14 NATION

The Star, Monday 2 SepteMber 2013

Nasi lemak represents

Malaysia, says shop owner
By IAN YEE
alltherage@thestar.com.my
PETALING JAYA: For 74-year-old
Normi Tandoh, nasi lemak would be
the one dish that represents
Malaysia.
The owner of the popular Nasi
Lemak Antarabangsa in Kampung
Baru said that there were a number
of dishes which she served to go
with the nasi lemak, such as fish,
chicken, squid and prawn.
What it takes to bring everything
together is the sambal, , she said.
Her story was cited in
MyMalaysia50.com, a website of a
nationwide project that was
launched to get Malaysians to share
their stories about the country.
The initiative, dubbed 50x50 My
Malaysia, is to commemorate the 50
years since Malaysia was formed.
Malaysians can share their stories
in the form of text, pictures and

video on social media using the

#50x50my hashtag.
Digital consultant Niki Cheong,
who started the project, will be travelling throughout the country over
the next 16 days with a host of
celebrities, writers, bloggers and
photographers to uncover stories for
the website.
ThestoriesgatheredfromCheongs
visits will be displayed at a final
event in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur on
Malaysia Day.
Apart from their love of food,
Malaysians also love telling stories
when we are in a mamak shop or
kopitiam. So why not have a platform to share all these stories with
everyone? said Cheong during the
launch on Saturday.
We want to share these stories
because they can help create conversations among Malaysians and that
helps bring people together, he
said.

Nationwide project: Cheong giving a tour of the 50x50 My Malaysia website during its launch.

Mental health
needs addressing
Set up child psychology unit, says Wee
By CHRISTINA TAN
newsdesk@thestar.com.my
YONG PENG: The Education Ministry needs to
set up a child psychology unit to address mental health issues among students in schools,
said MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka
Siong.
He said if situation permitted, the ministry
should start recruiting more child psychologists as one of the measures to help students.
He said that counselling teachers alone were
inadequate to address psychiatric issues and
that it was time to go to the next level and
think about establishing an advanced psychology unit dedicated to mental health services
for students.
There is a difference between child psychologists and counselling teachers, as the
former requires more extensive training in
order to give appropriate advice and treatment, he said when asked to comment on
recent suicide cases involving students in the
country.
Dr Wee, a former deputy Education Minister,
said when he was with the ministry he had
come across several suicide cases involving
students.
Some of the suicide cases were linked to

broken homes, depression, and health problems among others, he said during an interview yesterday.
Dr Wee said in countries such as Singapore,
there are about 40 child psychologists working
with the Ministry of Education, while Malaysia
just relied on counselling teachers.
Certain issues faced by the students are
complicated and only a child psychologist
would know how to handle the situation and
provide professional intervention.
I hope the ministry will look into this, he
said.
The latest student suicide took place last
Saturday when a Form Five student with a
previous psychiatric record was found hanged
at his double-storey home at Taman Bandar
Baru, Kampar.
The 17-year-old boy from SMK Sentosa
hanged himself using his school tie at the
house staircase.
Last Wednesday, a 20-year-old college student, believed to be suffering from stress after
having to re-sit six exam papers, fell to her
death from the 10th floor of a flat in Tanjung
Bungah in Penang.
The Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC)
accounting student was found sprawled in a
pool of blood by residents who alerted the
police.

MTUC: Workers will lose out under TPPA

KUALA LUMPUR: The MTUC has urged the
Government not to sign the Trans-Pacific
Partnership Agreement (TPPA), claiming that it
would be detrimental to the well-being of 12.5
million Malaysian workers.
Its president Khalid Atan said the feedback it
had received from labour organisations in
other countries, including the United States,
showed that workers would be at the losing
end as big corporations priority was dividends
for shareholders.
The agreement, he said, would also sideline
many International Labour Organisation conventions on workers rights, thus exposing
Malaysian workers to exploitation.
Another area of concern is healthcare cost in
Malaysia which increases 10% annually, he

said, adding that this would raise the prices

further due to expensive drugs.
Khalid said the agreement would also allow
US firms to employ foreigners, thus suppressing wages and delaying the Governments plan
to turn Malaysia into a high-income nation by
2020.
An initiative involving several countries, the
TPPA aims to have a free trade agreement to
ensure greater market access for trade and
investment to its members. Bernama

See Page 21:

An eventful week
on the TPPA