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Author: YS Chan

Respond, not react to tour bus accident

On November 8 morning, I read the report “Bus rams several vehicles, killing teenager in Bayan Lepas”. Sadly, a 16-year-old student was killed and several others injured at a traffic light junction in Penang at 6.30pm the day before. The report stated the tour bus went out of control due

Excel, don’t remain mediocre

With enough effort, an average person can achieve excellence in a chosen field instead of remaining mediocre. But most people prefer to be comfortable and enjoy what they can. For many Malaysians, death is secondary to losing face, inconvenience or missing out their favourite foods. Those with over inflated egos

What unemployed grads are lacking

Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik recently disclosed that public universities are conducting detailed analysis studies, including market studies of academic programmes to be offered, frozen or disposed of, to address the high number of unemployed graduates. According to findings from the Ministry of Education Malaysia’s Graduate Tracer Study for 2018,

Malaysians can be superficial

I am delighted to learn that a 27-year-old teacher with a master’s degree married her teenage sweetheart, more so when her parents found the bridegroom to be responsible, patient and helpful. However, she and her parents were questioned by relatives and villagers why she did not marry a teacher or

No tourism without showing courtesy

According to the latest Tourism Satellite Account released by the Department of Statistics on September 27, the number of people employed in the tourism industry increased by 4.9 percent to 3.5 million last year and contributed a hefty 23.5 percent of total employment in the country! Tourism is a sprawling

Getting bus drivers to change mindset

Malaysians above 21 in possession of a competent driving licence (CDL) for light vehicles may obtain a public service vehicle (PSV) licence to drive taxis or private vehicles through e-hailing. PSV licence holders with CDL for heavy vehicles may drive full-size buses. As bus drivers ferry large number of commuters

My long journey as tourism trainer

In 1991, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism organised a train-the-trainer programme under a European Community project with Asean countries, which I attended and started my journey as a part-time tourism trainer. Until 2000, I was engaged occasionally as lecturer or examiner for tourist guide training and refresher courses. From

Turn bus stops into safe haven

Recently, a Facebook post by user Yap Swee Seng went viral. It showed a fancy and expensive bus stop newly built near the Kuala Lumpur Sentral station, the city’s main intercity railway station. The artistic panel used for the roof and back wall is dotted with designer holes may score

Filming locations bound to draw tourists

If you’re a writer, write. You just keep writing. And if you’re a filmmaker, you keep doing what you can to keep telling your stories; you don’t stay on the one. Keep moving forward and doing what you can to tell whatever story you can tell, be it via writing,

Stray animals a barometer of society

On September 13, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg performed the ground-breaking ceremony for a new shelter in Kuching to house stray animals. The state government had allocated a 0.8-hectare piece of land at Sungei Tapang to the Sarawak Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA),