Even before the Island State split from Malaysia, the Seletars occupied both banks of the Straits, and Singapore did not recognise the Seletar people. When the split occurred, they could become Malaysians, keep their Asli identity, or take up Singapore citizenship, lose this, and become Malays. (This is what I gather from conversations with my Seletar buddies.)
So it's intriguing that more is written about the Seletars from across the Straits than from our side. It seems to me.
Johor hasn't been a friendly place for the Orang Seletar Orang Asli Seletar, Kg Bakar Batu and Kg Sg Temon Johor, even though they once patrolled and collected taxes for the Sultanate from those who passed through the waterway, so much so that the Brits called them pirates. They've even fought wars up and down the Straits and along Sungai Johor, up to Johor Lama from one Western nation to another, and even battled the Achinese, who wanted to bring the West coast of the peninsular into their domain or chase pretenders and claimants to the throne of Melaka or Johor. (As I read somewhere).
But today, they've been booted out of traditional settlements in Stulang, Sg Segget areas and others. Adding to their woes, the development corridor called Iskandar Malaysia will move one community of close to 400 Seletar people to an area where they will lose their primary source of livelihood - mussel farming. Elsewhere, the Seletar community of Gelang Patah have had their traditional fishing areas taken over by a massive shipping port. It's a tough life. Being Asli is tough all around the peninsular.
Sunday, May 26, 2024
Balancing political statements with your charity's mission on social media can be tricky. Here are several factors to consider when deciding whether to continue posting political content:
### 1. **Mission Focus**
- **Clarity and Consistency:** Focusing on your charity’s mission helps maintain a clear and consistent message. It ensures your audience understands your primary goals and isn’t distracted or alienated by unrelated political opinions.
### 2. **Audience Engagement**
- **Donor Diversity:** Your donors likely have a range of political beliefs. Posting political content could alienate a segment of your supporters, potentially reducing donations and engagement.
- **Community Trust:** Building trust with your community involves demonstrating reliability and neutrality, primarily if your mission serves diverse groups.
### 3. **Legal and Ethical Considerations**
- **Nonprofit Regulations:** Many countries regulate political activities by nonprofits. For example, in the U.S., 501(c)(3) organisations are restricted from engaging in political campaigning and can risk their tax-exempt status.
### 4. **Brand Image**
- **Professionalism:** Maintaining a professional image can be crucial for credibility. Political posts may be viewed as unprofessional or divisive, detracting from the charity’s core activities.
- **Public Perception:** People may perceive the charity as biased or having a hidden agenda, which could impact overall support and participation.
### 5. **Strategic Communication**
- **Message Alignment:** Ensure all communication aligns with the charity’s goals and values. If political statements align directly with the mission (e.g., advocating for policy changes that support your cause), they may be appropriate.
- **Engagement Strategy:** Focus on content that highlights success stories, upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and the impact of donations. Positive and mission-centric content typically generates more engagement and support.
### 6. **Risk Management**
- **Crisis Management:** Consider the potential backlash and have a plan to address any adverse reactions. Being prepared can help mitigate damage to your charity’s reputation.
- **Conflict Avoidance:** Staying away from political discourse can help avoid unnecessary conflicts and maintain a harmonious online community.
### Conclusion
While political statements can sometimes be relevant to a charity's mission, it's often more practical to concentrate on content that directly promotes your cause. Highlighting the positive impact of your work, sharing stories from those you help, and providing transparent updates on how donations are used can build more robust, more inclusive support.
In summary, focusing on your charity’s core activities and mission is usually the best approach to maintaining a supportive and engaged community, maximising donations, and avoiding unnecessary conflict
Deciding whether to remain self-reliant or join established donation platforms and register with government bodies depends on several factors. Here are some points to consider for both options:
####Staying Self-Reliant
**Pros:**
1. **Autonomy:** You have complete control over the charity's operations, including decision-making processes and how funds are used.
2. **Flexibility:** Being unregistered allows you to adapt quickly without the need to comply with regulatory requirements.
3. **Lower Administrative Burden:** You avoid the paperwork and reporting obligations required by government bodies and formal donation platforms.
4. **Direct Relationship with Donors:** You maintain a personal connection with your donors, which can enhance trust and loyalty.
**Cons:**
1. **Limited Funding:** Without access to more extensive, structured donation platforms, your funding sources might be more limited.
2. **Credibility:** Potential donors might hesitate to contribute to an unregistered organisation, limiting your reach and impact.
3. **Sustainability:** Depending solely on personal funds and informal donations might not be sustainable in the long term.
4. **Legal Risks:** Operating without formal registration can expose you to legal risks, especially if there are specific regulations governing charitable activities in your region.
### Joining Established Platforms and Registering
**Pros:**
1. **Increased Funding Opportunities:** Registration and joining platforms like sokong.org can open access to a broader range of donors, grants, and other funding opportunities.
2. **Credibility and Trust:** Being a registered entity enhances your legitimacy and trustworthiness in the eyes of potential donors and beneficiaries.
3. **Support and Resources:** Established platforms often provide resources, training, and support to help you run your charity more effectively.
4. **Long-term Sustainability:** With increased funding and resources, your charity will likely sustain and expand its operations.
**Cons:**
1. **Administrative Burden:** Registration involves paperwork, adherence to regulations, and ongoing reporting requirements, which can be time-consuming.
2. **Less Flexibility:** Complying with regulatory requirements and platform policies can limit your flexibility in how you run your operations.
3. **Costs:** There may be costs associated with registration and using donation platforms, which can eat into your funds.
4. **Potential Loss of Personal Touch:** As you grow and formalise operations, you might lose some personal connection with donors and beneficiaries.
### Considerations for Decision-Making
- **Scale of Operations:** If your charity is small and manageable with personal funds and local donations, staying self-reliant might be feasible. However, if you aim to expand, joining established platforms and registering might be necessary.
- **Long-term Goals:** Consider your vision for the future. If you plan to grow and reach more people, formalising your operations can provide the necessary infrastructure and credibility.
- **Regulatory Environment:** Understand the legal requirements in your region. Operating unregistered might expose you to legal risks, so it's crucial to weigh these factors.
- **Resource Availability:** Assess whether you can handle the additional administrative burden of registration and joining donation platforms.
### Next Steps
If you decide to pursue formal registration and join donation platforms, here are some steps to follow:
1. **Research Requirements:** Understand the legal requirements for registering a charity in your region.
2. **Seek Advice:** Consult with other registered charities or legal experts to navigate the registration process.
3. **Evaluate Platforms:** Compare different donation platforms to find one that aligns with your goals and offers the best support.
4. **Plan for Transition:** Develop a plan to manage the transition from self-reliance to a more formal structure, including training for your team and communication with your donors.
Ultimately, the decision should align with your charity's goals, capacity, and long-term vision.
On 19 May 2024, at Kampung Pendas Laut, Johor's
Social Hero Foundation (SHF) organised a mangrove tree planting event today at
Kampung Pendas Laut in Gelang Patah.
Forty participants got into their wellies to plant
saplings from two types of local mangrove trees: the 'Api Api' and Minyak
varieties.
The participants included students from the local
school, SK Pendas Laut, the State's Forestry department, the local youth club,
representatives from the Tenaga Nasional Berhad association called Pelitawanis,
students from the University of Reading, and other volunteers.
Staff from the Forestry Department were on hand to
demonstrate the correct way of digging into the soggy marsh to safely plant the
saplings without damaging them.
Quizzes for kids
Before getting into the mud, Social Hero Foundation
Programme Director Ms Farrah Baptist quizzed the 10—to 12-year-old students
about the importance of mangrove forests to determine whether they understood
the significance of preserving the mangrove forests in their area.
Many were aware because their parents are coastal
fishers who have imparted their knowledge of mangrove forests to them.
"Apart from the fact that the mangrove is
where fish spawn, the trees are vital to capture carbon in the air, and this
will help alleviate the effects of global warming affecting us all,"
Farrah explained to them.
"These trees you are planting today will take
ten, 20 years to mature, and they will play their part in the fight against
global warming. Even though you won't feel the effects, your children will; you
are planting these trees for your children," she reiterated.
Farrah said in the briefing to the students, "
Global warming is being felt all around. There are floods in areas of Johor
that have never experienced flooding before, and your parents are returning
with fewer fish and prawns.
"And you feel the heat every day, right?"
she asked, receiving a raucous response.
When asked what they should do to help against
global warming, with some hesitation and coaxing from Farrah, they
listed proper rubbish disposal, conserving water and electricity usage,
carpooling with parents, and cycling to school.
They have been briefed about the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in school, and it took a little
encouragement for them to voice what they know of it.
Artisanal Fishers Hard Hit by Global Warming
Kampung Pendas and the other villages along the
rural stretch of Jalan Tanjung Kupang are traditionally fishing communities.
Despite the monstrosity of Forest City, the development of which had disrupted
the ecology of that part of the Straits, and the dangers of laying their nets
at the mouth of Sungai Pulai, once a rich fishing spot for fishers but now
denied them because of the ships that use the Port of Tanjung Pelepas, coastal
fishing continues to be the livelihood of the people in the 10 villages of Tanjung
Kupang.
These coastal fishers have felt the effects of climate change to the extent that they admit they can no longer predict tidal flows, which affects their ability to bring in the daily catch.
Coupled with coastal developments along the
coastline of the Straits of Johor, such as Forest City, the livelihood of
fishers has depreciated to an alarming level.
A quick look at the fish mongers operated by fisher
families of the village met with a diverse quantity of fish; some had plenty
while others had not so many to sell.
The claim is that those who had little to sell
relied solely on what their family members brought from the waters and rivers
of the Straits, while those who had plenty brought items from other markets and
grouped them together with their catch.
Seventy-Four saplings for Kampung Pendas Laut
Seventy-four saplings from the Bakau Minyak and
Bakau Api-Api varieties were planted in the village, which was procured from
Kelab Alami, a social enterprise initiative made up of local young people that
monitors the health of the Tanjung Kupang coastline. (Read about Kelab
Alami here: https://bit.ly/4dJSXWh).
This is the inaugural tree-planting event by SHF, a
non-profit organisation based in Johor, "established to sustainably carry
out charitable activities, promote national unity, and implement racially
integrated programmes."
The Foundation also raises funds to ensure the
initiative's sustainability and continuity and fully subscribes to and promotes
the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Johor Bahru, March 10, 2016: The residents of Kampung Bakar Batu, Perling Johor Bahru have demanded that they be treated fairly by the State government and the property developer who now owns the property that the village sits on.
Speaking at a press conference organized to highlight their plight, village spokesman Norman Abdul Hamid said that there have been no discussions between the State government, the developer and the village working committee (JKK).
“The only people we have met have been the lawyers acting for the developer, Nodedua Sdn Bhd and there wasn’t any discussion, only them telling us ‘their instructions’,” Norman said.
Norman and the 70 residents who attended the press conference expressed dismay at the previous JKK and its chairman who they accused of letting them down by not having any discussions with the villagers on the proposals by the developer.
Norman Abdul Hamid
“All of a sudden, in early October last year, we were presented with an undertaking letter (Aku Janji) to vacate our homes of over 50 years for a miserly compensation of RM15,000 and to move to low-cost rented flats.
Of the 150 families living in Kampung Bakar Batu Perling, 18 have accepted the compensation and they have moved out to rented low-cost flats also in the Perling area.
The 65-acre property is a piece of land that juts out into the Straits of Johor, flanked by two rivers, Sungai Skudai and Sungai Danga that flows into the Straits.
Being in close proximity to high-value developments such as Danga Bay, any development promises to be of similar high value for wealthy foreigners and locals.
Kampung Bakar Baru sits on the irrigation and drainage reserve of this spit of land and in reality falls under the country’s Irrigation and Drainage Department.
“This is one reason why our applications for temporary occupation have failed, but they seemed to have sold the reserve to the developer,” Norman said.
Norman and a few of the residents who spoke at the press conference reiterated that they were not against development, but they wanted to meet with the developer and State government representatives to discuss the way forward.
“The RM15,000 cash and relocation to rented flats are not fair compensations,” said Norman.
He explained that more than half the heads of families here are full time coastal fishermen.
“Where are they going to moor their fishing boats?
“There are two households who live solely on boat building and repair; where are they going to do this specialized work?” asked Norman.
The JKK have submitted proposals to the Johor Palace, State government agencies and the Menteri Besar.
Villagers who accepted the RM15,000 compensation have moved to rented flats, leaving their houses in ruins, becoming potential mosquito breeding grounds
Amongst the suggestions put forward in the proposals was upgrading the village with better infrastructure, build replicas of traditional Johor houses, thus turning it into a ‘living’ museum.
They propose that they live in these houses and help run the living museum.
“Some of us have ancestors who lived here when the Orang Asli were still living on their boats and that island across was their open burial ground,” said Norman, pointing to a once mangrove island, now turned into land lots for their buyers to build luxury homes.
Another proposal is for compensation of RM150,000 and a medium cost home per remaining family at a suitable location where fishermen and boat builders can still carry out their vocation.
The Orang Asli Seletar were allotted a reserve of about 14 acres within Kampung Bakar Batu with another two acres as their traditional burial grounds.
“So I think we are deserving of more than RM15,000 and a rented flat,” Norman added.
One of the properties that they have identified for relocation is just adjacent to the Orang Asli settlement of about nine-and-a-half acres.
Also present at the press conference was Cheo Yee How, the state assemblyperson for Pengkalan Rinting who promised to bring up their plight in the next State Assembly sitting.
The village falls under his State constituency.
Malaysia’s first
international drone race took off to a flying start with 31 competitors from
three countries racing to compete for RM32,000 worth of attractive prizes for
the three categories. The racers had to
race through a 160-metre tight, twisting circuit, negotiating four air-gates
and four air-flags in groups of three per class heat. Air-gates are
domes installed on the ground of about five feet high and10 feet wide and the drones
have to go under these, while air flags are flag poles marking the turning
points of the circuit. “The racers are
divided into three categories based on the airframe size of the drones.
“So they are the
250, 330 and 450 categories with the 250 class being the top category,”
explained Hamdi Hamdan the race director.
“The racers go through
qualifying time trials and then they compete in the finals and the
championship,” Hamdi added.
They race five laps of the
circuit, three or four at a time.
Hamdi Hamdan
The race is under
the US-based Aerial Grand Prix franchise and is organized here under the Drone
Malaysia association. Hamdi explained
that these types of drones are put together by enthusiasts. The enthusiasts he
said would buy the airframes, motors, propellers, flight controllers, ‘first
person view’ cameras and monitors, video transmitters and receivers and whole
bunch of stuff and they put all these together to build a racing drone.
However, he wasn’t
quite happy with the number of competitors. “Considering the
number of enthusiasts for these type of drones around the country, the number
of competitors for this first race, was disappointing,” he said. “We also didn’t
get much support from local businesses like the distributors and retailers of
components and systems,” Hamdi added.
“Maybe they
adopted a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude,” he said. Hamdi however
expressed gratitude to component distributors from Singapore who sponsored free
parts such as propellers and other items for the competitors. The races were
given one day to practice on September 26th while the race proper was
held on a haze-enveloped sky on
September 27th, but that didn’t cloud the enthusiasm of the
competitors.
This inaugural
race was held at a Universiti Malaya field but Hamdi is intending to have next
year’s race in a covered location incase of inclement weather. “We have a longer
time-frame to organize next year’s event and we hope for more local and
regional participants,” Hamdi said. In the meantime,
he and his team hope to organize races around the country and aim to put
together a national drone-racing league. Present at the
event was drone NGO, Malaysia
Unmanned Drones Activist Society or MUDAS. MUDAS is in the
forefront to promote safe drone flying ever since aerial footage of airliners
landing at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport shocked the nation.
Haidar Abu Bakar
“We’re working
with the authorities to put together a framework to promote responsible and
safe operation of drones, particularly for those who operate them as a hobby
for photography and videography,” said Haidar Abu Bakar of MUDAS. “The racing
hobbyists here are OK; they don’t fly high, they practice and complete away
from the public, but it’s the guys who buy drones fitted with cameras like the
popular Phantom series of quadcopters that we are worried about,” Haidar added.
“They have to be
made aware of the existing regulations, such as flying below 400 feet, not to
fly above crowds and heavy traffic and away from tall buildings and no-fly
zones,” he added.
“All too often
these commonsense guidelines are ignored and it’s important to have some
measure of regulation to prevent untoward incidents and accidents,” he said. Taking top prize
for the inaugural race was Worassorn Subsri from Thailand who competed in the main
250 class.
Worassorn Subsri
“This is my first ever drone race; I’ve never even competed in any local
race in Thailand, so I am surprised and happy,” said the 35-year-old who took
up the hobby just six months ago although he was flying RC helicopters before
then. He came away with the coveted DJI Phantom S900, a six-rotor drone
capable of carrying a payload of 8.2kg. What this means is that it can carry
high-end cameras such as the Panasonic Lumix GH4. Just the frame itself costs RM6,000.00. “Drone racing is getting to be a popular sport around the world and our
ambition is to organise an Asian championship one day,” Hamdi said.
