Pak Teh Speaks

Matters of science students

2012-02-10T10:23:00.002+08:00

1. In the last two weeks or so the alarming reduction of the number and also percentage of science students in schools were discussed in some newspapers and meetings and as a scientist I am compelled to say a few words.
2. The Science Chair of National Professor Council from USM who is a mathematcian suggested special monetary allowance be given to science students and this was arrogantly dismissed by an officer from the Ministry of Education who said the Ministry has other better ways to address this issue. I remember in the 1960s the good students were given some $20-$45 per month to motivate them to study better and the majority ended up doing science.
3. The VC of UM suggested the teachers to relook at the ways how science is taught and he recommended more IT oriented way and also more field-based. The Deputy Minister of Education wants to look holistically. Some suggested establishing more science residential schools. Jolly good that many people are interested to talk about this and the Ministry and its agencies to discuss this. It is fact that science students will one day become doctors, opticians, pharmacists, engineers, biotechnologists, zoologists, food scientists, geneticists microbiologists, IT specialists etc etc.
4. I just want to say these
(a) Do we have scientific institutions in the states where our natural resources are held?
(b) Do we encourage to establish scientific institutions in our beloved country like the Botanic Gardens, Herbarium, Natural History Museums, Science Centres etc?
(c) Do we have excellent and dedicated science teachers in schools like those of the 1960s?
(d) Do we have the school and university labs well equipped to make science teaching enjoyable?
(e) Do we ever look at the salary scheme of the science teachers and lecturers? Do we ever assess our science curricula?
Otherwise you people out there can talk and talk forever. After all this is NOT a new issue at all it is as old as our Independent Nation.

Rain Forest for Ransom

2012-01-23T12:20:00.002+08:00

1. I would lke to share with my followers the gist of an article entitled "Rain Forest for ransom" written by Bryan Walsh that apperared in Time December 19, 2011. The article is about the rain forest in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. This is obviously part of the world famous, the Amazonia.

2. The Yasuni National Park is ca. 10,000 sq. km in area situated on the western fringe of the Amazon basin, it is on the eastern border of Ecuador, south-west of Colombia and north-west of Peru. It has been considered by many scientists to be the single most diverse spot on the planet. However, the oil companies have found rich deposit beneath the park's forest of ca. 900 million barrels of crude worth billions of USD.

3. The Ecuadorian President is willing to forgo drilling and leave the National Park intact in exchange for international donations ca. USD3.6 billion over 13 years. This proposal not only will conserve the rich biodiversity but also prevent the emission of 800 million tons of carbon dioxide. This proposal appears like an environmental blackmail to some - pay the Ecuadorians or the forests and biodiversity will go.

4. According to the Ecuadorian biologist David Romo when you go to Yasuni you will find a new species and it would take 400 years just to name all the insect species out there. There is an estimated 100,000 insects per hectare, the highest concentration on earth. According to botanist Gorky Villa, there are 655 tree species per ha and there are 28 threatened or near threatened vertebrate species there, including the whiet-bellied spider monkey and the giant river otter. It is also a bird watchers' paradise as there are ca. 600 species. The park also harbours ca. 30% of the Amazon's amphibians and reptiles.

5. In future there will be more and more of our rain forests that are put to ransom ans more and more findings of non-biodiversity products. The Maliau Basin Conservation Area came to my mind as the basin is equally rich in forest biodiversity but the forests are sitting above a rich deposit of coal.

The Kota Damansara Community Forest

2012-01-13T12:29:00.002+08:00

1. Somw years ago ca. 2003 the Malaysian Nature Society and the concerned Friends of Kota Damansara took the case of Kota Damansara Forest Reserve to the state government. At that time the communities were so much concerned with the physical development occurring around their residences within 6 km of the green lung. After a long social fights the Forest Department gazetted it as a permamament forest reserve in 2010 and designated it as a community forest.
2. In April 2010 the Forestry Department and MNS organised a 4-day scientific expedition to this fragmented island forest and more than 80 scientists and KD residents too part. The JMG staffs came to study the geology, the PERHILITAN staffs came to observe the small mammals and the young scientists from FRIM, UM, UPM, UKM, Putrajaya Botanic Garden and MNS came to study the various aspects of flora and fauna. And this week on 11-12 January 2012 we all met at SEGi University College KD campus to discuss the findings.
3. En. Awg. Shaffie of Selangor Forestry Department introduced the concept of community forest and showed us the slow and steady loss of the former Sungai Buloh FR to the current 321.7 ha of Kota Damansara FR. Dato' Shaharudin Mohd. Ismail ex Deputy DG of Forestry Dept. Semenanjung Malaysia gave us an excellent historical perspectives of forest management in Selangor beginning in 1896 to the present day. Dr. H F Lim also gave us the social perspectives and fate of Temuan of Bukit Lanjan.
4. Ms Phon of FRIM told us that there are records of 17% of the peninsula's butteflies are found here. And this was supported by Dr. Norela Sulaiman of UKM. Dr. C Y Choong reported 48 species of odonates and Mr. Daicus Belabut of UM reported 24 species of amphibians and 8 species of reptiles and Dr. Y F Ng reported three new records of thrips for Malaysia, 2 generic records (Priesneriola & Amarothrips) and 1 specific record (Phibalothrips longiceps).
5. Ms. Thi of FRIM and Dr. Y S Tan of UM briefed us on the diversity of macrofungi observed and collected in Kota Damansara FR.
6. En. Ahmed Zainuddin of Putrajaya reported more than 129 species of angiosperms oberved here and this was supported by the assessment done by Rafidah A. Rahman of FRIM. Rafidah addede that the populations of Orchidantha fimbriata and Cyrtandra cupulata are worth studying in details. Mr. Razali Jaman of UKM reported more than 24 species of ferns. Ms Y M Chan reported two begonia species endemic to the peninsula are found here, B. holttumii and B. aequalateralis.
7. Mr. Henry Goh of MNS reported 67 species of birds from 16 families including some migrants and this supported by Ms. Farah Shafawati who did some mist-nettings. Prof. MMaketab of MNS & UTM read the analyses on water quality. All in all it was a very successful seminar as the KD communities and SEGi were very supportive. Let us wait for more outcomes of this in some planned actions to show-case the KD Community Forest.

ssss

2012-01-10T17:37:00.001+08:00

On the new postponed pay scheme

2011-12-26T12:09:00.003+08:00

1. One afternoon I met my old classmate who had retired from government services a year after I did and complained about the new pay schemes that the PM announced postponed for a few days after the complaints from CEUPAC. He now did some odd jobs and spent more time with his grandchildren and also travel. He confessed he had a boring 30 years or so at the ministry and climbed the highest post and awarded a Datoship by a state and now the government is awarding 36 top-ranking officers a monthly pay of $50-60K.

2. I said I sympathised with him because at the university we have no boring time and we never complained of having low pay. I said he has no PhD but we have no choice but to slog 3-4 years to obtained that degree in order to be a lecturer and not respected by the likes of him at the Ministry. He asked me what did I do at the university and I said he surely remembered what his lecturers did in the 1970s at the University of Malaya then! Anyway i summarised to him.

3. I do teaching from Dec 1978 until yesterday, almost everyday except Friday all semester and all sessions. I was not bored as the cohorts are different. I do undergraduate and post-graduate courses. I set questions twice every semester and marked them. I supervised undergraduate students, MS and PhD students in their dissertaions. I read every line, paragraph and chapters before being examined.

4. I do research, applied for grants sometimes I didn't get in my chosen discipline which is botany and biodiversity. I prepared research reports, these are boring!. I prepared and published papers in journals, proceedings etc. I presented my research results in seminars and symposia, discussed with friends. I read and evaluated reserach papers sent to journals and I read and evaluated theses from UKM and also other universities as external examiner.

5. I do community services, scientific community I mean not like the convicts! I am active in the Academy of Sciences Malaysia in different capacities as Chair to Discipline Group, Chair the Expedition Task Force and attended various meetings. I am Chair and Trustee of WWF Malaysia, Pulau Banding Foundation and Trustees of Malaysian Timber Cerification Council, Orang Utan Island Foundation, Wildlife Protection Foundation.

6. I still have time for my children and grandchildren. What are you complaining about? I asked him.....you chose the the wrong job and you missed all the spices in life. My friend kept quiet and promised to meet me again and discuss the good old time of university days. I said cheerio and see him again soon.

Imbak Canyon Scientific Expedition

2011-03-16T15:39:00.002+08:00

1. In late November to early December 2010 over a 100 scientists and their assistants including supporting staffs from Sabah Foundation took part in the Scientific Expedition to Imbak Canyon Conservation Area in Sabah. barely 4 months after the expedition, and especially when many reference collections were yet to be identified and analysed we met again this week to discuss the findings. The seminar was officially opened by ASM Secretary-General Academician Tan Sri Dato Seri Dr. Salleh Mohd. Noor.

2. The geologists led by Prof. Felix Tongkul, Prof. Che Aziz and Sdra Khairul Azlan and soil scientist Dr. Baba Musta made us understand the genesis of the Imbak Canyon. Prior to the expedition we seemed not to know that there was a fault at its southern tip and also a granitic intrusion in between the sandstones and mudstones. The soils are however rich in As and Fe.

3. Dr Mohd Kamil informed us that the river water is of class I but contains a high concentration of Cd. Prof. Abu Hassan and his PhD student Ms Nurita studied the aquatic insects and Dr. A Hamid is still to unzipped the taxonomy of the Gastromyzon fishes.

4. The muscologist Dr. Monica Suleiman believed there were some new records for the Borneon and Sabah bryoflora. She also collected over a hundred specimens of liverworts. Mr. Shim believed there are at least tw new species from the genera Selliguea and Amphineuron (ferns). Mr. John Sugau reported the altitudinal distribution of dipterocarps and Dr. Nazip also mapped the general altitudinal distritribution of non-dipterocarps. There are some possibly new Begonia and orchids. Prof. Laily was disappointed that his lichen collections don't have secondary metabolites. However, all of us observed the beautiful regeneration of seedlings of Dryobalanops lanceolata and other timber species. The largest tree was Shorea johoriensis.

5. There were many reports on fauna. The beetle researchers are still struggling with the identification of the various beetle taxa; Dr. Faszly and his co-workers are also struggling with stick and leaf insects, daddylonglegs, and other invertebrates. Dr. Mahathevi had settled down with her termites; Dr. Norela and her students found both the moth and butterfly fauna not that diverse, while Dr C Y Choong collected a Protosticta sp. which happens to be a new species but awaits description by another specialist in Leiden. The mammalogists thought Imbak Canyon has become a refugia for the small, medium and large mammals as the adjacent areas were somewhat disturbed.

6. Ms. Rashidah M Rehman who successfully climbed Mt. Kuli informed us the Imbak Canyon has some ecotourism potential if packaged scientifically. It has diverse forest landscape, geomorphological landscape, rich flora and fauna including a rich ethno-culture just outside the consevartion area.

7. The social scientists who surveyed the communities of Orang Sungai and Murut took the stage to inform us of the timber-coffins and the rich socio-culture of the various subsects of the Orang Sungai. What intriged me was the fact that some of them decided to prepare their putative coffins when they are still kicking and healthy.

Comments on Natural Sciences in Malaysia

2011-02-27T17:25:00.002+08:00

1. On Friday Feb. 18th 2011 Prof. Emer. Dato' Dr. Zakri A. Hamid, the Science Adviser to the Prime Minister wrote an interesting viewpoint in his regular NST column "climbing an awesome mountain of stairs". This country of ours is awefully rich in natural sciences particularly the biodiversity (flora, fauna and geology) yet we don't witness a resurgence of R & D in these natural fields of science

2. When we were under the British, Malaya made a tremendous climb in these fields putting our neighbours particularly Indonesia and Thailand to shame as we had "the Flora of the Malay Peninsula" and 4 instalments of the Flora of Malaya (Orchids, gingers, grasses, ferns). Between 1972-89 we dished out the Tree Flora of Malaya. In addition, there are many other publications in zoology and geology, and yet we have yet to have a Museum of Natural History.

3. The bastion of our natural history was plenty to be seen not only in our protected areas in Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and also in Sabah. The potential and opportunities afforded by the Maliau Basin CA, Danum Valley CA and the Imbak Canyon CA are just too many to portray and exhibit in our museum. The various species of plants and animals to be discovered and named as new are too many. Just to quote the revision of Hanguana malayana in Peninsular Malaysia had yielded 4 new forest species once lumped under the above taxon. I was informed there are manu more Hanguana in Sarawak and Sabah waiting to to collected and named new to science.

4. What had happened to our natural science after Independence? One obvious answer would be there was a significant research shift to applied sciences in particular biotechnology that promised monetary returns. I have yet to witness the by-products from these undertakings. In the meantime the "stamp-collecting" science suffers and our ecosystems degraded and species of plants, animals and microbes lost. The other answer would be due to our own fault, mine in particular as we had failed to address these issues more aggressively and positively to the policy makers who made the decision.

5. All is not lost and we still have the time and energy to rectify the wrongs. However, we can't depend on the "young generation" to bring back the past glory of natural science for most of them see applied science as the 21st century agenda for science and technology. To be a taxonomist and systematists would be a blunder for the family members who financed their university education.

On Bukit Larut, Perak

2011-02-20T16:55:00.002+08:00

1. Established by the British in ca. 1870 Bukit Larut a.k.a. Maxwell Hills was a gem for Taiping (means ever lasting peace in Hokkien) and Perak. It was meant to be rest and recreation of the British officers who established three firsts for Taiping - First railway line from Taiping to Port Weld (Kuala Sepetang), first prison, near Bukit Jana and first tea plantation before it was moved to Cameron Highlands. And of course Taiping Botanical Garden is among the first in the country. For the visitors like me the only means to go up is to go by the old land-over which made so much noise of great pain and it costs me a mere $8

2. After Independence the place is taken over by Taiping Municipality and what we witnessed today are pure British heritage and legacies which the authority wishes to inherit to the next generation. Going round the Tea Garden, Bukit Hijau and various stations one couldn't miss the fact that ...once it was a great R & R place. It seems to have almost everything ..... a church, a hostel,bridges, palace, rest-houses, telecom station, The Box etc. but most of all the items that interest me the flora and the plant species that were introduced there by the British and also by the Perakians.

3. Prior to this decade it has deteriorated so much that the authorities are considering plans to bring back the past glories and the visitors to the place. I reiterated to my friends who were with me the fact that there are many species of plants named after Bukit Larut (or Bukit Maxwell) by the likes of Father Scortechini, L. Wray, G. King, Kunstler etc, either collected from this area or in the greater Larut district. To me this is pure botanical history and of great interest to the future students of botany and biodiversity.

4. Years ago I visited the place with my scientists friends, Prof. Charlie a microbiologist, Prof. Laily a lichenologist, Prof. Ikram a natural product chemists plus a few more whom I have forgotten. We all enjoyed collecting plant samples and enjoyed the cool atmosphere. Yesterday the mist is still around and Pak Ngah told me at night the temperature goes down to even 12 C. Of course there were plenty of Usnea, Parmotrema etc.

5. I am indeed impressed by the effort taken by Pak Ngah and his friends to begin replanting many species of gingers especially Alpinia and Etlingera, two species of Tacca, many species of ferns especially Huperzia and Cyathea, Goniothalamus macrophyllus (Annonaceae), two species of Begonia, many species of orchids in either rows or avenues or in aggregation in various landscapes. I encouraged them to do so with many more local species and by next year the place is going to look like a garden .........

In the name of Orang utan

2011-02-11T22:06:00.002+08:00

1. Last month the Orang Utan Island Foundation (OUIF) was accused by a writer of a letter to the editor of the Sundaydaily as playing God. To be honest God does not like any play mates. She quoted the noble aims of the OUIF correctly - to carry out the orang utan research, education, development, conservation and rehabilitation programmes and drawing up protection policies. In 2008 the OUIF organised a two-day symposium on ex situ conservation. Researchers on orang utan from USA, Japan, Indonesia, Sabah, Sarawak and some locals spoke on various topics on orang utan's biology and conservation.

2. The symposium augurs very well for the education awareness and R & D of orang utan not only at Bukit Merah but elsewhere in Borneo and Sumatera, especially the rehabilitation centres at Sepilok, Semenggoh, Lanjak-Entimau, Tanjung Puting and Bohorok. In the past many researchers from overseas came to these rehabilitation centres to study and helped out in in situ conservation. Numerous papers were published and millions of USD were spent to help this species from disorientation due to habitat loss and land-use changes both in the Heart of Borneo and Sumatera.

3. As a Trustee of OUIF I personally took exception to the accusation by the writer(s) and also by the newspapers, namely Malay Mail and Kosmos. If ever the Editors wanted to report some sensational news items it would be wise to check with the accused i.e. OUIF for some kind of statements or even some denials! It looked bad on both of these newspapers, let alone printing the ugly political propaganda to suit ones masters.

4. As a biologist or botanist and Prof. Mashhor Mansor of Universiti Sains Malaysia, an ecologist are Trustees of OUIF felt greatly insulted by the accusation that the OUIF intended to release the orang utan into the Royal Belum State park in Perak. All stake-holders especially the Perak State government, the Perak State Park Corporation, the Department of Forestry Perak etc surely felt the same for implicating them.

5. In honesty this issue had never been discussed in the OUIF Board meeting, for all we know what we have wanted to do was to send them back where they belong, Sarawak. I believed either the reporter(s) misunderstood the statements from OUIF Chairman in his press releases or the reporter(s) purposely wanted to create an issue on this - to create a hoo-haa among the conservationists in the country. They were successful because I received many emails either asking for comments or asking me to read the cries from them.

The Trip to Maliau Basin

2011-02-01T22:32:00.002+08:00

1. On the 29th January WWF Malaysia signed a MoU with Sabah Foundation witnessed by the Prime Minister and other dignitaries. The MoU was attempting to address carrying capacity and human resources to manage the protected areas in Sabah. At the same time the Prime Minister was invited to witness the handing-over a cheque of RM 30 millions by the Sime Darby Foundation to the Royal Society of UK. The SDF is represented by Tun Musa Hitam and the RS by Dr. Glen Reynolds. The money was under a programme called SAFE.

2. I will write at later time about SAFE and now I want to describe my journey from Kota Kinabalu to Maliau Basin and back. We started at about noon on Friday 28th. with Dr. Rahimatsah at the steering of the Toyota Fortuner. We passed the Lok Kawi army depot, to Tuaran and Kimanis pass. I was here at Kimanis Pass in the 1980s doing field work. We arrived at Keningau for a refill and headed east to Sook and Nabawan. We passed by the Sook Plain to Sepulut. All along it was marvelous as the road is tarred.

3. After Sepulut we had to travel on the unfinished highway. The surface was good, except for a few areas where the surface subsided. It was the same road that we took in 2006 from Tawau to Maliau when it was under massive construction. I was told the highway was unfinished but the millions of budget was finished. We arrived at the Maliau Gate before 5 pm.

4. At about 6 pm we started to move in as the day was getting dark. This time the road was slippery as it rained the previous two days. We observed other vehicles had problems to move straight but with Dr. Rahimatsah at the steering our vehicle went smoothly in. As we arrived at the Maliau Basin Research Station, I was really surprised as the station is completed. The facilities were superb with hostels, laboratories, chalets, dining rooms, conference rooms, seminar rooms, etc. It is the third generation field station by any standard.

5. Hundreds of vehicles went in for the occasion and 7 or 8 helicopters brought in the VVIPs. It was so noisy that the wildlife especially the Bos javanicus disappeared into the wilderness. Anyway, all the MoUs were signed, speeches given and discussions pursued. I met several old friends including Datuk Henry Barlow, Dr. Chey & Dr. Robert Ong from Sandakan, Dr. Zainal Z Zainuddin & Datuk John Payne from Tabin, Dr. Glen Renolds from Danum Valley, Dr. Stephen Hutton, and many others.

On Flora and Fauna dispersal

2011-01-23T10:19:00.003+08:00

1. This semester I am once again lecturing Economic Botany to MSc students. Altogether there are 29 students who registered this 3-credit course consisting mostly Malaysians, one Indian national and three Arabs. Some of the most challenging questions that I faced year in and year out was about how plants and animals species were dispersed from one continent or country or region to another. The easiest answer was to give credits to the European colonialists who plundered the whole world five or six centuries ago in search of spices, cotton, silk, minerals and heavy and hard-wood timbers.

2. Notable among them were the Portuguese and Spanish armadas which sailed east and west from the Iberian Peninsula under their rich and adventurous patrons in search of spices, silk and other oriental goods. At least we learnt the Portuguese sailed to the coast of Brazil, coasts of Africa via the cape of God Hope, to Goa in India, Melaka, in the Malay Peninsula, Macau in China, etc. The names like Vasco da Gama etc were on our lips. The Spanish were in South America and Central America, the Philippines etc. Magellan who was a Portuguese but sailed under the Spanish flag came to the Philippines and was killed there in the local disputes. The French, British, Belgians, Germans, Dutch etc came later to the east......and they claimed their colonies till the 20th century.

3. I told my students the Spanish brought Achras zapota or Mersawa manila, various species of Annona or Durian belanda (why was Annona reticulata was attributed to the Dutch?), Ananas comosus to cite a few from the tropical America to our part of the World. The Chinese and possibly the Champas brought us Hibiscus rosa-sinensis that become our National Flower. The Chinese also brought maiize or corn (Zea mays) from South America to the Philippines. Various animals were introduced too either from China and the East to the West and from the New World to various continents and countries.

4. Later I discovered that the Chinese explorers introduced the Asiatic hens to Central America, sea otters to New Zealand, Ficus religiosa to Australia, Cocos nucifera from the South Pacific to all parts of the World. Rosa laevigata was introduced from China to California, the Tajikistan ponies and pigs were introduced to many continents ......etc. Of course the British introduced camels to Australia. The Chinese too were the early settlers in many parts of South-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand, South, Central and North America ...but not to Europe. Unlike the Westerners who came to trade and spread Christianity, the earlier Chinese traders and explorers didn't want to spread Buddhism to the natives of the continents that they visited.

5. Of course in the 15th to 20th centuries when the Chinese started to isolate themselves, the Europeans had their days and decades. The Europeans explorers learnt from the Chinese and they did with diplomacy and wars. They fought each other to control the products from the East. They introduced many plant and animal species from all parts of the continents to other continents. They globalised the flora and fauna. In the Malay Peninsula they offer protection to the warlords in exchange for tin ores and other minerals, including spices and hard and heavy timbers.

Hunting for Porpax and Nepenthes at Langkawi

2011-01-20T19:26:00.002+08:00

1. About a month ago friends from Langkawi emailed Prof. Che Aziz of Lestari several pictures of an amazing orchid and monkey cup from Gunung Machinchang. Subsequently Prof Che Aziz emailed me and I was so excited to view an orchid which I have never seen before and a new record of monkey cup from Langkawi. In 1981 I collected Nepenthes mirabilis from Kubang Badak paddy field, the only known nepenthes species from this archipelago.

2. On 15th January accompanied by Prof. Che Aziz and Ku Ismadi we took the cable car and alighted at the middle station and walked up to the top station through the valleys and boggy forests. We came across stands of Vatica cinerea (Dipterocarpaceae), climbing bamboo, Dinochloa malayana, Livistona ?saribus (Palmae), an elegant Hoya, many other palms and gingers and many other trees, shrubs and herbs.

3. We came to a place where Ku Ismadi observed and photographed Porpax elwisii (Orchidaceae) and we started our hunt for it. We did for about half-an-hour and despair started to creep in our mind, until Prof. Che Aziz took his camera to photograph a lichen, Parmotrema sp. and inside the screen there appeared the amazing green pseudobulbs of the orchid. The top of pseudobulb has radiating white lines; the 1- to 2-leaves have dried and one pinkish flower was also drying. No wonder we had tough times to locate the orchids .....the populations were drying!

4. Then we climbed upwards a hill and came to one of the many summits and we were welcomed by stands of Nepenthes sanguinea, the new record for Langkawi. We collected some specimens and took many pictures. The hill has many more orchid species of Dendrobium. Bulbophyllum and others but most are sterile ....not the flowering time! We were delighted with our finds.

5. The next two days I went hunting for N. mirabilis where I collected some 30 years ago at Kubang Badak. We were met with cows and buffaloes grazing there. We saw sparse vegetation and the leaves of Licuala spinosa were grazed by the buffaloes. We searched and searched and failed to find a stand of it. We asked the locals and still we could not locate it. The area has changed to orchards of bananas. mangoes and rambutans etc. According to the locals, once upon a time there were scattered populations but now they seem gone. I was frustrated as I think I have witnesses a local extinction of N. mirabilis in Langkawi. Ku Ismadi promised to look for it and deep in my mind .....it is still there.

On the Three Foundations

2011-01-10T20:31:00.002+08:00

1. This morning we celebrated the 10th Anniversary of Emkay Foundation. Apparently it was established on 10th January 2001 with the mission to offer helps to the less-privileged in education, health, sports & welfare, amongst others. In his press statements the Chairman reemphasised his desire to give back what he got from the community to the less privileged communities and the environment. In the last 10 years the Foundations had spent millions in education of the Orang Asli communities, established dialysis centres etc. Many donours came forward to contribute donations to the Foundation for its activities in the next phase.

2. The other Foundation that received donations is the Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island Foundation which stated its 5-year future activities that include an extension of 100 meter tunnel to the existing one and also to reintroduce the Orang utan to the BJ Island. This is an experiments to be undertaken by the Foundation to introduce the Orang utan to the wild. The BJ Island includes a Research facility to monitor the behaviour and biology of the introduced Orang utans.

3. Pulau Banding Foundation also received donations from well-wishers for its 5-year activities that include the promotion of Belum-Temenggor forest complex for the benefits of ecotourism in Perak. The Foundation also plan to initiate a few research projects to understand the biology and ecology of the vast tropical forests and aquatic ecosystems.

4. The Advisor of the Pulau banding Foundation and the Chairman of Emkay Foundation and the Bukit Merah Orang utan Island Foundation promised to spend his energy and interests to ensure that the three foundations would be on an excellent footings to address what the foundations have promised to address in the next 5 years for the benefits of the less-privileged communities, Orang utans and the environment and biodiversity in the country.

5. These visions and missions augur very well for the well-being and welfare of the targeted communities, the conservation of Orang utan and the potential of ecotourism in Upper Perak and Malaysia, in general. I wish all the best of luck for the foundations and pray that many more charity-lovers and philantropists to come forward and donate some funds for these good cause,

The Year of Forest

2011-01-02T14:10:00.002+08:00

1. Last year 2010 was the year of biodiversity. The year was celebrated with many events such as symposia and seminars that discussed the biodiversity issues. The meeting at Kyoto, Copenhagen and Cancun discussed the fate of fragile biodiversity and yet there were not many optimisms expressed on the fate of dwindling biodiversity.

2. Closer to home it was the same fate that befalls biodiversity as it was in 2009. The government and her officials paid lip-services to biodiversity as it did not promise income-generating. The officers in the ministries also didn't address biodiversity as they only followed the fancies of their bosses. It was during the time of Dato' Subuh Yaasin when he was the Sec-general of MONRE that biodiversity received some encouragements.

3. This year is the year of the forests. While the arboreal and temperate forests have not much to celebrate, the tropical forests have much to offer and deliberate. Every month more and more tropical forests in Amazonia, Madagascar, Central Africa and Indo-Malesia suffer in the hands of tree-cutters, loggers and unsustainable developers. In Malaysia it is not much different over the last decade as more ecosystems and species are put in peril.

4. But the year is here to stay to celebrate in what-ever form. I must say in the last decade the Department of Forestry Peninsular Malaysia with the assistance of all State Forestry Departments had embarked on a challenging scientific expeditions to generate biodiversity data to help them manage the remaining forests in a very sustainable manner. It is not impossible to achieve it if ones put some thoughts and sincerity and accountability in it.

5. Yet the forests in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor, Perak, Kedah, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan are regenerating at a pace too slow for the annual coupe to allocate. That is possible as the tree-cutters and loggers didn't follow the strictest prescriptions when felling the timber trees. So much so river corridors were not observed and the effects on wildlife and seedlings including the regenerants were not monitored.

On the Distinguished Professors

2010-12-19T19:18:00.002+08:00

1. Last week for the first time in Malaysian educational history the Ministry of Higher Education launched and awarded the Distinguished Professors to three eminent scholars in the field of Humanities, Social Science and Medicine. In today's NST these three personalities were highlighted. Prof. Tan Sri Dr. Mohd. Kamal Hassan (UIA) is no stranger to all of us as he is ex-UKM and a Muslim scholar and philosopher as well as ex-UIA Rector. Prof. Datuk Dr. Shamsul Amri Baharuddin is an icon at UKM, an eminent socio-anthropologist, Deputy Chairman of National Professors Council and Director of Institute of Ethnic Studies at UKM; and Prof. Dr. Looi Lai-Meng is a medical pathologist from UM and a Senior Fellow of Academy of Sciences Malaysia.

2. It is in fact a promotion for these VK5 professors as they are now on Staff 3 and with a $300K research grant, this award augurs very well for the under-rated intellectuals. After all there are just over 1500 professors in Malaysia and only 3 are promoted to staff 3. If one think of the other civil servants in the government sectors there are dozens of staff 3 to staff 1 officers.

3. These professors are entrusted to teach students so that they become civil servants; supervise post-graduate students so that they possess MS and PhD key criteria for their promotions; carry out research in their fields of choice though the civil servants again decide on their research grants; publish articles in peer-reviewed journals locally and internationally; and they also served the communities at large in their own ways. These are intellectual ironies and great illusions!

4. However, when I read the NST today I sensed something different. The Minister and Ministry of Higher Education are looking for professors who don't do the basic teaching, supervising, researching and publishing anymore but they are looking for professors who are able to translate their past glories into government policies and direct and indirect community intellectual benefits (e.g. Sarong Index). And very few could fit into that. That reminds me of the awarding of research grants that promises products that benefits the foreign exchange in the shortest possible time.

5. I wish the Distinguished Professors many congratulations and the aspiring ones good luch for 2011.

Imbak Canyon Scientific Expedition 2010

2010-12-11T15:50:00.002+08:00

1. This year the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) jointly with Sabah Foundation (YS) organised a 11-day expedition to yet another pristine conservation area of Sabah Foundation at Imbak Canyon. With the supports of more tha 100 reseachers from various institutions such as USM, UM, UiTM, UPM, UNIMAS, UMS and UKM; PERHILITAN, Sabah Parks, Forestry Department Sabah, Sabah Wildlife Department etc etc.

2. The activity started off with a cocktail reception at Yayasan Sabah library on the evening of 25th November, followed by signing of MoU between ASM (reprented by YBhg Dato Zaidee Laidin & Dr. Shukri) and YS (represented by YBhg Tan Sri Khalil & Dr. Waidi), launching of Maliau book and a flag-off of the expedition by YB Datuk Marsidi, the Minister of Environment and Tourism Sabah.

3. We spent the night of 26th at Camp Tampoi and managed to watch the end events of Asian Games. On the morning of 27th the participants walked from the send-off point to Camp Kuli, the expedition base camp. The time taken by them varies from ca. 1 hr by Prof. Emer. Dato' Ikram to 4 hrs by Prof. Dato' Laily. Of course the young porters ran in with heavy luggage on their backs.

4. From the afternoon of 27th till the evening of 5th December the participants walked the trails, observed and captured all kinds of flora and fauna. The expedition is divided into (a) Physical landscape & Geology, (b) Water quality and aquatic life, (c) Flora, (d) Fauna, (e) Tourism and (f) Local communities., aspects hoping to cover every disciplines that are significant to conservation of Imbak Canyon.

5. Many new discoveries and plenty of new knowledge had been generated over the periods that will be discussed in February 2011, possibly at Kota Kinabalu. To recap a few reports; a total of 31 species of odonates, 27 species of freshwater fishes, many collections of mosses, ferns and higher plants were made; many collections of beetles, birds, small mammals etc were made. The geological aspects were mapped, water quality is Class 1. Don't let me preempt the findings!

DNA Barcoding and Taxonomy - A comment

2010-11-06T18:50:00.002+08:00

1. Way back in 2005 botanists and zoologists representing well-known herbaria and museum met in London to discuss plans to do barcoding the specimens. This is reported by Malte C. Ebach & Craig Holdrege, Buffalo Museum of Science, USA and The Nature Institute, Ghent, New York, USA, respectively.The purpose is to find a unique piece of DNA for every described species, so future taxonomists can run large biotic surveys without the need to learn or use morphological keys.

2. As taxonomy is always viewed by non-taxonomists as a discipline on the verge of extinction or a discipline of stamp collecting, the future of morpho-taxonomy is getting bleaker as we can't compete with the barcoders for meaningful grants anymore. As it is in Malaysia the taxonomists and the biodiversity scientists are losing to biotechnologists for good grants. The people who sit on the R & D panels viewed taxonomy can't deliver patents and sellable products.

3. Taxonomy has always been base on solid knowledge of morphology including anatomy, palynology, ecology, very soon barcoders don't have to understand what is a stipule or an ovate leaf!. To-day the morphologists are already losing to molecular taxonomists who use say, cytochrome c oxidase subunits to differentiate families, genera or species. In Malaysia, molecular taxonomy is still at infancy state and yet we are becoming followers to those who are beginning to divide a genus like Costus to many genera and align Verbenaceae to Labiatae, for example.

4. As discussed DNA barcoding generate information but not knowledge that are derived from observing specimens from a wide range of habitats and provenances to understand the infraspecific or intrageneric variation. A herbarium and useum like ours at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia is going to have problems acquiring DNA machines and employ barcoders not taxonomists and para-taxonomies to collect, curate and study plants and animals collections.

5. What kind of taxonomic impediments are these?

Educational Illusions

2010-10-24T17:13:00.002+08:00

1. Universities in the world including some in Malaysia are after the THES ranking; some want to be come world-class universities as the likes of Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford. Some aspire to be among the greats in Asia as the likes of Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. Some just want to be in the league ...so as to be noticed. There are many arguments on this locally, some made sense and some made non-sense.

2. I could only speak for my university, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia as I began in this university in 1974 as a tutor in biology department and retired as a professor of botany in 2004, some 40 years. I enjoyed teaching and supervising students on both levels, the undergraduates and the graduates. I cherished research in botany and later in biodiversity and published some good, some bad and some lousy papers ....these bore my name.

3. When I looked back I began to see some illusions in our educational aspirations and systems. We made mistakes by going English and we made mistakes by going three years for an honours degree. When I taught them in Malay the graduates went on to do well in their MS and PhD degrees overseas and they came back home to be somebody ....when I taught them 4 years of botany they learned many things useful and they could communicate botany very well. And now when I taught them in English in 3 years, many of them couldn't survive the interviews for jobs, may of them failed in their MS and PhD studies overseas. What went wrong with me?

4. Years ago I used chalks and over-head transparencies and now I use power-points; then I used to take them to field works now the university doesn't have money to pay; we used to have many more practical classes and now we cut-short our practical classes because of monetary problems. The labs have not been improved and the equipments were old and rusty. What went wrong with us? Since 1982 when we first occupied the Biology building, nothing has changed. We have not added any new labs and building ....and we aspire to be among the best in the country.

5. I wished I am the Minister of Higher Education as I will approve 100 millions to refurbish the labs and build new building to house post-graduate and lecturers research labs. I will buy new up-to-date equipments, I will add two more SEM machine, six more PCR, 4 more DNA sequencers and I will allocated some R & D funds to professors ....when would I be the Minister?

On the current local university graduates

2010-10-10T19:03:00.002+08:00

1. I was recently asked to state the differences between the local graduates and the overseas graduates. This question arisen as there are perceptions that the local graduates are less prepared to enter the Malaysian workforce. This question is difficult to answer as I myself am a local graduate in botany who teaches botany in one local university. However, I did my MSc and PhD in Plant Taxonomy at Reading, England. My eldest son is an overseas graduate in finance and accountancy and my daughter is the local graduate in biology.
2. What strikes first is the fact that most overseas undergraduates have a cheque book and most local undergraduates lack it. The possession of a cheque book makes one a different person as one can sign it to pay for services and other transactions. This I think makes the locals less confident in their conversation and undertakings.
3. Next is the power of English language. The locals proficiency in English is second-to-none and they don't read English newspapers and English novels. Those studying overseas, especially in UK, US, Canada, Australia have no choice but to read English newspapers and speak English, hence they become more proficient.
4. Next is the teachers or lecturers. Most local teachers and lecturers are not open, liberal, understanding, more dedicated and committed, of course with exceptions. However, most lecturers overseas are liberal and open and they are not stuck-up. In local universities the lecturers demand they be properly addressed as Dr and Professor; overseas especially in US they would rather be addressed with first name, Tom or ted etc.
5. The library and librarians. Overseas , most libraries have adequate number of reference books and journals. Local ones lack money to buy and subscribe to the journals, other than the popular ones. The overseas librarians are very friendly and ever-willing to help the students, the local librarians are library-workers, with some exceptions.
6. Lastly, the personality and personal altitude. The local students due to not being able to speak and write good English tend to be expressionless and conservative. They would mix among themselves and would be happy to wait for spoon-feeding and initiatives from their lecturers. They lack a lot of motivation to do better and improve their personality and character.

Scientific Expeditions and Animal New Species

2010-09-24T19:13:00.003+08:00

1. The Department of Forestry Peninsular Malaysia is instrumental in organising scientific expeditions in its forest reserves in the peninsula since 1999. The scientific expeditions were organised in all the states for the duration of 4-5 days due to financial and administrative constraints. Many scientists from the local institutes, universities and NGOs had participated, however, there are some sceptics who questioned the duration of the activities and what could be achieved in those short times, as opposed to the month-long expedition in those colonial times.

2. There had been many discoveries either the finding of new records to Peninsular Malaysia or to the respective states and new species to science in the animal world and plant world. For this posting I would like to discuss the former,

3. In Kedah, there were Theloderma licin, two new species of frog discovered from Ulu Muda; Hylarana montjerai from Gunung Jerai and a new record of Rhizophora stylosa from Pulau Pasir, Pulau Langkawi and a new record for Kedah of Costus oligophylus from Sungai Sedim. In Perak, a new Costus is also discovered. In Johor, a new species of frog, Rhacophorus norhayatii was described from Gunung Panti, a species differentiated from R. reinwardtii. From Pulau Pangkor, a new species of thrip, Thrip razanii has recently been named in honour of the present Director-General of Forestry Department.

4. From Bukit Bauk, a putatively new species of the smallest cyprinid fish was discovered, belonging to the genus Paedocypris and recently been placed in a new family. From Cameron Highlands, a new species of bat of the genus Otomops awaits new description.

5. There are many more cicadas, beetles and other insects, possibly ferns, mosses and angiosperms also awaits description and naming. A putative new Gnetum is discovered from Kenong, Pahang. A new record of Trichosanthes emarginata, a Sumateran species has been collected from Krau Wildlife Sanctuary.

6. All the above clearly showed that with some extra efforts by the zoologists and botanists, many new species and new records had been discovered. These are some spin-offs from the scientific expeditions conducted in the last decade. We look forwards to a new cycle of expeditions starting next year 2011.

On the Hari Raya 2010

2010-09-17T19:24:00.002+08:00

1. We decided to go home to Kota Bharu after all for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri knowing very well we are going to suffer from traffic jam. Traffic jam at Kuala Krai junction is synonymous with hari Raya in Kelantan. Every year those traveling from Kuala Lumpur via Gua Musang suffered from it creating unnecessary stress and burning of extra fuel.

2. Those who decided to travel earlier i.e. Monday 7th, Tuesday 8th suffered the jam from Karak. My sister-in-law decided to go via Kuala Terengganu and so did my son. I decided to go via Gua Musang. We started on Thursday 9th about 11 am from Kuala Lumpur and arrived in Kota Bharu at ca. 6 pm. just before breaking the last fast.

3. Throughout the Hari Raya, traffic jams in Kota Bharu and its outside the city roads were the talk of the people. It was like the annual flood, it has become the time to rejoice. many wonders when are we going to experience less traffic jams. My friends blamed the volume of the traffic, others blamed on the reckless driving, some blamed the narrow roads and while the minority blamed themselves.

4. On the 16th we decided to travel back to Kajang, a day after my son went to watch Kelantan vs Negeri Sembilan football match at the Sultan Muhammad IV stadium. It was a fair match but that penalty was not a penalty - well we lack the electronic eye to see the reality. The Kelantanese defender tackled the NS forward outside the penalty areas but both fell inside the area, hence the silly penalty and the Red Warriors lost.

5. We left K Bharu at about 11 am and when we arrived at Ketereh the traffic was becoming bad and my wife directed my son to go either via Kuala Terengganu or Jeli. I dictated my son to drive via Gua Musang and the jam became worst as we approached Machang. We arrived at Kajang just after 9 pm, a mere 10 hours of fuel burning. After Gua Musang the traffic became normal and driving became joyful. When are we going to have an alternative route called a Highway in Kelantan? ...I am sure the BN government is going to promise it a month before the next General Election, like they did before the 2008 election!

New Wave University

2010-08-31T11:19:00.002+08:00

1. Some years ago in 1996 the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak published an interesting book entitles, "The New Wave University - A Prelude to Malaysia 2020" and it was co-edited by Profs. Ghazally Ismail and Murtedza Mohamed. It was a very interesting book to read in paralley with the "The Renaissance Man", book published by the University of Malaysia, edited by Profs Dato' Hashim Yaacob et al.

2. Both discussed what the new waves university is all about. The first discussed about the paradigm shift universities in Malaysia should have taken to be more relevant and the second discussed about what Royal Prof. Ungku Aziz did at the oldest university as an example how to run a university.

3. In the Foreward of the New Wave University, written by our present PM he lamented two very crucial improvements which are necessary in our education system : first, to ensure that the people are technologically literate and develop a high level of thinking skills by using new approaches to develop and implement the curriculum; and the second, to humanise the learning environment by using natural learning processes that involve social, active and collaborative approaches.

4. With the availability of ICT and PC I think Malaysian are in good position to be technologically literate, but to think in a skillful manner to innovate and transformation our curriculum is a bit challenging for some. Many love to be on a status quo position, why don't rock the boat when we are comfortable; why transform when we are going to be over-burdened and why change for better when we are already good.

5. To humanise the learning environment is more challenging for it requires more thoughts to making our universities and their curricula relevant to the society at large. Many faculties are inclined to transform their approaches to make more profits and to cater for the urban rich and ignoring the poor rural folks. There are disparities between the big 5 RUs and the newer and smaller universities in many aspects of R & D, good teaching, good supervising and good research.

Happy Merdeka

Flora Malesiana International Symposium

2010-08-29T12:44:00.002+08:00

1. The Flora Malesiana International Symposium started in 1992 at Jogjakarta and since then I hardly missed it until last week in Singapore 23-28 August. I had wanted to attend and present an update of the Malaysian pteridophyte flora as requested by Prof. M, Kato. I had made my accommodation bookings and also my flight to and from Singapore.

2. However, one bad news struck. The eye specialist diagnosed me as having myopic maculopathy and I had got to go through some immediate treatments otherwise she warned me I might go blind. I went through thorough testings and consultation until last week she injected a drug into my left eye and now I am having a big black spot in my left eye sight. Luckily my right eye is perfect that makes driving possible.

3. I had been informed the Malaysian botanical representatives are small in number and there were not many papers presented. However, Dr. L G Saw and Dr. R Kiew of FRIM were there; Dr. Rusea Go was there; Datuk Seri C K Lim was there too.

4. Well, I missed updating myself with the progress of Flora Malesiana and also Malesian botany. In addition, I missed the Flora Malesiana Foundation Board meeting which was scheduled for the 25th afternoon, of whih I am a long-standing member.

5. I hoped all went well with the Singapore symposium and I just hope I will be able to complete my Malesianum Vitacearum for the next symposium which may be in non-Malesian country.

Biodiversity of Pulau Pangkor

2010-07-14T17:25:00.002+08:00

1. In May 2009 the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia & Forestry Department of Perak organised a 5-day scientific expedition to Pulau Pangkor, an island off Lumut. After one year and 2 months the participants gathered at Ipoh on 12-13 July to discuss the findings through a seminar. A total of 30 papers were presented covering forest management, water quality, flora and fauna.

2. An interesting paper was presented by En. Azid Adam of Forestry Department Pahang on the inventory of Shorea lumutensis at Sungai Pinang Permananet Forest Reserve adn Pangkor Selatan Forest Reserve. His findings immediately put Pulau Pangkor on the dipterocarp map as the density of the species in the former is 0.187/ha and in the latter 1.169/ha. A total of 276 stands of more than 10 cm DBH were mapped and measured.

3. Dr. Y F Ng informed the participants that there are two new species of thrips, one belonging to the genus Thrips and the other to the genus Siamothrips. The participant urged Dr Ng to name the latter after Pulau pangkor as it was first discovered on this island. Meanwhile Dr. C Y Choong reported the discover of the second species record for Coeliccia kimurai (Odonata) for Peninsular Malaysia.

4. Dr. Wan Julianan et al. reported Pulau Pangkor harbours ca. 52% of the mangrove flora in spite of the fact that you didn't see much of the mangroves on the shores and estuaries of the island. As for the higher plants Dr Mohd. Nizam et al. and Mrs. Ghollasimood et al. reported the ecological dynamics of the forests. In the former surveys a total of 480 stands belonging to 113 species,78 genera and 40 families were enumerated in a plot totalling 0.5 ha. In the latter study of 5 ha plot, a total of 3315 stands belonging to 211 species, 112 genera and 50 families were enumerated, showing richness and diverse flora.

5. The fauna were quite common with those of the mainland; 73 species of moths and butterflies, 53 species of birds, 13 species of spiders, 48 species of beetles, 13 species of amphibians, 25 species of reptiles were listed. However, much of the beetles, fungi and soil bacteria and actinomycetes remained unidentified to the species.

6. Pulau Pangkor has been designated as a destination for tourists. As it is the island is well-known for its white sandy beaches and hornbills which are quite tame that the tourists could easily watch. The Department of Forestry Perak had already gazetted a 10-ha HCVF, a Virgin Jungle Reserve, constructed more than 5.8 km of jungle tracks and in the offings are possible a small Botanic Garden or a State Park to value-add biodiversity for the visitors and ecotourists.

BioJohor

2010-07-10T18:59:00.002+08:00

1. From the 6th till 8th July I was invited to attend and present a paper at the 2nd International Conference organised by BioJohor. I understand that this event is organised once in two years; the first was organised in 2008, and the next one is promised in 2012. It was a 3-day conference and exhibitions by small and medium biotechnological business companies.

2, The papers presented covered biodiversity, environment, biotechnology, chemistry, policy, ethics, laws etc, almost all applied science and geared towards products and business. I found myself quite lost because I had nothing to sell and nothing that I was proud to dream to sell as a product. My science has always been non-commercial biodiversity.

3. However, what BioJohor had done should be praised for it raised many challenges to the state government the custodian of Johor bioresources, her flora and fauna and the environment. as biodiversity is a state matter. Johor should think how best and economic to pursue making some money out of her richness in biodiversity. I was informed BioJohor has been successful in producing and marketting some products from her resources such as mudballs and others.

4. I can help but thinking other states should imitate this fanfare. In future I would like to see BioKelantan, BioTerengganu, BioPahang, BioPerlis, BioKedah and other bios come forwards to organise similar activities if not for the KL-based scientists but for the local scientists, businessmen and state dignitaries to ponder. After all, once again, I dare said biodiversity is a state matter and state green assets which could be developed for biotechnology and ecotourim products at state level

5. I look forward for the next BioJohor in 2012 when Iskandar (or rather Iskandaria) becomes the futuristic city

On the State of Taxonomy in Malaysia

2010-07-06T07:42:00.002+08:00

1. Some years ago the taxonomists met in one of the hotels in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the fate of this old scientific discipline in Malaysia. Many well-known speakers came forward to voice their concerns for the taxonomy and biodiversity in the country. At that time we realised the discipline was not popular with the students and so much so that it halted and inhibited good science. The faculties were slowly disappeared from Universiti Malaya.

2. Then we met again at Marriott Hotel in Putrajaya, this time the meeting was sponsored by the Japanese Initiatives. Once again we discussed among other things are; the ill-funding of taxonomy and dwindling number of taxonomists and para-taxonomists, also the development of careers of many young Malaysian taxonomists. In 1991 we published the state of herbarium and thier reference collections in Malaysia and last year we intended to visit this but there was no fund. In 1998 we launched the country's Biological Diversity Policy in which we emphasised the fundamental importance of taxonomy and systematics.

3. We need a national debate and forum on this crucial issues especially on (a) training of young taxonomists, (b) funding for taxonomy research, (c) the fate of taxonomic groups such as the Insecta, (d) careers and human resources, (e) collections and documentation. We need not only a common strategy but also plan of actions. I am willing to talk to the Scientific Advisor to the government on this matter either via Academy of Sciences Malaysia or The Coulcil of National Professors.

4. Let us take this opportunity not only for taxonomy and systematics in Malaysia but also to take the lead for regional concern. This is in light of the forth coming International Conference on Flora Malesiana in Singapore in August 2010. The date-base on taxonomy and taxonomists at FRIM to my knowledge is not comprehensive and complete and there was no effort to discuss this. This is equally important as we would like to increase our profile to provide rapid response to jounalists and public at large on matters relating to taxonomy and nomenclature.

5. Presently, we have small number of taxonomists in the country and they are well-spread in universities and research institutes. For example, at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia we have En. Ahmad Damanhuri Mohamad (53), a muscologist; Dr. Haja Maideen Kadeer Maideen, a molecular pteridologist; Prof. Jumaat Adam (54), a specialist on Nepenthes and yours truly who is just 62 this year. We have some students in our school, though without funds, Ms. Ee Gaik Lee (Liverwort), Mrs. Qistina A. Latiff (Molecular pteridology), Mr. Shamsul Khamis (Lauraceae), Mr. Hussin El-Taguri (Vatica), Mr. Nasier (Madhuca), Aldrich Richard (Palaquium), Ms. Kwek Mei Juin (Rinorea), Ms. Nurulhuda Fathul (Cissus), Izlamira Roslan (Horntedtia), etc. My concern is about their future careers!

When You Are 62

2010-06-30T18:11:00.002+08:00

1. Some 62 years ago at about 0908 hr on this date I was born to a coconut tapper father and a housewife in the village of Parang Puting, Pengkalan Chepa, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Being the first born in the family I was pampered like any other child to spoil my later adulthood. I was told by my late grandmother that my late uncle Pak Teh Hussin would not leave the house to go to work without seeing me in my sleep. It was only after seeing my innocent face that he cycled to work. However, my late grandfather didn't tell me what my late father did before he went out to do his chores.

2. I was spoiled from my childhood until my adulthood by members of my family. I gathered that was the way the last generation showered their love. Of course when my sister Latifah born in June 1952 and my cousin Eshah born in 1953, the close family attention went to these girls.

3. I started schooling in January 1955 at the Sekolah Kebangsaan Parang Puting which is situated on the road from Kota Bharu to Sabak at the 6.5 milestone. I remembered thefirst school very well; the walls were made up of bamboo, the roofs of nipah attaps and the floor is bare sand. I could not remember whether I had shoes or not, if I had they surely became dirty of mud which we called the Malayan snow. I used to carry one slate board and one slate pencil to school on which I wrote every subject matter from arithmatic to religious studies. I was quite good in school coming 5th in Standard One and from Standard 2-5 on top of the class.

4. I took the Special Malay Examination in 1958 hoping to enter the English school in Kota Bharu in 1959. I came out 4th in Kota Bharu District 4 and was posted to Merbau English School where I stayed until December 1961. In January 1962 I enrolled at the Sultan Ismail College and studied there until I completed Upper Six Science in December 1968. In the school I was a little active playing some games, though didn't excel in any; was a school prefect, president of Interact Club and Deputy President of Science & Mathematics Society. The president of the latter was Wee Chan Hock.

5. I entered the Faculty of Science, University of Malaya in May 1969 without knowing what to do. I did economics, chemistry, biology A and biology B in the first year; eliminated economic in the second year; and did all biology in the third year. In the final or Honours year I specialised in botany .....and botany I professed until to-day when I am 62

The Gunung Benom Scientific Seminar

2010-06-20T16:10:00.002+08:00

1. On Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th most of those participants who took part in the Gunung Benom Scientific Expedition in November 2009, met to discuss their findings at J. W. Marriott Hotel, Putrajaya. The Seminar was officially opened by YBhg Dato' Azmi Che Mat, Deputy Secretary General, Ministry of natural resources & Environment on behalf of the Minister. Most of the seminar participants were young scientists and this augurs well for the future of Malaysian biodiversity.

2. There were two keynote addresses, on the first morning we had The Deputy Director-General PERHILITAN YBerusaha Pn Misliah speaking about the coming activities and mission of the Department of Wildlife & National park and on the second morning YBhg Prof. dato' Ibrahim Komoo of Academy of Sciences Malaysia who spoke about the role of ASM in organising scientific expeditions.

3. Altogether a total of 29 papers were presented covering topics like water quality of streams in the expedition area, geology of Gunung Benom, the flora and fauna of Gunung Benom, the Orang Asli of Krau and the ecotourism potential of the area.

4. I talked about the issues of connectivity of Krau Wildlife reserve in which Gunung Benom is situated on the north-western boundary of the game reserve. I realised this patch of wildlife reserve which is extremely rich in biodiversity is separated from the Banjaran Titiwangsa, which forms the core of the Central Forest Spine in Peninsular Malaysia. I personally believe that it is still possible to create and establish the forest corridors between these.

5. Among the significant findings were (a) A new record of Trichosanthes emarginata (Cucurbitaceae) for Peninsular Malaysia in Krau, discovered and collected by Datuk Seri C. K. Lim, a species 10 years ago was described by Dr. Rugayah (BO) from Sumatera, (b) A new record of gigantic earthworm for Peninsular Malaysia on Gunung Benom by Ms Tan, tentatively identified as Pheretima darnleinensis, a species that was discovered in Australia and 5 years ago recorded from Mt. Kinabalu, Sabah. It may be a new species! (c), Two new records of frogs, Hylarana siberu and Theloderma licin for Krau. The former was first described from Pulau Siberut, Indonesia and the latter was described from Weng, Kedah. (d) There are other new records for the mosses and possibly many new species of beetles yet to be identified.

6. After a panel discussion on the Gunung Benom and Krau ably chaired by Prof. Mohd. Shaffea Leman of UKM, the seminar was offically closed by a representative of ASM. the panel consists of Haji Mohd. Nawayai Yasak (PERHILITAN), YBhg Dato Dino Sharma (WWF Malaysia), En. Salleh Daim (UiTM) and a representative of the Krau community.

Gunung Belumut Forest Biodiversity

2010-06-07T17:17:00.002+08:00

1. Last week, on the 1-2nd June 2010 more than 60 scientists and forestry officers met and discussed the findings of the Gunung Belumut Scientific Expedition organised on 10-14 August 2009, in a seminar held at Johor Bahru. It was officially opened by Johor Exco, a member of State Legislative Assemby from Paloh. On the night of opening ceremony we were entertained with various shades of zapin, a portpouri of traditional dances, originated from Persia but made popular in Johor. A total of 28 scientific papers were presented.

2. The papers covered forest management, ecotourism, water quality, flora, fauna, and the Orang Asli communities. It was reported that more than 60,000 people per year visited the Recreational Forest there and this augurs very well for the state of Johor which attempt to lure the Singaporeans across. There is a possibility of a new species of Scaphochlamys (Zingiberaceae) being described from the area; 11 new records of mosses were made and several other records of both the flora and fauna.

3. Many findings of great significance to the heritage of Johor were recorded and discussed. Among them are (a) the conservation and survival of the populations of Paphiopedlim barbatum which is iconic for Gunung Belumut, (b) four new records of orchids including Corybas carinatus and Anoectochilis, (c) the rare and important Hopea johoriensis, Androtium astylum, Kopsia teoi, Dichapetalum griffithii and Croton kelantanicus.

4. The productivity of the forest at Gunung Belumut whaih was presented by Dr. Mohd. Nizam et al. at 498.44 t/ha; an area of 0.5 ha support more than 772 tree species, H = 4.58 and a possible carbon stock of 289 t/ha

5. The seminar was officially closed by State Forestry Director, Hj. Yahya bin Mahmood.

On the record by Abdullah Ahmad II

2010-06-05T17:07:00.002+08:00

1. At last I finished reading this book, in between reading the biography of Mahatma Ghandi, chapter 4 of Kwek's MS thesis, Samsudin Musa PhD thesis, manuscripts on Rafflesia lawangensis, Folia malaysiana, a MS theses from UPM and USM and others. I wished I could do speed reading, but you can't apply sped reading to reading the thesis.

2. I saluted Abdullah Ahmad's clarity in expressing his dislikes of Western Press especially Newsweek, when these media attacked Malaysia and Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. I am as patriotic as Tan Sri, and I would do anything to defend my beloved country and also my beloved state, my beloved town and of course the village of Parang Puting where my blood was shed. But many a time I asked myself if my country and my Prime Minister were not wrong, why would these media did what they did. Of course tan Sri already explained the intention of these media.

3. Coming close to home I would have said the similar things to The New Straits Times, The Star, Utusan Malaysia, Harakah and other tabloids because these local media have quite similar intentions, right or wrong. At times I felt the editors and sub-editors and reporters were a bunch of "idiots" but then I think I understood their intentions as guided by their bosses and owners. After all journalism is a hypocritic arts and journalists are hypocrites.

4. However, I am so proud that Tan Sri expressed his thoughts and ideas in excellent English, very articulate and easy to understand. After all he was a former journalist, diplomat, politician, editor and etc. I had a couple of times spoken to him in person and I admired his philosophies and straight-forward ideas though too biased for his former boss, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, whom I perceived as committed some mistakes as politician.

5. In the last few records he did not minced his thoughts about his dislikes of Kelantan's MB Dato' Nik Aziz, Dato' Sri Anuwar Ibrahim, PAS, Islamic terrorism, western media and Mr Bush. I thought it was fair because Tan Sri had seen most and heard most, but how I wish he was more fair and balanced in his treatments of those who had been "damaged" by NST and all the TV stations especially during the elections.

On the record by Abdullah Ahmad

2010-05-31T09:00:00.003+08:00

1. As I entered the waiting room at the Pengkalan Chepa airport I saw a book sale and I approached the stall. I saw many religious books and a couple by Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad or otherwise popularly known as Dollah Kok Lanas. He was well-known in Kelantan as a former Barisan National-UMNO MP for Machang, a former ISA detainee, a former diplomat, a former Deputy Minister who was so close to Tun A Razak

2. I was compelled to buy the two books written by him as I knew him, or rather I had talked to him some years ago. I think I spotted him at the airport wearing all-white with a white hat too, a colourless old man, so to speak. I had wanted to understand his thoughts as I knew as Editor-in-Chief of one of the populat newspapers he wrote his mind very well. As a former diplomat he articulated his thought very well too.

3. I enjoyed reading one of his books, "On the records" which is a compilation of his write-up for the column before he was sacked by Pak Lah the 5th Prime Minister. He recorded that incident very well on page 75. Though I had read these before but I must say it was equally enjoyable to read again and again. He wrote well in English, though coming from Kok Lanas. But this is the trait of Kelantanese of that generation.

4. However, I was beginning to get pissed off when he criticised Al Gore, Dato' Seri Anuar Ibrahim and PAS. I thought he was tolerant enough with that comments of Al Gore. I though he was tolerant enough with PAS's brand of Islam. But being an UMNO man, coming from Kelantan, I can understand why he could not tolerate PAS at all. He criticed many political incidents of the past from his personal point-of-view, which I though was fair but not quite intellectual and academic. There were a certain amount of intolerance within him that misguided his intellectual thoughts and wisdom.

5. However, I enjoyed reading it and it could easily be a piece of history and lessons in politic.

National Council of Professors

2010-05-25T21:20:00.002+08:00

1. In 2004 the faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia established a Council of Professors, a committee under the faculty. The main objective had been to create an academic forum where serious academic matters are presented and discussed by the learned men and women. Some of these agendas were not able to be discussed at the normal faculty meetings due to lack of time.

2. Since then we had discussed the university rankings, internationalisation of university, journals of high impact factor, international networking, commercialisation of research, what is a research university, etc. The forum had been productive because great minds and brains think alike some times but not all the times.

3. Tomorrow Prof. R Wickineswari of the School of the Environment and Natural Resources is going to table a presentation on, "introgressive rice" the bread and butter of her academic research which has been supported very well by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia.

4. This year on 31st March the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education established the National Council of professors with Prof. Emer. Dato' Dr. Zakri A. Hamid as her first Chairman. A number of clusters were also established to group some outstanding professors in various disciplines to give inputs to the government. Honestly I don't know how many professors are there in the country. My perception is that there are a few types of professors in Malaysia; there are founding professors, there are clinical professors, there are teaching professors and there are research professors. I am not sure whether United Kingdom has these types of professors!

5. A professor, to me is simply who has been a good teacher, teaching both the under- and post-graduate courses; who has been supervising graduate students, preferably PhD candidates; who has been carrying out good research and publish many papers in journals; who has contributed significantly to the scientific community, societies and governments; who is knowledgeable in his/her chosen discipline; presenting keynote and plenary addresses and above all the role model for the aspiring lecturers. The above characteristics differentiate professors from politicians, business people, professional practitioners and the public at large.

Universiti Malaysia Kelantan Symposium on Natural Resources

2010-05-22T19:01:00.003+08:00

1. Last week I attended the first ever academic symposium organised by the Faculty of Agro-industry and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan. In his opening speech the Vice Chancellor, YBhg. Prof. Dato' Ir. Dr. Zainai Mohamad commented that that was the first symposium to be organised by the new university and many more were to come in future.

2. I was happy to participate and gave a Keynote address on, "Conservation of biodiversity in Malaysia" a subject that I loved to dwell and cajole especially to the young scientists who will take the conservation baton from the old ones one day. The plenary lectures were given by YBhg Dato' Dahalan Hj Taha, the ex-Deputy Director General, Forestry department Semenanjung Malaysia and En. Khairuddin the Director, Department of Environment, Kelantan.

3. As I had stated elsewhere almost 90% of the participants who presented their scientific papers either orally or by posters are young; they came from almost all local universities in Malaysia, including those from Universiti malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan and research institutes.

4. The papers covered all aspects of natural resources from minerals, heavy metals in rivers to flora and fauna reflecting their current graduate research projects conducted for their respective degrees, MS and PhD in their respective universities. I must confesses their English need a lot of improvement, their presentation especially their coloured slides need great colour-sense improvements and their answers to questions and comments need a lot of improvements. I believe in investing in the young scientist to carry the torches in various disciplines but they have to improve. There is no excuses in saying their Thai or Indonesian friends spoke worst English than them.

5. I wish the best to them in their studies and in their future participation in the national conferences and symposia. If not for them who have been daring enough there shall be little progress in our scientific endevours.

Biodiversity Footprints

2010-05-12T14:12:00.002+08:00

1. This is the year of biodiversity and soon the COP is meeting again in Nagoya, Japan. Among other pressing items to be discussed is the link between biodiversity and climate change. The Rio Summit in 1992 discussed both and passed resolutions on both. When they met at Johannesburg in 2002 they evaluated the progress of Rio while discussing sustainable developement. They stalled the Kyoto Protocol and registered a failure at Copenhagen in 2009.

2. There was a divide on Climate Change both among the scientists and decision makers because they were greatly influenced by the business circles. Even in Brazil many politicians believed they coulddo away with conservation and go for maximum economic growth. The Malaysia Prime Minister made a promise to reduce green house gas emission up to 40% by 2020 on two conditions that Malaysia wants green technology transfer and financial compensation.

3. While targets are set both my political masters and business tycoons the ecosystems are suffering and species are being lost. However, both partners don't understand the definitions of community diversity and species diversity, let alone genetic diversity. They are willing to lose peat swamp forests in Sarawak and other lowland dipterocap forests in many states for some business gains. They are willing to lose turtles, rafflesias, orchids, dipterocarps, Sumateran rhinoceros, tigers, terrapins, freshwater fishes, slugs etc for similar financial gains.

4. What holds the future of biodiversity for the younger generations to appreciate and study? Possibly pockets of degraded forests where some populationss of fauna and flora are concentrated and fighting for their survivals. Perhaps degraded peat swamp forests where the peats could not much water; perhaps degraded mangrove swamp forests where aquatic life is in peril; perhaps the degraded montane vegetations where landslides are more prone to occur; and perhaps no more clean water is available to drink.

5. The prophets of climate change are dishing many alarming predictions what are in store for humanity in the next 100 years. Lkewise the prophets of biodiversity are alsopredicting its loss in the coming decades. I am not able to verify both but suffice to say that I have seen and witnessed the greed of loggers and business communities including past politicians in raking their profits from both the forests and marine habitats and are leaving the legacies for their grandchildren.

The Gunung Besar Hantu Scientific Expedition

2010-05-07T21:25:00.003+08:00

1. This year the Peninsular Malaysia Forestry Department can only organise one forest biodiversity scientific expedition and the locality chosen was Gunung Besar Hantu, Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan. The locality could be accessed either from Seremban via Kuala Kelawang or from Semenyih via the Selangor-Negeri Sembilan border. From the trunk road junction we traveled on 4x4 road for about 15 km inside passing through a few the temuan villages.

2. It was launched and flagged off by the Chief Minister of Negeri Sembilan on the morning of Monday 2nd at the Sri Negeri, Seremban. This time it has attracted scientists from UNIMAS, UMS, USM, UM, FRIM, Tama Botani Putrajaya, SIRIM, UiTM, UPM, UKM, Department of Wildlife & national Parks and of course from the Forestry departments

3. As usual the scientists from SIRIM collected leaf litter and soils for bacteria and actinomycetes; Prof. Wan Ruslan from USM and Dr. Kamil UPM studied the water quality; Regina and Tuan Marina from JPSM studied the Temuan communities; Damanhuri collected mosses; Razali Jaman collected ferns; Datuyk Seri C K Lim studied gingers and palms; Hazman and pak Din collected gingers too; students of Dr. Rusea Go and A Rahman Jalil collected orchids; Ranger Salleh from Terengganu observed the dipterocarps; students of Dr. Nizam established plots; students of Dr. Fauziah of UM studied beetles; students of Dr. Norela caught moths and butterflies; Dr. Cy Choong studied the odonates; Azman Sulaiman caught cicadas, student of Dr. Y F Ng caught the thrips; students of prof. Idris trapped wasps; assistants of Dr. Shahrul Anuar caught bats, birds and small mammals; Dr. Pan of FRIM observed hornbills; Dr. Norhayati caught amphibians; Dr. A Hamid of UMS and Dr. Abdullah of UKM caught freshwater fishes and Azman of UiTM surveyed the recreational potential.

4. Some of the significant findings were:
a) The forests in the valleys and foothills are poor as indicated by the proliferation of bamboos and other pioneer species; lack of dipterocarps and palms. They are in the process of slow regeneration.
b) The waterfalls at lata Kijang was spectacular
c) Th gorges at Jeram Berunggut was also beautiful
d) Gunung Besar Hantu is still undisturbed at the altitude of about 1200 m a.s.l.
d) There are two endemic but rare Corybas
e) The red-flowered Etlingera which was put previously under E. littoralis complex needs further elucidation as Datuk Seri C K Lim thinks it warrants sp0ecific recognition
f) A few new records of mosses
g) Dr. Pan recorded on video the male Buceros rhinoceros feeding and caring the female in roosting site

5. The state plans to develop the 9,000 ha area as Taman Alam Liar Negeri or State Wildlife Nature Park together with Ulu Bendul Recreational Forest and Sungai Menyala Forest Reserve as ecotourism destinations. The basic infrastructures are already in place and we recommended the three localities must be developed with the biodiversity knowledge as the main educational attraction

Orchid Fever

2010-04-02T19:50:00.003+08:00

1. Some times ago when I finished reading "The Lizard King" by Bryan Christy, I was recommended to read "Orchid fever" by Eric Hansen. I went to Kinokunia KL and searched for it ...out of stock said the girl at the desk. Immediately I put an order and it came last week before I left for Hong Kong. The former book highlighted the gaps in CITES and its enforcement arms all over the world including Malaysia and the USA. Almost every month animals were caught and smuggled through the porous customs' net. Once in a while the authority caught one culprit!

2. The latter is about the similar scenario that is happening in the world of plants, in particular the orchids. Every body loves orchids for various reasons. The housewives had their plant houses and orchids are a feature. I like orchids only in the botanical sense. It is only last year that I described my first new species in Orchidaceae, Dendrobium terengganuensis, a beautiful yellow-flowered endemic of Terengganu.

3. Eric Hansen described his journey to many places in the world either in search of orchids or orchid tales. He went to Gunung Api, Sarawak in search for Paphiopedilum. Of course he denied taking any piece of specimen but only took his friends to study the habitat of the orchids. He described his encounters with the orchid lovers in many funny but serious ways. I enjoyed reading it but it left too many questions unanswered.

4. In the book he had interviewed some taxonomists whom I know including Prof. John Beaman ex University of Michigan and Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Dr. Phil Cribb of Kew Herbarium and Dr. de Vogel of Leiden. John's comments were very candid and I believed him, but the parts played by Dr. Phil Cribb and Dr. de Vogel in orchid research and CITES enforcement remained blurr to me. May be I will ask them myself if I were to meet them again.

5. There were a lot of conspiracies in orchid trades and conservation. Before CITES came into force the colonialist botanists and noble traders had taken many species of exotic orchids from all parts of the world and maintained them in private tropical house collections and research institutions and botanical gardens. As the enthusiasts expanded in number there were demands for these orchids, the supply came from these collections. It was only when the small-times traders came into the picture the big players went to lawyers and beaurocrats and asked them to create CITES. Malaysia also signed the treaty but Malaysian custom officers cannot differentiate an orchid leaf from any succulent leaf of non-orchids. The part the German customs confiscated the herbarium and the picked specimens made me laughed. I though the Germans were more educated, after all Hitler wanted to conquer the World for the Aryans.

6. One question still bothered me though, the argument put forth by orchids breeders and propagators that they were multiplying these rare orchids to make them more readily available to the collectors, institutions etc. Similarly Thailand established tiger farm to make tiger meat more readily available to the Chinese markets, hence hindering poachers to go after the wild ones. But many of my friends want "village chickens" to the fat and hormone-containing broilers!

6.

Research Audit at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

2010-03-28T14:34:00.003+08:00

1. Probably this is my last posting for the month of March as I'll leave for Hong Kong on Tuesday 30th to attend WWF Asia-Pacific Chair meeting. Incidently I just came back from Port Dickson where we did the 2009 research project appraisal. This is an annual affair, I missed the last year's evaluation at Seremban and I decided to attend this one.

2. UKM has some 7-8 research niches such as medical and health science research, regional sustainable heritage research, exploring biodiversity & biotechnology, ICT, Climate change, nanotechnology, renewable energy etc. I belong to niche on regional sustainable heritage which is headed by Lestari's Director Prof. Mazlin Mokhtar.

3. Overall the majority of niches, and the majority of clusters within the respective niche and the majority of research groups within the cluster did well. There was an improvement when compared using the same indicators to those of 2008. I always believe the majority of researchers worked very hard to fulfill the agreed targets, except for a few. Many research groups scored the maximum 5 when calculated using the inputs and outputs. In other words they received more than optimum grants, published more papers in journals, had more PhD and MS students graduated, did great networking etc.

4. The groups within the medical and health science niche and exploring biodiversity and biotechnology did well but not as good as the other niches. The reasons given was that research in these fields are more competitive and they need a longer duration to achieve. These are fair comments and the medical researchers need to do their ward rounds as well and be on-calls. Research in molecular biology in particular is highly competitive ....by the time they had finished a couple of experiments their counterparts in Europe, Japan and US had already published their papers!

5. The number of patents are not easy to come by ....the number filed took a long period of time to produce results. The number of books based on R & D is also small. Talking about the number of papers published in journal I must say UKM is still far behind. It is now 0.8 per person, and it was 0.2 in 2007. Mind you there are hundreds of staffs are devoid of research grants and they did not publish in journals. I presumed there are also hundreds who didn't do research at all. Of course there are many who are prolific, producing more than 10-15 each. Congratulations to these carriers or surrogates of other junior staffs.

6. I foresee the year 2010 evaluation in march 2011 will see another incremental progress. Cheers

On Freedom

2010-03-26T17:29:00.003+08:00

1. To quote Barrack Obama on page 375 of his "Audacity of Hope" who talked about freedom. According to him in 1945 Franklin D Roosevelt looked forward to a world founded upon four essential freedom.

2. The four essential freedom are freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. I am sure since then there have been many interpretation of freedom and an equally amount of discussion on the subject. The various Prime Ministers and governments of Malaysia had talked about such freedom.

3. As far as freedom of speech is concerned much is desired as the government has many laws, regulations and acts that don't permit a full freedom of speech for fear of racial unrest and what-nots. Most newspapers reported what their masters wished to convey to the readers and not what the readers want to read and know. Many books have been banned from the public readership etc.

4. Freedom of worship is fulfilled without any hindrance except lately there were some people who capitalised on the controvery of the use of the name of Allah to gain sympathy from the Malaysian muslims. The Indonesians, Egyptians and Lebanese muslims and christians have been using the name of Allah. It is only those in Malaysia felt insecure.

5. In Malaysia there is so much poverty in rural areas, especially in the less developed states, including Kelantan. There are thousands whose monthly income is less than $300 per house-hold and yet they inspired for good water supply and food to eat, electricity to get uniform light to read and proper sanitation. Malaysia is a country of rich and diverse natural resources and very high GDP and annual growth. This is an irony.

6. In my past postings I discussed a certain degree of fear emancipated from the present government and the police in their quest to banish freedom of speech and expression that are not congruent from theirs. The government simply cannot except any views which are contrary to what they have wanted to hear and read. However, the present government under YAB Dato' Seri Najib is quite liberal in their thoughts and practice.

7. It is my wish that the four essential freedom is respected to the fullest as signs of independence and civilised society that Malaysians cherish.

On Scientific Collections and Material Transfer Regulations

2010-03-17T11:57:00.002+08:00

1. At the on-set of CBD there were some trivial conflicts between the North and the South. The former is presumed to represent the rich and industrialised countries which have the technology to enhance the sustainable utilisation of natural resources in the less-developed countries. The South is presumed to be poor countries but have rich natural resources, especially biodiversity. The negotiators who are mostly lawyers and scientists turned businessmen sat across the tables to discuss material and technological transfers but failed. Then these North and South countries did it in bilateral negotiations and cooperation.

2. Malaysia is no exception. We claimed to be rich in biodiversity and moving towards becoming an industrialised country by 2020. But our human resources and scientific critical mass both in biodiversity and biotechnology is far behind countries like Cuba, Thailand, taiwan, not to mention Singapore and South Korea. To add salt to the wound we are yet to have a standard reference collections of our rich biodiversity to be housed in a Malaysian Natural History Museum.

3. In March 2010, Japan took an initiative to gather some scientists from South-east Asia, including Taiwan and met in Tokyo. We discussed scientific collections, modes of material transfer from country to country and also the national regulations. It must be emphasised that systematic study at a revisionary level can't be confined to a locality, state/province or even country for a taxon is widely distributed across a wide geographical range. We can't assume to do a revision, say of Vitaceae, without making specimen collections in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Phillipines, Thailsnd etc.

4. However, all countries claimed soverignity over their natural resources, including innocent specimens of corals, benthos, phytoplanktons, insects, beetles, birds, bats, grasses, weeds, mosses, ferns and other higher plants. All these countries believed they could find and harness richness from this biodiversity. I don't deny there is some money to be made in selling cut-flowers transported by Boeing 747 to Europe, smuggling Paphiopedilum, Nepenthes, fishes, turtles etc to the developed countries where ther are rich buyers. But these perceptions coupled with more stringent regulations, especially in Indonesia and the Philippines are hampering science, conservation and knowledge on biodiversity.

5. We met and we decided to approach ASEAN and other organisations to discuss on how to remedy these situations.

On Ornamental Plants

2010-03-06T18:30:00.003+08:00

1. Man is born to apprecaitae beautiful things, be it rural or mountain landscape, old but delipidated buildings, beautiful flowers, slim or large cars, gigantic animals etc. It is second nature for man to like and love beautiful things even though as some people declared beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me beauty is beauty.

2. Man loves to decorate his dwellings with beautiful landscape hence he planted and cultivated plants of all kinds of habit around him. He likes the aromatic smell of Cananga odorata or Michelia champaca; he likes the bracts of Bougainvillea glabra or Mussaenda philippica; he likes the ringed stems of Veitchia merrillii or Roytonea oleracea; he likes the petals of Hibiscur rosa-sinensis or Plumeria obtusa, etc

3. Hence he imported many more foreign plants which are supposed to be more exotic and put in the nurseries throughout the country. When the government agencies more plants to plant and when the housewives more herbs and shrubs to decorate their dwellings and building they buy from these nurseries.

4. Then the problem started as the local taxonomists like me have a lot of difficulties in identifying the foreign plants to species. At the most I could get to the family level period and to get to the genus and what more species took a lot of pain referring to the unavailable books. In Thailand and Singapore my counter-parts have less problems as the reference books are plenty. In addition, many exotic plant species came to Malaysia via Thailand.

5. Taxonomy is beautiful if you could impress the public with binomial nomenclature but when you are stuck with foreign plant species you were more like a fool. These plant species didn't come through the immigration channels for passport registration like we do. How nice if these species were to line up in the immigration channels with their passport in their branches where we can register their species names and origin, and sometimes their sex too, monoecious or dioecious or polygamous.

6. Malaysia needs more reference books with beautifully illustrated pictures of the ornamental plant resources.

On biopiracy

2010-03-02T19:45:00.003+08:00

1. When I watched Pirates of the Caribbean, a few bioheritage issues cropped up. When the Portuguese were here in 1511, the Dutch in 1642 and the British in 1787, the Japanese in 1940 and the British came back in 1945, surely they did not come innocently. The textbooks they came for spices. However, I think they came for many other reasons ...spice was probably one of them.

2. After Independence in 1957 many more peoples came to Malaysia, Portugueses, Dutch, British, Japanese and others ....this time not for spice, but for our natural resources. They were looking for soil bacteria, leaf litter bacteria and other protistans. Many also came to screen our anthophytes for possible new chemicals to fight cancer and AID. Many came looking for exotics such as orchids, aroids, gingers etc.

3. Many came for exotic animals such as lizards, turtles, birds, insects to trade. Many came as tourists but they went home and biopirates. Many came through a proper channel via EPU and local counter-parts and went back as collaborators in R & D. In the case of the latter, after a couple of publications, the locals were satified but they kept the Malaysian specimens in their labs working further on new innovations.

4. So there are a few kinds of biopirates, those without license to rob and those with license to rob. In the epic films only the strong became the pirates and the weaks became the victims. Normally the strong won and became the hero until the end. The weaks normally forgot what they had lost because they were handicapped and too innocents.

5. I am suggesting let the pirates-to-be and the Malaysian scientists work together on equal terms in honesty and sincerity for humanity. After all the Malaysian resources are world's resources before polity was introduced and practiced in the name of socialism and democracy.

Malaysian Wildlife Trade

2010-02-24T21:21:00.003+08:00

1. After reading the article entitled, "Trafficking in Wildlife" in National Geographic January 2010, by Brian Christy, I am compelled to post some of my perceptions and thoughts herein. Earlier I had bought and read "Lizard King" and just ordered "Orchid Fever" at Kinokunia KLCC. Bpth of these books reported the trade in wildlife and orchids.

2. Whether we liked it or not, Malaysia has been reported as an active hub in Asian and World trade in both the wildlife and plants. There were incidents in the past where Malaysians were caught and jailed in USA and England for trafficking plant and animal materials which are listed in under CITES Appendix I. One of the the ironic things is that these involved Malaysians and they were caught outside our country. Are we saying they were more sensitive than the Malaysian authorities in handling these kind of cases. Malaysia has been a signatory of CITES.

3. It is reported that import and export of these items are very lucrative economically as there are many buyers in the world and the demands for the exotics are on the increase. Some under the pretext of R & D for medical reasons, e.g. the exports of Macaca fascicularis three years ago, involving some high ranking government servants. Whenever there are demands the suppliers and the middlemen became more active.

4. The staffs of WWF Malaysia reporetd that there is no more evidence of Sumateran rhinoceros anymore in Belum Forest Reserve, Perak; the number of tigers is dwindling as the poachers from neighbouring countries are becoming more daring. However, they have the locals as their accomplish. The populations of civet cats, reticulated pythons, cobras, monitor lizards, crocodiles, mynahs, ant-eaters, slow lories, flying squirrels, etc have decreased alarmingly due to this phenomenon. Like-wise the orchid and ferns trades are also becoming active, with the Singaporean tourists cum collectors were observed buying them from road-side Orang Asli sellers in a very innocent manner.

5. Read more in the national geographic for more details.

Out Of Africa

2010-02-15T13:04:00.003+08:00

1. When I finished reading Martin Meredith's "The State of Africa" a couple of things stuck in my mind. Amongst them are:

2. Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa once said. Africa was renowned for the pyramids of Egypt, the Benin bronzes of Nigeria, the obelisks of Aksum in Ethiopia, the libraries of Timbuktu in Mali, the stone fortresses of Zimbabwe and the ancient rock arts of South Africa. What had happened to all these .....

3. In July 2002, President Muamar Gadaffi of Libya once stated, "Africa for Africans. the land is ours.No more slavery. No more colonisation.. It is a new dawn.We are bigger than the Whites. We are mighty. If they want to serve us, okay. If they want to go back, okay" .

4. These are pure rhetorics. After 2002, African dictators went on to plunder the natural resources of their own countries to enrich themselves and their cronies. They had their accounts in Europe. And today Africa was where it was after Independence, far worst when they were under colonialism. I am not saying colonialism was good, far from it, but the African dictators simply betrayed democracy and their own peoples.

5. There was similarity with Malaysia after her Independence. We had "Bersih, Cekap and Amanah", we had "Masyarakat Madani" and we have 1Malaysia". Though we didn't have military dictators, we had corruption of high level, evidences of cronyism, we had patronage in sports and party politics, etc that attempted to plunder our rich natural resources, namely forests, wildlife, petroleum, gas, flora and fauna, and our beautiful and clean environment.
It is not too late to be sober and go for more transparency in running the accounts of PETRONAS, awarding logging concessions, awarding negotiated business deals and mega-projects; handling corruption by MACC, handling students demonstration by Police, newspaper reporting, TV news reporting etc.

6. Please forgive me for saying all these simply because I love Malaysia and the only country I can make a home and I don't want to see my country going the African way of governance and independence. "Malaysia Boleh" is one slogan of ego-centric arrogance, if used in negative ways. Tun Mahathir meant well with that slogan, but was misused by many in sports and business transactions. Malaysian soccer has gone below unknown countries like Vanuatu in international ranking. However, thanks to Nicols David and Lee Chong Wei for putting us on the squash and badminton maps. Why do we have to run the Sepang circuit and a FI Lotus with foreign drivers?

On Martin Meredith's The State of Africa"

2010-02-03T20:19:00.003+08:00

1. After I finished reading Zaid Ibrahim's, "I, too, am a Malay" I moved to Martin Meredith's The State of Africa. It is about a history of 50 years of Independence of many of the African nations. According to The Economists it is a highly readable digest of half a century of woes in the cradle of mankind. It is in the horn of Africa where I believe the man originated and I think here too mankind would bring unto himself self-destruction.

2. Malaysia gains her Independence from Britain in 1957, about 52 years ago. It was the same time as many African countries under the European powers gained their Independence. In other words what had happened in some African countries are not much different from what had happened in Malaysia. However, we were quite lucky in having our Prime Ministers and their ministers, armies and police who were not that corrupt. As a country bestowed with rich natural resources we, however, became rich by utilising foreign species, namely the rubber and oilpalm, neglecting our own indigenous species.

3. President Nkrumah, President Gamal Nasser, President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, President Hasting Banda, President Robert Mugabe, President Mobutu, and I can go on mentioning the dictators of Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Cameroon, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana, Congo etc who had plundered their golds, diamonds, copper, oil to enrich themselves and their cronies.

4. Millions of Africans died in tribal wars becoming the ponds between waring nations and provinces within the nation while their elite were enjoying their champagne and cereals, including human flesh. The killing fields of Rwanda when Hutu and Tutsi took turm to kill each other were testimony of the greed those dictators had.

5. I thought it was only in Khmer that Pol Pot used the chidren army to kill adults. I was wrong, in Liberia they did the same thing earlier. Apparently, Pol Pot copied what had happened in Liberia. And the super-powers the US, Russia, France, Britain, Cuba, Belgium etc were making money selling weapons of African destruction. These western powers were indeed behind the waring parties. It was no different from the politics of this decade when the US, Britain and Russia conspired to punish other less-developed nations. This is politics of the highest order of hypocricy.

6. Zaid Ibrahim cynically compare Malaysia with Mugabe's Zambia which was a beautiful country with rich natural resources. Today 1 billion of their currency could but 3 eggs! I pray that my beloved country will not get near of being 10% of Mugabe's greed. What who knows if what Zaid Ibrahim wrote in his little book might come through in 10 years time if they are not checked by the Malaysians.

On Zaib Ibrahim's "I, too, am Malay

2010-01-31T19:13:00.003+08:00

1. I just finished reading this paper bag book which was written by a Kelantanese Malay lawyer cum politician. I was recommended to get this and read and I did without regrets. It was a beautifully written by a man who gave some thoughts about everything around him.

2. In the book some things struck me . He mentioned his friends and classmates whom I also knew; Dr. Nik Ismail Nik Daud, my colleague at UKM; Tan Sri Nik Ismail Mohamad, an ex Airforce chief and Dato' Nik Nasarudin Wan Mahmood, ex MACRES boss. I knew these people when they were in Form 3 at the Sultan Ismail College, Kota Bharu. Zaid spent three years in my alma mater.

3. He mentioned about Tok Awang whom I also remembered when I was young. This man went around Kota Bharu town shouted,"What cat shit Independence, I can have my nasi berlauk breakfast" As Zaid said the message was clear ....what kind of Independence in 1957 had we achieved if we could not feed this man with a cheap but good nasi berlauk Nak Nah? Of course Zaid failed to mention Mat Tok Pek, Tok Wali Saad, these gentlemen were also illustrous.

4. Zaid lamented a lot on what it takes to be independent and progressive Malaysians devoid of corruption, freedom, liberty, integrity, greed, intolerant etc. He also talked about religion in particular Islam citing a couple of verses from Quraan, hadiths and sunnahs.

5. He argued Malaysia would be a different nation had we practices some good governance based of our secular constitution, had we not put up a borad that read,"Ini satu lagi projek Barisan nasional". He criticised many past and present leaders at the same time he respected them for what they are. He had wanted them to have more self integrity and less corrupt. he has wanted more professional civil servants, police force etc.

6. He had wanted the present generation of students to be better educated in schools and universities. Here I agreed totally with him on the present quality of teachers and lecturers. He didn't believe in party politic patronage as we have been observed in many years now. I think I will stop here, go and get a copy of it and read it. Cheers

A weekly activities

2010-01-28T17:44:00.002+08:00

1. Two days ago one of my old friends commented that I apperaed busy or pretended to be busy as he couldn't contact me and advised me to take thing easy as I am not young anymore and also on contract with the university. I told him I have not been busy it was just that I have lost his handphone number hence didn't answer his call. Anyway, I told him to read my blog to know my weekly schedules. Herewith I put down my daily activities for this week.

18/1
0900-1200 hr Lectures on Economic botany
1230-1330 hr Has tuna sandwich at delifrance
1420-1820 hr Finalising a paper of Sphaeropteris arjae to be resent to Blumea

19/1
0930-1140 hr Meeting of Arus Perdana research grant
1330-1640 hr Meeting at bank Negara, KL - no lunch

20/1
0800-0900 hr To clinic for blood and urine test
0900-0930 hr Breakfast of pau kacang at Sri Serdang
1400-1600 hr Lectures on Seed plant families
1640-1750 hr BoT Meeting of Orang Utan Island Foundation at Damansara Perdana

21/1
0900-1200 hr Lectures on conservation biology
1400-1820 hr Finalising two papers for Malaysian Forester

22/1
0930-1100 hr School meeting
1100-1200 hr Lecture of Seed plant families
1500-1750 hr Special WWF Exco meeting at Kelana Jaya

23/1
0800-0930 hr In office
1000- 1300 hr Biology Task Force Meeting at ASM K Lumpur
1700-1820 hr Went for acupuncture treatment

24/1
0830-1100 hr Special lecture at UPM
1100-1340 hr In office
1430-1700 hr Officiate a seminar on Dinar Emas at UKM

2. So my dear friend that is my last week's activities. Not that busy but manageable and I enjoyed every hour of it. Basically the next week 25-31 Jan would be very similar.

Comments on Malaysian Naturalist

2010-01-26T17:27:00.002+08:00

1. Today I received an email from Prof. Emer. Datuk Dr. Noramly Muslim who alerted me to two interesting things, namely The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an International Committee of Taxonomits announced the top 10 new species in 2008.

2. On the list is a pea-sized sea-horse, Hippocampus satomiae, whose length is 13.8 cm which was discovered near Derawan island off kalimantan, Indonesia by Ms Satomi Onishi (hence satomiae). Also a gigantic new palm, Tahina spectabilis, found in a small area of Madagascar. Others include a tiny snake of ca. 104 mm, a small insect from Malysia of ca. 56.7 cm, a twisted snail etc.

3. In the latest Malaysian Naturalist 63(2) which I received today are a few interesting feature articles that include:
a) the caterpillar of the butterfly that has been eating the young foliage of my Cycas clivicola, called Chilades pandava. Thank you Arthur Chung for the information.
b) A tribute to Prof. dr. Kamarudin Mat Salleh submitted by Sonny Lim
c) In memory of Triple H whom I firest met during the Endau-Rompin Scientific Expedition
d) Maliau Basin
e) Mobilising civil society and private sector to address climate change by my schhol mate Dr. Martin Abraham, a one -time thin long-distance runner.
f) Mapping the impacts of climate change by Mr. M Loganathan
g) The itchy moth, Toxoproctis hemibathes that became a celebrity in Labis, Johore some times ago by Dr. Norela Sulaiman et al.
h) Cabomba furcata that has been infesting the water body of Tasik Chini, made famous by Prof. Dato' Dr. Musrifah Idris
i) Five-horned beetle Eupatorus whose species are in peril

On Climate Change and Biodiversity

2010-01-17T22:57:00.002+08:00

1. In June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro the political leaders and scientists discussed climate change at the convention and in 2002 they did again at Johanesburg. Mr Al Gore wrote a book and did a documentary on it and yet there are so many sceptics about the issue.

2. For Malaysia which does not have melting snow caps and whose temperature remains almost constant everyday and everyweek the common people find it almost difficult to comprehend about climate change. Although in the last decade the weather, the flood, the drought have been playing havoc ...are they due to climate change?

3. I was informed by orthinologists like Dr. Pan of FRIM that lowland and open-country birds have been observed on higher grounds especially at Gunung Jerai. Somehow these species sensed the temperature at higher altitude is similar to theri habitat at lower altitude. I have been informed there awas a study just published in foreign journal that moths at Gunung Kinabalu have been ascending some hundreds of meters higher ....again these lepidopterans must have sensed similar change of temperature.

4. For plants, I argued, it is not easy to monitor the upward distribution of the tropical lowland species as their diaspores are not dispersed upwards. Perhaps the diaspores of lowland ferns and bryophytes are being dispersed by warmer air current to higher altitudes. For ecologists it is so challenging to monitor the changes in mangrove and peat swamp forests composition to detect possible impacts of climate change on biodiversity.

5. The base-line data for the plants are available ....it requires some students of MS and PhD to monitor the possible changes like that of the birds and moths. I proposed the 50-ha plots at Pasoh, Lambir and the recent one at Danum could be the filed labs for this kind of investigation. We need some funds and guide-lines to implement this.

On Avatar

2010-01-12T08:49:00.003+08:00

1. Last Saturday my daughter Qistina insisted me to go and see the 3D movie called Avatar directed by the same man who did Titanic some years ago and initially I hesitated as I realised that it is about of descent of diety to earth in incarnate form. As I watched the epic Titanic, my son Razlan also recommended it as he earlier watched a 2D version. I hesitated as it would be about incarnation. Nevertheless I obliged both of them, including my son-in-law Enol.

2. Much to my surprise it was a great movie as I forgot about the incarnation but what I did remember were:
a) How arrogant the people from the sky who came in with their tanks, robots and sophisticated weapons to attack the tree and the forests. They behaved almost like the Americans who invaded Iraq some years ago to get the oil. Here the people from the sky were to steal the precious metals underneath the forests. When the Americans were in Vietnam they were as arrogant displaying their chemical weapons, big guns and yet they were defeated by the Viet Congs.
b) How beautiful were the seeds of the sacred trees, depicting the seeds of grasses among the extant angiosperms. The pappus of Gramineae are almost like that blown softly by the breeze to germinate in some remote areas.
c) How beautiful were the gigantic fungi which retracted on touch just like the touch-me-nots, Mimosa pudica. How elegant were the aroids with gigantic leaves that supported the fallen hero from above. How beuatuful were the flowers and leaves and aerial roots that had wanted Tarzan to use them
d) How fantastic were the hanging hills and mountains and the birds, tiger-like creatures, hyena-like predators etc. However, there were no land dinosaurs otherwise my grandson Ilyas is going to like the movie. There were no boas, pythons and anacondas!
e) How could Homo sapiens the so-called intelligent beings try to destroy the beautiful forests which are so important to the long-pleated-haired with tails beings? The forests were their souls and lives.

3. The computers did wonders to the movie. However, my daughter compalined a 2.5 hour in 3D glasses made her suffered from headache. I did not as I really enjoyed the movie. Congratulations to Mr. Cameron whose movie had made 1.7 billion yesterday.

On Murders

2010-01-11T20:15:00.002+08:00

1. Today I read a news item in New Straits Times p. 23 that reports on the possibility Michael Jackson being "murdered" by his personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray who negligently treated MJ that caused an acute propofo intoxication.

2. Several years ago we were informed that the greedy Brazilians "murdered" the trees and other components of biodiversity in the Amazon Basin to make way for the expansion of agriculture and farms to feed the poor Brazilians.

3. The Malaysians and Thais and possibly other nationals "murdered" tigers, pangolins, monitor lizards, cobras, aloewoods, turtles and other animals to feed the greedy and rich people overseas.

4. Almost every year the Indonesians "murdered" peat swamp forests and their biodiversity releasing massive PM10 acroos her boundries choking some innocent Malaysians and Sinaporeans with haze.

5. The fish breeders and farmers introduced many exotic species into our rivers and lake thus "murdering" innocent indigenous freshwater species. Like-wise Acacia mangium is also "murdering" other local tree species.

6. The Bush and Blair peoples went to Iraq and Afghanistan to "murder" the innocent people there with various chemicals and gun powders all in the pretext of democracy. Like-wise the suicide bombers also took turn to "murder" the innocent Americans.

7. Lately, the terrorusts tried to "murder" the Togo team members who wanted to take part in African Cup. Emmanuel Adebayor decided to go home to Togo and rejoin Manchester City to plat safe football.

8. So, what are we talking about the muder of MJ?

My comments on mock turtles

2010-01-02T09:25:00.003+08:00

1. I would like to wish all my friends and readers of my blog a Happy and Prosperous New Year. Some people say as 2010 is the year of the tiger (panthera tigris) it is a new and roaring beginning and a new start for a journey for another 365 days before we all come to another new year to be called 2011.

2. In my first posting for the year 2010 I would like to share with you all the content of Nature : 423 : 219-220 entitled, "Mock turtles". It is a must read for all the taxonomic students and those interested in taxonomy and conservation.

3. In the 1980s descriptions of many new species of freshwater and land turtles of China and Southeast Asia emerged in prestigous journals written by some well-known biologists. China Red Data Book of Endangered Animals put 4 of them for wildlife conservation.

4. One taxonomic student James Parham and his associate Haitao Shi from Hainan University went into private investigations and found out that one was a possible new species (Cuora mccordii), 3 were previously described elsewhere and 6 were probably hybrids.

5. The points are, firstly the scientists didn't know that those were hybrids produced by breeders in China, supplied the innocent specimens to the Americans Veterinarian by one Malaysian and one Hong Kong's dealers. Innocently or otherwise, the biologists described them as new. Secondly, the investigators claimed some funds already were spent to conserve these rare and endangered turtles, not knowing there were hundreds or thousands in Chinese farms for sale. Thirdly, it took another two biologist to unravel the mystries via DNA and genetic analyses . This is pure taxonomy!

6. In those times, James Parham met with resistance and attacks from the professional taxonomists and the scientific fraternity, including an invitation to participate in a workshop was withdrawn. Now the journals which published those papers conducted some inquiries of their publications and about the dealer-supplied specimens to determine "if any fraudulent or illegally gathered data were unwittingly published".

7. Could this also had happened in the botanical world, especially in Orchidaceae, Palmae, Zingiberaceae and Araceae, among the most prized ornamental plants? That I knew were some new species of plants were described ex night markets, ex botanical gardens ex private collections and probably ex botanical piracy!

My Reflections of 2009

2009-12-31T19:36:00.004+08:00

1. Apparently the year 2009 began at about 2401 hr on the 1st January 2009 and it is going to end with some celebrations at Dataran Merdeka at about 2359 hr to-night on 31st December 2009. I hope the new year will come as planned!

2. The year 2009 is not that memorable at all to me as there are nothing much to savour and remember except:
a) I didn't enjoy teaching botany and biology very much. The undergraduates and postgraduates were not that ready intellectually to embark on their studies. They didn't read much and they were far from being critical with their science either. I feel the teaching of biology in pre-university curriculum is much to be desired and the teaching of biology in first degree curriculum is no better either.
b) I didn't enjoy supervising the students either. Many expected spoon-speedings and wanted to be told of every things they should do and shouldn't do. I have more difficulties supervising foreign students because of their poor English, poor biology and some of them are too lazy to work. Some of them are excellent though and a joy to have them around. However, in 2009 I have 8 PhD students and 14 MS students to supervise, in addition to three final year students.
c) I have no research grant. The ones I applied for failed to get support from those who evaluated my proposals. Hence I don't have funds to support my students. What a crazy world that a professor emeritus has no research grants!
d) I have not been productive academically. I produced only 3 papers in scientific journals and a dozen of papers in local and international proceedings. However, I helped to edit and write texts for 7 beautiful Coffee table books and edit 2 proceedings for Department of Forestry Peninsular Malaysia and other popular books and proceedings.
e) I did enjoy contributing to the society via WWF Malaysia as Chair, Pulau Banding Foundation as Chair, Orang Utan Island Foundation as a Trustee, Malaysian Timber Certification Council as a Trustee, Academy Science Malaysia as a Fellow etc,
f) I was invited as either a Keynote speaker or a Plenary speaker for 15 conferences, mostly national, some at university level and only one at International level. I enjoyed speaking to the young scientists.

3. Mypersonal health is like a yo-yo, sometimes I feel great and sometimes I feel quite bad and fatigue. My friends thought it was because of my age. I am still taking glucovance for my diabetes and zocol for my cholesterol, in addition to some vitamins and food supplements. I am beginning to sleep earlier than usual but in the day time I could work from 0800 hr to 1830 hr without any complaints. My routine breakfast is still a piece of toast, coffee and warm water, sometimes bananas; my lunch is mostly tosyei and my dinner is anything goes.

4. My children and grandchildren are doing just great. Abe has started teaching at UPM after his reading for his PhD at John Morse University at Liverpool; Awa is enjoying his works at Manchester; Lalan is exhausted drawing plans for others; Tina is progressing well with her PhD works, Hakim is yet to be called by MAS, Yasmin is in her final year at UiTM Melaka and Amir is going to Form 5. Next year i.e. 2010 Ilyas is attending year 1 at Sekolah Section 7 and Sarah is going to a local pre-school.

5. My two sisters Latifah and Safinah in Kelantan are getting healthier than last year and my only brother the Giant Yu is still traveling all over the world as a TV3 photographer. My in-laws, nephews, nieces and other waris are fine too. I hope they continue to be happier and healthier in 2010.

6. The number of cars in the house has increased by two; the petrol bills, water bills, electricity bills, telephone bills and other bills also increased. This is not sustainable and environmentally friendly. We should decrease our foot prints by at least 10%.

7. What are my New Year resolutions? None this year.

Diversity in Banda Aceh

2009-12-25T20:06:00.004+08:00

1. After five years I managed to visit Banda Aceh the city that was devastated by Tsunami on 26th December 2004. When I left on the Christmas day the people were preparing to commemorate the disaster by offering prayers and zikir. I also noticed many flags of all colours were erected as part of the commemoration.

2. My friends took me to almost all areas that were hit by the Tsunami and I could observe only the followings:
a) the many mosques that were spared by the big waves. Any damages were already repaired.
b) the many parks erected to educate and commemorate the event
c) the left-over mangroves, many regenerated saplings and only some remnants
d) new houses of various roof colours. Apparently one agency identified its contribution by the colour of the roof; blue roofs built by one agency, red, orange, green roofs were built by other international agencies. The one built by the Turkish Red Crescent bore the Turkish flags.
e) many new and elevated roads that left the houses below prone to floodings
f) two ships, one small and the other a tanker which were grounded kilometers from the sea.
g) Three mass graves

3. The peoples whom I spoke too more or less agreed that Tsunami had brought them new hopes for peace in Acheh Province. There is no more conflicts between the GAM and Indonesian armies that forced Banda Acheh to be under curfew after dusk in years before Tsunami struck.

4. Business florished, new hotels and supermarkets were built and at night there were some traffic jams; things not thought of 10 years ago. In the day times there were less traffics and hence no jams. The drivers loved to sound their horns but I observed no accidents . There were too many Toyotas though.

5. I enjoyed having mee Acheh (though a little hot), nasi goreng Acheh (not much rice but a lot of lauk), ayam tangkap (ayam kamupung fried with curry leaves and green chillies), ayam lepas, gado-gado Acheh, pengat pisang, tempeh garing (thinner than the normal ones), ubi stela (I was suprised they Acheh people used the Kelantanese name), bebek (itik), kopi solong at Ulee Kareeng (cannabis added) and so on

Quranic Botanical Gardens

2009-12-20T15:23:00.003+08:00

1. I've heard of Islamic Botanical Gardens or Islamic Gardens in some countries in the Middle East and Biblical Botanical Gardens or Biblical Gardens in the United States and some European countries. This week I was introduced to Quranic Botanical Gardens

2. On Saturday 19th I attended and presented a paper at the Post-Conference Forum on "The Quranic Botanical Gardens" at one of the hotels in Pulau Pinang. It was organised by Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS) and the Centre for Global Sustainability Studies (CGSS), Universiti Sains Malaysia.

3. The concept of Quranic Botanical Gardens has been endorsed by UNESCO in 2006 and the first garden is being planned in Doha since September 2008. The first International Forum on Quranic Botanical Gardens was held in Doha on 2nd March 2009.

4. The Gardens would feature the plant species that are quoted in the Quraan, Sunnah and Hadith, in particular the gardens of Paradise or "Jannat al-Firdaus". There are many verses in the Quraan that described the basic role of water and shade as well as plants, animals, walls, gates and pavillions. In endorsing the concept of Quranic Botanical Gardens, UNESCO stresses that such an effort could achieve important objectives in the environmentl conservation, scientific research. education and recreation.

5. Among the plant species quoted in the Quraan include, Allium cepa (onion), Allium sativum (garlic), Brassica nigra (mustard), Cucumis melo (musk melon), Dryobalanops aromatica (kapur), Lagenaria vulgaris (Bottle gourd), Ficus carica (fig - wat thin), Musa paradisiaca (banana), Ocimum basilicum (basil, selasih), Olea europaea (zaitun), Phoenix dactylifera (tamar), Punica granatum (delima), Salvadora persica )tooth brush tree), Vitis vinifera (anggur), Zingiber oficinale (ginger) and Zizyphus spina-christi (Christ's thorn).

6. What astonished and suprised me were the plants species from our part of the world that made into the Quraan such the banana, kapur, and ginger. My assumptions were that many other plants including the above were introduced by man from our part of the world before the days of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. as the Quraan was revealed to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.

7. Among the plant species quoted in the hadith were Acorus calamus (jerangau), Aloe barbadense (aloe), Aquilaria agallocha (karas), Citrullus vulgaris (water melon), Citrus medica (limau purut), Costus speciosus (setawar), Cucurbita pepo (labu), Cuminum cyminum (cumin), Lawsonia inermis (henna, inai), Oryza sativa (padi, beras), Sesamum indicum (gingelly, sesame), and Zingiber zerumbet (wild ginger).

8. Those plant species quoted in the hadith and sunnah did not suprise be as Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was a known trader in his time.

On Rafflesia and Rhizanthes

2009-12-13T10:53:00.003+08:00

1. With the demise of Dr. Kamarudin Mat- Salleh in October 2009, the Malesian rafflesias expert, we see very little activities in Rafflesiaceae research except

2. Dr. Harry Wiriadinata of Bogor had sent me a manuscript on Rafflesia meijeri, an interesting new species from Sumatera. I've yet to respond to him though. I found this species intersting in having no processi similar to R. rochusenii of Jawa. At first I thought they are conspecific but on a further detailed investigation they differ in pattern of warts on the perigone lobes, filiform ramenta and small in size. This species is named after the late Dr. Willem Meijer, the world's authority on Rafflesia. Some times ago Dr. Jef Veldkamp of Leiden proposed if there is a new species discovered it would be great to name after Dr. Meijer. Now it is done. Congrats Dr. Harry

3. Recently, Shamsul Khamis of Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia reported the observation of Rafflesia azlanii from the Lenggong area in Perak, a locality parallel in geographical location to Sg. Halong in Teneggor Forest Reserve where the species was first observed. According to Siti Munirah of FRIM and the late Dr. Kamarudin Mat Salleh, R. azlanii is known from Royal Belum State Park and Gerik area, amongst other localities. This new observation by Shamsul is interesting phytogeographically.

4. Ms Donna Jackson is about to write a description of Rhizanthes kamarudinii sp. nov. from Lanjak-Entimau, Sarawak. This species when discovered was thought to be R. lowii a species from Brunei and Sabah. But on detailed observation may prove to be a new species, initially Dr. Kamarudin wanted to call it R. jambulipa, a local name for its bud. However, I suggested to Ms. Donna to name in commemorating the man who had spend many years of his time studying the Rafflesiaceae in South-east Asia.

Diversity Within WWF1Malaysia

2009-12-11T10:35:00.003+08:00

1. Last week I attended the WWF staffs retreat at Port Dickson where the staffs from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak offices came together to discuss the WWF Strategic Plan, amongst other agenda. I met most staffs at the evening show cum dinner and also at the morning session chaired by Sudeep Mohandas.

2. I was personally excited at the way the staffs worked during the sessions and enjoyed themselves from evening to the early hours of the mornings. They worked hard and they thought hard and they expressed their concerns, wishes, anxieties etc by jotting them on big paper spread and pinned them on the wall. In a way they demonstrated their pleasures and displeasures well and democratically.

3. In the evening show I realised what a family WWF Malaysia is. We came from all states including Singapore and the Philippines and we belong to various ethnics. On one evening I was told all staffs came in their sarongs expressing their unity within WWF Malaysia and the next evening they came in their fancy dresses expressing their diversity. I couldn't help by noticing that the Indians came in baju Melayu, the Malays came in their baju Punjabi and Opera Chinese Opera dress, the Chinese came in baju Melayu and baju Bajau and Iban, and the various ethnics of Sarawak and Sabah came in very fantastic attire, glittering to their necks. I called this scene a WWF1Malaysia. And I expressed clearly how I wished our Prime Minister could be among the audience that evening and realised what 1Malaysia means and exudes.

4. As Chair I am terribly happy with the WWF Malaysia family and encouraged them to work harder, especially next year we are going to host the WWF International Conference at Kota Kinabalu. It is going to be a very memorable one as we are going to welcome the new WWF International President and WWF Council.

5. I am particularly impressed with the success stories and asked our CEO to show the tape to the next Board Meeting when we welcome two new trustees. The success stories were of turtles, tigers, forest, marine, governance, education, outreach, networking, public awareness, etc.

On Phytogeography

2009-12-02T19:57:00.003+08:00

1. This morning Datuk Seri C K Lim talked to me about his collection of Trichosanthes emarginata from Krau Wildlife Sanctuary. According to him that species was just described by Rugayah (BO) from Sumatera. This is a good example of floristic affinity between Sumatera and Peninsular Malaysia and I'm sure there are many examples like this.

2. A couple of years ago I described Cissus sumatrana from Gunung Leusser, Sumatera and two years ago Sani Miran collected a similar species from Bukit Labohan, Terengganu. I have wanted to believe that these two species are conspecific, but how could the montane species of Sumatera is distributed to a coastal low hill of Terengganu?

3. Other taxa showed north-south distribution and this is easily understood. Ampelopsis cantoniensis, an Asiatic species is found throughout Peninsular Malaysia; Parthenocissus semicordata, another Asiatic element has been found on Larut hills, Perak and Cissus aristolochiodes, yet another Asiatic species has been found in Kelantan and Terengganu.

4. Tenstroemia magnifica, a species of Borneo has been collected from Bangi forest; Cayratia pterita, a species known from Minadano has been located on Pulau Sipadan, Sabah; Kibatalia macrophylla, a species from Thailand was collected from Pulau Langkawi. There are many more examples of phytogeographic phenomenon to study and understand.

5. In my earlier post, I talked about zoogeography of Kelantanese. For human and other animals it is easier to understand their distribution and dispersal, but the immobile plants (except for their fruits and seeds) it is harder to explain. How could an African mangrove species, Annona glabra been found in Matang, Perak and Mersing, Johor?

6. This is a lesson in biogeography!

On the diversity of Kelantanese

2009-12-01T19:30:00.003+08:00

1. Lately there were Kelantanese bashings. Firstly, when the Kelantan fans were said to damage some chairs at the Bukit Jalil stadium; secondly when Kelantanese went home to celebrate the Hari Raya Haji and caused mad traffic jams; and thirdly there were people creating some political instability in the PAS government. I would like to share some thoughts about who the Kelantaese are and why their behaviour has been misunderstood.

2. These Kelantanese share many things in common among themselves. They speak a great dialect; they love sweet food; they are famous for their budu (fish sauce); they love songket and shadow play; they did many crazy things; they are said to be very religious; they love to fight; they work very hard to survive; they are very competitive; they dominate good schools and universities etc etc

3. There is the royal Kelantanese whose names begin with Tengku. They are the royal households who were said to migrate from Pattani, South Thailand some years ago. When the Tengku married the commoners, we have the Engku and the Tuan. The Raja are also said to be royal in origin but they were not the ruling elites.

3. The Syed who were thought to have brought Islam to Kelantanese via Pattani were reverred as royal too.

4. Then there are the Nik. There two kinds of Nik, the first were the Chinese origin who became the workers and slaves in the royal households then there were the Ni' who originated from Pagar Ruyong in Sumatera who also were the workers and slaves in the palace. Since then they had inter-married among their kinds and also with the commoners and they are very localised in their distribution.

5. There are the Wan whose origin is uncertain for there are Wan all over the country notably in Terengganu, Perak, Negeri Sembilan etc

6. Then there are the Che, whose origin is uncertain too.

7. Then there are the others without the title in front of their names. They are mostly from Pattani. The Javanese came to Kelantan to build the Kampung laut mosque and the Minangkabau came to open rice restaurants. There are Chinese too and many of them had assimilated in the villages. Of course there are also Chinese in towns. Then there are the Siamese especially in Tumpat, Bachok, Jeli, Pasir Mas and Tanah Merah districts. Kelantanese has very few Indians. The Orang Asli or Pangans are the Bateq and Temiars who are found in the districts of Kuala Kerai and Gua Musang. Then of course there are those from other states who made Kelantan their homes.

8. After all there is nothing special about us!

On SCOPUS and Impact Factor

2009-11-23T21:24:00.003+08:00

1. Three days ago I met a friend who told me the journal, Tropical Life Science Research (formerly Journal of Bioscience" has been extracted by SCOPUS. I congratulated him and his university.

2. Today I met another friend who thought the demand by the Vice Chancellors of local universities for their staffs to publish their research findings in journals with Impact Factor is over-emphasised. So much so the local journals have been side-lined. After all only two Malaysian journals have IF, one a mathematical journal and the other is the forest science journal. And Malaysia has more than 100 journals, mostly in-house.

3. The surge to get extracted by SCOPUS and SI Thomson has been blown to the levels so unacademic that affect most of the researchers in local universities. If they don't publish they will perish. My friend told me both SCOPUS and SI Thomson are business enterprises. The more we pay attention to these the more they will make money at the expense of the third world universities. THES is also in the same category! The competition to serve THES and other surveys had taken so much academic times and efforts, that could better used for teaching and supervising students.

4. Local universities are supposed to serve the Malaysian communities first and regional communities second, and lastly the global communities. My friend thought we have been serving the global communities at the expense of the Malaysians, and I tend to agree with him. We publish to inform our Malaysian communities not to accumulate personal IF values, though there are scientists who serve themselves.

5. Somebody ought to tell the Vice Chancellors Council of the dungeon we have dug for young academics. The seniors have serve their dues and they are the one who set new rules for the young academics.

Gunung Benom Expedition

2009-11-19T18:51:00.003+08:00

1. From 9th-16th November the Academy Science Malaysia and the Department of Wildlife & National Park (PERHILITAN) organised a week-long scientific expedition to Gunung Benom, the 10th highest mountain in Peninsular Malaysia. It is situated at the north-west end of the Krau Wildlife Sanctuary, Pahang. It was cemoniosly declared open on the 10th morning by the Director-General of PERHILITAN.

2. 100 particpants were specially invited but only 86 scientists registered and took part in the expedition together with PERHILITAN annual inventory work. They came from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi MARA, WWF Malaysia and of course PERHILITAN.

3. The fields covered were geology, hydrology, water quality, flora, fauna, sociology and ecotourism potential. The participants were divided into two groups; one group of 23 went to Jeneroh Camp via Jenerih and the rest went to Lata Bujang Camp via Perlok. The former group also consists of 13 who successfully climbed the peak of Gunung Benom.

4. I was informed that in 1965 some scientists went up there to conduct some research projects and among them were the late Dr. T. C. Whitmore, Prof. Emer. Dr. Yong Hoi-Seng, Dr. Lim Boo Liat and several former lecturers from Universiti Malaya.

5. The reports are yet to be presented but from the discussion on the evening of 16th revealed many new finds. The geology of the mountain is granitic, with some patches of mountain peat. The water quality is superb though it rained the whole week. The mountain top was cold and one one day it was bright sunny that those with cameras took many scenic anad panoramic scenes.

6. The small mammals trappings were not good and the scientists blamed the weather. The birds were aplenty, catches of insects were not that good either but the beetles group from Universiti Malaysia were quite pleased with their collections. Herpetofauna group also reported bad catch, however, on gigantic caecilian was brought down.

7. There were at least 2 species of Nepenthes, four species of Rhododendron, Rafflesia cantleyi, Balanophora, many palms and gingers, including Baeckia frutescens, Leptospermum, many Ericaceae and Lauraceae. On the lower altitude there were many dipterocarps and Mr. Kamarudin Salleh of FRIM made a list of more than 300 species of flowering plants along his rounds.

8. The findings will be discussed in a seminar to be organised next year and a proceeding will be published.

Bintang Range - Gunung Inas Expedition

2009-11-03T19:56:00.003+08:00

Photo from www.asiaexplorers.com

1. From 2-6 November more than 100 scientists and foresters gathered at Sungai Sedim Recreation Forest, Kulim, Kedah to participate in the year end scientific expedition organised by Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia and Forestry Department Kedah. It was officially opened by YB Dato' Wira State Secretary on the morning of 2nd.

2. This morning a group of more than a dozen participants led by muscologist En. Damanhuri tried to scale the Gunung Inas. He was accompanied by the orchid group from Universiti Putra Malaysia and by the forestry group of the same university. We were told half way up there is a place called "Dataran Bunian" literally translated as Concourse of Elves. The forest is stunted and infested by grasses. I got the feeling it is one of those flat-topped peaty forests, like the one on Gunung Chamah, Gunung Gagau and Gunung Keriong.

3. Datuk Seri C K Lim and Qammil Muzzamil reported the observation of an elusive Costus oligophyllus (Costaceae) from Ulu Paip Recreational Forest and also Gunung Inas Forest Reserve. This the third species, other that C. speciosus and C globosus, which was once collected around Taiping-Gunung Hijau area some 60 years ago, recollected by Dr L G Saw from Ulu Langat area in Selangor.

4. Dr. C Y Choong reported the observation of 18 species of odonates on the first day of expedition, 7 species of dragonflies and 11 species of damselflies, including a rare species, Indocnemis orang.

5. En. Damanhuri himself was fascinated by the existence of one Pogonatum sp. which is known from montane habitats on the bolders at about 150 m above sea level.

6. I will report again after the 6th of November when the expedition is closed.

Garderne4s' Bulletin Singapore - A Commemorative volume

2009-10-25T19:44:00.004+08:00

1. Yesterday Datuk Seri C K Lim borrowed me the latest copy of Gardens' Bulletin Singapore - A commemorative volume of the 150th Anniversary of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. I didn't realise that Singapore Botanic Gardens is 150 years old now, and remains one of the best botanic gardens in our region. The cover was colourful and the articles inside were excellent.

2. Dr. George Argent reported new species of Rhododendron; Prof. P. S. Ashton on new species of Syzygium and Tristaniopsis; Dr. Barcelona et al. reported a new species of Rafflesia; Hughes et al. on new Begonia; Prof. Iwatsuki et al. on new Fissidens; Prof. Kato & Koi on new species of Podostemonaceae; Dr. R. Kiew on new species of Gesneriaceae; Lee et al. on new species of Nepenthes; Dr. Ian Turner on new species of Alphonsea; Suksathan & Triboun on new species of Impatiens; etc. When I finished reading them my feeling was ...wow ...there are still many new taxa lurking in the wild waiting to be collected, decribed and named.

3. What struck me is Rafflesia aurantia from Luzon. I remembered Mr. Co one of the the co-authors showed me the picture of it during the Flora Malesiana Symposium in Manila years ago but the late Prof. Kamaruddin Mat Salleh (KMS), one of the specialists of the genus dismissed it as R. tengku-adlinii. I argued with him how could the Sabah species get dispersed to Luzon or vice versa and furthermore most Rafflesia species have limited range of distribution due to its biology - small population, pollination and seed dispersal. Now justice is done to that species, and the late Prof. KMS is not around to witness it. I also remembered urging Mr. Co to name and publish it.

4. The articles on the deep taxonomy of Gardenia tubifera complex by Low and Prof. K. M. Wong is an excellent example of what taxonomy is all about when comes to species complex. Also the article by Dr. Ian Turner & Dr. Jef Veldkamp on the taxonomic history of Cananga is a must read for students of taxonomy and taxonomists in SEAsia.

5. As a botanist I sincerely feel many of us have not done much justice to our taxonomy for many various and obvious reasons. After all the last count of active taxonomists in Malaysia is not more than 30, though there are many young and budding ones around. I honestly believe the scenario would be different in 10 years time. Speaking for myself, just before I retired in June 2004 I had promised myself to devote much more time and energy to taxonomy and finish my treatment of Vitaceae for Flora Malesiana. More than 5 years gone now and I am not able to do what I had promised, probably I may not be able to realise that at all.

6. What is lacking in this commemorative volume are the contributions from the Singaporeans themselves, after all this is the commemorative volume of Singapore Botanic Gardens, except for the reviews. The neighbours of Singapore had contributed significantly.

Integrated Master Plan for Belum-Temengor : The Synthesis

2009-10-23T20:23:00.004+08:00

1. On the 21-22 October more than 100 participants representing the various stake-holders of Belum Temengor Tropical Forest met at Impiana Casuarina Hotel, Ipoh to discuss the concept of Integrated Master Plan for the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex. In my earlier posts I called this proposed plan as the Integrated Management Plan.

2. It was organised by Northern Corridor Implementation Authority, the implementation arm of the Northern Corridor Economic Region, one of the growth corridor initiatives introduced by the former Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The conference was officially opened by HH The Crown Prince of Perak, Raja Dr. Nazrin Shah Ibni Sultan Azlan Muhibuddin Shah. In HH speech HH reinterated implicitly the importance of having an instrument to manage and conserve the vast area for socio-economic development of Hulu Perak and Perak state in general. The Chief Executive of NCIA, Dato Seri Anuar Zaini emphasized the importance of transparency and consultation in the inception phase of IMP.

3. Two invited international speakers spoke about their experience in managing the ecosystem; Dr. G. Castellija, Director of Conservation WWF International spoke about the experience of 8 nations coming together to agree to look after the Amazon Basin and manage it sustainably and Mr. Robert W Calson from Costa Rica spoke about the development of ecotourism sector based on forest resources in that Central American republic. Both are relevant to what we were dreaming for but on the smaller scale! After all Belum-Temengor area is only about 334,000 ha in area. Belum FR whihc is about 117,000 ha has been gazetted as the Royal Belum State Park and part of the Temengor FR is a production forest, where selective logging is going on at the moment.

4. The local scenario was provided by Prof. Datuk Khaw Lake Tee from Universiti Malaya on the aspect of legislations, policies and laws involved in protecting area such as the Belum-Temengor Tropical Forest. She argued on the salient conflict between the Federal lists, State lists and Concurrent lists of legislations. Dr. Hari from UNDP spoke on the economy of conservation similar to pay per view concept. Mr. Wan Hanafi Wan Mat EPU spoke on the infrastructure development and Dr. Dolbani Mijan JPBD Perak spoke on state plans for Hulu Perak.

5. Then the participants broke into 6 group for discussion and after 2 hours each facilitator summarised the thoughts of the group consensus. Tan Sri Dr Salleh Mohd Noor MNS & ASM spoke on the need to review the policies and legislations, and looking at the aspects of governance Planning. Dr. Loh Chi Leong ED-MNS spoke on the porosity of security in the area & the weak enforcement therin. Dr. Noor Azlin Yahaya of FRIM spoke on the ways to promote and market sustainable ecotourism. Dato' Dr. Dino Sharma CEO-WWF on the aspect of self-sustainability of the area. Dato Shaharuddin Mohd Ismail UKM spoke on organisational structure and I did speak on the past research works & on the importance of research to generate data and information for the development of socio-economic development such as ecotourism.

6. Before the closing ceremony the moderator and convenor Dato Seri Anuar Zaini promised to undertake the preparation of IMP as recommended by the participants through consultative methods with the stake-holders. An ad-hoc small group is set-up to oversee the preparative phase. In closing the conference the Menteri Besar of Perak promised to ensure that the IMP is prepared for the state.

7. To put bluntly I, on behalf of the participants wish to put on records that for all the works in the last 10 years as inputted by MNS, WWF Malaysia. Pulau Banding Foundation and other agencies and individuals, would like to pray that NCIA under the leadership of Dato Seri Anuar Zaini and the state government under the leadership of Dato' Seri Dr. Zambry, once and for all will make our wishes and dreams come true for the sake of Belum-Temengor Rainforest and its biodiversity both in the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

Prof. Dr. Kamarudin Mat Salleh : In Memoriam

2009-10-20T16:20:00.003+08:00

1. On Saturday 10th October 2009 Prof. Dr. Kamarudin Mat Salleh, after suffering from cancer for about a year, died at his home on Jalan 9 Taman Sri Jeluk, Kajang, about 6.50 pm that evening. He left a wife, Azizah and six children, three boys and three girls.

2. He was my former student. I plucked him from obscurity at the Jalan Pantai Baru Campus when he was in 2nd year by asking him to quit his activities in students society and concentrated on his studies, which he did. In the 4th year he completed an honours project under supervision on "the ethnobotany of Simaroubaceae", which had prompted him to finish a book on "Tumbuhan Ubatan Malaysia 2002". Hailed from a rural family of kampung Tepi Sungai, Tanah Merah, Kelantan, he was not bright student but a very hardworking one. It is on the basis of his hardwork attitude that I recommended to Charlie, then Dean of UKMSabah, to take him as a tutor. He was sent to University of Aberdeen to read his MS in chemotaxonomy of Annonaceae under Dr. Chris Wilcox, and subsequently to University of Michigan to read for his PhD in the taxonomy of Annonaceae.

3. He was my mentee. Upon returning to UKMSabah, we kept in touch because we shared a common interest in the taxonomy of Malesian plants and ethnobotany. When UKMSabah was about to be dismantled, I asked him to return to Bangi. Soon he was promoted to Associate Professor. We began our taxonomic journey into the biology and taxonomy of Rafflesia, and we co-authored Rafflesia tengku-adlinii, a small species endemic to Sabah. Though we argued a lot on the taxonomy, we remained as taxonomic comrades, and acknowledged me as his mentor.

4. He was my friend. Though we differ in age, he was 51 when he died and I am just past 61, we respected each other as colleague. He always featured in my research group, we shared many courses and we also co-supervised students. When he was promoted to professor, I asked him to stay away a bit from my shadow because I strongly believed as my understudy and successor in taxonomy, he should be on his own. He should be Prof. Dr. Kamarudin Mat Salleh, and not a former student and a mentee of mine. Some friends interpreted this as my attempt to divorce him.

5. He was fondly remembered as an emotional researcher whose "families" are Annonaceae and Rafflesiaceae, a professor who wanted to convert many students to join his families; who loved to talk about computer, facebook, photography and cameras, blogs, flickers and spin etc. He loved writing messages in UKM email network, some times created animosity amongst some. I missed him so much. May his soul be among the chosen believers.

UKM slides down a bit

2009-10-11T18:47:00.003+08:00

1. In to-day's STAR the details of the THE-QS World University Rankings were published. This year UKM was placed at the low 291 position oiut of the total 2,175 universities. It is not that bad considering many other universities were placed lower. However, the Minister of Higher Education and the VCs were thinking of braeking into the 200 and ultimately the 100.

2. It is not impossible considering the National University of Singapore is placed at number 30, Kyoto University at 25 and the University of Tokyo at 22, among the Asian universities. Of course there are those in India, China, South Korea are also in the top 200.

3.QS Intelligent Unit Head Mr. Ben Sowter stated that one of the key indicators is the greater proportion of international students. I have observed that at least in the USM, UM, UPM and UKM there are already too many international students, especially from the Arab countries, Iran and Indonesia. One way to ensure greater proportion of international students especially from the African and South American, European countries and Indian subcontinents is to make available to them some research grants. At least at UKM I have observed that many professors found it hard to recruit international students because of the unavailability of endowment grants. I realised many European and American universities have such a grant for their international students to carry their research outside Europe and US

4. The recruiter review (10%). There have been some bias on the parts of recruiters local or otherwise of UKM graduates because of the old perception that they couln't talk and converse in English. This is a misconception of the highest level because UKM is established to elevate the teaching in Bahasa Malaysia. This criteria is a bit difficult to achieve, though once again I use the terms not impossible.

5. International faculty ratio (5%). Yes, the number of international students increase but not the international faculty number hence the ratio. At least in my faculty, the Faculty of Science & Technology there are too few international faculties. One of the reasons is of course the renumeration is not compettitive at all, compared to those in NUS; the infra-structure especially the labs are below international standard and the support system is almost non-existence, to exaggerate a bit.

6. International student ratio (5%). UKM promised to increase the post-graduates and decrease the intake of the pre-graduate students. However, the demands for university places is on the increase every year.

7. Student faculty ratio (20%). As I observed in UKM the number of students, post-graduates and pre-graduates is on the increase but the number of faculty members is almost stagnant. We are lucky the retired professors stayed back, as they, like me, don't have other places to go except to beg for a new contract. The reason for non-recruitment of new faculty is the salary is too low and not competitive and the responsibilities of lecturer are increased by almost 60%, especially with those of non-academic domain like doing documents of ISO, MQF and the likes.

8. Citation per faculty (20%). This is a perrenial problem faced by the faculty since I first started teaching at UKM in December 1978. There were those who were prolific lecturers and reserachers and they published many articles in reputed journals every year but there are too many of us who didn't publish an article per year at all, they are 100% lecturers. When I was in the Dean's office I remember less than 10 faculties per school (Pusat pengajian) who had to shoulder the others. There were many initiatives introduced by the university to enhance this phenomenon but failed.

9. Peer review (40%). Most of us in the appropriate professions were the Alma Mater of Universiti Malaya and we have certain loyalty to it, though the past and present authorities didn't recognise this. I have never been invited back to UM for a cup of coffee to remind myself that I am an alumnus of UM. I bet many peers have a softer spots for UM than any other local universities, but this criteria is going to change in the next 5 years as the alumni of other universities would become peers.

10. UKM is also featured in the Arts and Humanities at number 238, in the Social Sciences UKM is at number 203, and UKM doesn't feature well enough in the Life Sciences & Biomedicines, Natural Sciences and Engineering and Information Technology.

On the Varsity & THES-Qs World University Ranking

2009-10-10T07:10:00.003+08:00

1. In the Star of Thursday 8th October and NST Friday 9th October there were reports of the much awaitedTimes Higher Education-QS World University rankings. The VC of Universiti Malaya, my alma mater was happy because UM has jumped from #230 to #180, a leap of 50 steps. Except for Universiti Teknologi Malaysia which improved by 36 steps, the other big three suffered a bit.

2. When I was a university student (1969-1978) I have never heard of such a topic being discussed by my professors, though I knew Universiti Malaya and University of Reading were among the best in the world at least in my chosen field of study. When I was a lecturer myself at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (1979-now), it is only in the last five years that we pay some attention to this exercise of ranking universities in the world and Asia.

3. As expected the long established universities in US and UK stayed in the top 10. However in Asia, University of Tokyo, University of Kyoto and the National University of Singapore featured among the best 30 in the world.

4. All the top 5 universities in Malaysia are quite similar in history except Universiti Malaya which is the oldest, the others are about 40 years. As a 40-year old university it is expected to be macho, handsome, secured, confident matured and competitive, but as I grew and aged within the academia, I can't help but felt sorry for our universities for a couple of reasons.

5. All universities have been treated like a secondary schools by the ministry, everyday professors have to clock-in and clock-out, take the attendance during lectures, prepare ISO documents like a factory etc. There were too many unnecessary chores and routine that we have to do and the professors at Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford never did in their life times! In addition the VCs and DVCs are appointed, at least some, via political whims and fancies. These people are not among the top academicians in their own universities.

6. Among the criteria that Malaysian universities didnot feature well enough are (a) inadequate publications in top journals in various chosen disciplines (b) the number of international students especially from Europe and other developed countries. We have been receiving post-graduate students from Indonesia and Middle East countries and northern Africa (c) inadequate R & D funds, not that we have no funds, but the funds were not systematically chanelled to research in competitive areas, (d) inadequate freedom given to university professors to innovate and excell and (e) the graduates produced via a 3-year students are just short of becoming competitive force of labours for the private markets.

7. I am happy for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for maintaining the 2nd stop beihind my alma mater, but at # 291 does not reflect the true picture of the sweat and tears we put in daily, weekly and monthly in teaching, supervising, researching, publication and community services. I hope in 2010 we shall improve.

Mangrove Biodiversity and Audit

2009-10-08T20:54:00.004+08:00

1. In the RM9 the government via the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) paid special tribute to the environmental audit and biodiversity in its 5-year plan. We the scientists have been asking for the intregration of the value of the environment and biodiversity in the auditing review for years because we believed biodiversity has economic value and this must be reflected in the national audit.

2. The ecosystem or community biodiversity has been giving us free services via the provision of clean air and water; the mangroves have been filtering many toxic substances from the lands into the sea and vice versa; the forests have been mitigating climate change by fixing and storing carbon, in addition to providing timbers and non-timber products. The beautiful landscapes have been the attraction for ecotourism promotion.

3. The species biodiversity also have been giving us free foods and other benefits. The beautiful and iconic species have been giving us some economic benefits from ecotourism too. At least there were people who paid some money to watch the blooming rafflesias, orang utan, proboscis monkeys and hornbills. Many semi-wild fruit tree species have been providing us with some exotic fruits.

4. The genetic biodiversity is yet to give us economic benefits because our scientists have not been doing the animal and plant breeding very much, possibly the orchids are the exceptions.

5. On Tuesday 7th October I gave a 2-hour lecture to the auditors of Malaysia and Indonesia at the Sutera Harbour Hotel, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The auditors from these two countries met to discuss the economic value of the mangroves on both sides of the Straits of Malacca. In spite of what were reported about the threats of the extreme nationalists, we mingles with each other as brothers!

6. Since the 1980s I had carried out some researches on the taxonomic composition, biomass and economic value of the mangroves of Pulau Langkawi, Sungau Merbuk (Kedah), Matang (Perak), Kuala Selangor, and some of my co-reseachers like Dr. Wan Juliana Wan Ahmad & Dr. Norhayati Ahmad had done some works at Sungai Pulai, Johor and Sungai Linggi, Melaka. To say the least we have some useful data on the mangroves of Malaysian side of the Straits of Melaka that benefit the auditors.

7. One of my previous PhD students, Dr. Haliza Abdul Rahman, now a lecturer with Universiti Sains Malaysia at Kubang Kerian did look at the legislative protocols, policies and regulations affecting the management of the mangroves in Selangor. She found out that there are conflicts between the Federal policy and plannings with the State and also the local governments. This did not augur well with the process of auditing of this important green asset in Selangor. In spite of the strong calls by the Federal government to preserve and conserve the mangroves; the state and local governments utilised and exploited the mangrove swamps for aquaculture, oil palm plantation and housing.

8. To be fair I am not sure whether there were similar studies on the mangroves on the Sumateran coasts, the other side of the Straits of Melaka. If there were either I don't know about them or the informations were not published in journals. And I believe there are more mangroves on the other side.

On Diversity of Stress

2009-09-27T14:57:00.004+08:00

photo from Google

1. This morning I read the news ietm in NST on stress with some amusements. The reports say the Prime Minister's job is the most stressful, followed by that of Chief Justice, Doctors especially surgeons, Inspector General of Police, Attorney-General, MACC Chief and so on including that of teachers.

2. I personally view that the dgeree of stressfulness is proportion to their salaries, allowances, perks, priviledges etc. The Prime Minister, Chief Justice etc are stressful because they received a lot of monetary and priviledges returns. There are exceptions of course, the fishermen, taxi drivers, bus drivers are also stressful but their monetary returns make them among the poor and the under-priviledges.

3. The teachers are also quoted as stressful lot and their salaries and priviledges are small. Here I disgareed with the findings. Amongst the teachers include the lecturers, so they are also a stressful lot. Here I could give the readers some of the in-sights of the factors that make the lecturers stressful, though not of their own doings.

4. Teaching. It was so much fun in the 1980s. But now we are supposed to prepare our lecture notes and deposit in SPIN. We are suppose to take the attendance of our class, that routine I remembered well when I was teaching at Sultan Ismail College, Kota Bharu in 1973-74. I thought university teachers are spared of this routine

5. Supervising. Teachers in schools don't have to supervise BS, MS and PhD students but we all do in universities. To-day it becomes more stressful when we are supposed to handle and supervise foreign students, whose English and fundamental of science are inadequate.

6. Research. Teachers don't have to do research but we all do in universities. No funds no research and funds are not easy to come by because R & D administrators don't understand what R & D is all about. How could they understand for they have never done good scientific research in their life.

7. Publication. Teachers don't have to publish any thing, just like the other civil servants in the ministries, but we all do in the universities. No publication no promotion. To-day there are many silly indicators being dragged into our academic life such as Impact Factor journal etc. So far only two local journals have Impact Factor, so we have to penetrate oversea journals. The oversea journals now were run like a business venture, you pay USD we publish your unedited articles. Is this not stressful?

8. Service to community. All of us teachers and lecturers do but of different kinds and degrees. Taechers don't have learned societies to look after, teachers don't organise scientific international or regional conferences, teachers don't have to advise NGOs and government agencies. Yet they are stressful

9. My conclusion is simply ... NST published what I call an illusion.

The Future Siege on Motorists

2009-09-26T10:10:00.003+08:00

photo from Google

1. This morning I read (NST page 8) that the government is going to introduce a new system to monitor the errand traffic on Malaysian roads. It is called the AES (Automated Enforcement System) in which the company set up by the government is going to fix hundreds of laser-cameras to monitor the motorists.

2. In the past and presently, the traffic policemen were forced to sit or lie down the stomach secretly and unassumingly behind vertical pillars, bushes and on towers to snap pictures of motorists who sped up of beat traffic lights etc. During Tun Lim Liong Sik's time, the Ministry set-up many cameras along the roads and millions of pictures were tahen to scare the offenders. The Ministry officials said there were too many pictures to develop and no fines could be collected.

3. This time the Ministry boss said this is not scientific as the policemen used their manual systems and their hands are not that steady and furthermore they could only take one picture at a time. This is not costly enough and nobody is going to make money out of this archaic system!

4. The government is going to privatise this by allowing a company to do the job and the company is going to collect the fines and I bet Malaysians don't mind paying the fines so long as they could weave through the traffic in great speed. There are thousands of silly bus drivers, lorry drivers, motorists and motorcylists on our roads and the company is going to make a lot of money by fining the perennial offenders.

5. Privatisation is a lucrative business in Malaysia. The former British PM Margaret Thatcher introduced it in UK and Tun Mahathir championed it in our country and there area many Malaysians who became instant millioners. This is Malaysianomics and it deserves a philosophical study in Harvard as Najibonomics.

On the Beaches of Kelantan

2009-09-25T20:01:00.003+08:00

photo from Google

1. During the Hari Raya Eidulfitri holidays I managed to visit two beaches of Kelantan. By the way from the beach of Tumpat on the north of Kelantan to the beach of Dalam Rhu, Pasir Putih, there are many once famous beaches of Kelantan.

2. I drove to Pantai Dasar of Sabak hoping to see the once beautiful beach where I played rubber football in the 60s. Much to my shock and astonishment as I passed the bridge I saw a horrible sight both of the river and also the beach. The river ia dirty and there are fish cages and there is no more beach. What I saw was a long mountain of rocks which were pitted there to save the remaining area from being eroded by the sea.

3. Before Thursday 24th I heard so many stories about the plight of Pantai Dasar but I didn't image it is that bad and horrible. I couldn't recognise the shophouse that serviced the visitors in the 60s that belonged to one of my relatives there.

4. Then I drove to Pantai Irama of Bachok and I found there was no more "irama" or rythym of the sand there anymore. In the 60s I thought it was beautiful with white sandy beach and Casuarina trees lining the paths. What I saw was dirty and smelly beach. There were two workers trying to clean the area but the place is horrible. I was told the public toilet was dirty and filthy! That I didn't dare asking my grandchildren to clean themselves there after playing on the dirty beach before putting on their clean pair of trousers and shirts.

5. What is happening to the Pantai Dasar and Pantai Irama? I am sure the authorities are not blind to see what is happening to our beaches. I talked to some friends who blamed on the coastal engineers who planned the deepening and chanelling the estuary of Tok Bali that eroded those beaches. Of course the coastal engineers must have received instructions from the state planners and other authorities. Some blamed mother nature that eroded those beaches. I saw similar phenomenon at the beach near the Kuala Terengganu airport.

Is Hari Raya Aidilfitri of 2009 Coming?

2009-09-18T16:04:00.004+08:00

1. I must confess everything around me is quiet to-day. I went to the office, the office was quiet though the staffs were still in. The car parks were nearly empty, the noise on the road was not that bad; the staffs cars were missing .......something is coming!

2. I went into the office to drop some mails and cards, I met Dr. Mohd. Talib busy preparing his paper publication before the long holiday; Prof. Othman Ross was talking to his student; Dr. Sahibin, Dr. Norhayati and Dr. Haja Maideen were sharing some jokes.

3. As I was leaving the building I noticed Dr. Hasidah and Dr. Wan sharing some academic matters. I wished them happy Hari Raya and holiday, respectively.

4. At about 1 pm I went to the university mosque to do my Jumaat prayer, the car parks were not that full. On the normal Friday some of the jumaah parked their cars almost inside the mosque, but today the parking was orderly.

5. Then I went to AM Bank, the similar atmosphere existed, there was only one counter open for some 7 people wanting their transaction

6. But I noticed there were too many cars and other vehicles on the roads in Bandar Baru Bangi and Kajang. More so when I stopped to refill my gas tank .....I think people were on the move.

7. I think Hari Raya Aidilfitri is coming. I wish to wish my Muslim feoolw-bloggers "Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri" and drive carefully to your destinations. The radio deejays kept telling the listeners there had been too many death on the roads last year .....let's reduce the accidents and unnecessary deaths.

Of Black Coffee On the Table and Coffee Table Books

2009-09-13T15:48:00.003+08:00

1. I am a cofee lover and I love Coffee O Beng of the north ....Whenever I travelled to Penang, Kangar or Alus Setar I never missed ordering Kopi O Beng. I love white coffee too with Mee Curry at the outlet.

2. The medical doctor says drinking coffee is not good as it contains a lot of substance called caffeine, an alkaloid that suffocate your blood streams. And tea has caffeine too.

3. Of late I have been involved with Coffee Table books.
a) At the Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI) I have been involved with supplying small texts for, "The hanging Gardens of Langkawi" and "Memories of Eucalyptus Camp, Maliau Basin". The first is written to commemorate the declaration of Geoforest Parks in Langkawi and I must confessed it is one one of the best. The second is purely to record what went on while we were encamped in a remote area of Maliau Basin, Sabah. I must admit that this one is not that good.

b) At the faculty I was involved with, "Marine Wonders" and "Bukit Fraser - The Crown of Titiwangsa Range". The first is really great, potraying the wonders of life in the shallow seas and I like it so much. Some times I wonder of the beauty underneath the water surface - are they really beautiful? ....for I don't dive to appreciate them myself. The second was a reflection of this highland refugia. Indeen, I gave that title.

c) With the Department of Forestry Peninsular Malaysia I was involved too. The first "Terenggnau - A fascinating forest profiles" was a great piece of Coffee Table book. In it contains one of the most beautiful work of arts, the aerial picture of Jambu Bongkok. Then I was involved with, "Melaka - Where Forestry Began". Honestly I have not seen the finished product as yet. Now I am working on three more - "Significant Findings of the Expeditions", "Negeri Sembilan - Natural Resources and Heritage" and Cameron Highlang, Pahang : The Heart of Central Forest Spine".

4. Between the two i.e. drinking coffee which are put on the table and writing and help produce Coffee Table books, I like the latter as these books don't contain caffeine and they are pleasant to your eyes and minds

The Last Quarter of 2009 Scientific Expeditions

2009-09-05T16:00:00.002+08:00

1. I have been informed by many reliable sources that the last quarter of 2009 is going to be filled with many scientific expeditions. So much so that many friends are going to miss the "Open House" phenomenon and many others are not going to find dates to hold an "Open House" this Hari Raya AidilFitri.

2. Immediately after the Hari Raya breaks, between 28 September to 1st October UKM expeditioners are going to Mt. Silam in Sabah. I am going to participate in this as the botany of this area is very interesting.

3. Immediately after Mt. Silam expedition the same group together with those from Taman-Taman sabah and Universiti Malaysia Sabah and others from other agencies and institutions are going to climb Mt. Tamboyukon, near Mt. Kinabalu. My good friend Emer. Prof. Datuk Dr. Noramly had already declared that he is going to look after the goodies at the Base camp. He did not have the legs to climb the second highest mountain in Sabah.

4. Then there is the Sungai Sedim, Kedah scientific expedition organised by the Department of Forestry Peninsular Malaysia and Forestry Department of Kedah. Sungai Sedim is a recreational forest with chalets and canopy walkway. Tentatively it is going to be on 19-23 October 2009 but I'm asking for a postponement to the following week.

5. Then in November, the Academy Science Malaysia possibly with PERHILITAN is going to organise an expedition to Gunung Benom, Pahang. I have been informed by Emer. Prof. Dr. H S Yong, the last time a scientific group went up there was in the 1960s. The late Dr. T. C. Whitmore climbed up there too. I read a paper on a quadrat survey of mosses published as a result of that expedition.

Merdeka

2009-08-31T12:35:00.003+08:00

1. Today Semenanjung Tanah Melayu or Malaya celebrated her 52nd Merdeka Anniversary as our first Prime Minister shouted merdka on 31st August 1957. On that day I was just over 8 years but I remembered it very clearly as I took a NETS bus with my cousins to go to Padang Bank (or now called Padang Merdeka) in Kota Bharu to shout that sacred word, Merdeka. At that time I had no slightest idea how my beloved country received her Independence from the British.

2. To-day I received a note asking me to celebrate our Merdeka by flagging the Malaysian flag and remembering what the freedom fighters had sacrificed. I was told if not for what those fighters did and sacrified I won't be where I am to-day.

3. I was in real dilemma because I felt I had lost the mood to celebrate for the following reasons:
a) As a country celebrating her 52nd Merdeka Anniversary there should be a small number of her population living below the poverty line. In states like Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and possibly in others too, there is real poverty. What went wrong?

b) There is too much interference by the politicians in managing and running universities and schools. Students and teachers don't feel free to express themselves for fear of being reported by the unknown to the higher-ups. If you are not aligned to a certain political party you are abused!

c) There is inadequate freedom of expression in both the printed media and TV. These are controlled by the politicians of the day and they have been used blatantly for their own agendas. Seldom the power that be discussed environmental issues in their political meetings, even though the climate is changing and the natural resources are depleting.

d) When people demonstrate the police should line themselves to facilitate their march but not to interfere by shooting tear gas. I experienced that when I was a student at UM in 1970s and the police are still doing it today after 52 years of Independence

e) Economic, education etc equity of the Bumiputera in Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia are far from being achieved. the savings of each individual Bumiputera are so insignificant compared to other ethnics, especially the Malaysian Chinese. What went wrong?

f) The special priviledges of the Bumiputera as written in the Constitutions are slowly been eroded. Lands of the poor are sold and lost in Pulau Pinang; the scholarships for the good students are questioned.

g) With the rich resources as we have there shall be no divide between the haves and the have-nots. A poor family with 6 children are living in a house with 2-rooms and the a rich family with 1 daughter is living in a big 3-storied house with 4 rooms

h) As an Independent Nation we should be proud and patriotic with our Bahasa Malaysia not a foreign language. It is ironic that I wrote my blog in English but I am a believer and supporter of teaching mathematics and science in Bahasa Melayu. I have said before Malaysian should master a third language, Mandarin, Tamil, arab or any other

As a legend in Kelantan called Tok Awang many times shouted at the top of his voice, "Merdeka, Merdeka Tahi Apa Nasi Berlauk Pun Tak Leh makan" literally translated, "Independence, What a kind of shit Independence, I can't get a Nasi Berlauk, a special rice for breakfast, normally prepared as white rice + fried fish cooked in coconut milk + hot chili paste + two pieces of cucumber

MERDEKA!

Diversity of Research Niches

2009-08-30T17:29:00.003+08:00

1. On 17th April 2009, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Tan Sri Dr. Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabuddin introduced 8 strategic research areas for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. In her lecture she stressed the importance of promoting research frontiers of knowledge to drive research per se, academic excellence and excellent services to the students and the community at large. As one of the senior professors I viewed her lecture as so timely when the government wants university to experience a quatum leap in R & D. In addition, she acknowledged the diversity of natural resources that could spearhead socio-economic development.

2. She was serious in motivating the staffs into doing something different from the past. To my my understanding research has been ploughed back into teaching and curriculum and also publications as a service to the scientific communities. The latter is less appreciated by the government and also the public. Both had wanted products that could generate incomes and thereby solve some of the woes and worries in the present economic slow-down.

3. The 8 research niches are:
a) Climate change. This is so timely as the world is experiencing global warming and climatic craziness as experience by many nations including ours. This niche is headed by Prof. Dr. Sharifah Mastura and I'm sure Prof. Dr. Fredolin Tanggang could play a pivotal role here to educate Malaysians about what to expect in the next decade or more.
b) Content-based informatics. I suppose the ICT people know what to expect and what to do. This is far beyond burning lectures notes into CDs and made available to the students. In the era of ICT and electronic communication this niche has great role to bring progress to the university.
c) Nanotechnology & Advanced materials. Prof. Dr. Burhanuddin Yeop Majlis has been active in nanotechnology and biophysics.
d) Advanced energy. Prof. Dr. Wan Ramli has advanced so far in fuel cell research so as to contribute not only to alternative energy but also the advacecement of solar energy.
e) National identity, nation state, cultural diversity & globalisation. This niche has a long name so much so that I have difficulties to comprehend its mission and plan of action. I understand that this is to encompass ann research in social science and humanities. This is headed by Prof. Datuk Dr. Shamsul Amri
f) Regional sustainability development. Anything goes in here and I am one of the cluster leaders and my job is to steer the research in Langkawi Geopark and other regional scientific development such as Tasik Chini, Bukit Fraser etc
g) Health technology and medicine. All research in health science and medicine go here.
h)Biodiversity for biotechnology development. This is where it is strategic to utilise the rich biodiversity of the country for biotechnology advancement, though we have a long way to achieve any results of significance.

4. A couple of days ago NST reported that only Universiti Malaya & Universiti Putra Malaysia had achieved more than 5% of their research commercial targets. I don't know much about UM but UPM has progressed so much in commercialising their agro-biotechnology products and also kits in veterinary sciences. I am sure UKM and Universiti Sains Malaysia are not far behind.

Gunung Belumut Biodiversity Scientific Expedition

2009-08-14T17:22:00.003+08:00

1. This morning concluded the Scientific Expedition to Gunung Belumut (Mount Moss), Johor, organised jointly by the Department Forestry Peninsular Malaysia & Forestry Department Johor. It was officially opened by YB Tuan Tan Kok Hong, on the morning of 10th, an Exco of State Government Johor, representing the Chief Minister Johor.

2. More than 150 scientists and support staffs took part representing Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysian Nature Society (Johor), Forestry Research Institute Malaysia, SIRIM Bhd., Putrajaya Botanic Gardens, PERHILITAN Johor, and the various state forestry departments.

3. Dr. Maketab UTM and his team looked at watershed issues & water issues while Dr. Mohd Kamil and his team investigated the water quality of the rivers and streams in the area. Dr Shahir UTM and his team looked at the area in the aspects of GIS and land-use.

4. Dr. Fauziah UM studied beetles diversity, Dr. Norela UKM studied the moths and butterflies diversity, Dr. Shahrul Annuar USM & Nor Zalifah UMT as usual investigated the small mammals, birds and bats diversity; the SIRIM Bhd team collected leaf litter & soil for actinomycetes and bacteria screening. Dr. Alex Ng UKM and his team studied the thrips and wasps; Prof. Jambari UPM and En. Khairulnizam JPNPahang studied spiders; others collected cicadas etc.

5. The flora group consists of En. Damanhuri UKM and his team collected mosses and liverworts; Dr. Haja Maideen UKM and his team studied ferns and fern-allies; Dr. Rusea Go UPM and her team and En. A Rahman Jalil JPNPahang studied orchids; En. Nasir PLKepong surveyed the dipterocarps; Shamsul & Tajuddin UPM and En. Mohd Rahim Rani JPSM surveyed the ethnobotany; Dr. Nazre UPM studied garcinias; the team from FRIM surveyed the lianas among others;

6. A dozen of participants climbed Gunung Belumut and on the first night they were greeted by heavy rains and thunders. They were wondering how come the mountain is called "mossy" where there was not much moss on the floor of the mountain peak. According to Damanhuri there were sands! The mountain should be re-named Gunung Berpasir.

7. Other team members did other studies and surveys. These findings will be presented in a seminar next year to be organised by Forestry Department Johor.
5.

Biodiversity & Pacific Science Congress

2009-08-07T20:36:00.002+08:00

1. In 2011 the Pacific Science Congress will come to Malaysia. Years ago I attended the Inter-Congress in Manila and sat in the committee with Dr. Sy Sohmer of Texas's BRIT.

2. This time the Academy Science Malaysia is organising it with the local institutions and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia is invited to convene one of the themes i.e. Terrestrial Biodiversity. Earlier the Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia proposed the theme Biodiversity and the Ecosystem Services.

3. Prof. Idris A Ghani had a brief discussion with me on the possibilities of several sub-themes. As Marine biodiversity will be convened by Prof. Phang Siew Moi of Universiti Malaya and Wetlands Biodiversity will be convened by Prof. Mashhor Mansor of Universiti Sains Malaysia; we agreed on the following sub-themes

4. (a) Insect biodiversity (b) Herpetofauna biodiversity (c) Mammal biodiversity (d) Lower plant biodiversity (e) Angiosperm Species diversity and (f) Biodiversity evaluation ....there might be one or two more sub-themes after the coming meetings and discussion.

5. The objectives have been to revisit the above sub-themes while monitoring the progress made in Malaysia post-1992 CBD and also post-1998 the launching of National Biodiversity Policy

Langkawi Geopark as a Model

2009-07-30T21:49:00.003+08:00

*photos by Dr Norhayati Ahmad

1. Langkawi Geopark is the first Global Geopark established in Malaysia. It is endowed with a diversity of geological formation being the oldest in the country, rich in marine diversity and terrestrial biodiversity.

2. In addition, Langkawi is also endowed with a very rich cultural diversity and various methos. Three areas such as Kilim-Kisap, Pulau Dayang Bunting & Mount Matchinchang are included in the Geopark. Other areas such as Mount Raya, Bukit Sawak are recognised as GeoForest Parks.

3. The country is also keen to establish a network of National Geoparks, a total of more than a dozen areas have been identified for evaluation using strict criteria as proposed by UNESCO. This idea augurs very well both for internal and international eco-tourism.

4. We are now developing biodiversity contents which will be put in web-based data which is to be developed in a month o two. In addition, we are going to strengthen public awareness and governance to make it a model for subsequent future establishment of other GeoParks in Asia-Pacific area, as well as the National Geoparks.

5. If these challenges and objectives are fulfilled and succeeded it would certainly leap-frogged the UKM researchers to a level that the country is proud of. After all the researchers at UKM who worked closely with Langkawi Development Authority and the Kedah State government and Federal agencies that ensured the establishment of the First GeoPark in Malaysia. I must confess there are many Malaysians out there who are still sceptical about the whole idea - only times will tell.

Ismail Parlan and Gonystylus bancanus

2009-07-25T16:45:00.003+08:00

1. Last week PhD candidate Ismail Parlan defended his thesis on Gonystylus bancanus management at Pekan FR, Pahang.

2. The Pekan FR is a peat swamp forest immensely rich in the populations of Gonystylus bancanus or Ramin melawis, a much sought after timber. After all this species is listed in CITES Appendix II.

3. According to him there have been a few PhD thesis written on peat swamp forest before his. He mentioned that of Dr. Samsudin Ibrahim of FRIM and Dr. Hizamri of JPSM

4. He discussed the pollination and pollinators of Gonystylus bancanus, in addition of stand structure and density.

5. He also discussed the harvesting regimes specifically for the species in order to achieve sustainable yield.

6. Years ago Dr. Samsudin Ibrahim of FRIM established a 5-ha Study and Monitoring Plot at the same forest reserve, which was consumed by socio-economic development. There went his years of useful data to the peat ....

Aneesah and Neolitsea

2009-07-18T15:17:00.002+08:00

1. My Yemeni MS student Aneesah has had her viva voce on the systematic study of Neolitsea, a small genus in Lauraceae. Since the last treatment of the late Kochummen, Dr. Francis Ng is revising the family for the Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak.

2. There are things she agreed with Dr. Ng and there are a couple of things she chose to disagree. This is systematic botany. She did carry out studies on morphology, anatomy, palynology and phytochemistry.

3. N. zeylanica is now N. cassia and what Mr. Kochummen thought was a new species is now recognised a variety, N. cassia var. pahangensis. Dr. Ng also regarded it as a variant of the widely distributed N. cassia.

4. N. kedahensis and N. mollissima are conspecific, agreeing with Dr. Ng. However, Aneesah thought N. villosa and R. coccinea should be separated as distinct species.

5. She believed there is a new species tentatively called N. brinchangensis, collected without flowers and fruits from Gunung Brinchang, Cameron Highlands. Apparently this new taxon differs from the recognised ones above in both the morphological and anatomical features. We have to monitor this tree for its reproductive structures before describing it.

Prime Minister's 100 Days

2009-07-11T19:21:00.004+08:00

1. To commemorate PM Dato' Seri Najib's 100 days in the office as the 6th Prime Minister, I as a citizen of Malaysia wishes to put down some personal comments and wishes meant for him and his government.

2. I applauded the govenment decision to revert the teaching of Mathematics and Science to Bahasa Malaysia. As the Malay saying goes,"If you got lost go back where you started". However, the announcement was partially committed as the government insisted on English at secondary and tertiary levels. As I said in my earlier post let's have Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction at all levels because Bahasa Balaysia is the language of unity and English is the languagae of knowledge. It must be done from the start from kindergardens to university, for all levels, as the European did.

3. I disagreed with Tun Mahathir who lamented on the fact that after the WW2 the Japanese leant German to procure the technology and hence that's why the Japanese could built cars, the Greeks learnt Arabic to procure and understand philosophy and mathematics, etc (see NST 11/7/09) as I didn't see Japanese speaking German and the Greek speaking Arabic now. Only a small number of selected intelectuals and technicians did that. For Malaysia we want all future citizens to write and speak Bahasa Malaysia and at the same time they do with English and possibly another language, Mandarin, Tamil, Arabic, Japanese etc.

4. The government also intends to reduce the rate of those unnecessary tolls. The tolls had affected the poor so much in the past and the government play deaf on their cries. As the number of vehicles using the toll increase exponentially over time, over the longer period of years the toll concessioners would have the investment paid off.

5. The government also wishes to release the ISA detainees, especially the political and religious detainees whose detentions were a shady and not based on facts . I also wish the government eliminate the "elements of fear" within all strata of the community. It was quite real during the reign of Tun Mahathir.

6. I also applauded the government wish set-up the Economic Council which comprises the economic-thinkers. As the airport taxi driver said,"with the rich natural resources Malaysia has a taxi driver like him should no longer earn this much driving taxi for nearly 12 hours a day. not much time to rest, eran enough to buy his family foods".

7. Please revert the 3-year university curriculum in science to 4 years. Too much damage had been done to the students and lecturers. The 4-year system practiced in the 1970s and until it was changed by the present Prime Minister when he was the Education Minister, did many good things to science graduates. I started teaching in January 1979 until today, and I think I know what I am talking about. So do many other lecturers who are afraid to speak out .....again out of fear.

8. Tell me more about 1Malaysia as I was in the dark when Masyarakat Madani was introduced, when Islam Hadhari was popularised (to me Islam doesn't need an adjective), then now 1Malaysia. I tried to read the thoughts of some politicians and their wives explaining the concept and yet I can't comprehend, what more the less educated Malaysians in the rural areas who don't blog and don't have access to computers and don't read the newspapers.

9. I wish our PM pay more attention to the environmental issues which are affecting all activities to-day. The state of our rivers, species, soils, landscapes etc are in real peril ....let's show-case to the world what a megadiversity Malaysia can offer to them. Please strengthen our human resources and capacity (Dato' Pa tried a few years ago .....) , please strengthen our research institutions, including universities.

10. Please make us proud as Malaysians.

I purposely wrote 10 items, 1 item for 10 days in office. Best of luck Dato' Seri

Integrated Management Plan for Belum-Temenggor

2009-07-08T22:13:00.003+08:00

1. I look at Integrated Management Plan or IMP as a rational an sensible tool to sustainably manage an area, be it a permanent forest reserve, a park or an estate. This IMP has an owner and also a proponent.

2. The Belum-Temenggor area in Perak consists of permanent forest reserve (PFR), production forests, a large water bodies, rivers and streams, biodiversity, indigenous communities, etc. Part of the PFR has been gazetted as Royal Belum State Park which consists of more than 117,000 ha of undisturbed primary forests is administered by the Perak State Park Corporation. The rest of the forest areas are managed by the Forestry Department.

3. The large water body and its water margin is administered by Tenaga Nasional Berhad (National Energy Ltd.) the federal government agency which is responsible for running a few hydroelectricity dams.

4. There is the Indigenous Community Department which looks after the indigenous Temiar and Jahai; there is Drainage Department which looks after the rivers and streams; there is the Police Force and Army who look after the security of the area; the Gerik District Officer and of course the non-government oraganisations.

5. In addition, there is Northern Corridor Implementation Agencynof Northern Corridor Economi Region which is responsible for the socio-economic growth of northern Perak. There is also a Pulau Banding Foundation, which is interested to assist all the stake holders to achieve their wishes and concerns.

6. Because of the many stake-holders involved, there is a dire and urgent need for the IMP to be in place. The IMP will call for a Joint Technical Committee or possibly a Joint Advisory Committee to manage the area.
This will ensure some measures for sustainable development of the area as called for by both the state and federal governments.

The Peat Swamp Forests and IMP

2009-07-06T19:22:00.004+08:00

1. When one speaks of the peat swamp forests many thoughts come to our mind. The acidic water which is of the tea colour. The burning of peats in Sumatera and Kalimantan that caused haze in our country times and times again and many more.

2. Once upon a time there was vast tracts of peat swamp forests in Malaysia. Sabah and Sarawak have more peat swamp forests which are rich in timber produce. Perak has some around Bagan Datok, Selangor has some in Raja Musa FR and Tanjung Karang area which had been converted to oil palm plantations, Johor has some on which pineapples grow and Pahang has some intact and pristine shallow peat swamp forests.

3. While we have lost much of the peat swamp forests, the Forestry Departments of Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia with aids from UNDP came forward to conserve some at Klias, Loagan Bunut and Southeast Pahang, respectively. Dr. Efrasyah was the UNDP Chief Technical Officer, based at FRIM was instrumental in putting a project to conserve those for the generations to come.

4. The instrument put on the laps of our government is called IMP or Integrated Management Plan, discussed and agreed by all the stake-holders in the respective states and the federal government agencies. It is not a perfect document but it is the best template we ever had to give a good governance to managing our national heritage.

5. It is my hope similar set-ups in the country and states would follow this wonderful example. But, there again, a beautiful document does not guarrantee anything better if not followed by the government of the day. I wish the stake-holders would remain to be close to the state government to monitor the management of the peat swamp forests.

All for Bio-Malaysia

2009-07-04T09:22:00.002+08:00

1. Years ago I was invited to a national conference on Bio-Malaysia in Putrajaya. It was an excellent effort and initiative taken by then then government to address biodiversity for biotechnology. After all Pak Lah, our beloved Prime Minister believed that biotechnology could be our next engine of socio-economic growth, when launching the National Biotechnology Policy in 2005.

2. About the same year, when I met YBhg Dato' Dr. Abdullah Che Wan, famed for leading Badminton Association of Malaysia for many years is currently the Chairman of BioPerak. BioPerak was established the similar efforts for Perak. Many start-up companies were established to address the same.

3. The then Prime Minister, Pak Lah when chairing the National Biodiversity & Biotechnology Council, had expressed his views in support of the state level organisations or companies to utilise the rich and diverse biodiversity for biotechnology.

4. Then I heard there were rumours of the establishment of BioPerlis, BioPahang, BioKelantan etc. How true this rumous is I'm not in the position to tell. But I can tell you Sarawak and Sabah are serious with this as they had already established, Sarawak Biodiversity Centre and Sabah Biodiversity Centre, respectively.

5. Mext week I'm invited by BioJohor to a state level conference to revisit the similar issue. I'm not sure whether I am able to attend and deliver my thoughts as yet, as the semester has already began. I'm supposed to teach ethnobotany, biodiversity to first years students; taxonomy to 2nd year students and Biodiversity & Systtematics to post-graduate students.

Tales of One Bataq Mat Jenin

2009-06-28T14:27:00.003+08:00

1. Mat Jenin is a famous Malay character who likes to dream. All he did was to dream of the impossible.

2. They say if there is one Bataq all he does is to dream too. If there are two Bataq they play chess and if there are three they form a trio and perform in Bataqland.

3. These are tales of one Bataq Mat Jenin

a) He wants to look after a genie so that he can be a professional golfer for his country. He could be like Vijay Singh for Fiji, K J Choi for S. Korea and T. Jaidi for Thailand. He wants to use a genie to guide his golf ball where ever he wants so that he could play par golf.

b) He wants to publish in Science and Nature so that he could satisfy his boss who wants high Inpact Factor as his university's Key Performance Indicator. To-day his boss looks down on his publications in proceedings and in non-SI and non-Scopus journals.

c) He wants to have some endowments from his fellow Bataqs who had made good in life so that he could establish a Bataq Foundation to help his fellow Bataqs.

4. Well, as the saying goes to say, until another Bataq comes along to play chess with him, he will be forever Mat Jenin ......

Since 14th April Pak Teh's blog has registered a total 1075 hits ....no where close to that of Che Det's blog ....may be I should go political

National Forest Inventory

2009-06-25T19:16:00.002+08:00

1. Every 10 years the Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia conducted nation-wide thorough forest inventory. Using standard methods their officers and forest contractors did the inventory surveys diligently to take stock of forest resources and their distribution.

2. In spite of the department's effort in documenting the number of stands and distribution of those species in their reports, CITES still felt many species such as Intsia palembanica, Gonystylus bancanus and Aquilaria malaccensis, amongst others are at the brink of extinction.

3. Botanists like me laughed at the way CITES worked as Gonystylus bancanus is no where near extinction in the peat swamp forests of Peninsular Malaysia. Similarly, Aquilaria malaccensis is also no where what CITES had reported.

4. However, many species were not identified to the species level in the previous inventory. This is in parallel to the value of timber as posted by MASKAYU, as they are quoted as "species-group" e.g. "nyatuh" for all the Sapotaceae and "resak" for all the Vatica species, for example.

5. In the coming 5th National Forest Inventory, I suggested it should be done to the species level. Specimens should be collected as evidence of their distribution. This will definitely help the preparattion of the Flora of Peninsular Malaysia.

Second UKM-UI Joint Seminar

2009-06-22T21:59:00.002+08:00

1. This morning at about 1015 hr I gave a keynote address at the said seminar. The first was held in Jakarta in 2007. My topic was,"Biodiversity in Malaysia and Indonesia : The most undervalued natural asset"

2. Both countries share of the richest biodiversity in tropical Asia and yet both countries are still struggling to turn their biodiversity richness to eradicate rural poverty. Durng the colonial years both the British and Dutch exploited the richness in their colonists to the fullest. Both the Malay Peninsula or Malaya and Java have their own Flora. No other islands have their own Flora.

3. Both countries have a diverse ecosystem or community diversity, from islands to the mountains in Irian Jaya and Sabah. The richness of corals in both countries is also unimaginable to the botanist. The edaphic forests are immensely rich in unique floras.

4. The species diversity in both countries totals more than 30,000 from the smallest diatoms in the sea to the gigantic tualang and cengal in Peninsular Malaysia and rasamula in Indonesia. Don't forget both countries share more than 14 species of the gigantic and beautiful rafflesias and rhizanthes.

5. Both have the National Biodiversity Policy and National Biotechnology Policy, and yet both countries fail to realise their dreams to transform their rich biodiversity into the ingredients of biotechnology. The pristine ecosystem diversity and some of the iconic species are ingredients for ecotourism. I feel both the development in biotechnology and ecotourism could bring potentials in foreign exchange, in addition to the existing oil palm industries, timber industries, etc.

6. I just wonder what it takes to convince our economic and political masters to exploit the rich biodiversity for the benefitsof the poor in our pursuit of sustainable development. Perhaps these ideas will remain as dreams ......until we lost all these to the changing times and ignorance/

On the Turtles and Terrapins of Terengganu

2009-06-16T20:06:00.003+08:00

1. Years ago Terengganu's Rantau Abang is famous for turtles landings. Hundreds of them came up the white sandy beach every night to lay their ping pong sized eggs. And hundreds of visitors and tourists flocked the place at night to watch the events. I did go there twice to be part of the party. We shouted and we mounted on the backs of the turtles and shone lights straingt into their faces. And nobody told us not to do such mischiefs. The state of Terengganu became famous for turtles and the chalet owners and hawkers were happy to reap the products. A couple of years ago there was a statue of turtle in a round-about in Kuala Terengganu.

2. Today no turtle lands anymore at Rantau Abang, though the beach is still white and sandy. The locals were puzzled and what-ever reasons the scientists told them they didn't believe. The irony is that the expert on turtles Prof. Chan, from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu resides in Kuala Terengganu.

3. Turtles do land but at Ma' Daerah, a smal area with 1.7 km of white and sandy beach enclaved by Bukit Labohan Besar and Bukit Labohan Kecil in Kerteh. The area receives flares and lights from the numerous plants at Kerteh nearby. And turtles don't like lights and flares but they did land there!

4. Turtles do also land at Setiu where there is a longer white sandy beach. However, there is a looming aquaculture project coming to the area which is going to threaten the survival of the landing turtles directly. There are other land-use issues in the area.

5. Fresh-water terrapins are also found in Setiu. Some years ago many died of poisoning especially the weedicides and pesticides from nearby areas. Their carapaces were scattered everywhere.

6. The people of Terengganu still eat turtle eggs which are sold at the famed Pasar Kepayang. It is very difficult for the people of Terengganu, and for that matter, those of other states, to get rid of that old habit of consuming turtle eggs. If there is a legislation in Terengganu to prohibit eggs eating and selling, what stops their neighbours in Kelantan to bring across the eggs, sell and consume them in Kelantan?

7. But who cares about turtles? They didn't as there were still many people in Kelantan who caught monitor lizards, pangolins, snakes, frogs, terrapins etc to sell them across the northern border.

On the plight of turtles

2009-06-15T22:27:00.002+08:00

1. The hawksbill turtles (Penyu karah) had been landing on the beaches of Melaka for centuries. The local communities, especially the fishermen had been collecting the eggs either to sell in the local markets or eat them. The eggs are a delicacy but they are said to contain cholesterols. These had been going on ......

2. Many of them were caught in the net of the fishermen, got drowned and died. Many of them were caught by the Chinese fishermen and taken back to China, consumed as foods. The carapace were made into ornamentals.

3. Many of them returned to Melaka beach to find out:

a) the beaches had been destroyed by land reclamation as the Mahkota Parade
b) the beach at Padag Kemunting had been eroded that they crawled up so close to concrete
c) the beach at Pulau Upeh had been turned rock-hard, so much so that the turtles had problems in digging the beach to lay their eggs

4. When the babies are released into the sea, they are believed to return to the same beach, if they survive at all, in 30 years time. Just imagine those that were released at Padang Kemunting on the night of June 2009 will return in 2039. What would be the condition of the said beach then?

5. Thanks to the Department of Fsheries Melaka which had cooperated with WWF Malaysia in trying to ensure the conservation and survival of the hawksbills. They said the turtle eggs contain life, save them, don't take lives

On the Parks

2009-06-12T23:15:00.002+08:00

1. The 2nd National Park in Peninsular Malaysia is Pantai Acheh NP, Penang which is just over 1000 ha. It has been ridiculed as the smallest NP in the World.

2. Before the above the only National Park is Taman Negara which consists of Taman Negara Pahang, Taman Negara Terengganu and Taman Negara Kelantan as they were gazetted under the ordinance of the respective states. Only TN Terengganu had produced its Coffee Table book.

3. Today Sarawak has a total of 20 Totally Protected Areas which include National (State sic!) Parks and the state intends to go for 29 to achieve 1 Million ha of protected areas in the near future. Ten of the established parks are within the Heart of Borneo. The situation in Sabah is similar o that of Sarawak.

4. In Peninsular Malaysia, Perlis State Park covering an area of ca. 5,000 ha has been gazetted; Gunung Stong State Park, Kelantan is yet to be gazetted. I'm not sure whether Endau-Rompin State Park, Pahang; Pulau Jerejak SP and Bukit Panchor ST in Pulau Pinang have been gazetted. The parks in Johor, Selangor and Perak have been gazetted under corporations.

5. The states of Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Kedah and Terengganu are yet to consider their TPAs to be gazetted as state parks.

On the language and authors in BM

2009-06-09T19:39:00.003+08:00

1. I was away in Copenhagen attending the WWF Annual Conference, in Den Haag while visiting Nationaal Herbarium at Leiden and Liverpool visiting my sons, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. At Den Haag I met my nephews and nieces.

2. Marina studied microbiology in Dutch and took English as her second language; she speaks both languages fluently. Faisal studied communication, fluent in Dutch, English and Bahasa Kelantan. Mariani studied in Dutch too and took English as her second, she wants to be a environmental lawyer. In addition, she took to Latin, French, Spanish, German, Kelantan and Japanese. Munirah followed suit in IT, fluent in Dutch and English and Fadzli is fluent in Dutch as he is just in high school.

3. While in office to-day I read 15 scientific papers written in Bahasa Malaysia meant for Sains Malaysiana, the top journal of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The papers are of biological sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics and engineering science. The Malay authors wrote their papers very well in Bahasa Malaysia, of course with English abstract. I presumed these authors were educated in Bahasa Malaysia as their medium of instruction while in university, as they are not of my generation.

4. My points are:

a) Malay children and Malaysian children can learn and master any language if they start early in their education. Why can't we package our children in primary school with Bahasa Malaysia as theri first language and English as the second language. As they move to secondary school, get them to master another language of their choice, mandarin, french, tamil etc. When they get to college or university, give them another language. Do away with English to teach them mathematics and science subjects, denying the non-science students to be good in English. In the past we had science vs non-science streams and now we have English science stream vs Malay non-science stream. What kind of education system is this?

b) The last generation who studied in Bahasa Malaysia as their medium of instruction did well in their science without neglecting English, as proven by those authors I mentioned above. Furthermore, these authors were educated overseas for their PhDs.

c) Encourage the not-so-young people of 40 to 60 to study another language, especially Arabic, Mandarin or Tamil ...... diversity of Malaysians.

More About The Prisoner of Teheran Marina Nemat

2009-06-04T16:05:00.002+08:00

1. As I read more chapters of the book I found some answers why most are intolerant. These include:

a) We are just ignorant about the issues and yet we are compelled to make wrong decision. For example, when the ex Minister of Education, was furious about Prof. Shahari's critic of the NST news, he was utterly ignorant of what Shaharir criticised. Yet he was because people around him advised him to.

b) We have own own personal agenda an yet we made the wrong decision. For example, when an ex TNC questioned the 12 lecturers who were said to be anti-government, he had his personal agenda of wanting to please the Minister and hoping to go up the ladder of power one way or the other.

c) We were just followers and yet we did what we did. For example, when the BTN officers interrogated and belittled the other officers, they were just idiots who were supposed to do just that. Just like the police officers who blown the Mongolian woman.

d) We wanted to be part of a system and yet we derailed our own principles. For example, some of us wanted to gain favour from the power that be, we just be part of the system .... be a member of UMNO or be an UMNO sympathisers, for instance, could take you up favourably be it in police force, army, ministries and even in universities.

2. These are a couple of observations that I could make after reading 17 Chapters of the above book written after the Iran Revolution.

3. When I was at Reading during the Iranian Revolution, my Persian friends talked so much good about Ayatollah Khoemeini even though they didn't know much about him as he was in exile in Paris, yet they expected so much of him. They were probably right as the Shah of Iran then was bad. When I met the same Iranian friend in Sydney in 1981, he told me the two era were not much different. The Iranians were still suffering from interrogation, execution and intolerance. If this could happened in Iran, why can't these also happen in modern Malaysia.

4. That is why I had wished ISA be abolished.

An afternoon with my grandchildren

2009-06-04T01:01:00.003+08:00

Ilyas and Maisarah at Toys R Us, Liverpool

Prisoner of Teheran

2009-06-03T18:26:00.002+08:00

1. While waiting to board the EasyJet (equivalent of our Air Asia) plane at Schipol airport, Amsterdam to go to Liverpool to see my sons, daughter-in-law and grandchildrenm i purchased two books, Prisone of Teheran by Marinat Nemat (Publisher John Murray) and The State of Africa by Martin Meredith (Publisher Free Press).

2. I began reading the first book which is thinner, more attractive and more interesting, I thought as it is a true story, not a political propaganda as I thought the second book is .

3. Ms. Marina Nemat was 16 years old, a high school student when she was arrested for wanting to study calculus instead of listening to political speech of her teacher. This happenned during the Iranian Revolution, just prior to Ayatollah Khoemeini returned to Iran. She asked her teacher to teach the class the core subject of calculus instead of listening to Islamic political speech and propaganda. After reading up to 129 pages I realised Iranian Islam is so intolerant.

4. But, I thought intolerance exists everywhere.Whether it is in Iran, South Africa, US, Iraq, Thailand or even Malaysia. A few years ago, the Malaysian secret servicemen arrested a couple of innocent students in Kota Bharu because they received the information from the authorities yjese students were studying Islam in Pakistan. These police officers did not listen to reasons or rationale. They did what they were "told" to do regardless. Is this sound familiar?

5. I am brought up to be tolerant, rationale and common sense. That is why I hate intolerance, irrationale decisions and people who do not use and listen to common sense. Anyway, I'm going to continue reading while playing with my grandchildren, Ilyas and Maisarah, while receiving news about my injured son at home.

Lalan di hospital - another entry by Tina

2009-06-03T18:24:00.003+08:00

lalan suruh mama buat muka sedih

tangan yang cedera

makan pun nak kena suap ke

mama duk ajak nak gi econsave kat bawah

lalan posing dengan operation gown nya

Lalan yang cedera

2009-06-02T17:44:00.003+08:00

* entry by Tina & Lalan

Poverty and Biodiversity Conservation

2009-06-02T15:20:00.003+08:00

1. A question sometimes asked by my students includes, "Why does biodiversity conservation in some countries fail?. My answer begins with a scenario setting in developed countries where most of biodiversity conservation succeeded. One common factor is poverty.

2. Then I move to a worst scenario in some central and east African countries where poverty is rampant. Where western aids came conservation succeeded and where western aids didn't appear, conservation failed. The success of biodiversity conservation depends to a certain extent on aids from the west and poverty eradication.

3. In Malaysia there are a few more scenario that include:

a) The owners or custodians of biodiversity conservation areas don't have much clue and knowledge about conservation approach. Much of the knowledge were derived from foreign scenario, imported by so-called experts to our shores and forests. The local people don't participate well in the conservation project

b) There were many greedy people in the country who have wanted to make much more money than what they can spend. They could not care less about biodiversity, conservation and environment. These people include those who worked with the middlemen to trap animals and collect plants for sale.

c) The rich Malaysian are yet to invest in biodiversity and the environment. They were the excellent sceptics with what the NGOs do in the country. Unlike those in US and Europe, the rich came forward to start their legacies for the environmental issues, such as climate change, rain forest conservation and conservation of iconic species.

d) Malaysia is still land of plenty, so if we have many flora and fauna, why should we embark on biodiversity conservation. My analogy is if we are healthy and kicking why should we go and see the doctor, only if we are sick we seek doctors.

4. Most developing countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Venezuela, Brazil, Congo, still have plenty of bodiversity, these countries are the present custodians of world's biodiversity. These countries need to develop further, eradiacte poverty among their citizens, increase ther GDPs and want to live a affluent life style. After all, who don't want to live like a Swiss?

5. We think in this century, we will stand or fall on our ability to collectively eradicate poverty, guarantee human rights and ensure an environmentally sustainable future. Freedom from want, freedom from fear and sustaining our future are all part of the same equation. However, this is a tall order!

6. If conservation or poverty eradication interventions are to be successsful, our leaders need to address factors like global trade, money markets, climate change etc. Most conservation projects take some account of local people's livelihood, albeit less of the political situation. Despite their distinctive goals, conservation and development can achieve workable accommodation in such things called trade-offs or win-win situation.

Biodiversity Conservation Highlights

2009-06-01T05:12:00.004+08:00

1. In May 2009, the six Coral Triangle heads of states (incl. Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste) made a historic and precedent-setting commitment to work together to protect marine environment and resources, ensure the food security of their people, and build climate change resilience. The Coral Triangle leaders' declaration launched the most detailed regional action plan for ocean conservation ever seen, and the countries individually announced new commitments on finance, law and marine protected areas. President Yudhoyono and PM Dato' Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak made a personal plea to conserve the marine environment.

2. In a historic commitment, Sumatra's 10 governors and four government ministries of Indonesia commited to a sustainable development model based on ecosystem-based spatial planning. This agreement commits Sumatera to protect areas with high conservation values, restore important ecosystems on the island and reestablish connectivity between forests and habitats. Sumatera is home to Sumateran tiger, rhino, orang utan and Asian elephants.

3. Led by World Bank, the Global Tiger initiative brings together the Smithsonian Institution, WWF, Save the Tiger Fund, and other partners with the objective of gaining the support of tiger range state leaders for effective conservation of the severely endangered species, Panthera tigris. The total tiger populations have plummeted from 30,000 in the 1980s to an estimated 4,000 today. In December 2008, Malaysia launched a national Tiger Action Plan with the aim to double Malaysia's tiger (Panthera tigris jacobii) population to 1,000 by 2020. It is worth noting that EMKAY Foundation had partially supported Mark Ryan's work on the tiger in the Belum-Temenggor forests in Perak. The human-tiger conflict in Jeli, Kelantan is still on.

Diversity of Observations

2009-05-30T15:53:00.002+08:00

This morning as I had my breakfast in the Mamas & Papas Restaurant at Radisson Hotel, Copenhagen, I had the chance to read the English newspapers called The Financial Times. I was overjoyed to know what is happening outside the hotel. I picked a few observations just to share with you.

1. Mr. Kofi Annan the former Secretary-Genneral of the United Nations and now President of the Global Humanity Forum had these to say
a) Climate change is claiming 300,000 lives a year now, By the year 2030 more than 500,000 people will die every year because of the effects of warming temperature and a further 600 million people will be suffering the damage of climate change.
b) The annual cost to the global economy is estimated at USD 125 billions. The losses to the world's economy would rise to USD 340 billions a year by 2030, that spring from factors such as lower crop yield, malnutrition and the spread of diseases and cosequent strain on health services.

2. Ms Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive of Oxfam added,"People think climate change is something happening in the future. But we know that it is happening now."

3. During the Cultural Revolution in China when China's ubiquitous state security agents want to intimidate a dissident or political activitist for the first time, they usually come knocking in the middle of the night with an invitation for a "cup of tea". Once the tea is served in some secret location, the agenst explained that if their guest continues publicly to critise the Communist party or government, the likely consequences range from unemployment to long prison sentences or even "disappearance" for them, their families and friends.

4. Do you know that Dame Margaret Thatcher was born in 1925 as Ms. Margaret Roberts, worked as a chemist before studying for the Bar. In 1951 she married Mr. Denise Thatcher, with whom she had a twin, Mark and Carol. She was elected as a Conservative MP of Finchley (don't know where it is) in 1959 and served as Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Pensions under the Macmillan government. In 1979 she becae the first UK's female Prime Minister. She was an ally of President Ronald Reagan but reached out to reformist Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1990 in the face of internal dissent, she stepped down as party leader and in 1992 was elevated to the Lords.

5. A quotation, "Two wrongs don't make a right, but they make a good excuse." - Thomas Szasz, a Hungarian Psychiatrist. I used a similar phrase to urge Prof. OO to drive a better car, "Two Citras don't make a Merc, but they make a good exhibit in your porch."

6. Another quotation,"You ca do thousands more things by being a cook for your country than you can as a politician," - Gaston Acurio, A Peruvian chef.

7. Another one, if you can bear with me, "I live for wisdom and beauty, which make me happy. In my own experience, wisdom comes from finding truth ...Beauty comes from people." - Ms Marilyn vos Savant, a lady with the IQ of 228.

Oh No Don't Let The Himalayan Ice Melts Down

2009-05-30T12:31:00.003+08:00

1. We have been informed that climate change in the Himalayas is a foregone conclusion but it still remains one of the biggest challenge for humanity. Geologically, the Himalayas are the youngest and most ecologically fragile mountains of the world, and yet they are highly vulnerable to climate change.

2. The Himalayas stretch across Myanmar, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, serving as a source to three of the world's major river systems, the Indus, the Yangtze and the Ganga-Brahmaputra. They are in fact the line-line for more than a billion people in Asia and its biodiversity.

3. In term of biodiversity, the Himalayas contain many viable populations of iconic and threatened species of plants and animals of the world. To mention a few these would include the Bangal Tiger, the Asian Elephants, the rhinoceros, etc. The Himalayas flora is well-known to the Japanese botanists for they pioneered the many studies there, not to mention of course the local Indian, Bangladeshis, Nepalese and Chinese etc botanists who had documented the many endemic and medicinal plant species.

4. The Himalayas has a rich culture across Bhutan, Nepal and northern India where this tapestry hides the fragile landscape where traditional practices and beliefs are eroding under population growth, political instability and threats from unplanned socio-economic developmentm deforestation and of course climate change.

5.The Himalayas store fresh water in the lakes, carbon, glaciers and above all the ICE. With the onslaught of climate change, the region is experiencing episodes of drought, increased temperature and altered precipitation. We were informed many fresh water lakes have been formed up there due to the constant melting ice.

6. The questions normally asked include what would happen to life down under in Yangtze Chia and Indian Indus and Ganga-Brahmiputra especially those people living along the three great rivers if more ice melts and constant and sporadic floods occur. Could you then imagine how would the millions adapt to these scenarios?. The analogy is what would happen to many cities and their millions of populations in Asia if the ocean level rises between 2-6 meters!