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KUALA LUMPUR: Commuters are hoping that security at MRT stations will be continuously stepped up in the wake of the robbery-cum-assault on a woman in a lift at the Taman Mutiara station in Cheras here.Housewife Chen Fong Chin said she had yet to see more security guards at the station after the incident, of which a CCTV recording went viral online.“My family and I use the lift often. We were shocked by the incident. I won’t be taking the lift in the short term,” she said.Chen, 42, who always travels to town using the MRT, applauded the announcement by the Transport Ministry that Prasarana Malaysia would step up security at several MRT stations where there had been frequent incidents of crime.

While she acknowledged that there is a risk for women to travel alone in the early morning, Chen urged the authorities to ensure the safety of public spaces and not wait for an unfortunate incident to happen before acting.“These women need to take the MRT to go to work or school.“Although advising them to learn martial arts and not to travel alone does help, more should still be done by the operator and the authorities,” she said.In the Feb 14 incident, a 48-year-old woman suffered multiple injuries after she was violently attacked by a man in a lift at about 6.45am. The CCTV recording shows the woman entering the lift followed by the man who then punched and kicked her repeatedly before escaping with her MyKad, ATM cards and RM400 in cash. The man, 26, was arrested four days later.

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KUALA LUMPUR: Amidst pressure against Malaysia for using compulsory licensing (CL) to gain access to generic versions of a Hepatitis C drug, the Health Ministry has urged the World Health Organisation (WHO) to look into the pricing system of medicine by big pharmaceutical companies.Deputy Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye (pic) said while Malaysia could exercise the rights provided for under the World Trade Organisation’s agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the scope is limited to government use only.“Even though we have a strong ground to exercise the right, the Health Ministry, the Health Minister, myself, (Pharmaceutical Service Programme senior director) Dr Ramli Zainal, the Prime Minister, Economic Affairs Minister get frequent calls from pharmaceutical companies, the United States’ ambassador and the US Trade Representative.

“You can see the pressure mounting on us. I hope the international community could look at how pharmaceutical companies price their medicine,” he said at the forum on Improving Access to Affordable Cancer Treatments in Malaysia yesterday.“We may think rich countries subsidise lower income countries but some drug prices in the private sector are comparable or higher than those in advanced countries. There is an anomaly in terms of pricing,” he said.Dr Lee said he was not a socialist and recognised that capitalism drove innovation but the “profit and loss” balance sheet system of rewarding innovators should be reviewed, especially for the medical fraternity.He said in the past, there had been plenty of advances in medicine because the medical fraternity shared information without reward.

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By now, employers of several companies, especially SMEs, are aware of what Ops Kesan means. It’s an operation to ensure business owners register their employees with Socso – and they have about a month to do so or face prosecution and pay dearly.

PETALING JAYA: Employers who have yet to register their companies and employees with the Social Security Organisation (Socso) have been given a one-month grace period – from March 1 to 31 – before the operation, codenamed Ops Kesan 2019, starts in April.
Any employer who voluntarily registers during this period will be exempt from being issued a compound and prosecution even though the deadline they should register has passed, said Socso chief executive officer Datuk Seri Dr Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed.

They will be given an exemption of the Interest Late Payment Contributions (ILPC). “Out of the 8,487 visits during Ops Kesan2018, about 10-14% of employers were not registered. Most of them are small and medium enterprises.“In fact, when they start hiring workers, they are given up to 30 days to register to protect their employees and failure to do so would be an offence. Action could be taken against them,” he told reporters at a press conference yesterday.
Mohammed Azman said as of Dec 31 last year, there were 613,860 registered employers, with 7.17 million workers receiving Socso protection.

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PETALING JAYA: Temperatures continued to soar throughout the country as the number of areas on heatwave alert doubled to 10 compared with two weeks ago.The dry weather has also led to water supply concerns in some states, including Perak and Kelantan, while the Education Ministry has advised schools to monitor outdoor activities and ensure students drink enough water, in light of the current heatwave, which is set to last until April.The hottest spots yesterday were Chuping (Perlis); Kubang Pasu, Kota Setar and Sik (Kedah), which all hit a high of 36°C.The four areas, along with Kepong (Kuala Lumpur); Hulu Perak, Kuala Kangsar and Kinta (Perak); Maran (Pahang); and Tangkak (Johor) were placed on Category 1 or heatwave alert, accor­ding to data from the Malaysian Meteorological Depart­ment (Met­Ma­l­aysia) website.

Category 1 is when the mercury climbs to between 35°C and 37°C for three days in a row. Since Feb 13, the number of towns on Category 1 has gone up from five to 10.According to MetMalaysia, the current hot weather in the west coast states of the peninsula and Sabah is expected to continue until the end of next month.The hot weather is a normal phenomenon, which begins at the tail end of the north-east monsoon.The monsoon started in Novem­ber and ends in April, and is followed by the intermonsoon period, which usually brings more thunderstorms in the west coast and interior of the peninsula, east coast of Sabah and central Sarawak.

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KUALA LUMPUR: Projek Transit Aliran Ringan 3 (LRT3) kini berada dalam landasan untuk disiapkan menjelang 28 Februari 2024 dengan termeterainya Perjanjian Novasi hari ini.Perjanjian itu dimeterai antara Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, MRCB George Kent Sdn Bhd (MRCBGK) dan sembilan kontraktor pakej kontrak kerja (WPC) dengan disaksikan Menteri Kewangan, Lim Guan Eng, Menteri Pengangkutan, Loke Siew Fook dan Menteri Wilayah Persekutuan, Khalid Abdul Samad.Dengan termeterainya Perjanjian Novasi itu membolehkan kontraktor WPC beralih kepada regim Kontrak Harga Tetap berbanding regim Rakan Pelaksana Projek (PDP) sebelum ini.Pelaksanaan rejim Kontrak Harga Tetap itu menjadikan kos dikurangkan kepada RM16.63 bilion berbanding RM31.65 bilion sebelum ini dengan jumlah stesen dikurangkan kepada 20 berbanding 26 stesen pada awalnya.

Guan Eng berkata, pengurangan kos LRT3 itu adalah hasil perbincangan, rundingan dan usaha rasionalisasi yang dilaksanakan kerajaan Pakatan Harapan.Beliau berkata, pengurangan kos itu membabitkan penjimatan sebanyak 47 peratus atau RM15.02 bilion."Saya ingin tegaskan bahawa penjimatan ini dicapai tanpa menjejaskan kualiti perkhidmatan dan keupayaan LRT3 untuk menampung keperluan harian dua juta warga kota sehingga 2042."Penjimatan ini berjaya dicapai kerana kerajaan sedar bahawa kapasiti asal LRT3 jauh melebihi keperluan semasa dan juga permintaan dalam masa 20 tahun akan datang.

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KUALA LUMPUR: Menteri Pendidikan Maszlee Malik menolak cadangan menghapuskan Ujian Bahasa Inggeris Universiti Malaysia (MUET) dan memasukkannya dalam modul peperiksaan sekolah menengah kerana ia akan membebankan pelajar.Katanya, MUET adalah peperiksaan kelayakan, berbeza dengan peperiksaan sekolah, justeru ia tidak boleh dihapuskan."Tak boleh (hapuskan), ia dua perkara berbeza, dalam SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) dah ada Bahasa Inggeris, MUET ini untuk kelayakan (lanjutkan pelajaran ke peringkat Ijazah Sarjana Muda)."Macam juga A Level atau O Level tetapi masih kena ambil IELTS (International English Language Testing System)," katanya ketika ditemui pemberita selepas menutup Seminar Pendidikan Kesatuan Guru-Guru Melayu Malaysia Barat (KGMMB) 2019 di sini hari ini.

Hari ini, sebuah akhbar tempatan dalam laporan khas muka hadapan memaparkan beberapa pihak menggesa kementerian menyemak kembali syarat wajib menduduki ujian bahasa Inggeris MUET dan wajar dimasukkan dalam pembelajaran peringkat SPM.Laporan itu menyatakan MUET tidak perlu dijadikan peperiksaan berasingan sebagai syarat wajib lulus memasuki universiti awam, kerana ia membebankan dari segi kewangan dan memberi tekanan kepada pelajar untuk lulus.Sementara itu, dalam ucapannya, Mazslee sekali lagi mengulangi komitmen mengembalikan tugas hakiki guru sebagai pendidik dan pengajar.

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PUTRAJAYA – Harga runcit petrol RON95 dan RON97 masing-masing dinaikkan sebanyak 10 sen seliter bermula 12 tengah malam ini hingga 1 Mac depan.Kementerian Kewangan dalam satu kenyataan berkata, harga runcit RON95 dinaikkan kepada RM2.08 berbanding RM1.98 seliter sebelum ini dan RON97 dinaikkan kepada RM2.38 seliter daripada RM2.28."Harga diesel dikekalkan pada paras RM2.18 untuk tempoh sama berdasarkan formula Mekanisme Harga Automatik (APM) bagi penetapan harga runcit produk petroleum secara mingguan," katanya di sini hari ini.Tambah kenyataan itu, peningkatan harga runcit petrol RON95 didorong oleh faktor peningkatan purata kos produk diproses di pasaran dunia berbanding minggu sebelumnya iaitu daripada
AS$63.11 (RM257.17) setong kepada AS$66.91 (RM272.66) setong.

Katanya, kos purata produk diproses bagi produk diesel turut meningkat secara ketara iaitu daripada AS$74.38 (RM303.09) setong kepada AS$79.11 (RM322.34) setong."Sepatutnya harga runcit diesel adalah sebanyak RM2.33 seliter."Namun, selaras dengan janji kerajaan untuk menstabilkan harga runcit diesel sekiranya harga sebenar pasaran adalah lebih tinggi daripada paras ditetapkan, maka harga runcit diesel terus dikekalkan untuk tempoh berkenaan," katanya. - K! ONLINE

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PETALING JAYA: The total cost of taking over the highways in Malaysia may breach RM100bil, with the equity portion of the concessionaires’ companies forming a larger amount than the RM52bil worth of bonds owed by the highway companies.With 23 companies having issued RM52.83bil worth of bonds and sukuk as of May last year, analysts said the equity portion of any takeover is estimated to be between RM60bil and RM80bil, which would push the total cost to RM130bil.They said the total cost of the takeover of highways would depend on which method of valuation is used in the acquisitions. The discounted cash flow method or the enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation could feature, like it did when Permodalan Nasional Bhd bought Silk Highway.

Cost could, however, fall dramatically should the government flex its muscle in pushing through any deal with national interests in mind with the concession companies.“While the solution and content of the nationalisation exercise may be net positive, the term expropriation sends shivers down investors’ spine,” said an analyst.The government announced on Saturday it had begun talks with Gamuda Bhd to buy the concession agreements of four highways as part of its promise to abolish tolls in stages.The Prime Minister’s Office said the four highways are Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong (LDP), Sistem Penyuraian Trafik KL Barat (Sprint), Lebuhraya Shah Alam (Kesas) and the Smart Tunnel.It is expected that negotiations with other companies are underway as KPMG is acting on behalf of the Malaysian Highway Authority. It was reported that Ernst & Young is working on a study on the tolled highways.

A key component of the Pakatan Harapan’s election manifesto was the promise of acquiring highway concessions and abolish tolls in stages, in accordance to the terms of the concession agreement.“This is to alleviate the high cost of living for highway users. Upon the successful takeover, the government intends to abolish the existing toll mechanism,” it said in a statement.Toll charges would, however, be replaced with a congestion charge that would charge the existing toll rate for six hours a day or during the peak period for travel.Drivers will pay no charge if they travel between 11pm and 5am or 30% less than the current toll rate during any of the other hours.The government said revenue collected would be channelled towards the operation and maintenance of the highways and the repayment of borrowings.

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APAKAH selepas keadaan semakin buruk, baru kita sedar untuk menjaga alam sekitar, memulih semula kawasan atau sungai yang tercemar? Setakat ini, 25 sungai iaitu 16 sungai di Johor, lima di Lembah Klang, tiga di Pulau Pinang dan satu di Melaka dikategorikan sebagai Kelas Lima iaitu pencemaran teruk, menjadikan keseluruhan sebanyak 32 sungai disenaraikan dalam kategori Kelas Empat dan Kelas Lima.

Ikuti temu bual eksklusif wartawan BH Ahad, JUNITA MAT RASID bersama Menteri Tenaga, Teknologi, Sains, Perubahan Iklim dan Alam Sekitar (MESTECC), Yeo Bee Yin, yang berkongsi kebimbangan tahap pencemaran sungai di negara ini.

S: YB boleh kenal pasti berapa banyak sungai kita yang sudah tercemar dan disenaraikan di Kelas Lima iaitu pencemaran yang paling teruk?

J: Ada banyak sungai Kelas Lima di tiga negeri iaitu Johor, Selangor dan Pulau Pinang. Semua negeri yang paling kaya (tetapi) sungai kotor di Kelas Lima. Tiga negeri ini sahaja yang mempunyai sungai di tahap Kelas Lima. Ada 25 sungai Kelas Lima di tiga negeri ini.

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SMOKING and sweet tooth – these are two major health-related beha­viours of Malaysians that have become the target of government intervention for a healthier society.Statistically, 10 Malaysians die daily from lung cancer with smoking as the leading risk factor, and one in two is obese, a condition attributed to high intake of sugar coupled with a sedentary lifestyle.Therefore, introducing a ban on public smoking and taxing sweet beverages should be a move in the right direction. On the former, the ban is expected to not only stop people from smoking, it would also protect the public from the harm of second-hand smoke. That is why, when the ban was enforced on Jan 1, it received widespread support from the public.

However, the same boisterous public support was nowhere to be found when the tax on sugar was first announced. The responses remain mixed and many, expert and public alike, are questioning the effectiveness of the new tax in addressing the obesity problem plaguing Malaysia.But to reject the tax altogether because Malaysians are unwilling to renounce their sweet tooth is a lazy compromise. Imposing the sugar tax is not the perfect solution but it is a great start. Perhaps it will not change the individual’s behaviour but it will certainly force manufacturers to start reducing the sugar content in their products or making a switch to a lower glycaemic index sweetener.

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