UMTECH NEWS Issue 3, October 2011

Your EDUCATION, Our PRIORITY

STRINGS OF DIWALI

“For UMTECH community, unity

has a special meaning. It means uniting our efforts towards one goal - providing a quality education to all.”

MESSAGE FROM THE VICE CHANCELLOR

Dear Colleagues, This coming Wednesday, the Indian community in Malaysia all over the country will be celebrating the sacred holiday of Hari Deepavali, the ancient “Festival of Lights” symbolising the victory of good over evil. On this Deepavali, let us remind ourselves how lucky we are as Malaysians and how fortunate we are to have other Malaysians from all walks of life at our side working toward a stronger, more peaceful tomorrow. As is always the case in our country, everyone will come together and jointly celebrate Deepavali, fully sharing in and collectively creating a happy festive atmosphere. This is indeed what makes our society special and our country unique. We must always strive to maintain, nurture and develop this spirit of interracial goodwill and cooperation because I firmly believe that it is this that will be our pillar of strength, our important example to the world. I understand that on this “holy” day, devotees around the country and across the world will light lamps that symbolise the victory of light over darkness. For us in UMTECH, it is my hope that in celebrating the emergence of light out of darkness, all staff will be inspired to face the challenges ahead of us with faith and vigor, so that we may achieve all our goals and aspirations.Together, we can fuse the rising optimism with which we face the future with a real desire and commitment with one aim to bring UMTECH to be one of the best universities in the region.So, let us put our act together, multiply our efforts and forge ahead with one objective irrespective of race and religion, to take our beloved UMTECH to ever greater heights of glory, distinction and excellence. May this divine light shower us with peace, prosperity, happiness and fulfilment. Last but not least/lastly/on that note/.......I would like to wish a very Happy Deepavali to all our Hindu friends in UMTECH. However and wherever you choose to celebrate this colourful festival, may Deepavali light up your day. Selamat Hari Deepavali and Deepavali Nal Vaazhtukal!

Prof. Dato’ Dr. Mohamed Mahyuddin Mohd. Dahan

Vice Chancellor

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RM232.8 billion for Government plans, including RM181.6 billion for management and RM51.2 billion for development

RM29.8 billion for investment in infrastructure, industrial and rural development

RM13.6 billion for the social sector, including education and training, welfare, housing and community development

Total revenue for 2012 is forecast to increase 1.9% to RM186.9 billion

Deficit for 2012 is forecast to de-crease to 4.7% of GDP from 5.4% in 2011

Living

The budget aims to help ease the burden of higher cost of living which has been the main the con-cern of the Rakyat nowadays by increasing subsidies in 2012 (RM33.2bn in 2012 compared to RM32.8bn in 2011). Other goodies include:

One-off RM500 cash handouts to household with monthly income of RM3,000 and below

Additional half month bonus for civil servants

RM500 bonus for pensioner

RM300 monthly for poor senior citizens, RM100 monthly for poor children and up to RM300 monthly for disabled people

Education

Realising that education is impor-tant in building a better Malaysia, the government will abolish all examination and school fees for primary and secondary school. This move will hopefully reduce school dropouts due to poverty and bright students from underprivileged families can have better opportu-nity to excel in their studies. Other goodies also include:

RM100 for students in primary and secondary school

RM200 book voucher to all univer-sity students

Housing

To make houses more affordable in the increasing property prices, the maximum house price limit eligible

for financing under My First Home Scheme is increased from RM220,000 to RM400,000. Other goodies include:

00% exemption on housing loan stamp duty

More affordable houses will be built next year in areas such as Cyberjaya, Putra Heights, Serem-ban, Damansara and Bukit Raja

Health

Free outpatient registration for senior citizens in hospitals

Free immunisation against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) for all women to prevent cervical cancer

Other goodies worth mentioning are the extension of retirement age for civil servants from 58 years to 60 years, allowing those experi-enced and still capable seniors to continue contributing to the coun-try and the increase from 12% to 13% of employer’s EPF contribu-tion for employees earning less than RM5,000 per month that will greatly help to increase the amount of savings for employees.

BUDGET 2012

The education sector proved to be a big winner with a staggering RM50.2bil being allocated for it under Budget 2012. Compared to last year’s allocation of RM39.5bil, the huge amount this time would be for a comprehensive spread across the board from schools to teachers, to students and parents. In his 2012 Budget speech, Prime Minister YAB Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak said foreign investors would be able to take up to a 100 percent stake in companies in ‘selected’ services sub-sectors. The Prime Minister, however did not identify them. This means that foreign firms can either set up their company here or acquire Malaysia ones, giving way to potential mergers and acquisitions. Analysts say private education and healthcare will likely be the most immediate areas to attract foreign interest following the government’s move to further liberalise the service sector. So what’s in for us?

The budget at a glance

BUDGET 2012

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Quick Thoughts

What I like best

Could be better

PM’s quote of

the day

2012 Budget is truely made for the Rakyat. It reflects the government initiatives in extending custom made assistance to meet the needs of the Rakyat as well as further accelerating economic liberization on the well being of the nation.

A training allocation of RM10mil will be provided for women to develop leadership and managerial skills. This is a sign of governments commitment of accelarating upgrading of women work force hence increase women presence in top managerial positions in the nation. Book voucher worth RM200 will be given to Malaysian students in all private and public institutions of higher learning. This can encourage Malaysian youth to read more books. Abolish payments for primary and secondary education, making free education. This will lead to promoting national schools and to ease the school fees burden for family with kids in primary and secondary schools in the beginning of the year. Liberisation of Public Transportations networks extended not just in Kuala Lumpur but other major city in Malaysia i.e. MRT, LRT and other public transport to be developed in a more systematic and comprehensive manner.

“National Transformation Policy: Welfare for the Rakyat, Well-being for the Nation”. It is being observed as many “Firsts” in parlimentary and budgetary history, but without the “First” none can be achieved literally. Congratulations Prime Minister Najib!

Haliza Mohd said Senior Lecturer

Faculty of Hospitality & Tourism Management

Budget 2012 will advance the nation in achieving its Vision 2020 target. It covers all aspects of country development including education and training, rural development, rakyat well-being, high-impact projects for entrepreneurs and private and public investments. In the process of implementing the Budget 2011 all Rakyat walk of like will beneffited the budget.

RM13.6 billion has been allocated for the social sector, including education and training, welfare and community development

RM50.2billion is allocated to the education sector so that it can continue to develop talented, creative and innovative people

Government will give tax exemption for contributions to educational institution

All of the above efforts indicate Government seri-ous effort s in education and training in order to develop quality human capital. Education is an extremely important agenda of the government as it has been repeatedly mentioned in Budget 2011. Knowledge is the pillar of civilization and the foun-dation for excellence which contribute to nation-building processes. UMTECH as an education or-ganization, has a big role to play and take up the challenge to offer quality education. “ Civil servants will be offered tuition fee assistance for part-time studies, including 5,000 masters and 500 doctoral schilarships”. This facility to be extended to private sectors as this will accelerate and ensure the Government’s objective to transform Malaysia into a “developed nation” by 2020 will be attained. With more than 50 private universities in Malaysia, private universities could together contribute to make government’s aspiration become reality. “1 Malaysia - Transformation Successful, People Prosperous”. This is the theme for 2011 of which a continuation of campaign “One Malaysia. People First. Performance Now.” . Such powerful quote is essential to drive through the effort and to ensure the success of the campaign. Budget 2011 encom-passes efforts of the campaign.

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BUDGET 2012: Reflections and Insights

The formulation of a budget is actually

nothing extra ordinary. It is in fact a

good practice for every individual or

household to prepare a budget, which

is a plan detailing its total expenses for

a period of time based on its expected

sources of funds/income. The rising

cases of credit card and other house-

hold debts in our country are a sign

that too many people do not plan their

expenditure based on their income. On

the other hand, most corporations do

undertake some form of budgetary

planning; and adherence to the budget

enhances financial discipline. The Uni-

versity of Management and Technol-

ogy (UMTECH) has just launched its

preliminary budget sessions two weeks

ago, and each department will be soon

coming up, by November, with its

‘budget’ for the year 2012.

However, the annual budget an-

nouncement of Malaysia’s Federal

Government in September or October

each year attracts extensive attention,

discussion and praises as well as critics.

The ultimate concern about the Fed-

eral Budget, to most people, is obvi-

ously its possible impact on their pock-

ets. Any increase in tax, for example,

would most probably be passed on to

the consumers in the form of higher

prices. Another example is a reduction

in personal or company income taxes,

which would constitute savings for

those affected.

Moreover, the Federal Budget provides

a wealth of information about our gov-

ernment’s position and what it plans to

do for the next year. The budget indi-

cates:

The government’s take on the

prospects of the economy, both

domestic and international, for the

coming year: As citizens of a small,

open and external trade depend-

ent country, we are all concerned

about the world economy, and

would like to know how our gov-

ernment views the changing global

economic scenario and its impact

on Malaysia’s economic growth in

the next year. In Budget 2012 for

example, the Prime Minister ac-

knowledged that the global finan-

cial and economic environment

will remain highly challenging. But

given Malaysia’s strong fundamen-

tals, he was confident our econ-

omy would grow by 5% to 6% in

2012. Market reactions, however,

indicate that this appears highly

optimistic and probably unrealis-

tic.

The government’s fiscal position:

our Federal government has been

spending more than its revenue

collection (called fiscal deficits)

every single year for well over a

decade. Naturally we are con-

cerned about the government’s

fiscal position in the following year

(2012). It is therefore heartening

to note that Budget 2012 projects

a significantly lower deficit of 4.7%

of GDP (Gross Domestic Product)

next year, down from 5.4% this

year. It should be observed, how-

ever, that this reduction is ex-

pected to occur despite next

year’s Federal government total

expenditure standing at a new

highest record of RM232.8 billion

compared to previous years. It

should also be cautioned, more-

over, that this projection would be

influenced by continuously chang-

ing circumstances faced by the

country, both domestically and

internationally. For example, an

unexpected worsening in Euro-

pean debt crisis (which does not

seem to have been taken into ac-

count in Budget 2012) might

prompt our government to inject

additional money into the econ-

omy.

By PROF. DR. CHEAH KOOI GUAN

DEAN, GRADUATE SCHOOL

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The government’s priorities: A

perennial problem of any eco-

nomic unit is that resources are

always scarce (not sufficient) rela-

tive to our wants. Hence just like

the family (or even our univer-

sity), the government has to set

priorities, and not acceding to the

demands or wishes of everybody.

In the run up to the Budget Day,

we read of the wish lists of the

rakyat in the newspapers. Various

interest groups (such as industry

groups, professional bodies and

trade associations) prepared

memorandums and sought audi-

ence with the Finance Ministry in

the hope that their requests

could be accommodated in the

budget. One of the numerous

calls was related to the improve-

ment of public transport system.

It was suggested that, besides the

MRT project which will cost RM50

billion over a number of years,

money should also be provided to

improve the bus transport sys-

tem. But Budget 2012 has not

made any allocation on improving

public bus services.

The hype and attention given to the

annual Federal Budget announcement

also reflects the people’s expectations

of the government. Weeks before the

Budget Day, people would begin to

express their wishes and speculate on

the ‘goodies’ or ‘burdens’ of the

Budget. On the Budget Day, which fell

on 7 October this year, television sta-

tions provided live telecasts, and of-

fered live commentaries. Panels of

experts were invited to analyse and

comment on it – organised by televi-

sion channels, newspapers, profes-

sional bodies, associations, universi-

ties, etc – immediately after the

budget announcement as well as days

and weeks after the event. All these

demonstrate the people’s concerns

and worries, as some groups will

stand to gain and some others might

‘lose’ in the sense of being made to

pay more taxes or not getting as much

benefits relative to the gainers. This

article looks at several measures an-

nounced in the Budget 2012. But the

discussion is not meant to identify

winners and/or losers, but to rather

highlight some related issues and im-

plications.

CASH HANDOUTS

The 7 October Budget announced a

number of one-off cash handouts:

1. RM500 to households with a

monthly income of RM3,000 and

below.

2. RM100 to all primary and secondary

students nationwide.

3. RM200 book voucher to all Malay-

sian students in public and private

local institutions of higher learning,

matriculation as well as Form 6 stu-

dents nationwide.

We should applaud the government

for these caring measures. The three

measures do indeed go a long way to

ease the rakyat’s high cost of living,

especially under today’s rising cost

and stagnating wages for a large seg-

ment of Malaysia’s population. The

first measure above is estimated to

benefit 3.4 million or 53% of total

households, and costs the govern-

ment an allocation of RM1.8 billion.

The second measure is estimated to

benefit 5.3 million students nation-

wide, and involves an allocation of

RM530 million. The final measure

above should benefit 1.3 million stu-

dents with an allocation of RM260

million. In total, well over one half of

Malaysian households will get some

relief from the rising costs of living,

and over 3 million students stand to

receive some cash to tight over school

related expenses.

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The three measures do indeed go a long way to ease the rakyat’s high cost of living, especially under today’s rising cost and stagnating wages for a large segment of Malaysia’s population.

However, such relief is only one-off and

hence not sustainable. It is tantamount

to giving the hungry a fish to eat in-

stead of teaching them how to fish.

While recognizing the complexity of

imparting skills, we must remember

that the lack of knowledge, skills and

productivity is a major contributor to

low wage and hence low income for a

large segment of our workforce. The

call of skills upgrading and productivity

enhancement has taken on greater ur-

gency in view of the government’s

plans to introduce minimum wage poli-

cies in the not too distant future. The

impact of higher wages without com-

mensurate increase in productivity is

inevitably higher prices and inflation,

thereby further exacerbating the rising

costs of living faced by all rakyat.

Among the possible uses of the

RM6,090 million allocated to the above

three cash handouts could be giving

incentives to private sector training

providers to offer courses aimed at up-

grading the knowledge, enhancing the

job skills and/or improving the work

attitude/commitment of currently low

waged workers. UMTECH has a Profes-

sional Development Centre that can

undertake such trainings if appropriate

incentives had been provided in the

budget.

TAX REFORM

An apparent gap in Budget 2012 is the

absence of efforts to undertake further

tax reforms. For the past several dec-

ades, personal income tax, corporate

tax and petroleum tax constitute the

Federal government’s primary sources

of revenue to finance its annual expen-

ditures. Unfortunately, petroleum taxes

are not sustainable since petroleum is a

non-renewable commodity, whilst our

personal income tax base is far too nar-

row. While our workforce is close to 13

million people, less than one half have

tax files at the Inland Revenue Board.

Those who actually pay income taxes

on an annual basis have been estimated

to be no more than 10% of the work-

force! It is therefore obvious that the

Federal government’s sources of reve-

nue are not sustainable. The global

trend today is a shift from direct in-

come taxes to indirect taxes, especially

consumption taxes.

Our government has announced for

many years the need and plans to ra-

tionalize the collection of sales tax and

service tax into a broader based Goods

and Services Tax (GST). The GST cer-

tainly would constitute a crucial compo-

nent of our tax reform. Budget 2012

could have made some further head-

way towards this goal, which would:

1. Lay the necessary groundwork to

prepare for the ultimate (and inevi-

table) implementation of compre-

h e n s i v e c o n s u m p t i o n -

comprehensive consumption-based

tax system,

2. Considerably expand the tax base

and enhance tax revenue collec-

tion, which could be used to either

increase development expenditure

or reduce the fiscal deficit.

CONCLUSION

As explained at the beginning of this

article, a budget is merely a document

that details the expected or foreseen

income and how it is to be used. The

economic definition of scarcity says

that resources are scarce relative to

our wants – hence not all wants can be

met. Choices have to be made; and

opportunity costs are incurred. How-

ever, a Federal government budget is

much than an economic problem of

choice and opportunity costs. There

are social, political and other consid-

erations which may override the ap-

parently ‘rational’ economic decisions.

We encourage you to delve into

Budget 2012, and to discover the intri-

cacies of financial decision-making and

resource allocation.

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Choices have to be made; and opportunity costs are in-curred. However, a Federal government budget is much

than an economic problem of choice and opportunity costs.

Facts

HIGHEST QUALIFICATION :

Ph.D in Hotel and Tourism

PERSONAL : 3 Children and

1 Grandson

FAVOURITE FOOD : Pies

and Sandwiches – anything

with bread/pastry

FAVOURITE PLACE : Home

FAVOURITE TV SERIES:

National Geographic, The

Oprah Show

CURRENT READING:

Business Models

Implementation, Business

Cases

HOBBY & INSPIRATION :

Entertaining my grandchild

who provides me with a

refreshing look on life.

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IN CONVERSATION WITH . . .

Prof. Nor Khomar

Q: It’s real pleasure to have you on our newsletter. First of all, can you tell us something about your career before joining UNITAR in the year 2006? I studied hotel management at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and began my career as an assistant lecturer there soon after graduation. That was in 1973. I stayed on and was fortunate enough to be part of the university’s development and transformation into the largest university in the country and also my own career development. I left UiTM as a professor in year 2000 to continue my services at Universiti Malaya. My career took a different turn then, focusing and contributing more towards the development of the hospitality and tourism education in the country. In my capacity as the president of the then newly formed Educators Association of Malaysia (TEAM) and my involvement as MQA panel of experts and member of the

Social Science accreditation committee. I would like to think that I had been able, in my small way, contribute towards improving the quality of curriculum and education in the field. Q: Can you describe your work in FHTM in only three words? Enjoyable. Gratifying. Challenging. The FHTM staff, both academic and administrative, are exceptional – anyone can be call upon anytime to discuss and execute any plans, whether for the faculty or for the university. Their positive attitude and willingness to extent a helping help in any university activities are noted and appreciated by the university community. I took special pride in their ability to plan and conduct group research, and recently in their ability to publish and share their research findings in international conferences.

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Deans of Faculty

of Hospitality and Tourism

Management

Q: Who and what is your inspiration? As I progresses along in my life and my career, there has been numerous people that I have encountered who have shaped my way of thinking and my outlook on life and its purpose. Religion has always been the focal point, and the others - my late parents, my teachers and professors at college, my friends, my colleagues at work, and my children. They have inspired me to continue to reflect and be thankful, and to contribute to make my surrounding a better place. Q: Please tell us about your philosophy of leadership?

Leadership quality is determined by the quality of the team, as measured by the performance outcome – tangible and intangible, as well as strategic and short-term. All these is reflected in the morale of the staff and the esprit de corp. The effectiveness of a leader is judged by the team that he/she lead. The challenge is to ensure that the team’s collective ideas are

aligned with the organizational’s interest. Fundamentally, leadership is “doing service for others”. Q: Where do you vacation the most often? Vacation? That’s a strange word! I enjoy the time spent with my family, mainly during weekends. Extended time off? Well... I do take a fews day off before or after conferences to do some sightseeing or shopping. Thus, there is no specific place in mind, but my friends would disagree with this. So I better be honest! I always like to go back to the US, sort of down memory lane since I spent the best part of my youth there as student at 4 different universities. Lately however, I’m beginning to feel the stress of the longhaul flight.

Q: Tourism Development: Hard Core of Soft Touch? This depends on which perspective you are looking from. From the developer’s perspective, it is hard core - the need to be concerned with

sustainable development and to be prof itable. P lanned tourism development ensures the availability of tourism facilities and infrastructures at destinations at a certain carrying capacity, and these require the examination of hard facts and figures. Providing the services to the tourists require the soft touch, but with a high tech approach so as to ensure timely delivery. The delivery of intangible assets such as culture and heritage would definitely call for a soft approach.

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IN CONVERSATION WITH . . .

The government has done an enormous job, especially in

marketing and promoting tourism in the international market. We can attribute the success in positioning

the country as a tourism destination to the government’s effort.

However, there’s a lot to be done in terms of developing tourism product, especially the cultural and heritage aspects that could earn the extra

mileage in supporting the quality of tourism products.

Q: How does tourism affect our economy? How to improved tourism-related services? What can government do? Future of Malaysian tourism industry? To justify my responses on all the questions would demand that I write a book! I will try to answer in the shortest possible way. Yes, tourism is important for our economic development for its reaches out to the grassroots of the community. Currently, and for the last decade, it has been ranked second in terms of foreign earnings. But, more importantly, is the multiplier effect of the tourist ringgit and the opportunity it provided for just about anyone who want to participate – from the kampung folks in the cottage industry, the story teller, the roadside stalls, members of dance troupe, the night market traders, the town coucil members, and many others. The importance of the tourism industry is not only in its ability to generate income, but more in terms of its ability to bring cultural awareness and pride back to the people. Improvement of tourism-related services – this call for the creating of widespread awareness, education and training. Malaysia has always been known for its hospitality and friendly people. But, when it come to providing service “as a business’, we fail somewhere! Maybe, this has to do with the setting. In a natural setting, voluntarily we provide the best service. In an organizational setting, the intermediaries/ mediating factors have much to influence those at the frontline. In this case we have to do a better job in understanding and managing service organizations. The government has done an enormous job, especially in marketing and promoting tourism in the international market. We can attribute the success in positioning the country as a tourism destination to the government’s effort. However, there’s a lot to be done in terms of developing tourism product, especially the cultural and heritage aspects that could earn the extra mileage in supporting the quality of tourism products. A concerted effort at the national level needs is required to ensure the planned and continuing development of these intangible tourism assets. It is important, in acknowleging the importance of the tourism industry, that we do not overextended its role in the Malaysian economy. Malaysia is a small country and its ability to absorb the number of international tourists is limited. On the other hand, the role of tourism in providing the quality of life to the locals is endless. The country has several highly populated areas where the city dwellers need to be provided with “fresh breathing” hubs a short distance away. Tourist recreational sites should be developed with the complete range of tourism facilities for families for weekend getaways. As part of this effort, research at FHTM has specifically focuses on small down development as domestic tourists destinations.

Q: One of the government’s initiatives under the tenth Malaysia plan is greatly emphasis on research and development in the country. Tell us more about the role of research in improving Tourism and Hospitality services. The government, through its various agencies, especially the Ministry of Tourism, has collected extensive secondary information and data on the industry – hotel performance and tourists arrival statistics, productivity and labour information, training facilities, and others. Research activities and primary data collection in the Tourism and Hospitality field are quite recent phenomena, spanning back just about 6 or 7 years. As the number of academicians with advanced qualification and the number of graduate level programmes in the field increase, the quantity and quality of research should increased. It is interesting to note that universities have developed certain niche research areas, for example research at UiTM has focused on operational aspects, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia has focused on sustainable development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak is on culture, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan has an entrepreneurial flavour, while at University of Management and Technology (UMTECH) the concentration is on tourism product development in small towns. These individual efforts have been recognised and published, but the results have yet to be translated into improved tourism services. However, the most immediate impact are brought about through consultancy activities carried out by the universities through its partnership with tourism operators and external agencies.

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Q: As the country looks ahead to the unfolding of the government’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) to develop Malaysia into a high income nation by 2020, I learned that UCSI University through its Faculty of Hospitality and Management is spearheading EPP 10 parked under “Education” National Key Economic Area to improve the quality and quantity of workers within Malaysia’s hospitality and tourism industry. Is there any chance for us to collaborate with them? It not a question of whether we would/should collaborate with UCSI, but more to complement the effort of each of the Higher Education Providers (HEP’s) in the field of hospitality and tourism. The UCSI model is developed based on their needs and how best they think they should deliver their educational product. No doubt, the close rapport between industry and HEPs is necessary to enable the students’ transition from one to the another is smooth, but education and industry each has separate objectives. Providing skilled-based training by HEP’s merges the objectives closer. There are already community colleges and polytechnics that have this goal. As the programmes offered move to the upper enchelons especially at the Universities, the need to provide education, as apposed to training, is deemed more important in order to ensure the industry’s competitiveness and the industry’s survival through the supply of entrepreneurs or graduates with the entrepreneurial mindset. The development in hospitality and tourism education in Malaysia is in line with the development in other countries such as the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. As the hospitality and tourism education as an industry mature, each HEP would find its niche to support the growth of the hospitality and tourism industry.

iPHONE - iPAD - iSAD

Early this month, the technology industry in particular, and the world at large, mourned the death of a visionary. Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs died at the mere age of 56, just one day after the unveilling of the company’s latest iPhone and new operating system. Almost immediatelly after news of Jobs’ death broke, social media was abuzz, blogs were updated, some people changed their facebook avatars to mourn his death and there were old –YouTube videos featuring Jobs’ speeches became popular, link to the webpages featuring his famous quotes were shared and images people had created in tribute of him and his work went viral. One of those images is a silhouette of Jobs with the Apple logo designed by Hong Kong graphic design student Jonathan Mak. It goes without saying that Jobs was one of the catalysts for all that to be possible, thanks to the technology he introduced to the world. By extension, it was these technologies that contributed to the success of social media, which enabled the news of his death to spread quickly, and made it easy for all those other elements to go viral. US President Barack Obama probably explained it best when he said in a statement: “ There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”

Those who have watched the YouTube video of his speech at the Stanford University commencement ceremony in 2004 would know that it wasnt the potential technology that made Apple what it is today. In that speech, Jobs talked about how sitting in on a calligraphy class during his college years led to the introduction of typography into the Macintosh system (which he alluded, Windows copied). “It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way science cant capture,” he said of calligraphy during the speech. As someone who has long admired Jobs, I feel that the biggest legacy he has left behind is not the Mac, or the iPhone or the iPad. It is the understanding and belief that technology cannot be seen in isolation of everything else in the world. Rest in peace,Steve.

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Steve Jobs finds a place in the Bite - the design featuring Job’s silhouette incorporated into the bite of a white Apple logo on a black background, has gone viral on the internet since news of his death.

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Indumathy shows that she has what it takes to play a traditional indian string instrument called Veenai. The Veenai is 1.5m long and is made from jackwood. It has a large, round body with a thick, wide neck, the end of which is carved into the head of a dragon. A small resonator is attached to the underside of the neck and the instrument has 24 metal frets embedded in hardened Beeswax, mixed with charcoal powder. Mention the word “Vennai”, images of an old lady playing the musical instrument usually come to mind. “Many people think that those who play traditional instruments must be old as they are not only seen to be old fashioned but are hardly stylish” says Indu. But Indu 29, is by no means old or old-fashioned. Infact Indu is modern, trendy, sporting bangs similar to that of the current mega stars from South India. The Veenai is a complete instrument and provides the basic components: sruti, laya and sahitya. Its main attraction is the mellow tonal quality which is capable of evoking a meditative atmosphere. The enchanting melody of the musical instrument of Veenai normally can casts a magical spell on the audience.

“Life suddenly became more meaningful and playing this instrument is therapeutic for me” says Indu. According to mythological legends, Goddess Saraswati is always seen to play musical instrument of Veenai. Indu confesses that she has become attached to her Vennai and carries the instrument wherever she goes and even sleeps next to it. Although my family members and friends joke about how paranoid I am about my Vennai, they also understand how much I value the instrument” she says before ending the conversation.

Name

Indumathy Kasavan indumathy@umtech.edu.my

Department

Academic Staff Development Centre

COVER STORY - String of Diwali

VISIT BY LIBYAN EMBASSY

On 19 October UMTECH received a courtesy visit by H.E.Dr.Bubaker A .A AlMansori, Libyan Ambassador to Malaysia and his special assis-tant,Mr.Esaam S.Gheblawi. The purpose of the visit is to foster closer relationship between UMTECH and Libyan Embassy and at the same time explore possibilities of collabo-ration. Graduate School also initiated a forum for Ambassador to get to know more than 30 Libyan students who are currently studying here.

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Environmental concerns have been increasing

in the hotel and resort industry. EMS consists

of an environmental policy and a set of

evaluation processes that requires organiza-

tions to assess their environmental impacts

by establishing, implementing and monitoring

environmental goals and outcomes as well as

performing ongoing management reviews. An

EMS includes commitment and policy, plan-

ning, implementation, measurement and

evaluation, and review and improvement

(Hersey, 1998). ISO 14001 is international

standards on environmental management

systems are designed to help reduce the

environmental impact of businesses and

improve its financial and environmental per-

formance while improving management con-

trols (Bansel & Hunter, 2003). Implementing

the ISO 14000 standards giving a potential

benefits include better customer relations,

recognition from regulators, better control of

environmental issues, and increased em-

ployee awareness of environmental concerns

(Barnes, 1996). Recently, mid range and lux-

ury hotels and resorts are interested in devel-

oping environmental systems and practices.

Some hotels have further ahead adopted

voluntary self-regulatory initiatives such as

the international environmental management

system (EMS) standard ISO 14001. In Malay-

sia, several hotels have adopted the formal

environmental management systems (EMS)

or the internationally recognised ISO 14001

Environmental Management Standard but

STAFF IN THE LIME LIGHT Zulhairi…..

Researcher Khursiah Abd. Aziz khursiah@umtech.edu.my

Objectives

To identify to what extent are Malaysia hotels and resorts involved in Environmental Management Systems

To examine the comprehen-siveness of Environmental Strategies incorporated into Environmental Management Systems

Awarding Body

University Research Grant Co-Researcher

Salbiah Abd Rahman salbiah@umtech.edu.my

“This research is to determine whether the Malaysia hotel and resort have implemented environmental management systems (EMS) and to examine the comprehensiveness of environmental strategies (ES) incorporated into environmental management systems”

FROM THE FHTM KITCHEN

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OCTOBER HAPPENINGS

Ho Yee Chung (Tom) Kalaivanan a/l Jaya Krishnan Paul Chandra Bose a/l Selvarajoo Maizatul Ruzailah Binti Ahmad Musfirah binti Nor Azua Mohd Alwi Bin Hashim Norhani Binti Md Jamil Abd Halim Bohadean @ Bohari Zaid Bin Abdul Razak Nurul hidayah Binti Ismail Wan Noorashikin Binti Wan Abdullah Mizana Binti Muhamad Syahrul Danial Bin Zainol Fatimah Ibrahim Rozina Binti Mat Isa Noor Lees Ismail Puteri Nor Azani Binti Abdul Rahman Norazlita Binti Isa Mohd Rizwan Bin Nasir Sheikh Md. Yazid Bin Sheikh Md. Fadzullah Daing Zaidah Daing Ibrahim Rohani Binti Ab. Jalil Hanizan Shaker Bin Hussain Siti Nastrah Binti Mohamad Poat Salbiah Binti Abd. Rahman Nina Marlini Binti Idris

EVENTS

NEWBORNS

20—22 Sept: FHM 2011 Competition

26 Sept: A Workshop on Marketing and Promotion

27 Sept: Majlis Hari Raya UMTECH

BIRTHDAYS

Parent’s Name Department Baby Gender Date of Birth

Pn Siti Nor Baayah Ahmad Faculty of Business Administration Boy 3rd October 2011 En. Syed Munir Barakbah Bin Syed Faozi Barakbah Faculty of Hospitality & Tourism Management Girl 16th October 2011

Pn. Siti Shuhada Zainol Abidin Human Resource Department Boy 17th October 2011

Pn. Rozina Mat Isa Sevices and Facilities Department Boy 24th October 2011

STAFF MOVEMENT from 1– 31 October 2011

Transfer: No Staff Name Designation Department Transfer to Designation Effective Date

1 En. Engku Mohd Shukri Engku Hatim

Head Student Accounts Department Procurement and Business Development Department

Head 10/10/2011

2 En. Rosli Mohamad AMin Senior Executive Procurement and Business Development Department

Student Accounts Department Head 10/10/2011

3 Pn. Mawar Shamfalis Sham-suddin

Executive Student Accounts Department Procurement and Business Development Department

Executive 13/10/2011

4 Cik Muslima Wati Abdul Mubin

Receptionist Administration and Record Management Department

Services and Facilities Receptionist 13/10/2011

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