Malaysian Students Protest Against PTPTN

In response to the demonstration staged by the students from Malaysian colleges and universities at Dataran Merdeka whcich enters the 15th day, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia,Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, reiterated that the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN)will not be abolished.

These students have demanded that the PTPTN (Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional)to be abolished.
PTPTN is set up by the government to provide loans to poor students who performed well in their SPM (Form 5) or STPM (Form 6) examinations, yet not good enough to be admitted into government run colleges and universities, in order to continue their higher education in private run colleges.
They have to repay the loans by installments once they start working when graduate. This system has its implementation pitfalls (common with government agencies), but in my personal opinion, this is still a god send opportunity for the children from poor families in MALAYSIA to break free from poverty.
During my generation,we were not so lucky. I had to find a job, to study by correspondence courses (now it is called distant learning)to obtain my 1st professional qualification after 6 years.I don't claim to be hard working or smart, all my peers were doing it except those rich few.Some took more than 10-15 years to complete due to various factors like work loads,love & family problems, financial problems, etc; don't forget correspondence courses cost money, too.
I couldn't read the minds of those who protested against it, maybe they are from very rich families and don't see the need of it but at the same time couldn't bear to see others using it.
Or maybe they are the lucky ones who receive scholarships and studying in government universities and don't need PTPTN. Then again, if you are lucky and blessed with free education, you should be grateful and not try to block those less fortunate ones from pursuing their dreams of higher education.
You want to be an elite group? Therefore you can't stand the idea of so many people becoming graduates? So selfish!

These students are hoping that by abolishing the PTPTN loans, the government will introduce free higher education for everyone.
They are so naive!
Don't tear down the house you are living before you find an alternative place to stay.Similarly,wait until the government implement free education, then only do away with the PTPTN loans.Until then, many people still need it to continue their higher educations.Otherwise many will be shut out of the doors to the universities and colleges.
If the government were to accept their demands and do it, it is tantamount to abolishing the special privileges of the bumiputras because all will be equal by then.
Otherwise, it will be back to the good old days again, the bumi children will receive scholarships, while the non bumi children will go back to the streets to find their own ways of furthering their studies. Is this what they want?
It is a puzzle why the non bumi students are so enthusiastic about it. Free education for ALL? Come on, be real.

Cabotage Shipping Policy

Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in response to a reader named K.C.Jong on his blog - Ah Jib Goh, regarding the Cabotage Shipping Policy which governs the cargo vessels plying between Peninsula Malaysia and East Malaysia since 1980, stressed that all foreign cargo vessels are free to berth at any harbour in Malaysia, and that shipping companies are also free to ship out goods from any port out of the country.
Najib said that the transportation of goods are decided by the shipping companies, which is based on commercial considerations.
The main factor affecting the decision where to unload the cargo is the logistic volume. It is not decided by the government, and government does not get involved.
Najib is repeating the answer given by the Transport Minister, Dato' Seri Kong Cho Ha. When queried by Datuk Seri Panglima Wong Khen Thau, the president of Federation of Sabah Manufacturers (FSM) earlier on,Dato Seri Kong gave the exact answer,word for word.
Datuk Seri Panglima Wong was seeking the help of the transport minister in amending the Cabotage Policy in order to allow foreign vessels to load goods which are destined for Sabah at Port Klang if there is any space left after finished loading goods meant for foreign countries.These vessels can then make a detour to Sabah on their way to foreign countries.After unloading at Sabah ports, they can up load goods from Sabah ports to fill up any empty space.Then they can continue on their journey home.
Similarly, incoming vessels would first come to Sabah, unload imported goods then upload goods for export to fill up any empty space.Then these vessels would proceed to travel to Port Klang.
Datuk Seri Panglima Wong claimed that this is not possible with the existing policy, it requires that all goods arriving at Port Klang to be unloaded, any goods destinations of which are the 2 East Malaysia states have to be handled by local companies which charge handling fees 10 times higher than those for foreign countries.Similarly, goods for export will have to be sent to Port Klang first, again handled by local companies.
Why is this so? Maybe the original motive was to protect the local companies, which is fine, but they should not take advantage of the monopoly and charge unreasonable rates.
I feel that the request by Datuk Seri Panglima Wong is very reasonable if what he claimed is true.
However, the transport minister seemed to have misunderstood Datuk Seri Panglima Wong's request. He told the press that the government has allowed foreign cargo vessels to stop at any port in Malaysia freely all along, implying that Datuk Seri Panglima Wong had wrongly accused the transport ministry. Datuk Seri Panglima Wong was furious on reading this reply, and vowed to bypass the transport minister and go straight to the prime minister for assistance.
But now that the prime minister himself is giving the exact answer as that of the transport minister, what's next?
The government is playing the words game. They keep saying the decision is made by the shipping companies on their own free will. But many a time, these so called "shipping" companies are merely forwarding agents, they do not own a single ship.They may rent one once in a blue moon, but they are not ship owners.If they are, these are small in number as compared to the total number of local shipping companies.They deal with the foreign ships' owners for maximum profits, that is all that is to it.
The FSM should counter this by writing a clear letter purging any ambiguous words and present their case clearly again. They should specifically request that foreign cargo vessels which chose to come direct to East Malaysia, be allowed to pick up goods meant for export, HANDLED by forwarding companies of the goods owners' choice, then proceed to travel to Port Klang.Do not force these vessels to leave for foreign countries from here. Similarly, vessels berthed at Port Klang be allowed to pick up goods meant for East Malaysia, HANDLED by forwarding companies of the owners' choice.
Also do not force them to leave for foreign countries directly. FSM should specifically mention that their president did not request for vessels to be allowed to berth at East Malaysia ports, which he knew very well they are allowed to do so already.
What he asked for is to allow the foreign vessels to make a DETOUR to East Malaysia when they leave Pork Klang for home, and vice versa.

I have been wondering why is it commercially viable for local agents to send goods between Peninsula Malaysia & East Malaysia, while it is not viable for foreign companies? Is it because the vessels traveling
between Peninsula Malaysia and East Malaysia are smaller in capacity? If that is the case, why don't the foreign companies use these smaller vessels for transporting goods to East Malaysia only? The FSM should
take the initiative to persuade the foreign shipping companies to employ these smaller vessels to transport their products directly in order to stop been squeezed by the local forwarding agents. An another alternative is to form forwarding companies under the control of the FSM, certainly these companies will have the best interests of FSM in mind. Then only you will be free from the iron grip of the so called "shipping" companies.
If you think this is too troublesome, then pay for it and have an easy life.