AIA Agency Award Presentation Nite 2011 - Hotel Equatorial, Penang

Congratulations to all AIA Agency Awardees , Agents and staff from Penang, Bukit Mertajam and Kulim Branches.  Special congratulation to our "How Lien" Insurance Agency Director Mr Yeap Boon Swee for guiding us to the Clean Sweep of All the Awards at AIA National level.

Here is his style of typical "How Lien" or Arrogant Speech.


Thank you to my leader, Mr Leong Eng Shin District Director and colleagues from  PN/LES Agency. Congratulations to Madam Hooi Phaik Geok being one of the Million Dollars Round Table (MDRT) award winners and Miss Chew Seh See on her promotion to be the new Unit Manager.

Here you can enjoy the show with our Beautiful and Lovely  Emcee, Miss Laureen Quah bringing on the programs for the evening at Hotel Equatorial, Penang  on Tuesday January 17, 2012. There was musical performance by the Penang Symphony Orchestra Violin Quartet.

 There were ballerinas to entertain all AIA twinkle-twinkle stars too.

Later half of the show, she introduced us to Leonard De Silva and Friends on a night filled with Jazz.

See you again AIA agency force at next year's Annual Award Presentation Night 2012.  Meantime, Gong Xi Fa Cai and Wishing Everyone A Very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year.

Happy New Year 2012 Countdown at Esplanade (Padang Kota), Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia

Wishing you a very Happy New Year 2012 and may God bless you richly in wealth ,good health, and grant you peace, joy, success and love always in the 366 days ahead.

After dinner at James Foo Western Food, Fettes Park, Penang, Bigfoothill went over to the main annual hot spot for the New Year 2012 Countdown at the Esplanade (Padang Kota), Georgetown, Penang.  The VVIPs including the Chief Minister, the Honorable, Mr Lim Guan Eng and his Exco members were there to grace the occasion.

As we were walking on the street which was full of hawkers and petty traders and the people going towards Padang Kota, we passed by another famous landmark, The Sire-Museum Restaurant known for its Western Foods and fine dinning and a collection of the Chinese Antiques and furniture belonging to the famous millionaire, the illustrious Yeap Chor Ee who arrived from China and worked very hard to become the founder of the only Penang based bank, Ban Hin Lee Bank Berhad which had in recent years been merged into CIMB Bank.

There was a concert held at Padang Kota along Light Street and facing the seafront and next to the Fort Cornwallis which is located right in front of the City Hall building next to the Dewan Sri Pinang on the back and opposite Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Penang Branch. American International Assurance Berhad (AIA) Gnext training center is right behind BNM at Bishop Street, Georgetown, Penang. The group Bunkface was one of the performers performing at the peak of the concert.  You may like their genre of rock music.  They performed the song "Dunia" which means "World" when I was walking to the Esplanade after finding a parking space at AIA.

2011 Farewell

It is time to bid farewell to year 2011.  After all the works and efforts for the year, it is time to relax and reflect on what we have accomplished in this 365 days of 2011.  I took the opportunity to meet up with friends over in Penang Island and went for dinner with family at the famous James Foo & Family Western Food at Fettes Park, Tanjung Tokong, Penang.  The foods tasted really fantastic.  I ordered the Combo which have the pork, beef, lamb, ham, sausage and egg plus the vegetables,potato fries and a bun with the black pepper sauce.  You can catch a glimpse of inside the restaurant which is situated within Fettes park.  

We had to take a number to wait for a table and be seated. There were many dinners at this time of the year and weekend.  I once wanted to dine there a few months age but the crowds were big as usual.  It was almost 30 minutes waiting for an available table.  Meantime, we ordered our foods and refreshments, one mushroom soup, one oxtail soup, one black pepper chicken, one Hawaiian chicken and a Combo serving, and drinks - one glass of Lime juice, one Roselle and one other juice. It is another 30 minutes of waiting for the foods to be served.  The total bill is RM56.20.  If you really must try it out, please be cool to find a parking lot and wait patiently for the services and food. Have your buddies to go along with you so that you will have plenty of time to catch up and kill. If not, just watch the English Premier leagues on the LED TV on the wall or fiddle with your I-Phone, Samsung Galaxy Note or Tabs or whatever.  If you can bear the noises from the neighboring tables then you need not worry of hearing your grumbling tummy.  Note: Make sure you have the leisure time if you plan to enjoy the tasty foods at James Foo.  Sorry folks, I did not bring a good camera, just a Sony handy video camera.  Bigfoothill is sure to return again to James Foo for more of their servings on the menu next year 2012.

New Year 2012 Go to New Chinese Primary School at Kota Permai, Bukit Mertajam -Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Beng Teik (Pusat)

Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Beng Teik (Pusat)

Main Entrance to the building

corridors between the two blocks

This is the new Chinese Primary School, Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Beng Teik (Pusat) which is opening for new registration and intake of new students from Primary Year One to Year Six for the new Year 2012 session.  This Chinse primary school was originally located in Penang Island but it was relocated here due to the small and dwindling enrollment at its original location.  With the growing population in and around Bukit Mertajam, especially in Kota Permai, Saujana Permai, Permai Indah and the nearby residential housing estates, the arrival of this school is timely to cater to the children living in this place.  You can contact the telephone number and contact persons and headmaster stated on the notice board for more information.

As you can see, the Chinese primary school is built mainly from getting the funding from the Chinese community and donations and from sponsors such as the Tiger Beer charity concerts with donations from the public well wishers.  The Malaysian Government is only chipping in its token share of developing the Chinese and Tamil streams of education.  In fact,most of Malaysian Chinese schools are also having many students from the non-Chinese community as their parents belief that the education system is good for their future generations than the national schools where the language of teaching is in the national Malay language except for the subject of English.  Let us not go into the flip-flop policy making by our Education and Cabinet Ministers on the subject of teaching Mathematics and Science in English.  One thing I will always be proud of our fellow Malaysians of non-Chinese origins who have sent their children to Chinese Schools and their children are able to speak Mandarin or local dialects like Hokkien and Cantonese with their Chinese friends.  I salute you. You are worth two men' minds in this world. I myself have not studied in Chinese vernacular schools and is a "Buta Huruf"(Chinese Letters Blind). 

Although the Malaysian Chinese and Indian community have been contributing to the commerce and welfare of our beloved Negaraku (My Country), Malaysia, long before the British granted the Independence to Malaya and Sabah and Sarawak, the community cannot depend on the Malaysian Government to build the Chinese and Tamil schools.  The irony is that the Chinese community is contributing a very high percentage of taxes collected by the government but it only get chicken feed in return from the government to set up the Chinese schools. The Tamil schools were mostly built by the plantation owners who employed the estate workers to tend to the plantations in the past decades.

Even to get the approval to build a school have to go through so much bureaucracies and politicking.  The Chinese school is usually equipped with a cement basketball court which also double up as the assembly ground but seldom have football field.  Mind you, the Chinese school students and youths have contributed to the National Basketball team at the SEA Games and other international tournaments as the training ground for our national basketball players.  It is hard to find a good footballer from a Chinese or Tamil school in the likeness of our former national heroes "Towkay" YB Datuk Soh Chin Aun from Malacca or Striker James Wong from Sabah. or famous Spiderman Goalkeeper Arumugam .Most of today's Chinese and Tamil schools do not have enough land space for football field. The National schools which the Government fully financed will have a big football field and all other sports facilities.  In my old primary and secondary national schools back in Perlis, I am blessed to have the green-green cow-grass fields as large as two football fields to run and roam about during the physical exercise lessons. This was where we had former National players from Perlis, Bakri Ibni and Saidin Osman in the good old days when our "Harimau Malaya"(Malayan Tigers) was now the "Harimau Lagenda" (Legends).

Do the students from the Chinese or Tamil schools performed academically and excel in sports better than the national schools? Are the quality of the education systems in the various type of schools in Malaysia measured by the money poured into by the Government and staffing plus facilities? What is our Education Minister and the Ministry going to do to improve the overall education in Malaysia for the benefits of all Malaysians?  On one level, we are trying to promote ourselves as the the regional education hubs but we neglected and failed to promote a meritocracy and equal opportunities for all Malaysians.  We cannot blame the British for leaving a legacy for neglecting the poor as the nation has been ruled by our Malaysian forefathers and current government over 50 years. Even our Universities' ranking have dropped.  What is happening?

Must the Chinese and Indian communities have to beg for allocations of funding and licenses for the Chinese and Tamil Schools from the Malaysian governments each time there is a General Election coming?  Are we not One Malaysia for Malaysians? Is there a caste system in our Malaysian family. Or we are only one and united in spirit in sports only when we can shine under the glitter of glory being world champions? When will we see the day when the Government treats all Malaysians and Made-In-Malaysia products (including students and graduates from these schools) like its slogan One Malaysia. Or are we only interested to promote the cow farmings(NFC) to incur losses of millions of Ringgit and thereby wastage of Malaysian People's funds as highlighted by the Auditor-General reports. The latest no brain-er project to sell and export frozen Durian to the People of Republic of China. I leave it to you. 

There are primary and secondary Chinese schools in most major towns in Malaysia. Is there a Minister from the Chinese or Indian community or better still a visionary Malay Education Minister who dare to ask the PM and his cabinet to set up a Chinese or Indian University in Malaysia so that we can have the Chinese from the mainland China and Indians from India to study in Malaysia so that we can have a more balance trade with them and earn their currency exchange from the education industry and prevent our outflow of funds since many Malaysians have been going to their countries to study medicines and other courses in the past.  We can import their expertise of highly qualified academicians to teach our people and reduce the brain drain.  Who knows, we can learn to build rockets,space shuttle and stations from the Chinese to send our Angkasawan (Malaysian Astronaut) to the Moon and orbit the Earth and Mars instead of riding on a Russian rocket while we can learn from the Indians on computer programming and cow farming (see the you tube here contributed by PeteMcCormack2)?

Is this just my One Malaysia ideal dream and will remain a dream till the cow come home?
What is your say, PM  Y.A.B. DATO' SRI HJ. MOHD. NAJIB BIN TUN HAJI ABDUL RAZAK
PRIME MINISTER, MINISTER OF FINANCE and his deputy,  Y.A.B. TAN SRI DATO' HAJI MUHYIDDIN BIN MOHD. YASSIN
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, MINISTER OF EDUCATION?

You may be interested to learn a little information from the link here to Matrade's statistics on our Malaysia's Trade Performance from January  to September 2011.

Here is a resource link to Center for International Development at Harvard University for your reading.

Another resources from Centre for Malaysia Chinese Studies

Notice for the public

Canteen

show classroom

E-learning facility at classroom

Lion Dance at Ground breaking ceremony

VVIPs including Dato Sri Dr Ng Yen Yen & Datuk Ir Dr Wee Ka Siong at the ground breaking ceremony

From Jln Kota Permai going  to Jln Song Ban Kheng

Side view from Kota Permai where the work in progress

The assembly hall on the 1st floor of the administration block

Wooden parquet floor for the stage

The assembly hall

Library area

Boys washroom

Girls washroom

A view from the school towards Kota Permai