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PTPTN issues – 1% interest rate?

Letters
SS

Let me first introduce myself, I am Tee from Klang, Selangor. I just graduate recently from Multimedia University with B.Eng(HONS) Electronics.

The PTPTN loan i had received is RM66,000. I wish to start my payment as soon as possible but i still very confuse about the current interest rate apply to all IPTA and IPTS students. From the statement i got from PTPTN, they said the old rate still applied, and when i phone them, they said that the conversion from old rate to 1% is still on progress, until then, we still have to follow the old rate.

Now the problem is, our PM announce that new rate which is 1% will start to take effect on June 2008. Why PTPTN still using the old rate? and it take so long to convert.

When i ask them when the conversion will finish, they say they cant give me exact date means we still have to wait and paying to old rate. i think that is not fair to all students in malaysia. At my opinion, PM should’nt make such announcement if it is not possible or take such long time to complete the conversion. Continue reading “PTPTN issues – 1% interest rate?”

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Test Scores, Meritocracy, and a Dysfunctional Education System

by M. Bakri Musa

Three recent and apparently unrelated news items reflect our distorted view of merit and our dysfunctional education system. We believe that merit is measured only by test scores. As for our flawed education system, its current minister is seeking UNESCO’s help while his immediate predecessor commissioned the World Bank. As in the past, there will be an expensive and voluminous report, and that will be the end of it.

The first news item was the law lecturer who flunked over 97 percent of her students; second, the tragic death of a college dropout at UTM’s campus dormitory in Johor Baru; and third, Prime Minister Najib’s announcement of special ‘merit’ scholarships. Continue reading “Test Scores, Meritocracy, and a Dysfunctional Education System”

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Police Escort for Wedding Car?

Letters
by Ganesh

It would be good for you to investigate an incident I saw. I was in Suabng Jaya, next to Taylor’s college roundabout this weekend, when I saw a wedding car pass by. What was ironic is that it had police escorts. They stopped traffic to let the wedding car pass by. In another car, there was a cameraman who was filming the wedding car.

I am quite shocked at this. The police got time to escort and give VIP treatment to a wedding car?

I do not know whose wedding it was but I am very sure it was not a Royal wedding, which is the only wedding that deserves a Police escort.

Here I am worried about my personal safety and my house getting robbed and suddenly I see several police outriders escorting a wedding car instead of patrolling my neighbourhood. Continue reading “Police Escort for Wedding Car?”

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Integrity: What option for Malaysia?

By Tunku Abdul Aziz

THE UPSURGE of interest in integrity and ethics is not without a good reason. People all over the world have realized that human progress is unlikely to be sustainable without all of us adopting and embracing universal human values – values that transcend cultural, religious and political barriers.

In Malaysia we have the best legal framework, rules, regulations and procedures, but corrupt practices continue unchecked because those entrusted to serve the community are themselves morally and ethically deficient and devoid of ethical values and high standards of personal and public behaviour.

If we lose our competitive position because we are corrupt and lack integrity, we are putting our future as a nation at risk. Corruption kills competition, breeds inefficiency, distorts our decision making processes and promotes social and political instability in the long run. I believe that in societies where integrity is firmly entrenched, corruption can be kept firmly under control.

We have to refocus our vision and reshape our views and ideas on what can be done to fight unethical public behaviour, not only on our own turf, but equally important, on the international front because cross-border corruption represents a major source of social, economic and political instability and distortion, if not dealt with decisively.
Continue reading “Integrity: What option for Malaysia?”