PETALING JAYA: Logging on to transfer cash to another bank account or to pay bills has become second nature to many

Malaysians. The high level of trust in e-banking

can be attributed to two factors - trust in the security system and the convenience it offers, according to cyber-security experts.

As associate professor Dr Selvakumar Manickam of Universiti Sains Malaysia puts it, the benefits that come with e-banking outweigh the security risks.

A recently concluded survey by global analytics software firm FICO revealed that 61% of Malaysian consumers prefer digital channels to engaging with their banks.

The survey, which covered 5,000 consumers across 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific, showed that 61% of Malaysians prefer to log on to do their banking over walking into a branch.

While Malaysians are still not the most ardent users of internet banking (it is ahead of the Philippines and Indonesia but behind Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam), the level of trust is significant.

Selvakumar attributed it to the introduction of various security features. In addition to password and secureword, banks now require multi-factor authentication such as TAC (transaction authorisation code) and biometric authentication.

“This reduces risks significantly,” he told theSun.

He said bank account holders also have the assurance that their financial institutions exercise due diligence to ensure that the necessary security mechanisms are put in place.

“Most banks have dedicated security

teams that monitor, detect and prevent potential cyber threats,” he said.

However, nothing is perfect, even e-banking security.

“Cyber-criminals are constantly testing online systems to look for vulnerabilities, so it is difficult to say that any system is 100% secure,” Selvakumar said.

“This is evident from the many data breaches that have been happening around the world at an alarming rate. Nevertheless, the risks associated with online banking are very low.”

“An apt analogy would be driving. We need to drive to get to places fast, but it also comes with the risk of accidents and fatality. We still drive knowing there are risks associated with it,” he added.

FATAL FALL ... Three construction workers were killed when a lifting bracket of a launching gantry at the Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang Elevated Expressway project site near Puncak Banyan, Persiaran Alam Damai, Cheras fell on a passing car yesterday morning. The car driver cheated death. – ADIB RAWI YAHYA/THESUN

oSurvey shows 61% of Malaysians prefer logging on to walking into a bank

█ BY SHIVANI SUPRAMANI newsdesk@thesundaily.com

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12MP to emphasise on closing gap between states

KOTA KINABALU: While emphasing fairness, the federal government is also committed to closing the gap between the more developed states and the less developed ones in determining allocations under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP).

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said in line with the objective of Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, which is development for all, the federal government will pursue sustainable development for all states, including Sabah.

“We understand that in the case of Sabah, its development is still lagging behind some states in the peninsula in some aspects. We are committed to reducing this gap,” he added when addressing a meeting at the state administrative centre yesterday.

The theme of his speech was “Prosper Together With Sabah 2030”.

Muhyiddin said under the first rolling plan of 12MP, a total of 1,039 development projects

with an allocation of RM5.01 billion has been approved for Sabah.

He said a major development project being carried out in the state is the Sabah Pan Borneo Highway, which he described as a “game changer” that would alter the lives of the people.

Others are the Sapangar Bay Container Port expansion project, upgrading of 50 dilapidated schools and the Sabah rural road project, all of which are expected to boost economic activities in Sabah, he added.

“The government’s efforts are also focused on addressing poverty and strengthening inclusive development in the state. The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on most people, with many falling below the poverty line.

“This is a serious matter. How do we provide inclusive development for Sabah?

“For example, the PKAN programme (Program Khas Anak Negeri) for Sabah natives,

Muhyiddin with Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Hajiji Noor during a visit to the Kota Kinabalu district Covid-19 Vaccination Centre yesterday. – BERNAMAPIX

oGovt to pursue sustainable growth in line with Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, says Muhyiddin

namely Native Customary, Customary Courts and Human Capital Development, are being implemented.”

Muhyiddin said the measures taken were expected to ensure balanced socio-economic development for the well-being of Sabahans, adding that to address the gap in development between urban and rural areas, the government will continue to take a comprehensive approach to ensure every citizen’s welfare.

He said there are about 1.52 million people in Sabah’s rural areas, which is 20% of the country’s rural population.

The government will continue to carry out various initiatives to improve connectivity between rural and urban areas through the construction of 700km of roads under the rural road project that will benefit 232,000 residents, he added.

Muhyiddin said an allocation of RM369.8 million had also been made for housing projects for hardcore poor, which includes RM213.6 million for the construction of 2,700 new houses and RM156.2 million for repair works on 9,200 housing units.

He said focus would also be given to vulnerable groups. – Bernama

Donations a lifeline for zoo

PETALING JAYA: Zoo Negara has received about RM11.6 million in donations and sponsorships since launching its “Adopt an Animal” campaign last April.

The amount collected from the private sector, individuals and government agencies will help sustain the zoo for nearly 10 months.

The bulk of the contributions was RM1.3 million from the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry.

“The zoo’s monthly operational cost is between RM1.2 million and RM1.4 million,” said its deputy president Dr Rahmat Ahmad Lama.

“This amount includes cost of caring for 3,749 animals at the zoo. Food and medical care expenses for the animals amount to about RM500,000 a month.”

The zoo launched the campaign as it was in dire need of funds as it relies heavily on ticket sales to stay afloat. The movement control order had forced it to dig into its emergency reserves to cover operating costs.

It was closed to visitors for seven months from March 18 to June 8, from Oct 14 to Dec 17 last year and from Jan 13 to March 4. It reopened on March 5.

Rahmat said thousands of individuals donated through various online platforms. “Some even donated a few times. A good number of organisations, government agencies and private companies contributed in-kind as well as in cash.

“Some are doing this as part of their corporate social responsibility while others do it for their brand visibility.”

The funds raised will also help cover the costs of caring for three pandas, Liang Liang, Xing Xing and their cub Yi Yi. The giant panda bears arrived in Malaysia on May 21, 2014, under a 10-year loan programme.

Further information on the programme is available at www.zoonegara.malaysia.my or by calling 03 4108 3422.

█ BY ELLY FAZANIZA newsdesk@thesundaily.com

Penang to assist SME adopt digitalisationGEORGE TOWN: The Penang government has launched the “Penang SME Go Digital” campaign to assist small and medium-size enterprises (SME) in the state.

Digital Penang chief executive officer Tony Yeoh said perks offered through the campaign include a one-off RM1,000 grant to help SME get back on track during the challenging pandemic period.

SME will be eligible for the one-off grant to offset cost of selling on a business-to-business marketplace, a collaborative effort between the state government and

Digital Penang. “SME can expect to find attractive offerings

by our strategic partners, namely Facebook, SME Association of Malaysia, Averest, Maxis, Digi Telecommunications, E3Hubs and Sitegiant Sdn Bhd during the two-month campaign, which starts next month.

“With cash vouchers, fee waivers, and up to 50% discounts, I encourage SME to take advantage of the campaign and try selling online,” he said at the launch of the campaign yesterday.

Yeoh added that through the campaign,

SME can also utilise National Economic Recovery Plan grants of up to RM5,000 to sell online. “For SME that are interested to begin their digital journey, the biggest question may be ‘where to start?’ The Penang Go Digital Campaign is designed to help SME answer this question.”

Yeoh added the state government initiative to help local businesses managed to generate RM583 million in sales via 15,000 sellers, from June 2020 to February on the online store, PG Mall, which is on the Shopee platform. – Bernama

PN forms state committee without UmnoKUALA TERENGGANU: A state-level Perikatan Nasional (PN) committee was set up in Terengganu, comprising only PAS and Bersatu.

Plans are under way to woo Gerakan into the coalition, but Umno does not feature in the new set up.

The state committee was formed at a meeting between the two parties on Sunday night. Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr

Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar will head the panel as chairman, while state Bersatu chairman Datuk Razali Idris and PAS commissioner Datuk Husain Awang will assist him as vice-chairmen.

State PN information chief Wan Sukairi Wan Abdullah said all 24 members of the committee, except treasurer Datuk Rosol Wahid, attended the meeting.

Rosol, who is now in Sabah, is a

Bersatu member. Wan Sukairi said similar committees will be

set up in all divisions, and they will be chaired by their respective MPs, except in Besut, where the MP is Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, who is an Umno member.

On the status of PAS cooperation with Umno, he said it will continue through Muafakat Nasional. – Bernama

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S UNITY ASSOCIATION GETS ROYAL NOD JOHOR BARU: The Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar has consented to the setting up of Persatuan Anak Bangsa Johor, which has the role of uniting the state’s people. Sultan Ibrahim said that he emphasised on unity among the people of Johor, as it is the backbone of the state’s progress and development. “I have no problem with the setting up of this association. I want the interim committee to discuss in detail the constitution of the association and other matters. “After the completion of the draft of the constitution, I can have a look at it as I want it to be fair to all races,” Sultan Ibrahim told the Royal Press Office. – Bernama NEW CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER RULING KANGAR: People living in the same house will be allowed to stand close together when performing congregational prayers in mosques in Perlis. The Raja Muda of Perlis, Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail, said other congregants still need to observe physical distancing of at least one metre as stipulated in the standard operating procedures. “The permission to perform prayers by standing close to each other is only given to family members staying in the same house,” he said in a statement issued by the Islamic Religious Council and Malay Custom Perlis yesterday. – Bernama

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Smart way to monitor electricity usageKUALA LUMPUR: Consumers can control their electricity usage and avoid wastage with the use of smart meters and the myTNB app.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project director Mohamed Ghous Ahmad said a study conducted in Malacca last year revealed that 24% of TNB customers who had smart meters installed in their homes were able to reduce their electricity bills by monitoring their energy consumption through myTNB.

“The smart meter serves as a timer that measures the flow of electricity and sends information to the TNB data storage centre on a daily basis.

“Information on electricity usage can be accessed by consumers on myTNB to help them plan and control the use of electricity efficiently and thriftily,” he said.

Malacca was the first state chosen for the implementation of the smart meter, and more than 360,000 meters have been installed since 2014. Installation of the meters is now being carried out in the Klang Valley.

The myTNB app is a free mobile app for managing the electricity accounts of TNB customers. It can be downloaded on Google PlayStore, Apple App Store and Huawei AppGallery, while the myTNB portal can be viewed at www.mytnb.com.my.

As of last month, more than 4.8 million registered TNB accounts have used the myTNB app. Ghouse said more than one million smart meters have been installed and the installation would continue for all 9.1 million users in Peninsular Malaysia by 2026. – Bernama

Putting their vows on holdPETALING JAYA: Millennials are opting to put off their marriage plans as they endeavour to move up the career and social ladder, said a sociologist.

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) lecturer Dr Nor Azlili Hassan said traditionally, marriage is seen as an important element in socialisation, but we are witnessing a different trend now.

“Of late, marriages have become more apparently in line with modernisation and development of the country. This refers to those who are above the marriageable age who choose to delay marriage plans. This is without exception in terms of religion, race or ethnicity.”

She said in the Malaysian context, there has been a clear change in the marriage trend over the past few decades.

“The age for married men and women has been increasing lately. According to the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry in 2017, the mean age of first marriage for men in 1980 was

oMinistry statistics indicate young couples getting married later in life due to finances, career factors

█ BY SHIVANI SUPRAMANI newsdesk@thesundaily.com

THAT’S OUR BOY ... Leow Siet Peng (left) and Lee Zhee Hin, parents of newly crowned All England Open Badminton Championships men’s singles champion Lee Zii Jia, at their home in Bandar Darulaman Jitra in Kedah showing a visiting media crew some of the trophies and medals their son won in the years leading up to his globally acclaimed achievement on Monday. – BERNAMAPIX

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S NEW WAY TO CURB ENTRY OF ILLEGALS KUALA LUMPUR: Geospatial data will soon be used in Ops Benteng, the daily operations by enforcement agencies to stem the entry of illegal immigrants. The effort, to be made jointly by the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry and the Department of Survey and Mapping, will also use technical expertise to help in the management of 10 types of disasters. According to the National Geospatial Centre, geospatial data or geographic information is data or information that identifies the geographic location of features and boundaries on Earth, such as natural or man-made features. Minister Datuk Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah said: “Geospatial data is vital and can be used by the government as well as private agencies to serve their respective purposes.” – Bernama RM140,000 WORTH OF DATES SEIZED KLANG: The Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services Department (Maqis) seized 25,200kg of dates worth RM141,229.44, that did not meet import permit conditions at Westport in Port Klang last Saturday. Maqis said the consignment, that was from Saudi Arabia, was seized for not complying with the 3P requirements (grading, packaging and labelling). The case is being investigated under Section 15(1) of the Quarantine and Inspection Services Act, that provides for a fine of not more than RM100,000, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding six years, or both. – Bernama

26.6 years while for women, it was 23.5 years. In 1991, it became 28.2 years for men and 24.7 years for women. This figure increased in 2000, with the mean age for men being 28.6 years and women being 25.1 years. In 2004, this value increased further to 28.9 years for men and 25.3 for women.

“This change was found to be more significant in 2016, with the mean age of marriage for men being 29.3 years and 26.2 years for women.

“Based on statistics, it is clear that not only do men end their bachelor status at a late age but women show similar behavioural patterns.”

Nor Azlili noted several reasons for this trend, such as financial burdens, fear of failure from viewing the ‘boomer’ divorce rates and sexuality differences.

“Among those aged 18 to 29, nearly 25% postpone their marriage

because of student loans or outstanding debt. Additionally, divorce rates among those aged 50 and older have skyrocketed, hence millennials witnessing drastic lifestyle changes made by their parents in middle age may have an impact on how they view marriage.”

The change in marriage trends has also had a high impact on the institution of the family, population and the level of fertility of the population.

“The issue of late marriage is associated with gestational age and the level of parental ability in the process of raising a child. A woman’s chances of having children also decreases after age 35. A decrease in rates of marriage indirectly also has an impact on subsequent birth rates affecting population and urbanisation, the increase of the elderly and also the entry of foreign

labour,” she said. Meanwhile, freelance writer Felix

Wong said marriage is a choice and he would not put it off due to his partner’s or his age.

“I understand that getting married early may bring tons of challenges to the table. However, my girlfriend is older than I and we have had plans for a baby before she turns 35 because the older she gets, the higher the risks she may face during pregnancy,” he said.

Sales representative Reena Ramakili said to her, marriage is a responsibility that requires one to be strong mentally and financially.

“Everything depends on my financial status. Presently, I am building my career and it will take a while before I reach stability. Hence, marriage isn’t my priority right now.”

Corporate leadership trainee Conrad Pillai believes it takes time to decide whether one should get married because it involves money and commitment.

“I will hold off marriage until I am financially stable and mentally able to take care of my partner and myself. Until then, I will work to reach my goals first.”

Malaysian e-banking system generally safe: ExpertNonetheless, he said

consumers should be wary of phishing emails and SMS that are used to trick users into divulging their banking information.

“Many cyber-criminals have moved to ‘hacking’ the users instead of the system. Malaysians are known to be vulnerable to such tactics. We see news of Malaysians becoming victims of various online scams frequently,” he said.

“Education and awareness are essential to prevent users from becoming victims. Remember, banks will never

ask for passwords or TAC numbers via email or send their website link over SMS. Users need to be vigilant when carrying out online transactions,” he added.

Cyber-security testing firm LGMS group chief executive officer Fong Choong-Fook agrees that consumers opt for e-banking due to convenience.

“We can pay bills and make online transactions, meaning things can be done instantly. However, I cannot say all Malaysians feel secure using online banking because some are still sceptical about this alternative. Nevertheless, I believe that in general, our e-banking system is secure because Bank Negara Malaysia requires rigorous security and risk assessments,” he said.

Additionally, most banks in

Malaysia have also taken extra precautionary steps to apply extra protection on their e-banking systems, Fong added.

For most banks, the main concern is the vulnerability at the consumer’s end.

“Our surveys show that in almost 99% of the time when consumers complain of hacking, it happens at their end,” Fong said.

“Many end up having their credentials stolen by scammers and hackers,” he added.

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TEAMWORK .... A firefighter giving his colleague a drink of water while putting out a fire in Kampung Gersik, Labuan yesterday. – BERNAMAPIX

RM10m allocation for post-vaccine care

PUTRAJAYA: The government has allocated an initial fund of RM10 million for special financial assistance to Malaysians and foreigners who experience adverse side effects after being vaccinated under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba, when announcing this yesterday, said the fund, under the National Disaster Relief Trust Fund, will be managed by the National Disaster Management Agency.

He said vaccine recipients who suffer serious side effects that require long-term hospital treatment would receive RM50,000, while RM500,000 aid would be given in the event of death or permanent disability due to Covid vaccination.

“The special financial assistance is a proactive move by the government to deal with the possibility of adverse effects brought about by the Covid-19 vaccine,” he told a press conference.

Also present was National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

Adham said it is hoped that the special assistance could help meet the needs of vaccine recipients and their family members who might be affected by the vaccine’s side effects.

The Health Ministry had set up three committees, namely the Special Pharmacovigilance Committee for Covid-19 Vaccine Monitoring; the Medical Technical

oSpecial fund set up for those facing adverse side effects from Covid drug

Committee and the Special Financial Assistance Steering Committee for Covid-19 Vaccine Exigencies, to conduct the side effect assessment, Bernama reported.

The Special Pharmacovigilance Committee for Covid-19 Vaccine Monitoring would monitor and evaluate the adverse effects of the immunisation and safety issues related to the vaccine.

Adham said the Medical Technical Committee, which consists of medical experts, will determine whether an application for the special financial assistance has a causal relationship with the vaccine.

“The assessment will be done on a case-to-case basis based on the evidence received and the report of the Special Pharmacovigilance Committee for Covid-19 Vaccine Monitoring,” he said.

The Special Financial Assistance Steering Committee for Covid-19 Vaccine Exigencies would provide approval for the special financial assistance based on decisions of the two committees.

Adham said 20 side effects of the vaccine have been reported as of March 18, including dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, palpitations, itchiness, numbness, rashes and tightness in the chest. These side effects were reported through the MySejahtera application and the observation centre at vaccine distribution centres.

Individuals who experienced chest discomfort after vaccination were taken to hospitals for further observation before being discharged, pending their second vaccine shot which is 21 days after the first dose.

Adham said about 80% of recipients have experienced injection site pain, fatigue (60%), headache (50%) and swelling at the injection site (10%).

Face-to-face inoculation registration launched in rural areasPUTRAJAYA: Face-to-face registration for Covid-19 vaccination has been launched in rural areas, especially in places with limited internet access and communities without digital gadgets, said National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said under the community outreach programme, jointly

coordinated by the National Disaster Management Agency and Malaysia Civil Defence Force, teams were moving from house to house in the interiors to undertake manual registration.

“This manual and face-to-face registration is important under phase two, which involves senior citizens, because we want to ensure they are not left out,” he told a press

conference yesterday. The conference was jointly held with Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba on developments under the national immunisation programme.

Asked on reports that 90% of senior citizens in Selangor have not registered for the programme, Khairy said authorities had identified almost 50 care centres in the state to conduct

the registration exercise. Homes for the elderly can also use

the MySejahtera application to do bulk registrations for residents under their care.

Khairy said 6,155,213 individuals had signed up for the vaccine as of Sunday. This is 25% of the target of the country’s largest vaccination programme.

Some people have yet to register

because they are adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

“There are also some in the rural areas who are not aware of the immunisation programme.”

Khairy said those manning the immunisation hotline would call up individuals who have yet to register and advise them to immediately sign up using the MySejahtera application. – Bernama

Suspension on egg farm lifted KUALA LUMPUR: The suspension of egg supply from Lay Hong Bhd farms in Jeram, Kuala Selangor, has been lifted after tests showed they were not contaminated by the Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) bacteria.

In a statement issued yesterday, the company said extensive tests conducted by the Department of Veterinary Services returned negative results.

The supply of eggs was suspended on March 14 after Singapore directed four of its importers to recall eggs from the farm on suspicion that they were contaminated with the bacteria.

The consumption of raw or under-cooked eggs that contain the SE bacteria can cause diarrhoea, fever and abdominal pains.

The department later said it was looking into the egg production processes, vaccination records and the farm’s disease surveillance programme to trace the source of the contamination.

Yesterday, Lay Hong executive director Datuk Yap Chor How said test results also showed that it was unlikely the contamination had occurred at any of its farms.

“We will continue to work with the department to strengthen our farm control and monitoring,” he said. – Bernama

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Abdul Hamid holding a press conference on the drug bust, at the Selangor police headquarters yesterday. – ASYRAF RASID/THESUN

Family awarded damages despite losing on point of lawPUTRAJAYA: The family of lorry driver P. Chandran will receive RM357,500 in damages over his death in police custody despite the Federal Court ruling against them yesterday.

The seven-member bench had ruled 6-1 in favour of allowing the appeal by the police and the government on a point of law that the family of the deceased was not entitled to exemplary damages for his death while in custody.

Although the Federal Court did not uphold the High Court’s decision to award RM200,000 in exemplary damages to Chandran’s family, the court instead retained the RM200,000 as aggravated damages.

The court also awarded the family RM144,000 for loss of dependency, RM10,000 for bereavement and RM3,500 in special damages, with a total sum of RM357,500.

Federal Court Judge Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang said there was nothing in the Federal Constitution that provides the right of a deceased’s estate to exemplary damages.

“Since the respondents (the deceased’s family) had pleaded for aggravated damages in their statement of claim but was not granted, we have decided to set aside the quantum for exemplary damages ordered by the High Court judge and substitute the same with that under aggravated damages,” she said.

The High Court, in allowing the lawsuit filed by Chandran’s family in 2016, had ordered the police and the government to pay a total sum of RM357,500 in damages, which included RM200,000 in exemplary damages.

The police and the government then appealed on the award of RM200,000 in exemplary damages. They, however, lost their appeal in the Court of Appeal and obtained leave from the Federal Court to appeal against the dismissal of their appeal. – Bernama

IGP denounces bad culture within police forceoAbdul Hamid slams crooked cops and past top brass for taking money

SHAH ALAM: Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador did not mince words when he slammed crooked police personnel, including past police top brass.

Exasperated over the behaviour and certain unhealthy cultures in the force, the top cop yesterday said it exists from the bottom to the top rung.

“I urge my personnel to end this culture and come to their senses. The culture of taking money from the bottom to the top for the IGP.

“Even the officers on the ground are afraid to take action because the IGP wants it. This was happening before.

“Those who have retired from the force are still trying to enforce their powers in seeking favours from the police. When they are not entertained, they are disappointed and then they start finding faults,” he said after a press conference on a drug bust at the Selangor police headquarters yesterday.

“They say what I am doing is wrong. I stand here and challenge them. What is wrong with what I have done or am doing?

“I want Malaysians to have their rights, the best service and protection. A police station is a place where the public can take their woes to and not be afraid of meeting the police.

“I like to tell them, PDRM (Royal

Malaysian Police Department) is not mine, it belongs to the country. I, as the IGP, have to convince the government that I am here to lead the force on the right path, to correct the wrongs and the bad culture in the force. I have no sinister motives.”

Abdul Hamid said there are some who have made snide comments that he was trying to seek an extension on his work contract.

“Maybe if they were the IGP, that is how they would think. This has nothing to do with my contract.

“When the time comes, I will leave. I have no hidden agenda. When I am trying to do the best, such snide remarks are made questioning why I am pleading to the public.

“I have always said that I encourage the public to come forward and not be afraid to speak up,” he added.

On his comments last week that “cartels” existed in the force and were attempting to oust him, Abdul Hamid clarified that what he meant was that there were “camps” or “cocoons” of police officers who are unrepentant and hold on to the “old mentality” of trying to secure their positions with their fellow members.

“I did not mean to say they are like the Mexican or Columbian cartels. These are officers who group up. They hold meetings together and make plans. Their duties are not carried out. They think I do not know.

“Such people, when they are promoted someday, will run the police force according to their will. As I have said before, we have 10 police departments and we should work together. There should be no such thing as camps.

“We know that there have been cases of the police force being used to intimidate those who wanted to come forward and share information on wrongdoings.

“Do we want such a police

force? Malaysians deserve better.” Abdul Hamid urged his

personnel to do away with the “blue code of silence” where the wrongdoings of police personnel are swept under the carpet or covered up.

He said he will soon meet Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin and explain the matter.

Abdul Hamid said his goal is to make the force a respected and world-class organisation.

3 dead in another construction accidentKUALA LUMPUR: Three foreign workers were killed and a motorist severely injured after another construction site accident at the Sungai Besi-Ulu Klang Elevated Expressway (SUKE) occurred yesterday.

The incident, at Puncak Banyan in Persiaran Alam Damai, near Bandar Tun Razak, happened at 8.45am when a gantry crane at the site gave way and crushed a passing car.

Two foreign workers, both Chinese nationals working at the site, were killed after falling about 40m from the gantry crane. A third Chinese worker, who was trapped in the debris, was pulled out by firefighters but succumbed to injuries.

Two other workers who were rescued survived the tragedy.

Fire and Rescue Department operations chief Mohd Khairul Azmi Jaafar said 25 firefighters were deployed to the scene to carry out rescue efforts.

“A Malaysian driver was badly injured after his car was hit by the falling crane,” he added.

Project developer Projek Lintasan Sungai Besi-Ulu Klang Sdn Bhd said in a statement that the two-way traffic flow at the area was closed to carry out rescue work.

Three weeks ago, two women died and three others were severely injured when scaffolding from a bridge of the SUKE highway at the Middle Ring

Road 2, near Bandar Tasik Selatan, collapsed after it was hit by a trailer on March 3.

The victims, who were workers of a company, were travelling in a van when the incident occurred.

They were trapped in their van that was buried in rubble and were later freed by firefighters.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that Senior Minister (Works) Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof ordered construction and maintenance work of the highway to cease with immediate effect.

He said the stop-work order was issued to enable investigations to be carried out on the incident. – by Charles Ramendran

█ BY CHARLES RAMENDRAN newsdesk@thesundaily.com

Ex-GM claims trial to two counts of corruptionSHAH ALAM: The former general manager of a construction company pleaded not guilty in a sessions court here yesterday to two counts of corruption, involving RM215,700

Chua Shiou Meng, 49, made the plea before judge Rozilah Salleh.

Chua was charged with receiving gratification from two individuals, amounting RM140,000 and RM75,700, through his bank account and a bank account of his wife, as an inducement for him not to give bad reports on work performance of two

companies that could result in their contracts being terminated.

He was alleged to have committed the offences at two banks at Bandar Puchong Jaya between June 14, 2017 and Sept 13, 2018, and at Bandar Puteri Puchong, between Feb 9, 2018 and Jan 17, 2019.

Chua also pleaded not guilty to another charge of soliciting gratification of RM10,000 a month from an individual to do the same.

The offence was allegedly committed at a restaurant in Bandar

Puchong Jaya in January 2017. The court allowed a bail of

RM80,000 with one surety and ordered Chua to report at the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office once a month. The court also set April 22 for mention.

Deputy public prosecutor for MACC Fadhli Ab Wahab prosecuted, while Chua was represented by lawyers Nik Ahmed Asraf Nik Othman, Shah Rizal Abdul Manan and Kelvinder Singh. – Bernama

7theSUN ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

CONGRATULATIONSNational Men’s Singles No.1

LEE ZII JIAOn his victory in the

All England Badminton Championships 2021

With Best Wishes FromTan Sri Dato’ Seri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun, Founder / Executive Chairman

Dato’ Sri Robin Tan, Executive Deputy ChairmanAbdul Jalil bin Abdul Rasheed, Chief Executive Officer

Board of DirectorsManagement and Staff

AFPPIX

8 theSUN ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS

REYKJAVIK: Thousands of curious onlookers have flocked to an erupting volcano in Iceland to marvel at the hypnotic display of glowing red lava, the bravest of them grilling hot dogs and marshmallows over the smoldering embers.

The eruption of a fissure near Mount Fagradalsfjall, which began on Friday, was the first in the same volcanic system in about 900 years.

The volcano is located only about 40km from the capital Reykjavik and can be reached after a 90-minute hike from the nearest road.

“It’s absolutely breathtaking,” said Ulvar Kari Johannsson, a 21-year-old engineer who spent his Sunday visiting the scene.

“It smells pretty bad. For me, what was surprising was the colours of the orange, that was much deeper than what one would expect.”

The incandescent lava bubbles and spurts from a small cone in the Geldingadalur valley, piling up in the basin and slowly turning a thick black as it cools.

“For me, it’s the heat that really surprised me. When we approached the lava flowing on the ground, the temperature rose and our faces flushed,” said Emilie Saint-Mleux, a French exchange student who came with two friends.

“It reminds you a little of a barbecue in summer,” added her friend Lucille Fernemont.

Access to the site was blocked in the first hours after the eruption. Authorities then lifted the roadblocks but discouraged visits, but by Saturday afternoon, visitors were allowed in under strict guidelines.

“We are just here to look after the people and see that everything is okay, and just watch that the people are not going too close to the lava and asking them step back,” said police officer Atli Gunnarsson, donning a yellow hardhat with a gas mask in hand. – AFP Hikers looking at lava flowing from the Fagradalsfjall volcano on Sunday. – AFPPIX

Thousands flock to see erupting volcano

‘Australia tested once again’

CANBERRA: Torrential downpours lashed Australia’s east yesterday, forcing thousands to flee the worst flooding in decades and pushing communities already battling drought, bushfires and the coronavirus pandemic to “breaking point”.

About 18,000 residents were told to evacuate their homes, as days of relentless rainfall caused rivers in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, to their highest levels in 30 years.

“The devastation is quite unbelievable,” said Port Macquarie cafe owner Marten Clark, who waded through waist-deep water to find his furniture washed away and freezers, fridges and cooking equipment destroyed.

Aerial images from hard-hit areas showed the flood consuming rows of houses, with only their roofs above the water.

As some coastal communities received three months of rain in a few hours,

oThousands flee as torrential rains lash New South Wales

emergency services said they rescued hundreds from floodwaters and fielded more than 8,800 calls for help.

In some areas, emergency workers travelled inland on “Surf Lifesaving” ocean rescue boats to reach stranded people.

So far, no fatalities have been reported. But with more rain expected, eight million

residents in Sydney and across the state were yesterday told to work from home if possible and avoid unnecessary travel.

“The water is still rising,” said Jo Dunstan, who owns a florist shop in the outer Sydney suburb of Windsor, as she watched debris-littered stormwater race past neighbouring homes.

“It’s scary, very eerie to say the least.” Just over 12 months ago, the region was

parched, suffering prolonged drought, water restrictions and unprecedented bushfires.

“When you have been through three or four incidents that are life-changing on top of each other, it can make you feel like you are at breaking point,” said New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

“I don’t know any time in a state history where we have had these extreme weather conditions in such quick succession in the middle of a pandemic.”

Scientists have warned Australia can expect more frequent and more extreme weather events as a result of climate change.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose conservative government has been accused of dragging its feet on climate action, said Australia was “being tested once again” by a “terrible event”.

The Mid North Coast in New South Wales has been particularly badly affected, with Berejiklian declaring the region had been struck by a “one in 100 year” disaster.

In Sydney’s vast Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley, swollen rivers were at levels not seen since 1990, after the Warragamba Dam, the city’s main drinking water source, spilled over on Saturday.

About 500 gigalitres of water were drained from the dam – roughly equivalent to 200,000 Olympic size swimming pools or the total volume of water in Sydney Harbour.

Flood operations manager Justin Robinson warned that rain was expected to cause flooding in previously unaffected areas as well as “renewed flooding in many of those communities that have already been impacted”.

“It is quite a dangerous situation that New South Wales is currently facing.” – AFP

Pakistan to start private imports of vaccine ISLAMABAD: A private company in Pakistan will begin receiving shipments of China’s CanSino Biologics Covid-19 vaccine this week for commercial sale, an official said yesterday.

Pakistan, one of the first countries in the world to allow private imports of Covid-19 vaccines, has already received a batch of the Russian Sputnik vaccine.

“We expect the first 10,000 doses to come on March 25, and 100,000 next month and 200,000 the month after,” said Hassan Abbas, an official of AJ Pharma, CanSino’s local partner, which will be importing the vaccine.

“The issues with pricing have been worked out with the government and now we are waiting for a notification.”

The vaccine’s commercial name will be “Convidecia”, Abbas said, adding that five hospitals that ran its clinical trials will provide its doses for sale.

Pakistan is in the process of vaccinating frontline healthcare workers and citizens over the age of 60 free of charge using Sinopharm doses donated by China.

The commercial administration of vaccines has yet to begin as the government settles pricing issues.

The government has approved a mechanism to fix open market prices for the vaccines, according to a Health Ministry summary seen by Reuters.

The summary proposed a price of 8,449

rupees (RM223) per pack of two injections of the Russian vaccine and 4,225 (RM112) per injection for Convidecia.

The prices have been capped on the basis of the approved mechanism, it said.

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine received a major boost yetserday after data from a large trial showed it was safe and effective, potentially paving the way for its emergency authorisation in the United States.

The trials in the United States, Chile and Peru showed the vaccine was 79% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 and could bolster confidence in the product after confusion over its efficacy data, dosing regimen and possible side-effects. – Reuters

BR

IEF

S ASTEROID ZOOMS PAST EARTH ROME: The largest asteroid to pass Earth this year has made its closest approach, posing no threat of a cataclysmic collision but giving astronomers a rare chance to study a rock formed during the beginning of our solar system. The 900m diameter rock was two million kilometres away at its nearest, according to Nasa – more than five times the distance between the Earth and the Moon but still close enough to be classified as a “potentially hazardous asteroid”. Asteroid 2001 FO32, discovered 20 years ago, reached its nearest point to Earth at around 1400 GMT (10pm in Malaysia) on Sunday. Nasa said it was travelling at about 124,000 kph. – AFP EX-DIPLOMAT’S TRIAL ENDS BEIJING: The trial of Canadian Michael Kovrig, who has been held in China for more than two years on espionage charges, wrapped up in a closed Beijing courtroom yesterday with the verdict to be announced at an unspecified date, according to state media. China arrested Kovrig, a former diplomat, and fellow Canadian Michael Spavor in December 2018, soon after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese tech company Huawei Technologies, on an American warrant. Beijing insists the detentions are not linked to the detention of Meng, who remains under house arrest in Vancouver as she fights extradition to the United States. – Reuters MYANMAR FREES BBC JOURNO YANGON: A BBC journalist held in Myanmar has been freed, the broadcaster said yesterday, as demonstrators took to the streets for fresh anti-coup protests. Aung Thura, a journalist with the BBC’s Burmese service, was detained by men in plain clothes while reporting outside a court in the capital Naypyidaw on Friday. Scores of people, including teachers, marched yesterday through the pre-dawn streets of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. A group of doctors in Mandalay staged a “placard only” demonstration by lining up signs in the street, Voice of Myanmar reported. A group of monks staged a similar “monkless” protest. Residents in Yangon’s Hlaing township released hundreds of red helium balloons with posters calling for UN intervention in the crisis. – AFP

PICT

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Perol expresses himself via graffiti

>>> Page 4&5

Take a trip through the Karoo desert

>>> Page 6

YouTube star Aisyah Razip has been uploading videos online since she was 13

>>> Page 7

Pocketdynamo

TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

TELLING IT AS IT IS

LIFESTYLE YOUTH FASHION ENTERTAINMENT

2ENTERTAINMENTtheSun LYFE ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

█ BY BISSME S.

Ankler told CBC News. “Things that might have taken 10 years have now happened in six months.” Many also point to the various scandals that

have recently sullied the credibility of awards ceremonies, like nomination snubs for The Weeknd at the Grammy Awards and the hit

series I May Destroy You at the Golden Globes. Maybe the next edition of the Oscars will reverse the trend ... – ETX Studio

The 63rd edition of the prestigious Grammy Awards was only watched by 8.8 million US TV viewers.

Spike Lee to head Cannes Film Festival juryUS director Spike Lee will head the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in July, organisers said last week, making him the first black person to take on the role.

The feted New York film-maker was supposed to perform the function at last year’s event, but it was cancelled due to the pandemic.

With Covid-19 still circulating at high levels in France, and the country making slow progress in its vaccination campaign, doubts remain over whether this year’s edition will go ahead as planned from July 6 to 17, having already been delayed from its usual slot in May.

It would be the biggest get-together for the global industry in more than a year, with most other festivals either cancelled or relegated to online versions in recent months.

Lee, 63, has been a fixture at Cannes over the years, premiering seven of his films there and winning the second-place Grand Prix in 2018 for BlacKkKlansman about a black police officer infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan.

“Throughout the months of uncertainty we’ve just been through, Spike Lee has never stopped encouraging us,“ said festival president Pierre Lescure in a statement.

“We could not have hoped for a more powerful personality to chart our troubled times.” – ETX Studio

ALTHOUGH keenly awaited among culture sector professionals, awards ceremonies have been struggling to muster public interest since the onset of the pandemic. The latest Grammy Awards, for example, were shunned by almost 98% of Americans age 18 to 49, and scored the worst viewer ratings in their history.

They once set the tempo in the cultural calendar, but the Covid-19 pandemic and its various restrictions have forced awards ceremonies to reinvent. Now, these events are favoUring more hybrid formats, where musical performances alternate between live and pre-recorded sets. Take, for example, the 63rd edition of the prestigious Grammy Awards, held March 14 in Los Angeles.

While the ceremony was marked by many highs, it failed to win over US TV viewers. Only 8.8 million tuned in to watch the Grammy Awards live this year, according to Nielsen data, down 53% on 2020. Ratings for this 63rd edition are

particularly poor among Americans in the 18 to 49 age bracket, just 2.1% of whom followed the event on NBC or online. In comparison, 5.4% of them tuned in to the 2020 ceremony.

This drop in ratings is a worry for chiefs of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science and the ABC network, who are preparing to stage the upcoming edition of the Oscars in Los Angeles, April 25. This is a particularly awaited ceremony given that it will be held over a year after movie theaters in the US city were forced to close due to Covid-19. The Oscars organisers already had reason for concern after the Golden Globes, which drew just 6.9 million TV viewers in the US.

Although awards ceremony viewer ratings have been at rock bottom since last year, industry professionals note that the figures were already relatively disappointing, even well before the start of the pandemic. “This is actually nothing new, but it’s accelerated,” Richard Rushfield, editor-in-chief of newsletter The

How would you describe yourself as an actor? I am a director’s actor. I believe rehearsal is

important. A director has a vision on how his film

should be. It is important for you to attend the rehearsal

and to find out what the vision is. You need to constantly

communicate with your director. I also read the script over and over again. My ultimate aim is I should become the character before the camera starts rolling.

What has been your biggest challenge in being an actor? Late in 2019, I lost my younger brother. He died of a heart attack at only 28. His death was really unexpected. Losing your

loved one is never easy to deal with. But I try not to bring my sadness to my set when I was

shooting my new productions throughout 2020. You have to be professional. You must

never bring your problems to the set. It was one of the

hardest things I had to do.

What are your future

plans? I have been directing short films. I want to direct a feature film in the near future. I have stories to tell. Locally, I admire directors like Karthik Shamalan and S.D. Puvanendran. They are good storytellers. Internationally, I am a huge fan of Christopher Nolan. They call him a master for a reason. He is my inspiration. My long term goal is to have my own production house. I would love to be an entrepreneur and get involved in any business that is related to art. Was your first ambition to be an actor? I was supposed to be a footballer. When I was 18, I was scouted and sent to Perugia, Italy to be trained to be a footballer. Unfortunately, six months into my training, I suffered a terrible knee injury. I underwent two surgeries. I could no longer play competitive football. My dreams to be a footballer was dashed. I was depressed. I could not even see a football field. Slowly, I learned to put this broken dream behind me and started having new dreams. I believe when God shuts one door, he will open another door for you. When did you want to become an

Is that a wrap for awards ceremonies?

oActor Yuvaraj Krishnasamy hopes to direct his first feature film in the near future

THE Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the film industry, with many productions having to be postponed.

One of those who have been impacted by this is 31-year-old Klang-born actor Yuvaraj Krishnasamy.

“I miss going to the set and facing the camera,” said the actor, who started his career in the entertainment industry in 2014.

Yuvaraj started out acting in stage plays, progressing to music videos, short films, television dramas and movies. He has appeared in eight feature films, four telemovies and seven television series to date.

Two years ago, he acted as the lead in the Kollywood film Lights Camera Action under the direction of young Indian director Balaji Jayabalan. He played a young filmmaker who struggles to create a name for himself in the film industry.

The current pandemic has delayed the release of the film in cinemas.

This is his second Kollywood film. His first film was Yaazhi in 2016, where he played a minor role.

Recently, he acted in his first Malay production – 13 episodes of a television series called Project Anchor SPM, under the direction of Razaisyam Rashid.

A director’s dream

Yuvaraj recently acted in his first Bahasa Malaysia TV series. – PICTURES COURTESY OF YUVARAJ KRISHNASAMY

Yuvaraj has been acting since 2014. – PICTURE COURTESY OF YUVARAJ KRISHNASAMY

actor? I was creative when I was young. I was actively involved in school productions. I was a self-taught dancer. I was into hip-hop and contemporary dance. But I never thought of acting as a career. I took a degree in International Business Management. I was doing some short films during my college days. I received a lot of praise for my work. Some people have given me encouragement to try my luck in the entertainment field. I started attending auditions. I am enjoying what I am doing now. I really cannot see myself in a nine-to-five job. What is your advice to aspiring young actors? You need to have patience and perseverance. Some get easily annoyed when they do not get the part they auditioned for. I have been rejected numerous times. Not everyone is lucky on their first audition. Rejection does not mean you are not a good actor. Maybe the production team is looking for a different personality. You must understand the audition game is a huge ocean and there are many talented individuals out there. Competition is intense. You need to constantly improve yourself if you want to stay ahead. When I started out in this industry, social media was not a huge influence. Now, it is a different ball game. You can use social media like YouTube and Tik Tok to showcase your talents.

3ENTERTAINMENT

theSun LYFE ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

RELEASING her first album at the age of 17, singer-songwriter Amanda Imani has come a long way since

her debut in 2009. Prior to her first step as a professional singer, the songstress saw herself in a lot of talent shows before performing at shows around Kuala Lumpur.

“Then, I put out my very first Malay album at the time, during my last year of high school. It was quite an experience, but it was definitely a memorable time as I learned a lot. From there, I started to branch out from not just being a vocalist, but also writing lyrics and learning about music production. Prior to that, I had no classical training in music,” Amanda told theSun.

The self-titled Amanda Imani was quickly followed by Yeah, a mini English album which was Amanda’s first experience in writing her own songs.

From 2009 to 2014, she experienced her busiest years, performing at myriad shows, concerts and quickly racking up a notable amount of local and international awards. During the same period, Amanda was concurrently pursuing her Bachelor of Communications and Psychology at the University of Upper Iowa in the US.

After her graduation, she continued to pursue music, explaining that it was a positive and s a t i s f y i n g experience from the moment she began writing music and working with others in the industry.

A different era Although 2014 does not seem long ago, much has shifted in the local and global music industry.

“The landscape of music has

‘For me, it’s an ongoing learning experience and I don’t get tired of making music, especially the creative process.’ – PICTURES COURTESY OF AMANDA IMANI

oSinger-songwriter Amanda Imani speaks about her growth over the years

█ BY MARK MATHEN VICTOR

Cynthia Erivo turns into ‘Queen of Soul’

Lovecraft Country and American Crime Story actor Courtney B. Vance play’s Franklin’s preacher father in the series, which airs on National Geographic beginning Sunday.

“I listened to a lot of his sermons over and over and over again ... and then I took a lot of notes about ... his cadences and the words that he seemed to use over and over,” he said.

Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks, the series’ showrunner, executive producer and lead writer,

said she had previously spoken with Franklin about developing a biographical musical many years ago.

“Among the things she mentioned was ... she wanted us to put respect on her name ... And of course that was one of the guiding principles of this project,” Parks said.

“It’s a celebration and a recognition of her genius, the moments where she created things that will last long after she’s gone.” – Reuters

Erivo plays Aretha Franklin in a new television series.

Carole Bayer Sager’s songs join Hipgnosis playlistUS songwriter Carole Bayer Sager, famed for the James Bond theme Nobody Does It Better, has become the latest artist to sell her catalogue to Hipgnosis Songs Fund, as a surge in streaming makes up for concert earnings lost to the pandemic.

London-listed Hipgnosis did not disclose the size of the deal in its announcement last Thursday, although it has said the year had got off to its “strongest start ever”.

Covid-19 has prompted musicians to monetise their older work by selling tracks and albums as the global health crisis has all but shut down live concerts.

“This is one of the most important deals we have ever made,” Hipgnosis Songs founder Merck Mercuriadis said in a statement on its latest deal.

Sager has written and produced songs for a host of artists from Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand to Ray Charles and Whitney Houston, winning an Oscar, a Grammy and three Golden Globe awards, as well as enjoying a successful solo career in the 1970s.

Her best known work includes the lyrics for

Nobody Does It Better, which was the theme

song for the 1977 James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Heartlight by Neil Diamond. –

Reuters

EMMY, Grammy and Tony award-winning actress Cynthia Erivo transforms into the “Queen of Soul” in a new television series about American songstress Aretha Franklin.

National Geographic’s Genius: Aretha follows the late singer’s rise to stardom as well as her personal life. Franklin, known for her powerful voice and her hit songs likes Chain of Fools and Respect, died in 2018, aged 76.

“To be able to step into that body and understand it ... that meant a great deal because now I got to know her a bit more, which, I guess makes me even more of a fan but it also makes me understand her more,” Erivo told Reuters in a recent interview.

The 34-year-old actress, known for the film Harriet in which she portrayed escaped slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman as well as the Broadway musical The Color Purple for which she won a Tony Award, sings Franklin’s songs in the series.

“When you’re going through something and the only thing that really expresses it in the right way is a song – I learned that because of (Franklin), I learned that by listening to her,” Erivo said.

changed from when I first began. When I started, streaming was not really a thing yet and it was still very much about physical albums. Over

the years, I’ve had to adapt many times because of how the

music industry has changed. It’s a whole

different ball game now,” she said.

Her last a l b u m , Blackheart is considered A m a n d a ’ s most hands-on, personal album.

“ E v e r y single one of the songs

were composed and written by me. I was very involved with the production and direction as well”.

After the album came out in 2014, Amanda went to the US for a year to complete a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) music production course, as she sought to better familiarise herself with the more technical side of music.

“I really wanted something that I could learn and apply. I did that for a year, which was why I was not here.”

A change of pace “I did a lot of live shows as well in the US, which was really fun, especially bringing my music out as an independent artiste and marketing myself in a different environment. Because it’s very different performing in America compared to Malaysia.

“It’s a big market because

everyone goes to LA to try and make it big. For me, it was a career highlight being able to perform on the Sunset Strip.”

In a way, it helped boost her confidence and growth as an artiste. As an extension of her “break”, Amanda did not stick to the typical music conventions of periodically releasing new singles and albums.

She instead spent the years following Blackheart to build her repertoire of skills as a singer, songwriter and even content creation and modeling.

“How I got into social media, content creation and modeling was because it started out with music, and because those industries are interconnected. An opportunity appeared and I tried other avenues to get myself exposed to more people.”

About two years ago, after she returned from America, Amanda

said she wanted to come up with a new album.

“Unfortunately, I never put out any music. Then, I went to Australia and came back last year. That’s why I never put out anything, because I’ve been in and out of the country,” she said.

“But ever since Covid started, I’ve recorded two songs that are still in the working stage. One is in Malay and the other is in English, which I will hopefully be able to release this year. For the Malay single, hopefully, I’ll be able to film the music video, which was postponed due to Covid last year.”

If things in relation to the pandemic improves in the coming months, Amanda is determined to pursue the release of both singles before the year ends.

Perfecting a craft

4FEATUREtheSun LYFE ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

Colours of passion

GRAFFITI artist Muhammad Fahrul Idham, better known as Perol, has found fame outside Malaysia with his works gracing walls in Thailand, the

Philippines and Indonesia. “I am really honoured that people from

other countries are appreciating my work,” said 33-year-old Klang born Perol, who has a degree in graphic design.

“I would like to see my work reaching more countries.”

In Malaysia, Perol has worked with well-known brands such as Petronas, Honda, Berjaya, Mountain Dew, Maybank and 7-Eleven.

Before venturing into his true calling as a graffiti artist, he worked as a graphic designer and 3D animator.

“I feel graffiti gives me more freedom to express what is in my heart and mind,” said Perol, who has a seven-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter.

In 2014, he set up his own company called Perol Creative Enterprise. His favourite

themes, which he loves to dabble in, are aliens and monsters.

Speaking on his future plans, Perol said he would like to expand his graffiti skills into merchandise such as T-shirts and toys, and to sell these products overseas.

The first time he dabbled in graffiti was when he was 16. He took a can of spray paint and drew something on the wall

of a restaurant. “When my father learned about

my so called art work, he was furious,” said Perol.

“My father was totally disappointed in me. He said what I had done was not art, but vandalism. He did not beat me. His sharp words were enough to hurt my heart.”

Perol’s mother was a high school maths teacher while his father was a primary school

discipline teacher. He has nine siblings and is

oMuhammad Fahrul Idham believes graffiti gives him the freedom to express himself

█ BY BISSME S.

Perol’s commissioned work on a building in Bangi (2018). – PICTURE COURTESY OF MUHAMMAD FAHRUL IDHAM

An octopus in Phuket, Thailand (2019). – PICTURE COURTESY OF MUHAMMAD FAHRUL IDHAM the fourth child in the family.

Perol said he was not good in maths and was definitely not disciplined during his youth, adding that his parents did not object when he wanted to leave his steady job as a graphic designer to pursue his dream of becoming a graffiti artist.

“In fact, my mother said that I should pursue what I love.”

On the opinion of some people who feel graffiti is not really art, Perol said: “Nobody has the right to say what is art and what is not art.”

To illustrate his point, he said in recent years, the National Art Gallery has showcased several graffiti exhibitions, and he has participated in one of them.

“They have even produced three art books focusing on graffiti.

“If established bodies like the National Art Gallery can recognise graffiti as art, who are we to say that graffiti is not art?”

On advice for young graffiti artists, he said: “The job looks easy at first glance. But looks can be deceiving. There is a lot of hard work involved. You have to spend hours, spraying colours and it can be tiring. Some people give up after a few assignments.”

He believes the secret to becoming a good graffiti artist is to have a strong steady hand to control the spray when working on a project.

“It takes a lot of practice to be an expert in controlling your spray.”

Perol says he exercises his palm and his fingers so his hands will be strong and steady in managing the spray when he is working on assignments.

He cited Malaysian-born Katun, whose real name is Abdul Hafiz Abdul Rahman, as his all-time favourite graffiti artist.

“His works have been displayed all over the world from France to Dubai,” he said.

“I have met him. He was very humble. He was willing to share his knowledge with me so I can improve my skills and I was grateful to him,” Perol said of the encounter.

Last year, Katun meet with more success when American singer Chris Brown used one of his artworks for his single Undecided.

“Katun is someone I would love to emulate,” said Perol.

Perol found fame outside Malaysia. – PICTURE COURTESY OF MUHAMMAD FAHRUL IDHAM

5FEATURE

theSun LYFE ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

What you need to build a giant robotIT is a pastime that millions around the world enjoy. Some do it for fun, while there are even a few who turn it into a profession. There is just something about building plastic kits.

If you want to give the hobby a try, there are a few things you should know.

First, the satisfaction of completing a kit can be addictive. You will get better at it as you build more, and there is a lot to learn. Second, always read the assembly manual before you begin. Third, you will need some tools. Here is a simple guide to the most basic tools and chemicals for beginners.

Nippers Although there are some kits like the Zoids from Takara Tomy and the Entry Grade kits from Bandai that omit the need for any tools, most plastic model kits require nippers. These are specialised plastic cutters with a fine blade and a flat side that are used to cut parts (components of a model you are building) from the runners (plastic frames the parts come attached to).

Start with a good quality starter pair of nippers like a Bandai Spirit Entry Nipper or a Tamiya Modeler’s Side Cutter Alpha.

Once you level up your skill, get a pair of nippers with thinner blades that can make finer cuts.

Plastic Cement While most plastic kits are push-fit kits that use the friction of pegs and holes, most miniatures and scale model kits require plastic glue or plastic cement.

This clear liquid chemically melts the plastic it comes in contact with and fuses it when it dries, making a strong joint.

Use the ones you find at hobby stores, not hardware stores.

Generally, plastic cement made by Japanese producers such as Mr Hobby and Tamiya comes in a glass bottle and has an applicator brush. European makers such as Revell and Citadel tend to use plastic bottles with a metal needle applicator. The brush is a beginner-friendly option.

As you level up your skill, you might want to add thin plastic cement, super glue and accelerator to your tool set. These are used for advanced techniques and repairs.

Tweezers This is a tool both plastic model kit and electronics hobbyist share. It is useful for handling small parts. For a beginner, it is mostly used to apply stickers, markings and decals.

Pick a nice stainless steel one with a straight and fine sharp point. Try it out to make sure it does not take too much

█ BY AZIZUL RAHMAN ISMAIL

A scorpion in Shah Alam (2018). – PICTURE COURTESY OF MUHAMMAD FAHRUL IDHAM

Perol’s artwork at Pasar Borong in Kuala Lumpur (2020). – PICTURE COURTESY OF MUHAMMAD FAHRUL IDHAM

Perol’s artwork at Culture Lab in Kuala Lumpur (2020). – PICTURE COURTESY OF MUHAMMAD FAHRUL IDHAM

His work in the Philippines in 2017. – PICTURE COU RTESY OF MUHAMMAD FAHRUL IDHAM

pressure to operate, otherwise it might tire you out and hurt your hands.

Experienced builders pair tweezers with a cotton bud to make applying stickers, markings or decals cleaner.

Hobby knife These are the scalpels of the hobby and look like one too. They usually have plastic handles and come with replaceable blades.

A hobby knife is not critical to most plastic model kit building, but it can be helpful. It is used to shave off excess plastic such as nibs and flashings from parts.When building miniatures, the back of the blade can be used to scrape off mould lines.

Hobby knives can be found at hobby and art supply stores under names such as X-Acto and Olfa. A short straight-edge blade is recommended for beginners. But once you level up, you might want to get a second hobby knife with a curved blade that makes cutting easier.

Files When you need to take just a little bit off, remove some material to make things fit or flatten a surface of a part, that is the job for files.

They come in sets. However, most sets do not include a wire brush that can be used to clean the files and make them effective for longer.

An upgrade to this tool would be sponged backed sandpaper. These come in

different grits and work on curved surfaces. You can use the ones specifically made for the hobby or those from a hardware shop.

There is no need to buy low grit sandpaper that is below a rating of 400. Leave the rough work to the

files.

Paint and markers The importance of colours and markers depends on the kit you are building. Paint is essential but panel line markers are not if you are building Games Worship miniatures. The opposite is true if you are building a Gunpla by Bandai, a panel line marker is a good tool to have for a beginner and paint is not essential.

Use water-based acrylic paints such as those from Citadel, Army Painter and Vallejo. Skip Tamiya, Mr Hobby, Gaia or even Gundam Marker paints if you are just starting. These use chemical thinners.

For panel lining, start with Gundam Marker GM01 black. You can add the GM02 grey when you have gained more understanding and try other techniques such as using washes and inks to enhance the depth of your plastic model when you have gained experience.

Basic tools for building a

plastic model kit.

6TRAVELtheSun LYFE ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

Escape from Covid

WAITERS in grey waistcoats bearing dainty platters of canapés circle the private lounge at Cape Town’s main train station and the tinkle of

champagne glasses fills the air. Timeless ease fills the room as passengers

wait to embark on the fabled Blue Train for a luxurious two-night trek across South Africa.

But even in this cosseted world, 2021 intrudes, showing that nothing can escape the grip of the coronavirus pandemic.

Passengers are discreetly ushered off in small groups to a fast-track coronavirus testing centre nearby.

A negative result, sent by text, is followed by an elegant appetiser lunch – the final step before “All aboard!” signals the start of the adventure.

In the background stands the dashing Blue Train, ready to accommodate excited passengers in 19 plush wagons lined with wooden panels and polished brass.

Forty-eight hours of pampering begins as the train rolls out of the station on a 1,600-kilometre (994-mile) trip through the Karoo desert, slicing up the middle of the country to the capital Pretoria.

Arid ochre landscapes gradually morph into rolling hills and green pastures sporadically broken up by mining towns and informal settlements.

The Blue Train is a perfect escape from the cares of the world.

Ironically, most South Africans could never have dreamed of affording its luxury before Covid appeared.

But coronavirus travel restrictions have stemmed the flow of wealthy international tourists that long dominated the train’s clientele, mainly from Australia, Britain and

Blue Train passengers enjoy drinks in the observation car as the train slowly makes its way through the outskirts of Cape Town.

oSouth Africa’s luxury ‘Blue Train’ offers a 1,600km trip through the Karoo desert to Pretoria

Japan. Service resumed in November with heavily

discounted prices. Today nearly all its passengers are from South Africa.

“I grew up knowing there was a Blue Train, it was unaffordable,” said Cape Town-based doctor Mashiko Setshedi, accompanied by her 67-year-old mother.

Unlike Setshedi, most of the passengers were white couples in their 50s and 60s.

“Our trip to the US was cancelled in 2020,” said Bennie Christoff, a 54-year-old financial advisor, flanked by his wife.

“We are locked in and the Blue Train is one of the things I wanted to do.”

The decades-old train is run by South African state logistics firm Transnet, which has struggled to keep rail traffic smooth since the economic setbacks of the pandemic fuelled a surge in cable theft.

‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ A discounted ticket still comes at a steep minimum price of 23,000 rand (RM6,342) – about four times the average monthly

minimum wage in one of the world’s most unequal countries.

“Returning guests are rare,” barman Simon Moteka said. “It’s often a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them.”

Sliding drinks over the counter, the 43-year-old expertly navigated conversation, peppering discreet small talk with the occasional well-placed joke.

As dinner time neared, a loudspeaker announcement reminded men to don a coat or waistcoat and “women to be as elegant as possible”.

Flip-flops and shorts gave way to dark suits and dresses before passengers made their way to the restaurant car, filling the narrow passageway with the scent of perfume.

The sun was setting as diners were shown to their tables, casting a golden glow over the sheep-dotted Karoo whizzing past the windows.

Each dish on the three to five-course menu is paired with a different glass of wine.

Dessert – deconstructed cheesecake or a lemon meringue tart was followed by a shot of

grappa or a sweet South African white from Klein Constantia.

“Nelson Mandela’s favourite,” said restaurant manager Sydney Masenyani. The 61-year-old started his career as a senior waiter on a smaller train in 1981. In 1993, he joined an all-white team of staffers, two years after apartheid formally ended.

His first months were tough. Tall and shy, Masenyani was often teased.

Four years later, Mandela himself stepped on board to launch a new, fully revamped Blue Train, flanked by US music producer Quincy Jones and British model Naomi Campbell.

“It was wonderful,” Masenyani said, describing the red carpet and the nervous bodyguards. The highlight was serving Mandela his favourite chocolate fondant “with a passion fruit heart” and a sweet South African dessert wine.

“In fact, he was sitting at the same table as you,” Masenyani told the AFP journalists.

“That’s what he tells everyone,” joked a passenger overhearing the conversation. – ETX Studio

Ancient Christian ruins in EgyptA French-Norwegian archaeological team has discovered new Christian ruins in Egypt’s Western Desert, revealing monastic life in the region in the fifth century AD, the Egyptian antiquities ministry said Saturday.

“The French-Norwegian mission discovered during its third excavation campaign at the site of Tal Ganoub Qasr al-Agouz in the Bahariya Oasis several buildings made of basalt, others carved into the bedrock and some made of mud bricks,” it said in a statement.

“The complex is comprised of six sectors containing the ruins of three churches and monks’ cells, whose walls bear graffiti and symbols with Coptic connotations,” said Osama Talaat, head of Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities at the ministry.

Mission head Victor Ghica said “19 structures and a church carved into the bedrock” were discovered in 2020, according to the statement.

“The church walls were decorated with religious inscriptions and biblical passages in Greek, revealing the nature of monastic life in the region,” Ghica said.

It clearly showed that monks were present there since the fifth century AD, he added.

The remote site, located in the desert southwest of the capital Cairo, was occupied from the fourth to eighth centuries, with a likely peak of activity around the fifth and sixth centuries, according to the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, in charge of the mission. – ETX StudioIceland to selectively open borders

ICELAND will allow entry to all visitors bearing proof of vaccination against Covid starting March 18, the health ministry said.

The policy, already in place since Jan 20 for visitors from anywhere in the passport-free Schengen area, will be extended to all arrivals regardless of their country of origin, the ministry said.

Customs authorities will accept vaccination certificates from Schengen countries or the World Health Organisation’s “yellow card”.

“All those who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be allowed to travel to Iceland without being subject to border measures, such as testing and quarantine,” the statement said.

Alternatively, as has been possible since December, all travellers, not just those from the Schengen area, can produce antibody tests showing prior infection.

The move makes Iceland one of the first European nations to open its borders beyond the Schengen area, which covers 26 countries – most of the 27 EU members, plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.

Cyprus announced early this month that it would allow Britons who have been vaccinated into the country from May 1, scrapping an earlier requirement for self-isolating.

With the new policy, Iceland

hopes to boost the flow of visitors from the United States and Britain, its two largest tourism markets which are both leaders in the world vaccination drive.

Since Feb 19, around 20% of visitors to the North Atlantic island of some 365,000 people have produced either proof of prior infection or a vaccination certificate, according to the country’s chief epidemiologist.

Iceland’s incidence of coronavirus is currently nine per 100,000 people, and nearly 10% of the population has received at least one dose of a vaccine.

Covid-19 has officially claimed 29 lives from 6,087 cases in Iceland. – ETX Studio

Iceland is to allow entry to all visitors bearing proof of vaccination against Covid starting March 18.

Nex

t Gen

7YOUTH

theSun LYFE ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

AISYAH RAZIP, or better known as Cupcake Aisyah, is making a name for herself as a rising YouTuber in the country. She

began her channel at the age of 13, although at the time, she never dreamt it would grow into a career.

“It started off as a hobby to post videos but as time went by, I

started making a d e c e n t

a m o u n t of money

as a YouTuber,

which I am very grateful

for,” Aisyah told theSun.

Due to the energy and entertaining content, Aisyah’s

YouTube channel and Instagram presence have attracted a growing

community of almost half a million followers.

“I have always been comfortable in front of the camera, ever since I was a young girl. It is

funny, because I am very shy when I talk to people in real life, but in front of the camera, I am friendlier and I am more myself.”

Are there times when you do not know what to upload, or do you have a constant stream of ideas? There are such times, but I don’t stress about it that much because I get inspired easily. It is so easy to think of

ideas because I am in control of what to post. But there are times when I ask my

family and friends for ideas. I always have a list and I am constantly adding more

video ideas when I am inspired.

How do you decide what goes on your channel? Is there a format on the type of content you create? There is no format but it mostly contains vlogs because I started as a vlogger. I like sharing my life with my viewers. If the video ends up funny, entertaining or inspiring, it will probably be uploaded.

But if the end product is

Any exciting videos coming up?

Subscribe to my YouTube channel to find out more. Would you do another “entire fast food menu” video again? Yes, absolutely. I am planning to make one soon this year. In an alternate universe, what would you be doing instead of being a YouTuber? I would focus on just being a full-time student.

\TRIVIA

EDUCATIONEDUCATIONThe Class of 2021 is here.

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Making a name for herself oAisyah Razip is creating

waves on YouTube

█ BY MARK MATHEN VICTOR

not satisfactory, I will probably scratch the whole thing and do something else.

What kind of YouTube content do you like the most? The best content that I personally enjoy making is vlogs because I get to plan out my day, do spontaneous things and just go anywhere with it. But don’t get me wrong, I still love making challenges and going out to do adventurous stuff.

How do you deal with trolls and haters?

I have been creating content since young. As a content creator, I have my share of criticism. The best way I deal with it is to simply not deal with it. I would just delete the comments or try not to let them get to me.

Can you talk about the hacking incident? My YouTube channel was hacked in July 2019 and it was the most difficult situation I have faced because I developed the channel since I was young. I contacted YouTube and Google Malaysia straight away for help. It took quite a while for me to get back my channel.

Known online as Cupcake Aisyah, the YouTuber’s uploads are primarily vlogs, viral challenges and make-up tips. – PICTURES COURTESY OF AISYAH RAZIP

8MEDIA & MARKETINGtheSun LYFE ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

Different sides of remote learningTHE pandemic has

accelerated tenfold the need to embrace technology. Almost suddenly, online

shopping, food delivery, working from home and remote learning has become the norm. The impact is undeniable and in most cases, irreversible.

Education is impacted the most. While businesses may open, jobs may adapt, learning through the glare of a camera and the glow of a screen is just not the same. Although remote learning is nothing new, to have it imposed so suddenly and on such a scale, takes some adapting.

Remote learning affects more than just school children. We talked to an experienced fitness trainee and a fitness trainer about how they had to adapt, a fifth-year medical student who was dropped into the deep end, and a young student who said that remote learning has done a lot of good for university students like him.

0 The experienced fitness trainee Nurul Nadia Latiff had to get creative with her training when the lockdown happened. A wife and a mother, she has been doing Crossfit training for more than four years.

Going to the gym helped her focus on working out, free from distractions and it motivated her. And she says she misses it.

Training from home now translates to getting video training routines from her coach and replying on her iPhone. Her experience also lets her coach and herself communicate about training and training progress via video messages instead of live video calls.

She admits that the most difficult thing about training remotely is to get off the couch in the first place. On the other hand, she gets to train with her daughter and husband at home.

To complete the training routine, she uses rice in duffle bags in addition to the equipment that she already has, like kettle weights. She noted that training remotely need not be expensive or require plenty of new equipment.

0 The new trainer On the other side of the coin is Norhaliza Ismail, a 38-year-old mother of two who became a trainer for F6X Gym in January last year. The fitness centre’s metabolic conditioning programme received

Clockwise from left: Nadia, Norhaliza, Jaya Prithivi and Hariz.

oHow the sudden adoption of virtual lessons changed the face of education█ BY AZIZUL RAHMAN ISMAIL

high demand and was officially launched in March the same year.

Most of her clients are working mums who had no experience training and are not used to working out regularly. So one of her first tasks was to scale her remote training programme accordingly. Because these women would not have the equipment for training, she substituted the weights with bottles of water, backpacks and rice in duffle bags.

Because she could not observe the students she trains closely through remote classes, she made sure to pay close attention to their form, one by one, and ask them if there was any discomfort. Of course, as these mothers train at home, distractions from crying babies and children needing attention were plenty.

dependent on it. That is when Prithivi and his friends noticed that prices of these equipment skyrocketed and supplies seemed to dwindle.

He also said studying online is far more exhausting. The 8am to 5pm screen time, sitting at the same desk, takes a toll physically and mentally on a student. With all their study material also online, they have to stay on the computer even longer than usual.

All this, he said, affects the progress of learning.

0 The positive student For 25-year-old Hariz Danial, remote learning brought along with it a lot of positive changes. After imposing a two week break to discuss how best to implement remote learning, UiTM hit the ground running by adopting various existing technologies.

Hariz admits that some had it easier than others. The younger lecturers were faster at adapting to new technology. Nonetheless, both sides were learning the ropes the first week. Their remote learning sessions were littered with technical issues on both sides at first, but soon, it was smooth sailing.

As the situation continued, Hariz realised that remote learning resulted in many new benefits, such as the implementation of centralised education resources by the university where students can get their learning material online without using third party messaging services.

Some lecturers packaged their lectures into a presentation deck and put it in this central database. This, says Hariz, gives students a lot of freedom and flexibility. With the downloadable lectures, students can study when they want, at their own pace.

He admits that he uses these presentation decks as reference material when he studies.

One of Hariz’s observations is that the whole endeavour improved some students’ communication skills. Students who were too shy to ask questions in class would now ask them in messages and chats.

But he points out that for remote learning to be effective, students must also practise discipline and time management.

However, to Norhaliza, that is to be expected.

0 The fifth-year medical student Putting in hours at the clinic is critical to a medical degree student, said Jaya Prithivi Raj, who is now in his fifth year. The practical component of the course lets students get a deeper understanding of the medical field that they are studying.

When he and his fellow students had to turn to remote learning, issues began to pop up. Which platform to use, is the internet connection stable, does everyone have the right equipment like a PC, a camera and a microphone for video conferencing, and more.

Even some of those who were already equipped with the right gear had to upgrade as they became more

9* SPEAK UP

theSUN ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

Focus on survival for now

ON March 15 last year, I pointed out the need to declare an all-out war against Covid-19 instead of continuing with

protracted battles on a piecemeal basis with no end in sight.

On that day, the total number of Covid-19 infections reached 428 in the country.

Three days later, the movement control order (MCO) was implemented.

But instead of a temporary lockdown, we have been under various forms of MCO for over a year, with still no light at the end of the tunnel.

Initially, the focus was centred on tourism recovery as soon as borders are reopened because many tourism businesses depended largely on inbound tourism, although its total receipts in 2019, at RM89.4 billion, was lower than the RM103.2 billion for domestic tourism.

But domestic tourism expenditure components included RM15.48 billion spent on automotive fuel, RM10.53 billion at visited households of friends and relatives, plus other expenditures by tourists that stayed overnight away from home and excursionists on trips returning the same day.

Only 18.5% of domestic tourists stayed at hotels, 3.8% at homestays or vacation homes, 3.6% at apartments,

1.7% at rest houses, and 1.5% at chalets, while a hefty 70.9% at unpaid accommodations hosted by friends and relatives.

Without inbound tourists, five-star facilities in hotels, restaurants, convention centres, theme parks, entertainment outlets and attractions, such businesses are not sustainable.

As far back as last July, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said tourism will need four years to recover.

The most visible casualty had been hotels, with many large and small having shut operations or closed altogether.

And if interstate travel restrictions are not lifted soon, many more will follow suit, throwing more workers out of jobs with little chance of finding work elsewhere.

Recently, the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia disclosed that up to 80% of its members reported alarmingly low levels of cash reserves, prompting concerns that many could be forced to fold by June if conditions fail to improve.

The same warning was echoed by Industries Unite, a coalition of 110 trade associations representing 3.3 million business owners in the country.

If that were to occur, it would be catastrophic for our nation. Hence, all

efforts must be made to prevent the dire situation from festering.

We simply cannot continue with business as usual, as more lives could be lost caused by loss of livelihoods than those dying of Covid-19.

While it is true that travel restrictions are needed to bring down infections, and few foreigners would want to visit Malaysia when Covid-19 infections remain high, we also cannot afford to wait indefinitely until daily cases are down to a low level.

To do so would see the demise of most tourism businesses, especially hotels on the brink of collapsing.

If so, when borders are eventually reopened, we would have lost most of our infrastructure, facilities and manpower needed to provide service for inbound tourists.

If existing industry players cannot survive on domestic tourism for these few years, they certainly would not be around in 2024 when tourism recovers.

It would then be an exercise in futility to focus on recovery plans if they could not survive the year.

As I have pointed out previously, interstate travel restrictions should not be lifted overnight across the board by suddenly allowing large number of people to move about freely and mingle closely with others, especially with friends and relatives with minimum physical distancing.

Therefore, it was no surprise when Covid-19 infections surged after

interstate travel restrictions were lifted from last Dec 7, and the MCO had to be reimposed on Jan 13 for five states and three federal territories.

However, it is much safer to start with tourists staying in hotels.

Those who have booked and paid for hotel accommodation in advance should be allowed to travel freely nationwide, with their travel dates tallying with hotel check-in and check-out dates.

The various hotel associations could jointly work out a foolproof mechanism that facilitates enforcement officers to inspect, and verify if need be, details of room reservations.

Severe penalties are to be imposed on those using fraudulent reservations to deter abuse.

Hotels are the best barometers to indicate whether our economy is sustainable or about to crush.

We can choose to save hotels that have been struggling to survive by allowing interstate travel immediately or let them go under by continuing with current restrictions.

YS Chan is Asean Tourism Master

Trainer for travel agencies, master trainer for Travel and Tours

Enhancement Course and Mesra Malaysia (both programmes under

Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture). He is also a tourism and transport

industry consultant and writer. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

“While it is true that travel restrictions are needed to bring down infections and borders to be reopened, and few foreigners would want to visit Malaysia when Covid-19 infections remain high, we also cannot afford to wait indefinitely until daily cases are down to a low level.

Tenants taking advantage of landlords due to Covid-19?

IN Covid-19 pandemic’s march towards calamity, it has undeniably left a wake of economic destruction in its path.

To aid the amelioration of the economy, the government gazetted the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Act 2020 (“the Act”) on Oct 23, 2020 which, among others, provides temporary relief from contractual obligations.

Section 7 of the Act provides that the inability of any party to perform any contractual obligation due to measures prescribed under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (“PICD”) to control the spread of Covid-19 shall not give rise to the other party exercising their rights under the contract.

This relief was scheduled to be in force from March 18, 2020 to Dec 31, 2020 but has since been extended to June 30 this year.

Section 7 encompasses seven types of contracts including a lease or tenancy of non-residential immovable property.

Can landlords enforce their rights? Section 7 raises a plethora of questions, but the pertinent one in these uncertain times is whether tenants are required to honour their contractual obligation to pay rent during the enforcement period of the Act.

A layperson reading of Section 7 may appear to answer the question in the affirmative.

A detailed legal analysis into Section 7 may offer a different interpretation.

As a preliminary point, the savings provision in Section 10 of the Act is an express exception on the applicability on Section 7.

Section 10 essentially provides that

notwithstanding Section 7, any contract terminated, or any legal proceedings commenced for the period from March 18, 2020 until Oct 23, 2020 shall be deemed to have been validly terminated or carried out. Tenants would not be able to then rely on the relief provided under Section 7.

Section 7 is not a blanket provision What about tenancy agreements terminated after Oct 23, 2020? It is a cardinal principle of law that he who asserts must prove.

Tenants will have to show that their inability to pay rent is due to the movement control orders.

The language in Section 7 provides that the inability to pay shall be “due to the measures prescribed, made or taken under the PICD to control or prevent the spread of Covid-19”.

Section 7 contains a limiting condition and is not a blanket provision for anyone’s inability to perform their contractual obligations.

Section 7 would otherwise be open to abuse as a backdoor for parties to escape contractual obligations with no consequences.

Section 7 should not be interpreted to deprive landlords of their rent unless it can be shown that the tenants were “incapacitated” by the measures.

The crux of the issue may be whether the tenant’s financial standing was affected by the measures imposed by the government.

A tenant could potentially claim that due to the government’s direction prohibiting their operation, their business was affected, and this has in turn affected their ability to pay rent.

The Act does not distinguish between the different movement control orders (MCO, CMCO or RMCO) and its severity.

Would a tenant be able to rely on Section 7 where a tenant could have operated, albeit with government approvals or was an essential service provider, during MCO but did not take steps to do so?

Many tenants were bound to fail due to mismanagement irrespective of the pandemic.

The legal test of causation and remoteness may be relevant in determining the causative relationship between the government’s directive and the tenant’s inability to pay rent.

Dispute Resolution Mechanism In the event a dispute arises on the applicability of Section 7, the Act provides for mediation to resolve the dispute.

Typically, a mediator does not decide on a dispute but acts as a neutral party to assist disputing parties in reaching a settlement.

We pause to consider the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020 implemented in Singapore (“SG Act”).

In Singapore, where a dispute arises on the applicability of the SG Act, an assessor may be appointed to decide on the applicability of the SG Act.

As it stands, Section 9 may seem like a toothless tiger as ultimately Malaysian courts would be left to decide on the applicability of the relief afforded by Section 7.

Given that the Act was recently gazetted, there is a lack of judicial guidance on its interpretation.

However, Section 7 ought not to provide a blanket protection to tenants who have failed to pay rent, to the utter detriment of landlords. This would be an irrational conclusion which cannot be consistent with the underlying objective of the Act.

Leonard Yeoh is a partner and

Caleb Sio, an associate with the law firm, Tay and Partners. Comments:

letters@thesundaily.com

CONGRATULATIONS are in order for national shuttler Lee Zii Jia, who dominated the media headlines, after he clinched the gold in the men’s singles final of the All England in Birmingham.

His win against world No. 2 Viktor Axelsen proved he is a force to be reckoned with.

His win brought back memories of an interview I conducted as a young sports journalist with then men’s singles head coach Datuk Misbun Sidek.

We were covering the preparations of former world No. 1 Datuk Lee Chong Wei for an upcoming major tournament when a young lad walked crossed behind the rolling cameras.

That was when I first laid eyes on a young Zii Jia in person, who – unknown to me – would become King of the All England one day.

I recall Misbun informing me that Zii Jia was someone I need to take note of as the youngster was displaying the skills and dedication needed to become the next big star in Malaysian badminton.

I thought nothing much of Misbun’s words at the time, but I must say Zii Jia’s triumph in the All England has proved all his doubters wrong. He truly is a giant slayer in his own right.

One would argue that a star is born with Zii JIa’s triumph.

However, I would like to believe that this star was long ready to take Malaysian badminton to greater heights.

I hope his win at the All England will be the start of many wins for Malaysia.

The world No. 10’s exploits

at the All England might provide extra pressure for him.

Some may see Lee Zii Jia as the new Lee Chong Wei, but I ask everyone not to draw comparisons between the two.

Let the young Lee develop in his own right for I am sure he will bring more success and glory to our beloved nation.

One thing is for sure; his win at the All England is a breath of fresh air in the midst of Malaysia’s battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.

I must say his win is a catalyst of unity, togetherness and patriotism. Values that serve as foundations of nation building and progress.

Yeap Ming Liong

Subang Jaya

Lee in action at the All England tournament. – AFPPIX

COMMENT by Leonard Yeoh and Caleb Sio

COMMENT by YS Chan

LETTERS letters@thesundaily.com

Zii Jia ‘Lee-ading’ the way

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5 MOST ACTIVESMarch 22, 2021

STOCK VOL CLSG (sen) +/– (sen) MACPIE-WB 490,476,100 9.5 -2.5 MACPIE 350,863,900 51 -4.5 WIDAD 201,741,500 43.5 -13 DNEX 198,608,000 86.5 -8 UCREST 195,420,600 24 +1.5

EXCHANGE RATES MARCH 22, 2021

Foreign currency Bank sell Bank buy Bank buy TT/OD TT OD 1 US DOLLAR 4.1740 4.0490 4.0390 1 AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR 3.2410 3.1140 3.0980 1 BRUNEI DOLLAR 3.1050 3.0140 3.0060 1 CANADIAN DOLLAR 3.3300 3.2410 3.2290 1 EURO 4.9680 4.8090 4.7890 1 NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR 2.9980 2.8890 2.8730 1 SINGAPORE DOLLAR 3.1050 3.0140 3.0060 1 STERLING POUND 5.7810 5.6000 5.5800 1 SWISS FRANC 4.4740 4.3720 4.3570 100 UAE DIRHAM 114.9500 109.0100 108.8100 100 BANGLADESH TAKA 5.0040 4.6980 4.4980 100 CHINESE RENMINBI 64.2000 61.7000 N/A 100 HONGKONG DOLLAR 54.3200 51.6200 51.4200 100 INDIAN RUPEE 5.8600 5.5000 5.3000 100 INDONESIAN RUPIAH 0.0300 0.0271 0.0221 100 JAPANESE YEN 3.8370 3.7170 3.7070 100 NEW TAIWAN DOLLAR 15.8000 N/A N/A 100 PAKISTAN RUPEE 2.7300 2.5500 2.3500 100 PHILIPPINE PESO 8.7300 8.2300 8.0300 100 QATAR RIYAL 115.8800 110.0000 109.8000 100 SAUDI RIYAL 112.5000 106.8000 106.6000 100 THAI BAHT 14.1300 12.5400 12.1400

Source: Malayan Banking Berhad/Bernama

KL MARKET SUMMARYMarch 22, 2021

INDICES CHANGE FBMEMAS 11,860.94 -62.27 FBMKLCI 1,616.73 -9.46 CONSUMER PRODUCTS 640.90 -4.88 INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS 193.08 -0.05 CONSTRUCTION 183.70 -1.26 FINANCIAL SERVICES 15,426.43 -83.22 ENERGY 958.97 -1.63 TELECOMMUNICATIONS 723.21 -7.29 HEALTH CARE 3,036.57 -11.08 TRANSPORTATION 812.72 -15.96 PROPERTY 752.33 +3.76 PLANTATION 7,150.40 -25.22 FBMSHA 13,171.42 -58.47 FBMACE 10,652.66 +17.80 TECHNOLOGY 82.89 -1.11 TURNOVER VALUE 7.565 BIL RM3.992 BIL

5 TOP GAINERSMarch 22, 2021

STOCK VOL CLSG (RM) RM IHS046000824 10 99.50 0.50 CARLSBG 142,900 24.38 0.36 KESM 85,300 12.06 0.36 ARK-WB 236,800 0.275 0.25 Y&G 13,000 0.81 0.245

5 TOP LOSERSMarch 22, 2021

STOCK VOL CLSG (RM) RM DATAPRP 47,863,200 1.75 0.75 KLK 292,000 23.10 0.38 HEIM 31,800 25.74 0.34 VITROX 166,500 14.98 0.34 CHINTEK 11,000 6.90 0.28

6.46 105.60 617.90 4.07

TUESDAY MARCH 23, 2021

SCI 3,443.44

38.78

TSEC 16,189.22

118.98

S&P/ASX200 6,752.46

44.23

Outlook for Malaysian banks remains stable

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s banking sector outlook remains stable underpinned by strong fundamentals, according to RAM Ratings.

While downside risks linger, it believes that domestic banks will remain resilient despite the pandemic-ravaged economy.

The rating agency outlined the key expectations for the sector in its report, “Banking Insight: Still Not Out of the Woods” – loan growth to hover around 3% for the year, driven primarily by the household sector; asset quality indicators to be upheld by temporary relief measures despite some weakening expected; and liquidity to remain sound as loan deferments boosted current and savings account (CASA) growth while fixed deposits contracted.

In addition, it expects profitability to improve with margin recovery and absence of modification losses, although credit costs will likely stay elevated. and for the sector’s capital buffers to remain sturdy.

“Auto and home loans – which charted strong growth last year - will continue to benefit from the various incentives for car and property purchases,” said RAM’s financial institution ratings co-head, Wong Yin Ching.

However, she cautioned that the projection is subject to downside risks, such as unexpected delays in the Covid-19

vaccination programme or a new wave of infections, which may necessitate stricter lockdown measures.

The rating agency noted that the banking system’s gross impaired loan (GIL) ratio stayed benign at 1.6% as at end-January 2021, slightly higher than the 1.51% as at end-December 2019.

This ratio is likely to be upheld by the targeted repayment assistance (TRA), which has been made available to individual and small medium enterprise borrowers following the conclusion of the

six-month blanket loan moratorium in September 2020.

Furthermore, banks remain committed to assisting corporate borrowers to restructure and reschedule (R&R) their loan repayments.

Based on the latest data, it pointed out that

some 13% (ranging from 7% to 18% for individual banks) of eight selected local banks’ domestic portfolios are under TRA and R&R.

With that RAM’s financial institution ratings co-head, Sophia Lee projected that the industry’s GIL ratio may reach 2.3%-2.5% in 2021.

“We expect GILs to peak only in 2022, after the expiration of all temporary relief measures.” she said.

Lee said banks pre-emptively built up their provisioning buffers in 2020, as they braced for a rough ride when their

oUnderpinned by strong fundamentals but downside risks exist, says RAM Ratings

underlying asset quality become apparent in second-half 2021 or 2022.

Amid the myriad uncertainties, Lee envisaged impairment expenses to stay elevated this year.

RAM Ratings stated that the banking system’s capital buffers stayed sturdy; its common equity tier-1 capital and total capital ratios came in at a respective 14.9% and 18.5% as at end-January 2021.

In 2020, Malaysian banks’ earnings were weighed down by hefty pre-emptive provisions, modification losses, and narrower net interest margins (NIMs) with eight selected local banks reporting a lower average pre-tax return on assets of just 0.9% and return on equity of 8.7% (2019: 1.4% and 13.2%).

RAM Ratings said NIMs were severely crimped by Bank Negara Malaysia’s slashing of the Overnight Policy Rate by 125 bps, compounded by modification charges.

This year, the sector’s earnings are expected to improve given the absence of modification expenses and rejuvenated NIMs as deposits would have mostly been repriced at lower rates.

That said, it expects overall profitability to remain pressured by elevated impairment charges.

“We expect the banking system’s liquidity position to remain healthy,” RAM said it its report.

It said the liquidity coverage ratio hovered around 140%-153% in 2020 and the industry’s deposit growth of 3.9% outpaced loan expansion.

“Retail deposits were still the mainstay of customer funding, accounting for 39% of total deposits as at end-December 2020. On the other hand, loan deferments had boosted CASA deposit growth while fixed deposits contracted for the first time in a decade,” it added.

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s CapitaLand Ltd plans to split into two, with its revamped real estate investment management business becoming the world’s third largest as a new listed entity while its property development business will be taken private.

CapitaLand, which is 52% owned by Singapore state investor Temasek, said the restructuring is aimed at achieving higher valuations for the investment management business as it will no longer be hobbled by the intensive capital needs of the development arm.

It comes after CapitaLand, which operates in Singapore, China, India and other markets, posted its biggest loss in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The overarching objective of the scheme is to sharpen the group’s focus and position it to be an asset-light and capital-efficient business,” it said in a statement.

The new listed company, to be called CapitaLand Investment Management (CLIM), will house its stakes in its real estate investment trusts, funds as well as its lodging business.

CLIM, which will be listed on the Singapore Exchange, is expected to be Asia’s largest real estate investment

manager with assets under management of about S$115 billion (RM352.5 billion), it added.

Under the deal, shareholders will

receive an implied consideration of S$4.102 per share in cash and scrip, including a one-for-one equivalent stake in CLIM. That is 24% above the last traded price of CapitaLand and implies a deal value of about S$21.3 billion.

The real estate development business will become part of CLA Real Estate Holdings, a Temasek unit. It will hold 51.8% stake in CLIM and continue to develop projects for CLIM.

The deal is expected to be completed in or around the fourth quarter of 2021.

Trading in CapitaLand’s shares and units of the REITs was halted yesterday.

Its Singapore-listed REITs are Ascott Residence Trust , CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Ascendas, CapitaLand China Trust and Ascendas India Trust.

CapitaLand had a market value of around US$13 billion (RM53.4 billion) as of Friday’s close. The REITs had a combined market value of US$25 billion.

JPMorgan is advising CapitaLand and DBS Bank is advising CLA Real Estate.

In 2019, CapitaLand completed an S$11 billion cash-and-stock deal to acquire Temasek’s shares in Ascendas-Singbridge, which owned logistics and industrial assets. – Reuters

The restructuring is aimed at achieving higher valuations for the investment management business. – REUTERSPIX

CapitaLand to split into two, go asset light

Participation

41.4

44.8

13.8

100.0

Institutions

Retail

Foreign

Bought

RM m

1652.8

1802.1

537.5

3992.4

Sold

RM m

1650.3

1775.7

566.4

3992.4

Net

RM m

2.5

26.4

-28.9

0.0

%

Preliminary stats (excluding trade amendments). For final data, please refer to www.bursamalaysia.com Source: Burs Malaysia

A Participating Organisation of Bursa Malaysia Securities BerhadA Trading Participant of Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Berhad

S E C U R I T I E S S D N. B H D.(12738-U)197201001092

11* SUNBIZ

theSUN ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

Mokhzani new Maxis chairman from April 22PETALING JAYA: Raja Tan Sri Arshad Raja Tun Uda will be stepping down as Maxis Bhd’s chairman effective April 22, with Tan Sri Mokhzani Mahathir appointed in his place.

Mokhzani currently serves as senior independent director of the board. Meanwhile, Arshad will continue to serve as an independent non-executive director of Maxis.

Mokhzani also currently chairs Maxis’ audit and risk committee and is a member of the nomination and remuneration committees as well as the government and regulatory affairs committee. He will relinquish his roles as senior independent director and chairman of the audit and risk committee immediately after the AGM on April 22.

“I would like to thank Raja Tan Sri Arshad for his profound leadership, guidance and invaluable contribution to the Company over the years. We are on the cusp of a new era of technology and Maxis has always been at the forefront of bringing new innovations to the nation.

“We are certainly in exciting times and I am looking forward to my new role and working with the board, management and employees as we accelerate our long-term growth ambitions,” said Mokhzani.

Sapura Energy’s Shahril retiresoMohd Anuar Taib is group CEO with effect from today PETALING JAYA: Datuk Mohd Anuar Taib will take over the reins of Sapura Energy Bhd as its group CEO, following the retirement of its president and group CEO Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin yesterday, as laid out by the group’s succession plan unveiled last year.

According to its Bursa filing, the plan was put in place ahead of Shahril reaching the retirement age of 60 on March 22 after leading the

group for more than 25 years. The group’s chairman Tan Sri

Shamsul Azhar Abbas expressed his gratitude to the outgoing president on behalf of the board.

“His leadership enabled Sapura Energy to grow from a domestic focused player into a renowned energy company serving the entire upstream value chain; and his foresight set the foundation for the group to progress beyond oil and gas

into renewables,” he told the local bourse.

Shahril founded the group in the mid-1990’s which started as a diving contractor and has since grown into a global integrated energy company.

“We have seen a profitable turnaround in 2020 despite the challenging environment for the industry”, he said in his farewell note.

The outgoing group CEO remarked that his successor Mohd

Anuar is committed to bring Sapura to the next of its journey.

Mohd Anuar was appointed as an independent director in August last year and was subsequently named as the group’s COO and CEO designate in October 2020.

Prior to the appointment, he served as chairman of Shell Companies in Malaysia as well as executive vice president and CEO of Petronas’ upstream division.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian small businesses saw the use of digital technologies jump by 40% in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a regional small business survey by CPA Australia.

It pointed out that e-commerce wasn’t the only digital technology used by small businesses during the pandemic.

The survey also found social media to be an important tool, with over 60% of the respondents using the platform for promotions and 55% are using it to communicate with customers.

“The strong connection between technology usage and business growth and the quick returns many Malaysian businesses experience when investing in technology is no doubt helping to drive this uptake,” said CPA Australia’s Malaysia division president Jimmy Lai.

Last year, he revealed that 42% of those surveyed reported positive returns from their technology investment.

Despite the offers of new digital and mobile payment options, CPA stated that 61.5% still received half or more of their sales in cash, above the regional average of 46.4%.

Lai said small businesses may be offering limited digital and mobile payment options due to a lack of understanding about what’s available or scepticism towards these solutions.

“This echoes findings from CPA Australia’s 2020 ‘Report on Business FinTech Usage Survey’, that showed 31% of businesses with fewer than 50 employees identified a lack of fintech understanding among the board or senior

management as a challenge to fintech adoption,” he said.

“More can be done to assure business that digital and mobile payment options can provide better customer reach, which should

contribute to recovery this year.” Aside from that, he highlighted

difficult financing conditions look likely to remain a concern for many Malaysian small businesses this year, with nearly 50% expecting

they will face problems accessing finance.

In addition, an uncertain outlook is also expected to impact the solvency of many businesses, with 32% anticipating it will be difficult to repay debts in 2021.

On the whole, Covid-19 is likely to continue creating challenges for Malaysia’s small businesses.

Developments such as the spike in infections at the start of the year are balanced by the vaccine roll-out and easing of restrictions, which suggest a more positive picture for 2021, which is supported by the survey results.

In the survey approximately 70% expected their revenue to grow this year, up from 56% last year, driven by exports with 45% of the respondents projected revenue from overseas to grow this year.

Despite the uncertainty many businesses face, the report revealed that over a quarter of Malaysia’s small businesses expect to innovate this year. This is a higher result than for small businesses in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan.

“With many small businesses having a strong focus on innovation, e-commerce, good staff and improving business strategy, we are likely to see them recover quickly from Covid-19, especially in the second half of the year. Such a focus also sets them up for long-term growth,” said Lai.

“However, uncertainty in the economic outlook will remain an impediment to small business recovery. The government should therefore continue to play its enhanced role in supporting this fundamental sector of Malaysia’s economy in the near term.”

AirAsia to acquire remaining 20% in BigLifePETALING JAYA: AirAsia Group Bhd has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Aimia Holdings UK II Ltd for the proposed acquisition of the remaining 1.67 million shares in BigLife Sdn Bhd which are not already held by the group.

The sale, representing 20% equity interest in BigLife to AirAsia Digital Sdn Bhd will be satisfied via the issuance of 85.86 million shares or an additional 2.2% stake in AirAsia, taking Aimia’s ownership to an approximate 3.1% equity stake in AirAsia upon completion of the transaction from the current 0.93% following Aimia’s participation in the second tranche of AirAsia’s private placement recently.

The transaction is expected to complete before the end of May.

AirAsia group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said Aimia’s decision to strengthen its position in AirAsia, gives further confidence in the group’s turnaround strategy post-pandemic.

“As we continue to diversify and offer an even larger range of products and services leveraging our travel and lifestyle ecosystem via the airasia super app, BigLife is on track to become the most beneficial loyalty currency in the region.

“With full ownership of BigLife, we will have more flexibility to drive growth to become Asean’s number one redemption platform, including our points

exchange programme – BIG Xchange, that allows members to convert banking and other loyalty points immediately as a universal exchange hub for two way conversion between loyalty points,” he said.

Aimia CEO Phil Mittleman commented that by exchanging its minority position in BigLife for publicly traded stock in AirAsia, it will participate in what it believes will be significant upside in AirAsia’s equity, with the added benefit of liquidity.

“We fully support the airline’s recent efforts to strengthen its financial position and pursue its digital transformation, and we believe that AirAsia will emerge from the pandemic as a stronger airline.”

GHL pilots ‘buy now pay later’ service PETALING JAYA: GHL Systems Bhd will be piloting a new service called “Buy Now Pay Later” (BNPL) for its merchant base in Malaysia in partnership with Split, a BNPL fintech that allows businesses to offer their customers instalment payments.

GHL and Split’s BNPL partnership aims to benefit both merchants and consumers alike. Merchants are able to offer their customers the choice of up to three monthly instalments sale, thus helping boost sales and improve better cash flow as merchants receive full payment upfront from Split.

Consumers can make up to three monthly interest free instalments with instant approval with any debit or credit card from any local bank.

George Kent Q4 earnings more than doublePETALING JAYA: George Kent (Malaysia) Bhd posted a net profit of RM14.29 million for its fourth quarter ended Jan 31, 110% higher than RM6.76 million in the previous corresponding period, primarily due to robust water meter sales in the group’s global markets.

Its revenue jumped 6.6% to RM87.83 million from RM82.4 million.

For the 12 month period, its net profit fell 10% to RM37.41 million from RM41.58 million; while revenue decreased 17.8% to RM276.21 million from RM335.81 million.

The board of directors have declared a second dividend of 1.5 sen per share for FY2021, payable on April 28, 2021 to shareholders. It declared a first dividend of 1 sen per share on Sept 14, 2020 paid on Oct 22, 2020 which amounted to RM5.27 million. The two interim dividends will total RM13.12 million for the financial year ending March 31.

Commenting on the group’s performance, chairman Tan Sri Tan Kay Hock said global demand for its water meters continues to outpace production capacity.

“We continue to take measures to ensure our production personnel comply with the SOPs as the procedures are updated. We also continue to work closely with JKR to ensure the timely delivery of our construction projects.”

He said it is the group’s strategy to continue to develop its water meters. To complement its existing range of water meters by increasing the product portfolio, its R&D team is collaborating with partners and specialists to commercialise a range of other water meters, including smart meters. The enlarged portfolio will accelerate the expansion of its global market footprint.

“The group is dedicated to developing new opportunities in the regional railway space, leveraging on its expertise as rail systems specialist in domestic railway projects. Its established network with international rail specialists will assist the group in tapping into regional projects requiring international collaborations through joint ventures or strategic alliances.”

M’sian small businesses go digital in face of Covid: CPA Australia

12 theSUN ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

SUNBIZ

Foreign investors turn net sellers on BursaPETALING JAYA: Foreign investors turned net sellers of Malaysian equities last week, which saw outflow amounting to RM101.07 million, breaking a two-week streak of net buying.

As the market reopened last Monday, foreign investors bought RM26.11 million net of local equities, with retailers and local institutions as net buyers and net sellers to the tune of RM142.02 million and RM168.17 million respectively.

MIDF Research said foreign investors were net buyers every day except Tuesday and Friday during last week. Nonetheless, total inflow did not manage to reverse the selling momentum for last week, especially the net selling on Friday.

“The announcement on initiatives under the Strategic Programme to Empower the People and Economy (Pemerkasa) worth RM20 billion, along with a new fiscal injection by the government amounting to RM11 billion last week did provide some impetus to our equity market. However, this was mitigated by the impact of rising US bond yields and fears of rising inflation there,“ said MIDF Research in its fund flow report yesterday.

As for the retailers, they were net buyers every day last week. The largest net buying was recorded on Monday at RM142.05 million and smallest net purchase was on Thursday at RM59.41 million.

Meanwhile, local institutions were net sellers every day of the week, except on Friday. The mixed ending was recorded after six weeks pattern of net selling this year.

Cumulative weekly outflow was to the tune of RM421.49 million. The biggest net selling was on Monday at RM168.17 million while the smallest net selling was on Thursday at

Announcement on initiatives under Pemerkasa worth RM20 billion, along with new fiscal injection by government gave some much needed push to the equity market. - BERNAMAPIX

SC issues cease-and-desist orders

PETALING JAYA: The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has to date, following the issuance of the Guidance Note on Provision of Investment Advice on Dec 30, 2020, directed seven operators, comprising entities and related individuals, to cease and desist from undertaking all activities in relation to unlicensed investment advice.

The cease-and-desist orders were issued following the SC’s findings that these operators are carrying out the business of advising others concerning securities or derivatives, including providing stock recommendations upon payment of a fee. These activities are usually carried out in subscription-based private chat groups on Telegram, Whatsapp and Facebook.

The seven unlicensed operators and advisers are Don Trader/DT Academy Sdn Bhd; Engineer Saham/Ergonamos Marketing’s

Mohd Faizal Raihan; Felix Consulting; Lifestyle Trading Masterclass/LTM Tech’s Jeremy Looi Chee Keong; One Stock Centre/Stock Advisor/The SuperInvestor/SA Expert Consultancy’s Logeswaran Balasubramaniam; Serikandi Saham/Thoriq Legacy Sdn Bhd’s Fatin Fatini Ismadi and Teknik Saham’s Fazlisyam Md Isa.

The SC has also placed all of these operators with their relevant details in the SC’s Investor Alert List.

The SC also warned the operators of other online webinars, seminars, social media, and messaging applications chat rooms to cease carrying out unlicensed investment advice activities.

“The SC is monitoring this closely and will, where appropriate, take action against those who breach securities laws. The public are also urged to report to the SC if they have been approached by unlicensed persons offering capital

SC also warns operators of other online webinars, seminars, social media, and messaging applications chat rooms to cease carrying out unlicensed investment advice activities. - BERNAMAPIX

oRegulator directs seven operators – entities and individuals – to stop all activities related to unlicensed investment advice

Lay Hong: All Jeram farms free of Samonella EnteritidisPETALING JAYA: Lay Hong Bhd has said all their farms in Jeram, Kuala Selangor, have been been declared free of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE), after test conducted by the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) returned with negative results for SE; therefore effectively lifting the suspension of egg supply from Jeram 1 – CES 008 farm yesterday.

The testing was conducted on the eggs, environment chicken faeces, cloacal swap, feed, water and others from each farm at the lab in DVS Salak Tinggi, and was completed after than a week of suspension since SE was found in the eggs exported from Jeram Farm 1 – CES 008 to Singapore.

Lay Hong executive director Datuk Yap Chor How welcomed the news of the negative results, adding that it also showed that it is unlikely that the SE contamination discovered recently occurred at any of its farms.

“As mentioned by DVS, SE contamination did not occur within our farms and could possibly happen along with the supply to the marketing chain. We will leave this for the authorities to further investigate. Going forward, we will continue to work with the DVS to strengthen our farm control and monitoring,” Yap added.

Following the negative results of the SE testing, DVS will initiate engagement with the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) in regards to the matter. Yap said that the group hopes that Singapore will uplift the export suspension as soon as possible for its Jeram 1 farm.

Separately, Yap said that a recent recall of eggs coded CEM 014 by Singapore SFA and Aeon Co (M) Bhd did not come from any of the group’s farms.

“The group will remain committed to ensuring food safety and will remain accountable and transparent to the public in regards to its operations.

“We would like to apologise to our loyal customers and stakeholders for any misunderstanding and emotional distress. Customer safety is our top priority. All Lay Hong brand eggs are safe for human consumption,” Yap said.

Pharmaniaga to supply 200,000 doses of Covid vaccine to MOHPETALING JAYA: Pharmaniaga Bhd’s wholly owned subsidiary, Pharmaniaga Lifescience Sdn Bhd has entered into an agreement with the Malaysian government via the Health Ministry (MOH) for the supply and distribution of 200,000 doses of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine.

The imported finished product has been granted conditional approval of pharmaceutical products during disaster by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the doses purchased by the government will be distributed to facilities specified by MOH.

Aker Solutions bags FPSO contract from MISC PETALING JAYA: Aker Solutions has been awarded a contract from MISC Bhd to provide detailed engineering services for a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility, offshore Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The FPSO engineering services work scope includes detailed design for topsides, hull, marine and subsea interfaces, and the project will be led by Aker Solutions’ engineering team in Kuala Lumpur with the support from the company’s other engineering hubs globally.

“Aker Solutions has extensive experience in both newbuild and modification for FPSOs. Our engineering team in Kuala

Lumpur has over 30 years of proven capability in executing engineering projects globally,” said Aker Solutions’ Engineering Malaysia and Global Business Development senior vice-president Jason Brown.

This is the second such contract win for Aker Solutions. In October last year, Aker Solutions secured an award in China from Tianjin BOMESC Offshore Engineering Company Limited to provide engineering services for five topsides process modules with a total weight of approximately 10,000 tonnes for an FPSO project offshore Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The delivery of the project is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year.

investment advice. “While the SC carries out pro-

active internet surveillance to stem illegal capital market activities perpetrated through social media, the public are also reminded to be

vigilant and be cautious of the risks of participating in any investment schemes, as they could be defrauded or used as part of a market manipulation scheme,” SC said.

Investors should verify the licence

or registration of individuals, companies and platforms offering capital market services or products, before making any investment decision, including the provision of investment advice.

RM68.91 million. Since the beginning of 2021, cumulatively,

retailers have been the only net buyers of our equity market to the tune of RM4.76 billion. Local institutions and foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of RM3.48 billion and RM1.28

billion respectively. In terms of participation, the retail investors

and local institutions recorded a weekly decrease of 12.19% and 21.09% respectively in average daily trade value (ADTV). Meanwhile, foreign investors increased by 5.13% in ADTV.

13* SPORTS

theSUN ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

Holder’s ‘five-for’ puts Windies in charge LOSING the West Indies captaincy does not appear to have demoralised Jason Holder after the all-rounder claimed 5-27 as the hosts bowled out Sri Lanka for 169 on the opening day of the first Test yesterday. Playing his first Test since Kraigg Brathwaite replaced him as skipper earlier this month, Holder shared eight wickets with spearhead Kemar Roach (3-47). Sri Lanka opener Lahiru Thirumanne put up a fighting 70 but his teammates struggled against the disciplined West Indies attack in the opener of the two-Test series. In reply, West Indies were 13 for no loss, with Brathwaite (three) and John Campbell (seven) seeing the hosts through the final hour at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. Holder was happy with the impact he had made with the ball and was looking forward to doing some damage with the bat. “The ball came out very well, my rhythm was very good, and I also managed to get some movement off the pitch, so it was great to get among the wickets and pick up a five-for on the first day,” Holder said. “We bowled really well, and we couldn't have asked for much more. The discipline I showed

with the ball was the key.” Jones ends drought with Honda Classic triumph AUSTRALIAN Matt Jones won the Honda Classic yesterday to end a seven-year drought on the PGA Tour and turn the page on what he said was at times a challenging stretch in his career. The Sydney-born golfer’s last tour victory came at the 2014 Houston Open, when he edged Matt Kuchar in the first hole of a playoff with a 42-yard chip in for birdie. He did not allow it to be as close at PGA National in Florida on Sunday, firing a final round two-under-par 68 to win by five strokes. “I’ve had some tough times between then and now,” he said while fighting back tears. “Sorry, pretty emotional. Seven years. I just worked hard. I worked hard with my coach back in Australia Gary and it has finally

paid off.” His win guarantees Jones entry into next month’s Masters, the first major of the year.

PERISYTIHARAN JUALANDALAM MAHKAMAH TINGGI MALAYA DI PULAU PINANGPERMOHONAN PELAKSANAAN NO : PA-38-318-07/2018

SAMAN PEMULA NO : PA-24MFC-62-05/2018ANTARA

BANK ISLAM MALAYSIA BERHAD (98127-X)…. PLAINTIF/PEMEGANG GADAIAN

Dan1. NIK NAIZA BIN MOHD NASIR (NO. K/P : 831209-03-5763)2. AIDA AZURA BINTI MAT SENIN (NO. K/P : 840612-07-5778) .… DEFENDAN-DEFENDAN/PENGGADAI-PENGGADAI

AKAN MENJUAL SECARA LELONGAN AWAMPADA : RABU 31 MAC 2021 JAM: 10.30 PAGI

DI BILIK LELONG MAHKAMAH TINGGI MALAYA DI PULAU PINANGLEBUH LIGHT, 10200 PULAU PINANG

BUTIR-BUTIR HAKMILIKNO. HAKMILIK : GRN 167916 (dahulunya dikenali sebagai H.S. (D) 9616); NO. LOT : Lot 4789; MUKIM/DAERAH/NEGERI : Mukim 09 / Seberang Perai Selatan / Pulau Pinang; PEGANGAN : Selama-lamanya; KELUASAN TANAH : 86 meter persegi (925.70 kaki persegi); CUKAI TANAH : RM 40.00; KATEGORI KEGUNAAN TANAH : Tiada; PEMILIK BERDAFTAR : 1. NIK NAIZA BIN MOHD NASIR (NO. K/P : 831209-03-5763) – ½ bahagian 2. AIDA AZURA BINTI MAT SENIN (NO. K/P : 840612-07-5778) – ½ bahagian; SYARAT NYATA : (FIRST GRADE); BEBANAN : Digadaikan kepada BANK ISLAM MALAYSIA BERHAD melalui Perserahan No. 0799SC2015018103, didaftarkan pada 28 Mei 2015; SEKATAN KEPENTINGAN : Tiada;NOTA : Bakal-bakal pembeli adalah dinasihatkan agar membuat carian rasmi hakmilik di Pejabat Tanah dan

memeriksa hartanah tersebut sebelum menyertai jualan lelong.LOKASI DAN PERIHAL HARTANAH:- Hartanah berkenaan merupakan sebuah rumah teres (2) tingkat lot tengah yang terletak di alamat No. 76, Lorong Seri Acheh 1, Taman Seri Acheh, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang. Keluasan lantai hartanah adalah 125.42 meter persegi (1,350 kaki persegi). HARGA RIZAB:-Hartanah tersebut akan dijual tertakluk kepada satu harga rizab sebanyak RM 162,000.00 (Ringgit Malaysia: SATU RATUS ENAM PULUH DUA RIBU SAHAJA) dan kepada syarat-syarat jualan yang dilampirkan. Penawar yang berminat hendaklah mendepositkan 10% daripada harga rizab dalam bentuk Bank Draf di atas nama BANK ISLAM MALAYSIA BERHAD sebelum jam 9.30 pagi pada hari lelongan. Baki wang belian hendaklah dibayar oleh penawar yang berjaya kepada BANK ISLAM MALAYSIA BERHAD dalam tempoh seratus dua puluh (120) hari dari tarikh jualan.Untuk butir-butir selanjutnya, sila berhubung dengan:- Nama Pelelong: AZHARIN BIN SHAARI Firma Guaman :Syarikat Pelelong: MF PROJECT MANAGEMENT TETUAN BADRUZZAMAN & KAMALNo. Tel: 04-5755897 / 019-3331469 No. Tel:04-5377999 No. Ruj: BK/BP/LIT/BIMB/F/15194/17/BF/mas

322 Notices

NOTIS JUALAN SECARA LELONG AWAMAkta Pemegang Pajak-Gadai (81) 1972

Sandaran-sandaran yang tidak ditebus Pemegang Pajak Gadaiyang tersebut dibawah ini

Akan Di-jual Dengan Lelong Umum

Di-59 Tingkat 1 Jln Kendi Kawasan Perniagaan Pada Hari 06hb APRIL 2021, Tmn Merak 14100 Simpang Ampat Waktu 3.00 petang

NEGERI PULAU PINANG

NAMA PAJAK GADAI ALAMAT PAJAK GADAI

Pajak Gadai Emas Jaya Sdn Bhd 29 Jalan Usahawan 4 13200 Kepala Batas

Pajak Gadai YS Sdn Bhd 442 Jalan Penang 10000 Penang

Pajak Gadai Kah Hin Sdn Bhd 6688 Jalan Bagan Ajam 13000 Butterworth

YMC Capital Sdn Bhd 47 Jalan Permatang Rawa Bandar Perda 14000 Bukit Mertajam

Shun Chang Sdn Bhd 228 Jalan Pasar 14000 Bukit Mertajam

Sing Tai Foh Sdn Bhd 716 Jalan Raya 14200 Sungai Bakap

Pajak Gadai Lian Hin Sdn Bhd 1078 Jalan Che Ahmad 14300 Nibong Tebal

Pajak Gadai Sun Heng 16 Jalan Keruing Kawasan Perniagaan Simpang Ampat

Yong Chang Dang Sdn Bhd 293 Jalan Burmah 10350 Penang

Pajak Gadai Bukit Mertajam Sdn Bhd 75 G Jalan Perniagaan Gemilang 1 Pusat Perniagaan14000 Bukit Mertajam

Chung Hin Pajak Gadai 313 Lebuh Chulia 10200 Penang

Pajak Gadai Butterworth Sdn Bhd 776 G Taman Kekaya Jalan Bagan Ajam 13000 Butterworth

Pajak Gadai Yee Li Pajak Gadai Yee Li

Pajak Gadai Zillion Worth Sdn Bhd 2889 Jalan Baru Bandar Perai Jaya 13600 Perai

Sandaran-sandaran tersebut boleh diperiksa dengan Pemegang Pajak Gadai berkenaan diatas pada 24hb MAC 2021 sehingga 26hb MAC 2021, pukul 10.00 pagi sehingga 4.00 petang sebelum tarikh jualan lelong itu.Iklan Bertarikh 23-03-2021 CHONG KIAN CHONG

Pelelong Berlesen04-5792628

IN THE MATTER OF THE COMPANIES ACT, 2016

ANDIN THE MATTER OF

BEST RESULTS SDN. BHD.199201002422 (233926-M)

(Members’ Voluntary Winding-Up)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Creditors of the abovenamed Company which is being voluntarily wound-up, are required on or before the 23rd day of April 2021 to send in their names and addresses with particulars of their debts and claims, and of any security held by them, and the names and addresses of their Solicitors (if any) to the undersigned Liquidator at Suite D23, 2nd Floor, Plaza Pekeliling, No. 2 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur and if so required by notice in writing from the said Liquidator, are by their Solicitors or personally required to write in and prove their said debts and claims at such time and place as shall be specified in such notice, or in default thereof they will be excluded from the benefit of any distribution made before such debts and claims are proved.

Kuala LumpurDated this 23rd day of March 2021

Yap Siew Cheng Liquidator

Note: This notice is purely formal.All known creditors have been or will be paid in full.

IN THE MATTER OF THE COMPANIES ACT, 2016

ANDIN THE MATTER OF

BEST RESULTS SDN. BHD.199201002422 (233926-M)

(In Members’ Voluntary Winding-Up)

At an Extraordinary General Meeting of the members of BEST RESULTS SDN. BHD. duly convened and held at Suite D23, 2nd Floor, Plaza Pekeliling, No. 2 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur on the 13th day of March 2021 the following special resolutions were duly passed:-

That the Company be wound up voluntarily and that Yap Siew Cheng of Suite D23, 2nd Floor, Plaza Pekeliling, No. 2 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur be and is hereby appointed Liquidator of the Company.

That the said Liquidator be authorised to distribute either in cash, specie or in kind amongst the contributors of the Company in accordance with their respective rights and interests therein.

That the Liquidator be indemnified by the Company against all costs, charges, losses, expenses and liabilities incurred in or sustained by her in the execution and discharge of her duties as Liquidator and in relation thereto.

LOH SENGDirector

322 NoticesIN THE HIGH COURT OF MALAYA AT

KUALA LUMPUR(COMMERCIAL DIVISION)

COMPANIES (WINDING-UP) NO.: WA-28NCC-122-03/2021

In the matter of Sections 465(1)(e) and (h) of the Companies Act 2016;

And

In the matter of Companies (Winding-Up) Rules 1972;

And

In the matter of D.J. Design & Suppliers Sdn. Bhd. (Company No.: 109264-A)

BETWEEN

SIGNATURE CABINET SDN BHD(COMPANY NO.: 300330-A)

…PETITIONERAND

D.J. DESIGN & SUPPLIERS SDN. BHD.(COMPANY NO.: 109264-A)

…RESPONDENT

ADVERTISEMENT OF PETITION

NOTICE is hereby given that a Petition for the Winding-Up of the above named Company by the High Court dated 3rd day of March, 2021, presented by Signature Cabinet Sdn Bhd (Company No.: 300330-A) of Unit 30-01, Level 30, Tower A, Vertical Business Suite, Avenue 3, Bangsar South, No. 8 Jalan Kerinchi, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, the above said Petitioning Company and that the Petition is directed to be heard before the Court sitting at the High Court of Malaya at Kuala Lumpur at 9 o’clock in the forenoon, on the 25th day of May, 2021; and any creditor or contributory of the said Company desiring to support or oppose the making of an order on the said Petition may appear at the time of hearing by himself or his Counsel for that purpose; and a copy of the Petition will be furnished to any creditor or contributory of the said Company requiring the same by the undersigned on payment to the regulated charge for the same.

The Petitioner’s address is at Unit 30-01, Level 30, Tower A, Vertical Business Suite, Avenue 3, Bangsar South, No. 8 Jalan Kerinchi, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan.

The Petitioner’s solicitors are Messrs Chong + Kheng Hoe address is at A3-3-6, Block A3, Solaris Dutamas, No. 1, Jalan Dutamas 1, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.

Messrs Chong + Kheng HoeSolicitors for the Petitioner

NOTE:

Any person who intends to appear on the hearing of the said Petition must serve on or send by post to the above named Solicitors for the Petitioner notice in writing of his intention to do so. The notice must state the name and address of the person, or, if a firm, the name and address of the firm and must be signed by the person or firm, or his or their Solicitor (if any) and must be served, or, if posted, must be sent by post in sufficient time to reach the above named not later than twelve o’clock noon of the 24th day of May, 2021 (the day before the day appointed for the hearing of the Petition).[Ref: 21021235]

322 Notices IN THE HIGH COURT OF

MALAYA AT PENANGCOMPANIES (WINDING-UP) NO.

PA-28NCC-23-03/2021

In the matter of HAGER + ELSAESSER SDN. BHD. (Company No: 200001002799(505404-D))

And

In the matter of section 464(1)(b) dan 465(1)(e) Companies Act, 2016

BetweenQUANTIC LOGIC SDN. BHD.(Company No: 201201003308(976833-T))

...PETITIONER

And

HAGER + ELSAESSER SDN. BHD.(Company No: 200001002799(505404-D))

...RESPONDENT

ADVERTISEMENT OF PETITION

NOTICE is hereby given that a petition for the winding-up of the abovenamed company by the High Court was on the 8th day of March 2021 presented by Quantic Logic Sdn. Bhd. (Company No: 201201003308(976833-T)), the abovenamed Petitioner. And that the said Petition is directed to be heard before the Court sitting at Penang at 9 o’clock in the morning, on Friday, the 7th day of May, 2021; and any creditor or contributory of the said company desiring to support or oppose the making of an order on the said Petition may appear at the time of hearing by himself or his counsel for that purpose; and a copy of the Petition will be furnished to any creditor or contributory of the said company requiring the same by the undersigned on payment of the regulated charge for the same.

The Petitioner’s address is at No. 1-05-20, E-Gate, Lebuh Tunku Kudin 2, 11700 Gelugor, Pulau Pinang.

The Petitioner’s solicitor is Messrs Amir & Lee, Advocates & Solicitors of 18-25-A1, Gurney Tower, Persiaran Gurney, 10250 Pulau Pinang.

Signed,…………………Messrs Amir & Lee

Solicitors for the Petitioner

NOTE : Any persons who intends to appear on the hearing of the said petition must serve on or send by post to the above-named solicitors Messrs Amir & Lee, notice in writing of his intention so to do. The notice must state the name and address of the person, or if a firm, the name and address of the firm, and must be signed by the person or firm, or his or their solicitor (if any) and must be served, or, if posted, must be sent by post in sufficient time to reach the above-named not later that twelve o’clock noon of the day, on Thursday, the 6th day of May, 2021 (the working day before the day appointed for the hearing of the petition).

322 Notices

55 units of construction and logistics assets ready for auction! Assets ranging from busses, tankers, excavators, prime movers, wheel loaders, forklifts, food trucks and more! Join us on Tuesday, 30th March 2021 at 12.00pm sharp.

Auction Time: 30th March 2021 at 12pmPickles Industrial Auction

The auctions are conducted live and bidders can bid-in-person or ONLINE by downloading Pickles Auctions App. For more info kindly contact us at +6016-6999170 or visit www.pickles.my or email to info@pickles.my

PICKLES ASIA SDN BHD [1231292-D]Lot 19391, Batu 8 ½, Jalan Klang Lama,Taman Desaria, 46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Scan to contact us!

IN THE MATTER OF THECOMPANIES ACT 2016

ANDIN THE MATTER OFHEE HENG HEONG

ENTERPRISE SDN. BHD. 198501001519 (133966-D)

(In Members’ Voluntary Winding-Up)

NOTICE OF FINAL MEETING

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to Section 459(2) of the Companies Act 2016, the Final Meeting of the Contributories of the Company will be held at M3B/13, (1st Floor), Jalan Pandan Indah 4/1A, Pandan Indah, 55100 Kuala Lumpur on the 26 April 2021 at 10.00 a.m. forthe following purposes :-

(1) To consider the Liquidator’s Statement of Accounts showing how the winding up has been conducted and to give any explanation thereon.

(2) To resolve the manner in which the books, accounts and documents of the Company may be destroyed after the expiration of 3 months from the lodging of the Return of the Final Meeting with the Registrar and the Official Receiver

LIONG LIAN CHUNLiquidator

Kuala LumpurDated : 23 March 2021

252 DistributorsAgents Wanted 322 Notices322 Notices

PERISYTIHARAN JUALANDALAM MAHKAMAH TINGGI MALAYA DI PULAU PINANGPERMOHONAN PELAKSANAAN NO : PA-38-318-07/2018

SAMAN PEMULA NO : PA-24MFC-62-05/2018ANTARA

BANK ISLAM MALAYSIA BERHAD (98127-X)…. PLAINTIF/PEMEGANG GADAIAN

Dan1. NIK NAIZA BIN MOHD NASIR (NO. K/P : 831209-03-5763)2. AIDA AZURA BINTI MAT SENIN (NO. K/P : 840612-07-5778) .… DEFENDAN-DEFENDAN/PENGGADAI-PENGGADAI

AKAN MENJUAL SECARA LELONGAN AWAMPADA : RABU 31 MAC 2021 JAM: 10.30 PAGI

DI BILIK LELONG MAHKAMAH TINGGI MALAYA DI PULAU PINANGLEBUH LIGHT, 10200 PULAU PINANG

BUTIR-BUTIR HAKMILIKNO. HAKMILIK : GRN 167916 (dahulunya dikenali sebagai H.S. (D) 9616); NO. LOT : Lot 4789; MUKIM/DAERAH/NEGERI : Mukim 09 / Seberang Perai Selatan / Pulau Pinang; PEGANGAN : Selama-lamanya; KELUASAN TANAH : 86 meter persegi (925.70 kaki persegi); CUKAI TANAH : RM 40.00; KATEGORI KEGUNAAN TANAH : Tiada; PEMILIK BERDAFTAR : 1. NIK NAIZA BIN MOHD NASIR (NO. K/P : 831209-03-5763) – ½ bahagian 2. AIDA AZURA BINTI MAT SENIN (NO. K/P : 840612-07-5778) – ½ bahagian; SYARAT NYATA : (FIRST GRADE); BEBANAN : Digadaikan kepada BANK ISLAM MALAYSIA BERHAD melalui Perserahan No. 0799SC2015018103, didaftarkan pada 28 Mei 2015; SEKATAN KEPENTINGAN : Tiada;NOTA : Bakal-bakal pembeli adalah dinasihatkan agar membuat carian rasmi hakmilik di Pejabat Tanah dan

memeriksa hartanah tersebut sebelum menyertai jualan lelong.LOKASI DAN PERIHAL HARTANAH:- Hartanah berkenaan merupakan sebuah rumah teres (2) tingkat lot tengah yang terletak di alamat No. 76, Lorong Seri Acheh 1, Taman Seri Acheh, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang. Keluasan lantai hartanah adalah 125.42 meter persegi (1,350 kaki persegi). HARGA RIZAB:-Hartanah tersebut akan dijual tertakluk kepada satu harga rizab sebanyak RM 162,000.00 (Ringgit Malaysia: SATU RATUS ENAM PULUH DUA RIBU SAHAJA) dan kepada syarat-syarat jualan yang dilampirkan. Penawar yang berminat hendaklah mendepositkan 10% daripada harga rizab dalam bentuk Bank Draf di atas nama BANK ISLAM MALAYSIA BERHAD sebelum jam 9.30 pagi pada hari lelongan. Baki wang belian hendaklah dibayar oleh penawar yang berjaya kepada BANK ISLAM MALAYSIA BERHAD dalam tempoh seratus dua puluh (120) hari dari tarikh jualan.Untuk butir-butir selanjutnya, sila berhubung dengan:- Nama Pelelong: AZHARIN BIN SHAARI Firma Guaman :Syarikat Pelelong: MF PROJECT MANAGEMENT TETUAN BADRUZZAMAN & KAMALNo. Tel: 04-5755897 / 019-3331469 No. Tel:04-5377999 No. Ruj: BK/BP/LIT/BIMB/F/15194/17/BF/mas

322 Notices

NOTIS JUALAN SECARA LELONG AWAMAkta Pemegang Pajak-Gadai (81) 1972

Sandaran-sandaran yang tidak ditebus Pemegang Pajak Gadaiyang tersebut dibawah ini

Akan Di-jual Dengan Lelong Umum

Di-59 Tingkat 1 Jln Kendi Kawasan Perniagaan Pada Hari 06hb APRIL 2021, Tmn Merak 14100 Simpang Ampat Waktu 3.00 petang

NEGERI PULAU PINANG

NAMA PAJAK GADAI ALAMAT PAJAK GADAI

Pajak Gadai Emas Jaya Sdn Bhd 29 Jalan Usahawan 4 13200 Kepala Batas

Pajak Gadai YS Sdn Bhd 442 Jalan Penang 10000 Penang

Pajak Gadai Kah Hin Sdn Bhd 6688 Jalan Bagan Ajam 13000 Butterworth

YMC Capital Sdn Bhd 47 Jalan Permatang Rawa Bandar Perda 14000 Bukit Mertajam

Shun Chang Sdn Bhd 228 Jalan Pasar 14000 Bukit Mertajam

Sing Tai Foh Sdn Bhd 716 Jalan Raya 14200 Sungai Bakap

Pajak Gadai Lian Hin Sdn Bhd 1078 Jalan Che Ahmad 14300 Nibong Tebal

Pajak Gadai Sun Heng 16 Jalan Keruing Kawasan Perniagaan Simpang Ampat

Yong Chang Dang Sdn Bhd 293 Jalan Burmah 10350 Penang

Pajak Gadai Bukit Mertajam Sdn Bhd 75 G Jalan Perniagaan Gemilang 1 Pusat Perniagaan14000 Bukit Mertajam

Chung Hin Pajak Gadai 313 Lebuh Chulia 10200 Penang

Pajak Gadai Butterworth Sdn Bhd 776 G Taman Kekaya Jalan Bagan Ajam 13000 Butterworth

Pajak Gadai Yee Li Pajak Gadai Yee Li

Pajak Gadai Zillion Worth Sdn Bhd 2889 Jalan Baru Bandar Perai Jaya 13600 Perai

Sandaran-sandaran tersebut boleh diperiksa dengan Pemegang Pajak Gadai berkenaan diatas pada 24hb MAC 2021 sehingga 26hb MAC 2021, pukul 10.00 pagi sehingga 4.00 petang sebelum tarikh jualan lelong itu.Iklan Bertarikh 23-03-2021 CHONG KIAN CHONG

Pelelong Berlesen04-5792628

IN THE MATTER OF THE COMPANIES ACT, 2016

ANDIN THE MATTER OF

BEST RESULTS SDN. BHD.199201002422 (233926-M)

(Members’ Voluntary Winding-Up)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Creditors of the abovenamed Company which is being voluntarily wound-up, are required on or before the 23rd day of April 2021 to send in their names and addresses with particulars of their debts and claims, and of any security held by them, and the names and addresses of their Solicitors (if any) to the undersigned Liquidator at Suite D23, 2nd Floor, Plaza Pekeliling, No. 2 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur and if so required by notice in writing from the said Liquidator, are by their Solicitors or personally required to write in and prove their said debts and claims at such time and place as shall be specified in such notice, or in default thereof they will be excluded from the benefit of any distribution made before such debts and claims are proved.

Kuala LumpurDated this 23rd day of March 2021

Yap Siew Cheng Liquidator

Note: This notice is purely formal.All known creditors have been or will be paid in full.

IN THE MATTER OF THE COMPANIES ACT, 2016

ANDIN THE MATTER OF

BEST RESULTS SDN. BHD.199201002422 (233926-M)

(In Members’ Voluntary Winding-Up)

At an Extraordinary General Meeting of the members of BEST RESULTS SDN. BHD. duly convened and held at Suite D23, 2nd Floor, Plaza Pekeliling, No. 2 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur on the 13th day of March 2021 the following special resolutions were duly passed:-

That the Company be wound up voluntarily and that Yap Siew Cheng of Suite D23, 2nd Floor, Plaza Pekeliling, No. 2 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur be and is hereby appointed Liquidator of the Company.

That the said Liquidator be authorised to distribute either in cash, specie or in kind amongst the contributors of the Company in accordance with their respective rights and interests therein.

That the Liquidator be indemnified by the Company against all costs, charges, losses, expenses and liabilities incurred in or sustained by her in the execution and discharge of her duties as Liquidator and in relation thereto.

LOH SENGDirector

322 NoticesIN THE HIGH COURT OF MALAYA AT

KUALA LUMPUR(COMMERCIAL DIVISION)

COMPANIES (WINDING-UP) NO.: WA-28NCC-122-03/2021

In the matter of Sections 465(1)(e) and (h) of the Companies Act 2016;

And

In the matter of Companies (Winding-Up) Rules 1972;

And

In the matter of D.J. Design & Suppliers Sdn. Bhd. (Company No.: 109264-A)

BETWEEN

SIGNATURE CABINET SDN BHD(COMPANY NO.: 300330-A)

…PETITIONERAND

D.J. DESIGN & SUPPLIERS SDN. BHD.(COMPANY NO.: 109264-A)

…RESPONDENT

ADVERTISEMENT OF PETITION

NOTICE is hereby given that a Petition for the Winding-Up of the above named Company by the High Court dated 3rd day of March, 2021, presented by Signature Cabinet Sdn Bhd (Company No.: 300330-A) of Unit 30-01, Level 30, Tower A, Vertical Business Suite, Avenue 3, Bangsar South, No. 8 Jalan Kerinchi, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, the above said Petitioning Company and that the Petition is directed to be heard before the Court sitting at the High Court of Malaya at Kuala Lumpur at 9 o’clock in the forenoon, on the 25th day of May, 2021; and any creditor or contributory of the said Company desiring to support or oppose the making of an order on the said Petition may appear at the time of hearing by himself or his Counsel for that purpose; and a copy of the Petition will be furnished to any creditor or contributory of the said Company requiring the same by the undersigned on payment to the regulated charge for the same.

The Petitioner’s address is at Unit 30-01, Level 30, Tower A, Vertical Business Suite, Avenue 3, Bangsar South, No. 8 Jalan Kerinchi, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan.

The Petitioner’s solicitors are Messrs Chong + Kheng Hoe address is at A3-3-6, Block A3, Solaris Dutamas, No. 1, Jalan Dutamas 1, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.

Messrs Chong + Kheng HoeSolicitors for the Petitioner

NOTE:

Any person who intends to appear on the hearing of the said Petition must serve on or send by post to the above named Solicitors for the Petitioner notice in writing of his intention to do so. The notice must state the name and address of the person, or, if a firm, the name and address of the firm and must be signed by the person or firm, or his or their Solicitor (if any) and must be served, or, if posted, must be sent by post in sufficient time to reach the above named not later than twelve o’clock noon of the 24th day of May, 2021 (the day before the day appointed for the hearing of the Petition).[Ref: 21021235]

322 Notices IN THE HIGH COURT OF

MALAYA AT PENANGCOMPANIES (WINDING-UP) NO.

PA-28NCC-23-03/2021

In the matter of HAGER + ELSAESSER SDN. BHD. (Company No: 200001002799(505404-D))

And

In the matter of section 464(1)(b) dan 465(1)(e) Companies Act, 2016

BetweenQUANTIC LOGIC SDN. BHD.(Company No: 201201003308(976833-T))

...PETITIONER

And

HAGER + ELSAESSER SDN. BHD.(Company No: 200001002799(505404-D))

...RESPONDENT

ADVERTISEMENT OF PETITION

NOTICE is hereby given that a petition for the winding-up of the abovenamed company by the High Court was on the 8th day of March 2021 presented by Quantic Logic Sdn. Bhd. (Company No: 201201003308(976833-T)), the abovenamed Petitioner. And that the said Petition is directed to be heard before the Court sitting at Penang at 9 o’clock in the morning, on Friday, the 7th day of May, 2021; and any creditor or contributory of the said company desiring to support or oppose the making of an order on the said Petition may appear at the time of hearing by himself or his counsel for that purpose; and a copy of the Petition will be furnished to any creditor or contributory of the said company requiring the same by the undersigned on payment of the regulated charge for the same.

The Petitioner’s address is at No. 1-05-20, E-Gate, Lebuh Tunku Kudin 2, 11700 Gelugor, Pulau Pinang.

The Petitioner’s solicitor is Messrs Amir & Lee, Advocates & Solicitors of 18-25-A1, Gurney Tower, Persiaran Gurney, 10250 Pulau Pinang.

Signed,…………………Messrs Amir & Lee

Solicitors for the Petitioner

NOTE : Any persons who intends to appear on the hearing of the said petition must serve on or send by post to the above-named solicitors Messrs Amir & Lee, notice in writing of his intention so to do. The notice must state the name and address of the person, or if a firm, the name and address of the firm, and must be signed by the person or firm, or his or their solicitor (if any) and must be served, or, if posted, must be sent by post in sufficient time to reach the above-named not later that twelve o’clock noon of the day, on Thursday, the 6th day of May, 2021 (the working day before the day appointed for the hearing of the petition).

322 Notices

55 units of construction and logistics assets ready for auction! Assets ranging from busses, tankers, excavators, prime movers, wheel loaders, forklifts, food trucks and more! Join us on Tuesday, 30th March 2021 at 12.00pm sharp.

Auction Time: 30th March 2021 at 12pmPickles Industrial Auction

The auctions are conducted live and bidders can bid-in-person or ONLINE by downloading Pickles Auctions App. For more info kindly contact us at +6016-6999170 or visit www.pickles.my or email to info@pickles.my

PICKLES ASIA SDN BHD [1231292-D]Lot 19391, Batu 8 ½, Jalan Klang Lama,Taman Desaria, 46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Scan to contact us!

IN THE MATTER OF THECOMPANIES ACT 2016

ANDIN THE MATTER OFHEE HENG HEONG

ENTERPRISE SDN. BHD. 198501001519 (133966-D)

(In Members’ Voluntary Winding-Up)

NOTICE OF FINAL MEETING

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to Section 459(2) of the Companies Act 2016, the Final Meeting of the Contributories of the Company will be held at M3B/13, (1st Floor), Jalan Pandan Indah 4/1A, Pandan Indah, 55100 Kuala Lumpur on the 26 April 2021 at 10.00 a.m. forthe following purposes :-

(1) To consider the Liquidator’s Statement of Accounts showing how the winding up has been conducted and to give any explanation thereon.

(2) To resolve the manner in which the books, accounts and documents of the Company may be destroyed after the expiration of 3 months from the lodging of the Return of the Final Meeting with the Registrar and the Official Receiver

LIONG LIAN CHUNLiquidator

Kuala LumpurDated : 23 March 2021

252 DistributorsAgents Wanted 322 Notices322 Notices

BRIEFS

Matt Jones

14 theSUN ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

SPORTS

JUVENTUS’ hopes of winning a 10th consecutive Serie A title took another blow yesterday with a 1-0 home loss to lowly Benevento as AC Milan closed the gap on

leaders Inter Milan with a hard-fought 3-2 win at Fiorentina.

Adolfo Gaich scored the only goal in the 69th minute at Juve’s Allianz Stadium following a bad pass across his own penalty area by midfielder Arthur.

Andrea Pirlo’s side stay third, 10 points behind Inter whose match against Sassuolo was postponed because of a Covid-19 outbreak at the league leaders.

Second-placed Milan are four points ahead of the reigning champions after they recovered from their Europa League exit to Manchester United by cutting the deficit to Inter to six points with a 3-2 win over Fiorentina.

For Juve, who have 11 games left to play this season, it was another blow after being dumped out of the Champions League at the last 16 stage by Porto earlier this month.

“We performed poorly, in every aspect,” said Pirlo.

“We have to continue to believe in the title.

The objective does not change, it’s the mindset which must.”

Serie A top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo drew a blank in Turin a week after reaching 770 goals to beat Pele’s all-time mark of 767, with Benevento goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo pulling off a string of fine saves.

Benevento now sit seven points away from the drop zone in 16th.

In Florence, Zlatan Ibrahimovic returned to the starting line-up for Milan for the first time in over three weeks and scored after nine minutes following Simon Kjaer’s ball over the top.

But Milan needed Brahim Diaz’s 57th-minute strike and a Hakan Calhanoglu winner with quarter of an hour to go to snatch victory.

A curling Erick Pulgar freekick had pulled Fiorentina level with Franck Ribery then putting the hosts ahead six minutes after the break.

“It was very important to win like this after the defeat against Manchester United,” said Ibrahimovic, who at 39 became the oldest player to score 15 goals in a single Serie A season.

Atalanta bounced back after their Champions

League exit to Real Madrid with a 2-0 win at Hellas Verona to consolidate fourth place, equal on points with Juventus.

Atalanta are two points ahead of Napoli who beat Champions League rivals Roma 2-0 at the Stadio Olimpico thanks to a Dries Mertens brace.

Roma are the only Italian side left in Europe and showed signs of fatigue after their Europa League trip to Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk on Thursday.

“Perhaps we don’t have the mentality required to compete against these sort of teams,” said Roma coach Paulo Fonseca, whose side have struggled for results against Serie A’s top teams.

“In the first half the team looked to be without courage… When we are afraid of losing, or afraid of playing, it all becomes a lot harder.”

Lazio recovered from their Champions League elimination to Bayern Munich with a 1-0 win at Udinese thanks to an Adam Marusic goal.

Simone Inzaghi’s side are seventh but now just one point behind their city rivals with a game in hand. – AFP

Malaysia celebrates Zii Jia’s All England winLEE ZII JIA was hailed as a “hero” yesterday after winning the All England Open and igniting Malaysia’s hopes of success at the Tokyo Olympics, even without retired legend Lee Chong Wei.

The young Malaysian star defeated Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen 30-29, 20-22, 21-9 Sunday to win the All England Badminton Championship, one of the sport’s most prestigious tournaments, for the first time.

On his way to victory, the 22-year-old also beat two-time world champion Kento Momota, who was returning to international action after being injured in a car crash in Malaysia last year.

“Well done Lee Zii Jia! You are a national hero,” Malaysian

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin posted on

Facebook. “Use this victory

as a catalyst to work harder and to

become greater in future.”

The Star

newspaper praised 10th-ranked Lee’s victory as a “smashing breakthrough on the international stage”, and declared: “A new star is born”.

The win added to hopes that Malaysia has found a player to continue the country’s success in badminton following the 2019 retirement of Lee Chong Wei.

The elder Lee was a three-time Olympic silver medallist and one of the greatest players of his generation.

Norza Zakaria, president of the Badminton Association of Malaysia, praised Lee Zii Jia’s victory as a “real achievement”.

“It augurs well with our plan to bring in new young players after the retirement of Lee Chong Wei… and to maintain Malaysia’s presence on the international stage as a powerhouse,” he told AFP.

It came just months before the virus-delayed Tokyo Olympics but some Asian

countries, notably powerhouse China, did not send players to

the All England tournament. And Norza refused to

be drawn on the younger Lee’s chances at the Games.

“I don’t want to pressure him. My advice to him is to

stay grounded – it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

Meanwhile, Chong Wei gave useful

advice that prompted the country’s current top men’s singles shuttler Zii Jia to propel his way to emerge victorious at the 2021 All England Badminton Championships on Sunday.

The 22-year-old Alor Setar-born admitted that Chong Wei always contacted him to give words of encouragement before he stepped into the court in any badminton tournaments.

“Chong Wei said the coach will help you (as much as) 20% (to gain your strength to win), but you yourself must have another 80% to fight,” he said in a video shared by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to the media.

Commenting on the final showdown, Zii Jia said he knew he had the chance to clinch the title when Axelsen started to lose focus in the deciding set.

“It was indeed a tough game especially in the first set and after losing the second set, I told myself just focus to score every point in this game because if you lost it, your opponent will try to take advantage of it.

“For me, both of us played very well until the third set in which Axelsen began to lose focus and that was the moment where I got the advantage to edge him,” he added.

This was only Zii Jia’s second victory in five meetings against Axelsen, who was competing in his third consecutive final in the tournament. – AFP/BERNAMA

Juve’s title hopes rocked… as Milan keep pressure on Inter

Messi on song as Barca thrash SociedadLIONEL MESSI scored twice yesterday as Barcelona trounced Real Sociedad 6-1 to keep the pressure on Atletico Madrid, who squeezed past Alaves thanks to a late penalty save from Jan Oblak.

Oblak’s 86th-minute heroics ensured Luis Suarez’s 500th career goal was enough for a 1-0 victory at the Wanda Metropolitano, meaning the gap at the top of La Liga remains at four points, with 10 games left to play.

But the contrast between Atletico’s nervy win against 19th-placed Alaves and Barca’s demoli-tion of a Real Sociedad side with hopes of quali-fying for Europe spoke volumes about where the momentum lies in the Spanish title race.

Atletico will hope Oblak’s save can prove to be a turning point after a challenging few weeks, while the international break might offer Diego Simeone’s side a chance to reset and refresh ahead of the run-in.

“There are games where you suffer but that’s what makes football beautiful,” said Oblak.

Simeone said: “Like all great teams, there is always one that scores a lot of goals and one that makes a lot of saves. They are both decisive play-ers who make the team stronger.”

Barcelona have hit their stride, their six goals against Real Sociedad no less than they deserved for a scintillating attacking display, and perhaps their best since Ronald Koeman took charge.

“The team has improved a lot recently,” said Koeman. “We’ve gone a lot of games without losing in the league, which was the only way to get back in the fight for th title.

“But we’re still behind Atleti, Real Madrid are stronger. We have to keep going to the end.”

For Barcelona, it is a ninth con-secutive away win in the league, with a club record 10th within their grasp if they beat Real Madrid in the Clasico on April 10.

Real Sociedad next play Basque rivals Athletic Bilbao in the post-poned Copa del Rey final from last year on April 3. – AFP

KYLIAN MBAPPE warned he is “only just getting started” after scoring his 100th goal in France’s top flight as Paris Saint-Germain swept aside title rivals Lyon 4-2 on Sunday to move to the top of Ligue 1 following a shock defeat for previous leaders Lille earlier.

Mbappe netted twice at the Groupama Stadium with

Danilo Pereira and Angel Di Maria also

on target before Islam Slimani and

Maxwel Cornet pulled goals back for the home side.

The result allowed Mauricio Pochettino’s team to move into first place on goal difference from Lille, who

were beaten 2-1 at home by struggling Nimes in a huge blow to their own title hopes.

Lyon would have gone top themselves with a victory but instead they remain three points off the lead in third place, while Monaco are another point back in fourth after winning 4-0 at Saint-Etienne on Friday.

Mbappe is Ligue 1’s leading scorer with 20 goals this season and has reached a century of goals in France’s top flight in 142 appearances at the age of just 22.

“I knew I was just two goals away. It’s a new step in my career, another step towards history. These are things that stay with you,” Mbappe told Canal Plus.

“I am only just getting started. I still have a lot of years in front of me to perfect and improve my game so I think it can only get better.

“We played well, we won, we

have taken back first place and now we’ll try not to give it up,” Mbappe added.

Pochettino’s side are next in action after the international break on April 3 when they entertain Lille in another top-of-the-table encounter.

Lille had been top at the start of the day but their hopes of a first title in a decade suffered a major blow against Nimes.

Goals from Senegalese striker Moussa Kone and captain Renaud Ripart, either side of Xeka’s equaliser for Lille, gave Nimes a victory which lifted them out of the automatic relegation places.

Lille have now won just twice in league games and been eliminated from both the Europa League and French Cup in recent weeks.

Nimes move up into the relegation play-off position while Nantes, held 1-1 by Lorient, slip to 19th. – AFP

PSG beat Lyon to go top as Mbappe scores 100th Ligue 1 goal

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15* SPORTS

theSUN ON TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: West Ham 3 (Lingard 15, Bowen 17, Soucek 32) Arsenal 3 (Soucek 38-og, Dawson 61-og, Lacazette 82), Aston Villa 0 Tottenham 2 (Vinicius 29, Kane 68-pen).

P W D L F A Pts Man City 30 22 5 3 64 21 71 Man Utd 29 16 9 4 56 32 57 Leicester 29 17 5 7 53 32 56 Chelsea 29 14 9 6 44 25 51 West Ham 29 14 7 8 45 35 49 Tottenham 29 14 6 9 49 30 48 Liverpool 29 13 7 9 48 36 46 Everton 28 14 4 10 40 37 46 Arsenal 29 12 6 11 40 32 42 Aston Villa 28 12 5 11 39 30 41 Leeds 29 12 3 14 45 47 39 Crystal Palace 29 10 7 12 31 47 37 Wolves 29 9 8 12 28 38 35 Southampton 29 9 6 14 36 51 33 Burnley 29 8 9 12 22 37 33 Brighton 29 7 11 11 32 36 32 Newcastle 29 7 7 15 28 48 28 Fulham 30 5 11 14 23 38 26 West Brom 29 3 9 17 20 57 18 Sheff Utd 29 4 2 23 16 50 14 FA CUP (Quarterfinals): Leicester 3 (Iheana-cho 25, 78, Tielemans 52) Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 38), Chelsea 2 (Norwood 24-og, Ziyech 90+2) Sheffield United 0. LA LIGA: Getafe 1 (Unal 60) Elche 1 (Milla 20), Villarreal 2 (Gerard 5-pen, Bacca 67) Cadiz 1 (Alex 69), Valencia 2 (Wass 4, Blanco Sanchez 66) Granada 1 (Soldado 90), Atletico Madrid 1 (Suarez 54) Alaves 0, Real Sociedad 1 (Barrenetxea 77) Barcelona 6 (Griezmann 37, Dest 43, 53, Messi 56, 89, Dembele 71).

TOP 10 P W D L F A Pts Atlético 28 20 6 2 51 18 66 Barcelona 28 19 5 4 67 24 62 Real Madrid 28 18 6 4 49 23 60 Sevilla 28 17 4 7 39 21 55 Sociedad 28 12 9 7 44 28 45 Betis 28 14 3 11 38 41 45 Villarreal 28 10 13 5 39 31 43 Granada 28 10 6 12 34 46 36 Bilbao 28 9 8 11 38 32 35 Levante 28 8 11 9 36 37 35 SERIE A: Hellas Verona 0 Atalanta 2 (Malinovskyi 33-pen, Zapata 42), Udinese 0 Lazio 1 (Marusic 37), Juventus 0 Benevento 1 (Gaich 69), Sampdoria 1 (Candreva 25) Torino 0, Fiorentina 2 (Pulgar 17, Ribery 51) AC Milan 3 (Ibrahimovic 9, Diaz 57, Calhanoglu 72), Roma 0 Napoli 2 (Mertens 27, 34). TOP 10 P W D L F A Pts Inter 27 20 5 2 65 26 65 Milan 28 18 5 5 53 33 59 Juventus 27 16 7 4 54 23 55 Atalanta 28 16 7 5 65 34 55 Napoli 27 17 2 8 58 29 53 Roma 28 15 5 8 51 42 50 Lazio 27 15 4 8 43 37 49 Sassuolo 27 10 9 8 45 44 39 Verona 28 10 8 10 36 34 38 Sampdoria 28 10 5 13 38 42 35 BUNDESLIGA: Hoffenheim 1 Mainz 2, Hertha Berlin 3 Bayer Leverkusen 0, Freiburg 2 Augsburg 0. TOP P W D L F A Pts Bayern 26 19 4 3 78 35 61 Leipzig 26 17 6 3 48 21 57 Wolfsburg 26 14 9 3 45 22 51 Frankfurt 26 12 11 3 53 36 47 Dortmund 26 13 4 9 54 37 43 Leverkusen 26 11 7 8 43 31 40 Union Berlin 26 9 11 6 40 32 38 Freiburg 26 10 7 9 39 39 37 Stuttgart 26 9 9 8 47 41 36 M'gladbach 26 9 9 8 44 40 36 LIGUE 1: Strasbourg 1 Lens 2, Montpellier 3 Bordeaux 1, Brest 0 Angers 0, Dijon 0 Reims 1, Nantes 1 Lorient 1, Lille 1 Nimes 2, Lyon 2 Paris Saint-Germain 4.

RESULTS & STANDINGS SIDENETTING

Leicester looking for ‘special’ FA Cup win LEICESTER CITY manager Brendan Rodgers said his team are aiming to create history by winning the FA Cup for the first time after yesterday’s 3-1 quarterfinal win over Manchester United moved them one step closer. Rodgers’ side beat United to reach the semifinals of the competition for the first time since 1982. They face Southampton for a berth in the final. “We are in the semifinal and we have a chance to get to the final and create history,” Rodgers said. “For the club to get to the final and win the trophy would be really special. It’s a trophy in their history they haven’t won. It’s a tough game in the semifinal but the club has never won the FA Cup so to be able to do something like that will be special.” Fernandes needed a break, says Solskjaer MANCHESTER UNITED manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said midfielder Bruno Fernandes needed a break after the Portugal international was left out of the starting lineup for yesterday’s 3-1 FA Cup quarterfinal defeat by Leicester City. Fernandes, who been a stand-out performer for United with 23 goals and 13 assists in 45 games in all competitions, replaced Donny van der Beek in the 64th minute. Explaining the decision to leave Fernandes out of the starting 11, Solskjaer said the 26-year-old had played a lot of football this season. “He’s also a human being, he’s played a game every three or four days really,” he added. “I know Bruno wants to play but sometimes you make decisions for the benefit of both the team and him.” Relaxed Rice is relishing role as West Ham skipper WEST HAM UNITED midfielder Declan Rice said his laidback nature had helped him in his role as skipper of the Premier League team this season in the absence of club captain Mark Noble. The 33-year-old Noble, who has made more than 500 appearances for the club in all competitions, has found playing time limited in the current campaign with David Moyes's side pushing for a top-four finish. England international Rice has stepped into the leadership role and said his personality had played an important part in his success. “I’m not one that when I’m wearing the armband, I’m shouting around at everyone. I’m more one that’s around to support rather than be negative, because everyone’s always going to make a mistake,” Rice told global broadcaster beIN SPORTS. “I’m quite a laidback character. I’m full of energy but I’m laidback. When people are really serious sometimes, I’m chilled. So I think that’s helped with the lads.”

Ramsey to miss World Cup qualifiers JUVENTUS midfielder Aaron Ramsey will miss Wales’ 2022 World Cup qualifiers against Belgium and Czech Republic this month due to injury, the Welsh FA said yesterday. Ramsey was named in the squad last week despite concerns about a thigh injury he picked up when playing for Juventus. The Italian champions earlier said the 30-year-old had sustained a “low-grade lesion” in his left thigh. Wales are scheduled to travel to Belgium for a qualifier on Wednesday before play-ing a friendly against Mexico on Saturday in Cardiff. They host Czech Republic in a qualifier on March 30.

FA CUP DRAW

Leicester vs Southampton

Chelsea vs Man City

Remarkable comeback

Gunners secure late draw against Hammers amid glorious chaos

ONE of the games of the season, and a showcase of everything that has been good and bad about both West Ham United and Arsenal.

Mikel Arteta’s side will feel much better after it, however, having come back from 3-0 down to claim a raucous 3-3 draw.

Even if some of the football that put them behind showed how much the Basque still has to solve, it is an indication of Arsenal’s progress that they turned it around.

Earlier in the season, it would have been easy to see this becoming 4-1 rather than 3-0. They displayed excellent character instead, a lot of it from Martin Odegaard displaying exquisite football.

He was the source of so much that was good, even if we had the odd fact that West Ham players had put in five of the six goals. Alex Lacazette still claimed that clinching equaliser.

Maybe that collapse is a sign of West Ham’s own levelling off, as their European hopes again become that bit more complicated.

If it would Arsenal would have allowed this to become 4-1 a few months ago, West Ham probably would have kept it at 3-1 a few months ago. They are not quite as robust as they had been.

That shouldn’t be to criticise David Moyes. No matter what happens from here, he has drastically over-performed with this team this season.

Arteta criticised his side’s inconsistency despite a fightback from three goals down to draw 3-3 at West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday.

A slow start from the Gunners saw Arteta’s

men concede three times in the opening 32 minutes as Jesse Lingard, Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Soucek struck for the Hammers.

But own goals from Soucek and Craig Dawson cut Arsenal’s deficit before Alexandre Lacazette’s header rescued a point eight minutes from time.

A share of the spoils from a thrilling encounter did little for either side’s hopes of a top-four finish.

West Ham remain in fifth, but are two points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea.

Arsenal’s realistic hopes of Champions League football next season now hinge on success in the Europa League as they are nine points adrift of the top four down in ninth.

“I am very disappointed because I cannot accept my team to play in the manner as we did for certain periods in the first half,” said Arteta.

“What I expect is for us to play at the level we showed in the second half. We could have scored six or seven goals.

“We are all the time in reverse because we have two faces. The first face is about giving goals to the opponent and not doing what we have to do and it is not good enough.”

There was still gloriously chaotic drama in between all of that. Declan Rice almost scored one of the goals of the season with a run from his own half that ended up with Leno desperately beating the ball away.

The goalkeeper could do little before that, when Said Benrahma flashed a ball across for Antonio, only for the latter’s strike to hit the post.

Even by that point, it felt like it would have been wrong for either side to come away with nothing from a match that had almost everything. – The Independent/AFP

ARSENAL manager Mikel Arteta said his side’s Jekyll and Hyde display in yesterday’s 3-3 Premier League draw at West Ham United was enough to give him nightmares.

The Spaniard looked aghast on the touchline as a dominant West Ham punished his lacklustre team by scoring three times in the opening 32 minutes with goals by Jesse Lingard, Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Soucek.

Arsenal were in danger of a humiliating drubbing at that point, having failed to get out of first gear, but they hit back in stunning fashion to earn an unlikely point with own goals by Soucek and Craig Dawson and a late Alexandre Lacazette header.

While praising his side’s response, Arteta was scathing about the way they started the game.

“This game is going to give me a few nightmares because it is really difficult to stop some of the things we have been doing to hurt ourselves,” Arteta said.

“Hard to explain, we knew the game we would face against West Ham, they can create problems for any team,” Arteta said.

“The first goal is something they do really well – the second and third goal, and the chance that we conceded at the end, is unacceptable.”

West Ham manager David Moyes said there had been “loads of positives” from his side’s display, although he was disappointed that they had missed a chance to move level on points with fourth-placed Chelsea.

“It would have been nice to take the three points because it would have kept us right in there, but we’ve not lost too much ground,” a phlegmatic Moyes said.

“It has been a long time since we finished above Arsenal, we have done our best to make sure they can’t catch us. Now we want more, I’m greedy and they are devastated in the dressing room at not taking three points.” – Reuters

Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette (left) celebrates scoring their third goal with teammates during their English Premier League match against West Ham United at the London Stadium on Sunday. – REUTERSPIX

Arsenal’s draw with West Ham will give me nightmares: Arteta

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This game is going to give me a few night-mares because it is really difficult to stop

some of the things we have been doing to hurt ourselves. Hard to explain, we knew the game we would face against West Ham, they can create prob-lems for any team.”

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta

QUOTE OF THE DAY

TUESDAY • MARCH 23, 2021

Mourinho delivers loaded message to players after Villa winA CALM and reflective Jose Mourinho delivered what appeared to be a loaded message to his players after his Spurs side won 2-0 at Aston Villa.

The Portuguese boss was pleased with the reaction he received from his players following the embarrassing Europa League capitulation at the hands of Dinamo Zagreb in midweek.

He decided to shake things up at Villa Park and opted for a change of system as he paired Carlos Vinicius with Harry Kane up top.

It was a move he did not live to regret as both were on target for the visitors to keep their top-four hopes alive following a 2-0 victory.

Harry Winks and Matt Doherty were left back at home while Serge Aurier and Toby Alderweireld missed out through illness.

Young guns Japhet Tanganga and Joe Rodon both impressed as Spurs recorded a clean sheet while Lucas Moura also caught the

eye in attack. It’s been a difficult week for Tottenham but it

was crucial they ended on a high heading into the international break.

They are now just three points adrift of Chelsea in fourth as Mourinho laid down his marker that this was the level of performance expected from his players from now on.

“A good result,” he told Sky Sports. “The players deserve total credit. They had a great attitude. They gave absolutely everything. They played like a team.

“The next challenge is to play like this not in reaction but as a permanent thing.

“We had the right attitude. We changed a few things but this is not about tactics but attitude. The players gave everything. We saw fatigue but this is a match where had to give everything. We need this attitude every match.”

Mourinho struggled to accept his side’s performances in the defeats to Arsenal and

Dinamo and felt they could have left more on the field.

However, at Villa Park he saw a group of players committed to the cause that were fighting for the badge.

“You need time to develop this (squad harmony),” he added.

“I want to be proud of my players regardless of the result. During my career I was proud of my players after defeat many times. I was not proud last week. I want to be proud every time.”

Kane struck his 27th goal of the season and was also satisfied with the response to Thursday’s disaster in Croatia.

“The last few games we haven’t been good enough so we had to bounce back with a win. We had fallen short of our standards,” he said.

“You saw today, people putting their bodies on the line. We are going to need more of that.

“Going out of the Europa League in that fashion was embarrassing for us as players.

“The only way we can give back to the fans and to the club is to get back out there on the pitch and show what we are made of. I think we did that today.”

It was two errors which cost the hosts, as Villa never recovered once Moura pounced on keeper Martinez Martinez’ poor clearance, while defender Matty Cash needlessly felled Kane at the byline to conceed a sloppy penalty, which the England skipper gladly picked himself up to score.

“If you make mistakes like we did for their goals and don’t create or show much quality in the final third, you are going to lose games,” Villa boss Dean Smith told BBC Sport.

“They got numbers behind the ball but we got into the box a number of times and either hit the first man or didn’t show the quality needed. That’s what’s probably lacking with us at the moment.” – Express Sports/ The Independent/Agencies

Worn out DevilsSolskjaer points to fatigue and ‘behind the scenes’ issues after FA Cup exit

MANCHESTER UNITED were well beaten by Leicester in the FA Cup and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

has pointed to fatigue and issues behind the scenes as the reason for the defeat. It means the wait for his first trophy as manager at Old Trafford goes on.

Leicester dominated the game with Kelechi Iheancho scoring twice and Youri Tielemans also on target.

Mason Greenwood had equalised for United against the run of play but in truth they rarely threatened the Foxes.

It means United now have the Europa League as their only chance of silverware this season.

Solskjaer believes his players are exhausted and that was the reason they struggled to create against an impressive Leicester side.

He said to BBC Sport: “We didn’t have the spark tonight – but it’s understandable. This team have been fantastic in the last three or four months.

“We played every three days and been on a great run. It just caught up with us, all the games and travels.

“Thursday night in Milan was a big night and took a lot of out of us physically. We didn’t have the extra zip, authority and confidence today.

“We tried to get on the front foot and start well because sometimes you can get that adrenaline boost and confidence if you get a goal and that can carry you over the line.

“We’ve got too many players that have played too many games and too many that haven’t really had much football, Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek, Paul Pogba and others are trying to get in who haven’t had enough football.

“We didn’t have enough against a tough team.”

Solskjaer also made it clear only he knows what is going on with his players and their fitness and therefore would not have changed his selection.

Some United fans were surprised when the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Edinson Cavani and Scott McTominay

Leicester City’s Wilfred Ndidi (right) vies with Manchester United’s

Paul Pogba during their English FA Cup

quarterfinal match at King Power Stadium yesterday. – AFPPIX

were only on the bench. Solskjaer explained: “I would’ve

done the same again, the changes were necessary to do.

“We knew Paul (Pogba) wouldn’t last more than an hour and I don’t think I would do anything differently. What goes on behind the scenes isn’t always known.”

Solskjaer is now focused on the Europa League and a strong finish in the top flight.

He added: “We’ve got the Europa League and Premier League to concentrate on – yes we would’ve liked to go to Wembley but now all the focus is on the games we do have.

“We’re in a good position in the league and we want to keep improving, of course Leicester are just behind us so it won’t be easy but we want to keep going and get as far as possible in the Europa as well.”

Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers stated his pleasure at leading The Foxes to their first FA Cup semifinal in 39 years and praised the form of goalscorer Iheanacho.

“I’m delighted. It was a great team performance in every aspect. We showed the calmness and courage to play our game against one of the best teams and we thoroughly deserved it,” Rodgers said,

“He’s (Iheanacho) always contributed, if he comes off the bench maybe confidence is lower but he’s always committed. His touch and movement without the ball is at a very high level.

“It’s a different structure. The players know the systems, they are intelligent and interpret play well. Kelechi is better when he has someone up there with him and the combinations are working very well.”

“You’re playing against a top-level team and know you’ll have moments of pressure, but our solidity and intensity of press was very good.

“All round, to beat Man United 3-1 you have to be complete in all aspects of your game and we did that.” – Express Newspapers/The Independent