Day: May 18, 2022

IPOH, May 18 (Bernama) — The Perak Forestry Department is temporarily closing 14 recreational areas and forest reserves which have waterfalls with immediate effect for visitors.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad said the decision to close the affected areas followed the recent water surge incident in the state.

Discussion will be held with the State Forestry director to decide when it would be safe to re-open the affected areas for visitors again, which will also depend on the weather condition, he told a media conference after attending the Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2022 celebration organised by the State Forestry Department at Taman Eko Rimba, Kledang Saiong here today.

He was commenting on the water surge incident at Gunung Suku near the Bukit Kinta Forest Reserve, Jalan Simpang Pulai-Cameron Highlands last Sunday.

In the incident, which occurred at about 5 am, a group of 29 mountain climbers heard the sound of raging water and landslides on the mountain and decided to turn back.

However, while on the way down to the foot of the hill, raging waters hit the climbers and two women mountaineers were swept away by strong currents. The 27 climbers were later found safe by the rescue team.

On May 16, the search and rescue team found human body parts, believed to be that of two female climbers who were reported missing in the water surge incident.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

JOHOR BAHRU, May 18 (Bernama) — More than three million eggs of the aedes mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia strain will be released in a pilot project, to combat aedes mosquitoes, in the People’s Housing Project (PPR) in Kempas here in an effort by the state government to reduce the number of dengue cases in Johor.

State Health and Unity Committee chairman Ling Tian Soon said the pilot project, which will take more than two years, will be monitored by the Johor Health Department and Johor Bahru City Council (MBJB) to see the effectiveness of the project.

He said with the release of these aedes mosquito eggs, the male and female aedes Wolbachia mosquitoes would mate with aedes wild mosquito species, resulting in an increase in the population of the aedes Wolbachia mosquitoes thus curtailing the spread of the dengue virus.

(It has been discovered that when aedes mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia, the bacteria with viruses such as dengue, zika, chikungunya and yellow fever, it makes it harder for viruses to reproduce inside the mosquitoes. And the mosquitoes are much less likely to spread viruses from person to person)

“This project was proven successful when it had been implemented in Penang and Selangor, seeing a 40 per cent decrease in dengue cases in these states.

“The Kempas PPR was chosen because it is a dengue hotspot in Johor Bahru, apart from other areas in the city that have also reported a high number of cases,” he told reporters after the launching ceremony of the project at the Kempas PPR here today.

Currently, he said, for every 14 series of aedes mosquito eggs released, it involved 222,500 eggs with an estimated cost of 45 sen per egg.

“We will do a study first, (after that) we will propose this aedes Wolbachia mosquito project to be implemented in dengue hotspot areas,” said Ling.

Also present at the event was Johor Health Department director Datuk Dr Aman Rabu.

From Jan 1 to May 14 this year, the cumulative number of dengue cases saw a decrease of 41.2 per cent to 566 cases compared to 963 cases for the same period last year.

However, for the 19th epidemiological week (ME19) this year, there were 57 dengue cases reported compared to 31 cases in ME18 this year, with the Johor Bahru district recording the highest number of cases at 22.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 (Bernama) — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) needs to focus more on preventing corruption in tandem with enforcement of the law in combating the scourge of corruption towards improving the country’s image through the Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

Its Corruption Prevention Advisory Board member, Datuk Seri Azman Ujang said he viewed corruption as a plague that must be prevented and not treated as the prevention efforts were still lacking.

“The element of prevention is there in institutions such as the MACC but the efforts are still far from being effective and hence, needed to be boosted as preventing this scourge is better than treating it.”

He said this to Bernama when contacted to comment on Malaysia’s latest world ranking on the CPI which is at 62 compared to 57 in 2020.

Sharing the sentiments, senior lecturer at Universiti Malaya’s Faculty of Economics and Administration, Dr Mohammad Tawfik Yaakub said the “fangs” of the integrity institutions in this country needed to be sharpened in solving the problem of corruption, especially the cases involving political leaders.

“This is important towards improving Malaysia’s position on the CPI as it involves the country’s image while the actions taken such as the Corruption-Free Pledge (IBR) could be seen as merely cosmetic or rhetoric and no longer relevant in tackling the issue of lack of integrity.

“We need to act fast and we can no longer just be sitting at meetings and waiting for the reports at the lower level while the perception and responses could eventually delay the process of combating corruption.

“We should also be giving a space as wide as possible to the integrity institutions for prosecution and law enforcement to enable them to carry out their job with full dedication for the sake of the nation,” he said.

Malaysian Institute of Integrity member Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said he viewed the issue of corruption as having no end although a lot of cases had been exposed as corruption seemed to be accepted as a culture in Malaysian society.

He said the public should be concerned because if corruption was allowed to go on unabated, it could have a negative impact domestically and internationally for the country.

“This is because other countries will perceive Malaysia very negatively. If they are to invest in Malaysia, they will be very concerned looking at the state of this nation if its full of corruption as it is a disincentive for foreign investment,

“Domestically, it will be an issue too when we’ve lost our competitive spirit in business,” Lee added.

Yesterday, Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali reportedly said that the country’s public service and private sectors should be determined in fighting corruption following Malaysia’s unsatisfactory position on the CPI 2021.

“Although it could be just be a perception, the reality is that it is an important signal for all of us to continue our fight against corruption by having a high level of integrity as a culture among the agencies and individuals in the public service and private sectors,” he added.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency