Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

More than 60% of Malaysian workers felt that they were not spending enough time with their families due to long working hours, a survey by online recruitment firm Jobstreet.com revealed. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed said that they worked extra hours daily – two to five hours beyond their scheduled time to leave the office. Overtime was inevitable, due to unreasonable deadlines and work overload, resulting in nearly 75% choosing to stay late at the office. Most of the respondents, however, complained that they were not paid for the extra hours. More than 60% felt that their employers were not interested in ensuring a work-life balance. One respondent said, "Even if my company has work-life balance initiatives such as a gym, a chill-out area and other organised social activities, it's there in place just for show. "We don’t have sufficient manpower to sustain the workload.” And bosses, apparently, do not leave their employees alone when they are...

In our previous  topic , we had discussed and greatly emphasized on the importance of separation of powers between the party and the government. The main purpose of such measure is to curb any possible abuse of powers, corruption, favouritism and conflict of interest between the one party leader who is also a member of the government's executive body i.e. be it the state or the federal cabinet. And here you are today, the Selangor state government under the leadership of its Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim had did it. He has set a very good example and reference for everyone of us to see and proven that a government without any party leaders or chairmen at helm could be well managed or governed effectively. Tan Sri Khalid who is from PKR is not the state PKR chairman was appointed Menteri Besar of the state in 2008 after the party won the state jointly with its coalition partners in the Pakatan Rakyat and has been put to continue the state stewardship following the repe...

In aftermath of the 13th general elections (GE13), the two main Chinese-based Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties, namely MCA and SUPP had sounded their frustration over the rejection by the Chinese community onto their parties' candidacy. MCA has went into the extend of calling on all its leaders not to accept any government positions anymore. For those who are now holding government position were instructed to tender their mass resignations. On the other side, Sarawak's SUPP had voiced their dismay over their poor performance by stating that by voting the Oppositions as representatives, would mean the Chinese community had in fact lost their rights and place to voice their grievances in the government. According to both MCA and SUPP again, there will be no more Chinese representatives in the BN governments and other related bodies as they have been summarily rejected by the people in the last GE13. It has also been reported that MCA has start closing down most of i...

The intrusion of Lahad Datu, Sabah by a group of heavily armed terrorists believed to be originated from the Southern Philippines has been one of the major highlights in the current news reports. So, who is actually at fault in this crisis situation? Our main question here is, where is the Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM) and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (TUDM) as well as the Army (TDM) who are supposed to watch over the waters, air and the lands in our country? Another big question mark to the Ministry of Defense which is currently under minister Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who is also the Umno vice-president. It was understood that the Ministry of Defense had spend billions of Ringgit under the tenure of the then Datuk Najib Razak and the current Datuk Ahmad Zahid to acquire many kinds of modern weapons, such as the MIG aircrafts, the naval patrol vessels, gunboats, the Scorpene submarines and the Russian made main battle tanks in order to effective secure our nation from enemy intrude...

By Soong Phui Jee The people's first reaction to the SMK Sacred Heart's practice of rewarding a brand new Perodua Myvi car to the Best Teacher and Best Student of the school was, would it cause the deterioration of education? After awarding cars today, would they give diamond rings or sport cars tomorrow? Awarding such expensive gifts for students might distort the purpose of education. If children study only to receive gifts and rewards, would they understand the true meaning of studying? Would they study for themselves, or to receive material rewards? In fact, not only the above mentioned school, but many other schools nationwide have gradually tended to seek for quick success and instant benefits. For example, some of the so-called "elite schools" stress much on examination results and refuse to let students with poor results take government examinations to prevent them from pulling down the school's average grade. Shouldn't schools teach all childr...