Nembiak ke bumur 13 taun ari Batu 7 1/2 Matang, lemas udah iya terejun k’ai semak Taman Rekreasi Keluarga Matang. Semua nembiak sekula nya ari sekula SMK Matang Hilir.

Lapan iku nembiak sekula pom dua ke patut nurun piknik, sigi nadai bebai sida bukai nyengkaum nembiak ke lemas enggau bala iya.

Nembiak pom Dua nya mantu nyelamatka nembiak nya udah pangan iya ke lemas nyerauh minta tulung.

Bala nembiak bukai ba piknik nya mega bisi minta tulung ngagai orang ke mansa jalai alun nya ngasuh talipaun ambulan.

As heads of state, the governors exercise the same ‘limited’ powers as the sultans of the other nine Malaysian states. More importantly, in Malaysia, they are also the heads of Islam of their respective states, as are the sultans.

The only difference is that the sultans are royalty and their positions are hereditary while the governors come and go. The sultans will rule until their end of days while the governors serve in what we can describe as “at the pleasure of the king”.

Looking back at history, Sarawak actually had a sultan 150 years ago. The state was under the Sultan of Brunei until he decided to allow James Brooke to rule the then backward, troublesome quarter of Borneo which was infested with rebels, pirates and headhunters.

In those days, the sultan’s subjects did not know loyalty. There were frequent rebellions against the palace. Revolts and uprisings were common occurrences. So it was not totally surprising that the Brunei Sultan decided to give away Sarawak to British adventurer James Brooke after he helped the sultan quell a rebellion. Oh yes, the sultan was happy to give a problematic territory away and that British guy became the First White Rajah of Sarawak. The Brooke Family then ruled Sarawak for a century.

For today’s Sarawakians like you and me, we never had the opportunity to be subjects of a sultan so I believe we never know what loyalty to a royal family really is. But we do realise that it is only proper to accord due respect to our head of state, whether he is a governor or a sultan.

This is the essence of my discussion this week in the light of recent controversies involving politicians and royalty in the country.

Several incidents following the March 8 election have been quite mind-boggling to me and I believe, to many of you as well.

Firstly, there was the appointment of the Menteri Besar of Perlis. Umno, which has the most seats in Malaysia’s smallest state, wanted the incumbent menteri besar to continue. But the Raja of Perlis had a different take on the matter. He wanted a new man to helm his state government.

After a week of negotiations and talks among the interested parties and the royal family, Umno gave way to the wishes of the sultan and allowed his choice as menteri besar to be appointed.

A similar incident was repeated in Terengganu. Now, the Sultan of Terengganu is also the serving Yang Di-Pertuan Agong. Again, Umno’s choice of the incumbent menteri besar to continue leading the east coast state was turned down by the sultan.

Again, the sultan had another choice and again, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi finally relented and allowed the sultan’s preferred candidate be appointed to head the Terengganu state government.

From these two episodes, we can conclude that no matter how the prime minister and the ruling party might disagree with the sultan politically, they would still bow down to royalty in the end.

If anything else, this is part of Malay culture and way of life at its loyal best. They would show total loyalty and obedience to the sultan. Of course, Umno and its leaders could argue on points of law and the powers of the sultans on political appointments but they chose not to.

Whether this is democracy at its best or not, I don’t know. What I know is that there are reasons to admire and applaud Pak Lah’s and Umno’s decision to give way to the sultans, although the lower Umno rungs might not agree with their leaders’ decision.

Let me say this sincerely. As a Malaysian, I have the greatest respect and admiration for the Malays of this country in showing respect and loyalty to the sultans. I feel that all of us Malaysians who are non-Malays should do likewise. It is rather impolite and disrespectful to be involved in a public spat with members of royalty.

This is the same way I feel about Karpal Singh’s brush with the Perak royalty recently. From the point of law, I honestly think that Karpal has a point. Then again, what the veteran DAP chairman had questioned is not actually new. I recall that a senior Umno leader had brought up the same argument several years ago.

The only difference here is that Karpal is not a Malay while the Umno leader is. Let’s be honest about race relations in this country. It is easily more acceptable for the Malays to see through a Malay’s disagreement with royalty than a non-Malay’s.

Similarly, it is easier for Christians to accept a Christian’s clash with the Archbishop for example than for a Muslim to be involved in a public spat with the Christian clergy as that would be viewed very negatively.

In that aspect, if I were Karpal Singh, I would have asked a Malay colleague in Pakatan Rakyat to raise the matter on the so-called Perak Sultan’s ‘interference’ rather than doing it himself.

That would have saved Karpal some personal loss of time, anguish and worries and his colleagues in Pakatan, especially the Malays, a lot of uneasiness and embarrassment.

I had the opportunity to speak to Karpal on a few occasions in the past. From the little that I know of him, I can honestly say that his credibility and integrity can never be doubted. He is a people’s politician and I know that this man will fight to the end for what he believes is right for the people and country. But Karpal may not be fighting all his ‘wars’ in the proper and right manner. That is his main liability. It would be sad to see him in prison again with his advancing age and current immobility.

For us Sarawakians, we may never be the subjects of a sultan but as Malaysians, we are subjects of the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong. Let us remember one thing though — we know that the King is not above the law and is only human but still, it is incumbent upon us to accord him due respect at all times.

Even if we are politicians, it does not pay to clash with royalty. This is no longer the era of the Rajah Brookes where we could have gotten away with a lot of our mistakes. So be smart today — avoid it!

Comments can reach the writer at paulsir99@hotmail.com

SIBU: Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) deputy chairman Daniel Ngieng yesterday felt that the system of awarding the Public Service Department (JPA) scholarship should be made more transparent.

He said this was imperative to reduce a feeling of uneasiness and dissatisfaction among many outstanding students and their parents.

He made the statement at a press conference called in his personal capacity at his office here yesterday.

While acknowledging that the people should be grateful to the government for providing the JPA scholarship to outstanding students, he, however, expressed concern about the teething and perpetual problems regarding the award of the scholarships.

“It seems that the number of applicants is aplenty but the number of scholarship is few. According to one report today (yesterday), there were some 15,000 students applying this year and only about half of them were called for interview. But the number of scholarship is about 2,000 in total.

“As such, many (bright) students and their families would be in a state of great anxiety during this period. They tried to look for assistance from all possible quarters,” he said. Therefore, Ngieng said in all circumstances those who successfully got the JPA scholarship would liken it to ‘striking a lottery’.

“This is understandable as many of them wish to get JPA scholarship to enable them to do medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and engineering and the likes in some so-called prestigious countries like UK, Australia and New Zealand.

“And these professional courses overseas are very costly and beyond the reach of many parents,” he added.

In calling for more transparency in the award of JPA scholarship, Ngieng said: “At this stage, the public, especially the students and parents, is not aware of the actual criteria.

“We are not informed of the actual yardstick used in the system. Is it based on the academic results? What is the emphasis given to co-curricular activities of the applicants? What about the socio-economic background of the students and parents? Their family income?

“In short, the merit system must be made more transparent so that the students and parents are fully aware of their position.

At the moment, he said there were a lot of unnecessary anxiety among the students and the parents, adding that some straight A students were wondering why they were being ‘victimised’

Ngieng said many students had approached him and other SUPP leaders here for help “but we are also not aware of the outcome.”

“SUPP, through its Youth Education unit is doing its level best. But many a time, we feel that there are underlining problems which need to be addressed first,” he added.

On another subject, Ngieng suggested that the government come up with a common entrance examination for all students who wish to enter local universities instead of depending on the STPM and matriculation results like now.

“This is because STPM and matriculation have different standards. By comparing with matriculation, it is so much more difficult for STPM students to excel (in STPM examination) academically, thus giving them a disadvantage over matriculation students.

“Thus, I wish to appeal to the ministry concerned to streamline this dichotomy by having only one entrance examination for all students in our local university,” Ngieng said.

He said he called for the press conference after receiving many queries and complains from students and parents on matters related to JPA scholarship and entry into universities.

PETALING JAYA: A financial consultant was charged and pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court here yesterday to two counts of cheating a company director over National Economic Action Council (NEAC) projects.

Abdul Rahim Yahya, 54, also claimed trial to using fake documents as genuine to cheat Abdul Hamid Bawal, 52.

Meanwhile, production firm manager Adlena Adriana Abdullah, 40, pleaded not guilty to abetting Rahim in committing the offences.

According to the charge sheet, Rahim invited Hamid to participate in NEAC projects and promised him the returns totalling RM25 million within three months.

As a result, Hamid gave Rahim RM3 million at the premises of Dynamic Pillar (M) Sdn Bhd, No. 4B, Jalan SS3/33, Petaling Jaya, between Oct 1 and 31, 2005.

Between November and December 2005 at the same place, Rahim received another RM2.5 million from Hamid.

He also allegedly showed Hamid three letters purportedly issued by the NEAC one dated Oct 14, 2005 and the other two dated Oct 17, 2005 with regard to financial investment offers.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Ilmami Ahmad asked the court to fix the bail on Rahim and Adlena at RM300,000 with one surety each and order them to surrender their passports.

Lawyer Sallehuddin Saidin who represented both the accused, requested a lower amount.

Judge Nurmala Salim fixed the bail at RM200,000 with one surety and ordered the accused’s passports to be impounded. She also fixed three days from Nov 3 for trial.

As at 3pm, Rahim and Adlena had not posted bail.

— Bernama

KUCHING: Celcom was recently awarded the Mobile Service Provider of the Year and Mobile Data Service Provider of the Year at the 2008 Frost & Sullivan Malaysian Telecom Awards.

Coming off a record-breaking year in 2007 in terms of revenue, Celcom has more reason to celebrate this year’s World Telecommunication and Information Society Day today.

“We at Celcom are ecstatic and grateful to have been given the recognition from Frost & Sullivan in the form of such prestigious awards.

“We are not claiming to be the best, we are the best,” said its CEO Datuk Seri Shazalli.

“Celcom has made great strides over the past few years and we are proud to be where we are today.

“Winning these awards will motivate to work harder and to achieve greater results this year.”

Shazalli also added that 2007 was by far Celcom’s best year as the company outperformed its business targets and witnessed a customer growth of 18.5 per cent, bringing its total customer base to 7.2 million.

Celcom also foresees itself to achieve greater performance this year with more opportunities arising from the implementation of the mobile number portability in August.

Celcom’s resurgence in 2007 saw its mobile services revenue growing by 13.1 per cent to RM5.2 billion.

Other areas of strong growth included a noteworthy turnaround of postpaid acquisition with a net addition of 52,000 customers, and a significant increase in mobile data and non-SMS revenues.

Celcom also consistently registered three to four million hits per month on its Channel X mobile content portal.

Celcom also improved its segmentation exercise with an understanding of the various demographics within its subscriber base, complemented by its re-branding efforts.

To address its brand position, Celcom adopted co-branding tactics, with targeted marketing efforts such as its partnership with Vodafone, and compelling marketing campaigns that featured world-famous football icons, John Terry and Ryan Giggs.

Last year, Celcom also launched its ‘Branded Customer Service’ initiative aimed at providing a total customer experience.

To widen its reach and take advantage of new business opportunities, Celcom also formed alliances with several major corporations.

In 2007, Celcom became the first and only mobile operator in Malaysia to join forces with various Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) such as REDtone, Merchantrade, and TuneTalk.

Celcom also recently signed Malaysia’s first-ever nationwide domestic roaming agreement with U Mobile Services Sdn Bhd. Under the agreement, U Mobile customers are able to roam on Celcom’s superior 2G network.