My Longkang

Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing has come out in the press to urge people to speak out.

A Borneo Post reporter ( he did not identify himself ) went around town trying to talk to the people in Sibu to find out their views on crime issues and found that it was not an easy task. To find out why, click Culture of fear

If they did talk with him, they would not like to be quoted. “I don’t want a Molotov cocktail tossed into my garage tonight,” was a common rely they gave him. He interviewed many people for his article, but almost all from behind the curtain. Some said they didn’t want to offend the police.

Gangsters and their weapons

The lions of Sibu had the opportunity to meet PCC Dr Mario Yoong, International Director candidate 2008-2010 when he hosted a dinner at Tanahmas Hotel tonight. His message was simple. He told those present why he was standing for the post and his vision. He told the audience to dare to dream. To make dreams come true. No fancy words were used and he spoke in a mixture of Mandarin and English.

It was a long speech and divided into two segments. But to the surprise of mylongkang, there was little interruption or handphones ringing. He had a rapt audience. He came as a candidate but when he had finished speaking, he had a room full of friends.

His lists of achievements are impressive as are his long tenure of service. But that wasn’t important to the audience. To them, in mylongkang’s opinion what was important was that they believed in him.

The race for International Director candidate is hotting up as the lions convention draws near. There are two other equally impressive candidates, Lion PCC Hong Khay Chai and PCC Hajjah Ellis Suriyati.

Relevant reads:

PCC Hjh Ellis Suriyati
PCC Hong Khay Chai
Dr Mario Yoong

For this week I have posted handicraft made of coconut leaves. It is a grasshopper. Grasshoppers are found in abandance where I live and almost cannot be seen as they blend in well with the vegetation. It is only when they hop that you notice them.

It is actually very easy to make but my hands are more used to less dainty stuff so it took me ten minutes.

Thailand’s king has pardoned a Swiss man who was sentenced to 10 years in jail for defacing images of him. Oliver Jufer was sentenced last month, after he admitted spray-painting images of the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej in the city of Chiang Mai. Mr Jufer has been ordered to leave the country and was due to be deported by the end of the day, according to the news agency AFP.
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It was reported in the Borneo Post today that Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing questioned the wisdom of CID director Datuk Christopher Wan publicly announcing that he was leading some 90 anti-gangsterism police officers to Sarawak, particularly Sibu.

He said that while he appreciated Wan’s efforts against gangsterism, including his promise to nail down the black sheep in the Sarawak police for their alleged corruption and misconduct, he felt that Wan had set aside his (Tiong’s) suggestion to send a team here undercover.

A cross-section of comments I have heard today.
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Pic from Borneo Post

I saw a group of my colleagues bunched over a newspaper this morning. What were they gawking at? My curiosity piqued me and I drew nearer. They were all looking at a baby abandoned in Kuching and wondering if she was Chinese.
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Pic taken after a long jogging trail. Kapit is basically very hilly. The air is so fresh you wouldn’t believe it. When we were there, it wasn’t hot at all.
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The topic for today is the school and society. The school has not disappointed society and society has not disappointed the schools in Sibu. Traditionally the public has always been been very supportive of the measures taken by schools.

There was an outburst initially at the beginning of this year when every student of a certain school was asked to make a compulsory donation of RM100 for development of computer facilities. One parent was heard saying that her whole month’s pay was gone as there were other school fees too and she had 4 children in that school. Based on my calculation she had to pay about RM800 in all not including school uniforms, shoes, school bus fares, exercise books and text books.

This week, Sibu parents are in a dilemma. The Sibu Division Education Officer, Charles Tiong has decreed that this Saturday, the14th of April, 2007 be declared Hari Permuafakatan Keluarga. The objectives are good i.e. to foster better relations between the schools and the parents.

Some headmasters and principals have taken it upon themselves to make this day a smashing success. They threaten to hold back the students’ report card if parents don’t turn up on that day to ‘force them’ to come.

This form of bullying from schools should not be condoned. To punish the students for their parents inability to get leave should not be encouraged too. Their parents’ jobs are their rice-bowls. Should society accept : I am headmaster/principal/Division Education officer. You have to follow what I say or else.

Using threats or holding back of a student’s property is not the best way to foster better relations. Are there not better ways to achieve this goal?

Do the schools have the moral and legal credibility to force parents to come to school for a few minutes and these few minutes will drag into hours as every one has to take a turn to meet the teachers while the principal delivers speeches blowing his own trumpet and other accompanying items thought up to enhance the occasion and recorded somewhere and which will be dredged up by the same officers when performance appraisal time comes.

Do all parents have to play the games dictated by these officers? Have we come to the stage where the education department is so bankrupt of ideas?

Enhance cooperation not confrontation. Spare a thought for the families of the students. Have Hari Permuafakatan Keluarga by all means but leave out the threats.

computer pic-file photo

My friend and I were as usual taking our morning breakfast when pops in a young man maybe 1.76m and 85kg. He has punk hair and has a little ‘toughness’ written all over him.
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File photo

Ever attended a dinner where everybody is speaking in different dialects and languages and you can follow everything that is going on? I was at a dinner at a place called Hock Chew Leh which serves some of the best siew mai or a type of dumpling in Sibu.

Hakka, Hockien, Cantonese, Mandarin, Foochow, Hailam and Mandarin was spoken to me and all around me. We were hosting outstation visitors. It was like a mini China. On the other tables, I heard English, Malay, Iban and Melanau. Suddenly I realized how multi-lingual we all are although we don’t realize it.
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