Why MPPP doesn't make this as a scheduled work

Following is the most frequent complaints and acknowledgement letters received.
Municipal councils has not adopted a service concept based on "proactive", but waits until complaints received then only action will be taken. This really tied us up in the YB office for doing the unnecessary complaint forwarding, follow up and reverting back the result to complainants.

The urban services should be made as scheduled works by the municipal council.

******************************************************************************
SURAT AKUAN TERIMA

Per: Masalah Pokok, Longkang tersumbat dan Rumput panjang

Adalah saya diarah memaklumkan bahawa aduan Y.B / Y.Bhg. Dato' / Tuan / Puan melalui laman web bertarikh 12.01.2010 telah diakui terima dan di dalam perhatian Majlis.

2. Majlis akan menjalankan siasatan dan keputusannya akan dimaklumkan kepada Y.B/Y.Bhg. Dato'/Tuan/Puan

Sekian, terima kasih.

"BERKHIDMAT UNTUK NEGARA"
"KECEMERLANGAN BUDAYA KITA"

Bahagian Perhubungan Awam
Jabatan Khidmat Pengurusan
Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang.

*******************************************************************************

No Plastic Bags Day - Still A Lot to Do

A small family can easily find a big numbers comprise of all kind of plastic bags for disposal in a week.



These plastic bags were not the shopping bags which currently were "control items" under the "No Plastic Bags Day" campaign launched by the Penang State Government and the Selangor State Government. They are the packaging bags used to pack various household consumer goods : - instant drinks, biscuits, detergent, handwasher, instant mee, junk food so and so on.

By looking at the thickness of these packaging bags, definitely they are much much thicker than the shopping bags. You hardly can find these plastic bags indicate type of the plastic - either they are PET, PC, PP.

In Malaysia, "Don't litter, Cintailah Kebersihan dan Kehijauan Bumi Kita" (photo left) is the most common found logo printed on plastic bags. Whereas in many countries, indicating the plastic type is compulsory (photo right). .

Penang State has made a significant leap by increasing the number of days to "ban" plastic bags in high volume shopping departmental stores. I strongly belief that the government will soon look at the packaging bags. In fact the plastic bags contributed by consumer goods are even much higher than shopping plastic bags.

How the Penang State Government can influent the manufacturers of these consumer goods when the goods are origined from all over the country? In fact it is not a hard job. The local council can impose certain requirement on the trade license of retail outlets. The items sold in these outlets must comply to the requirement under the environment concern. They can also request certain products sold in the outlets to be packed in alternative packaging. Beside that, indicating the type of plastic can even be implemented instantly.


Shopping is an-hour event, consuming these goods may be 1 week to a month. After that all these will be ended in the garbage dump.

Let us stand together with the DAP and Pakatan Rakyat government. We can prevent the landfill buried by these plastic instead of burying the plastic.

School bags are still heavy

The weight of school bags are still remain as heavy as before.

Two years ago I conducted a simple check on the cause of the overweight school bags. Reasons were as listed below:

1) Too many books for every single subject.
2) Unnecessary text book such as Pendidikan Jasmani (Physical Education)
3) Over-sized illustration.
4) Blank pages for writings.
5) No-lesson-but-need-submit-homework.

From Std 1 to Std 3, almost all subjects, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, English, Mathematics, Sciences have standard text books and standard activities books. Besides that, the school have made other workbooks compulsory. My kids school have two BM "buku latihan tatabahasa" and another two "buku latihan penulisan". Chinese subject has calligraphy excercise (std 3 onwards), character stroke order excercise (std 1 to 3), Chinese phrase Chengyu excercise (std 4 onwards) , writing excercise and practical excercise - at least 4 addition work books. Other subjects, English Sciences 1 text 2 work books, Mandarin Sciences 1 text 1 work book, English Maths 1 text 2 work books, Chinese Maths 1 text 1 work book, English language 1 text 1 work book, Moral 1 text 1 excercise, and, Physical and Health Education 1 text book.

Moving to Std 4, there are two more new subjects - Civics & Citizenship and Kemahiran Hidup. Even the Civics & Citizenship subject has workbook. Take note that there are already a Moral subject which I believe they were subjects redundant each other.

And the ban by the Ministry of Education two years ago of additional work books by the schools seems like have not been enforced.

For Pendidikan Jasmani dan Kesihatan (Physical and Health Eduction), there is a text book as well. The Physical Excercise seems to be material to be read in the classroom and not played in the court or field. Haha, I believe our sport heroes hereoins like Saw Chin Aun, Eddy Choong, Misbun Sidek, Nicol David might have never gone through this text book when they were in primary schools.

And the textbook writers - not sure of their background, no highlights of their sport speciallities. But there were "graphic designer" and "illustrator". 99.9% of the graphics were handdraw and not actual photo. That may be a new method to produce good atheletes and sportmen who can excel in our country. The Std 4 text book was 122 pages thick.

Over-sized illustration is another problem. To educate the pupil about the objects in the classroom, the graphic occupied two pages. That was only one chapter. Other chapters too used two pages each to illustrte canteen, family, playing field so and so on. Despite the size, only 5 to 6 vocabs were contained. Therefore the text books ended up with big illustration.

And the workbooks nowadays sell both pages printed with words and printed with empty lines. So the pupils carried empty lines in their school bags. In our old times, there were no empty line books except the 40 pages excercise books in the brown colour cover printed with school emblem and school anthem.

And if you wonder why the school bags were still heavy despite only 4 to 5 subjects scheduled daily in the school timetable. Remember there are homeworks that your kids need to submit to Cikgu the next day despite the subject is not in the timetable.

So what can be done? I will tell you individually if you post me email personally.

PENANG NEEDS YOU!

Guys hurry!

Penang State Govt is hiring people to agencies followed:

Chief Minister Incorporated (CMI)
Penang Development Corporation (PDC)
Invest-in-Penang Berhad (Invest Penang)
Penang Hill Corporation
Penang World Heritage Office (Penang WHO)

Details pls see investpenang.gov.my
Closing 31 Jan 2010

Projek Cari Oh Projek Cari

Seorang penerima bantuan Kebajikan Masyarakat telah mengadu wang bantuan kebajikan yang memang telah diluluskan tetapi tidak diterima. Bantuannya telah diluluskan untuk tempoh Jun 2009 hingga November 2009, namun pada hari ini, iaitu 7/1/2010, beliau hanya menerima bantuan untuk tiga bulan, iaitu bulan Julai, bulan Disember dan satu bulan yang tidak dapat pasti kerana surat telah dituntut balik oleh pegawai JKM semasa beliau membuat tuntutan wang. Ia dipercayai bayaran bulan Jun.

Di sini tanda soalnya ialah kenapa perkara ini terjadi? Jawapannya mudah. Kerana bantuan kebajikan yang diluluskan di bawah Projek Cari* memang menggunapakai sistem yang aneh. Ia tidak sama dengan penyaluran bantuan yang biasa di mana wang bantuan disalurkan pada tarikh yang tetap dan dibuat lazimnya melalui Bank Simpanan Nasional.

Wang bantuan yang disalurkan di bawah Projek Cari begini biasanya:

1) cara pembayaran tidak tetap tarikhnya malahan sering lewat. Ia boleh satu bulan langsung tak ada berita. Ia boleh datang sekaligus lebih tiga bulan. Maka orang miskin yang perlukan bantuan hanya boleh menunggu wang bantuan ternga-nga.

2) wang bantuan hanya boleh dituntut apabila surat pemberitahuan dihantar oleh pegawai JKM. Bayangkan - bayaran bulanan kena buat dengan surat tiap-tiap bulan. Sedangkan kakitangan di JKM sibuk dengan kerja sedia ada yang tak siap-siap, walaupun piagam kelulusan adalah sebulan, tetapi masa kini ada yang mengambil masa 2 bulan malahan empat bulan enam bulan pun ada.

Yang lebih kesian, ada orang yang tak dapat surat, dan sebabnya tidak tahu. Tak ada rekod surat tu dilahir belum. Jika wang tidak dituntut lepas sesuatu tempoh singkat, maka wang itu hangus apabila dikembalikan (ada satu tanda soal di sini).

Buat apa susah-susah sangat, kenapa JKM tidak menggunakan sistem sedia ada tetapi mewujudkan sistem yang begitu tidak transparen sekali?

Untuk pengetahuan, Projek Cari ini sering dikaitkan dengan projek komuniti Barisan Nasional. Kakitangan yang digunakan untuk Projek Cari kebanyakan dari ahli-ahli, pada masa kini, MCA. Terdapat juga aduan orang ramai bahawa kakitangan ini terus terang memberitahu bantuan adalah daripada MCA. Bagaimana ia boleh dari MCA sedangkan gaji kakitangan serta wang bantuan semua adalah dari pembayar-pembayar cukai???

Sistem Projek Cari ini meninggalkan pelbagai soalan. Macam orang miskin boleh ikat perut semasa wang bantuan tidak sampai berbulan-bulan. Wang yang tidak "disalurkan" itu kemudian pergi mana. Selamat tidak wang tunai dipegang dan diedar oleh kakitangan-kakitangan JKM. Ada yang terlalu takut nak beri komen kerana kakitangan kontrak MCA tersebut bergaya macam Menteri. Malahan saya tidak dapat bayangkan adakah pengarah-pengarah kebajikan masyarakat di setiap negeri berani tegur mereka, kan orang yang digaji ini anak buah menteri???

Itulah. Barisan hanya fikirkan kepentingan politik daripada perut rakyat.

Missing Mission : Program Pembasmian Kemiskinan Bandar

It is really strange to shift the implementing agencies of Program Pembasmian Kemiskinan Bandar from MPPP/MPSP to Kementerian Kemajuan Luar Bandar dan Wilayah.

I have posted an email to request an MP from PR to raise question on PPKB in Parliament.

It is related to aides for the poor under the PPKB program which is consist of :

• Bantuan Sewa Rumah,
• Bantuan Kemasukan Ke Sekolah / IPT,
• Bantuan Kos Pengangkutan Ke Sekolah,
• Bantuan Kos Jagaan Kanak-kanak Ke TASKA / TADIKA / Individu / Jiran,
• Bantuan Kos Pengangkutan Ke Tempat Kerja,
• Bantuan Kos Rawatan Dialisis Buah Pinggang,
• Bantuan Latihan Dan Kemahiran,
• Bantuan Ihsan Keluarga Miskin /
  Miskin Tegar di Bandar.

The "Program Pembasmian Kemiskinan Bandar (PPKB)" which the name is self-explanatory, is a program under Kementerian Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan, KPKT (info can find from KPKT'swebsite). The info mentions that "PPKB akan dilaksanakan di 144 Pihak Berkuasa Tempatan (PBT) seluruh negara sepanjang Rancangan Malaysia Kesembilan (RMKe-9) bagi tempoh 2006-2010".

(Source : http://www.kpkt.gov.my/kpkt/main.php?Content=articles&ArticleID=37&IID=).

An application form can be downloaded from KPKT's website.

In Penang, this program was facilitated under MPPP and MPSP, where two committees were set up in their respective territory. However in March 18, 2009, KPKT had, in letter ref. no. (42) dlm.KPKT/BSB/19/535/14Klt.35 dated 18 Mac 2009, informed that "Pembekuan Penyaluran Bantuan Program Pembasmian Kemiskinan Bandar (PPKB)", which"KPKT telah memutuskan untuk membekukan sementara penyaluran bantuan PPKB kepada pemohon baru", and "tindakan pembekuan sementara ini adalah bagi membolehkan pihak agensi pusat membuat penyemakan dan pengesahan terhadap status pemohon baru bantuan PPKB. Permohonan baru akan dipertimbangkan setelah selesai urusan verifikasi oleh agensi pusat, yang dijangka mengambil masa di antara tiga hingga enam bulan".

From March 2009 until today, the Bahagian Kemiskinan Bandar in MPPP which I contacted has verbally confirmed the program which was earlier in "On Hold" Status, but now the program has been taken up by the Pejabat Pembangunan Persekutuan Negeri Pulau Pinang. But funny thing is the previous officer in charge in MPPP was not fully aware of the latest change, it sounds to me that KPKT has not informed MPPP that the facilitating task has been removed from MPPP. Even the website of KPKT is still mentioning "akan dilaksanakan di 144 Pihak BerkuasaTempatan" which I have quoted in beginning of this article.

And when I was about to finalize this article, the Pejabat Pembangunan Persekutuan called to update me that the task again has been shifted to Kementerian Kemajuan Luar Bandar dan Wilayah. Strange. The program is "Kemiskinan Bandar" but the Kementerian implementing the program is "Luar Bandar".

So, the question, where is the channel for Penangite to apply for the aides??

-Notes-

----------

I checked for website "Pejabat Pembangunan Persekutuan Pulau Pinang"(www.ppg.icu.gov.my) but appeared that links was broken. Anyway by clicking the Cached still can see the information.

A search in Google with combination of keywords with both "program pembasmian kemiskinan bandar" and "Pejabat Pembangunan Persekutuan" get 6 results, but none of them was from Penang.

I called up the office 04-2105700 and was informed by the Unit Bantuan that the office can give me the form but was unable to confirm if the program is still open. Anyway, the program is still under KPKT's portfolio.

Child without Birth Cert finally accepted to school

It is not true that if children without Birth Certs are not allowed to school.

It has been approved in Jemaah Menteri (Cabinet) in January 2008 that as long as any of the children's parents is a citizen and her Ketua Kampung can confirm the status, then schools have to accept the school enrolment of the children.

(However, the Circular or Surat Pekeliling only issued in March 2009)

The Circular ref no. is Ikhtisas Bil. 1/2009. You need to get form mentioned at the bottom of this message (last two paragraphs). Anyway I have gone through a long process to find out all this.

A father of a child from Nibong Tebal has approached my YB's office in Aug 2008 to seek help to get his child a Birth Cert. The man was an unmarried father who has met a lady whom he claimed was an Orang Asli from Jerantut Pahang. The child was claimed born in 2002 in the lady's village, and was not reported to Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (National Registration Department) for birth.

The child was with the mother for about 2 years before surrendered by the mother to the man. The man only realized that the child was without necessary document after a while and was too late to trace the mother's whereabout since then.

The first thing that need is to get the child accepted to school as he was 7 years old by 2009. I searched all relevant website for how to get things done. I encountered old news reported made by Dato' Seri Hishamuddin, the Minister of Education then, announced in Feb 2008 that "Children without Birth Certificates can now go to school".

However when I approached the Department of Education then, in August 2008, I was told that the department has not received such instruction from the authority. Feeling disappointed, I wrote a memo to a MP to bring this to Parliament. However there was no any progress after that.

On and off the man came back to me in following 2 years. We have approached to Social Welfare Department, National Registration Department and Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli in Pahang. We even tried to register the school enrolment as foreigner registration.

On 11 Dec 2009, I received two calls (one from the man and one from my Pulau Tikus DAP volunteer Ms. Rachel Tan, specially dedicate a note of thanks to her hereby) informing me that paper has came out some progress on this issue.

From there, I quickly get to parliament website and download the hansard (http://www.parlimen.gov.my/hansard.php) dated 10 Dec 2009. I search under name of YB Tan Tee Beng and found his question. Yahoo, the question is straight forward related to this case, and thanks god, the reference number of the Surat Pekeliling or Circular, was quoted in the hansard, Ikhtisas Bil. 1/2009 dated 11 Mac 2009.

I further searched the reference number, and found that circular was uploaded in the Portal Rasmi PPD Kubang Pasu (http://ppdkubangpasu.net/download.php?report.1287), which is the Kubang Pasu District Education Office . Done. Everything done. I was jumping joy and quickly called the man to move further. What we need now is to get a Ketua Kampung (Chairman of local JKKK) to confirm the relationship of the father and son. Although the Ketua Kampung has not known this man before, but base on the man's Statutory Declaration to the relationship, the Ketua Kampung agreed to sign.

On 29 Dec 2009, the man went to the State Education Dept and apply for his son registration to school. However, the application was rejected despite he shown the officer there the Surat Pekeliling. I explain to the officer through phone but in vain.

On 31 Dec 2009, I went to the department again with the man. We went to Unit Sekolah Rendah and met a Penyelia Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina. At first she was advising that the letter was not applicable to child without birth cert at all, as no evidence of the relationship. I explained by showing the Parliament Hansard, letter from Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat (Social Welfare Department) and the letter from Ketua Kampung.

At last the Penyelia agreed with the content of the Surat Pekeliling. We were given two forms to complete :
1) Borang SR/KSLPTSK(Pin08) - Kemasukan Semula / Lewat Pendaftaran / Tiada Sijil Kelahiran the child was accepted.
2) Lampiran 1 - Surat Akuan Penghulu / Ketua Kaum / Ketua Kampung.
We then completed and submitted above two forms, the child was immediately granted acceptance letter by the department.

So, important thing for closing this case was the parliament hansard dated 10/12/09 and the Surat Pekeliling Ikhtisas Bil. 1/2009, plus the letter from Ketua Kampung.