28 Nation

TheStar

THURSDAY 8 December 2005

No dialogue
with members
MB: Club failed to live up to royal name
IPOH: Perak Mentri Besar Datuk
Seri Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali has turned down a request
by several Royal Perak Golf Club
members to discuss the renewal
of the golf course's land lease.
Why should I go to them?
The problems have been there
since 1993 before I became the
Mentri Besar. All these years, no
one has ever come to discuss the
problem with me, he said
outside the Perak state assembly
yesterday.
Tajol Rosli was commenting
on an invitation by some members to have a dialogue after the
State Secretariat Incorporated
(SSI), which held the lease on
the golf course, gave the club six
months from Nov 18 to cease
operations.
However, he said the club

could send representatives to

see him at his office to discuss
and resolve the matter amicably.
Tajol Rosli said the club failed
to meet certain conditions, one
of which was its repeated failure to live up to its royal name.
We have advised them to
upgrade the clubhouse to reflect
the exclusiveness and privileges
of being a member of a royal golf
club. But they have not done
anything about this, he said.
To make matters worse,
there are members who misbehave and wear T-shirts and slippers when they are at the club.
Club captain David Chung, 65,
however, said the behaviour of
members did not warrant its
operations to be taken over by a
new management.

He said the real issue was the

lease to the golf course, which
had existed since 1936.
Chung said the club had been
applying for a 60-year lease to
the 69ha site where the golf
course was situated since 1991.
At that time, the club had fulfilled 17 conditions set by the
state government.
We even changed our constitution to accommodate seven
state-nominated members on
the clubs management committee while we are represented by
six elected members. Previously,
the club was fully run by elected
members, he said yesterday.
But in 1996, the state government told us that the land
had been leased to the SSI and
we were to negotiate with it for
a sub-lease to the land, he said.

MILESTONE: (From left) MCA Central Committee member Dr Wong Mook Leong, MCA Youth secretary-general Dr Wee Ka Siong, MCA Youth deputy secretary-general Chai Kim Sen, Ong and
MCA Youth chief Datuk Liow Tiong Lai looking through the album after its launch at Wisma MCA
in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

MCA Youth marks 50th anniversary

KUALA LUMPUR: To mark MCA
Youth's 50th anniversary, its
history has been captured in a
picture album and VCD, copies
of which will be distributed to
party members as gifts.
The album features the wing's
11 leaders since 1955 and their
contributions to society.
MCA secretary-general Datuk Ong Ka Chuan launched the

album and VCD at Wisma MCA

yesterday.
Ong advised the movement to
participate actively in TAR College, as the college's priority was
course content and its quality.
He said a lot of effort had been
made at instilling moral values
in students so that they would
be imbued with good qualities.
I hope MCA Youth members

will be open-minded and farsighted in view of globalisation, he said.

MCA Youth must not be
satisfied with its achievements,
but (must) instead be prepared
to face the challenges ahead.
Those interested in learning
more about the movement's
history and activities can visit
www.mca.org.my.

R.AGE blog proves popular with youth

BY NIKI CHEONG
PETALING JAYA: The R.AGE
blog, which went live on Monday, is making quite an impact,
judging from the responses on
the site.
Visitors have flooded the blog
with comments, some agreeing
with the topic discussed while
others engage in debate.
The R.AGE team also received
a pat on the back for the launch
of the blog.
Congratulations on the
launch of R.AGE, wrote Joanne
Lee, a visitor to the blog.
Another visitor, Jeremy Too,

remarked: Congratulations, finally our youth can express

their feelings and point of view.
A number of local celebrities,
including former Miss Malaysia
Elaine Daly, model-and-host
Hannah Tan, actor-director
Douglas Lim and Rashid Salleh
as well as Akademi Fantasia 2's
Anding, also left some comments for the readers.
We hope that the blog will
engage young people in discussions, and serve as yet another
platform for them to express
themselves, The Star's Deputy
Group General Manager Datin
Linda Ngiam said at the launch

party of the R.AGE blog.

The blog is an extension of
The Star's R.AGE pullout, which
over the past 13 weeks had
been distributed on weekdays
at selected tertiary institutions
in the Klang Valley at no charge.
This was made possible by
the pullout's sponsors, including Brand's, Compugates, Clinique, DiGi, D'Jungle People,
Dutch Lady Iced Latte, FaberCastell, IKEA, Nokia and T3.
To participate in the R.AGE
blog, send your contributions to
alltherage@thestar.com.my.
Young people are also encouraged to visit www.rage.com.my.