• One more look at SA Japan through CNV

• Regional team meets with Mongolia’s key leaders

• Bringing Scouting to the community

• Mongolia takes solid step to make youth program better

• Scouts organize blood donation campaign in Nepal

• Thailand holds 2nd International Youth Forum

• Sri Lanka holds 9th National Course for Assistant Leader Trainers

• “Book Bridge” between German and Mongolian Scouts

• Scouts in Sri Lanka walk for the environment

• July 1 is important day in Thailand

• Board of Directors and WSB Executives meet in Geneva

• Scholarship for Scouts in developing countries

WHAT’S ONGOING

• APR Forum for Youth Program & Training Commissioners

• 4th Preparatory meeting of the 26th APR Scout Jamboree

WHAT’S UPCOMING

• APR Workshop on PR & Marketing

• International Scout Seminar on Intellectual Property

BE PREPARED

• 23rd Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Conference

• Asia-Pacific Regional Course for Leader Trainers – Malaysia

• 6th APR Scout Youth Forum – Malaysia

Download JULY 2009 INBOX newsletter now

Untuk semua ahli kelana dan pemimpin berumur 17 1/2 tahun keatas …… Bersedia untuk cabaran-cabaran extreme….

Jemputan ke Moot Kelana 1 Malaysia anjuran Persekutuan Pengakap Malaysia.

Tarikh            : 23 hingga 27 Julai 2009

Lapur Diri    : 3.00 Petang 23 Julai (Khamis)

Tempat         : Kem Tengku Mahkota, Bandar Tun Razak, Jengka, Pahang

Bayaran        : RM 100 sahaja (Meliputi makan minum / Kit moot dan lawatan sehari ke Taman Negara Pahang).

Aktiviti         : Projek Pioneering, Program Extreme dan Ujian Lencana Skim Pengakap Kelana Malaysia.

Peralatan     : Bawa khemah sendiri dan peralatan kerja.

” 1 MALAYSIA, SATU DUNIA, SATU PERSETIAAN”

Rahim Hamid

Rumah B-P, KL.

017-6156880

Tempat              : Bumi Perkhemahan Pawang Perkasa 1, Pulau Bengkalis, Riau

Yuran                 : RM 150.00 (Ahli Pengakap Kelana)

RM 100.00 (Pemimpin)

Yuran meliputi makan/minum sepanjang Moot berlangsung dan juga Pengangkutan dari Pelabuhan Bengkalis ke tapak perkhemahan pergi balik.

Penginapan      : Bawa khemah dan peralatan khemah sendiri

Pengangkutan : Feri dari Pelabuhan Melaka ke Pulau Bengkalis. Cukai pelabuhan dan bayaran Feri hendaklah dibayar oleh peserta sendiri

Sila berhubung dengan Encik Abdul Rahim bin Abd hamid, Penolong Setiausaha Eksekutif (Program) PPM ditalian 017-6156880 untuk pendaftaran segara dan maklumat lanjut mengenai Moot ini.

More information can be obtained at http://aprjamboree2009.com/

Circular No 16 Circular 16-2008

Circular No 28 CIRC 28-2007

Bulletin 1 26th APR Jam Bulletin 1

Bulletin 2 26th APR Jam Bulletin 2

Bulletin 3 26th APR Jam Bulletin 3

Ini adalah makluman awal mengenai Seminar Pengurusan Risiko PPM,.

Tarikh – Jumaat hingga Ahad ( 17 hingga 19 Julai 2009 )
Lapur Diri – 5.00 petang 17 Julai 2009.
Tempat – Rumah B-P, Jalan hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur
Peserta – 02 orang Pemimpin di setiap negeri termasuk KLM / KLKM yang menjaga hal ehwal Pengurusan Risiko di Negeri-Negeri dan mempunyai minat yang tingg dan boleh memberi buah fikiran didalam pengubalan Polisi Pengurusan Risiko PPM.

Pengarah Program – Brig.Jen. Dato’ Dr. Zin Bidin – Penolong Ketua Pesuruhjaya P.Negara.

Harap maklum. Surat rasmi akan dikeluarkan secepat mungkin.

SOME 3,000 scouts from around the country and their fellow members from Bangladesh and Indonesia gathered at Tan Chay Yan Scout Camp in Bukit Katil for the 7th Malacca World Heritage City Jamboree recently.

The five-day event was packed with 17 scouting activities, including a tour of the Malacca historic city.

An assistant scout leader briefing jamboree participants on building a bridge without glue, duct tape and srings.

Jamboree chairman Tan Beng Siang said the gathering forged closer ties between the scouts and honed their outdoor skills.

“The participants were required to complete five activities of six activities and one of two tests to receive activity badges as a token of participation,” said Tan.

He said the six categories were scouting skills, science and handicraft, customs and cultures, adventure, Malacca day tour and amateur radio operating skills.

“They also had to choose between visiting an exhibition at the campsite and answering a series of questions or performing community services for the tests,” he added.

Contingents from Bangladesh and parts of Indonesia like Palembang, Riau, Jambi, Dumai, Bukit TInggi and Jakarta took part.

The scouts were required to apply their scientific knowledge and handicraft skills to create flying rockets by using bottles, a blade, glue, cardboards and cellophane tape.

In the spirit of brotherhood, the scouts cheered loudly when a rocket was launched into the sky and even applauded as encouragement when the rockets failed.

Make-your-own: Muhamad Farid Amri Mohd Asri from Kelantan tying two pieces of bamboo to form the gateway for his contingent’s building.

Indonesian scout Hayati Puasa, 15, said the jamboree was the first she had attended overseas.

“I enjoyed the historic city the most as I visited landmarks such as A Famosa Fort, The Stadthuys and St Paul Hill,” said Hayati.

For 14-year-old Mohd Firdaus Hisha from Negri Sembilan, scouting was not only about learning survival skills.

Creative work: Malacca High School scouts creating a pressure-powered flying rocket with bottles, glue, cardboard and tape.

“Scouts today have to learn science and technology to keep up with the fast-changing world,” he said.

City lad Muhammad Farid Hamid, 14, said the bicycle expedition in a rubber estate and secondary forest next to the camp was the most exciting.

“I come from Kuala Lumpur and my parents always get worried when I take my bicycle for a ride as there are simply too many cars out there.

“Here, I can pedal my heart out without worrying about incoming cars and reaching the end of the road. The fresh air is a plus too,” he said.

For 16-year-old Chong Wai Seng from Pahang, the jamboree was a good opportunity to share experiences and make friends.

“It is a time for bonding with scouts from other states and contingents. New friendships are forged when we get together to do the same things,” he said.

Penang contingent leader Rozhan Yahaya, 38, brought along 66 scouts from five different troops.

“Most of them have attended jamborees while the newcomers have sufficient camping experience to go through the five-day event,” said Rozhan, who has been active in scouting since 1997 and has 10 jamborees behind him.

He said his boys enjoyed themselves and look forward to future activities.

KOTA BARU: The Kelantan scout movement awarded 25 medals of appreciation to its members to commemorate 100 years of the Malaysian Federation of Scouts.

The ceremony was held at Kem Kijang here in front of 500 scouts from all over the state.

Federation treasurer Datuk Jamaludin Mohd Tahir, in his speech, said measures were being taken to bring back the glory days of scouting.

“The council is aware that the scout movement is not as popular among school students as it once was,” he added.

Jamaluddin urged scouts to stay abreast with knowledge, which was easier now with advances in information technology.

IT was a fun and educational outing for Cub Scout Yew Jia Jing when he got to acquire first aid skills, play games and learn some history when he took part in the George Town Unesco World Heritage Site Trail.

Yew led his team, Patrol A, to become the cham-pions in the primary school category in the event orga-nised by Scouts Association of Malaysia Penang on Saturday.

He said they were “physically very exhausted but excited.”

“We woke up early fee-ling over-excited and du-ring the activities, all of us gave our best but hadn’t expect to win,” the 12-year-old from SJK(C) Lay Keow in Permatang Pauh said.

Scouts learning up some scout skills during the event.

His patrol member Teoh Chin May, 11, said she would share what she learned with her friends in school.

They were among 260 Scouts, Girl Guides and Cub Scouts who participa-ted in the event that was supported by the Penang Education Department, Penang Youth and Sports Department and Penang Youth Council.

The students were from 20 primary and secondary schools from Penang and Kedah.

The activities were divided into primary school and secondary school ca-tegories.

The Cub Scouts’ activities were held in the Fort Cornwallis compound while the Scouts and Girl Guides went to Dewan Sri Pinang, St George’s Church, Masjid Kapitan Keling, Khoo Kongsi and Mahamariamman Temple for their station games.

Chan Sing Ying, the leader of Patrol Orange from SMJK Keat Hwa in Alor Setar, the secon-dary school category champions, said the games encouraged better interaction among the members.

“We really learned a lot of stuff like banda-ging, survival skills, marching and mapping. And most important of all, we learned how to appreciate the rich history of the buildings.

“We had to cooperate with each other and it was pure team work that led us to become the champs!” she said.

Each champion team won a trophy and a certificate of appreciation.

State Scouts Commissioner Zulkafli Kama-ruddin said the event not only exposed the students to the various historical sites but also gave them a chance to explore various skills like map-reading and using a compass.

By Hilary Chiew

A lifetime dedicated to studying plants has not gone unnoticed for this botanist, who recently received a prestigious award for his work.

IF you ask Dr Francis S.P. Ng the name of any trees in this country, chances are he will be able to answer you. And he might even tell you where the herbarium specimens are kept.

Such is the depth of his knowledge for he is one of the handful of local botanists who have toiled for a quarter century surveying 2,800 species of trees, all of which are documented in the four-volume Tree Flora of Malaya.

Working alongside his mentor, the late Dr Tim C. Whitmore who had edited the first two volumes that were published in 1972, Ng edited the last two volumes which were published in 1978 and 1989.

He belongs to the pioneer corp of local foresters who gradually took over the management and research work at the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) from their English predecessors in the years after independence in 1957.

Under the Colombo Plan for economic and social advancement of the peoples of South and South-East Asia, Ng received a scholarship to pursue his botanical degree at the University of Tasmania. He joined FRIM upon graduation in 1964. Four years later, again sponsored by the Colombo Plan, he left for the University of Oxford where he based his thesis on the biological studies of the Ebenaceae, a family of 500 species of flowering trees and shrubs which include ebony and persimmon.

“Malaysia is the only independent country ever to finish a tree inventory,” reveals the botanist.

Botanist extraordinaire: Dr Francis Ng holding up the pla que which honoured his long dedication to the world of plants.

“The process of Malayanisation, as it was called, spanned 1957 to 1965. Subsequently, Malaysia continued to receive support from rich countries in the Commonwealth group such as Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand,” he explains.

During that period, foreign experts were also sent to work and train locals in the former colony and FRIM benefited from experienced foresters who willingly imparted their skills and knowledge to develop a forestry management system for the country.

Recalling the extensive and ambitious Tree Flora of Malaya, Ng says the project spanned his entire career at FRIM.

“In those days, we were prepared to spend our lifetime exploring and dedicated to one single mission. Nowadays, scientists don’t harbour that big an ambition. Nobody will invest their lifetime doing one piece of work.

“With the new funding mechanism, researchers tend to think short-term. They do small projects and wait for funding. (In a way,) the prevailing funding mechanism has changed the scientific mentality (for the worse) and stifled good research,” he opines.

Ng’s interests in plants began when he was a young boy growing up in Kampung Simee in the outskirts of Ipoh. His family had built their house on the prescribed 360sqm of land given by the government to each resettled Chinese family during the Emergency period.

Like most settlers, his family grew edible plants. In his secondary school days, Ng was an active Scout and often explored the jungle which earned him one of the merit badges, the forester badge. Autobiographies of great people like Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein inspired and nurtured Ng’s dream of becoming a scientist.

“By the 20th century, all the physical discoveries have been accomplished. The only discoveries that can be had were in the botanical arena,” says Ng who retired from FRIM in 1989 as its deputy director-general.

He later headed the forest research and training branch of the Food and Agriculture Organisation from 1991 to 1994 and was director of the research division at the Centre for International Forestry Research between 1994 and 1997.

His dedication to botany recently earned him the David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration, making him the first Malaysian to be listed on the esteemed list that includes other luminaries like Sir Gillian Prance, the former director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, renowned for his ethno-botanical study of the Brazilian nut in the Amazon forests.

Ng, 68, is instrumental in the ex-situ conservation to save the rare Malaysian witch hazel (Maingaya malayana), the only species of its genus and until recently known only from two herbarium specimens collected a century ago.

In 1971, upon returning from Oxford, Ng collected three seeds of the Malaysian witch hazel from one tree in Penang and planted them on FRIM grounds. When the tree’s rarity was noted, Ng rushed back to the place but the tree had been felled.

Ng is known for his exhaustive study of 1,000 species of tropical fruits and seeds.

The award citation noted Ng’s contribution to conservation, research and exploration of Indomalaya’s forest, achievements that are in the footsteps of Fairchild, an accomplished American plant collector before World War II.

As director of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction of the United States Department of Agriculture, Fairchild introduced some 75,000 selected varieties and species of useful plants such as durum wheat, Japanese rice, Sudan grass, Chinese soybean, Chinese elm, persimmon and pistachio to the world’s leading superpower.

A past recipient of the Fairchild award is Dr Ruth Kiew, a Malaysia-based English botanist renowned for her extensive work in Malaysian flora.

As someone who believes that knowledge is borderless and who appreciates the free flow of genetic resources throughout human history, Ng is concerned that recent developments governing genetics ownership under the Convention on Biological Diversity will have an adverse effect on knowledge about plants beneficial to mankind.

“The convention has rightly emphasised the need for conservation but on the flip side, barriers have come up that inhibit the sharing of these resources due to fear of bio-piracy. Now people tend to look at genetic resources as a pot of gold but without intellectual effort that goes into studying their properties and values, a plant may not have its perceived value.

“Very often, the intellectual input does not necessarily happen in the country of origin. So, if you discourage research, you risk putting an end to discovery of new knowledge,” he argues.

Ng’s vast knowledge in tropical plants now goes into the many consultation jobs that he has taken up. He is consultant editor for the Journal of Tropical Forest Science, lead consultant for the planned Natural History Museum and is also supervising the creation of a rooftop garden at 1 Utama shopping centre in Petaling Jaya.

He has published more than 140 scientific papers, books and CDs on tropical botany, including The Tropical Garden City: Its Creation and Maintenance and Tropical Horticulture and Gardening.