members)

“This is simply a waste of talent and is not beneficial to students who should seek to learn the most at this stage of their lives,” he said when opening the Second Annual Malaysian Student Leaders Summit here yesterday. ( Count it as extra-curricular learning then...)

However, he noted that under the new University and University Colleges Act (Amendment) Bill, all political party members would be allowed to take part in “any fruitful and intellectual discourse in public universities”. The Bill is expected to be debated soon in Parliament. (Hmmm...what do politicians think is 'fruitful and intellectual discourse'?)

“This means bringing about a more responsible form of politics based on knowledge. I don't think any political party will use street campaigning methods on campus because these are people with knowledge who will be able to make their own judgment."

Khaled said that another reason for the continued ban was that the Government did not want public university students, who are heavily subsidised, to “play around” and waste taxpayers' money.

Speaking on the topic of Student Activism as an Element of Human Capital Development, the minister emphasised that the key to leadership is knowledge.

“Hence, student activism will attempt to boost student leaders' knowledge in the sense that they will gain insights into the real world and are able to apply the knowledge learned in lectures and tutorials into management of real situations,” he said.

The two-day summit ends today.

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It's nice to know that all the politicians we have now are well-developed knowledgeable people because they didn't join any political parties when they were students.

TV You Don't (Normally) See

If there are those of you who haven't caught on to The Fairly Current Show, do check it out. It's an online TV programme and every week they interview an interesting person. So far they've had people like Ng Sek San, the landscape architect who's fighting the cutting of trees in Bangsar, Shanon Shah who wrote the recently-staged play Air Con, Yasmin Ahmad the movie director, Jacqueline Ann Surin whose book Shape of a Pocket was just published and new MP Hannah Yeoh. All the sort of people who are unlikely to get on RTM1 (or TV3 for that matter).

Anyway it's a fun programme. The latest episode features lawyer Derek Fernandez talking about the draft KL City Plan. This episode also aims to galvanise KLites to make themselves heard about what they want for their city.




Then on weekends, they have The Weekend Sessions which is a music and interview show featuring young Malaysian musicians.The latest episode features Reza Salleh.

Ayam Bag!

Hi folks, am back from my holidays. Sorry for being silent for so long but I really couldn't get time to write anything nor have access to decent connections.Anyway it was good to get away for a while. And it was truly a break because apart from news alerts on my mobile, there was absolutely no news at all about Malaysia anywhere. Guess we just don't figure in the rest of the world right now.

Returning home, I find that nothing has changed. Things are as confusing as ever.

However it seems we have advanced to the forefront of the technological world and exporting it to less-advanced countries...


Friday August 1, 2008

Malaysian computer for only RM500, laptop for RM1,000

LUSAKA (Zambia): Three months from now, Malaysians will be able to buy the i-Dola laptop and Jean-i personal computer (PC) at basement prices.

Mimos is now ready to licence the production of the Malaysian computer codenamed Mak Cik, which it took two years to develop. The laptop and PC are named after the Prime Minister and his wife. (Yup, much cooler names than iBook or MacAir...)

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili said the laptop would cost RM1,000, and the PC RM500.


“I have tested the computers and am happy with their performance,” said Dr Ongkili, who was here to attend the Global Southern Africa International Dialogue. (Watch out, Steve Jobs! The Makcik is coming!!)

“They are wireless, Internet-based designs and need not be connected to fixed lines. To reduce costs, they do not have hard discs. You use a thumb drive instead.”


It is understood that the i-Dola and Jean-i will be as fast as computers using Intel Pentium 4 processors. (Which is more than we can say about you-know-who)

Dr Ongkili said that the King and Queen have already been presented with a pair of i-Dola laptops, which were previewed at the WCIT in Kuala Lumpur recently. (What, they didn't get the Jean-i too??)

He added that several manufacturers were keen to make the computers, and were targeting selling about a million of them.


“The computers require broadband access and I have told the relevant bodies to speed up the roll-out of broadband coverage,” Dr Ongkili said. (Um yeah....given the problems I've had with Streamyx lately, it's not about rolling out as about improving the quality...)

He said the computers are targeted at students, businesses and housewives.

He revealed that Zambia and five other African nations have expressed interest in making the computer. In Zambia, laptops cost as much as US$3,000 (RM9,600).

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Actually there was some news about Malaysia, or rather a new Malaysian writer. I've never heard of Preta Samarasan before but this review of her book, Evening is the Whole Day, is really impressive. Can't wait to get my hands on it.