Good quit rent collection

SMART MOVE:The Kulaijaya Municipal Council has acquired half of its targeted sum for the year as it collects payment from owners at their homes

THE Kulaijaya Municipal Council (MPKu) has collected RM36 million in quit rent so far this year, which is about 55 per cent of its target of RM64 million set for the year.

MPKu president Md Rofiki A. Shamsudin said the good collection was due to the success of Ops Cahaya where 10 teams of MPKu officers took the approach of going from house to house to collect the quit rent as soon as the payment period ended in March.

"This gives us the first hand information about the payment status as we collect from each households on the spot.

"Through this approach, we managed to collect 90 per cent of quit rent and this is expected to increase in future with the implementation of our smart partnership with the Alor Gajah Municipal Council which will be signed next month," he said.

Rofiki said the memorandum of understanding will benefit both parties in improving their services, especially in the administration aspect.

"Previously, we have signed an MoU with the Petaling Jaya City Council which focussed on the aspect of enforcement," said Rofiki.

"The new collaboration with the Alor Gajah Municipal Council will see improvement in quit rent collection, information technology, innovations and idea sharing," he said.

MPKu collected RM58 million in 2011 and RM52 million in 2010.

New plan to lift life of Sabah rural folk

KOTA KINABALU: The second Government Transformation Programme (GTP 2.0) gives hope to the people, especially folk in Sabah, to improve their quality of life.

State Assistant Resource Development and Information Technology Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad Ayid said there were still many areas in Sabah, especially in the interior, that were lacking in infrastructure to enable the people to get information technology (IT) facilities.

"Education is the only way to get the poor out of poverty and for that, we cannot escape the use of IT.

"We hope to achieve 90 per cent accessibility to IT in Sabah by 2015, based on the GTP 2.0," she said after a gathering with media members here yesterday.

Jainab also advised the people against using IT, especially through social networking websites, to manipulate political issues.

The people should be wise in evaluating current developments, including efforts carried out by the government, she added. Bernama

Hoping to put a boundary on Facebook's reach

 

ISN’T 20PC ENOUGH? One out of five Internet pages is now at or through Facebook

ONE gets inured to new data on information technology development. I hadn't been staggered as much by new Facebook data since George Heilmeier came into my Pentagon office to show his "post-war computer interconnect", in 1976, looking for funding for something that plainly had a much larger model -- an Internet itself.

When I gasped and said the implication was that we could do it all with computers, he smugly said: "That's the next funding request."  Advanced Research Project Agency (Arpa) was indeed where the Internet started. Heilmeier was head of Arpa and I was the minister's gatekeeper on funding requests.

Well, consider this. One out of five Internet pages is now at or through Facebook, more than Twitter and all the other major social networks combined times two, according to Alexis Madrigal in the Atlantic.

I must go through hundreds of pages a day -- email, newspapers, blogs, data search -- and maybe twice a day at FB. So I'm way out, outer, outest. I  set up an account only because all three anak in the United States were there with pictures.

But the price is, I have to view friends' cats' breakfasts, their morning prayer, their 178 pictures of their  travels abroad, their latest and daily photo-op with higher government officials than themselves, their simply extraordinary triumphs, which modesty used to suggest we let others trumpet. But I can't afford to miss the gems, obscure articles on something vital to me on (for example) FB itself: my twin grandchildren's first pictures a few days ago.

Now let's give the devil its due. FB conceptually did what the big browsers did, and what Google did. Except instead of using information as its organising device and database, it used people. And what's most important to each of us -- ourselves, our friends, our activities? Not England's "Pilgrimage of Grace" 500 years ago that I recently rehashed at Wikipedia. People, friends.

Secondly, FB is a "natural monopoly", as Madrigal cited Paul Kedrosky in the article,   and thus more stable. It didn't capture its audience the way industrialist John D. Rockefeller assembled the largest monopoly in history: You join or you drown. (I have to chuckle at the frequent toasts given by people I know very well to their ancestor's cowardice in giving in to Rockefeller, with the result that they were all, 1,000-plus of them at this point, very rich, from their share of "the Standard" -- Standard Oil, which the Supreme Court broke up, and became Mobil, Exxon, Chevron, etc). But everyone joins FB by attraction. And "the more users you have, the more users you'll get", Nick Thompson wrote in The New Yorker.

OK, so where's the beef? Am I a Luddite, or like my father, unwilling to let me, alone on a university campus, have access to TV when I was a boy, lest I not read, learn? He gave me nothing more important. By the way, he was the president, so all my buddies could joke that I might live in the biggest house, but I couldn't spend the afternoon watching cartoons! (By the way, I also alone had no allowance, but had a horse, so I could make it up delivering newspapers. I kid you not!)

Anything that makes information access easier is, of course, a plus. My gripe is that anything that makes it easy and fashionable to spend your life trivialising our attempt to fulfil ourselves needs some limits. The problem is that FB spreads the trivialisation.

It also invades privacy in a way I've been harping on here. True, FB has instituted many safeguards on invasion of our private data. But most people like to "share", we accept invitations to friendship, and then we have their dog's birthday party. But the human tendency is to continue, not break off, so we end up with tonnes of useless information, and our "friends" want ours back. We forget that what is important to us is less important to others not directly affected.

Hasn't everyone really yawned at the offer of the three-hundredth picture of their epochal trip to Tibet? Now, if 20 per cent of the entire Internet is FB, I guess many just lean back and let it flow.
OK, there are usually counter-trends to bad flows. It looked like classical music was ending up in the dustbins. Audiences may dwindle in America and no longer can I assume a younger peer knows or even cares about the mind-bending change in the musical mind that Beethoven's late quartets heralded.

But I once drove through Seoul with a Korean diplomat and argued which Schubert quartet was on his radio, and I was humiliated that he was right. A Thai colleague knows infinitely more about opera than I. The Asians to the rescue! Classical music is now one of the fashions in China. Let's hope something comes along that puts a boundary on FB. Isn't 20 per cent enough?

Art of the bunting

Abdul Rauf Othman adds colour to weddings through his buntings, banners and more. He tells Izwan Ismail how technology has helped his printing business

THE small office at a shoplot in Section 15, Shah Alam is a hive of activities. Wedding buntings, in different sizes, designs and colours fill almost the entire floor.

Helped by his wife, Tuan Noorazienie, and his two assistants, Abdul Rauf Othman has his hands full sorting out online orders.

Though many of the weddings are still months away, the work has begun for the young entrepreneur.

GETTING STARTED
Abdul Rauf owns a digital design and print business, specialising in wedding buntings. His venture into the business started when he sold T-shirts in his free time while studying at MRSM in Jasin, Malacca.
“I did it more for fun than anything else. But it gave me the experience for bigger business opportunities later,” he says.

He went on to do a Bachelor degree in Information Technology at Universiti Islam Antarabangsa. There, he was introduced to the world of desktop publishing, which allowed him to express his creativity in designing buntings.

“I was very excited about what software like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and In-Design could do,” says the father of a toddler who would spend hours surfing the Internet to learn more about such software until he mastered the techniques and came out with beautiful bunting designs at the click of the mouse.

“I would volunteer to make buntings for many campus activities and charged RM50 per bunting,” he says.

With his knowledge, Abdul Rauf began to design magazines for schools and faculties as well as T-shirts for student bodies.

An internship with Al-Hikmah Printing in Sungai Buloh in his final year was a blessing in disguise.

“I was lucky that the owner taught me the ins and outs of the printing business,” he says.

That was when he learnt all about the business — the materials used, networking, marketing, etc.

“The experience further exposed me to the opportunities in the industry,” says Abdul Rauf who set up IW Studio Biz in 2008.

PRINTING AND TECH
“Initially it was a challenge as I didn’t have a shop and many people did not know about my business,” he says, adding that his customers then were relatives, friends and lecturers.

Things started to change when he set up a portal called iwstudio.biz to enable online orders of wedding buntings. He also used the social media platforms like Facebook extensively to connect with customers. The iwstudio.biz FB page now has 1,800 fans and orders are coming in at a steady rate.

Abdul Rauf has also made the website interactive where in a forum, customers can ask about the products and services available, and make orders based on templates. With his online presence, his customers now come from all over the country and even as far as Brunei Darussalam.

To make the bunting designs more interesting, Abdul Rauf has partnered with freelance cartoonist Oly to create cartoon characters of the bride and groom for the buntings.

It normally takes three days to do a bunting from the date of the order.

Today, 95 per cent of his business come from online orders and Abdul Rauf has expanded his services to include invitation cards, money packets and posters.

He recently added wedding photography to the list and so is able to provide a one-stop bundled package to clients.

FUTURE PLAN
Abdul Rauf plans to organise a seminar on digital printing and its business opportunities.

“More players will make the industry bigger and create healthy competition,” he says.

Mexican minister suggests mobile app to fight crime

THOUSAND OAKS (California): Mexico’s interior minister suggested Wednesday that a mobile software app could help crack down on the country’s crippling drug-related crime.

Speaking at a conference hosted by search giant Google in California,  Alejandro Poire said the new government was determined to get a grip on the  violence wracking Mexico, and technology could help.

 

“Ninety-five million people in Mexico own a cell phone today. These are a  powerful tools that can help us get information, obtain it from images,” he  said at the conference in Thousand Oaks, northwest of Los Angeles. 

 

“What if we could develop a system that uses this technology and actually  went not just to the people in the call center, but to citizen watchdogs that  would allow us and help us to monitor” criminals, he asked.

 

He continued: “We could probably produce a simple, practical, very basic  software that would allow us to increase our capabilities of reporting crime to  police.”    Poire, Mexico’s fifth interior minister since 2006, noted that the  country’s murder rate last year was 22 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants,  nearly twice as high as only eight years ago.

 

Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon named Poire as interior chief last  November, after the previous post holder Francisco Blake died in a helicopter  crash. -- AP

Najib clicks with young voters

ONE TEAM: Prime minister sees young people as partners in nation-building

ON Tuesday, Datuk Seri Najib Razak assured young voters of a better quality of life under the Barisan Nasional government. They were also promised that the BN government would meet their aspirations for advancement.

"Tomorrow will be much better than today. We have proved that we can deliver," said the prime minister.

His assurance came without a second thought when a netizen, who went by the name Dr Kamal, asked during the NSTLive online chat what guarantee the prime minister could give to young voters if they voted BN in the coming general election.

Najib interacted with 1,500 people during the session that helped him reach out to the masses, especially young people who are more at home with information and communications technology.

The question was pertinent since youth are becoming the dominant political force in the country. It is estimated that young people will account for 80 per cent, or almost three million, of new voters. Their proportion of votes is expected to go up to 49 per cent in the next general election, from 41 per cent in 2008.

The prime minister has linked up with the young on Facebook and Twitter, besides appearing at youth activities and local radio talk shows. He has the largest following in the country on Facebook and Twitter, and his branding on radio, television and mainstream newspapers has been positive.

Najib's sincerity in reaching out also saw the birth of the Najib Razak Club, or NRC11, a year ago. Activities include gotong-royong. In February, young members of the club had a teh tarik session with comedian and actor Afdlin Shauki. Other personalities and politicians have been featured as speakers in the club's nation-building programmes. The latest of these was D. Ravindran, director of the National Key Results Areas on Corruption, on May 23.

The engagement with young people sends the message that Najib regards them as partners and future leaders in nation-building.

Rarely has a head of government reached out like this. It has enhanced the programmes of BN Youth and the component party youth wings.

The recent BN Youth Job Fair was a hit. Its “Orang Muda Pilih BN” programme in several states elicited a big response, firing up young supporters to campaign for the coalition. The latest in Jitra, Kedah, this month attracted more than 10,000 young men and women; as many attended the one held in Ipoh last month.

Across the divide, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also maintains an active presence in social media. He is also aware of Malaysia’s low median age and is pushing hard to capture the affections of the under-30 voting bloc.

He is joined by information technology-savvy opposition leaders and supporters, who, along with sympathetic non-governmental organisations, are aggressively fishing for young voters via the Internet.

BN has poured a lot of resources to overcome the opposition advantage in winning the acceptance and support of the youth.

Najib has been making inroads into this crucial voter segment, which swung in favour of candidates representing Pas, DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat in the 2008 general election.

The ruling coalition is playing up not only its long history of political and economic stability but also Najib’s transformational reform agenda.

The opposition pact, by contrast, continues to peddle vague promises, which even their own leaders are uncertain can all be fulfilled.

But the governing parties need to look beyond racial politics. Young people generally have more liberal views of democracy than their elders.

The young, who were mostly fence-sitters in 2008, see the opposition as aligning itself with groups that claim to be fighting for  universal concerns such as corruption and good governance that they profess to be committed to.

Those from the middle class also do not have the same interests as the poor, for whose benefit broad policies are in place.

Young voters, especially the first-timers, are becoming increasingly politicised. BN leaders recognise how this can often make them vulnerable to the opposition’s blandishments.

To compete, Malaysia needs 'cradle to career' plan

SUPPORT ECOSYSTEM: It's all about connecting organisations dealing with science and technology

Engineers working on the engine of CTRM’s unmanned aerial vehicle. Malaysia leads the region in advanced materials, with key players in aerospace and dome construction such as CTRM.

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I REMEMBER when I was lecturing at Universiti Teknologi MARA (then ITM) in the late 1980s, one of the ways to ensure I was a few steps ahead of my students was to subscribe to and read articles regarding my subject-matter not accessible to them.

 Another was to talk with the industry people on a regular basis. It makes me wonder how lecturers nowadays manage to remain "teachers" when students now have the same or even greater access to information and are able to communicate with people from all over the world.

 Globalisation of travel, media, science, teaching and increasingly accessible channels of communication have democratised transmission of science, technology and knowledge around the world.

 But these things have also placed increased pressure on developing markets, such as Malaysia, that -- ready or not -- are becoming more deeply exposed to technologies and technology policies implemented both by advanced and other developing economies.

 The best option -- indeed, the only responsible option -- is to work towards developing a supportive ecosystem in Malaysia capable of responding to the increasingly global nature of science, technology and innovation.

 This means both streamlining and connecting the myriad organisations dealing with science and technology issues in the country and ensuring that Malaysia secures a seat at the table with other technologically advanced countries.

 In our own backyard we have seen the rise of technology giants such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Increasingly China is moving away from low-cost manufacturing towards world-class research and development.

 Of the 1.22 million patents filed by the country in 2010, the intellectual property office granted 815,000 patents, a 40 per cent increase from the year before. Even closer to home, Singapore ranks second on Insead's Global Innovation Index.

 There is no reason why Malaysia can't aspire to these heights. The country is already a world-leader in niche areas such as palm oil research supported by the work of organisations such as the Malaysian Palm Oil Board and the Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute.

On the private side, we are even leading the region in non-traditional sectors such as advanced materials, with key players in aerospace and dome construction CTRM and DK Composite. But more is needed to ensure research is channelled into commercial uses.

 To compete effectively, Malaysia must provide companies with afull value chain of support structures to incubate and grow global champions in fields of science, technology and innovation. Our own ministers of education and higher education have drawn the nation's attention to the increased need for students educated in fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

 The country will need an estimated 1.3 million science and technology workers by 2020; it has an estimated 400,000 today. The Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology  recently hosted members of the Prime Minister's Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council, including leading American educator Dr Nancy Zimpher, chancellor of the State University of New York, for talks on improving our own education system for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

 Dr Zimpher called for coherent "cradle to career" national education systems that better connect primary, secondary and tertiary education. There is much more to be done to foster a world-leading science and technology ecosystem. We must recognise the national importance of our public R&D institutes such as the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia  and the Malaysian Institute Of Microelectronic Systems.

 On the flip side, we must underscore the importance of providing the right conditions to foster private sector R&D if we are to achieve 10th Malaysia Plan targets of R&D investment of one per cent of Gross Domestic Product by 2015.

 Might endeavours to provide a platform for consensus building. With more than 100 members including key government ministries, agencies, government-linked companies as well as both local and foreign private sector companies, universities and research institutes, Might is uniquely positioned to provide a forum for this kind of dialogue. This is arguably one of the most valuable contributions we can make to improving the local landscape for science and technology development.I do not envy my former colleagues at UiTM who are today faced with the growing challenge posed by easy access to information and the highly interactive online world of know-how and know-who that may either help or even humble the unwary.

Paying tribute to my favourite rock group, Queen, my humble advice is, "if you can't beat them, join them" and learn to "play the game", quickly.