Friends Of STAR

Friends of STAR wish all teachers at STAR, past and present, HAPPY TEACHERS DAY

I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well  - Alexander the Great

Five years ago I was really broke. Broke as broke could be with no money even to buy cigarettes. That was the time my daughter won a place in UM and UTP - she actually had to choose one. I could not care less whether it was UM or UTP. What was on my mind back then was money. I needed at least RM2,000 if she were to go to UM and slightly less if she chose UTP since the UTP offer came inclusive with PETRONAS scholarship. And where could I find that kind of money there and then.

To be frank I am not really poor. I have some properties including lands but it would take me months if I decide to sell. I could borrow from my siblings (some of them were Datuks and holding JUSA posts and could surely afford to loan me a few thousands) but I have never borrowed any money from anybody, siblings or friends, parents or in-laws. I just did not have the strength to say it. The only money I ever borrowed was to buy a house through a government loan. When I left my government job three years later, I had to pay the RM200,000 and used whatever I had saved and hence depleting all my cash savings.

I had two crude choices, sell off my car or my watch. Sell my car and I had to walk or take a bus and my wife was against it. She pestered me to take a loan from my sister but I refused. I had a Rolex watch, half gold which I bought in Hong Kong eons ago. The problem was I could not pawn it since I had lost the watch certificate. Rolex watches come with certificates and if you sell they would ask for the certificates. You could find lots of advertisements on newspapers offering to buy Rolex watches and I walked into one of them and they offered me RM4,000 without a certificate or RM6,500 with a certificate. It was a depressing situation but I decided to go home to look for the certificate so I could gain a few extra thousands.

I was rummaging my personal items for the watch certificate when a postman rang. It was a registered letter addressed to my daughter from a body called PTPTN. I heard about PTPTN back then but not much. In fact I did not even know their procedures or eligibility. When my daughter opened up the letter out fell a cheque amounting to RM1,500.00. The letter said it was an advance from PTPTN to cover for my daughter's tuition fees. Holy crocodile! That was the biggest saver in my life.

No guarantor, no terms, no conditions but just a cheque for RM1,500 and it came when no hope was left inside me. The letter said my daughter had been offered a loan by PTPTN and the RM1,500 was an advance from the pre-approved loan. The letter only said my daughter had to pay the amount back to PTPTN if she was offered another scholarship or if she declined the loan offer. And that was it, nothing simpler than that. One page of letter and a cheque, no hassling.

So we were ready to go to Tronoh courtesy of PTPTN. But I never made it to Tronoh. My wife had actually phoned my eldest sister telling her my predicament and a day before we were supposed to go to Tronoh my sister arrived at my house, took my daughter into her car and sent her to Tronoh and paid everything that needed to be paid.

My daughter has since graduated and is working. I have since recovered from financial recklessness. But looking back, I could only find good words to say about PTPTN. And PTPTN gave me hope when I needed it the most. And for the watch which I never wore. I emailed the HK outlet and they sent me a copy of the certificate and later I sold it at a much higher price.

Semangat rasanya akan naik dan turun seperti juga iman seorang Muslim. Sabda Rasulullah SAWs iman seseorang akan naik dan turun.

Aku kagum dengan semangat webmaster Friends of STAR. Beliau tidak jemu menggerakkan Friends of STAR. Dengan perjuangan membalas budi STAR, beliau masih lagi berdiri gagah. Mungkin masa sudah terpaksa dibahagi kepada activiti lain tetapi website in masih lagi dikunjungi ramai pembaca yang berasa loyal terhadap konsep penulisannya.

Walaupun ada comment yang sumbang diperingkat awal, maklum sahaja keadaan yang panas, tetapi kini suara yang sumbang ini juga sudah bisu tetapi kini lebih terbuka dan ada pula usaha memberi recognition kepada salah seorang penggerak FOS. Bukannya ada sesiapa mengharap sebarang recognition, walhal ianya mengejutkan juga, FOS masih dengan goal, objective, strategy dan tactics yang sama. Membantu sekolah dan tidak mengharap sebarang tepukan atau pujian.

Seruan aku, naikkanlah semangat dan perhatikan selalu mana2 ruang yang terbuka untuk FOS mengisinya dan bersama membawa keberkatan dan mengharap keredhaan dari Allah. 

Cobra Tasha, sina sina STAR!

The export of Malaysian timber and timber-based products is expected to rise 5% this year from RM20.03 billion last year, Deputy Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Hamzah Zainudin said.

He said for the first two months of this year, exports of timber and timber-based products hit RM3.2 billion, a 5.3% increase compared with the corresponding period last year.

“Japan, United States and India remain our core export destinations,” he told reporters after officiating at the 43rd annual meeting of the International Research Group on Wood Protection, here today.

Hamzah said the timber industry is also on the right track to achieve the objective of the National Timber Industry Policy (NATIP), which is to get the industry to generate export earnings of RM52 billion by 2020 - Bernama

Hamzah is from Batch 75

Datuk Azhar Ibrahim is an old boy and the opposition leader in Penang State Assembly. UMNO is the opposition party in Penang and Datuk Azhar is a member of UMNO. He asked a very interesting question and was later charged with insulting the noble, or some might call it august house (if there is such thing as "noble" about state assembly or parliament not only in Malaysia but all over the world). Let me keep everybody guessing about the question he had asked that got him suspended? 

Let me clarify further. There are two old boys sharing similar name of Azhar Ibrahim (though the other is spelt as Adzhar) and unfortunately both came from Penang. The other Adzhar is from Batch 75 and is a director with Air Asia Group.

This is from the Star:-

"GEORGE TOWN: The Penang state assembly has passed a motion to suspend Opposition leader Datuk Azhar Ibrahim for insulting the House.

The Speaker allowed a motion under Order 34(4)(9) to refer Azhar, who was not present during Wednesday's sitting, to be referred to the committee for insulting the House, Speaker and staff when he alleged that the Hansard's verbatim recordings could be manipulated."