View issues with Tan Seng Giaw

Monday, November 23, 2009

Please look at Malaysian education as a whole

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw calls on the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to look at the Malaysian education as a whole including the practical aspects.

For years the various education departments have known that those schools in which the headmasters and the teachers are dedicated have better students and better results such as the teaching of Maths and Science in primary Chinese schools as mentioned by the Education Minister.

Dr Tan comments on Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's statement from Bandung today that the Education Ministry may emulate the model used by Chinese schools for the teaching of Mathematics and Science in national schools.

Chinese schools achieve better results in the two subjects in the recent Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR). It was true in the previous UPSRs.

It is a good thing that the education director general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom would review and study the performance of pupils in national and vernacular schools, as well as in urban and rural schools.

Tan Sri Alimuddin and state education directors know that in certain schools including Chinese schools, committed teachers, practical work and discipline mean better students and better results. I believe that there were education directors who tried to improve those schools which were lagging behind.

Looking at work books and the extra time given by teachers to pupils in some schools, we should not be surprised at the performance of these pupils.What the Director-General should also look at is the percentage of dedicated and prefessional teachers among the 386,031 teachers in Malaysia. We have often raised this matter in parliament and shall continue to do so. There are many factors including sports that produce better students.

It is always dufficult to replace examinations. We still need them. They provide rough guidelines. However, the following results may not reflect the whole truth:

A total of 48,171 pupils, or 9.51 per cent of 506,620, who sat the exam scored straight A s. Last year, 46,641 (9.19 per cent) of 507,320 UPSR candidates scored all As.The number of pupils with good results (minimum C) also increased to 63.03 per cent compared with 62.56 per cent last year, while only 0.64 per cent scored all Es compared with 0.66 per cent last year.

Dr Tan Seng Giaw

Thursday, November 12, 2009

All 1 Malaysia clinics must have good staff members

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw calls on the Health Ministry to ensure that all 1 Malaysia clinics have good staff members who truly care for the people.

We shall follow up the performance of these clinics. What is important is that none of these clinics would end up as dilapidated offices with scarcely any patient.

On 23 October, 2009, the 2010 Budget gives annual allocation of RM10 million to operate 50 1Malaysia static and mobile clinics nationwide.

According to Director-General of Health Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican, the static clinics will be opened at shophouses or rented premises. The mobile clinics will operate in areas where it is difficult to set up static clinics. They may also operate from existing health centres.

We hope he will announce the comprehensive guideline for the clinics. What is worrying is the problem of staffing with good personnel. Although the Government would deploy staff from existing government clinics and recruit assistant medical officers, allied health staff and trained nurses on a contract basis, it would need an effective system to monitor these clinics.

Serious cases will be referred from these clinics to existing goverment clinics and hospitals. As it is, there are many complaints against existing clinics and hospitals because of unsatisfactory services in some cases. There must be constant attempt to improve them.

Dr Ismail said the 1Malaysia clinics, which would operate from 10am to 10pm, would provide minor treatment to people in line with the government's "People First, Performance Now" policy. The clinics will be closed on weekends and public holidays.

As Dr Ismail says that 1 Malaysia clinics will be supervised by a medical officer from the government clinic, we hope that only dedicated officers are appointed.

Dr Tan Seng Giaw

Lets have mega-speed Internet in the House

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw calls on the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to ensure that the Internet in the House has Mega speed.

If the House which has been supplied with broadband Internet since 19 October, 2009 has only snail-speed Internet, how can Najib expect 1.2 million households and business premises in the country to have mega-speed Internet?

Yesterday, Najib talked about more than 1.2 million households and business premises wired up to mega-speed Internet. Telekom Malaysia was laying the optical fobre and half of the project would be completed by next year.
The Prime Minister believed that the high-speed broadband network of between 10Mbps and 1Gbps would give the public, businesses and government agencies a competitive boost via cutting edge communications.

The Central Government had planned to achieve 50% broadband penetration (Korea is over 90%) by 2008. But, there is only 25% penetration. There are many factors leading to this delay. We hope that it would overcome the hindrances such as monopoly.

It is a good thing that each member of parliament is given a computer with broadband Internet. But, there is no mega-speed, only snail pace for every task that is performed. Parliament should find out the true reason for the low-speed broadband, so that Najib can take action to rectify it.

Let the House have mega-speed broadband.

Dr Tan Seng Giaw

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Overcome leakages in government departments

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw reminds the Central Government to take effective action against officers who are involved in leakages in government departments and agencies.

The Special Task Force set up by the Cabinet to handle the leakages shown in the Auditor-General Report is the first such force to deal with this problem. Let us hope that it really works hard to overcome the problem.

On 2.11.2009, Dr Tan touched on these leakages in Parliament.

Irregularities

The Auditor-General Report reviews annually the leakages in government departments and agencies amounting to billions of ringgit. This year, the figures continue to be shocking. For example, the Double-Tracking Project from Rawang to Ipoh cost RM4.34 billion. But, some parts of the project were late such as the design is late between 70 to 237 days. The electric train is meant to be 160 km/hour. What we get is diesel train, running at 80 km/hour.

Special Task Force

Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal costs RM4.5 billion which may go up to RM12.5 billion. The Transort Ministry sets up three task forces to deal with it. Then, the Cabinet sets up a Special Task Force to handle PKFZ. We hope that these Forces will be effective. We have to wait and see.

Every year, the A-G Report reveals weaknesses in various government departments and agencies. Since 1982, I have asked for action against irregularities. But, follow-up measures have not been obvious. On 29.10.2009, Cabinet decided to set up a Special Task Force headed by
the Chief Secretary Tan Sri Sidek Hassan with Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah, Tan Sri Ismail Adam dan Tan Sri Ambrin Buang as members. This is the first time that such step is taken to deal with the exposure in the report. Let us hope that it will be effective.

Dr Tan Seng Giaw

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Need fiscal financial discipline and productive expenditure in the 2010 budget

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw calls on the Central Government to improve the fiscal financial discipline and ensure productive expenditure.

It is imperative to try to increase the participation of women in various fields and to improve media freedom (this does not include religious, racial or other extremist views that can destroy the nation).

On 2.11.2009, Dr Tan took part in the debate on the 2010 Supply Bill ( Budget).

This budget contains many pleasant things such as the fight against corruption and the allocation for all forms of education amounting to RM55.7 billion, 29% of the total budget). Let us hope that all these will be value for money as expressed by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib.

It is wise not to judge the book by its cover.

Ibarat burung: mulut manis jangan dipakai; perkataan manis selalu berisi semu di dalamnya.

Malaysia is facing political, economic and climate changes. The world economic recession has affected the country.

What is worying is the continuous budget deficit for the past 12 years. While it is necessary to provide welfare for the people, it is important to try to reduce the deficit. 2009 sees the deficit increasing to 7.4%. The forecast for 2010 is 5.6%. The 2010 budget is RM191.5 billion while that of 2009 is RM207.9 billion, a cut of RM6.4 billion. There is an effort to do something about the deficit. But, it is not enough. We need an effective plan to reduce it.

IMF says that budget deficit should not be more than 5%. We cannot imitate USA and Japan, the world's biggest and second biggest economy respectively. They have budget deficit for years. But, the per capita income of Japan has not gone down.

The two stimulation packages total RM67 billion. Hitherto, we are told that only less than RM10 billion have been used. This is unacceptable. There must be productive expenditure.

The local debt has has gone up to 52.4% and foreign debt has gone down to RM13.9billion. If national debt continues to go up, our credit rating will go up. Interest rate increases. This will give rise to inflationary pressure.

1Malaysia, Prosper together, aims towards high income economy, ensures hollistic and sustainable development with priority on the wellbeing of the people. For these to be meaningful, we have to ensure media freedom and increasing participation of women in various fileds.

Dr Tan Seng Giaw