PENSIONS ARE NOT FROM TAXPAYERS MONEY : PENSIONERS ASSOCIATION

  29 OCTOBER 2023

Attendance with Dr Ryna (3rd from L) Hj Mohd Sepuan, Lingham and Sipaun

 

 KOTA KINABALU.  President of Sabah Government Pensioners Association, Datuk Wilfred Lingham reminded that pensions are not paid from taxes but from a Retirement Trust Fund (KWAP) which every pensioner contributed by way of deductions from their salaries for at least 10 years of their working life. He said this when closing the Pensioner's one-day forum/seminar titled "Ageing with Dignity" here, weekend 28 October at Sky Hotel, Kota Kinabalu.

He said retirement is a universal practice where a person in long service is given a mandatory rest and paid monthly remuneration, medical facility and funeral expenses to the immediate family

Hence, any talks or suggestions of ending the pension scheme will be rejected by all the pensioners associations, he added.

He urged all present civil servants to obey the Chief Minister's directive to have a high sense of integrity and avoid any forms of corruption. 

Pensioners with skills learnt during working life and combined with knowledge from the seminar can still contribute to society while living a healthy lifestyle, he concluded.

Earlier keynote address was given by Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, retired Sabah State Secretary who had other prominet positions including State Public Service Commission and Suhakam.

Explaining the word "dignity" in details, he said it was associated with status, royalty, religious groups or men of means, an ascribed status rather than achieved.

However atrocities committed during the two world wars pushed the United Nations to produce the Declaration of Human Rights on 10 Dec 1948 with the preamble "Recognition of inherent dignity, equal and inalienable rights of all members of human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace of the world"

He quoted the first article, "All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights"

Following this declaration, dignity is no longer earned because of class, race or other advantages but belongs to all humans and not to be taken away or violated by any authority.  It is a state of being worthy of honour and respect irrespective of status.

Sipaun said pensioners are in better position to protect and maintain their human rights and dignity by being members of an organisation acting as a group rather than as individuals.

It is good for the pensioner and good for the world, he said.

He also gave another advice to his fellow pensioners, not to transfer down any properties early but better to make a will and urge them to remember "health is wealth".

Topics covered during the seminar included "Ageing with Modern Technology" by Dr Ho Kee Kheen from QE1 hospital, "How Senior Citizens contribute after retirement" by Datuk Hj Mohd Sepuan bin Anu, "Understanding Depression and Ways to Cope" by Rev Dr Peter Abas, and "Importance of mindfulness" by Dr Ryna Imma Buji from Hospital Mesra.

This year the Sabah Pensioners Association nominated two Pesara Bestari Awards,  Mr Joseph Jominol and Evelyn Lim,  both had a long illustrious services in Sabah.

115 pensioners from Sabah and 35 from Sarawak attended the seminar.

 

 Evelyn and Joseph

 

 

 

 

PROBLEM CULVERT AT KAMPUNG TANAKI PENAMPANG REPLACED, BUT... REPLACEMENT MAYBE WORSE

 

The ORIFICE culver of Kampung Tanaki, Penampang 

 

In situ concrete box culvert under construction but terrible workmanship 

 

PENAMPANG.  A flood-causing concrete culvert pipe less than 1 metre diameter under a high embankment road at Kg Tanaki here, is finally being replaced.

Installed when the road was built about 3 decades ago, crossing a rivulet in the village, the undersized culvert bluntly called  "orifice" is not to JKR specification, hence easily clogged causing flooding upstream. Pic 1.

Daily reported the village was still flooded under hot sun on 16 February when Member of Parliament Datuk Ewon Benedict and Kapayan Assemblywoman Janie Lasimbang came to inspect after being informed by the residents.

The upgrading works though welcomed is causing massive traffic jams during peak hours, though temporary may still take 2 months to complete.  Residents nearby said its unnecesary waste of time and taxpayers money compared to installing the proper culvert size earlier.  In addition,  excavation and filling up of a good road also damaged water pipelines to the villagers.

Tunelling under the high road embankment is either too expensive or  technology not available, a netizen said.

Adding further worries, the in-situ casting of a concrete box culvert by a new contractor is described as "Very Bad Workmanship" by retired JKR engineer and an experienced contractor.  As seen in pic 2, the concreting seemed to be mixing with soil while the two layers of BRC reinforcings have no spacing. Hence the concrete cube test taken on site is meaningless, according to another engineer.

Netizens are also asking how long will this new culvert last before collapsing.  They also request the government to monitor all other culverts being installed especially the Pan Borneo project which has been alleged to cause floods.

 

 

 

YB DUN KAPAYAN JANIE LASIMBANG LAUNCHED RETORT FOOD "HERO MEALS" AT WISMA IDS

 

 Janie with the rest of officials

The types of dish available from Kendera Kitchen

KAPAYAN.  Assemblywoman Janie Lasimbang promised to introduce to the State Government a new pre-packed emergency ration food named "Hero Meals" designed specially for disaster relief operations such as floods and earthquakes.

She said this while launching and distributing samples of the rations to bodies usually involved during disasters such as Bomba,  Civil Defence, District Office and NGOs such as PACOS at IDS Hall here.

She said food is the first thing needed both by the victims and rescuers during any disaster and shall be distributed in a fair manner without any religious, racial or political overtones.

The Hero Meals are packed with lables, "not for sale" and one of the main sponsor is CIMB Bank.  The lady representative informed the bank has sponsored  up to 250 thousand ringgits for the country of which 10 thousand is allocated to Sabah for now.

Meanwhile CEO of Kembara Kitchen William Cheah said he started  developing this fast ration meals taking inspiration from the Military rations after the largest recorded flood in Kelantan in 2014, described by others as "tsunami-like disaster".

Cheah said, " although we are in the food business, we found it impossible to assist in supply and preparation of food in disaster areas where water supply, electricity and other means of food preparation are all not available."

A lot of effort were done to get the correct ingredients to ensure it preserve well in the packets so all that is needed is to open the packet and its ready to eat or warmed in hot water if available, he said.

Penampang is also chosen to be the first packaging centre in the state at Pacos centre and plans are afoot to have other centres at Kudat and Sandakan area, to ensure preparedness for any disaster.

Hero Meals currently is available in seven types of dish which are: Rice Basmathi with curry chicken, Arab Rice with Nohutlu Tavuk, Rice Basmathi with curry vegetable, Rice Basmathi with Dalca, Fatty Rice with Sambal Sotong, Yellow Rice with Chicken Curry and Spaghetti Bolognese with chicken.

 

(article previously rejected by Daily Express)

 

 

DATUK EWON BENEDICT LAUNCHED BKD WORKBOOKS FOR YR 4,5,6 AT ITCC KADAZAN LANGUAGE CARNIVAL 24 SEPT 2023

 

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Ewon and Philip launch the BKD workbook while Raisin and Rita looks on

Drone delivers workbook mockup to stage

  Entrance of students with workbooks

The VIPs on stage before the launch

 

PENAMPANG. The Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative, Datuk Ewon Benedict said, any resident who has views or proposal on the Penampang Development Plans need not wait for state Institute of Development Studies (IDS) to come to them but can submit their papers to him or direct to IDS.

He said this after launching the workbook for teaching the Kadazan Dusun Language in school for Primary 4 to 6 at ITCC Hall here weekend.

The issue was raised because in the last Council rezoning exercise, some residents were shocked to find their residential houses and native lands including natural rivulets proposed to be gazetted as Heavy Industrial Zone. Other anomalies found were hills gazetted as padiland while some lowland are marked as hill conservations.

Regarding the Carnival on the KadazanDusun language to be held next year, Ewon proposed to create awards to appreciated those who had made the teaching of the language in school a great success, and to give scholarship assistance to future teachers and lecturers of the language.

Present during the event were State Director of Education Raisin Saidin,  Chairman of Yayasan Bank Rakyat Philip Lasimbang, other education officials from schools and colleges and Kadazan Language Foundation KLF.