Category: Uncategorized

Written by Anis Adrina Md Nor

Unconsciously, people lives are touched by the entertainment which they never saw or heard. Although people are widely exposed to entertainment, what can bee seen nowadays is the media discussion about “entertainment” is lack of ethics. We can see that there are several of formal rules, ethical codes for media, however, all of it are only guiding the hard news media and there are vague guidelines of media ethics in entertainment industry.

Generally, there is no equivalent system of formal ethical codes or rule for the entertainment industry. Looking at how powerful media can influence people’s mind, it is getting challenging for the people in entertainment industry to counter that there is relation between produced products and a dangerous ill-mannered of today’s society.

In Malaysia, the media entertainment ethics is on the right track. According to a senior entertainment journalist, who is now entertainment program producer, Nas Ahmad, the ethics in entertainment media in Malaysia is exacly following the other media ethics as there is no specific media ethics guideline provided particularly for entertainent industry,

To Nas Ahamd, media practitioner in entertainment must know to balance between the needs of ethics and sensationalism as the presentation of entertainment news story are mostly based on. For an example, in a story, one can add music background or editing video to give sensational impact to the story, however, what is yes should stay as yes and what is no should stay as no. A media practitioner cannot add any unconfirmed facts.

Among the common issues in entertainment media ethics in Malaysia are fair comment, confidentiality of source, and privacy. Nas Ahmad commented on fair comment issue where he stated that when a journalist get information about certain issue, what he/she must do is to find the persons involved in the issue, ask for clarification or statement from both sides.

For the issue of confidentiality of source, when a journalist get source or story from other person, they cannot reveal who is the informer to the persons in the issues. “Media practioner has to know whether a story that is related to personal matter of celebrity is suitable to be published or it will defame the related persons”, Nas Ahmad said.

In cases where he found that the personal story of a celebrity was highly potential to embarrass the celebrity or touches the issue of privacy invasion, he decided to kill the story.

One element that makes one issue related to privacy can be published is when it happened in public place. When public figures did something which can tarnish their reputation in public place, story like this can be published.

Take the example of the case where Melodi aired a clip of a married couple (both are actor and actress in Malaysia) were quarelling in front of media after the husband was caught having affair with another actress. In this case, the media were not at fault to air the footage as they both quarelled in public space. Although Melodi has received many criticisms after they aired the clip, it is the media role to show what is truly happening at the site.

Overall, to Nas Ahmad, the media ethics in entertainment industry in Malaysia is still good and sat the right track. As long as the media practitioner themselves know the boundaris of ethics and unethical practice, media in entertainment industry will be not be labelled as unethical.

Nas Ahmad, a senior entertainment journalist, well-known in Terjah segment aired on Melodi TV3.

Written by Samiyah Nur Hasyimah and Nur Hawa Shafiqa

Isobar is one of the digital agencies that provide its clients with variety of business strategies planning. Isobar main objective is to guarantee its clients’ delight by offering them the best at their service. Isobar creates “Ideas without Limits” and provides the clients with strategies of no boundaries. Isobar is the digital marketing agency that was founded in 2003 that headquartered in London. It has won 250 awards in 2016 from all around the world and it is a part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, where it is wholly owned subsidiary of Dentsu Inc.

Isobar in Malaysia is managed by Ben Chew. He acts as a managing director, assisted by two others, San Yen Liew and Birdie Ting. Dentsu Isobar is a full-service digital agency that offers one-stop solutions to meet the need for increasingly sophisticated and diverse digital marketing. Isobar helps clients to reach their goals by combining various solutions to facilitate communication between corporations and consumers.

Mr. Ham Maghazehe, our interviewee is the Head of Social Media in Isobar Malaysia. He graduated in Masters’ Degree in Communication. His major is advertising. Isobar plays its role in combining creative, strategic, technology and brand commerce expertise to deliver positive business transformation for brands including Adidas, Coca-Cola, Enterprise, Google, GM, Huawei, Kellogg’s and P&G.

Isobar’s method in communication planning is divided into three elements. The elements are listening and planning as well as engaging its audiences. The plan starts by monitoring its clients’ social media. While monitoring the clients’ social media, the data of its audiences would be analyzed and from there, they will try to understand their audiences’ demand.

Once Isobar’s staff monitored the audiences, they will begin to come out with the objectives related to what client desired. In order to achieve the objectives listed, they require a number of specific strategies and context.

Afterwards, Dentsu Isobar engages its audience by creating contents that fulfill audience’s demand to ensure the message received successfully to the audiences. Once the content had been published, they will start their connection and try to make conversation with the audiences through the social media.

Dentsu Isobar provides its clients with business planning strategy development. One of the strategies is to run a campaign to get connection with its audiences. Apart from that, Dentsu Isobar does user research communication planning to gain new followers as well as to keep in entertaining the existing followers. This creative agency is a platform for solution development, service and platform development and the client’s technology partners. It is also a product development and gives innovation support to its clients.

The key players are important in determining the market space which is dominated by five different companies which are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and MySpace. MySpace was the big players in the social media marketplace long before Facebook has been introduced among society. However, MySpace has not been able to keep up with the rapid growth of social media sites.

There are three main key players for Isobar’s clients which are Facebook, followed by Instagram and Twitter. Isobar uses Facebook as their main campaign to market and advertise its client’s products. Although Facebook is not preferable social sites among youngsters, its main social sites used is Facebook because it is suitable for every product campaigns.

It posts a few contents on Twitter because it is not their main platform in order to engage its audiences even though Twitter is popular among Malay audiences. Instagram is a platform used by them to reach higher audiences instead of depending on Facebook only.

In developing social media presence, there are four basic steps that social media manager need to fulfill. The four basic steps are engaging the audience, content development, promote and evaluate.

In addition, Isobar staffs also make efforts to communicate with the audiences. They give response on their client’s behalf concerning all complaints and questions they got from the social sites. However, Mr. Ham said that should they could not answer some of the questions from the audiences, they will refer to their clients to avoid conflicts in future.

According to Mr. Ham, the contents that were created are based on the discussion after liaising with their client. Once they get the approval from the clients, they will brief the creative team on how to create the creative content for their client in order to make sure it is interactive and suitable for their audience. He also mentioned the creative content that was created is photos, videos and GIF.

He added that the process of managing Facebook fan page will be handled by Social Media Executive to monitor the contents whether it is effective or not for their target audience. If it does not work, they have to liaise with client on the strategy in developing the content.

The promotion method that has been used by Isobar Malaysia in promoting the page and engaging with the target audience is through paid and organic social media. The paid advertisement requires the advertiser to pay small amount to Facebook site where Facebook ads play its role by crossing the newsfeed of target audience that has been set up by the advertiser.

Isobar had mentioned that they use TalkWalker as their tool of evaluation in order to investigate what social media users talking about the brands or products through social listening. TalkWalker has been used by brands and agencies from all around the world where it plays it roles in monitoring and analyzing the online conversations on social networks.

On the other hand, Socialbakers software plays its role to monitor the Facebook page for their client’s page whether the Facebook page performance is good or otherwise. The function of the software is the same as Google Analytic but it is specific on the analysis of Fan Pages activities through Facebook plug-ins.

This circumstance has opened the opportunity towards social media owners to take this advantage by providing space for advertiser to advertise their product and brand by setting up a campaign through social media platform in order to get engaged and be seen by many.

Other than that, social media is an alternative platform for advertiser to advertise their advertisement with efficiency in targeting the audience and it also provides the reasonable price where the advertiser can post the advertisement anytime they feel suitable with their target audience time. Thus, it shows that social media has its capabilities in helping the advertiser to get engaged with target audience and also helps in managing the audience through its networks.

Written By Balqis Ariffin

It is irrefutable that the world has forgotten the ongoing civil war in Yemen as the current chaos of political conflicts in various parts of the globe has subsequently lead to the shift of attention and effort from resolving the crisis in Yemen.

Even though the war in Yemen has destructively torn its nation apart to the extent that it has triggered the worst famine in the decades and added with the cholera outbreak, the plight suffered by its people seems to be in the dim light.

The World Health Organization has predicted that a total of one million cholera cases will be recorded by the end of this year, in which more than 2,000 of casualties has been reported due to the epidemic. Hence, the number has indicated that it is the worst epidemic in the contemporary history.

Besides that, an astounding number of 49, 963 of injuries were recorded since the war occurred in 2015, however, it is believed that the casualties reported were much higher.

More than 50,000 of death tolls involving children has been reported due to the starvation and illness, in which the remnants that suffered from severe malnourishment are on the brink of death.

It must be known that the current political landscape in Yemen has significantly shifted between two of the enemies particularly with the death of its former President, Ali Abdullah Saleh who was recently killed by the Houthi rebels for switching sides.

The complex historical event of the civil war in Yemen also derived from the involvement of several foreign countries in the conflict due to their political interest, in which ISIS also has exploited the crisis as it has paved a way for them to dominate Yemen.

Most of all, the actual victim of every war in the world is the civilian, who tends to suffer the most as it was inconsiderate by the parties that engage in the conflicts who was merely driven to achieve their political ambitions.

Although some of the nations have urged the humanitarian aids being given to the Yemeni, that includes the United Kingdom as they have recently promised to provide aids for the area held by the rebels, however, such assistance could only last for a month.

Therefore, it is crucial at this very moment for other foreign nations to also contribute by providing sufficient aids to restore and prevent Yemen’s humanitarian crisis from deteriorating.

If only equal attention and effort are given to Yemen, then the world has not yet failed the Yemeni people.

 

Written by Nurhanis binti Hazry

Effective interpersonal communication between doctor and patient is one of the most essential factors in improving health outcomes. Based on medical terms, doctor is a person with a medical degree (MBBS) whose job is to treat people who are ill or hurt (patient). The quality of effective interpersonal communication between doctor and patient has led to patients’ satisfaction, appointment keeping, recall of information, compliance with therapeutic diagnosis and improvements of physiological markers such as blood pressure and blood glucose among patients.

A good interpersonal communication skills mastered by a doctor enables their patients to disclose critical information about their health problems. It enhances healthcare counselling, provide better patient compliance and thus, resulting in more appropriate treatment diagnosis. It also benefits the health system as a complete, efficient and cost-effective preferred and trusted by patients. Thus, doctors, patients, healthcare providers, administrators and policy makers have a stake in improved effective interpersonal communication interactions.

According to Nicholas et al. (1991), the communication in healthcare context is determined by the socio-demographic characteristics between of the doctor and patient. It is also aided by the environment in which the communication takes place. Here, socio-demographic characteristics consist of the age, sex, ethnicity and educational background. Theses demographic characteristics may affect how they communicate with each other. Other factors such as degree of comfort and cleanliness of the hospital, space of privacy, time allocated for encounters and treatment of patients from time they enter the hospital can also enhance doctor-patient interaction.

As stated by Loevinsohn (1990), interpersonal communication between doctor and patient is effective when it leads to the following outcomes:

• The doctor selects a medically appropriate treatment acceptable to the patient
• The patient discloses enough information about their illness
• The patient understands his or her condition
• The doctor and patient establish positive interaction
• The doctor and patient are both committed in fulfilling their responsibilities during treatment and follow-up care.

As a conclusion, positive health outcomes have been associated with effective communication between doctor and patient. Patient satisfaction, recall of information, appointment keeping, improvement of physiological markers such as blood pressure and blood glucose have all been directly linked to an effective doctor-patient interaction.

References:

1. Hall J, Roter D, and Katz N. Correlates of Provider Behaviour: A Meta-Analysis. Medical Care. 1988 26:657-675.
2. Roemer MI, Montoya-Aguilar C. Quality Assessment and Assurance in Primary Healthcare. Geneva: WHO Offset Publication, 1988.
3. Loevinsohn BP. Health Education Interventions in Developing Countries:
   A Methodological Review of Published Articles. International Journal of Epidemiology 1990 Dec:19(4):788-794.
4. Nicholas DD, Heiby JR, Hatzell TA. The Quality Assurance Project: Introducing Quality Improvement to Primary Healthcare in Less Developed Countries. Quality Assurance in Health Care 1991, 3(3):147-165.

Written by Nuremy Khairi

Today, product placement is making a huge impact especially in films and television (Kumar, 2017). Product placement is an advertising tool and method that endorses products through entertainment programmes like movies, television programmes, and reality television programmes BUT, with a particular objective. Product placements are mostly seen in these particular formats:

• the product appears within the content in visual figures
• the celebrity themselves use the actual product in the film or television show
• the celebrity uses the product name/brand in their dialogues

Product placement is known as another form of advertising and it has many advantages compared to the traditional advertising method and other types of product promotions (Sherman, 2010). It is easier for a product to weave into an episode of reality television show like “American Idol” or “Survivor”, compared to a normal television series like “Grey’s Anatomy” or “Vampire Diaries” (Elliot, 2008).

For one thing, contestants in a reality television programme are more willing to endorse products compared to the scripted sitcom. In the latter, actors or actresses are more concerned about art and the long-term values as an ambassador if they want to endorse any products. Apart from the mentioned characteristics, product placement can also be referred to as brand placement, depending on the situation that needs to be emphasized on (Kumar, 2017).

Along with product placement, there are many other programmes related to promotional techniques that are always connected to product placements’ deal. There are many ways to promote products within the mass media context such as sponsorship, infomercials, video news releases and advertising funded programmes (Sherman, 2010). Take for example the show “Lara oh Lara”. As their main sponsor is “Yakult”, product placement is evident and is done extensively within the programme.

As product placement becomes common nowadays, it generated a concern among the public especially of its effect towards children. Media plays an important role in every child’s life, and exposure to popular music, television and movies at an early age makes younger people more susceptible to its messages, both negative and positive, especially when it involves famous celebrities and people. There have not been many studies which focus on product placements on minors, but according to Andy and Lewis (2004), product placement has affected children in terms of a lower level of media literacy, meaning that they have a sub-par creative ability to access, analyse, evaluate and re-develop media into other forms, which has indefinitely raised an alarming concern for children’s well-being. (Sherman, 2010).

Written by Amni Ahmad

Credit Photo: Predator in My Phone http://rage.com.my/predator/

Introduction

With the explosion of the technology, Internet becomes a necessity in our lives. Internet allows us to connect with other people all around the world. People connecting via Internet by using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, WeChat and Instagram. Tartari (2015) stated in his research, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) defined social media as Internet-based applications that allows it user to communicate with other people based on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0. All of these social media can be accessed by using a smartphone or other mobile devices. However, this advancement has exposed children to sexual exploitation and abuse (Sala, 2015). According to the Malaysian Child Act 2001 or Act 611, a child is defined as a person under the age of eighteen years. With these mobile chat applications, it is very easy for paedophiles to get in contact with potential victims.

According to an article reported by New Straits Times (2016), United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) revealed that every year, an estimated two million children globally are affected by sexual exploitation. The United Nations highlighted that Interpol and other authorities have identified that there were high levels of sexual exploitation of children online, with an average of five child victims of online sexual abuse every day (2m children sexually, 2016). In addition, End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT), an international non-governmental organization fighting sexual exploitation of children also reported that the advancement of technology and Internet has afforded perpetrators anonymity and hidden pathways to groom children and seduce them via social media and internet games (German Press Agency, 2016).

Based on The Malay Mail report, between January 2012 and July 2016, there were 2,987 cases reported to the police. Charges were filed in 2,189 cases, however, only 140 successful convictions. The report also stated that according to Tan Sri Razali Ismail, chairman of Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), the weakness of the laws in Malaysia regarding children was one of the factor Malaysia failed to protect children from sexual violence and abuse.

Definition of Paedophilia

In the previous time, the term “paedophiles” is not yet familiar in Malaysia as other parts of the world, but now with the rapid expansion of the Internet globally, we are at the peak of the issue. According to Capra et al. (2014), paedophilia can be defined as a psychiatric disorder in which a person who is an adult has sexual desire and interest towards children. It is one of mental disorder and the person who suffered it need to be treated (Martin, n.d). Paedophilia was included in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders since 1968 by American Psychiatric Association (APA) (Martin, n.d). A person who is sexually attracted to children is called paedophile.

Malaysia was shocked with the case of Richard Huckle, a British man that was found guilty for molested Malaysian children. Based on New Straits Times report in June 2016, Richard Huckle has admitted to 71 counts of molesting Malaysian children from 2006 to 2014 during his visit to Malaysia as freelance photographer and English teacher. According to the report, he was believed abused more than 200 children in Malaysia. Furthermore, Astro Awani in 2015 reported about Malaysian Math genius, Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin was jailed in United Kingdom for child pornography. Based on the report, he has collected more than 30,000 pornographic images and videos of children and 600 of them in category A, which defined by British authorities as extreme form of child sexual abuse. These cases have opened Malaysian eyes to the existence of paedophiles.

Before this, there are many other children reported missing and was found murdered like Nurin Jazlin Jazimin. However, at that time, the awareness of paedophilia was so little. Malaysian people are not aware about predator who hunts their children. Sinar Harian report in August 2016, showed the chronology of missing children in Malaysia since 1996 and until now the missing children still not been found. Based on the report, Nurin Jazlin Jazimin was believed being sexually abused before she was murdered. Sharlinie and Mohd Asmawi that reported missing still not being found until now. The case of Nurul Nadirah or Dirang was murdered and the latest one in 2014, Mohd Shariqal, 3 years old, was found dead after two days being reported missing. These children age are from three years old to 11 years old. All of these cases showed that the children being kidnapped and end with murder. But now, paedophiles are using different method to satisfy their desire which is by using social media.

Credit Photo: Predator In My Phone http://rage.com.my/predator/

Child sexual exploitation through social media

Nowadays, children in Malaysia have high risk to these online predators as most of them have social media account such as Facebook and WeChat, which are main targets for sexual predators. Most of sex offenders request to be the children’s friend and start to build an emotional connection so that they can sexually abuse them. This process is called “grooming” (Predator in my phone, n.d). According to Telenor Research, in Malaysia, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Line and Skype are the five most popular messaging apps among 16 to 35 years old (Chow, n.d). According to Chow (n.d), 80 percent of WeChat user in Malaysia are aged 16 to 34 years old.

Based on The Star report in June 2016, the journalist has exposed the activity of adults trying to persuade children having sex with them through social media by using chat applications. In 2016, New Straits Times reported, according to United States Department of Justice, 76 per cent of Internet-initiated sex crime offences take place in online chat rooms or social media platforms. The report also stated that it proved that online sex predators seek their prey especially in Asia through mobile chat applications such as WeChat and Facebook Messenger. According to the statistics, over the past two years, 80 per cent of reported rape cases in Malaysia were initiated online by sex predators (Kushairi, 2016). According to rage.com, majority of the victims were age below 18 years old.

News Straits Times in June 2016 reported, a social activist, Syed Azmi Alhabshi revealed a local paedophile group that was active on Telegram messaging applications. The group was participated with 751 participants and was shown discussing sex contents about a photo of a young girl in a swimsuit. According to Dr Raymond Choo, social media, IRC rooms and virtual worlds in online games has greatly facilitated communicating with other like-minded individuals, and the sharing of information and strategies for grooming children online (Azizan, 2012).

According to Women’s Centre for Change programme consultant Dr Prema Devaraj, teenagers attracted to “people nearby” offered from WeChat apps because of their desire to meet new people and able to communicate bravely as the interaction occurred in online environment (Chow, n.d). She added that due to the “people nearby”, sex predator preferred to use WeChat compared to WhatsApp as it provide more accessed to connect with many victims around them.

Apart from that, according to co-chair of the Bar Council’s cyber law and information technology committee, Foong Cheng Leong, most of chat companies are based outside Malaysia, this has create challenges in law enforcement as they are not legally bound. He added that these companies are subjected to the platform’s own privacy laws which they cannot revealed private information about their clients even though our law enforcement agencies request for the information. From this we can see the reason why sex predators use social media to satisfy their lust. How powerful they can be in online environment.

According to chief of the network security and enforcement sector of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin, Malaysia do have any specific laws regulating chat apps, but there are laws that may affect its users which is Sections 211 and 233 of the Communications & Multimedia Act 1998 that can be applied to online sexual harassment cases (Chow, n.d). He added that Malaysia do need a law that focussing on grooming as it is difficult to take action against sexual predator via chat apps. Chow (n.d), due to the that, countries like Britain, Canada and Australia came out with specific legislation against online grooming to curb this issue as chat apps are now becoming one of the medium for child sexual exploitation.

Conclusion

Thus, we can see that how the new media can bring new threats to our generation. The culture of parents taught their children that they should not speak to stranger or take sweets from them must also be apply in online world. Parents must carry out their responsibilities by creating awareness about the dangers of sexual predator in online environment to their children. They also need to be up-to-date with the new technology to control their children activities. Apart from that, in Malaysia, an individual that has intention to sexually abuse a child is not considered as a crime. It means that if there is no physical abuse or meeting occurred between the child and child groomer, no action will be taken. Legal action only can be make if he/she actually abuses the child. So, the law enforcement need to be strengthen in order to protect the next generation. In order to curb this problem, action should be taken at the beginning stage which is grooming process. Children is important asset for the country. In the future, this generation will be the leader and rule the world. It is important to protect them and build a healthy environment for their growth. Sexual abuse give huge impacts towards the psychology of the children.

 

References

Tartari, E. (2015). Benefits and risks of children and adolescents using social media. European

Scientific Journal, 11(13), 321-332.

Capra, G. A., Foressi, B., & Caffo, E. (2014). Current scientific research on paedophilia: A review. Journal of Psychopathology, 20, 17-26.

German Press Agency. (2016, June 5). Malaysia confronts nightmare of child sexual exploitation. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from https://aboutcroatia.net/news/world/malaysia-confronts-nightmare-child-sexual-exploitation-23884

2m children sexually exploited every year, says Unicef. (2016, June 3). New Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/06/149448/2m-children-sexually-exploited-every-year-says-unicef

Azizan, H. (2012, April 29). Do you know who your kids are talking to? The Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2012/04/29/do-you-know-who-your-kids-are-talking-to/

Sala, R. (2015). The impact of internet and new media on the occurrence of violence against children in Europe and in Cyprus. Hope for Children. Retrieved from http://www.uncrcpc.org/assets/images/The-impact-of-internet-and-new-media-on-the-occurrence-of-violence-against-children-in-Europe-and-in-Cyprus_final-draft.pdf

Predator in my phone. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2016, from http://rage.com.my/predator/

Chow, S. (n.d.). Predator in my phone. Retrieved October 29, 2016, from http://rage.com.my/predator/

Martin, L. J. (n.d.). What is pedophilia? Retrieved December 8, 2016, from http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/explaining-pedophilia

Ismail, R. (2016, November 15). Malaysia must protect children from sexual exploitation, abuse —Human Rights Commission of Malaysia. The Malay Mail. Retrieved from http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/malaysia-must-protect-children-from-sexual-exploitation-abuse-human-rights

British paedophile may have molested 200 Malaysian children. (2016, June 2). New Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/06/149173/british-paedophile-may-have-molested-200-malaysian-children

Kronologi kes kanak-kanak hilang sejak 1996. (2016, August 18). Sinar Harian. Retrieved from http://www.sinarharian.com.my/semasa/kronologi-kes-kanak-kanak-hilang-sejak-1996-1.553729

Kushairi, A. (2016, June 29). Countering threats lurking in the dark edges of cyberspace. New Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/06/155430/countering-threats-lurking-dark-edges-cyberspace

Moh, J. (2016, June 3). Activist reveals paedophile group on social media app. New Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/06/149440/activist-reveals-paedophile-group-social-media-app

Written by Amirah Sohaimi

The long hours of juggling between assignment deadlines and dissertation updates to your supervisor are actually coming to the end. So, the big questions came; what to do next? Corporate career? Marriage? PhD? Or just laying around doing nothing? I prefer the latter, but I have to be realistic.

The hard cold fact that we need to take into account is the possibility to land a job nowadays is pretty thin. You have to compete with thousands of undergraduates. According to Higher Education Minister, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, a total of 54, 103 university graduates were unemployed within six months after they completed their study in 2016. Predictably, the courses involving the highest unemployment rate were business, applied science, human resource management, accounting, literature and social science.

But, that does not mean you cannot get a job. There are plenty of things you can do while waiting for job opportunities and one of them is mastering another language.

Master another Language

 

Have you ever come across job openings that require someone who knows more than one language? With how the world is connected nowadays, we have to know more than our mother tongue and English. Mastering more than two languages is common these days. Most people know at least two if not three. When you think about it, knowing another language can land you a job anywhere in the world, and how exciting is that?

Besides that, mastering another language is exciting and mesmerizing. If you able to master another language, you can definitely capture the attention of others. Imagine being a Malay girl who is not only can speak fluently Malay and English, but also Mandarin, German, and Arabic. Isn’t it interesting? People will want to know more about you, why you choose that language and what do you want to with it. Aside from you can converse with people from another country, it is also helpful during interviews because people will find your language skills way more fascinating that the internship you had in university.

Once, an Arabian lady told me to learn Arabic so that I can understand the Quran better. Learning a language isn’t easy. We all know that. No matter what language you try to learn, even taking the time to learn it is worthwhile. You don’t have to be good at learning but you do have to realize that the world is changing and we need to be able to communicate with each other.

So go explore any language courses and get speaking!

Written by Fiqa Jamal

Malay or Melayu is a race that is unique in culture and customs. The diversity of races which existed since the days of Melaka’s great glory had influenced and made the customs of the Malay community at that time to be unique and mixed with customs or cultures of other nations such as China, India, Siam and Arabs.

The well known Malay proverb has said ”Biar mati anak, jangan mati adat”, which shows how strong this nation on hold their customs and cultures. However, sometimes there are a handful of Malay people who say certain customs may contradict the Islamic teaching. In fact, thsome people are actively practicing superstition and it is being continued until today.

What is a superstition? Superstition or or in Malay, known as Khurafat is all stories of fiction or fantasy, teachings, taboos, customs, predictions, cults or beliefs that deviate from the teachings of Islam. Khurafat also includes stories and deeds that are designed and ridiculous.

The characteristics of the superstition are not based on nasal (Nas) or al-Quran and al-Hadith. It is fiction, tales, fantasy or superstition stories; based on old beliefs; form of worship and application to other than Allah Ta’ala for the purpose of which conflicts with the teachings of Islam; it involves the use of certain objects related to graves, trees, moss for a particular purposes and it has negative elements to the Islamic faith and syariah.

There are too many beliefs that are practiced by many people and passed down from one generation to other generation but the reality of their persistence is not proven and the truth cannot be disputed. Perhaps this is because the beliefs conveyed by our parents, or older adults, make them a dogmatic understanding and “must believe” because they are more expereinced in life than the yongsters,

The writer do not say that all the beliefs that we hold are wrong. Some may be true and have logical and scientific explanations based on their experiences. But the sad thing is that there is a certain belief that our practice as muslim and Malay is not parallel with not only science but also the Islamic religion.

There are a few of superstitious in Malay community :-

Tangkal

Children wearing yellow or black cord string tied at the waist, other people wore a rope on the wrist. These are all called tangkal and priest or ulama said it is illegally worn. They believe if they wear tangkal it is to keep from bad things coming to them or their family. But normally, tangkal is in one of belief of Buddhists and Hindus.

Santau

This santau actually send from the one who practice black magic to the people woth the ntention to harm the people by using ”fine creatures” or ”Makhluk halus”and the person will cough blood and vomiting blood up out of nail, glass, worm and etc. That is santau. But if the blood cough without object out of it still we call it santau? Or is it actually possible Tuberculosis or TIBI? Or maybe Lung Cancer because of too much smoking? Do not early jump into conclusion, if you are blood coughing, the one you supposedly to meet is a Doctor not a Bomoh.

Do not lie down while your feet are up, then your mom will die

Everyone will die !! This belief actually nonsense. Malay people use this proverb are actually to teach the young generation to sit properly, well behave and do anything in manners. There are research about Asian parents need to reverse psychology to teach their children.

Never allow your plate to dry after a meal

Right after a meal, you are expected to immediately clean your plate or just pour a small amount of water onto it. The whole point is to prevent the plate from going dry as it is believed that by not doing so, your supply of food will soon ‘dry out’. The reason behind this because this is to ease the task of dishwashing. Would you want to wash the dishes when the plates are dried out with bits and pieces of food stuck to the base?

Do not cut your nails at night

Our parents always advice us do not clipping nails at night. Clipping your nails after the sunsets is a taboo in Malay community, as it is equivalent to snipping away your lifespan. The reason or this strange belief is simply that the lack of light at night makes this task more difficult. So be patient the next time you need to cut your nails and wait until morning, so you can accurately neaten up those cuticles.

Sweeping the house at night brings bad luck

Sweeping the house at night is considered off limits by most Malays’ families. It is strongly believed that this brings bad luck, as the good luck is being ‘swept away’, especially when sweeping the porch. As a muslim, we do not trust this superstitious. Because behind all of this belief, there must be a positive reason. So the logic behind this is that it is pretty difficult to sweep the house at night due to low visibility. Sweeping in the morning or afternoon obviously provides much more daylight, therefore making the task easier, and so you are less likely to have to sweep the house again shortly after.

So do you still believe in those superstitious? Are you a believer? Although some of these practices may seem rather unconventional, it is cultural uniqueness such as this that makes Malaysia to become an alluring destination for tourists who are seeking to get in touch with the nation’s rich cultural heritage.

As Muslims, we can use the Malay proverbs to teach young generation but still need to explain why an older generation use the proverb. However, avoid those superstitious practice that are against the Islamic faith and syariah. Despite we are living in the modern world, this nonsense is still spreading among the Malay community. It is better for us to abandon these beliefs because as Muslims we should only stick to the Quran and Al-Sunnah as well as the teachings of the learned scholars.

Written by Wan Anis Aqilah Bt Megat Zambri

Studies have found that youngsters raised within a strict parenting environment have a tendency to be more furious and rebellious as young adults. This can be true for most adults. In their childhood, they may feel restricted from doing anything they wished to explore and try for themselves or even with their friends. They have no freedom to make the decision. Due to strict curfews and rules implemented by their parents, they slowly become rebellious. They rebel when their parents are not around or slowly, children find reasons to hide something behind their parents’ back.

Children also tend to tell lies because of this strict upbringing. Children know that their parents are hard to negotiate and communicate with, which is when they start to tell lies. They lie because they are scared of not getting permission. They lie because they want to portray that they are well behaved. There are so many reasons for children to tell lies. Some parents would not accept any explanation given by the children. Some parents cannot even tolerate their children’s behaviour, even though they can be considered as grown-up or teenagers.

Parents who practice strict parenting may want to educate their children and implement early precautions. Yes, everyone knows that strict parenting would make children become more careful in behavior and attitude. Children will be scared of their parents, thus it will reflect in children’s behavior and attitude. Children will be well-behaved and portray an ideal attitude as they are always aware about keeping a good image when their parents were around.

However, parents seem to also forget that they cannot always control their children’s attitude and behavior. The children will have to go to school, mingle around with friends and to meet new people in their lives. Therefore, these people they meet will indirectly give good and bad influences into the children’s lives. Children may learn to team up with their friends to tell lies to each other’s’ parents. This usually happens to the youngsters in development phase, especially in secondary school where they believe that they are already big enough to make decisions and be given freedom by their parents. Children in the development phase are inclined to try most of the new things in life. If their friends are smoking, clubbing, loitering at shopping malls, they may also feel like doing similar things as what their friends are doing. At this point of time, parents have to observe their children, not only at home but at school too.

Therefore, to avoid social problems among children and practice a balanced childhood, children and parents have to develop a relationship where they can talk, share and communicate, even about private matters. Strict parents encourage children to be afraid to even talk with their parents. This situation will open doors for children to tell lies in order to make themselves feel safe.

Here are suggested methods to minimize strict parenting :

1. Develop a “friend relationship” with the children to allow them to feel better in sharing their stories.
2. Place trust onto the children in whatever they wish to do, but do investigate and observe yourself to know whether it may bring harm or otherwise.
3. Let the children explore and experience everything by themselves as children will learn a lot if they have experienced it.
4. Always compliment the children as this makes them feel appreciated by their parents.
5. Talk nicely to the children.
6. Always try to create a “win-win” situation. Example: If your daughter plana to go out with her girlfriends, allow her to do so, but once she comes home, she has to help you with household chores like folding clothes.

Written by Nazmi Suraya

Everyone has pain. Everyone has struggles. Some people just deal with it in different ways. Depression is a voice that is telling you to stop doing your usual habits in your surrounding and become the cause of your emotions to be struggling. It is not a joke as it can kill people if they do not know how to deal with it.

Most people think and take lightly about depression because they think depression is just something that people have it while in stress or just to seek attention from other people. Depression isn’t about darkness, stress out, crying at night but depression is all about the constant of being numb in emotions.

Not everyone can understand something that they don’t feel and cannot see such as depression due to the abstract illness happened in the brain. Some scripts in the neurons or hormones there inside the skull are imbalanced.

Depressed people need to go for consultation and take medicines so that every gear fit back right in. For each case of depression, doctors will prescribe different kind of pills because the levels of depression are different. If a pill doesn’t work in a period of time then another will be given. Experts can only diagnose patients, they will never know why or what cause them.

Depression is a serious matter. If you ever feel depressed by any problems, help yourself by seeking help from others. Do not keep it to yourself. This is because people can’t help you if you do not want to help yourself first.

You are the president of yourself. It will become worse if you let your problems lead to depression when you don’t confront or afraid to find the solution. Mostly, depressed people are insecure of what others have rather than being thankful of what they have. In this time, you have to be confident to yourself that it’s okay to be yourself and to have what you have now.

Other way to avoid depression is by sharing your problems with someone you trust. Reach out and talk to someone. Tell everything and mind that, people whom they trust also have to feel the responsibility and have the feel of humanity to help and listen to what they are struggling right now.

Watch our friends. The obvious ones can’t sleep, poor appetite, tearful. But they might hide the symptoms. So when depressed people open up to us, we also have to open up to them, because usually, depressed people tell their problems for the sake of sharing and expressing their thoughts. They do not really want us to help and to solve their problem. Just be there for them is enough.

Source: https://psychcentral.com/disorders/depression/depression-treatment/

 

Depression might be caused by traumatic history, or overloaded pressure and stress, loss of loved one, ancestral, bloodlines maybe even radiation or the changes that occur in these earth. Depressed people mostly tend to self-harm themselves, to them it feels great. For some reason, cutting with blade on the arm or the shoulder, just small cuts but visible ones, make them feel good. It numbs their depress pain.

This illness is bigger than we thought and the numbers are growing. We cannot help everyone. Only helps those who are happen to be around us. Make these people happy. Make them realize that people cares and loves them.

When they understand this, those logical thoughts will somehow fight back their depression and avoid doing something harmful such as self-cuts or even suicide. Don’t judge these people but how can we not, right? We are constantly thinking and it just nature that we do. So that is our fight where a fight to be a better version of ourselves.

For people with depression, please do seek help. Fight for your life. Find friends or family who support and help you. And try not to do anything that will corrupt you physically and spiritually. Again, depression is real. Remember what happened to Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, Robin Williams, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and recently, the society has been shocked by the death of Kim Jonghyun of Shinee.

Even the most successful and idolized people in the world experience the disease and committed a suicide due to depression. So many artists spend their lives entertaining & bringing joy to others while hurting inside. This is because depressed people are scared to speak up about depression because there’s always going to be people who will shut them down for even trying to voice out, thus, let’s be more considerate of other people’s feelings and spread love not hate.

Lastly, we have religion to obey. No matter what religion you are, we have God to lean on and to listen. What’s the point of being a believer if you don’t know how to ask for help from God? Pray. He is the best listener after all. May God help us all.

A friendly reminder “Don’t let yourself suffer alone. Seek help”.

Help is near – go to Befrienders KL, it is a non-profit organization that provides free and confidential emotional support to those who are depressed and suicidal. +603-79568145 (24/7); sam@befrienders.org.my