Minimal impact on Sabah tourism – SATTA BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News » Sabah - New 2 Borneo

Minimal impact on Sabah tourism – SATTA
Thalassaemia patients go into business with govt help
Two double storey houses burnt to ground
Armed masked robber robs 24-hour convenience store
Students beautify, clean up resort
Cook found dead at surau

Posted: 17 Mar 2014 11:13 AM PDT

by Chok Sim Yee. Posted on March 18, 2014, Tuesday

KOTA KINABALU: The case of the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 will have minimal impact on the tourism industry, said the Sabah Association of Tour & Travel Agents (SATTA) chairman Dato' Seri Winston Liaw.

Liaw said the impact of the incident on the travel industry would not be huge because if the plane was hijacked, it could happen to any country and there was no way of knowing it.

He added that the passengers' situation was still unknown, or whether they were in a life threatening situation, thus the impact on the travel industry was not big.

He expects a few cancellations on tours but travelers might choose to postpone their trips or use another airline.

"When something happens to an airline, passengers may not want to board that airline," he said, when contacted yesterday, adding that MAS was known to be very safe.

Liaw was commenting on MAS flight MH370 with 227 passengers, mostly Chinese nationals, and 12 crew members, that had gone missing en route to Beijing, China from Kuala Lumpur since March 8.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has said that the Malaysian authorities were investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate from its original flight path despite media reports that the plane was hijacked.

The investigation team has been working to refine the search area along two possible corridors – a northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, or a southern corridor stretching approximately from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Liaw, who is also the managing director of Airworld Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd, said the inbound and outbound tours of his company were still full for the month of April this year.

Nonetheless, he expressed the need to beef up security at the airport following this incident.

On another note, Liaw said he sympathized with the China victims' families. However, he disagreed with the countries which seemingly are pinning the blame of the missing jet on the Malaysian government and MAS as there was still no conclusive answers as to what had happened.

"The government is still investigating the crew and passengers (on MH370) and there was also a passenger from China that has raised suspicions. There is still no conclusive evidence of what has happened so it is unfair to blame Malaysia because there has yet been no answer on who is behind that (the missing plane)."

Meanwhile, tourists from China hoped that all the passengers onboard MH370 would return home safely, some had even expressed concern on the level of security in Malaysia.

"Safety of tourists should be top priority," said Wang Li from Beijing.

On the other hand, a 26-year-old man from Guangdong, who wished to be identified by his surname Yuan, said he hoped the passengers onboard MH370 would return safely.

Yuan said many of the reports on the missing jet broadcasted in China were based on reporting by the United States of America and England, namely, Cable News Network (CNN) and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

"There aren't much reporting from our side," he said.

He said there have been many suspicions surrounding the missing plane and he wished to know the truth. Yuan said if the plane was hijacked, that meant there was still hope that the passengers were still alive.

Yuan said the incident had not affected his impression of Malaysia, but he reported feeling more positive towards Vietnam for their effort in the search and rescue (SAR) operation.

At this point in time, he hoped that all the passengers would return safely and the relevant authorities would study what actually happened to the missing plane.

Meanwhile, Wang Juan, Li Xiaoyu, Pan Ke and Wang Ruojia from Chengdu initially planned to cancel their trip to Sabah on March 10 when the news of the missing jet broke out. However, they all ended up coming as they could not get a refund on their flight tickets.

Four of them said they were shocked and concerned about the incident and hoped that the passengers are safe.

Despite being on vacation in Sabah, the four of them have been following the ongoing developments on MH370 on China Central Television (CCTV-4) from their hotel rooms.

"What is the reason that the plane went missing? There have been no news on that for so many days," Wang Juan said.

Nonetheless, the incident has raised their concern on the security in our country and they would have cancelled their trip to Sabah if the flight company was willing to refund their air tickets.

Thalassaemia patients go into business with govt help

Posted: 17 Mar 2014 11:11 AM PDT

by Jenne Lajiun. Posted on March 18, 2014, Tuesday

KOTA KINABALU: Women have been urged to go out and help the needy as well as sign up as volunteers.

This was the call made by Datin Mary Wong, the wife of Assistant Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Edward Yong when met at Zara's Boutique Hotel near here recently.

She felt that women had the power to make positive changes, not just in their own life, but that of their family, their children and the communities surrounding them.

"For a start, I would like to urge women to start their own business. They can start their own home-based business which allows them to juggle their time between business and family. The government has programmes that are geared towards helping housewives start their own business. They should take advantage of this and learn more about it," she said.

Wong added that such programme has benefitted the female Thalassaemia patients, whom she has close rapport with, and they have begun their own mobile make-up and hair saloon.

"They took part in a three-month programme under 1Azam and now they have started their own business. To keep costs down, they don't have a shop, but go directly to customers who request for their services. I heard they are doing quite well," she said, beaming with pride.

She explained that the female patients have been trained as beauticians.

Wong then mentioned that she considered it her responsibility to impart knowledge on government programmes that would benefit the people, particularly women and motivate them towards the aim that would allow them to develop and grow.

"It is not because I am a YB's wife. I have always been active as a volunteer and joined the Girl Guides Association when I was still in school. It is something I enjoy doing," she said.

She felt quite happy that she had the backing and support of the PBS Wanita whenever community service related events were organised.

"We conducted a mobile service for the application of new identity cards for senior citizens together with JPN (National Registration Department). The senior folks were happy with the service as they didn't have to go to the JPN office and wait. It saved them the hassle. We were quite happy to be able to assist them. The government does provide a lot of good services," she said.

Another venture she is happy to assist in is to look into the welfare of Thalassaemia patients at Kudat Hospital.

But why Kudat? She answered, "My brother works there and he sees the Thalassaemia children going for transfusion all the time. The hospital has become their second home. He felt sad for them and asked me to come in."

"What we do is provide them with love and care. We also conduct a monthly donation campaign for the children. Additionally, we have brought in courses that they could take up while waiting for transfusion," Wong said.

Aside from that, thanks to Sabah Credit Corporation, they have also recently acquired their own 'Persatuan Thalassaemia building' located near the Kudat Hospital.

"The building was recently handed over to us. We plan to organise many activities there – classes for baking cakes and buns, for instance, as this will provide the patients with the knowhow to start their own business," she said.

More importantly, though, is that the building will serve as a place where the Thalassaemia patients could rest and conduct their own activities while waiting for their turn for blood transfusion, she said.

During her visit to Zara's Boutique Hotel, Mary also presented gifts to the hotel's all-women staff. Also present was the hotel's managing director, Eliza Goh.

Two double storey houses burnt to ground

Posted: 17 Mar 2014 11:10 AM PDT

KOTA KINABALU: A fire destroyed two double storey houses at Kampung Tebobon, Menggatal here yesterday, causing an estimated loss of over RM600,000.

It was learnt that the blaze started from one of the houses owned by a salted fish and shrimp vendor, and rapidly spread to his neighbour's home.

House owner Normin Basir, 42, believed that the fire started from a bedroom upstairs.

Neighbours noticed the fire around 7pm and immediately yelled to alert others.

When Normin found that his house was on fire, he quickly led his family members out of the house.

The Kota Kinabalu Fire and Rescue Services Department dispatched five fire trucks and 32 personnel to the scene. They controlled the fire at 7.41pm.

However, both houses were burnt to the ground by the time the fire was extinguished.

Normin who sells salted fish and shrimp at the central market in the city, estimated his loss at over RM300,000 as he had no time to save his inventories.

The cause of fire is still under investigation by the Fire Department.

Armed masked robber robs 24-hour convenience store

Posted: 17 Mar 2014 11:09 AM PDT

KOTA KINABALU: A masked robber, armed with a knife, ran off with cigarettes and cash amounting to RM800 from a 24-hour convenience store here last Friday.

Penampang district police chief DSP Ratan Kumar Singh confirmed the incident, adding that the police was investigating the case, including inspecting the store's closed circuit television (CCTV) footage to track the suspect.

The robbery took place at a 24-hour convenience store along Jalan Penampang around 3.25 am last Friday.

The masked robber reportedly barged into the store and demanded the two staff who were working at that time to give him the cigarettes and cash.

The two employees acquiesced to the robber's demands as they were threatened at knife-point. As soon as the robber got what he wanted, he fled the scene in a Proton car.

The employees immediately called the police after that.

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Students beautify, clean up resort

Posted: 17 Mar 2014 11:09 AM PDT

PENAMPANG: SM St Michael has always been the pioneer for activities that are related to the environment.

Realizing the importance of communities in taking care of the Earth, the school's Water Vision team consisting of Jessytha Joseph, 16, Owena Juada, 16, Glenda Ryanne Fredy, 17, Abraham Ninian Ejin, 16, along with the team's teacher advisor, Jennifer Asing, conducted a one-day programme for their adopted community at Kampung Putaton-Kibambangan on March 1.

The event started with a mass clean-up of Kibambangan Water Resort by the team, accompanied by about 70 students, the Excellent Principal of SM St Michael, Penampang, Madam Marie Yong Pik Hua, teachers, the Parent-Teacher Association chairman, Datuk Phillip Lasimbang, media from PACOS and the villagers of Putaton-Kibambangan.

The main aim of the activity was to beautify and clean the resort so that tourists who visit the place can experience the natural world at its best. Other than that, the team also hoped to instill awareness regarding water conservation and preservation among the village community.

After finishing the mass clean-up, the team, students and teachers planted 30 tree saplings around the resort. Their hard work paid off as the resort looked much better after the clean-up and tree-planting event.

The students, teachers and villagers were very satisfied and happy with the improved appearance of the resort after the two activities which took about three hours to finish.

After completing the mass clean-up and tree planting event, the students and teachers as well as the Water Vision team proceeded to the 'tagal' hall of the village for a brief lunch and presentation of the rainwater harvesting tanks to the villagers.

The tanks were given out by Madam Yong to 10 villagers. After the ceremony, they went to deliver rainwater harvesting tanks to the houses of three villagers.

From the expedition, the students understood the hardships and the troubles faced by the villagers just to obtain clean water for daily use.

Cook found dead at surau

Posted: 17 Mar 2014 11:07 AM PDT

KOTA KINABALU: A man, believed to be a foreigner, was found dead at a surau near Tanjung Aru first beach here yesterday.

It was learnt that the victim, who was only known to his friends as 'adik', had cleaned one of the food stalls at the beach. After that, all of them played football at the beach before heading to the surau for a nap around 4am.

However, when his friends tried to wake him up around 10.30am, the victim did not respond. His friends immediately called the police.

Meanwhile, city police chief ACP Jauteh Dikun said the victim came from Lahad Datu and had worked as a cook at one of the food stalls at the first beach.

Jauteh confirmed the case, saying that it would be investigated as sudden death.

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