Hope yet to improve English

Teacher Rose Anne Easaw

addressing the school assembly

of Sekolah Menegah

Inggeris/Kebangsaan,

Yong Peng in 1977. 

Standing behind her

is the writer.

The Star
by Roger Tan

It seems like a huge task to restore Malaysians' standard of English but it can be done if we put our hearts to it.

IN November 1996, a Saudi Arabian Airlines 747 jet collided with an Air Kazakhstan cargo plane near New Delhi, killing 349 crew and passengers.

Investigations later revealed that the accident was partly caused by the Kazakh pilots' insufficient fluency in English in understanding the instructions given by air traffic controllers.

Needless to say, this was only one of the several plane accidents which had been caused by the pilots’ poor command of English.

Today, the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organisation require all pilots to be fluent in English. So just imagine what will happen if our Malaysian air traffic controllers and pilots are not sufficiently proficient in English. This will no doubt bring dire consequences.

English is not just the lingua franca of civil aviation, but of the world. In this Internet age, it is also the lingua franca of the Web if we want to stay connected with the world, and avail ourselves to the colossal amounts of online information.

In the 1960s and 1970s, we Malaysians were credited for having a supreme command of the English language in the region.

Then, we had no lack of personalities like R. Ramani, a former Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the United Nations and president of the Malaysian Bar.

His impeccable command of English, both written and spoken, often impressed the world body and made our nation shine on the international stage.

Experts: Water issue needs thrashing out

There is a prediction that there will be a major water shortage issue by 2014, which will affect the people in the city. There is an urgent need to replace leaky pipes to resolve the issue of water wastage. – AFP

The Star

As the population in Kuala Lumpur grows, there will inevitably be higher demand for water and the increase in the number of people will also lead to more waste being generated.

The need for improved sustainability has been highlighted by IBM and Siemens in their study on Kuala Lumpur's sustainability. There is currently a water impasse between the Selangor government and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) . Syabas supplies water to Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya. The Government will intervene so that consumers will not be burdened by water issues, says Commissioner of the National Water Services Commission (Span) Roger Tan. Span, approved by Parliament in June 2006, came into force on Feb 1, 2007, to promote efficient water services management.

“Before 2005, the state government has authority over water issues. After some amendments to the law, the state government has juridiction only over raw water, which is untreated water while water companies focus on water treatment and supply,” Tan says.

The second issue is wastage. It was highlighted about a couple of weeks ago that Malaysians use an average of 226 litres of water per person daily, which is way above Singaporeans (154 litres) and the Thais (90 litres). Low tariff has led to high consumption.

No access to information in three categories

The Star

SHAH ALAM: The public will not be allowed access to three categories of information despite the Freedom of Information Enactment being passed at the state assembly.

Under Section 14, information classified as confidential and secret under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) is exempted from the enactment.

The second exemption refers to trade secrets obtained from a third party and to communicate it would constitute an actionable breach of confidence. The third exemption applies to information, if disclosed, causes serious prejudice to the effective formulation or development of state government policy.

Including sub-clauses, the exemptions in the enactment passed yesterday had been reduced from 11 to five. There are, however, three scenarios where the exemptions can be overruled and information could be made available under Section 15.

Section 15 states that regardless of Section 14, a department must grant access to the applicant if the information's disclosure is of public interest.

Rising to the water challenge

Meeting demand: Work on the Pahang-Selangor Interstate Raw Water Transfer Project has started.

It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that we have adequate and affordable safe and clean drinking water for many years to come.

THIS Tuesday, March 22, is the 18th International World Water Day. This year’s theme, “Water for cities – responding to the urban challenge”, could not have been more timely in the context of how Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya will come to grips with the challenge of urban water management due to increasing demand for safe and clean drinking water as a result of rapid growth in urban migration and population.

The Federal Government foresees that the residents of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya will experience water supply shortage by 2014 unless the increase in demand can be effectively met.

Many can still remember the water crisis that hit Kuala Lumpur in 1998 when water rationing lasted for several months until shortly before the Commonwealth Games were held.

To avoid a repeat of such a crisis, the states of Pahang and Selangor signed a contract in November 2007 for Pahang to supply raw water to Selangor at the rate of 10 sen per 1,000 litres of water, and such rate would be reviewed every five years. In return, Pahang would receive an annual income of approximately RM85mil.

This RM9bil project, known as Pahang-Selangor Interstate Raw Water Transfer Project, comprises the construction of a 45km tunnel to transport some 1.89 billion litres of raw water daily to Selangor; Kelau Dam; Semantan Pumping Station; and Langat 2 Treatment Plant and its distribution system. With Japanese funding, the tunnel construction commenced on June 1, 2009 and is expected to be completed by May 2014.

However, to avert a possible water crisis, the Langat 2 Treatment Plant and its distribution system (Langat 2 Project) have to be completed in time or simultaneously with the completion of the water tunnel. When fully completed, the entire system is capable of producing more than 2,000 million litres of treated water a day (MLD), sufficient to help meet the projected water demand of about 4,900 MLD by 2014 in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya from the current demand of about 4,200 MLD.

However, the Selangor government has decided to tie together the state water restructuring issue involving four concessionaires – Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas), Puncak Niaga (M) Sdn Bhd (PNSB), Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor Bhd (Splash) and Konsortium Abass Sdn Bhd – and the commencement of Langat 2 Project. As a result, the land acquisition process has been put on hold and the relevant local authorities have also been directed to withhold planning permission for the development of the Langat 2 Project.