Brief history on MERDEKA and MALAYSIA DAY

Tomorrow, Monday the 31 of August 2009 Malaysia will celebrate its 52nd Independence Day or Merdeka Day. Come September 16, Malaysians will celebrate Malaysia Day.

Malaysia was born on 16 September 1963 formed jointly by the four parties, namely Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah. Two years later, Singapore left the federation.

Malaysia was born 16 days behind schedule because originally, the formaton of Malaysia was slated to be on August 31 to coincide with the independence Day of the Federation of Malaya. The delay was owing to Indonesia and the Philippines at a meeting with the Federation of Malaya on the formation of Malaysia in Manila from July 28 to August 31 1963, making a strong demand for an assessment by the UN in the form of plebiscite or referendum to be carried out for the people of Sarawak and North Borneo ( Sabah ) to reaffirm their wishes to be part of the new nation Malaysia although the Cobbold Commission had already submitted their findings that the majority of the people of both states were in favour of the idea in joining the federation.

That demand threw a spanner into the plans to declare August 31 as the birthday of Malaysia, resulting in a flurry of heated exchange between all the parties involved in the Manila Summit Conference. Indonesia was the more vocal of our two neighbours in opposing the formation of Malaysia, fearing that it was a British plan to attract some regions in Indonesia into the new federation, ultimately leading to the disintegration of the Republic.

That fear was, of course, unfounded but despite the assurance of Tunku Abdul Rahman that Malaysia had no such design, Indonesia still objects and the tension was only defused after U Thant, the UN Secretary, worked out a compromise assessment on the wishes of the people be carried out in the two states.

The UN assessment team mission was fraught with problems. Indonesia refused to send any observer to verify its finding in an attempt to obstruct the formation of Malaysia. On September 7, the UN Malaysia Mission ended its 10 day tour of Sarawak and proceeded to Sabah. On September 14, U Thant released the mission report which found that the majority of the people of Sabah and Sarawak strongly supported the formation of Malaysia.

With the last hurdle cleared, Malaysia was finally formed two days later on September 16 1963. The question is should Malaysia Day which falls on September 16 be celebrated on a national scale as well? Or be declared a public holiday to commemorate the formation of Malaysia which is more significant to the 1MALAYSIA concept. While the East Malaysian respected the decision to celebrate Merdeka Day with their Semenanjung brothers and sisters for the last 46 years, September 16 is also an important date without Sabah and Sarawak there is no MALAYSIA.

SELAMAT MENYAMBUT HARI KEMERDEKAAN KE 52.

HOW IMPORTANT IS FOOD LABELING?

During my recent random survey at various supermarkets within the vicinity of KK city, it seems that majority of consumers doesn’t understand what is food labeling and how important and useful food labels are as a source of information, primarily to inform and protect them.

Many believe that food labeling still isn’t clear enough, making it difficult to easily spot which ingredients and nutrients some products contain. As for Muslim consumers, they only look for the “HALAL” sign, as long as it is halal not a problem regardless of what chemicals or toxic chemicals or added additives presents in the food that they eat.

The relevant authorities must educate the public on food labeling to make sure that consumers get the right information they need in an understandable form. They must ensure that the consumers are adequately protected against chemicals that might transfer into the food from these chemicals, causing harm or affecting the quality of the food.

Consumers also want health claims proved before the products reach the shelves, but until recently no such compulsory approval system existed, making it hard for consumers to make an informed choice.

As an example, one Tongkat Ali product claims that by drinking it, consumers would feel strong, energetic and could overcome sex impotentcy. A chocolate spread advertised their product is rich in calcium, magnesium and vitamins, but how do we know that the high levels of sugar and saturated fat are not contained in the same product?

Consumer Association of Penang (CAP) did asked the Ministry of Health to quickly move beyond carbonated drinks and to take action against the numerous sweets and confectionaries that have flooded the Malaysian market. These products that are being marketed to children are not conducive to health.

They contain basically nothing more than sugar, colouring and other additives which are not even labeled on the packaging. Children received no nutritional benefit from consuming these products. Some of these items are from China , where food safety standards have been questioned recently.

CAP also notes that some of these sweets and confectionaries are being labeled as halal. They also calls on JAKIM and the MDTCA to conduct nationwide checks on these products that come into the country to verify and certify their status – whether they are actually halal or not.

Until today, there are still plenty of these imported sweets and confectionaries from China widely available in the market. The consumers are not aware if these products are really safe to consume or “HALAL” to the muslims?

In most developing world, supermarkets will guide the consumers on the salt, sugar and fat levels in the food that are on sale as a reference and guidelines before they purchased the food.

Below is an example on how they guide consumers by using colours to differentiate the levels of nutrient on food they sold.

A red light on the front of the pack means the food is high in something we should be trying to cut down on. It's fine to have these occasionally, or as a treat, but try to keep an eye on how often you choose these foods, or try eating them in smaller amounts.

An amber light means the food isn't high or low in the nutrient, so this is an OK choice most of the time, but you might want to go for the green for that nutrient some of the time.

A green light means the food is low in that nutrient. The more green lights, the healthier the choice.

If you want to make the healthy choice when you are shopping, go for more greens and ambers, and fewer reds.

Guide to nutrient levels in your food
Nutrient	High	Medium	Low
Sugars (per 100g)	Over 15g	Between 5g and 15g	5g and below
Fat (per 100g)	Over 20g	Between 3g and 20g	3g and below
Saturates (per 100g)	Over 5g	Between 1.5g and 5g	1.5g and below
Salt (per 100g)	Over 1.5g	Between 0.3g and 1.5g	0.3g and below

Food is something everyone needs, every day. As we know, how it is produced
and who controls it, are important issues. But the way that it is processed
and marketed can have a big effect on health and economics too.

As consumers we need to voice out our opinions, both good and bad. We have every rights to know, what is the actual contain or ingredients and nutrients that are stored in our food especially canned and packed ones.

IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP TEENAGERS FROM SMOKING

As long as tobacco and cigarettes are easily available in shops as a consumer product there is nothing that the authority or anybody else to stop teenagers from smoking.

It is the number one over-the-counter killer drug the world has ever seen. So by letting these teenagers obtain cigarettes freely and start smoking at an early age means we are encouraging them to become compulsive smokers.

Retailers trading licences should be revoked immediately or they should be fined heavily if they are found selling these items to teenegers. But, so far the relevant authority did nothing because theres no directive or by laws to enforce.

Even so, it is still impossible to stop or prevent them from buying because they can easily obtain them from the illegal peddlers who are found in big numbers in towns across the state. As long as the illegal peddlers are in business, we cannot stop the teenagers from getting cigarettes.

As we can see, the relevant authorities failed to stop these peddlers from doing business. Their network and intelligence are more sophisticated than the authorities. Every time there is an operation to arrest them, either they managed to escape or they did not exist at all.