Bantuan Pendidikan

Semalam saya masuk ke Batu 8 Labu bersama dengan Sdr Mokhtar (mantan calon PKR untuk DUN Labu) untuk mengunjungi sebuah keluarga muda yang mempunyai 5 anak. Ayahnya baru keluar dari penjara dan masih belum mendapat pekerjaan.Ibunya bekerja sebagai pembantu di warung di R&R Seremban bergaji RM600. Sdr Mokhtar telah memaklumkan kepada saya bahawa keluarga tersebut menghadapi masalah untuk membayar yuran PIBG dan buku latihan untuk 4 anak yang bersekolah. Peralatan sekolah seperti bag, baju dan kasut juga tidak mampu dibeli. Oleh kerana perlu ke KT minggu lepas, saya telah membelikan keperluan tersebut minggu lepas dan diserahkan oleh Mokhtar kepada mereka supaya boleh mula sekolah dahulu.

Semalam saya menyumbangkan RM350 untuk membayar yuran-yuran yang perlu dibayar dan Mokhtar ditanggungjawabkan untuk menjelaskan yuran tersebut di sekolah pagi tadi. Berita tersebut dilaporkan oleh Sinar Harian hari ini dan saya difahamkan pegawai Jabatan Kebajikan bergegas ke rumah tersebut untuk menyiasat.

Walaupun terpaksa memakai wang sendiri daripada elaun Ahli Parlimen saya, namun kepuasan cukup tinggi kerana dapat membawa sedikit senyuman kepada sebuah keluarga. Peluang pendidikan tidak boleh dinafikan kepada sesiapa dan bantuan perlu dihulurkan untuk anak-anak muda yang tidak dapat menikmati kemudahan seperti rakan sebaya tanpa mengira kaum dan latarbelakang sosial. . Read more!

KLIA East@Labu

The first ever airport to be built in Negeri Sembilan will be in my parliamentary constituency! Am sure many of you heard the news that the Cabinet has given the nod to the proposed new Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in Labu. Well, the exact location should be around Gadong Jaya, a place within the Rasah Parliament constituency.

I visited the new village in Labu this morning to meet the voters and distributed my 2009 calendar. Spoke to the press and voiced my support to the LCCT project. I have various reasons to support the LCCT project. The most important of all is because it located within my constituency :) The new airport will surely be a catalyst for development in the surrounding area. More infrastructure development will pour in. The land value in Labu will skyrocket in the future.

The other reason i support the project is because it is a "Private Finance Initiative" (PFI) project. It means no taxpayer's monies will be used to fund the project. The estimated building cost is RM1.6 billion. You can't ask for more in the current gloomy economic condition right? It is definitely a good news. Private investment is an important component to jumpstart the economy. Hopefully, the RM1.6 billion can create more multiplier effects to the local economy.

I call on the state government to ensure that the project will bring some benefits to the local players like small contractors, suppliers and so on so that they can enjoy a small pie of the cake. Open tender for all the related contracts given is a MUST! If any of you are Sime Darby's shareholders, hope that you can voice it up in your AGM!

The project will take 2 years to complete. In such a project, surely thousands of workers will be located there. Hopefully, it will create some business opportunities for the local folks.

The other reason i support the new LCCT is because the current one near the KLIA cargo is really a shame. I used the airport regularly (DAP's policy of flying the cheapest available fare) and found it really messy and inconvenient. Imagine you have the board a flight on a rainy day. Bet you will get wet. Even if you take a bus in Puduraya won't get you wet on a rainy day. In that sense, isn't it worst than Puduraya?

Hope the new LCCT will provide a more comfortable journey for travelers. Flying budget airline has more or less become a norm for ordinary Malaysians.

Welcome to KLIA @ RASAH! . Read more!

Report from Star Metro

Hospital urged to go electronic
By C.S. NATHAN

THE Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital (TJH) outpatient department, which receives an average of 1,000 patients daily, should introduce an electronic registration (e-registration) system to reduce waiting time, said Rasah MP Anthony Loke Siew Fook.

He said it was necessary as he had received many complaints of long waits to see the doctor.

Loke said the matter should be expedited as the authorities had been talking about ways for a more efficient public delivery system for some time now.

“One of the reasons for the long wait is the need for patients to be manually registered. This is an outdated system and I hope that they will come up with an online registry and a system that would link up all other related areas such as the patients’ records.

“This department sees many patients daily and the bulk of them are from the lower income group,” he said.

However, services at the hospital have improved since Loke’s last visit. From this month, the outpatient department has extended its operating hours until 9.30pm on weekdays to serve the community better.

A patient who only wished to be known as Ranjini said services had improved by leaps and bounds.
“Before, coming to the outpatient clinic was at least a half-day affair. But now, the system is more efficient and we don’t have to wait so long. It is less than an hour from registration until we collect our medicine,” he said.

Currently, it takes patients anything from 10 to 30 minutes just to get from the information to the registration counter.

Patients are then assigned a number for a corresponding treatment room where they would be attended to by the doctor in charge.

Waiting their turn could again take anything from 10 minutes to half an hour depending on the number of patients and doctors for the day.

Treatment time varies depending upon the nature of illness and whether a patient would need to be referred to other departments such as the lab or radiography.

The second issue that Loke highlighted was the need for up-to-date medical equipment.

“I think the clinic needs to procure a funduscope, which is an instrument used to examine the background of the retina, as it would come in handy for the routine eye screening of diabetics to ensure that they do not suffer from vision problems.

“I understand the clinic treats many diabetics and currently it can take up to a couple of months before a patient with diabetic retinopathy to be properly diagnosed compared to instant results with a funduscope.

“Although the funduscope costs more than RM100,000, it would be well worth the investment considering its benefits,” he said.

Loke said these issues had been brought up at the mid-term review in Parliament and Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai had agreed to look into both matters.

Patients who were present during Loke’s visit were appreciative of the heavily subsidised cost of treatment at the hospital but many had the same requests on their wish list: improved efficiency and upgraded facilities.

Loke was accompanied by Temiang assemblyman Ng Chin Tsai.
. Read more!