Day: June 13, 2017

Suhakam TN50 discourse calls for transparency in govt spending

Coordinator

Source: FMT News

Participants also talk about need to respect religious values and having a hub that is transparent and filled with genuine information. Pic from FMT News.

KUALA LUMPUR: Financial literacy, transparent government spending and universal religious values were among the ideas shared at a discourse held by Suhakam today to help draw up the roadmap to National Transformation 2050 (TN50).

TN50 is the new 30-year vision promoted by the government and Suhakam is organising several such discourses to gather views.

Suhakam chairman Razali Ismail said the recommendations raised at the discourse would be forwarded to the TN50 secretariat for further discussion.

Suhakam commissioner Lok Yim Pheng, who addressed today’s participants, said young people needed to be taught how to manage their loans well.

“The young are burdened with housing loans, education loans, insurance premiums and high cost of medical treatment.” Read more →

On World Day Against Child Labour, UN urges protection for children in conflicts and disasters

Coordinator

Source: Malaysia Sun

Photo from Malaysia Sun.

12 June 2017 — Children in areas affected by conflict and disasters are among the most vulnerable, the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) in warning on the World Day Against Child Labour, making a strong call for an end to the scourge, especially as children trapped in crisis risk falling prey to trafficking or being forced into hazardous work. “All children have the right to be protected from child labour,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder in a statement on the World Day. “Yet, around the world, there are still 168 million children in child labour. Eighty-five million of them are engaged in hazardous work.”

A significant portion these children find themselves undertaking dangerous work, living in areas affected by conflict and disaster and they are the focus of the 2017 commemoration of the World Day, marked annually on 12 June.

As the world strives to achieve the elimination of child labour by 2025, the UN underlined that conflicts and disasters have a devastating impact on people’s lives. They kill, maim, injure and force people to flee their homes; destroy livelihoods, push people into poverty and starvation, and trap many in situations without basic safeguard for their rights. Read more →

Decriminalising drug use offers glimmer of hope — Nursalina Fairuz Salleh

Coordinator

Source: New Strait Times

(file pix) A former drug addict working on a farming project at the Teduhan Kasih Melaka home in Jasin, Melaka. Decriminalising some drugs can save recourses by reducing incarcerations. Pix by Khairunisah Lokman for the NST.

THE topic of drug addiction is almost always paired with negative views, depending on one’s understanding of the depth of the problem.

The social stigma that surrounds drug addiction in Malay-
sia is no less different, perhaps even exacerbated, with the country having some of the most draconian drug laws in the world.

Despite our zero-tolerance approach, we still find ourselves grappling with drug abuse, having no success in controlling the supply and demand of illicit drugs. We are far from winning this war against drugs, and there is much to do even after decades of fighting. Read more →

Genetically modified food safe? — Gurdial Singh Nijar

Coordinator

Source: The Sun Daily

BY GURDIAL SINGH NIJAR
(Deputy President, HAKAM)

FARMERS have been modifying crops for millennia. They introduce new and desirable qualities to improve the food’s taste, colour or smell; and eliminate unfavourable traits. All this has been done through conventional breeding – using selective breeding or artificial cross breeding of plants within a species.

Now there is modern biotechnology. It inserts new traits into plants and animals by “cutting” a specific gene from an organism (say a plant or animal) and “pasting” it onto another organism. Things that never happen in nature. For example, a particular fish gene can be introduced into a tomato to preserve its shelf life.

Read more →