Thesun 2009-07-28 Page06 Heritage Building To Be Malay Gallery

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theSun

| TUESDAY JULY 28 2009

news without borders Auto debit woes settled after five years by Meena L. Ramadas [email protected]

PETALING JAYA: A bank customer had to endure five years of an auto debit problem before it was resolved. Mohammed Farid Hussain, 35, an air steward, signed an agreement with Bank Islam in 2002 for a housing loan amounting to RM356,000, with the arrangement with his employer for a monthly instalment to be automatically debited from his bank account. The loan was supposed to be paid off in four stages over four years from 2003, with the amount increased progressively. The amount for the first year was RM309.50, second year RM663.22, third year RM884.30 followed by RM1,000.51 in the final year. However, the first year’s amount continued to be deducted over the years despite Mohammed Farid notifying the bank of the mistake. “The bank employee asked me to wait for a letter from the bank. Instead of a letter on the increase in payment, the bank sent me a notification in 2008 informing me that I owed the bank RM11,000.” The bank officials suggested that Mohammed Farid settle the amount with his Employees Provident Fund (EPF) money. When he refused, the bank sent him a second notification middle of last year, informing him the debt had risen to RM26,234.41 and threatened legal action. “The bank officer again told me to settle the amount via my EPF but I don’t have that much in my EPF account to pay that sum. He told me we could work things out,” said Mohammed Farid. When Mohammed Farid dug in his heels, Bank Islam decided to reschedule his payment to RM1,000.51 that will extend from March 2009 to January 2033. This amount is to cover both the outstanding payment, as well as the balance of his bank loan. When contacted, Bank Islam said customers and employers should contact the bank to resolve payment problems. Said an officer: “We have a lot of problems with the employers of our customers. The bank sends a payment schedule to the employers once a customer’s loan has been approved. So, the employers have to be aware of the payment schedule. If there are any irregularities, the employer should notify us.” What makes Mohammed Farid sore is that the problem has also caused him to be blacklisted as a bankrupt by Bank Negara. “I’m sure there are people who face a similar problem. I want to highlight this problem so other people are aware of it. If the account holder is at fault, they have to pay up. But if the bank is at fault, I think the bank should be held responsible.”

Expert gives tips on love’s many splendoured ways by Eva Yeong [email protected]

KUALA LUMPUR: The three keys to love are managing differences and conflict, intentionally strengthening friendships and nurturing a healthy true self, said a clinical psychologist . Dr Huang Wei-Jen, from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the United States said love is difficult in the modern world. “Friends are easier (to handle) than families or spouses. When people get close to others, conflicts in needs and goals arise, and they get frustrated. If they don’t know how to handle the frustrations, they will accumulate and both parties get hurt,” Huang told a seminar on marriage and intimacy last week.

He said happy and divorced couples have similar conflicts about the same things, debunking the myth that happy couples argue less. However, every conflict is an opportunity to learn which ultimately leads to greater intimacy and good couples know how to communicate effectively. “When our partners don’t give us what we want before we say it, we tend to criticise them ... we have the power to bring out the best and the worst in people. Choose to bring out the best, to highlight the good parts of people,” he said. To manage conflicts effectively, it is important for couples to acknowledge pain and hurt, but to refrain from blaming or criticising each other. “We get mad when needs are not met. Disappointment, hurt and unmet needs lie under

anger,” said Huang. Thus, communication is important, and the biggest trap among couples is that they are not emotionally communicative at home, he said. “People also speak different languages of love. Pay attention to your partner’s language of love and care enough to understand that language,” he said. He said it is also important to have strong friendships and to develop a healthy sense of self. “Our family of origin is hard to change because we have been conditioned into certain roles in the home or family. That’s why it is important to develop a ‘second family’ (consisting close friends), to trigger positive parts of ourselves,” he said.

Heritage building to be Malay gallery by Opalyn Mok [email protected]

Restoration work on the old building being carried out.

GEORGE TOWN: An early 1900s heritage building on Hutton Lane which has unique architectural designs is being restored by the National Heritage Department and will be turned into a Malay Gallery. According to a department spokesman, restoration work on the double-storey

bungalow started late last year and is expected to be completed by Aug 22 this year. “We have plans to use part of the building for a Penang Malay Gallery and there will also be a section to house our northern region office,” she told theSun recently. The contents of the gallery will be decided by the Penang Malays Association, she said. A check at the project site showed that the conservation work costing RM1.58 million is almost complete and the exterior has been

given a fresh coat of paint. The building is believed to have been built in the early 1900s and was known as the “Rumah Teh Bunga” (Flower Tea House). The architectural structure has characteristics of Malay influence with similarities to the Syed Al Attas building in Lebuh Armenian. Among the unique features are the moon, star and cloud carvings etched on the frontage. The building had been left vacant for a number of years before the National Heritage Department started conservation work. The department has also proposed to start conservation work on St George’s Church along Farquhar Street. The church, built in 1817, is the oldest Anglican church in the region. It was declared one of the 50 National Treasures of Malaysia in 2007.

Telur Rangers on eggs-traordinary mission by Hemananthani Sivanandam [email protected]

PETALING JAYA: Three young women calling themselves “Telur Rangers” are on a mission to collect signatures from the public in support of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia’s “Egg=Life” turtle conservation petition. Nelleisa Omar, Chong Huey Meim and Grace Duraisingham will travel all over the country to collect 100,000 signatures calling for stricter laws on the protection of this endangered species. The trio started their journey yesterday at Carrefour, Tropicana City Mall, making their way to Ipoh. They plan to end their road trip on Aug 8. “After pledging our support for the campaign, we came up with this idea of a road trip to collect signatures for the cause. We approached WWF-Malaysia and they loved it,” said Nelleisa. Carrefour marketing director Low

Ngai Yuen said when the hypermarket heard about the campaign, they felt they had a role to play in conserving the endangered species. “One culprit in endangering turtle’s lives is the entanglement, suffocation and ingestion of plastic bags so we are taking a bold step and will declare Monday as “No Plastic Bags Day,” said Low. She said Carrefour’s awareness programme, launched yesterday, will initially set aside plastic bags for customers to “allow them to get used to it” but are only available on loan. “Each plastic bag loaned will cost 10 sen and if the bag is returned, the customers will be refunded. Money not refunded will be directed to the turtle-saving efforts,” said Low. WWF-Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia Seas programme manager P. Gangaram said the petition is a means to support WWF’s campaign to call for more protection for turtles. “The laws are not sufficient to protect these turtles so we are try-

ing to get more effective laws,” said Gangaram. WWF-Malaysia is currently working with the fisheries department at both federal and state level on conservation work in Terengganu and Malacca. Gangaram said in some states, the collecting of turtle eggs is legalised and there are licensed egg collectors who are supposed to bring the eggs back to the hatchery but this is not always the case. “There are many eggs being poached,” he said. “We want people to stop eating turtle eggs and one way is to make it illegal to sell or trade in turtle eggs; however, the laws don’t cover that. There are four species of marine turtles – the Leatherback, Green, Hawksbill and Olive Ridley – that visit some Malaysian beaches during nesting seasons between April and September. More information on the Telur Rangers mission is available at www. telurrangers.blogspot.com

‘Foreigners posing as locals in Tenom’ KOTA KINABALU: A state assemblyman has called on the relevant authorities to monitor the unusually large number of foreigners posing as locals in the Tenom district. Melalap assemblyman Datuk Radin Malleh wants the police, immigration and national registration departments to conduct a thorough check on the foreigners who claim to be locals. “They are easily recognised (as foreigners) by their accent and appearances. I have also been inundated with complaints over their large presence in Tenom,” the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) secretary-general said in a press statement yesterday. – Bernama