The Star Online > Nation

Wednesday January 25, 2006

Officers surf Net while public waits

By MARSHA TAN

JOHOR BARU: Civil servants who misuse their office Internet services have caused a hold-up in the communication system, affecting dealings with the public. 

Johor state secretary Datin Paduka Norsiah Haron said 20% of those working in government departments had been found guilty of the offence. 

She said some staff members misused the Internet to download pictures, songs, and mobile ringtones and some to surf pornographic websites, causing the system to slow down. 

Such abuses also caused delays in dealings with the public. 

“We have a team to track down those who commit these offences, based on their personal identification log-on.  

“I advise all personnel to use the Internet properly, especially for dealings with the public,” Norsiah said during a get-together with Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman and civil servants.  

Some 1,500 civil servants turned up for the event held at Kompleks Islam yesterday.  

Norsiah said she was very serious about Internet abuse, and urged heads of department to monitor their staff. 

She also advised all present to not waste time going for minum pagi dan petang (morning and evening tea breaks) as it could affect the quality of public services.  

Meanwhile, Abdul Ghani said a committee or special panel would be set up to look into reviewing all procedures and regulations relating to public services in the state and make it more transparent and efficient. 

He said the committee would be given six months to complete the task. 

Abdul Ghani said this was in line with the state government’s efforts to curb bureaucracy in the state public services.  

The Star Online > Nation

Wednesday January 25, 2006

Malaysia's environment conservation ranking up

NEW YORK: Malaysia’s efforts at environmental conservation seem to be paying off. It was ranked ninth, 19 places ahead of the United States, in a study on the environmental performances of 133 countries. 

The study, called the 2006 Environment Performance Index, was a joint effort by two of the United States’ best known educational institutions, Yale and Columbia. 

It evaluated a number of environmental characteristics prevalent in the 133 countries under scrutiny, ranging from clean drinking water and low ozone levels to sustainable fisheries and low greenhouse gas emissions. 

Many experts privately concede that while Malaysia has come under criticism in the past for the deforestation of some parts of its tropical forest, the country has also made tremendous progress in preserving its natural resources. 

The SARS scare three years ago, for example, also made Malaysia pursue an aggressive hygiene and sanitation policy, aimed at keeping the epidemic at bay. 

Malaysia’s fight against the dreaded bird flu is also perceived  

largely as a success story, considering that the epidemic is playing havoc in its neighbourhood. 

Only six countries, headed by New Zealand and followed by five North European countries, achieved an 85% or greater success in environmental management. 

New Zealand was followed by Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Britain, Austria, Denmark and Canada.  

After Malaysia was the Republic of Ireland at 10th position. 

The United States, at 28th position, was behind many West European countries, Japan, Taiwan, Costa Rica and Chile. However, the United States was ahead of Russia and South Korea. 

Hardly surprising were the ratings of many African and Central and South Asian countries. Pakistan and India, which are often criticised for environmental destruction, the lack of hygiene facilities, supply of clean drinking water, and the lack of enforcement by the authorities which are often allegedly slow to crack down on defaulters, scored very poorly indeed in the stu-dy. 

The combined study which has been reviewed by US and international experts, will be issued tomorrow during the World Economic Forum, an annual platform in the Swiss resort of Davos for informal meetings between business and political leaders. – Bernama  

The Star Online > Nation

Wednesday January 18, 2006

RM 100 million tug-of-war

By CHELSEA L.Y. NG

Loh Kim Foh

Tycoon Loh Kim Foh has filed a suit against his second wife Wong Kim and some of their children over control of a multi-million ringgit business empire. 

The patriarch is trying to wrest back his assets worth over RM100mil from her and a son and three daughters from the second marriage, claiming that he signed over the controlling stakes in his company to them in July 2001 after they had secretly drugged him with prostate cancer medication. 

The suit, filed here last year, will be heard in the Ipoh High Court as most of the defendants are residing in Perak. Justice Vincent Ng of the KL High Court made the transfer order yesterday. No date has been fixed for hearing. 

Apart from Wong Kim, their son Kon Fah and their three daughters, Loh also named as defendants two companies Lohman Holdings Sdn Bhd and Loh Kim Foh Holdings Sdn Bhd, a liquidator who manages Lohman Holdings, and a former company secretary of the company. 

Loh, who founded Lohman Holdings, alleged that the defendants had conspired to defraud and deprive him of his fortune. 

He said that it was illogical for him to have transferred the properties to them in July 2001 when he had made a will the month before stating that his assets could only be distributed after his death. 

Lohman Holdings was dealing in investment of shares and real estate. Wong Kim and her children had applied for the company to go into voluntary liquidation after the shares were transferred to them in 2001.  

The plaintiff is seeking an order to stop the liquidation of assets pending the disposal of the suit.  

He obtained an injunction in October to stop his wife and Kon Fah from transferring assets out of Lohman Holdings.  

He is also seeking a declaration that he is the legal and beneficial owner of 56% of shares in Lohman Holdings. 

The defendants countered that Loh had voluntarily transferred the assets. 

In an affidavit, Loh said he was born in Guangzhou and sailed to Malaya in 1936 with only seven British Malayan dollars in his pocket and a bag of clothes. 

Before he left China, he was already married and with his first wife they had one child born in 1932. The first wife now lives in Hong Kong. 

In Malaya, he married Wong Kim in 1938 and they have six children. 

With sheer determination, he said, he single-handedly built up a business empire in tin mining and logging. 

After the Japanese Occupation, he ventured into sawmilling in Simpang Papan and later in Menglembu, Perak. 

When World War II ended, he returned to China in 1946 to see his first wife for a brief period.  

In 1947, she gave birth to their second child in China, and subsequently the couple had a third child. 

Lawyers Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Matthew Thomas Philip and Nik Elin Nik Abdul Rashid appeared for Loh yesterday while V. Segaran acted for the wife and three of her children. One daughter was not represented. 

V. Periasamy acted for Loh Kim Foh Holdings while Rabinder Singh acted for the other defendants.  

The Star Online > Worldupdates

Britain rejects European-style prostitution zones

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government rejected on Tuesday plans to set up so-called "tolerance zones" for prostitution, saying a worldwide study had shown there was no evidence they offered greater protection for women. 

Instead, ministers said they would relax laws on brothels so prostitutes could work together in the same premises. 

But an international campaigning group for prostitutes said the new laws did not go far enough to prevent sex workers suffering rape and violence. 

The government had been considering allowing special zones in what would have been its biggest shake-up of prostitution laws for 50 years. 

"We rejected that option because if you look at the international examples where there are managed zones (of prostitution) it seems not to reduce criminality," Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart told reporters. 

"It seems not to reduce the exploitation of women by usually criminally associated and dangerous men." 

The British-based campaigning group International Collective of Prostitutes (ICP) had urged the government to decriminalise the world's oldest profession and former Home Secretary David Blunkett published plans in 2004 to change the law. 

But the government said it had decided to focus on protecting women in the sex industry and helping them find alternative work. 

It will also target the men who traffic women from abroad into the sex industry. 

The Home Office said the London market was "saturated" with migrants working in brothels. 

Britain's Association of Chief Police Officers welcomed the new strategy. "Managed areas are based on the principle that prostitution is allowed but no other illegal practices are," said Tim Brain, the group's spokesman on prostitution. 

"If that is the case then you are forcing the women who are drug users or who are being pimped away from the managed area and further into danger." 

Germany and the Netherlands have legalised some brothels and set up zones where prostitutes can work. 

Around 80,000 women in Britain work as prostitutes, with more than half of those under 25, the Home Office estimates. 

Under the new rules, which will apply to England and Wales, two prostitutes will be allowed to work together from the same premises and with a receptionist to increase their security. 

Previous laws had only allowed one prostitute to work from an apartment. 

Citing the example of New Zealand, which decriminalised prostitution in 2003, the ICP had argued a similar policy in Britain would destigmatise sex work and make prostitutes safer by keeping them off the street. 

"In New Zealand women are now much more able to report violence," ICP spokeswoman Niki Adams told Reuters. 

"The numbers of reports of rape and violence have increased from prostitute women because previously they were deterred by the thought they might face prosecution themselves. 

"Also a lot of women have been able to get off the streets and work in premises. It is much safer to work inside rather than out."