Saturday, June 10, 2006

Mums in tears over postings



Teacher K.M. Lim (front row, second from left) hugging her nine-year-old daughter Yong Chi Ling as she cries while relating her plight at Wisma MCA in Kuala Lumpur


Rozana Mohd Razali is in a quandary.

The 36-year-old teacher has been transferred to Batu Pahat in Johor and she is worried about her family.

“My eight-year-old daughter is autistic and my husband alone is not able to look after her and my other children aged between three and eight,” said Rozana, who is five months pregnant.

Rozana and some 90 teachers feel that they have been discriminated against for pursuing the Education Ministry’s three-year Special Programme for Non-Graduate Teachers (PKPG).

They approached MCA Youth chief Datuk Liow Tiong Lai for help, hoping that the ministry would review their transfers.

S.F. Choong, 34, also faces a similar dilemma. She has to decide if her three children, aged five to eight, should follow her to Bahau in Negri Sembilan where she has been posted to.

“We will be like a single parent family as we have to stay apart from each other,” said a tearful Choong.

“My children have to decide between my husband and me as it is impossible for my husband to leave his job in Klang.”

D. Sheila, 42, regretted taking up the programme as she now will be separated from her family in Petaling Jaya when she starts work in Johor Baru.

“Is this the punishment the Education Ministry imposes on us for taking the initiative to improve and upgrade ourselves by taking up the programme?” she asked.

“We are not only teachers, we are also wives and mothers. We have a role to play in the family.

“I have been neglecting my children due to my heavy schedule in the university for the last three years and now the ministry is sending me so far away from them.”

Liow, the Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, said he would collect the information from the teachers and submit them to Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein as soon as possible.

“We will relate their plight to the minister and hopefully the teachers can be posted nearer to their families,” he said, adding that these teachers had enrolled in full-time degree programmes on half-pay leave in 2003 and graduated this year. - The Star -




The UMNO youth and the PAS youth and for arguments sake, the Keadilan youth should all be ashamed that these Malay teachers had to resort to going to MCA youth for help.

For crying out loud, isnt the Minister for Education our Youth chief? And where is the ever so valiant Deputy Youth Chief? Im sure if the deputy could sort out a group of talented young footballers to come all the way to old trafford, sorting out a problem like this should be peanuts to him.Well, all this while it was him who seemed to be heading the Youth anyways with all the daily press statements on the activities of the Youth movement. sometimes I wonder who s actually the Youth Head? Maybe this issue is not worthy of a press release.Oh well.Lets not dwell into the conspiracy theories.

I am sure these teachers have resorted to their own Malay politicians first to help them with their problems.But it is general knowledge what most ( im not saying all of them) could do to help these teachers in this situation.

People go to MCA Youth Bureau not because they trust MCA better than they do of other parties youth wing.Its a simple straight answer, its because MCA youth delivers when others don’t, and on top of that, look at the mechanism and the structure and the organisation that MCA youth have to serve the community.And mind you, less you forget, this is the main role of a party’s youth wing!

A party’s youth wing is not there to seek out government contracts from the 9th msian plan, its not there to appease the party’s top ranking leadership, but it is the youth wing which should be at the forefront of campaigning for the weak when others higher in the leadership rank have forgotten about them.The Youth Wing should be at the forefront of criticising the party’s leadership and shaping the party’s vision.

I cannot comprehend why must the PAS delegates be incensed when Salahudin Ayub gave a stinging speech against the PAS leadership few days ago at their annual general assembly. Pas people should be proud that they have such an outspoken Youth leader! It’s a rarity in the other party’s these days! If its not the Pas Youth who can criticise the PAS leadership, who else is left? The Mursyidul Am is certainly not going to do so, they don’t even allow him the privelege of choosing his candidate for our next Kelantan MB ( if PAS wins again that is). But im all for the YB from Dun Kijang to be the next Kelantan MB! OK lah, maybe if the tide turns around, I say we support the YB Dun Bukit Bunga.

Have we forgotten to think and to fight in the likes of Tun Razak, Dato Harun, Dato Syed Jaafar Albar or even Datuk Suhaimi Kamaruddin? When they were the party’s Youth Head, the people loved them because they connect to the people in the grassroots. They dined with the people, the spoke the language of the people, they speak of the people’s problem, and they listen when the people speak to them about their daily problems,even to the most minute of details.And this is what the youth wing is all about, its about fighting for the voice of the grassroots.And today, if the teachers like the ones in the case below feels that they have to go to MCA to solve their problems, I say we have to look hard into the mirror as to what have become of us as a youth movement.People say to me that todays youth leaders are tomorrow’s prime ministers.Well, I hope those so call PM wannabees would be more concerned about the problems of the community.any politician can built a football team from scratch, any politician can organise a ‘naming the flag contest’, but a politician who can make a difference to teachers’ life? Now that’s PM’s material!

Well, back to the issue above, im sure everyone in the community, especially the teachers would applaud the way MCA is helping these teachers.This is not about politics.Its about leaders being there when they are needed most.We are all leaders of our community in our own right, whether we re in UMNO or Pas or DAP or whatever not, but sometimes we forget whats the real important issues that we ought to be fighting for.MCA for instance, has a very clear vision of what they think they should be doing for the community, even if its about people who s never voted for them.Just go to their website, www.mca.org.my and see it for yourself.Dont forget to compare it with the website of other parties, if you can find them that is!

Why are we so busy encouraging people into a contest of naming the party’s flag?? (see youth website) are there really no other bigger problems in the malay heartlands to trouble our minds??I mean really, for goodness sake, can someone not tell these people that we ve got thousands of our malay graduates unemployed?! And they re more worried about what name to give to the party’s flag??

Im sure after all this the Minister himself would use his prerogative to solve the problem amicably.God speed his work in doing so.Hopefully everyone will go back to their families knowing that once again, the MCA youth has proven their worth and has done their part to serve the community, when it needed them the most.

( Not a long time ago, When the old man announced that he was about to retire in a years time, some people even ran towards the rostrum to stop him from doing so.And now he s retired, everytime he announce about anything he disagrees on, the same group of people who told him not to retire, are now telling him to stop talking. The irony in politics. Oh well, good luck old man.Godspeed us all.)

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