passport

Went to the High Commission of Malaysia recently to renew passport. How great to see our civil servants carry their infamous working culture from home to UK.  At~11 am, 5-6 servants had cigarette break outside for ~30 to 45 min (guess this is follow by lunch break?). Wonder how many breaks they need per day? How many hours going to spend on work?

To date, we have about 1.3 million servants out of a population of 28 million, a very high civil servant to population ratio in the world, and we spent ~RM 50 billion to maintain them! Note that their income are paid by tax payers etc, and still we get poor service from them!

I don't deny there are hardworking civil servants out there, but this scenario is really ridiculous..as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, I don't have any troubles in my passport renewal process, everything was good.

how nxt yr budget benefit me?

just my random thought and craps (not even proofread it), I may  even misinterpret the info of the Malaysia budget. Don’t take it personally :P

you can get proper info at follows:-

Who stands to gain from Budget 2012 | Free Malaysia Today http://shar.es/bHjiE

Najib unveils ‘feel good’ Budget | Free Malaysia Today http://shar.es/bHjKJ

 

my income >3000k not entitel for one off subsidy

then no kids, no book allowance

then not entitled for felda benefit

then no mney buy hybrid car, not entield for tax free

got phd d by 2012, not chance to take gov money study phd

not entile for 1msia house, cos it's for new small family

not dare to shop 1msia shop, cos scared get doggy product

how?

haha

#1Mejabulat discussion

Refer to our PM's tweet recently:
"Johan Merican of TalentCorp leads this week's discussion - future careers for Msians. I hope u participate. bit.ly/qIAuzb #1Mejabulat"

My views as follow:-

Going to share view on this week's 1Mejabulat discussion rgding future careers for Msians.Soli if contaminate ur tweet/fb. U can remove me if u wish

#1Mejabulat to attract talents,it's not about tax incentives/pr ship only, it's about the working culture/facilities provided.

#1Mejabulat if you put good people into poor system, you'll end up poor result,reduce red tape in grant application/career promotion will be great,

#1Mejabulat Should gv> allocation from GDP,previous budget showed RM 400million for R&D out of nation's $200billion GDP,merely 0.065%

#1Mejabulat developed countries focused on knowledge economy, not in mega tower: Sweden,korea,japan,finland spent>3% of GDP on R&D;USA,Spore,Germany>2.5%;UK>1.8%.China~3-5%

#1Mejabulat should foster innovative since high school,we should aim "barangan ciptaan msia" instead of "barangan buatan msia",

#1Mejabulat should establish world class research institute to offer more career options,recruit talents who prefer to do research than academia career, e.g. BGI(China),MaxPlank(Germany)etc.

#1Mejabulat state of the art facilities in research should follow by high standard of maintenance.

#1Mejabulat establish talent exchange program, encourage global collaboration

#1Mejabulat identify key research area and work on it! often we have fancy plan but end with nothing,e.g. Where's the Bio valley launched by pak lah?

#1Mejabulat encourage career in science,high prospect jobs are not doctor,lawyer only.

#1Mejabulat engagement between high school and university,I.e. Science fair, career talk, organize uni/lab visit,

#1Mejabulat placement/interns let students have chance to engage in lab activities

#1Mejabulat often local scientists have funding probs,host world class science conference in Malaysia,good chance for home scientist to exchange idea

#1Mejabulat encourage basic research, that's where novel idea come from.Also researchers working abroad mostly engage in basic research, that's the reason they can't carry out good works when come back to msia.

#1Mejabulat soft skills development and various transferable skills training+ career advice to uni students

#1Mejabulat courses offered by uni should meet job demand, few years ago "false hope" of biotech by the gov policy led to many biosciences graduates, but few related jobs available

#1Mejabulat after all, without fair and transparent policies, all these not going to work

#1Mejabulat if talents recruitment is merit based, please ensure all agencies, gov. servants really follow it, shouldn't have race based agenda

#1Mejabulat increase no.of PhD in the country is counter productive if we don't have the job market for them&if their quality is sub-standard

#1Mejabulat our edu syst is too result oriented and too much focus on academic. Often students don't have sufficient exposure to career world-> romanticize job prospect with their study

#1Mejabulat Would be good if in their final uni year, there's job talk from people working in the field related to their course

100 important questions in plant science research

I have opportunity to read a recent publication in the New Phytologist entitled "One hundred important questions facing plant science research", it is an open access paper (you can download freely from Internet without subscription) available at:

One hundred important questions facing plant science research - Grierson - 2011 - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library: http://bit.ly/o7VC1Z

These questions are grouped into 5 categories: society, environment & adaptation, species interaction, understanding & utilizing plant cells and diversity.

From my opinion, this is a well written thought provoking paper. It addressed questions and challenges facing in plant science research, and the needs to incorporate multi disciplinary approach. There is no rocket science in this paper, no extensive used of jargon, it's readable and comprehensible to anyone who has completed pre-u biology, a-level or stpm degree.

In oriental culture, students or parents tend do choose / encourage to pursue field which are regarded as high prospect like law, medicine, accountancy,pharmacy etc. Hopefully this paper will increase our awareness on the significance of plant science research and enhance our appreciation to plants. Also, hope this paper can encourage more people to involve in plant science research (according to my previous master supervisor, only 10% bioscience researchers are involved in plant science research!)

The following questions are my favorite pick:

How do we ensure that society appreciates the full importance of plants?

How can we attract the best young minds to plant science so that they can address Grand Challenges facing humanity such as climate change, food security, and fossil fuel replacement?

How can we translate our knowledge of plant science into food security?
Which plants have the greatest potential for use as biofuels with the least effects on biodiversity, carbon footprints and food security?

How can we use plant science to prevent mal-nutrition?

How can we use knowledge of plants and their properties to improve human health?

How can we translate our knowledge of plant science into food security?

What are the best ways to control invasive species including plants, pests and pathogens?

Can we increase crop productivity without harm-ing biodiversity?

 

Hope you enjoy reading this paper;)

Is the glass half empty or half full?

random chat with buddy @yeekai5

interesting question from my buddy (career & family) (https://twitter.com/#!/yeekai5) during regular WhatsApp conversion (don’t expect proper language in casual conversation,haha).:-

 

21:40 28 May - Yee Kai Liang: Haha

21:40 28 May - Yee Kai Liang: I wander u will scarifying for ur mimi onot

21:41 28 May - Yee Kai Liang: Which to let go if something happen

21:41 28 May - Yee Kai Liang: Lab work n mimi

21:41 28 May - cklim123my: :)

21:41 28 May - cklim123my: Wat sort of sacrifices?

21:42 28 May - Yee Kai Liang: Haha

21:42 28 May - cklim123my: Of course mimi/ family

21:43 28 May - cklim123my: For career I hv nothing to lose :)

21:43 28 May - cklim123my: Must value them

21:43 28 May - cklim123my: Family and mimi only

21:43 28 May - cklim123my: As long as I have the capability I can re-establish my career

21:44 28 May - cklim123my: Because I believe my attributes will help me in the career explore.

21:45 28 May - cklim123my: No matter science politic or other profession :)

Question

My tweet to deputy edu. minister, Dr.WeeKS, he yet to reply. Since there are many tweets from him regarding the JPA scholarship matter. Most tweeples asked the appeal & application procedures which is not my main interest. I would concern about the continuous monitoring efforts of the recipients, so it prompted me to send the following tweet:- 

*********
YB this may not relevant to your Q&A on JPA issues with
fellow Tweeples recently. As I received funding here, neither funded by the
gov. nor JPA, I wonder is there any measures/continuous monitoring efforts to
ensure these scholars are performing well throughout their studies? i.e. their soft
skills development in addition to academic credential. Also, any survey on
these recipients career prospects (science & engineering fields) after
their studies?

This is because I recalled there were academics critiqued poor
interview, presentation & communication skills of the scholars who went to postgraduate
scholarship application here despite of the impressive CV. Besides, some degrees
they pursued in UK are not well tailored for postgraduate research.

Of course,
these were independent cases, as I believe majority are doing well. However, we
can’t deny the significance of continuous soft skills development whether they
are getting gov. scholarship or not. After all, we hope to have students that
are capable to compete in international arena instead of “jaguh kampung”
***********

In tourism,lots of $spent in building resort,golf course,etc to attract Middle East&Asia tourists,but we shouldn't rule out the significance of ecotourism& biodiversity of the country

1Malaysia email account?

Read the following news this morning:

Malaysians to get official 1 Malaysia email a/c - The Malaysian Insider - http://ow.ly/4D6rR

Can I say offer this without our consent is a privacy breach?

There's no need to establish new communication channels. We should fully utilise networking sites available, instead of spending millions on this.

Furthermore, it's counter productive, if the government bodies taken our suggestions/opinions lightly despite of many attempts to express our view / opinions.

To be honest,I would prefer 1Malaysia investment fund for all people rather than email account:)

Green election?

At last the Sarawak state election is finished. I’m wondering what are we going to do with the leftovers i.e. banners,posters?

The previous UK general election impressed me every much, apart from the opportunity to witness the change of government. It’s hardly to seen any banners or posters on street/city at that time. Throughout the campaign period, I only received 3 flyers from three parties.

Well, this may due to their awareness on election, in which they don’t need such a great publicity as in our country.

Hope we'll have a clean& green election in future

 

image source: http://www.sarawakreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/BN.png

image source: http://merdekareview.com/

EF-English Proficiency Index (EPI): Malaysia top of the Asia

Browsed through the report downloaded from the following site:

http://www.ef-uk.co.uk/epi/ef-epi-ranking/?tc=LQ

I believe this achievement is something to be proud of, a good indicator of Malaysia Boleh.

EPI is the first evaluation of its kind that measures English proficiency of over 2 million working adults from 44 countries.

I applaud the effort to establish such index, and this is certainly a good guideline for policy makers & educators to assess the effectiveness of English policies in the nation.

However a few questions to ponder after flipped through the report:-

* How random the selection was? i.e. how diverse the professions/occupations of the respondents were? Were the test takers solely from “white collar” group? 

* Was the sample size (no. of test takers) relative to the country population?

* What’s the description/definition for moderate/low/high English proficiency? The score for Malaysia is 55.85 (high proficiency), while Hong Kong-54.44 (moderate proficiency), that’s such a small difference of 1.41, and this carries a heavy weigh that classified them into two discrete group. 

* From the report, it showed that the test was carried out online over a period of 3 years, so I wonder how valid the test was when there’s no assessor around the test takers (hmm, well maybe there was, but didn’t mentioned in the report :) )?

As stated in this report, the EPI is not an indicator of a nation academic & economic performance. Therefore bridging the gap of English proficiency between pupils/students from rural and urban areas & improving our English teaching standard (especially in Science & Math) are not a issue we should take lightly despite of the high English proficiency among working adults.

Omg, since when Valentine becomes a debatable issue ?

Outrageous statements from the leaders show that again we are in retrograde step of development. Couldn't you  perform better, find out solutions for nation issues of great interest instead of arguing on Valentine?

more & more straight-A students

Read the following tweet this morning:-

 

RT @SinChewPress: 2010年初中評估考試（PMR）成績標青，是過去4年來成績最好的一次，總共有3萬零863人考獲全科A（7.02%），比去年增加了2千675人。

it means:”Excellence 2010 PMR result, the best achievement over the past 4 years. There’re 30863 students obtained straight As (7.02%), an increase of 2675 students compared with last year”

 

I am wondering every year we're producing so many full A students from public exam. Is this a sign that we hv better students quality? Or exam is getting easier? Or ironically they are good 'exam answering machine'? How these excellence results link to their personalities, character building and mentality?

review on #Kindle 3

I got kindle in Sept 2010. It’s a good reading device, and I would rate it 8/10. More info about the product can visit the following page: http://amzn.to/cHj9x8

I like the e-ink technology offered by this device, it makes no difference as in reading paper document. With 4 gb storage, we can carry many documents in this handy device. Apart from carrying whole stack of documents, we are reducing papers use as well by promoting e-book reading.

Unlike LED device, we able to read in bright sunlight with no glare, and with paper-like screen Kindle also offers better contrast.

As claimed by Amazon, it has a long battery life (a single charge lasts up to one month with wireless off). I have charges three times from September until now, occasionally with wifi on.



However, I have few comments on this device, as follows:-

Personalised screen saver-Kindle comes with pre-set screen saver, but it would be great if we can set the jpeg image as screen saver.

Note pad- Although there’s a note taking feature on book you  read, but it would be useful if a stand alone (just like dictionary) notepad is available. (just in case we can write down something when paper is not available)

Support for power point

Multiple documents delete-Right now It’s inconvenient when we want to delete few documents at a time. Instead, we have to delete one by one.

Poor document conversion, i.e. html to kindle format (occasionally)- as display in  the picture below, poor text display i.e. “productivit y” instead of “productivity”




Dynamic 5-way controller. As in the picture below, (with Kindle’s top to down menu clicking) I have to press “down” key 6 times to “delete this document”

Why don’t Kindle allows us to press “up” key one time, and it will scroll to “delete this document”. (** less no. of clicks = save more time )
 

Kindle didn’t display the Chinese character of file name properly  




Better PDF viewing capabilities- we can’t view the document properly, i.e. zoom in 200% (as in the picture below, red circle part), if zoom out, to 150%, we can’t view the document clearly, the text is too small for me (I tried with landscape mode as well). If there is flexible zoom in/out scale, then we can view PDF in comfortable way.



A plus point is software update available for Kindle,  I’m looking forward to the improved version of Kindle software. Overall, I am happy with this device, I will not hesitate to recommend this gadget to others.

SAY NO TO MEGA TOWER!!!

If not mistaken, Malaysia GDP is about $200 billion, and in 2011 Malaysian Budget RM411 Million (approx. $133.35/ $0.13billion) allocated for R&D. This means only 0.065% of the country GDP will be spent on R&D, a... key for knowledge economy.
FYI: Israel, Sweden, Korea, Finland and Japan all spending above 3%, and... Iceland, the USA, Singapore, Denmark, Germany and Austria all spending above 2.5%, UK about 1.8%.

Many coutries are increasing their investment in science, as there's a huge potential there. The success of science, knowledge development is important for future economic growth and this is a factor to attract foreign investor in high-skilled area as well.

Say NO/TAK NAK to mega tower, we want 5 billion MYR on knowledge economy development

Please show your support by joining the facebook page at

Facebook-1M Malaysians Reject 100-storey Mega Tower http://ow.ly/2XXX6

It’s time to exert people power.

GM mosquitoes- some random thoughts

I referred to the recent news published in the Star online regarding the Field testing approved for GM mosquitoes - http://ow.ly/2St3N

In the news, there are few key words that draw my attention, such as

National Biosafety Board, field testing, genetically-modified Aedes mosquitoes, Cabinet approval, Natural Resources and Environment Ministry

This is a breakthrough technology and I learnt that (if not mistaken) it’s a collaboration between IMR, Malaysia and Oxford based company. Of course, I’m looking forward for the outcome of this  exciting study.
However there are several concerns we should look into it:-

1) More information  (E.g. underlying safety issue, ecological impact, public opinion, etc) about this GM mosquitoes should be available to the public. I knew this effort one year ago, but other people may not know about this.

2) In research, every approach will have its pros and cons. We would like to know who are the panel members of the National Biosafety Board? What are their expertise? In this case, a biosafety board should be comprised of experts in genetic, molecular biology, ecology, environmental sciece, ethical science, etc. For public interest, we should keep inform with any side impacts of GM materials

3) Field study. Is it takes place in housing area, forest, confined region etc? How long it takes? Why these places were selected (Bentong, Pahang, and Alor Gajah, Malacca,)? Just a note that area of studies may affect the result, due to various factors e.g. weather, moisture, or amount of rainwater (precipitation rate). etc

4)GM tech. What approach was employed? What effects to insect, or “mosquitoes-eating animal” should they feed on this GM mosquitoes?

5)Ecosystem: as mentioned earlier, what if other insects/ mosquitoes eating animal feed on them? Since we are not sure that the larvae produced are 100% eradicated, so what will happen if the larvae alive, will the offspring become a new species of mosquitoes? When the field study carry out, ecological assessment should be carry out, e.g. what happen to the population in the area of study.

6) Cabinet approval: Wondering is there any cabinet member/ minister have knowledge of GM. This is a big decision, the cabinet should also refer to opinions from scientific community / public locally & internationally.

7) The study itself. No matter positive or negative feedbacks.  A good finding should be opened for discussion, ready to be challenged by expert or public. Just like the GM crops issues in China and UK, there were good discussion involved. These discussions will lead to better before the study begin.

I don’t play down the government effort in tackling the dengue fever, but proper control on GM materials is crucial. Also, I hope there will be more discussion involved in this issue. The government should also increase public awareness on the GM issue as well.  

There are few papers from the nature about mosquitoes that are worth reading (paiseh, I haven’t read through the papers):-

Mosquitoes: schemes to render them extinct are impracticable : Nature -  http://ow.ly/2Sv1D

Mosquitoes: retain an ex situ population for ecological insurance : Nature - http://ow.ly/2Sv2j

Mosquitoes: just how much biodiversity does humanity need? : Nature -  http://ow.ly/2Sv36

Mosquitoes: first evaluate impacts of eradicating them : Nature -   http://ow.ly/2Sv3y

The Cartagena Protocol and genetically modified mosquitoes : Nature Biotechnology -   http://ow.ly/2Sv3Z

The Penang Science Council & the science policy

I am delighted with the effort of the PR-led Penang state government in establishing the Penang Science Council (http://www.psc.org.my/).

I hope this effort will reduce the incident of brain drain that getting worst in our country these days
We have rich resources and talented graduates which should provide strong foundation to us. Unfortunately, we don’t have a sustainable and viable policies, plans to strengthen our advantages. As a result, our science graduates don’t have wider career prospect in the country, this causes them to look for better opportunity in other countries.

I remembered we used to have a very great plan in the National Biotechnology Policies with key research areas to be involved, strategic research assigned to the country’s elite institutions and each state had been allocated with the key development based on their strengths (availability of natural resources). The ambitious projects had attracted numerous students to pursue studies in biosciences, and today let’s us review what are the career outcome these graduates? I believe < 50% are involved in bio-related jobs. The major factor is lack of career opportunities, and of course last but not least lack of interest in this field by our graduates. However, we can't deny the fact that many graduates still wish to pursue career in science. Also, bear in mind that, availability of skilled workers are essential to the bioscience development despite of the natural resources we have.

From my point of view, several factors are essential to make the science policy success in the country:-

1) Sustainable and viable policy, and a S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goal. Also, we need to form a panel consists of politician, academician, NGOs, public to oversee the policy in order to ensure KPI (Key Performance Indicator) achieved. Recruit most qualified and capable human resources to run the policy with less political intervene. We should promote collaboration and knowledge transfer between local and international renown institutes.

2) World class education for Malaysian. Improve standard and quality of the higher education institutions in the quality, by practicing meritocracy. We should recruit top scholars and home talents come to our country, and prepare a good platform for them to exhibit their skills. I believe RRR (Recruit, Retain and Reward) are keys to attract world class expert to serve in the country!

3) Reform science policy: We need to establish sustained funding systems for scientific research in order to encourage researchers to carry out their studies. Foster innovations and promote technology-based ventures from local entrepreneurs by implementing stimulus plan (increase government funding, loan etc) and tax-relief. Greater government funding for investment in key research areas such as phytochemistry, neutralceutical research.  

Lastly, the most critical success factor is we need to have a good government with likely-minded policy makers. I wonder since the last general election until now is there any MPs question on the future of R&D in the country. To the best of my knowledge, I afraid no!

Therefore I would like to ask is there any ministers/deputy ministers/ MPs debate on national science policy? Don’t you think development on science& knowledge workers are important? What’s the status of Biovalley, etc. To what extent you are going to train local skill workers, and reduce the issue of brain drain to other countries? How much the budget is to be allocated to R&D?

I’m confident and strongly believe that the Penang Science Council is able to deliver a strategic plan that make us stand out of the crowd, to be the key science hub in SEA or Asia.

All the best! As a young researcher and anak Malaysia, I am ready to contribute and share my views. Cheers

The First Election Debate in the UK. When is our turn?

I’m pleased to have this great opportunity to witness the first election debate in the UK’s political history and also the general election that takes place every 5 years.

The debate was between Labour, Conservative & Liberal Democrat party leaders.

Some screen shots captured from the webcast (all images from http://www.itv.com/electiondebate/):

Alastair Stewart who chaired the first debate

Audiences in the debate

interactive/dynamic ways of the first debate. i.e. facebook, live chat, twitter update, live response from audience on the leader’s performance

Debate between three leaders, from left to right: Nick Clegg (Lib Dem), David Cameron (Conservative) & Gordon Brown (Labour). Noted the line graph. It’s live response from audience, whether they like, dislike or neutral on the leader’s view on a particular issue. This is impressive!

I gave humble opinion on facebook chat session as well. 

Issues arose in the debate were:-

1. Immigration
2. national security
3. credibility of MPs
4. Education
5. Finance, strategies to boost economy, reduce waste, save money
6. Arm forces benefits, nuclear weapon policy
7. health care systems
8. policy for the elderly

From the comments, I found that people prefer an honest leader that voice out people needs. Most British predicted they will be a hung government this time, and more than 50% said they will change their mind (on the party/leader they support) after this debate—(no wonder our leader reluctant to have a debate during election).

The poll showed that Nick Clegg (Lib Dem) outperform another two opponents.

My opinion:The first public debate is a good start to promote good politic, and allow people to know they leaders’ opinion on crucial issues. It’s quite disappointing that climate change/environmental issues as well as science policy were not in their priority in this debate. This might be due to short duration (90 min) for so many issues,

Although the leaders looked a bit nervous in the first 10/20 mins, but overall they are performing well, with good speaking skills and confident. Last but not least, they are ‘quite gentleman’ haha

I hope there will be a debate in our country in the next general election. :-p

By the way, I set up a poll on "Do you favour to have an election debate in Malaysia?". Please vote at

http://limchoonkiat-ck.blogspot.com/p/poll.html

More information about the debate, i.e. programme, format etc can visit the following link:
http://www.itv.com/utils/cached/common/ProgrammeFormat2.pdf

You can watch the closing statement of the debate on youtube (below) or at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAkwsFn-fv0

camera, bag bag & iphone

Found interesting comments on facebook wall post between my buddy Mr. L and his companions.

The dialogue as below:

Mr. L：“donno who own herself canon bombastic camera,gucci bag,high end handphone...i speechless!!”

Ms. J：“kns, canon bombastic camera? - its jz a beginner cam..gucci? its jz one! handphone? i dun even have an iphone! i everyday gardenia only T_T”

Ms. M：“WAH! tu la.. High maintainance wei!
talk from my point of view, not directing to anyone in here.. just my point of view as a women. ”

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I wrote a blogpost (in mandarin) to share about my humble opinions, but I have no strength to prepare another copy in English, therefore feel free to read the chinese version at:-

http://limchoonkiat.blogspot.com/2010/03/iphone.html

calling to all Perakian

An article published in Malaysia Kini (Mandarin version) recently（http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/122841）。An excerpt of the article is below:

“吁请大学生、年轻人和所有未注册为选民的霹州人，尽快向选委会登记。这是由于若州议会果真解散，我们不要这些有资格投票的霹州人，因为迟注册的原因而无法投票.年轻人必须知道，自己手中的一票随时可决定一个政权的崛起或垮台”

literally, it means:

“calling to university students, youngsters, and potential perakian voters. Please register if you haven’t done so. This is because if the state assembly hall dissolve, we don’t want potential voter can’t cast their vote owing to the late registration. Young generation should realise that, your vote may decide the rise or fall of a regime.”

source:

霹州备战如山雨欲来风满楼, 民联相信法院裁决有利尼查

(http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/122841)

 

In my opinion, we should not only let off steam on the poor policies implemented in this country. Instead, we should exercise our right, vote in the election and tell politicians what kind of leadership we demand for. Unfortunately, many youngsters forget about their role.

Of course, please don’t just register and not go to vote during the election. Please spread this message around too, remember: register as voters and go to vote!

Remember, voting is not only the fundamental role we should exercise. In fact, this is an opportunity, a chance to change for a better future. Think about the future of yourself, seniors, future generations, etc…….

Just go ahead, and do it. Every single vote helps.