Day: March 7, 2022

MUAR, March 7 — The chicken and egg supply this week has dropped by 2.7 per cent from last week’s figure while the market supply is still stable and sufficient currently, says Agriculture and Food Industries Deputy Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Hamzah.

He said this week’s supply was expected to be 14.4 million chickens and 243.9 million eggs.

“Actually, the chicken and egg supply issue could be seasonal. From February to March, there has been a downward trend but it will rise again,” he said after a working visit to the Johor State Young Agropreneurs Programme 2022 held at the South Muar Area Farmers Organisation (PPK) Complex, here, today.

On the Young Agropreneur Programme, Ahmad said the ministry had targeted the creation of 750 young agropreneurs this year through an allocation of RM15 million.

Last year, in Johor alone, 58 agropreneurs had received approval for the Young Agropreneur Grant (GAM) involving a sum of RM1.15 million. From the number, 10 agropreneurs from Muar district received the grant amounting to RM200,000.

The Young Agropreneur Programme was introduced in 2016 for the 18-40 age group to support and encourage the involvement of young people in the agrofood sector such as crop cultivation, livestock breeding, fishery and agro-based industry.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

MUAR, March 7 — Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa wants all media platforms to continue disseminating information to ensure the smooth running of the Johor state election.

Annuar said overall, he was satisfied with the election media coverage this time around.

He said the Communications and Multimedia Ministry had provided guidelines to encourage media platforms such as radio and television to help convey information and to encourage the public to go out and vote.

“The media coverage is okay, I have been observing, including radio and television. Don’t be afraid to go out and vote, the people must vote (but with) compliance with the SOP (standard operating procedures).

“… messages conveyed by the authorities such as the Election Commission, the police, Health Ministry must be publicised as frequently as possible by all radio and television stations,” he said when met by Bernama here today.

Meanwhile, Annuar said voters in Johor appreciated the seriousness, message and practical strategy of Barisan Nasional (BN) outlined in its manifesto, ‘Ikhtiar BN Johor’, thus showing the coalition’s consistency in the Johor state election campaign.

“BN maintains a campaign approach that shows our seriousness in administrating the state better,” he said.

He said throughout the campaign tour in conjunction with the polls, BN adopted a moderate campaign approach that did not attack and raise personal issues, which he claimed was well received by the people, compared with other parties whose campaign efforts were seen as aggressive.

Annuar also spent time with the people in Kampung Parit 2, Sagil, near here today during the Gambir state assembly tour programme.

Also present was the coalition’s candidate for the Gambir seat, Sahrihan Jani.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

PUTRAJAYA, March 7 — Checks on the results of applications for entry into Mara Science Junior College (MRSM) for the 2022 Form One and Four intake can be made starting this Wednesday.

Rural Development Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said successful candidates would receive notifications via short message service (SMS) or email which was registered during the application.

“Applicants can also check through Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) official portal at www.mara.gov.my. and the latest information on the offer can also be found through MARA’s social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram,” he said in a statement today.

Mahdzir said successful candidates must confirm acceptance of the offer within seven days through the link in the portal and if they do not do so within that period, the offer would be considered null and void.

“Unsuccessful candidates can still appeal online at the same link from March 9 to 16,” he said adding that their presence was not required.

He said any change of MRSM programme and placement was not allowed and if the applicant did not receive any notification of the offer by May 31, 2022, the application was considered unsuccessful.

He said MARA was still continuing the existing policy of 60 per cent student recruitment from the B40 household with priority given to rural students and the urban poor.

Mahdzir said this year, MARA received 74,500 applications for Form One and Four intake into MRSM while the student admission capacity for Form One stands at 7,949 and Form Four at 1,930.

MRSM offers six programmes namely the MRSM International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), MRSM International Baccalaureate-Middle Year Programme (IB-MYP), MRSM Ulul Albab, MRSM Special Education Programme (PKP), MRSM Premier and MRSM Technical under the MRSM Education System (SPMRSM)

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

TAWAU, March 7 — Sabahans have been urged to immediately get the COVID-19 booster dose before the reopening of the country’s borders due to fears of exposure to COVID-19 with the arrival of people from the Philippines and Indonesia, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said the concern was due to the vaccination rate in both countries which is still low.

“…the areas bordering Sabah are a long way from their capital cities, our assumption is that the vaccination rate among people in the Southern Philippines and Kalimantan is low.

“If the border is opened, more (foreign) people will enter, we have procedures but vaccination coverage in Sabah is important because the risk of COVID-19 from the neighbouring countries is there, this is for preparation,” he said after officiating the mass cataract surgery initiative (MCSI) here today.

Khairy said so far 40 per cent of adults in Sabah had received booster jabs while about 16 per cent of children aged five to 11 in the state had received the COVID-19 vaccine.

In the meantime, he said various efforts have been implemented to ensure senior citizens aged 60 and above in the country could get the booster jabs including carrying out opportunistic immunisation of which the elderly who are admitted to hospitals would be assessed and administered the COVID-19 vaccine before they are allowed to return home.

Opportunistic immunisation refers to the practice of checking the vaccination status of all people at every opportunity such as hospital admission and vaccinating when appropriate.

On the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICkids), he said parents should no longer take the wait and see approach because the programme has been implemented for more than a month, adding that most children who were vaccinated only experienced mild side effects.

“Parents refused to give permission even though the programme is brought to schools, on the day of vaccination they didn’t turn up, so I appeal to parents to allow their children to take the vaccination because I see so many children admitted to hospitals due to COVID-19,” he said.

Meanwhile, Khairy said as the COVID-19 pandemic put pressure on the health system in Malaysia, many non-emergency and elective treatments had to be postponed such as surgical services including cataract surgery which reported 16,288 pending cases until Oct last year.

He said, however, with the implementation of MCSI, the pending cases were reduced to 4,960 cases as of December last year and 360 pending cases in Tawau as of Oct 2021 with 83 surgeries were conducted as of last month.

“Today, Tawau Hospital implemented MCSI targeting 200 cataract surgeries to be performed within seven days until March 13 which also involved 17 ophthalmologists as well as 12 medical officers and health personnel from the Ministry of Health, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Sabah,” he said.

Khairy also launched an ICU hybrid field project worth RM6.25 million at Tawau Hospital besides visiting several health clinics around Tawau that are in need of repair.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — The government has agreed to extend the quarantine leave facility to other infectious diseases requiring quarantine or isolation effective March 4.

Public Service director-general Datuk Seri Mohd Shafiq Abdullah said that the facility had previously been limited to six types of infectious diseases – foot-hand-and-mouth disease, dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever, measles, diphtheria and malaria.

He said that the government has improved the facility by including other infectious diseases to the existing six diseases on the list as acknowledged by government and private medical practitioners.

“To improve existing regulations in line with the government’s intention of emphasising on civil servants’ welfare and also to boost the quality, productivity and service delivery, the government agreed to the improvement of the quarantine leave facility,” he said in a circular dated March 4.

He said with the improvement, the name of the quarantine leave facility was amended to ‘leave to tend to quarantined children or those in need of isolation’.

According to the attachment included with the circular, it encompasses birth children, step children, de facto adopted children, adopted children and foster children.

Mohd Shafiq said the duration of leave for this facility is the existing five-day maximum limit per case or as long as the duration provided by any government or private medical practitioner, whichever is lower, subject to amendment, including weekly rest days, weekly off days and general public holidays.

“Those who require additional days can request for normal or special leave, as well as any other type of qualified leave.

“In addition, should the civil be able to carry out their assignments at home, the department head can consider allowing working from home,” the circular read.

Mohd Shafiq said the improvement was extended to all state civil services, statutory bodies and local authorities, subject to their respective jurisdictions.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — Sabah and Sarawak MPs called on increasing the number of parliamentary seats for the two states in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Most of the MPs from the Bornean states who took part in the debate on the Royal Address were of the opinion that the redelineation of parliamentary constituencies should be implemented to bring about a balance in the composition of the distribution of seats for Sabah and Sarawak.

Datuk Rubiah Wang (GPS-Kota Samarahan) proposed that at least 28 more seats be added for the two states to achieve a one-third seat composition in Parliament.

“This matter is also important in the effort to protect the special privileges and recognition of Sabah and Sarawak as partners in the formation of Malaysia. In addition, there are very large parliamentary constituencies in Sabah and Sarawak,” she said during her debate.

Datuk Wilson Ugak Anak Kumbong (GPS-Hulu Rajang) interrupted her debate to support the proposal and called on the government to perform a redelineation exercise, especially in Sarawak.

Taking the example of the Hulu Rajang parliamentary constituency, Wilson described it as one of the largest in Malaysia.

Also supporting the idea was Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan), who stated that the addition of seats was deemed necessary to achieve parity with Peninsular Malaysia in Parliament.

“We are talking about universal prosperity, regional equality, balanced development, but this (current scenario) is not balanced but rather one-sided. That’s right, there is no one-third (composition of seats currently), so I agree with the others on adding 28 parliamentary seats in these states,” he said.

Other MPs who raised the issue were Datuk Robert Lawson Chuat (GPS-Betong); Anyi Ngau (GPS-Baram); and Oscar Ling Chai Yew (PH-Sibu) who asked the Federal government to refine the proposed amendments to the addition of parliamentary seats for Sabah and Sarawak.

Ling said the redelineation should be implemented based on population density rather than area.

“If the new demarcation is done, it should depend on the population and not the area, because the racial distribution in Sarawak is about a 30:30:30 ratio, namely Chinese, natives such as Iban and Dayak, as well as Muslims. So I suggest not to do the redelineation according to the size of the area.

“Urban areas are highly populated locations compared to rural areas. So I suggest that if one-third of the Parliamentary seats are given to Sabah and Sarawak, it should be based on the population, so that each person gets one vote,” he said.

Currently, out of a total of 222 parliamentary seats, 56 belong to the two states, namely Sabah with 25 and Sarawak with 31.

The board conference continues tomorrow.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency