Some contacted, others waiting

Some contacted, others waiting

Some contacted, others waiting

Posted: 12 Apr 2014 09:02 AM PDT

13 April 2014| last updated at 12:21AM
By LAVANYA LINGAN AND SYLVIA LOOI | news@news.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: BANKS have started contacting families of passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 to settle their loans.

Zamani Zakaria, 56, the father of Mohd Razahan Zamani, 33, said a bank officer contacted him regarding his son's housing loan.

The bank, he said, requested a confirmation letter from Malaysia Airlines that his son and daughter-in-law, Norli Akmar Hamid, 33, were among the missing passengers.

"I now need to contact MAS for the official letter and discuss the next course of action," he said, adding that his son's employer also visited his family on Wednesday and gave them his salary for last month.

"The employer praised my son for his hard work, dedication and gave us his March salary. I am not sure whether they will continue paying him."

Zamani said they were not affected financially as he was still working.

"He (Razahan) used to give his mother some money for monthly expenses. She is feeling it now. She is also still finding it hard to accept our son's and daughter-in-law's fate."

Passenger S. Puspanathan's father, G. Subramaniam, 60, said the banks and insurance companies had not contacted him regarding his son's loans or policies. He said his wife and son jointly bought the house that they were living in, but the banks had not contacted them regarding the repayment.

"I am assuming that my daughter-in-law is servicing the loan. That is why they have not contacted us."

He said if the Mortgage Reducing Term Assurance (MRTA) coverage for their house offsets only the son's portion of the loan, he would have to look for ways to service the balance.

"My son used to take care of our expenses. But now, I am planning to work as a security guard again to manage our expenses."

In Ipoh, Choi Loong Chow, the husband of MH370 air stewardess Goh Sock Lay, said he was contacted by two insurance companies on Thursday and they offered to pay him compensation.

"One was from the insurance company appointed by MAS while the other was from my wife's personal insurance."

Choi, 48, said the companies offered to pay him compensation with no questions asked.

"I accept the money with a heavy heart as I believe my wife is still alive. Without the plane wreckage or bodies, I will never accept she is gone."

The family of civil engineer Tan Ah Meng, however, refused to speak to reporters at their home at Kampung Baru Kanthan in Chemor.

Tan, 46, his Taiwanese wife, Chuang Hsiu Leng, 48, and their eldest son, Tan Wei Chen, 19, were among those on board the flight.

Mohd Razahan Zamani and his wife, Norli Akmar Hamid. The bank has contacted Razahan's father regarding his housing loan.

S. Puspanathan, a passenger on flight MH370, and his wife.

Explore Malaysia with ‘Street View’

Posted: 12 Apr 2014 09:01 AM PDT

GEORGE TOWN: SOON, with just a click on the Internet, anyone around the world can view and "experience" what its like to travel along the new second Penang bridge.

  This has been made possible through Google Maps' Street View, which recently shot a 360o view of the Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah bridge through cameras fitted onto a car.

  Street View enables users to visually explore and navigate neighbourhoods and other special locations through its panoramic street-level views.

  A sports-utility vehicle, with a turret on the roof housing 15 camera lenses pointing in all directions, was used to achieve the majestic view of the longest bridge in Southeast Asia.

  Aided by an on-board global positioning system, the vehicle went at a steady pace on the 24km bridge, automatically recording and mapping the bridge's features during an off-peak period on March 10.

  The driver of the vehicle went at a steady pace along the bridge and did not encounter any difficulties although the contraption on the roof drew curious looks from passing motorists.

  Besides this iconic bridge, Street View has already recorded off-the- road tourist spots in Penang, such as the historic Fort Cornwallis, Penang War Museum, Kapitan Keling Mosque and the 211-year-old Dhammikarama Burmese Temple.

  These four locations were recorded using the same camera system, but mounted on a backpack, giving users an inside view of these tourist spots.

  Besides Penang, Street View users can take a peek at 14 other tourist spots in the Klang Valley from the comfort of their homes.

  They are Taman Tasik Ampang Hilir; Taman Putra Perdana; Putrajaya; Taman Rimba Riang Park; Selangor; Taman Tasik Shah Alam; Selangor; Sunway Lagoon; Shah Alam Go Kart;  Taman Desa Water Park; Taman Tasik Titiwangsa;    Taman Rimba Kiara; Taman Botanical Kepong; Taman Tasik Kepong Metropolitan; Masjid Sultan Sallahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah; Shah Alam; Sri Subramaniam Temple; Batu Caves, and  Desa Park City.

  According to Google, the Street View car is presently recording images in Seremban, Bentong, Temerloh, Kinta Valley in Ipoh, Kuala Terengganu and the Klang Valley.

  Street View allows users to 'walk' through cities and is great for armchair visitors and tourists.

  Google Malaysia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, communications and public affairs head, Zeffri Yusof, said users could visually explore neighbourhoods through these street-level pictures.

  "Street View strives to showcase our real world as vividly as possible, providing rich and detailed maps for users."

   Zeffri said local authorities in Malaysia had been very supportive of Street View's efforts to bring Malaysia's unique sights to the whole world.

   "We have full support from the government, including Tourism Malaysia, Department of Survey and Mapping, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, and state governments. Before we head out anywhere to capture imagery, we inform the local authorities."  

  According to Google, the car is equipped with three lasers, reflecting off surfaces to measure how far  buildings or objects are, helping them to construct 3D models for the maps.

Many factors have to be considered when doing Street View mapping, including the weather and population density, to determine the best time and imagery.

Signals from sensors in the car help realign and tilt the images to match their geographic location on the map.

  To access Street View, go to Google Maps (maps.google.com) and search for the desired location.  

   Places without Street View are often supplemented with publicly shot panorama photos using the Photo Sphere function.

Google's 'Street View' vehicle, equipped with 15 camera lenses pointing in all directions, capturing the Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah Bridge, the longest in Southeast Asia. Pic by Ramdzan Masiam

No end to fatal bus crashes as we don't change

Posted: 12 Apr 2014 09:01 AM PDT

13 April 2014| last updated at 12:25AM
By Rozanna Latif | rozanna@nst.com.my

 THEY happen at least once a year -- horrific bus crashes that claim multiple lives.     

They had been blamed on various factors including reckless driving, lack of enforcement, poor maintenance of buses and dangerous road conditions.

Every time, they sparked new debates on road safety and concerns about both the commercial and public bus system.

Every time, the authorities promised to strengthen enforcement and take major steps to improve safety.

Many believed that last year's Genting Highlands' bus tragedy would be a wake-up call for bus operators and authorities to take road safety seriously.

The crash, which claimed 37 lives last August, was the worst accident of its kind in Malaysia's history. It prompted a six-month long investigation that ended in an expansive report by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) and the suspension of the bus company involved.

The government also promised to fully implement Miros' recommendations, including conducting checks on hilly roads, and strengthen enforcement on existing laws and guidelines such as Safety, Health and Environment Code (SHE).

Prior to the bus company's suspension, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had said:

"The buck stops here. Any other company operating public transport services would be wise to learn from the action that we plan to take against this company.

"We do not want to see a repeat of this accident or the victims to die in vain."

And yet, less than a year later, here we are again. In the latest incident yesterday morning, three were killed after the double-decker express bus they were travelling in overturned on the Bentong-Raub road.

Once again, the same questions are asked. Was the driver speeding or driving recklessly? Was the bus poorly maintained? Was it a sharply-winding road? And in this particular case, are double-decker buses suitable for Malaysian roads?

When contacted yesterday, Pan Malaysian Bus Operators Association (PMBOA) president Datuk Mohamad Ashfar Ali called the incident "a freak accident", saying that the driver had tried to avoid another car on the road when it suddenly overturned.

The bus passengers, however, claimed that the driver had been speeding and frequently texting throughout the journey.

Whether it was a true accident or an incident that could have been avoided remains to be seen. But what is worrying for most Malaysians is the frequency by which these fatal crashes occur.

Regardless of their cause, many of these accidents usually have at least one thing in common -- someone had failed in their duty to keep passengers safe.

It could be the tired and overworked driver. Or the irresponsible bus operator who took a lax attitude towards vehicle maintenance. Or the authorities who failed to conduct proper safety checks.

How many more lives need to be lost before attitudes change? How long can we go on pretending that these were "just" accidents and could not have been avoided?

Injured passenger Ruwaidi Jusuh, 35, recuperating at Bentong Hospital after the fatal bus crash in Jalan Bentong-Raub yesterday. Pic by Saifullizan Tamadi

Abbott: Search will go on for a long time

Posted: 12 Apr 2014 09:01 AM PDT

13 April 2014| last updated at 12:33AM

Abbott appeared to step back from his comments on Friday when he voiced great confidence that signals from the black box had been detected -- his most upbeat assessment thus far that triggered speculation that a breakthrough was imminent.

Retired air chief marshal Angus Houston, who heads the hunt from Perth, had quickly issued a statement clarifying that there had been no breakthrough.

Yesterday, Abbott repeated his confidence in the search, but put the accent on the challenges ahead.

"We do have a high degree of confidence the transmissions we have been picking up are from flight MH370," Abbott said on the last day of his visit to China but added, "No one should underestimate the difficulties of the task ahead of us".

"Yes we have very considerably narrowed down the search area but trying to locate anything 4.5 kilometres beneath the surface of the ocean about a thousand kilometres from land is a massive, massive task and it is likely to continue for a long time to come."

The Australian-led search for the Boeing 777, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, is racing to gather as many signals as possible to determine an exact resting place before a submersible is sent down to find wreckage.

On Saturday's operations, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said: "Australian defence vessel Ocean Shield continues more focused sweeps with the towed pinger locator to try and locate further signals related to the aircraft's black boxes."

Ocean Shield has picked up four signals linked to the aircraft black boxes, with the first two analysed as being consistent with those from aircraft flight recorders.

The beacons on the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders have a normal battery lifespan of around 30 days. AFP

US Navy Airman Second Class Karl Shinn keeping an eye out for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight M370 in the Indian Ocean.

Quick relief for victims' families

Posted: 12 Apr 2014 09:01 AM PDT

IT has been more than a month since the tragic and mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The whereabouts of the plane continue to frustrate and confound search teams as they trawl the vast Indian Ocean.

But even as the search goes on, questions have already been raised about the practical, day-to-day issues that the next of kin of passengers and crew may be facing in the absence of their loved ones.

For example, loans have to be paid and wages will be due for those who are employed.

Optimistically, banks, employers and insurers, acknowledging that these are "extraordinary circumstances" have stepped up to make things as smooth as possible for the families concerned.

In offering its sympathy to the family members, loved ones and friends of the passengers and crew on board flight MH370, the Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) said its members were prepared to review all matters on a case-by-case basis to see how best to handle and smoothen the paths of due process faced by the next of kin.

"Generally, the banks will suspend all credit cards. Assistance will also be provided to the next of kin on a case-to-case basis as may be deemed fit, which may include offering moratoriums or cessation of interest and late charges.

"For housing loans covered by mortgage reducing term assurance, some banks note that their insurers have agreed to waive the requirement of death certificates for processing the claims as long as the borrower is confirmed to be a passenger or crew on board the flight by the relevant authority," said ABM executive director Chuah Mei Lin.

She added that banks were prepared to "maintain open communication with the next of kin of the passengers and crew, and at least one bank has appointed a liaison for matters related to MH370".

She urged all the relatives to approach the banks to get assistance.

They are also welcome to contact ABM at its ABMConnect hotline 1-300-88-9980 or emailing to eABMConnect by logging onto their website, www.abm.org.my.

ABM's council of 13 banks comprise Malayan Banking Bhd, Affin Bank Bhd, Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd, AmBank (M) Bhd, CIMB Bank Bhd, Citibank Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd, OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, RHB Bank Bhd, Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd and the United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd.

Chuah said in a usual missing person's case, "each bank would have its own standard operating procedure, predicated on evidence acceptable to the bank that the customer is missing".

"The evidence may include, but is not limited to, a pronouncement or declaration of the court or confirmation by the police. In the case of MH370, banks are sympathetic and will be prepared to be facilitative once the passenger or crew is proven to be a bank customer since the circumstances are extraordinary."

The Life Insurance Association Malaysia (LIAM) said several of its 14 member companies had started to process life insurance claims by the next of kin of passengers and crew on board MH370.

"In view of special circumstances of this tragedy, life insurance companies in Malaysia have agreed to accord special priority in facilitating and expediting claims payment," said Vincent Kwo, president of LIAM.

"The next of kin can file in their insurance claims now without having to wait for the death certificate.

"Once the proper claimant has been identified, payment can be processed within a week."

He also noted that initial checks found that 47 out of 50 Malaysians on board, comprising 38 passengers and 12 crew members, had policies with life insurance companies in Malaysia. The checks also ascertained that some six non-Malaysians were insured with LIAM members.

Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said employers of employees on board the missing plane should exercise caution and could not rely on Section 15(2) of the Employment Act 1955, or the general principle of breach of contract for absenteeism for those not under the Act, to end their employment as their status remains unknown.

Section 15(2) of the Employment Act 1955 states that "an employee shall be deemed to have broken his contract of service with the employer if he has been continuously absent from work for more than two consecutive working days without prior leave from his employer, unless he has reasonable excuse for such absence and has informed or attempted to inform his employer of such excuse prior to or at the earliest opportunity during such absence".

"We don't know where they (passengers) are. However, since the employee or employees had not been present for work and cannot provide services to the company, the company may exercise the option of not paying their wages for the period that they are missing.

"This is based on the principle that wages are paid for work done."

But for the cabin crew and pilots of flight MH370, Shamsuddin said their status was different.

"MAS crew and pilots could still be considered as performing their duties until such time that the fate of flight MH370 is determined.

"Similarly for those passengers on company duty or assignment, they can be considered as performing their duties and are entitled to wages until such time that the fate of flight MH370 is known."

Since this is an exceptional incident, employers of passengers who are not on company duty may wish to use their compassion and discretion to assist the families by paying a sum equivalent to the amount of wages to their families until the fate of flight MH370 is determined.

Relatives of passengers and crew aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 meeting with Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein (right) at a hotel in Putrajaya two weeks ago. Pic by Fariz Iswadi Ismail

Govt urged to stop wastage

Posted: 12 Apr 2014 09:01 AM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: THE government must take steps to curb water wastage, particularly non-revenue water (NRW),  to  tackle the   crisis, said  experts.

"Malaysia's NRW is high compared with other countries. Aside from our efforts to ensure continuous water supply, we need to take drastic measures to reduce NRW to save the treated water for consumption," said International Islamic University Malaysia's Water Quality and Modelling associate professor, Dr Zaki Zainudin Ibrahim, in a telephone interview with the New Sunday Times yesterday.

Non-revenue water is water that has been produced and is "lost" before it reaches the customer, such as through pipe leakages, burst pipes, theft and inaccurate metering.

Zaki said in 2012, the national average of NRW was at 36.4 per cent of the 5,474 trillion litres of pipe waters produced, while the figures for Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya stood at 33.1 per cent.

"The water condition is indeed critical in Malaysia, especially the Klang Valley.

"If we continue to neglect our water resources and continue to take it for granted, our situation will worsen," he said, adding that the government had to come up with a contingency plan to address the issue.

Zaki said one of the things needed to be done was to establish an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources.

This is to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems and the environment.

For example, Zaki said Malaysia had many agencies governing water resources and management, which made the handling of an issue "haywire", with authorities finger-pointing at each one when problems arose.

"The ministries and agencies need to be clear of their roles and responsibilities."

Echoing his thoughts was Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia's (AWER) president Piarapakaran S., who said if the NRW was brought down to 20 or even 25 per cent by 2020, close to 10 per cent of the water could be saved and utilised to meet increasing water demand.

He also noted that Malaysia's domestic water usage, as of 2012, was 212 litres per person daily, while it was only 151 litres in Singapore.

In Selangor that year, it reached 235 litres per person. Other states which recorded high volumes were Penang (285 litres), Perak (238 litres), Malacca (237 litres), Negri Sembilan (227 litres) and Johor (221 litres).

Malaysia Water Forum's research and policy executive, Mathini Arveena Ravee, said there were multiple reasons behind the current crisis, namely, high consumption, an unpredicted long dry spell, high NRW and pollution of water resources.

"Right now, we are only focusing on supply management. A comprehensive water demand management plan should be drafted and implemented."

People taking water from a swimming pool at Mentari Court near Bandar Sunway following rationing in the Klang Valley.