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The Star
15 hours ago
- General
- The Star
Youth want answers on matriculation entry change
PETALING JAYA: The government's silence on the new matriculation entry requirement for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) school leavers has put the life of students on hold besides causing them a lot of frustration. Hafsah Yaseer, 17, from Petaling Jaya said any changes in grading should be announced long before the exams to prepare students on what they can achieve and target. She said even though matriculation is a fast-track programme costing less, the issue should not have been brought up at this time. 'I have appealed but I don't have high hopes. I'm currently applying to Universiti Malaya through Saluran Satu,' said Hafsah, who obtained 8As in total, including A+ and A- for SPM. 'I'm not sure if they truly understand our feelings or what we went through while studying for our SPM and looking for placements,' she added. As for a Johor Baru top scorer who only wants to be known as Foo, failing to get into matriculation has left her feeling regretful. 'I scored 9A+ and a merit point of 98, yet I still did not get accepted despite putting in all that hard work. Many of my classmates who got all As except for one A- also did not get in. 'I have submitted an appeal but I have not heard back from the Education Ministry. 'From what my seniors told me, it is tough for those who get in after their appeals are accepted because by then, about five weeks would have passed and the students will have to catch up on the lessons,' the 18-year-old said. Foo considered herself lucky because shortly after getting rejected, she received a full scholarship at a private university to study pharmaceuticals, which is her choice course. 'My classmates however are willing to put their life and future on hold, in hopes of getting in because of their family's financial situation. Not everybody can afford private universities as an alternative,' she said, adding that they also have to worry about living expenses besides tuition fees. Another SPM leaver Teng Chin Hoon, 18, from Johor Baru also voiced her frustration 'After receiving my SPM results of 3A+, 5A and 2A-, I felt that the possibility of entering matriculation was slim, especially after the Education Ministry suddenly changed the requirement of not recognising A-. 'They should have told us earlier,' she said, adding that she decided to enrol in Form Six after weighing her chances. The Education Ministry stated that matriculation applicants who were not offered a place may submit an online appeal until tomorrow. The results of the appeal will be announced on June 30. MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong had criticised the Education Ministry's revised entry criteria, which no longer recognises A- as equivalent to an A. Under the new policy, only students with 10 straight A+ and A grades will be automatically offered matriculation places for the 2025/2026 session. Dr Wee said the change marks a major shift from last year's policy, which considered students with 10As and above for matriculation, following a commitment made by the Prime Minister. The Ayer Hitam MP said students had prepared based on last year's criteria, only to find the goalposts had shifted, a move he described as unfair. He added that MCA has received hundreds of appeals from students and parents who are confused and disheartened by the change.
The Star
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
G-Dragon concert ticket bots and scalpers kept at bay
G Dragon also announced a world tour to go along with his new album. — Handout PETALING JAYA: As Malaysia's concerts and events continue to generate substantial profits, they are increasingly attracting the attention of unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the booming industry. During South Korean singer G-Dragon (pic)'s three-day concert ticket sale, over 600 million attempts, suspected to be from ticket bots and scalpers, were thwarted by the event organiser. In response to the huge traffic and malicious attempts to breach its ticketing platforms, Star Planet managing director Datuk Alan Foo said they implemented advanced bot detection and verification measures, including Captcha, to safeguard the integrity of the sales process. 'Our ticketing platform's global security and traffic management system – including Cloudflare and Queue-it – successfully blocked over 600 million malicious or suspicious requests,' he said. Foo acknowledged that due to the overwhelming demand of over 4.5 million users entering the virtual waiting room, some scalpers managed to get through the security measures put in place. For this, he said Star Planet had identified transactions associated with unauthorised resale and invalidated those tickets. 'We strongly advise fans not to purchase tickets from unofficial sources to avoid the risk of cancellation and disappointment,' Foo added. He also confirmed that there may be another round of ticket sales once the unauthorised tickets were identified and cancelled by the organiser. G-Dragon, whose real name is Kwon Ji-yong and a member of South Korean idol group BigBang, is widely known as the King of K-Pop. The singer's entertainment agency Galaxy Corporation said in a statement that fraudulent tickets or tickets resold at a price exceeding the official sale price will be invalidated. Checks on social media found that scalpers were selling his concert tickets in Kuala Lumpur for more than RM20,000. For the record, the most expensive ticket for the artiste's tour in Malaysia, scheduled next month, is about RM1,300, which includes exclusive perks. This prompted backlash from fans, calling out the organiser for allegedly failing to curb the problem, and demanding accountability and transparency. One of them was Siti Aishah Hashim, 29, who was devastated after she could not buy pre-sale tickets despite joining his fan club. She found them resold at inflated prices online by scalpers. Another fan Shahril Nazdi, 30, urged the organiser to take action against those found securing the tickets through illegal channels. Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations chief executive officer Saravanan Thambirajah said a law to oversee the scalping issue should be expedited, referring to a proposal in 2023 when a similar problem occurred during British rock band Coldplay's concert ticket sales. 'Countries like the United Kingdom and Singapore have already enacted targeted legislation to deal with this issue effectively. Malaysia, too, must move in this direction,' he said. In 2023, the government, through the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry and the Communications Ministry, said it would study the legal provisions to prevent scalping. Pertubuhan Mesra Pengguna vice-president Azlin Othman advised consumers to always go for recognised channels when buying concert tickets. She also urged the government to expedite the enactment of a law to curb scalping and further protect consumers. Meanwhile, the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry said it is actively looking into specific legislation to curb the issue and is committed to taking into account the interests of stakeholders. 'This is to ensure that enforcement could be done effectively and this approach is important before a legal framework is finalised,' it said in a statement to The Star. The ministry advised consumers to lodge complaints against scalpers through its official channels.
New Paper
31-05-2025
- Business
- New Paper
High Court upholds acquittal of Chinese company accused of bribing ex-LTA deputy group director
The High Court has upheld the acquittal of a Chinese company that was charged with bribery after two of its employees gave loans totalling $220,000 to a Land Transport Authority (LTA) deputy group director. In a written judgment on May 29, the court said there was insufficient evidence to show that the company's top management was aware of or somehow complicit in the illegal acts. The Singapore branch of China Railway Tunnel Group was first acquitted of three corruption charges by a district judge in March 2024 on grounds that the two employees' acts could not be attributed to the company. Xi Zhengbing, who was the general manager and head representative of the branch, and Zhou Zhenghe, who was a deputy general manager, gave the loans to Henry Foo Yung Thye between January 2018 and August 2019. The district judge said Xi did not have a sufficiently high level in the chain of command. The Singapore branch is only one of the sub-departments within the company's overseas department, which is in turn only one department in the company's corporate structure. The prosecution appealed to the High Court against the acquittal. On May 29, the appeal was dismissed by a panel comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Tay Yong Kwang and Justice Andrew Phang. The court also noted that Xi and Zhou had resorted to defrauding the company with false invoices to obtain the $200,000 that was given to Foo as loans in 2018. Zhou then had to borrow $20,000 to provide the subsequent loan. "All these showed clearly that the respondent was never involved in its employees' illegal activities and neither did it give its tacit approval (nor) pretend to be ignorant of what the Singapore branch's employees were doing," said the court. In September 2021, Foo, then 47, was sentenced to 5½ years' jail for taking about $1.24 million in bribes in the form of loans from contractors and sub-contractors. Foo, who resigned from LTA in September 2019, was also ordered to pay a penalty of about $1.16 million, equivalent to the amount he had not returned. Xi and Zhou were arrested in September 2019 by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau. After being released on bail, they absconded to China, where they were arrested and subsequently convicted by a Guangzhou court. Xi was sentenced to a five-year jail term and a fine of 300,000 yuan (S$57,400). Zhou was sentenced to two years' jail and a fine of 100,000 yuan. China Railway Tunnel Group has 24 branches, eight of which are overseas. The Singapore branch was a sub-contractor for two different projects on the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL), and was awarded the main contract for a project on the Circle Line. At the time of the offences, Foo was involved in the project management of the main contractors in respect of TEL projects. Between 2016 and 2019, he reached out to the company's employees, including Xi, to ask for loans. No loan was given as a result of Foo's first request. Subsequently, Xi agreed to give him a loan upon his second request in the hope that Foo would refer more job opportunities to the company. Zhou then arranged for false invoices to be issued to the company and prepared supporting documents with forged signatures. These documents were presented to the company's finance department, which disbursed the payment. After receiving the money, Xi and Zhou passed $200,000 to Foo. In 2019, Foo made a third request. Xi agreed to give him another loan, in the hope that Foo would expedite the company's payment claims and help the company to win the tender for another project. On Xi's instructions, Zhou borrowed $20,000 from a friend and passed the money to Foo. The prosecution alleged that in 2016, Mr Liu Chenyu, who was based in China, was told of the discussions to pay Foo a bribe and approved his request for a loan. Mr Liu was then the deputy general manager of the company's overseas department, which was in charge of all the overseas branches. The prosecution presented text messages, including one from another employee of the Singapore branch telling Foo that Mr Liu was grateful for his support. But the High Court panel said the prosecution had not presented the necessary evidence to prove that Mr Liu was involved. The messages did not prove that Foo's request for a loan was actually conveyed to Mr Liu, said the judges. Lawyer Paul Loy of WongPartnership, who acts for the company, said his client will continue to respect the laws of countries in which it operates.
New Paper
30-05-2025
- General
- New Paper
Tiong Bahru blocks to be painted brown after criticisms over purple makeover
The 14 Tiong Bahru Housing Board blocks, that had ignited much debate and discussion after residents found out the buildings were going to be painted in purple, are now going to be painted a new colour - brown. The decision on the new colour scheme comes after the views of residents were sought through a poll held from May 26 to 28. A notice by the Tanjong Pagar Town Council on May 30 showed that 40 per cent of the Boon Tiong Road residents who voted selected the "taupe" colour scheme from four different options. The initial purple paintjob had come under the spotlight earlier in May, after parts of the exterior of Block 9A Boon Tiong Road was painted several shades of purple, including a dark plum which some residents said looked gaudy. Residents were upset as they said their views were not sought. Following the uproar, Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Foo Cexiang had decided to do a poll after residents told him they wanted a choice over the colour scheme. Two of the options were variations of purple. The "classic purple" option, which had more white portions and shades of light purple, garnered 17 per cent of votes. Another option, called "lightened purple gradient", had more purple sections. It received 13 per cent of votes. The other option, a yellow colour scheme, got 30 per cent of the vote. A resident, Ms Nicole Lau, felt the winning taupe colour scheme was acceptable, she hoped that the classic purple option would be chosen as she liked the finished paint job at Block 2A Boon Tiong Road, which sported shades of lilac. "The lilac colour looks quite soothing. What I didn't like was the dark purple shade," said the teacher who is in her 40s. "Are we going to be called the Milo blocks now?" she added, referring to the chocolate malt beverage. A resident at Block 2A, who wanted to be known only as Mr Chen, said he was disappointed with the results as his block would have to undergo another round of painting. "The purple colour is nice, I don't understand why there was a huge fuss over it. Now, residents at Block 2A will have to be inconvenienced again," said the 60-year-old IT consultant. He said the block's purple makeover took about a month and was completed in early May. It was previously off-white with shades of light orange. Mr Foo told reporters on May 17 that the purple colour scheme was selected to reflect the purple-blossomed bougainvillea planted along Boon Tiong Road as part of a community event in 2015. The idea came from a discussion between Ms Indranee Rajah - who was previously adviser to Tanjong Pagar GRC Grassroots Organisations - as well as residents and architects, he said. Ms Indranee was MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC from 2001 to 2025 before moving to head the PAP's team in Pasir Ris-Changi GRC for the 2025 General Election. As to why voting was not done earlier, Mr Foo said there is no protocol on how advisers should conduct the repainting process. He said painting will start about three to four weeks after the colour scheme is chosen.
Finextra
23-05-2025
- Business
- Finextra
areeba and Foo forge strategic partnership to drive digital payments services in the Middle East
areeba, a global leader in payment infrastructure, has partnered with Foo, a pioneering provider of digital banking and fintech solutions, to introduce a fully integrated - program for digital services. 0 This bundled offering enables banks and fintechs to build their own secure and scalable card programs and wallets without the need for complex infrastructure. This partnership brings together areeba's modern card issuance platform and Foo's digital capabilities into a seamless solution, combining secure digital onboarding, e-KYC, and tokenization for Apple Pay and Google Pay. By unifying physical and digital issuance tools, the partnership removes traditional barriers and accelerates go-to-market timelines. The program is designed for financial institutions looking to launch modern, compliant, and top-of-wallet card products with speed and flexibility. Maher Mikati, CEO of areeba, commented: 'By integrating our card issuance infrastructure with Foo's onboarding and tokenisation services, we're giving institutions the tools to launch innovative card programs quickly and securely. This partnership reflects our commitment to simplifying how institutions enter and grow within the digital payments space.' 'As demand grows for digital first issuance, our collaboration with areeba delivers a complete CaaS solution that streamlines complexity and enables institutions to scale efficiently,' said Ghady Rayess, CEO of Foo. 'This partnership reflects our shared vision of simplifying how digital financial products are built and delivered without compromising on performance, compliance, or customer experience.' The partnership reflects areeba and Foo's shared commitment to building adaptable, secure, and future ready infrastructure that supports the evolving needs of financial institutions in the Middle East & Arab Region.
