Critical success factors of the nine challenges in Malaysia's Vision 2020

By the year 2020, Malaysia aspires to become a fully developed nation. In order to realize this vision, formally termed ‘Vision 2020’, Malaysia must address nine strategic challenges identified by the government of former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad. These challenges are: (1) Establishing a united Malaysian nation, (2) Creating a psychologically liberated, secure, and developed Malaysian society, (3) Developing a mature democratic society, (4) Forming a community that has high morale, ethics, and religious strength, (5) Establishing a mature, liberal and tolerant society, (6) Establishing a scientific and progressive society, (7) Establishing a fully caring society, (8) Ensuring an economically just society, and (9) Establishing a prosperous society. The present paper seeks to identify and rank the critical success factors of these nine challenges by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process. A number of ‘front-line’ critical success factors are discussed at length. The paper also analyzes the impact of respondents’ demography on the outcomes. The findings are expected to provide valuable guidelines to the Malaysian government in course of developing effective action plans to achieve Vision 2020

THE IMPACT OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRAMS OFFERED BY POLYTECHNICS ON MALAYSIA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BASED ON THE GRADUATE’S JOB PERFORMANCE

Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is the corner stone of Malaysia’s technological advancement, in providing skilled and semi skilled workforce for various sectors, having a direct impact on the development of economy and the eradication of poverty in the country. The objectives of this study is to: learn of the caliber of graduates who are capable of carrying out the jobs they are trained and hired for; learn more about the quality of polytechnics TVET programs in light of its historical developmental processes and meeting the challenges of time; study the impact of programs in economic development; learn of the best practices of the similar programs of the same caliber in other technological advanced countries of the region; partnerships between skills development service providers and employers, assessment of the initiatives that can be taken into consideration to improve the employability among people of various skills; suggest measures of improvement based on findings while comparisons are made with the selected technologically advanced countries of Asia; and recommend improved training programs based on Assessment Research where competent graduates who can meet the challenges of the 21st century becomes the target of the programs. The findings of the study and the comparison of the similar programs in technologically advanced countries of Asia will provide suggestions for the authorities and policy makers to incorporate changes and strategies for the improvement of the TVET programs in Malaysia. The immediate contributions of this study will provide Polytechnics the reasons to revise and improve the existing programs while reviewing the best practices of the countries of the region. The research method for the purpose of this study is Assessment Research indicating the process of collecting, synthesizing and interpreting information to aid in decision making of the future academic programs of Polytechnics that can be also used for planning academic programs and setting up goals, selecting more relevant instructional strategies and monitoring students’ progress toward the attainment of the goals

The legal response to computer misuse in Malaysia - The Computer Crimes Act 1997 / Dr. Zaiton Hamin

Malaysia is embarking onto a massive and ambitious plan to become a fully developed nation with a value-based society by the year 2020. The Prime Minster, Dr Mahathir, had laid down the groundwork for this government policy in 1991 with his announcement of Vision 2020. The government perceives the application of information and communication technologies across both Malaysian society and economy as a means of achieving these goals and symbols of success.1 Thus, the present thrust in Malaysia's development plans is to build a "knowledge-based economy" which leads to the establishment of a National IT Agenda (NITA) to formulate a combination of goals and means as the roles of information, knowledge and "echnopreneurship" working together to transform the economy into a "knowledge economy" (k-economy) and the society into a "knowledge society" (k-society).2 To achieve these broad aims a legislative platform or what is termed by NITA, as "infostructure" is needed. Six cyber laws involving digital signature, computer crimes, telemedicine, and electronic government, copyright and multimedia convergence have been identified as necessary and were created since 1997 3 jijg Computer Crimes Act 1997 was amongst the first to be enacted. It was published in the Gazette on 30 June 1997 and received Royal Assent on 18 June 1997. However, it only became enforceable three years later on 30 June 2000

Smart Schools an Innovation in Education: Malaysian's Experience

According to the new environment created by the information period, training and learning new skills are being inevitable. Retraining the skills of group working to coordinate the information age has created special conditions for education. Smart schools are one of the strategies adopted by schools in response to today's modern needs. Smart schools are active for entrepreneurship, using modern methods to improve the quality of education, and training qualified people who at any time have the capability and efficiency of modern industry. The purpose of this study is the use of ICT in Malaysian Smart School and comparing it with the Smart Schools in Iran. To conduct this study, library, documents, Web sites and electronic journals are available. The results of this study show that although there are significant differences between the education system and deployment of ICT in Iran with the standards in smart schools in leading countries like Malaysia, according to the original development of smart schools in Iran which has been adapted from Malaysia, recognizing the realities of this action in Malaysia, can be effective in the development of schools in the country and prevent indiscriminate development

Avoiding the middle income trap : renovating industrial policy formulation in Vietnam

Vietnam’s growth in the last one-and-half decades has been driven by the liberalization effect and large inflows of external purchasing power. Now that the processes of systemic transition and global integration are near completion, Vietnam needs to create internal value to continue to grow and avoid the “middle income trap.” The country has reached the point where growth towards higher income cannot be secured unless policy making is renovated significantly to activate the country’s full potential. The vision of Industrialization and Modernization by 2020 must be backed by realistic industrial strategies and concrete action plans, which are currently lacking. Stakeholder involvement in policy design, inter-ministerial coordination, clear directives from the top, and incentive structure for government officials must be improved. This in turn calls for innovations in policy administration. A new style of leadership, a technocrat team directly serving the top leader, and strategic alliance with international partners are proposed as key entry points for the renovation of Vietnam’s industrial policy formulation

Leadership and succession in Trinidadian family businesses

This research examines the qualities required for establishing effective leadership succession in private Family Businesses (pFB) in Trinidad, private meaning those still wholly-owned by family members. Trinidad’s pFB are major employers and contributors to economies globally and, yet, prior research shows that only around a quarter to a third survive to a second generation and only one-in-ten to a third. Therefore, identifying and developing the factors that support pFB continuity and transition are important both locally and internationally. This study identifies the key leadership and related elements for successful pFB continuity and succession in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad. The research is based on a qualitative approach, using in-depth, semi-structured, and open-ended interviews with eleven purposively-selected local pFB leaders. Interviewees comprised first- and second-generation leaders with ten existing pFB’s and one now-dormant pFB. The results show that none had established formal succession plans, but achieved success principally through effective face-to-face conversations between the leader, typically the parent, and the successor, typically one of the parents’ children. The research provides a valuable insight into the critical qualities deemed necessary for leaders to achieve continuity in their family business. The eight qualities identified for pFB success emanated from the data gathered (capability; honesty; and integrity), from the conceptual framework developed based on prior literature (vision; and effective communication), and from the discussions held (industry knowledge; a sound knowledge of the pFB organisational structures; and the support of the incumbent leader). These, alongside some measures of financial performance, lead to long-term success, and therefore generational continuity. This research extends current knowledge on how pFB continuity in Trinidad may be achieved, based on identifying the leadership qualities required. Further research is recommended on refining such knowledge across the Caribbean and into different territories, sectors, markets and industries

What Caused the Asian Currency and Financial Crisis?

The paper explores the view that the Asian currency and financial crises in 1997 and 1998 reflected structural and policy distortions in the countries of the region, even though market overreaction and herding caused the plunge of exchange rates, asset prices and economic activity to be more severe than was warranted by the initial weak economic conditions. The first part of the paper provides an overview of economic fundamentals in Asia on the eve of the crisis, with emphasis on current account imbalances, quantity and quality of financial ‘overlending’, banking problems, and the composition, maturity and size of capital inflows. The second part of the paper presents a reconstruction of the Asian meltdown — from the antecedents in 1995-96 to the recent developments in the summer of 1998 — in parallel with a survey of the debate on the strategies to recover from the crisis, the role of international intervention, and the costs and benefits of capital controls.financial crisis, asia, currency

Advanced Practice and Specialisation in Pharmacy: Global Report 2015

This report is the most comprehensive collection of data and evidence that relates to practitioner advancement of practice and policy, and maps out a wide range of national initiatives worldwide. This report should be viewed as a first attempt to map out global trends and will stimulate further reportage and analysis as engagement in this practice continues to progress

Berita Summer 2019

Letter from the Chair ... 2 Announcement ... 3 Prizes: John A. Lent Prize 2019 Commendation & Ronald Provencher Grant ... 3–4 Panel Reports: AAS Annual Conference 2019 (Denver, CO) ... 5–12 Article: “To Harmonize or Not Harmonize? Shariah Criminal Law in Malaysia” (Kerstin Steiner) ... 12–14 Article: “Reflections from the Field: On a Quest to Save the Poor: a Day in a “Zakat Camp” (Tímea Gréta Biró) ... 14–17 Article: “A Contemporary Ghost Story: The Tale of the Pontianak” (Rosalia N. Engchuan) ... 17–19 Book Review: Through Turbulent Terrain: Trade of the Straits Port of Penang (Loh, Wei Leng & Jeffrey Seow) by Cheong-Soon Gan ... 20–22 Publication: Michael G. Peletz (2020, forthc.) Sharia Transformations: Cultural Politics and the Rebranding of an Islamic Judiciary ... 22–23 Publication: Mareike Pampus (2019) Heritage Food: The Materialization of Connectivity in Nyonya Cooking ... 23–24 Job Opportunities ... 25 Call for Papers ... 25–26 Member Notes ... 26 BERITA History Reprint: John A. Lent (2002) “History of Berita and Malaysia/Singapore /Brunei Studies Group” ... 27–28 Editorial Information... 28https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/berita/1044/thumbnail.jp