The Star Online: Metro: South & East
The Star Online: Metro: South & East |
- Malaysia Craft promotion showcasing local arts and crafts draws in the crowd
- Women duped of RM50,000 in project that never existed
- Tribunal orders travel agency to refund claimants
| Malaysia Craft promotion showcasing local arts and crafts draws in the crowd Posted: 06 Jan 2013 06:16 PM PST MANY visitors to the recently concluded Malaysia Craft promotion praised the Malaysia Handicraft Association for organising the event and hoped that it would be organised regularly. Apart from showcasing a variety of local arts and crafts, visitors also had the opportunity to show their skills by participating in craft making demonstrations. Among the demonstrations held for visitors included angklong making (musical instrument made from bamboo), stone carving, batik painting, sewing of baju kurung Johor and dodol making. A total of 230 exhibitors took part in the event held at Plaza Angsana shopping complex displaying their wares such as textiles, songket and batik, ceramic products, woodcrafts and keris. Visitors were also treated to other activities throughout the event such as Malaysian batik fashion shows, zapin dance performances, kuda kepang decodation and ghazal music group. One of the visitors, lecturer Hastarija Hassan, 54, who was at the event said she was "mesmerised" with the wide varieties of local arts and crafts. Businessmen Iwan Jeffry, 42, who came with his wife and two children, said the event was an eye-opener especially to younger generation on the uniqueness of Malaysian handicraft. "The angklong making demonstration is interesting and not many of us know how the instrument is made,'' he told StarMetro. Meanwhile, Malaysia Handicraft chairman Datuk Sohaimi Shahadan said the exhibition was a good platform to showcase and promote local handicraft. He said Malaysians should be proud of the uniqueness and the richness of the country's handcraft and show their support to local craftsmen such as batik makers. "I hope the private sector will also take the initiative to like what is done by the public sector by wearing batik shirts and dresses every Thursday,'' said Sohaimi. He said Malaysians should emulate Indonesians who were proud of their batiks as the move it would help local batik industry to flourish as well as popularise Malaysian batik at the international level. |
| Women duped of RM50,000 in project that never existed Posted: 06 Jan 2013 06:02 PM PST JOHOR BARU: Lured by the promise of high dividends from an entertainment outlet project investment, a sales and marketing personnel was conned into forking out more than RM50,000 in savings and her brother's money. Shirley Lau, 41, said the ordeal started when she bumped into an old friend after not seeing him for 10 years at a shopping complex in Bukit Indah in June last year. "Initially we just chatted and he brought up about an investment opportunity, which will give good returns but I hesitated as I did not have that much money to invest in the project," she said during a press conference here recently. However, Lau said she received a call from an anonymous caller a week later who knew her personal details informing her about a similar investment project that would generate between 30 percent to 40 percent profit after three months. Lau added that the persistent caller kept calling her to persuade her and she caved in within a week. "I first transacted RM1,000 to him in August as an assurance that I was committed to invest in the project. "After that he kept asking me to bank in more money to him claiming it for processing fees, handling charges, government taxes and so on, which I also gave blindly," she related. She added that the amount transacted varied from RM3,000 to RM10,000 per transaction and the highest amount she paid was RM20,000. Lau, who works at her brother's seafood supplies company, said that to get her hands on more money to put into the investment, she approached a licensed money lender to borrow RM10,000. "The moneylender somehow managed to con me of RM5,000. "I was at my wits' end as I owed too many people money so I resorted to borrowing from eight groups of Ah Longs (illegal moneylenders) to pay off my debts," she said, adding that she borrowed a total of RM12,000 in principal from the Ah Longs. Meanwhile, the Mentri Besar's special aide Loh Teh Hian, who organised the press conference, said that he had managed to call up four of the Ah Longs and they agreed to waive the interests. "When I called the fifth Ah Long to discuss the matter, he sent me SMS containing crude words and threatened to harm me," he said. Loh added that he would continue assisting Lau in the matter, including lodging a police report about the threat. |
| Tribunal orders travel agency to refund claimants Posted: 06 Jan 2013 03:04 PM PST JOHOR BARU: A travel agency was ordered to refund a total of RM1,800 to five claimants due to price discrepancies for a trip to Beijing, China. The claimants were part of a group of family and friends who were supposed to go on a vacation together during the December school holidays. "A total of 55 of us had to withdraw from the trip because the agency had hiked the price of the package which initially was only RM870. "When we requested for the refund of our deposits which was RM300 per person, the agency did not do so," claimed lecturer Norhanim Samat, 44, at the Consumer Claims Tribunal here last month. The five claimants had channelled their payment to a personal bank account of the ex-director of the company Nawar Hanim who is allegedly in prison due to an unrelated case. Tribunal president M. Suppiah ordered the agency to return 60% of the deposit paid within 21 days as claimants had official receipts from the company. "Although the money was not deposited directly into the company's account, but the claimants possessed official receipts from the company stating that they had made payments," he said. Earlier on Dec 13, Tribunal president had awarded full refunds to 13 other claimants of the same group as they had deposited their money directly to the company's account. |
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