Book Review: Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia

It is not very often that one comes across a book about museums in Malaysia. Neither can one easily find such a book that has its contents closely intertwined with the history and culture of the country. This is because an attempt to link the museums with history and heritage is indeed full of complexities as the author has tried to show. The book nonetheless shows that such task is possible. In fact, for college students, the book is quite helpful in providing useful historical information of Malaysia's past. From the narratives of the book, readers will certainly be made aware about the truth of the saying that Malaysia is unique in every sense of the word. As a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country, it is unique in its style of political pragmatism as seen from the unconventional way its political elites try to manage a plural society that is still struggling to become a viable and integrated nation. Through his book, Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia, the author Abu Talib Ahmad has painstakingly demonstrated how museums in Malaysia try to cope with the diverse and pluralistic views of the country's histor

Synthesis and characterization of NiFeMo alloy / Ahmad Safuan Abu Talib

Properties of the Nickel based alloy are high permeability, low coercivity and high saturation magnetization. Molybdenum (Mo) was found to have a strong effect on the crystallization behavior. With the addition of molybdenum to nickel-iron (NiFe) alloys, it exhibit high relative permeability and low eddy current losses. The addition of molybdenum cannot exceed a certain weight ratio for optimum behavior properties. NiFeMo has already been playing its role in the gas turbine engines in aircraft, marine, industrial and vehicular gas turbines. Now, researches are being carried out to optimize the properties for this alloy to be applied to other high industrial application such as space vehicles, rocket engines, experimental aircraft, nuclear reactors, and other hightemperature applications. The effects of molybdenum addition to the microstructure of NiFeMo alloy are investigated in this study. The maximum weight ratio for Mo is set at 5%. Samples consisting of 30Ni-70Fe, 30Ni-69Fe-lMo, 30Ni-67Fe-3Mo, and 30Ni- 65Fe-l wt% are made. This experiment involved synthesizing intermetallic in mechanical alloying, compacting the milled powders into pellet by isostatic pressing, and annealing in a furnace. Zirconia jar and balls were used for mechanical alloying with a rotation speed of 200 rpm that are milled for four hours for each sample. Compaction process involved compacting the samples into cylindrical pellets under a pressure of 400 kg/cm2 and maintained for 10 minutes. Annealing took place in a furnace under a temperature of 600°C for one hour. Samples before and after annealing are made to be tested under optical microscope, XRD, and LCR meter. From the XRD test, four phases exist, which are nickel (Ni), iron (Fe), iron diiron(III) oxide (Fe304), and kamacite (NiFe). From the same test, crystallite sizes are found to be less than 20 nm. Addition of 3% Mo shows the highest for the hardness test. As addition of Mo increases, the resistivity of the material decreases. This shows that the addition of Mo is favourable for NiFe application

Penang museums and culture

The phrase culture wars might have started in mid-19th century Germany but it came into wider usage since the 1960s in reference to the ideological polarizations among Americans into the liberal and conservative camps (Hunter, 1991; Luke, 2002). In Malaysia such wars are still non-existent but the culture competition within and among museums is as intense due to the pervasive influence of ethnicity in various facets of the national life. As a result museum foregrounding of culture (and history) have become contested (Matheson-Hooker, 2003: 1-11; Teo, 2010: 73-113; Abu Talib, 2008: 45-70; Abu Talib, 2011: 207-224). This essay looks at culture display in Penang museums notably the Penang State Museum and culture competition within and among these museums which are under the control of myriad bodies including the state Department of Museum, other government departments, a university, private organizations and individuals.The discussion is based on the scrutiny of museum exhibits, museum annual reports, writings on museums in Malaysia and interviews with members of museum board

Penulisan Sejarah Negeri Pahang

Siri sejarah negeri oleh Buyong Adil merupakan penulisan sejarah negeri paling terkenal sehingga kini. Walaupun popular siri ini tidak lagi memadai kerana ketiadaan perbincangan mendalam tentang perkembangan selepas merdeka selain gagal mengambilkira kemajuan penyelidikan dalam pelbagai bidang seperti arkeologi sejak 40-50 tahun yang lalu. Tumpuan esei ini ialah kepada penulisan semula sejarah negeri Pahang dengan perbincangan dipecah kepada empat bahagian iaitu sejarah negeri yang terdapat di Malaysia, isu-isu dalam penulisan sejarah negeri Pahang, sumber untuk penulisan sejarah negeri dan aspek sejarah yang perlu dimasukkan ke dalam penulisan sejarah negeri sebelum 1941, untuk tempoh 1942- 57 dan selepas 1957. Namun huraian ianjut hanya dibuat kepada sejarah negeri sebelum 1941 dengan fokus kepada Orang Asli, Hukum Kanun Pahang dan masyarakat sebelum kurun ke-19, perkembangan pertanian padi antara 1888-1941 serta banjir dan pertanian. Dari segi sumber rujukan dibuat kepada laporan tahunan Pahang antara 1888-1939, Hukum Kanun Pahang dan lain-ain

Local Government Systems and Decentralization: Evidence from Pakistan’s Devolution Plan

The discourse of governance and development practitioners continues to embrace community participation and community empowerment as an elementary means of building local capacity for poverty reduction, development and change at the local level. This article is a review of the decentralization initiatives of local government systems after the announcement of the devolution plan in Pakistan. It evaluates the initiatives’ participatory methods to ascertain the extent to which they have improved the process of community development at the local level. This article also measures the impact of community empowerment on the sustainability of community-driven projects implemented under the decentralization initiative through community-based organizations known as Citizen Community Boards (CCBs). Document analysis and literature review methodologies were employed to gain further insight into the decentralization phenomenon in Pakistan. The results describe human development, improvements in community empowerment and the sustainability of local projects; however, the sense of community has yet to be translated into shared benefits for rural communities. The fundamental goal of decentralization seems to be elusive because only power was transferred to the local level, whereas there is little support for community capacity building and community access to resources and the elites still control the electoral process. It is argued that community development initiatives in Pakistan require continuous support from local governments to boost local rural economies. Likewise, community-local government participatory development strategies can lead to strong local ownership and empowerment in rural communities

Decentralization and Participatory Rural Development: A Literature Review

Most of the developing nations are still struggling for efficient use of their resources. In order to overcome physical and administrative constraints of the development, it is necessary to transfer the power from the central government to local authorities. Distribution of power from improves the management of resources and community participation which is considered key to sustainable development. Advocates of decentralization argue that decentralized government is source to improve community participation in rural development. Decentralized government is considered more responsive towards local needs and development of poor peoples. There are many obstacles to expand the citizen participation in rural areas. There are many approaches for participatory development but all have to face the same challenges. Current paper highlights the literature about Decentralization and participatory rural development. Concept and modalities of Decentralization, dimensions of participation, types of rural participation and obstacles to participation are also the part of this paper

Takyif fiqhi on the permissibility of ijarah mawsufah fi al-dhimmah: a critical analysis

Ijarah mawsufah fi al-dhimmah (hereinafter referred to as IMAD), also known as forward ijarah¸ is an Islamic financial product that involves the sale of an identified asset currently being produced or constructed for a future delivery such as a property, office, factory, and so forth. In the classical fiqh literature, it has been discussed under the general purview of leasing and forward sale contracts. However, in the context of modern Islamic finance practice Islamic banks and financial institutions have upheld its usage as an independent financial instrument. The contemporary scholars claim that except for Hanafi, other key fiqh schools consider IMAD as an Islamic financial product. The study is an attempt to prove that such a claim is merely based on assumption. Besides, it is motivated by lack of holistic study of Hanafi’s original reference books. The methodology chosen for this study is content analysis of the relevant published literatures. The study finds that no classical scholars including those of Hanafi school of thought were in disagreement so far over the IMAD to consider it as an independent and standalone Islamic finance product. The study aims at reconciling scholars’ different views on the issue of IMAD for its wider acceptance

A two-component CFD studies of the effects of H2, CNG, and diesel blend on combustion characteristics and emissions of a diesel engine

Numerical simulations were conducted on a Ricardo Hydra diesel engine which is single cylinder engine and uses direct injection method. This study was performed by using a two-dimensional CFD code to examine the combustion characteristics and emissions of a diesel engine in diesel-CNG and diesel-H2 dual-fuel operations, as well as in the diesel-CNG-H2 tri-fuel operation at various air-fuel ratios. The results indicate that the peak in-cylinder pressure and peak temperature were increased with the addition of gaseous fuels at low and medium values of exceeds air. Compared with Diesel-H70-N30 for tri-mode and Diesel-H2 for dual mode, it is observed that there were no effects on the peak temperature at high exceed air. At 2.4 exceed air, the peak pressure increases by means of adding the limit value of hydrogen, such as H30-N70 and H50-N50, to CNG and it begins to decrease with H70-N30 and H2-Diesel operations. Diesel-H2-CNG operations decrease CO/CO2 emissions compared with Diesel-CNG operation and decrease NO emission compared with Diesel-H2 operation at every exceed air. The reduction in CO/CO2 emissions was suggested at high hydrogen fraction in CNG (H70-N30) with all exceeds air whereas low hydrogen fraction in CNG (H30-N70) can repress uncontrolled hydrogen combustion and further limit the increment of NO emission