Perbezaan bonus raya kerajaan persekutuan dan Selangor

KUALA LUMPUR:  Perbualan hangat di laman media sosial Twitter hari ini adalah mengenai perbezaan bonus yang bakal diberikan kepada penjawat awam yang diumumkan oleh Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak dan Menteri Besar Selangor Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

Pada Rabu, Najib mengumumkan Bayaran Bantuan Khas Kewangan RM500 sebagai persiapan hari raya  kepada penjawat awam bagi Gred 1 hingga Gred 54.

Ini disusuli dengan pengumuman Khalid dimana bonus sebulan gaji akan diberikan kepada 21,776 penjawat awam negeri berkenaan.

Mereka di Selangor gembira dan bersyukur dengan pengumuman Khalid:

Alhamdulillah , tq kerajaan negeri selangor . Bonus bonus ;)
— Alepheewwww .... (@aliffradzuan) July 25, 2013

Bonus raye 1bulan gaji.. tahniah kerajaan negeri selangor..
— I'm Heikal (@HeikalAzaha) July 25, 2013

best nyaa ! selangor dapat bonus sebulan gaji.
— NoyAnoy (@nughhaaa) July 25, 2013

Ramai juga yang menyatakan rasa bersyukur ke atas pemberian bonus oleh Najib.

“@AinaAikajuna: Gaji naik. Alhamdulillah. Bonus ada, alhamdulillah.”. Tumpang gembira ! Hahah :p
— D (@dieroalvera) July 24, 2013

got bonus from najib for hari raya yay that's why i love abg jipp x
— ♡ (@Nrlyasmien_) July 24, 2013

Gaji + Bonus + Duit raya from office = What a perfect life :)
— FaaSuryana (@faasuryana) July 25, 2013

Ada juga yang membuat perbandingan tentang perbezaan Bonus Raya tahun ini:

selangor bagi bonus sebulan gaji?woww! habis aku ni dapat rm500 je ke cemana?
— Kuekuatsheu (@KonKonah) July 25, 2013

Selangor is paying one month bonus to its state civil servants. How about you, Najib?
— khoo cheng huat (@chkhooju) July 24, 2013

Ada yang memberi cadangan supaya Najib memberikan bonus satu bulan gaji atau lebih:

Saya cadangkan agar PM DS @NajibRazak memberikan bonus raya 1 bulan gaji (disamping sagu hati RM500), kepada semua kakitangan awam.
— Daniell Rezuwan® (@daniellrezuwan) July 24, 2013

rilek la. mesti najib umum bonus 2 bulan ni nanti. tak kan kalah dengan selangor.
— Fazari Ghazali (@fazarighazali) July 24, 2013

Selangor beri 1 bulan bonus kpd penjawat awam@NajibRazak tak mahu tambah lg sebulan ker..
— Shabery Buih (@LENINBOLSYVK) July 24, 2013

Sementara itu, Kongres Kesatuan Pekerja-pekerja  Di Dalam Perkhidmatan Awam (Cuepacs) turut mengucapkan terima kasih kepada kerajaan atas pemberian bonus setengah bulan gaji dengan bayaran minimum RM500 kepada penjawat awam.

Presidennya, Datuk Omar Osman berkata, pemberian bonus dan juga Bayaran Khas Kewangan sebanyak RM500 kepada pesara kerajaan menunjukkan keprihatinan kerajaan terhadap dedikasi penjawat awam serta pesara kerajaan.

"Pemberian bonus dan bayaran khas ini memang sungguh bermakna khasnya kepada penjawat awam yang berpendapatan sederhana terutamanya bagi membuat persiapan perayaan (Aidilfitri) yang bakal tiba."

-- Astro Awani 

Najib ranked 15th most followed government leader in the world on Twitter

KUALA LUMPUR:  Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is ranked at number 15 among the most followed government leaders in the world on Twitter, according to Twiplomacy.

In its report today, Twiplomacy said Najib with his twitter account @NajibRazak was actively engaged with the audience with quizzez and sweepstakes.

The report said in May 2012, Najib asked his followers what gift he should give his 500,000th follower.
"A couple of days later, he invited four of his followers for breakfast, a scene he immortalised with a Twitpic and a YouTube video of his guests," said Twiplomacy, which is the leading global study of world leaders on Twitter.

The report said Najib's account was fairly active with an average of 3.6 tweets a day and the perfect mix of 20 per cent retweets, 17 per cent@replies and 26 per cent@mentions, namely of the National Front party@BarisaNasional and @NajibRazak.

Since joining Twitter on Sept 21, 2008 until this month, @NajibRazak account has a total of 4,442 tweets, 1,647,682 followers and 574,614 tweets retweeted. -- BERNAMA 

UN declares World Toilet Day

UNITED NATIONS:  The United Nations on Wednesday declared November 19 as World Toilet Day following a proposal by Singapore whose envoy said he did not care if jokes are made.

"I am sure there will be laughter among the press and the public when it is reported that the UN is declaring a World Toilet Day," said Singapore charge d'affaires Mark Neo before a unanimous UN General Assembly vote in favor of the measure.

"Their laughter is welcome, especially if they recognize the prevailing and unhealthy taboo that prevents an open and serious discussion of the problems of sanitation and toilets globally," Neo told the 193-member assembly.

The envoy went on to stress that 2.5 billion people around the world do not have proper sanitation, that 1.1 billion people defecate in the open and that providing toilets could save the lives of more than 200,000 children each year.

Singapore took up the toilet cause because of the efforts of Jack Sim, a citizen of the city-state known as "Mr Toilet" because of his efforts to improve sanition around the world.

UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson praised Singapore's action. "Proper sanitation is a question of basic dignity," Eliasson said.

-- AFP

Beauty pageant row shines spotlight on fatwas

KUALA LUMPUR:  The controversy surrounding four Muslim women who were deemed to have insulted Islam for joining the Miss World Malaysia 2013 has brought the spotlight back on fatwas.

A fatwa is an Islamic religious ruling or scholarly opinion when there is doubt on whether or not a particular practice is permissible (halal) or forbidden (haram) in Islam.

There has been differing opinion on whether these edicts should act merely as a spiritual guideline or legally binding and criminalise offenders.

Former minister and lawyer Zaid Ibrahim yesterday opined that Fatwas should not be regarded as laws and lambasted the Islamic authority-- The Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department (Jawi)—which is currently investigating the four women over the alleged offence of being in a beauty contest.

“Fatwas are meant for Muslims, unfortunately in Malaysia, it is understood as laws. Furthermore, these organisers are non-Muslims, why did they disqualify these contestents? ” said Zaid.

Zaid also lashed out at JAWI for which he claimed “don’t understand democracy and living in free society."

"It means the state do not punish for every sin committed. God can do that," he said.

“Let’s go back to Islamic history where fatwas were just opinions to guide us, for Muslims to follow or not is up to them, it is not for men to punish them.”

Zaid argued that laws in a country should only be made through state legislative assembly or Parliament.

However, Syariah lawyer Kamar Ainiah Kamaruddin disagreed with such a view, and said that whenever a fatwa is gazetted, it is legally binding.

“All Muslims must observe a fatwa, if they do not, action may be taken. That is providing that it is gazetted by the state assembly. There are quite a number of fatwas lying around which go ungazetted,” said Kamar.

She added that the fatwa applies to offences committed within that particular state it is gazetted in.

“If it is gazetted in Selangor then it is binding there if the offence is committed there,” she said.

Citing the case of author Irshad Manji’s book on Islam where a bookstore was brought to court, Kamar said that the prosecution failed because no fatwa was gazetted to say that the book is haram before JAWI seized them.

Asked if a fatwa can be challenged, Kamar said that any law can be challenged and this applies to edicts as well.

“In the case of a fatwa, if you feel that it is wrong opinion, there is the Syariah high court to challenge it based on Hukum Syarak, and if you are challenging it based on Federal Constitution, then it has to be in the civil court, there is no conflict here.”

The said edict by National Fatwa Council was made on Jan 15, 1996 and gazetted on Feb 8, 1996 under the Administration of Islamic Laws (Federal Territories) Act. The fatwa states that it is “haram” and “sinful” for a Muslim to join, organise, or contribute in any way to a beauty pageant.

In the latest case, JAWI director Datuk Che Mat Che Ali said that its enforcement unit investigate the case following a report that the girls were bent on taking part in the beauty pageant despite the edict by the prohibiting it. Two of the girls, however, had said that they would abide by the edict.

Four finalists for the Miss Malaysia World beauty pageant – Sara Amelia Bernard, Wafa Johanna De Korte, Miera Sheikh and Kathrina Ridzuan – were dropped from the competition after criticism from Federal Territory mufti Wan Zahidi Wan Teh that their participation was “sinful”.

In 1997, two contestants of the Miss Malaysia Petite contest were fined by the Syariah High Court in Kuala Lumpur. They were charged under Section 9 of the Syariah Criminal Act (Federal Territory) 1997 which carries a maximum RM3,000 fine or two years jail upon conviction.

In Selangor, three other contestants from the same beauty pageant were brought to trial for violating a similar fatwa. They were charged under Sect 2 (C) of the Syariah Crimes Enactment Selangor 1995 that also carries the same penalty.

Source:

--Teoh El Sen @Astro Awani 

George Alexander Louis, nama anak Putera William dan Kate

LONDON:  Putera William dan Kate isterinya telah memilih nama  George Alexander Louis untuk bayi lelaki mereka, satu nama yang berpegang teguh kepada tradisi diraja  dan digunakan oleh enam raja-raja sebelumnya.

George merupakan pilihan jelas semasa spekulasi hangat mengenai nama putera, kerana ia memberi penghormatan kepada bapa tercinta Queen Elizabeth II King George VI, yang memerintah dari tahun 1936 sehingga kematiannya pada tahun 1952.

Pewaris ketiga takhta Britain akan dikenali secara rasmi sebagai sebagai Duli Yang Teramat Mulia Prince George of Cambridge, selepas bapa dan ibunya Duke dan Duchess of Cambridge.

Pengumuman ini datang hanya beberapa jam selepas ratu bertemu dengan cicit beliau di Isatana Kensington buat pertama kali, yang membawa kepada spekulasi beliau telah memberi pelepasan terakhir bagi nama itu.

Ibu bapa putera kecil kemudian meninggalkan kegilaan media global yang berpusar di sekeliling mereka selama beberapa hari and terus ke rumah ibu bapa Kate di luar bandar Berkshire, di luar London.

Bayi ini tidak akan secara automatik menjadi Raja George VII apabila dia mewarisi takhta, bagaimanapun, kerana terdapat laporan bahawa Prince Charles boleh mengambil gelaran itu apabila dia mengambil alih daripada ibunya.

Louis adalah salah satu daripada nama tengah William dan juga nama pertama Lord Louis Mountbatten, ‘Viceroy India’ dan mentor kepada Prince Charles.

Sementara itu, pilihan nama Alexander masih menimbulkan rasa hairan penganalisis politik, selain daripada fakta bahawa nama tengah Ratu Britain adalah Alexandra.

Tetapi George,  merupakan nama yang ke- 12 paling popular untuk bayi lelaki di England dan Wales pada tahun 2011 dan berasal dari perkataan Yunani purba bagi petani.

Raja British pertama untuk menggunakan nama tersebut adalah George I dari Jerman, raja pertama daripada Rumah Hanover, yang memerintah 1714-1727.

--AFP melalui Astro Awani

Smartphones are getting too big!

Do you think the high end smartphones are getting too big in your hand?

Syah Ismail certainly thinks so. He wrote in MyLaunchpad News about what he thinks and at the same time asks you to join him in his petition to 'ask' phone manufacturers to stop growing their phones in size.

Here goes:

If you have been following my blog, you may notice that I use a Samsung Galaxy S III. Why not upgrade to a Galaxy S 4, you ask? I'm holding out on a new phone because I personally don't like how high end smartphones are getting bigger each year. 

The S III is actually quite big for my hands and I settled for it because of its performance. I prefer a 4-inch (4.5-inch at the most) phone just like my previous phone the Galaxy S. It fits nicely in my hands and I can even operate it with one hand. With the current trend in smartphone sizes, we the consumers are forced to choose between big powerful phones and smaller mid-range phones.

WHERE IS THE MID-SIZE HIGH END PHONES?

You would think the Galaxy S 4 Mini is the smaller version of the S 4 but no. Instead of the eight-core chip found on the S 4, you'll only be getting a dual-core one on the S 4 Mini.

Now, phone makers are blurring the lines between phones and tablets with the emergence of super-sized 6-inch phones or widely known as "phablets".

So, what do you think? Do you agree that phones are getting ridiculously bigger each year? Or do you like big phones? Please share your thoughts.

Read more and join him here.

Penyelam nyaris ditelan ikan paus

Dua penyelam skuba yang sedang menyelam di pesisir pantai California hampir ditelan oleh sepasang ikan paus kelasa yang tiba-tiba muncul ke permukaan air.

Penyelam itu, Shawn Stamback dan rakannya Francis Antigua sebelum itu cuba melihat dengan dekat ikan paus berkenaan makan dan menyelam untuk mendengar suara paus.

Insiden itu sempat dirakamkan oleh rakan mereka dari atas sebuah bot. Stamback kemudian memuat naik rakaman itu ke laman YouTube dan dalam masa tiga hari telah ditonton lebih empat juta kali.

Julai 24

Astro Awani