A precarious calm at Tenang

Yet another by-election is in the coming with the death of MP Datuk Sulaiman Taha in the constitution of Tenang in Johor and scheduled on 30 January 2011. While speculations are fueling that the general election might be held either in the first quarter or second quarter of 2011, this latest by-election in Tenang may be the deciding factor for Najib to gauge his standing on the outcome of his popularity.

The significant of this by election including its result hold certain prospect to the ruling government.

Should this be a BN victory, which is their stronghold, this will catapult Najib to pursue an earlier general election in the immediate months to ride on this success and what with the recent survey by Merdeka review of his popular ratings still holding forte at 69%.

On the other hand, if a PKR victory emerged, it will make no different to any outcome in parliament neither does it do any major overhaul to the political landscape that it is now. What PKR will get is only a feel good factor knowing they are gaining some slight grounds over BN in terms of popularity, and that is about all we will get.

Even with an additional seat in parliament, the recent suspension of four PKR MP’s including Anwar himself for six months, even with a win in Tenang, will do little or nothing at all to balance any quota in parliament.

Should BN lose the Tenang by-election, he may just delay the general election further until such a time when he is much much more confident of its results favouring BN.

Should we let this be a lost and gain a bigger win later?

Winners ignored, 5th placers lauded?

by Ooi Chin Wah
Letters
Malaysiakini

The World Robot Olympiad (WRO) is an event for science, technology and education, that brings together youths from all over the world in order to develop their creativity and problem solving skills through challenging and educational robot competitions.

Participating teams need to create, design and build a robot model that looks or behaves like human.

This year the task of organising the competition was given to the Philippines. The Ministry of Education and many private companies in the Philippines jointly sponsored the event.

The steering committee consists of well-known academicians from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Singapore. 250 teams from 22 countries participated.

There are six gold medals on offer as there are two categories in the competition; the Open category and regular category. Each category is further divided into Elementary (primary school), Junior High (Forms 1 to 3) and Senior High (Forms 4 and 5) categories.

Malaysia won two gold medals, one by the Chung Ling High School (Kampung Baru, Penang Island) for Open Category, Senior High school level, the other by SMK Bintulu for Regular Category, Junior High School level.

This piece of news was reported under the title “Champs once again” in the Nov 14 edition of Star.

But the report is about the team that won the fifth place in the Open Category, Elementary Level. Here is an excerpt from the report:

‘Year Five pupil Muhd Syamil Khairi from SK Wan Ibrahim, Kuala Lipis, Pahang, said he and his two teammates Mohd Ezzameer Fitri and Muhammad Hazimuddin Halif took three months to build their robot which performs an orang asli dance known as the “sewang” with the supervision of their robotic club teacher Mahmud Salleh.’

There is no mention that the team highlighted in the report was awarded the fifth place in the Open Category, Elementary Level.

I can’t help but feeling that the author was trying to give the casual reader an impression that the above said team is the team that will put Malaysia at the top of the world. Was the Chung Ling High School mentioned at all? No.

The SMJK Chung Ling mentioned at the end of the report is in Butterworth. Even SMK Bintulu who won the gold medal was mentioned merely as a participating team. Here is an excerpt from the report”

‘The other teams which represented Malaysia at the olympiad were SMK Bintulu in Bintulu; SMJK Chung Ling, Butterworth; SJKC Chi Man, Kuala Lumpur; SJKC Taman Connaught, Kuala Lumpur; MRSM Kubang Pasu, Alor Setar; SMK Sultanah Hajjah Kalsom, Kuantan; SMJK Jit Sin, Ayer Itam; and Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah, Putrajaya.’