Friday, April 17, 2009

New Deputy Minister reaches out via FB

Read this story on the Star about how the new Deputy Higher Education Minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, is using facebook to reach out to his 'constituents'.

The Star reported that:

"University students who wish to bring up grievances regarding their tertiary institutions can do so by directly contacting Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah through Facebook. Datuk Saifuddin said that he will be live on the social networking website on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, from 10 to 11 pm."

I applaud the new Deputy Minister for Higher Education for using the internet and social networking sites such as facebook to reach out to students at the tertiary level. I'm a little bit more skeptical as to how effective going 'live' on facebook will be since the chat function on FB isn't really very good.

I think the new Deputy Minister deserves close attention. I've been aware of him ever since M Bakri Musa wrote a review about a book Saifuddin had written entitled: Politik Baru: Mematangkan Demokrasi Malaysia. English version: New Politics: Towards A Mature Malaysian Democracy.

Back then, Saifuddin was the Deputy Minister for Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development, a ministry which no longer exists after the announcement of Najib's new cabinet.

A cursory google search reveals that Saifuddin has been an active blogger since August 2008 and also maintains a website. His profile page mentions that he is a UM graduate and an MCKK boy.

Not many ministers or cabinet ministers in Malaysia would know or heard of C K Prahalad but Saifuddin not only mentions Pralahad in one of his blog entries but seems to also have read one of his books. (He mentions Prahalad in the context of promoting entrepreneurialism among university students)

While the Minister of Higher Education is still Khaled Nordin, whom I've not been terribly impressed by, it gives me some hope that he has an able deputy in someone like Saifuddin. He's off to a good start. Let's see if his position as Deputy Minister for Higher Education will translate into any substantive changes in terms of policy in our public and private universities.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kian Ming, it is Prahalad and not Pralahad.

Can't resist this as you spelled the name wrongly twice.

Cheers.

Kian Ming said...

Mistake corrected! Thanks!

Firdaus said...

Kian Ming, what do you think of the new UPSR assessment?

http://tinyurl.com/UPSR-New-assessment

About the Facebook, well don't know about the effectiveness of it all. Especially since a lot of the 'grievances' being brought up will probably be unsubstantiated. Unless of course, the initial Facebook grievance will lead to a more formal process ie the Minister or the person manning his profile will direct the wronged student to a more formal channel and process.

I think it's good that he limits himself to Facebook 2 hours per week, as I don't want him to too engrossed with Facebook!

Hamba said...

A facebook sounds good but by experience, every BN ministers are enthusiastic coming to office BUT at the end they are always disappointing the rakyat. Just wait a year and see whether he's the same eager person or another UMNO guy infected by power and became corrupt...Anyone remember Khir Tolol? Lawatan sambil belajar to Disneyland, anybody?....He's worse after tasting power...I'll never trust UMNO and Bn minister ever!!!!

Anonymous said...

OFF TOPIC>
TAKEN FROM UITM WEBSITE:
Researchers Making Headlines: UiTM Bagged 11 Awards From Geneva PDF Print E-mail
Written by Administrator
Friday, 17 April 2009 03:48

UiTM researchers delivered the university’s first medals for the year last week. The glittering gold, silver and bronze from the37th International Exhibition Inventions, New Techniques and Products, held in Geneva from 1st to 5th April, were the results of a minimum of six years of hard work and dedication by the brilliant minds from various faculties.
Moreover, UiTM’s contingent to Geneva this year also comprised of a team of non-academics. They are the creative people from the Tun Abdul Razak Library (PTAR) who have came up with a solution to an ever growing problem- insufficient lockers at all the TAR libraries.
Below are the names who made us proud. Congratulations!



Researchers


Faculty


Product


Medal

1.


Assoc. Prof. Dr. Norzaidi Mohd Daud, Intan Salwani Mohamed


Research Management Institute/ Business Management/Accounting Research Institute/ Accountancy


TECHPROVED System : Practical diagnostic system of business information technology


Gold

2.


Prof. Dr. Ku Halim Ku Hamid, Mohibah Musa, HRH Prince Turki Khalid, Glen Martin Abdullah


Chemical Engineering, SECORP Strategic Enterprise Cooperation Limited Company


Integrated biology sewage treatment system


Gold & Special Award from Romania

3.


Prof. Ku Halim Ku Hamid, Mohibah Musa, Juferi Ideris


Chemical Engineering


Biological enhancement an ammonical nitrogen stripper by using sewage based bacteria


Gold

4.


Assoc. Prof. Dr. Adibah Shuib, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Razidah Ismail, Noraimi Azlin Mohd Nordin


Computer & Mathematical Sciences


Minimizing the EMS ambulance travel time using the CTT model


Silver

5.


Basharuddin Abdul Hadi, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jamaludin Md. Noor, Ismacahyadi Bagus Mohamed Jais, Joe Davylyn Anak Nyuin


Civil Engineering


Slope stability charts for rainfall induced failure


Silver

6.


Ridzuan Mohamad, Errazudin Ishak, Radde Idzwan Ab. Razak, Assoc. Prof. Rosmah Abd. Latif, Zulaile Mabni, Norizan Mat Diah


Computer & Mathematical Sciences


E2nosis: Easy patient diagnosis and health management system


Silver

7.


Mohd Fairus Yusoff, Dr. Jeffry Azha Saidin


Art & Design


Potential commercialisation of aluminium casting for craft product & development


Bronze

8.


Prof. Dr. Suhaimi Muhammed, Amran Shafie, Noorshashilawati Azura Mohammad


Applied Sciences, UiTM Pahang


Biocomposite products from coconut husk


Bronze

9.


Dr. Shanker Kumar Sinnakaudan, Joe Davylyn Nyuin


WAREM, UiTM Penang


Geocampus version 2.0


Bronze

10.


Tommy Julianto Bustami Effendi, Rosa Elisabeth Pereira, Suci Amelia Reza Zairizal, Mohamad Rizal Abd. Rahim, Abu Bakar Abdul Majeed


Pharmacy


A novel carotenes self nanoemulsifying gel for food beverage and nutraceuticals applications


Bronze

11.


Mohd Kahirul Idzwan Mohd Saad, Ariffin Jamaludin, Mohd Fahizan Hamid, Fauzi Md Noor, Katmidi Mejo, Farizul Naba Esmat, Sakmah Sarif, Aznur Umiza Abu Kasim, Mohd Shariman Mat Sopari, Shahrul Hairy Shaharuddin


Tun Abdul Razak Library


Myflexi locker


Bronze

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Li Hong said...

I tried really hard, but I still can't find his profile on facebook...

Anonymous said...

Not impressed with this Saifuddin Abdullah at all. Read up this article:
http://news.malaysia.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3709630&uart=2&uarc=ratCntrl

Thought processes like Saifuddin is the main cause of making Malaysia going backwards!

Please have a clear distinction between "national language" and "official language". At work place, we should be using "official language" which means internationlly recognised language. BM is definitely not it. Mastering BM is not going to get us far. Imagine conversing to other people at international level with the infmaous broken Minglish.

If Malaysians continue with this thought process, be rest assured, Malaysia will remain behind - everyone is moving forward, and moving fast!

Wake up, Malaysians!