Din pukoi golf sakan kat Dubai...

Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin didakwa lebih banyak menghabiskan masa di padang golf daripada di majlis rasmi dalam lawatannya ke Dubai dari 8 Hingga 12 April 2014.

Menurut ahli Parlimen Bukit Mertajam, Steven Sim Chee Keong dan ahli Parlimen Bukit Bendera, Zairil Khir Johari, Ketua Audit Negara perlu menyiasat bukan sahaja lawatan Muhyiddin ke Dubai ini, tetapi juga mana-mana perjalanan lain Muhyiddin yang dilakukan oleh beliau sejak kebelakangan ini.

Kata mereka, Muhyiddin yang juga Menteri Pendidikan nampaknya sedang menikmati percutian golf lima hari di Dubai dengan dibiayai oleh wang pembayar cukai Malaysia.

“Jadual perjalanan “lawatan kerja” Muhyiddin ke Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) dari 8 hingga 12 April 2014, kononnya untuk menghadiri Gulf Education and Training Exhibition (GETEX) 2014, mendedahkan bahawa penerbangan Timbalan Perdana Menteri adalah dengan menggunakan “pesawat khas,” kata mereka berdasarkan laporan blog peniupwisel2020.blogspot.com.

Mereka mendakwa beliau juga menginap di hotel lima bintang Shangri-La Dubai selama lima hari, sementara tugas Muhyiddin di GETEX hanya memerlukan beliau untuk menghadiri majlis pembukaan rasmi, merasmikan Education Malaysia Pavilion, serta menerima jemputan hormat Menteri Pendidikan dan Menteri Kebudayaan, Belia dan Pembangunan Masyarakat UAE.

“Akhir sekali, beliau dijadual menandatangani MOU mengenai pendidikan tinggi. Semua program di atas dijadualkan antara jam 10 pagi hingga 1 petang pada 9 April, dari mana beliau akan bertolak ke Kelab Golf Montgomerie, dan kemudian disusuli dengan makan malam di atas kapal layar,” kata mereka lagi.

Steven Sim dan Zairil menambah hari-hari yang berikutnya di Dubai akan diisi dengan “program peribadi” dan makan malam tidak rasmi dengan beberapa tokoh perniagaan dan diaspora Malaysia.

“Pada hari terakhir, sekali lagi beliau mengisi masa dengan acara golf. Dalam erti kata lain, Muhyiddin menghabiskan lima hari di Dubai untuk tiga jam program rasmi berkaitan dengan pendidikan, 10 jam di padang golf dan dua hari untuk “program peribadi.” dakwa mereka.

Kedua-dua ahli parlimen DAP itu berkata rakyat mempunyai hak untuk tahu siapa yang membiayai kos untuk perjalanan mewah ini, termasuk kos “pesawat khas,” penginapan di hotel lima bintang Shangri-La Dubai untuk keseluruhan rombongan, dan kos lain berkaitan yang akan ditanggung oleh Kerajaan, termasuk Kementerian Pendidikan, Education Malaysia, TalentCorp (yang menaja makan malam diaspora Malaysia pada 11 April) dan Jabatan Perdana Menteri (di mana Pejabat TPM diletakkan).

“Kementerian Pendidikan menerima peruntukan terbesar antara semua kementerian dalam Belanjawan 2014 (RM54 bilion atau 21 peratus daripada Belanjawan Persekutuan), namun pencapaian murid sangat teruk sejak kebelakangan ini,” dakwa mereka.

Kata mereka lagi, bukan sahaja pelajar Malaysia makin merosot dalam penilaian antarabangsa seperti PISA (Programme for International Students Assessment) dan TIMSS (Trends in International Math and Science Study), KPM juga baru-baru ini mendedahkan bahawa penguasaan bahasa Inggeris juga merosot  dalam kalangan guru dan pelajar kita, menurut laporan oleh Cambridge English.

“Tiada sesiapa yang menafikan bahawa pendidikan adalah bidang kritikal yang harus diberikan perhatian termasuk daripada segi sumber dana, namun kerajaan perlu membelanjakannya untuk program yang benar-benar meningkatkan pencapaian pelajar dan bukannya “cuti mewah” di mana Menteri Pendidikan boleh bermain golf,” kata mereka lagi,- fmt

3 hours work, 10 hours golf, that’s Muhyiddin’s Dubai trip...

DAP today questioned the deputy prime minister's "luxury" five-day work trip to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, saying that it only amounted to three hours of work.

Citing documents posted on a whistleblower’s blog, Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari and Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim Chee Keong said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (pic) seemed to spend 10 hours on the golf course and two whole days on "private programmes".

According to the itinerary, Muhyiddin's official work is only between 10am to 1pm today, on April 9.

The rest of his schedule is filled with "private" engagements, "informal" dinners, and also two trips to the golf course.

The MPs questioned who is footing the bill for the trip, which, according to the published itinerary, was made using a "special aircraft".

"The deputy prime minister appears to be enjoying a five-day golf holiday in Dubai at the expense of Malaysian taxpayers.

 "Surely there are many questions to be answered, especially if this trip is to be paid for by the public purse," he said at a press conference at the parliament lobby today.

Muhyiddin, who is also the education minister, is in Dubai until April 12. – tmi

Kapal Australia kesan dua isyarat, yakin temui serpihan MH370 sehari dua ini...

Kapal pencari Australia menerima dua lagi isyarat dalam pencarian pesawat MH370 yang hilang dan pihak pencari yakin boleh menemui serpihan kapal ini dalam sehari dua ini, lapor AFP hari ini.

Koordinator pencarian ini, Ketua Marshal Udara (B) Angus Houston mengumumkan penemuan maklumat baru ini.

 CNN pula melaporkan, kapal Ocean Shield mengesan isyarat itu  yang sejajar dengan penentuan tempat pesawat itu - kedua-duanya pada Selasa, kata Houston. 

Sehingga kini kapal itu telah mengesan empat isyarat dari kawasan yang luas itu: dua Sabtu lepas dan dua lagi pada Selasa.

"Saya yakin kita mencari di kawasan yang betul tetapi kita perlu mengenalpasti gambar serpihan sebelum kita boleh sahkan dengan yakin ini adalah tempat terakhir MH370," kata Houston seperti yang dilaporkan oleh CNN. 

Bagaimanapun, kata Houston: "Saya tidak akan sahkan apa-apa sehingga sesaorang melihat sendiri serpihan."

Hari ini adalah hari ke 33 pencarian pesawat MH370 itu yang hilang dari radar pada 8 Mac dengan membawa 239 di atasnya.

"Kita perlu kekalkan keyakinan dan bertanggungjawab," kata Kaptan Mark M. Matthews dari Navy Amerika Syarikat, memberitahu CNN. "Kerana kita tidak mahu memberikan harapan palsu."

Mereka berjuang mengejar masa kerana bateri perakam pesawat hanya disahkan untuk 30 hari sahaja.

Kotak yang disimpan di ekor pesawat, ia direka bentuk untuk menyampaikan isyarat, signal yang kuat sebaik sahaja menyentuh air.– tmi

New hope in MH370 search as underwater 'pings' are heard again...

Australian officials said on Wednesday that equipment on a ship searching for the missing Malaysian Airlines jet had relocated more underwater signals consistent with a plane’s black boxes.

Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency co-ordinating the search in the southern Indian Ocean, said the Australian navy’s Ocean Shield has picked up two more signals that could be from Flight MH370.

The Ocean Shield first detected the sounds late on Saturday and early on Sunday before losing them. As the search entered its second month, Houston said the ship had relocated the signals twice on Tuesday.

“Ocean Shield has been able to reacquire the signals on two more occasions, late yesterday afternoon and later last night,” he said, adding that they were held for five minutes and 25 seconds, and seven minutes.

“I think we are looking in the right area but I am not prepared to confirm anything until such time someone lays eyes on the wreckage,” he said.

“Hopefully, in a matter of days, we will be able to find something on the bottom that might confirm that this is the last resting place of MH370,” Houston said in Perth.

 “I’m now optimistic that we will find the aircraft, or what is left of the aircraft, in the not too distant future – but we haven’t found it yet, because this is a very challenging business,” he said.

“And I would just like to have that hard evidence ... photograph evidence [before saying] this is the final resting place of MH370.”

Houston also revealed analysis of the weekend's signals had concluded they were "consistent with a flight data recorder", ruling out any possibility they had occured naturally.

New pictures illustrating the urgency of the hunt showed divers wearing snorkeling gear swimming just below the waves, in the vain hope of spotting debris from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 in the 4.5-kilometre-deep ocean.

Hopes of a breakthrough rose on Sunday when signals thought to be from the plane's black box recorders were heard for more than two hours. But with batteries powering the transmissions due to run out around 30 days after the boxes hit the water, officials said time was running out to find the flight recorders.

Houston said the signals had been detected by the "towed pinger locator" being dragged through the sea by the Australian naval ship Ocean Shield

He said on Tuesday it would continue to be used until fresh signals were located and the search field was narrowed, or until experts were sure the batteries had died. In either event, he said, the unmanned Bluefin 21 submarine would then be deployed to map the seabed, using sonar in an attempt to locate wreckage.

“The better Ocean Shield can define the area, the easier it will be for the autonomous underwater vehicle to subsequently search for aircraft wreckage,” Houston explained.

If the sub discovers a potential debris field, the mapping equipment will be replaced with a camera to photograph any wreckage.

"Until we stop the pinger search we will not deploy the submersible," Houston confirmed.

Australia's acting prime minister, Warren Truss, had said the sub would be launched on Tuesday, but a spokesman said there had been a misunderstanding.

Relatives of some of the 239 people on board MH370 held a vigil in Beijing in the early hours of yesterday to mark one month since the Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight was lost.- scmp

cheers.