Dear members and friends
With regret we apologize that the get-together to be held on 1st May has been postponed till further notice.
Any inconvenience caused is much regreted.
With best regards,
For Steven Lee
Acting Secretary
Making Ipoh the most liveable city in Malaysia
Friday, April 30, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
ICW Informal Get-Together on 1st May
Dear members and former members of ICW,
For the first time, ICW will be organizing an informal get-together for its past and present members for the purpose of getting to know each other, finding out who is who and renewing ties in ICW. This get-together will be held on 1st May 2010 at 8.00 pm at the Old Andersonians’ Clubhouse. The cost is RM30.00 per person.
If you would like to come to the get-together, kindly fill-up the attached invitation form. You may post the form back to ICW at the postal address found on the bottom of the form together with a cheque or postal order made out to "Ipoh City Watch" or contact one of the persons listed on the form.
Mr. Kundan Lal (012-5293913) or Ms. Chong (012-5089753) or Mr. Jeyaraj (012-4990856).
Thank you.
Regards.
Steven Lee
Acting Secretary
Ipoh City Watch
For the first time, ICW will be organizing an informal get-together for its past and present members for the purpose of getting to know each other, finding out who is who and renewing ties in ICW. This get-together will be held on 1st May 2010 at 8.00 pm at the Old Andersonians’ Clubhouse. The cost is RM30.00 per person.
If you would like to come to the get-together, kindly fill-up the attached invitation form. You may post the form back to ICW at the postal address found on the bottom of the form together with a cheque or postal order made out to "Ipoh City Watch" or contact one of the persons listed on the form.
Mr. Kundan Lal (012-5293913) or Ms. Chong (012-5089753) or Mr. Jeyaraj (012-4990856).
Thank you.
Regards.
Steven Lee
Acting Secretary
Ipoh City Watch
Moving up in the Kinta Valley - Malaysian Insider
By Sheridan Mahavera
IPOH, April 10 — When the last tin mine dried up, Ipoh started to crumble.
If it had not been for its position as a state capital, a major stopover for the North-South railway line and an important cultural fount for the Malaysian Chinese community, the decline would have been faster.
This slightly Kinta Valley-centric view is shared by its businesses and residents. They say you can see the creeping bleakness in how more and more pre-Second World War shops in the charming old town centre are closing their shutters for good every day.
Unlike Kuala Lumpur, Penang or Johor Baru, Ipoh just never found a replacement for the tin mining industry that could have brought in high-paying jobs and a young population of professionals to start families and help it grow.
What this has left, says restaurateur Teow Hee Min, is a “retirement” town. Where the food is tasty, cheap and where you don’t have to fight for parking.
It seems that it has no prospects for anyone between 21 to 56, and looking to make their mark in the world.
Another “Ipoh boy”, a bank officer who wants to be known only as Faisal, puts it another way. It is as if the flow of money that used to go into Ipoh is now by-passing it for places like Manjung.
But for a bunch of successful new entrepreneurs on the outskirts of the old city, there is optimism.
And this “hope” involves throwing out the old ways of doing business, even if they helped make “this town that tin built” into a “city of millionaires.”
After the rush
[The rustic wooden shops of Ipoh’s old town have seen better days as many have closed their shutters after the tin rush died out. — Pictures by Choo Choy May]
The rustic wooden shops of Ipoh’s old town have seen better days as many have closed their shutters after the tin rush died out. — Pictures by Choo Choy May
Ipoh did not start out as a “Chinese town”. It was actually a Malay settlement founded by a Sumatran lord on the banks of the Kinta river sometime in the early 1800s.
But it grew into a predominantly Chinese town, thanks to the lucrative tin rush that attracted a flood of migrants from China and elsewhere during the early 1900s. Its importance was boosted when the Japanese occupation administration made it the state capital in 1942.
Though its boom years started to end when tin prices declined in the 1970s, Ipoh remained an important population centre on the West Coast. In fact, it is still Malaysia’s fourth-largest city.
Yet, much of the money that comes into Ipoh these days is made outside of it, via the generations of youths who have gone to work in the Klang Valley and Singapore, and who send back money and return to choke its streets during the holidays.
“Ten years ago, we still had lots of people who dropped in to Ipoh for lunch and leave by dinner. But it’s not like that anymore,” says Teow, who inherited and runs the city’s first steam-boat restaurant.
Money from tin nurtured a vibrant hospitality sector seen in the storied Chinese kopitiams and restaurants in downtown Ipoh, which till today receives scores of non-local customers.
Others, such as Faisal the bank officer, feel that things have gone stagnant.
He grew up in Ipoh but finds that nothing is “happening” in his hometown — another way of saying that there is no growth catalyst in the form of a lynchpin industry after tin mining died out.
The state government is trying to fill that vacuum by courting everyone, from those involved in computer animation to heavy industries, to come and set up shop in Perak.
The biggest of these ventures, so far, is an iron ore distribution centre being built by a multinational company in Teluk Rubiah, in far-away Manjung district.
Not everyone is tepid about Ipoh’s future. In the middle- to upper-class enclaves of Ipoh Garden and beyond towards Tambun, developers such as Sunway City Berhad are re-injecting life back into the Kinta Valley.
More than that, they are leveraging on Perak’s most renowned attraction — its adorable limestone hills — and showing that there is a better way to make money from this natural resource than simply blasting them for building materials.
[Instead of building something alien from its landscape, the Lost World integrates with it and shows how preserved nature can be a huge draw.]
Instead of building something alien from its landscape, the Lost World integrates with it and shows how preserved nature can be a huge draw.
A renewable resource
It is hard to believe how the temperature changes as you walk through the Lost World of Tambun. At the man-made waterfall beach garden near the entrance, it is just as hot as the weather outside the theme park.
Walk towards the petting zoo and the limestone hills at the heart of the park, and your skin gets tickled by the cooler air.
“It’s nature’s own cooling system,” declares the park’s general manager Calvin Ho, his arm pointing up at one of the limestone hills that tower over the park.
The Lost World is not just rides, wave pools and games to win stuffed toys.
It is also a place to introduce Nature to urbanites and youths, to get them to form a connection, says Ho.
Its petting zoo, for example, is one of the most interactive. Most of the reptiles, primates, monkeys, rabbits, goats and birds are un-tethered but they do not run away. It feels like you are walking through their natural environment rather than peering at captive displays in a cage.
The design philosophy was not to “build” the park into the environment, but to integrate it into the small valley that was formed by the hills.
“As much as possible, we did not cut down trees during construction. If we did, we transplanted them somewhere else in the park. In fact, we’ve added more trees and vegetation,” says Ho.
It does not sound like much compared to its southern cousin, Sunway Lagoon Theme park, but the Lost World’s ability to recreate that sublime connection with nature keeps it drawing visitors — even during the recession.
Ho says it expects to get about 650,000 visitors this year, compared to the 600,000 in 2009.
“Forty per cent of our visitors come here because of word-of-mouth from past visitors and about 50 per cent of them are Perakians,” Ho says.
“By protecting the natural environment, instead of just mining it, we ensure that it perpetually creates money for others.
“And when we prosper, the contractors in Ipoh, the hotels, the restaurants, the material suppliers, also make money,”
The promise
[Feeding time at the Lost World’s petting zoo is a chance for children to get up close with animals such as this Macaw, which they usually only see on television.]
Feeding time at the Lost World’s petting zoo is a chance for children to get up close with animals such as this Macaw, which they usually only see on television.
A short way through the jungles behind Lost World is the new Banjaran Hotspring Spa and Resort, whose operators claim is Malaysia’s first “wellness retreat.”
Dotted around a natural amphitheatre surrounded by gentle hills are 25 villas and facilities that are not meant to “pamper” its guests. They are meant to sequester them from the everyday and purge them of its toxins, stress and troubles.
“It’s a very new concept to Malaysia. The first person you meet when you check in is a ‘natural-path’. They advise you on treatments and they tailor your diet to suit your therapies,” explains Sunway International Hotels and Resorts chief executive officer, Hanley Chew.
And like the Lost World, Banjaran has taken what is an untapped natural resource, Tambun’s limestone hills, its caves and hot springs, and built a facility around them.
The designers took pains to minimise the retreat’s impact on the natural features, says Chew. For instance, in its “meditation cave”, builders only constructed simple platforms to allow guests to walk in easily.
“The food we serve is from plants grown using organic pesticides in the retreat itself.”
But Banjaran and the Lost World are only components of a bigger plan. One that involves transforming the wasteland around Tambun and bringing life back to this forgotten part of Ipoh.
“Sunway City Ipoh was abandoned during the 1997 financial crisis. When Sunway Group founder Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah wanted to start it up again, everyone thought it was a waste of time and money,” says Sunway Management group public affairs senior manager, Bernard Paul Netto.
“Of course, he proved everyone wrong, especially with Banjaran.”
The story among Sunway executives is that Cheah, who hails from Pusing, about 40 minutes away from Ipoh, had promised several years ago that he would bring development to Ipoh and had even said he would build something “five-star.”
A semblance of that integrated township called Sunway City Ipoh can already be seen in its high-end bungalows, the Giant hypermarket and a Sunway College campus. Soon it will have its own McDonald’s outlet — a conventional signifier of an area’s rising wealth.
[Ipoh Garden on a weekend bursts with trendy nightclubs and high paying customers.]
Ipoh Garden on a weekend bursts with trendy nightclubs and high paying customers.
Beyond kopitiams
And the wealth is starting to be seen in a row of clubs and bars dubbed “little Bangsar” — after the famous Kuala Lumpur night spot — in Ipoh Gardens.
On a weekend night, the roads around this block of shop-houses and restaurants behind the Kinta Valley mall are clogged with sashaying guys and girls, and the music is so loud it pours out onto the streets.
The scene is typical if you are from KL or Penang, but according to locals, these pubs and discos are only about two years old at the most.
“It used to be dingy, dank joints where people picked their noses, threw kuaci on the floor and the beer was warm,” says Kennedy George, proprietor of “Barbeza” and who is credited with starting the first “refined” pub and restaurant in the area.
Now there are about 20 of them who have taken George’s cue and established upscale joints with cover charges, dress codes and cocktails.
George’s new experiment is “Sugar”, a bar that features “live” music but where bands are radical by Ipoh’s standards. With radical meaning the bands excel on the strength of their music rather than the aesthetic qualities of the typically female lead singers.
“The ‘live’ music scene in Ipoh is generally like that. Low-paying male customers who will buy two Cokes to share among six while they sit and ogle the lead singer, who has to be a girl,” says local musician Gunabalan.
What Sugar and Barbeza have done is show that there is a market in Ipoh for upscale entertainment and dining. Both places are standing-room-only on weekends and the crowd comprises high-paying professionals.
It is not just about providing jobs. For Ipoh to move up in terms of being a place where young professionals go to work, play and start a family, says George, it has to offer those good restaurants and bars which attract them.
“It just can’t be dirty coffee shops and plastic chairs. To attract high-income residents then you have to go up in class,” says George.
It is a fitting metaphor and one that Banjaran and the Lost World are following in terms of how they are “exploiting” their natural resources by preserving them.
Just as Barbeza has up-ended Ipoh’s seedy entertainment scene, the Lost World and Banjaran have shown that limestone hills can be worth more if you do not mine them.
“The limestone is the Kinta valley’s foremost attraction,” the Lost World’s Ho, emphatically states.
And by using them wisely in tourism, he adds, the wealth they create is perpetual.
IPOH, April 10 — When the last tin mine dried up, Ipoh started to crumble.
If it had not been for its position as a state capital, a major stopover for the North-South railway line and an important cultural fount for the Malaysian Chinese community, the decline would have been faster.
This slightly Kinta Valley-centric view is shared by its businesses and residents. They say you can see the creeping bleakness in how more and more pre-Second World War shops in the charming old town centre are closing their shutters for good every day.
Unlike Kuala Lumpur, Penang or Johor Baru, Ipoh just never found a replacement for the tin mining industry that could have brought in high-paying jobs and a young population of professionals to start families and help it grow.
What this has left, says restaurateur Teow Hee Min, is a “retirement” town. Where the food is tasty, cheap and where you don’t have to fight for parking.
It seems that it has no prospects for anyone between 21 to 56, and looking to make their mark in the world.
Another “Ipoh boy”, a bank officer who wants to be known only as Faisal, puts it another way. It is as if the flow of money that used to go into Ipoh is now by-passing it for places like Manjung.
But for a bunch of successful new entrepreneurs on the outskirts of the old city, there is optimism.
And this “hope” involves throwing out the old ways of doing business, even if they helped make “this town that tin built” into a “city of millionaires.”
After the rush
[The rustic wooden shops of Ipoh’s old town have seen better days as many have closed their shutters after the tin rush died out. — Pictures by Choo Choy May]
The rustic wooden shops of Ipoh’s old town have seen better days as many have closed their shutters after the tin rush died out. — Pictures by Choo Choy May
Ipoh did not start out as a “Chinese town”. It was actually a Malay settlement founded by a Sumatran lord on the banks of the Kinta river sometime in the early 1800s.
But it grew into a predominantly Chinese town, thanks to the lucrative tin rush that attracted a flood of migrants from China and elsewhere during the early 1900s. Its importance was boosted when the Japanese occupation administration made it the state capital in 1942.
Though its boom years started to end when tin prices declined in the 1970s, Ipoh remained an important population centre on the West Coast. In fact, it is still Malaysia’s fourth-largest city.
Yet, much of the money that comes into Ipoh these days is made outside of it, via the generations of youths who have gone to work in the Klang Valley and Singapore, and who send back money and return to choke its streets during the holidays.
“Ten years ago, we still had lots of people who dropped in to Ipoh for lunch and leave by dinner. But it’s not like that anymore,” says Teow, who inherited and runs the city’s first steam-boat restaurant.
Money from tin nurtured a vibrant hospitality sector seen in the storied Chinese kopitiams and restaurants in downtown Ipoh, which till today receives scores of non-local customers.
Others, such as Faisal the bank officer, feel that things have gone stagnant.
He grew up in Ipoh but finds that nothing is “happening” in his hometown — another way of saying that there is no growth catalyst in the form of a lynchpin industry after tin mining died out.
The state government is trying to fill that vacuum by courting everyone, from those involved in computer animation to heavy industries, to come and set up shop in Perak.
The biggest of these ventures, so far, is an iron ore distribution centre being built by a multinational company in Teluk Rubiah, in far-away Manjung district.
Not everyone is tepid about Ipoh’s future. In the middle- to upper-class enclaves of Ipoh Garden and beyond towards Tambun, developers such as Sunway City Berhad are re-injecting life back into the Kinta Valley.
More than that, they are leveraging on Perak’s most renowned attraction — its adorable limestone hills — and showing that there is a better way to make money from this natural resource than simply blasting them for building materials.
[Instead of building something alien from its landscape, the Lost World integrates with it and shows how preserved nature can be a huge draw.]
Instead of building something alien from its landscape, the Lost World integrates with it and shows how preserved nature can be a huge draw.
A renewable resource
It is hard to believe how the temperature changes as you walk through the Lost World of Tambun. At the man-made waterfall beach garden near the entrance, it is just as hot as the weather outside the theme park.
Walk towards the petting zoo and the limestone hills at the heart of the park, and your skin gets tickled by the cooler air.
“It’s nature’s own cooling system,” declares the park’s general manager Calvin Ho, his arm pointing up at one of the limestone hills that tower over the park.
The Lost World is not just rides, wave pools and games to win stuffed toys.
It is also a place to introduce Nature to urbanites and youths, to get them to form a connection, says Ho.
Its petting zoo, for example, is one of the most interactive. Most of the reptiles, primates, monkeys, rabbits, goats and birds are un-tethered but they do not run away. It feels like you are walking through their natural environment rather than peering at captive displays in a cage.
The design philosophy was not to “build” the park into the environment, but to integrate it into the small valley that was formed by the hills.
“As much as possible, we did not cut down trees during construction. If we did, we transplanted them somewhere else in the park. In fact, we’ve added more trees and vegetation,” says Ho.
It does not sound like much compared to its southern cousin, Sunway Lagoon Theme park, but the Lost World’s ability to recreate that sublime connection with nature keeps it drawing visitors — even during the recession.
Ho says it expects to get about 650,000 visitors this year, compared to the 600,000 in 2009.
“Forty per cent of our visitors come here because of word-of-mouth from past visitors and about 50 per cent of them are Perakians,” Ho says.
“By protecting the natural environment, instead of just mining it, we ensure that it perpetually creates money for others.
“And when we prosper, the contractors in Ipoh, the hotels, the restaurants, the material suppliers, also make money,”
The promise
[Feeding time at the Lost World’s petting zoo is a chance for children to get up close with animals such as this Macaw, which they usually only see on television.]
Feeding time at the Lost World’s petting zoo is a chance for children to get up close with animals such as this Macaw, which they usually only see on television.
A short way through the jungles behind Lost World is the new Banjaran Hotspring Spa and Resort, whose operators claim is Malaysia’s first “wellness retreat.”
Dotted around a natural amphitheatre surrounded by gentle hills are 25 villas and facilities that are not meant to “pamper” its guests. They are meant to sequester them from the everyday and purge them of its toxins, stress and troubles.
“It’s a very new concept to Malaysia. The first person you meet when you check in is a ‘natural-path’. They advise you on treatments and they tailor your diet to suit your therapies,” explains Sunway International Hotels and Resorts chief executive officer, Hanley Chew.
And like the Lost World, Banjaran has taken what is an untapped natural resource, Tambun’s limestone hills, its caves and hot springs, and built a facility around them.
The designers took pains to minimise the retreat’s impact on the natural features, says Chew. For instance, in its “meditation cave”, builders only constructed simple platforms to allow guests to walk in easily.
“The food we serve is from plants grown using organic pesticides in the retreat itself.”
But Banjaran and the Lost World are only components of a bigger plan. One that involves transforming the wasteland around Tambun and bringing life back to this forgotten part of Ipoh.
“Sunway City Ipoh was abandoned during the 1997 financial crisis. When Sunway Group founder Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah wanted to start it up again, everyone thought it was a waste of time and money,” says Sunway Management group public affairs senior manager, Bernard Paul Netto.
“Of course, he proved everyone wrong, especially with Banjaran.”
The story among Sunway executives is that Cheah, who hails from Pusing, about 40 minutes away from Ipoh, had promised several years ago that he would bring development to Ipoh and had even said he would build something “five-star.”
A semblance of that integrated township called Sunway City Ipoh can already be seen in its high-end bungalows, the Giant hypermarket and a Sunway College campus. Soon it will have its own McDonald’s outlet — a conventional signifier of an area’s rising wealth.
[Ipoh Garden on a weekend bursts with trendy nightclubs and high paying customers.]
Ipoh Garden on a weekend bursts with trendy nightclubs and high paying customers.
Beyond kopitiams
And the wealth is starting to be seen in a row of clubs and bars dubbed “little Bangsar” — after the famous Kuala Lumpur night spot — in Ipoh Gardens.
On a weekend night, the roads around this block of shop-houses and restaurants behind the Kinta Valley mall are clogged with sashaying guys and girls, and the music is so loud it pours out onto the streets.
The scene is typical if you are from KL or Penang, but according to locals, these pubs and discos are only about two years old at the most.
“It used to be dingy, dank joints where people picked their noses, threw kuaci on the floor and the beer was warm,” says Kennedy George, proprietor of “Barbeza” and who is credited with starting the first “refined” pub and restaurant in the area.
Now there are about 20 of them who have taken George’s cue and established upscale joints with cover charges, dress codes and cocktails.
George’s new experiment is “Sugar”, a bar that features “live” music but where bands are radical by Ipoh’s standards. With radical meaning the bands excel on the strength of their music rather than the aesthetic qualities of the typically female lead singers.
“The ‘live’ music scene in Ipoh is generally like that. Low-paying male customers who will buy two Cokes to share among six while they sit and ogle the lead singer, who has to be a girl,” says local musician Gunabalan.
What Sugar and Barbeza have done is show that there is a market in Ipoh for upscale entertainment and dining. Both places are standing-room-only on weekends and the crowd comprises high-paying professionals.
It is not just about providing jobs. For Ipoh to move up in terms of being a place where young professionals go to work, play and start a family, says George, it has to offer those good restaurants and bars which attract them.
“It just can’t be dirty coffee shops and plastic chairs. To attract high-income residents then you have to go up in class,” says George.
It is a fitting metaphor and one that Banjaran and the Lost World are following in terms of how they are “exploiting” their natural resources by preserving them.
Just as Barbeza has up-ended Ipoh’s seedy entertainment scene, the Lost World and Banjaran have shown that limestone hills can be worth more if you do not mine them.
“The limestone is the Kinta valley’s foremost attraction,” the Lost World’s Ho, emphatically states.
And by using them wisely in tourism, he adds, the wealth they create is perpetual.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Employers Must Submit Income Tax Return Forms By Tomorrow Or Face Action
KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 (Bernama) -- Tomorrow is the final date, for employers to submit their income tax return forms or E Forms for 2009, to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN).
In a statement on Tuesday, LHDN reminded employers to meet the dateline or face a possible fine of RM2,000, six months jail or both, if found guilty under the Income Tax Act 1967.
LHDN also urged employers to use the e-Filling system which offers an alternative way to submit their tax returns.
For information, tax payers can contact the toll free LHDN customer service hotline at 1-300-88-3010.
In a statement on Tuesday, LHDN reminded employers to meet the dateline or face a possible fine of RM2,000, six months jail or both, if found guilty under the Income Tax Act 1967.
LHDN also urged employers to use the e-Filling system which offers an alternative way to submit their tax returns.
For information, tax payers can contact the toll free LHDN customer service hotline at 1-300-88-3010.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Notice of Annual General Meeting for 2010
By Steven Lee (Acting Secretary)
Greetings.
It is again that time of the year for Ipoh City Watch to hold its Annual General Meeting. Details are as follows:
Date: 28 March 2010
Time: 9.30am (for registration)
Venue: Old Andersonian Clubhouse
Agenda:
1. Call to Order/President's address
2. Tabling and passing of Minutes of the previous AGM
3. Matters arising
4. Tabling and passing of Treasurer's report
5. Any other business
Please make an effort to come for the AGM to find out what are in store for ICW this year. Also please come early so that the AGM can start on time and end early for refreshments and fellowship afterwards.
Should you have any questions, please direct it to the President Augustine Anthony at 012-5161334 or Steven Lee at 016-5052848
Greetings.
It is again that time of the year for Ipoh City Watch to hold its Annual General Meeting. Details are as follows:
Date: 28 March 2010
Time: 9.30am (for registration)
Venue: Old Andersonian Clubhouse
Agenda:
1. Call to Order/President's address
2. Tabling and passing of Minutes of the previous AGM
3. Matters arising
4. Tabling and passing of Treasurer's report
5. Any other business
Please make an effort to come for the AGM to find out what are in store for ICW this year. Also please come early so that the AGM can start on time and end early for refreshments and fellowship afterwards.
Should you have any questions, please direct it to the President Augustine Anthony at 012-5161334 or Steven Lee at 016-5052848
Friday, January 15, 2010
Woman loses RM1,900 from online account - Star
Jan 15 2010 By LIM CHIA YING
ONLINE banking is a convenience to many busy people. However, it brought misery to a 26-year-old woman, who wished to be known only as Jenn, who lost RM1,900 from her one-month-old account on Dec 2.
Jenn said the amount was transferred to a third party account without her knowledge after she had logged into the bank’s system using her logon and password.
“One morning in early December, I received an email from Maybank stating that I had a login with an incorrect password in the Maybank system.
“After closing the email, I logged into the system and entered the correct password that it needed.
“However, on the afternoon of the same day, I received an SMS from Maybank2u.com that RM1,900 from my account that I had opened at the Maybank Taman Midah branch had been transferred to a third party account,” Jenn said at a press conference called by Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun.
She has since lodged a police report at the Batu 9 Cheras police station.
In the police report, she said when she went to the branch at 2pm the same day, a bank officer named Raymond Lim had given her the funds transfer statement in which she saw that her money had been transferred to an account belonging to a Malay woman named Mayana Muhamad.
Jenn called up the Maybank headquarters to seek an explanation on the issue, and was disappointed that the personnel were not helpful and only provided a written reply to her one month later.
“I had been using another bank, where security was much tighter, before using Maybank’s online banking when I changed job,” she said, adding that she had created the account only in November.
“The RM1,900 was almost all my savings! The officer in the headquarters told me that the police investigation must be completed before action could be taken.
“He also told me that although the bank had contacted the third party, the woman was not cooperating so they could not do anything. Would she cooperate if she is the culprit?” asked the frustrated Jenn, claiming that the bank personnel had even told her there was a queue of other fraud victims.
In Maybank’s written reply to Jenn, virtual banking cyber security manager Baizura Ahmad wrote that following a comprehensive investigation of the said transaction, they had found that a valid user name and password were used to access her account via Maybank2u.com.
“Our findings revealed that the internet banking username and password were used on Dec 2 to successfully make a login to your Maybank account via Maybank2u.com,” Baizura had stated.
“A Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC) was requested through your Maybank2u.com account and a valid TAC was successfully sent to your mobile number. This TAC was then used to create a favourite third party account, and subsequently, the amount of RM1,900 was made to the favourite third party account from your account on the same day.
“Based on our investigation into our system, our records showed there was no system failure, problem or any breach of security of Maybank2u.com in processing the above activities at the mentioned date and time involving the above account.
“In view of this, we very much regret to inform that the bank is unable to accede to your request of the said amount,” the reply said.
In the reply, the bank reiterated that it does not send any email, SMS or make telephone calls to customers to request for personal details, account details of TAC number.
“Customers are also reminded never to disclose their account and banking information to anyone. The bank provides safety information and alerts in Maybank2u.com as well as through our other delivery channels,” the reply stated.
Jenn said she felt helpless on the issue and had since terminated her online account with the bank.
Fong said he would be writing to Bank Negara on the urgent need to monitor the security of online banking.
“Since the matter involved a transfer within the same bank, and the person’s name and account number are known, there is no reason why the bank is unable to do anything.
“The money was transferred without the victim’s knowledge, so it is only right that settlement is made to her.
“I also hope the Finance Minister will respond to this as such a case can result in the public losing confidence in online banking,” he said.
ONLINE banking is a convenience to many busy people. However, it brought misery to a 26-year-old woman, who wished to be known only as Jenn, who lost RM1,900 from her one-month-old account on Dec 2.
Jenn said the amount was transferred to a third party account without her knowledge after she had logged into the bank’s system using her logon and password.
“One morning in early December, I received an email from Maybank stating that I had a login with an incorrect password in the Maybank system.
“After closing the email, I logged into the system and entered the correct password that it needed.
“However, on the afternoon of the same day, I received an SMS from Maybank2u.com that RM1,900 from my account that I had opened at the Maybank Taman Midah branch had been transferred to a third party account,” Jenn said at a press conference called by Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun.
She has since lodged a police report at the Batu 9 Cheras police station.
In the police report, she said when she went to the branch at 2pm the same day, a bank officer named Raymond Lim had given her the funds transfer statement in which she saw that her money had been transferred to an account belonging to a Malay woman named Mayana Muhamad.
Jenn called up the Maybank headquarters to seek an explanation on the issue, and was disappointed that the personnel were not helpful and only provided a written reply to her one month later.
“I had been using another bank, where security was much tighter, before using Maybank’s online banking when I changed job,” she said, adding that she had created the account only in November.
“The RM1,900 was almost all my savings! The officer in the headquarters told me that the police investigation must be completed before action could be taken.
“He also told me that although the bank had contacted the third party, the woman was not cooperating so they could not do anything. Would she cooperate if she is the culprit?” asked the frustrated Jenn, claiming that the bank personnel had even told her there was a queue of other fraud victims.
In Maybank’s written reply to Jenn, virtual banking cyber security manager Baizura Ahmad wrote that following a comprehensive investigation of the said transaction, they had found that a valid user name and password were used to access her account via Maybank2u.com.
“Our findings revealed that the internet banking username and password were used on Dec 2 to successfully make a login to your Maybank account via Maybank2u.com,” Baizura had stated.
“A Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC) was requested through your Maybank2u.com account and a valid TAC was successfully sent to your mobile number. This TAC was then used to create a favourite third party account, and subsequently, the amount of RM1,900 was made to the favourite third party account from your account on the same day.
“Based on our investigation into our system, our records showed there was no system failure, problem or any breach of security of Maybank2u.com in processing the above activities at the mentioned date and time involving the above account.
“In view of this, we very much regret to inform that the bank is unable to accede to your request of the said amount,” the reply said.
In the reply, the bank reiterated that it does not send any email, SMS or make telephone calls to customers to request for personal details, account details of TAC number.
“Customers are also reminded never to disclose their account and banking information to anyone. The bank provides safety information and alerts in Maybank2u.com as well as through our other delivery channels,” the reply stated.
Jenn said she felt helpless on the issue and had since terminated her online account with the bank.
Fong said he would be writing to Bank Negara on the urgent need to monitor the security of online banking.
“Since the matter involved a transfer within the same bank, and the person’s name and account number are known, there is no reason why the bank is unable to do anything.
“The money was transferred without the victim’s knowledge, so it is only right that settlement is made to her.
“I also hope the Finance Minister will respond to this as such a case can result in the public losing confidence in online banking,” he said.
Friday, December 18, 2009
In hard times, extravagant signs in Ipoh - Malaysian Insider
By Clara Chooi
One of the large ‘Hollywood-like’ sign of Ipoh erected along the North-South Expressway that can be seen from the northbound lane, just 1km after the Gopeng exit. — Picture by Clara Chooi
IPOH, Dec 18 — Despite running a deficit budget, the Ipoh City Council this year built two giant signs spelling the city's name at entry points on the PLUS expressway for RM800,000.
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) politicians blamed the Perak palace for the signage, modelled on the famous Hollywood sign in the United States, saying they managed to reduce it to two from the initial four when it was built early this year.
The Ipoh City Council confirmed with The Malaysian Insider the whopping cost, which amounts to RM100,000 for each letter that spells out the words "Ipoh".
It is understood that the signs were erected in January this year for two reasons — to mark the Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah's silver jubilee celebration and to turn the city of Ipoh into a significant landmark to entice more tourist stopovers.
The RM800,000 spent on the two signs does not include maintenance work and the cost of electricity used to power up the spotlights at night.
A source from the ousted PR state government revealed to The Malaysian Insider yesterday that the proposal to erect the signs had come from the palace last year and the initial suggestion was actually to put up four such signs along the main arteries entering the city.
"The PR government rejected the idea when it was mooted because it was clearly a terrible waste of public funds," said the source, who declined to be named.
The source added that the signage also bore little aesthetic value and would not have helped to boost the city's economy in any way.
"In the first place, there are enough road signboards on the highway to inform people where Ipoh is.
"Not only that, before they allowed the continuous travel between Kuala Lumpur and Penang on the highway, motorists had to pay their toll in Ipoh before they proceeded on their journey.
"Everyone knows where Ipoh is," said the source.
The PR government was toppled when three of its lawmakers resigned to be independent, prompting the Perak royalty to name Barisan Nasional Pangkor assemblyman Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir as mentri besar.
When contacted yesterday, Ipoh Mayor Datuk Roshidi Hashim admitted to The Malaysian Insider the cost of the two signs.
He said that the reason why the signs were so expensive was because each letter had to be lifted up to be erected on its lofty perch up on two separate hills.
"They had to bring in a skylift crane from Kuala Lumpur to erect the letters and this cost us quite a bit," he said.
He said however that the PR government had not completely rejected the idea but had merely voiced some disapproval.
"I also discussed it with (former Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad) Nizar (Jamaluddin) and he did suggest putting it up along the Ipoh-Lumut highway," said Roshidi.
Meanwhile, the signs, which spell out the name "Ipoh" using white letters, already seems to be stained with dark blotches.
Roshidi said he was aware of this and had already assigned a city engineer to be in charge of maintaining the signs.
The maintenance work, he added, would include cleaning the letters as well as ensuring that the spotlights to light up each letter at night were working well.
"We also have to clean the undergrowth of the hills behind the signage and keep the place neat," he said.
Roshidi also agreed that the city was currently still running on a deficit budget of between RM7 million and RM10 million.
"But still, our arrears collection has improved tremendously by up to 36 per cent this year alone.
"We also have a huge reserve so we can run without collections for at least six months," he said.
Before the giant Ipoh signs, motorists on the old federal road would know they were near the capital of the tin-rich state from the giant Mercedes Benz three-pointed star logo at the city's southern approach, signifying the wealth of its residents who favoured the German marque.
The only other city with a giant signage is Kuala Terengganu which has the word “Allah” on the hill after Pulau Duyong.
One of the large ‘Hollywood-like’ sign of Ipoh erected along the North-South Expressway that can be seen from the northbound lane, just 1km after the Gopeng exit. — Picture by Clara ChooiIPOH, Dec 18 — Despite running a deficit budget, the Ipoh City Council this year built two giant signs spelling the city's name at entry points on the PLUS expressway for RM800,000.
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) politicians blamed the Perak palace for the signage, modelled on the famous Hollywood sign in the United States, saying they managed to reduce it to two from the initial four when it was built early this year.
The Ipoh City Council confirmed with The Malaysian Insider the whopping cost, which amounts to RM100,000 for each letter that spells out the words "Ipoh".
It is understood that the signs were erected in January this year for two reasons — to mark the Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah's silver jubilee celebration and to turn the city of Ipoh into a significant landmark to entice more tourist stopovers.
The RM800,000 spent on the two signs does not include maintenance work and the cost of electricity used to power up the spotlights at night.
A source from the ousted PR state government revealed to The Malaysian Insider yesterday that the proposal to erect the signs had come from the palace last year and the initial suggestion was actually to put up four such signs along the main arteries entering the city.
"The PR government rejected the idea when it was mooted because it was clearly a terrible waste of public funds," said the source, who declined to be named.
The source added that the signage also bore little aesthetic value and would not have helped to boost the city's economy in any way.
"In the first place, there are enough road signboards on the highway to inform people where Ipoh is.
"Not only that, before they allowed the continuous travel between Kuala Lumpur and Penang on the highway, motorists had to pay their toll in Ipoh before they proceeded on their journey.
"Everyone knows where Ipoh is," said the source.
The PR government was toppled when three of its lawmakers resigned to be independent, prompting the Perak royalty to name Barisan Nasional Pangkor assemblyman Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir as mentri besar.
When contacted yesterday, Ipoh Mayor Datuk Roshidi Hashim admitted to The Malaysian Insider the cost of the two signs.
He said that the reason why the signs were so expensive was because each letter had to be lifted up to be erected on its lofty perch up on two separate hills.
"They had to bring in a skylift crane from Kuala Lumpur to erect the letters and this cost us quite a bit," he said.
He said however that the PR government had not completely rejected the idea but had merely voiced some disapproval.
"I also discussed it with (former Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad) Nizar (Jamaluddin) and he did suggest putting it up along the Ipoh-Lumut highway," said Roshidi.
Meanwhile, the signs, which spell out the name "Ipoh" using white letters, already seems to be stained with dark blotches.
Roshidi said he was aware of this and had already assigned a city engineer to be in charge of maintaining the signs.
The maintenance work, he added, would include cleaning the letters as well as ensuring that the spotlights to light up each letter at night were working well.
"We also have to clean the undergrowth of the hills behind the signage and keep the place neat," he said.
Roshidi also agreed that the city was currently still running on a deficit budget of between RM7 million and RM10 million.
"But still, our arrears collection has improved tremendously by up to 36 per cent this year alone.
"We also have a huge reserve so we can run without collections for at least six months," he said.
Before the giant Ipoh signs, motorists on the old federal road would know they were near the capital of the tin-rich state from the giant Mercedes Benz three-pointed star logo at the city's southern approach, signifying the wealth of its residents who favoured the German marque.
The only other city with a giant signage is Kuala Terengganu which has the word “Allah” on the hill after Pulau Duyong.
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