Thursday, February 24, 2011

No fear for Muslims halal industry has started production

I found this 'bad writing' in one internal publication and felt that I should look into it -- to find out what the problem really is with this guy's (or gal's) writing.

No need to point out which publication this write-up appeared in, because some people would not be apologetic enough to admit or oblige to their mistakes. I'll just give my point of view and then leave it as it is for readers to judge for themselves.

The writer and the publisher can also breathe a sigh of relief as I am not out to have a field day nitpicking on small mistakes or poking fun at this person's writing and its publication. I am just trying to share my concern by analyzing what's wrong with this 'bad writing' -- or to put it nicely -- poor use of English.

However, this piece is not a tutorial on grammar lessons for the writer, but just pointing out where the problem lies upon.

First of all, can you figure out what the sentence as per the title of this (blog) entry means?: "No fear for Muslims halal industry has started production".

No prize for the correct answer, but if you are an ethnic Malay it is easy to guess,...right?

But if your mother tongue, writing and reading is basically English, then you might be clueless to what this writer wants to tell you.

If you translate this sentence in Malay literally, it can be understood as: Jangan khuatir, kerana industri untuk produk makanan halal sudah bermula. - easy to understand, ...right?


Even if you translate it in Malay word-by-word: Jangan risau sebab Muslims halal industri sudah mula produksi, it is also understandable, ...correct?

 
But if the writer meant it that way, I do believe there's a better way to express it, for example: Muslims can sigh for relief, as the industry for halal food production has already begun.

Here, have a look at the whole thing (it is supposed to be a an editorial piece) and see for yourself the quality of the write-up. Try find any other 'errors' as I believe there are also other glaring mistakes/inconsistencies:

No more Halal dilemma

No fear for Muslims halal industry has started production. Now Muslims can make a choice when buying food, clothes, drinks, and other things to consume without any doubt of the production being haram. Muslim now not only trust the halal logo when  purchasing products because producers from Halal Devlopment Cooperation, HDC are guarantee halal.

Malaysia has established halal Development Cooperation, HDC since 2008 which coordinates the overall development of the halal Industry and contributes to the economic growth.  HDC provides support to businesses by providing branding and promotion of Halal products and industries. It provides training and consultancy services to support Halal certification (http://www.hdcglobal.com).

HDC as a catalyst for the growth of halal not just focusing on food but also focuses on more holistic halal such as feed and farm management, ingredients, manufacturing or processing, research & development, innovation, Islamic finance and even to logistic services.

You might be wondering why halal industry has got to do with logistic service? If we refer the context of halal, it is a meaningful lawful and is the Islamic dietary law that identifies food permitted for Muslims (http://www.ifanca.org). It is safe for Muslims to eat and applied from those product that comply with conditions set out by Muslim bodies.

 Halal does not only mean the product is halal based on halal logo but it is the process how the product is being made, manufactured and the delivered. Let say once the product has been manufactured from the factories, the product will deliberately been sent into a lorry and the product will be placed with other products which is non-halal. In this situation, the products are are considered haram. This is because the halal products are placed in the same truck with the non-halal products. Halal products are not allowed to be in the same place with non-halal products.

The Muslims sometimes have the difficulty to trust on the halal logo. There are many claims some of these logos are faked. Thus, it puts the Muslim consumer in a dilemma. Therefore HDC as a halal development body has a multiple role to play not only placing halal logo on the products but ensuring on specific role in every process are in a halal manner. Besides trusting the halal logo, the Muslim consumer could check whether the product has been approved by HDC.

See what I mean! I wasn't nitpicking due the first 'glaring' sentence I found on this write-up. But after reading the rest of the write-up, if you still think so (I nitpick), then I do not know what's not?

Okay, first of all can I deduce that this writer is basically a Malay reader and writer, but he/she may not necessarily be an ethnic Malay?

Secondly, I can also deduce that he/she not only reads Malay books, newspapers, magazine, writings, literature etc, but also thinks, eats, breathes, talks, and writes in Malay. In other words, he/she probably is an ethnic Malay.

Hence the portrayal by many of the sentences, which reflect a similar parallel of a type of literal translation from the Malay language to English.

English may be his/her second language where it is taught in school and university, but this writer has yet to grasp the (writing) essence of the language, what more be called an English writer who writes for an English newspaper. More so if he/she is to be an editor/editorial team member of a real mainstream newspaper.

Please, do not misconstrue my statements above as trying to demean the writer as if I am out to psycho-analyze him/her. I am just analyzing the writing, hence by figuring out what sort of person, his/her ethnic background and education background is, we can understand his/her writing problem.

Finally, the problem might be due to the publication itself, where there is none or less deliberation done on editing work and 'gate-keeping' before any write-up goes out for print.

But be rest assured, this publication is not a push-button-type-publishing where you can find it in online sites like social networking sites, online journals or blogs. It is a real print publication and its readers are from tertiary level onwards.

So, what does it say about the writer and the publication?

You be the judge.

To the writer and publication team, if they happen to read this, be magnanimous, do not miss the woods for the trees. Go for the message, not the messenger.

Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run. There's still time to change the road you're on......says Led Zeppelin (Stairways to heaven, 1971).

Monday, February 21, 2011

Who's who - some position changes and reshuffling at MoHE & USM

Re: Maklumat tentang pelantikan dan perubahan struktur

Prof. Dr. Rujhan bin Mustafa telah dilantik sebagai Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Pengajian Tinggi, Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia   berkuatkuasa 1 Januari  2011.

Prof. Dr. Morshidi Sirat, Pengarah Institut Penyelidikan Pendidikan Tinggi Negara  USM telah dilantik sebagai Timbalan Ketua Pengarah (Sektor Pengurusan IPTA) Jabatan Pengajian Tinggi, Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi mulai 16 Februari 2011.


Prof. Susie See Ching Mey, 55, dilantik sebagai Timbalan Naib Canselor (Bahagian Jaringan Industri dan Masyarakat) USM bermula 1 Februari 2011 hingga 31 Januari 2014 menggantikan Prof. Lim Koon Ong yang telah tamat tempoh perkhidmatannya baru-baru ini.



Selaras dengan Perlembagaan baru USM, Jawatankuasa Eksekutif Naib Canselor (JKENC) telah dimansuhkan dan digantikan dengan Jawatankuasa Pengurusan Universiti (JKPU) sejak September 2010 yang telah dipersetujui oleh Lembaga Pengarah Universiti. JKPU akan meneliti dan membuat keputusan-keputusan penting berkaitan dasar utama sebelum dibawa ke jawatankuasa-jawatankuasa lain terutamanya Jawatankuasa Tetap Kewangan dan Lembaga Pengarah Universiti. Ia akan diadakan paling kurang sebulan sekali, namun dalam keadaan biasa setiap dua minggu sekali yang dipengerusikan oleh Naib Canselor atau mana-mana Timbalan Naib Canselor yang memangku tugas Naib Canselor semasa Naib Canselor mempunyai urusan rasmi lain di luar Pulau Pinang. JKPU juga akan memantau perjalanan dan pencapaian APEX secara berterusan.


JKPU  dalam empat mesyuaratnya sebelum ini telah memutuskan beberapa perkara berikut:

Penubuhan Pejabat Komunikasi Strategik dengan Pengarahnya Prof. Badaruddin Mohamed yang juga Dekan Penyelidikan Pelantar Transformasi Sosial bertanggungjawab untuk merancang, menyusun dan melaksanakan strategi komunikasi  serta  melaksanakan usaha untuk mengetengahkan pencapaian kecemerlangan USM di bawah APEX  di samping pemantauan NADI  sebagai sumber rujukan utama pencapaian USM di bawah APEX. Pelantikannya bermula 1 Februari 2011.

Perubahan struktur tanggungjawab Encik Mohamad Omar Bidin, Pengarah Dewan Budaya  terus di bawah Timbalan Naib Canselor (Hal-Ehwal dan Pembangunan Pelajar) mulai 1 Disember 2010 untuk meneruskan apa jua aktiviti dan peranannya dalam konteks pembangunan akademik  dan pada masa yang sama melakukan usaha-usaha perkembangan, pemajuan dan pembangunan seni dan budaya dalam kalangan pelajar dan juga warga universiti seluruhnya serta  mengambil kira keperluan dari perspektif yang lebih luas terutamanya untuk  memperkasakan aktiviti seni dan budaya dalam kalangan mahasiswa.

Pelantikan En. Mohamad Mohd. Hanif sebagai Pengarah Pusat Sukan dan Rekreasi selaras dengan usaha menaikkan taraf Unit Sukan, juga bertanggungjawab terus di bawah Bahagian hal-Ehwal dan Pembangunan Pelajar.

Memperkasakan Bahagian Pembangunan Lestari dan Korporat sebagai Bahagian Pengurusan Korporat dan iPMO  di bawah Prof. Muhamad Jantan yang bertanggunggjawab untuk memantau kemajuan dan pencapaian Program Pemacuan untuk Kecemerlangan (APEX). Bahagian Pembangunan Korporat dan iPMO akan menyelaras dan memastikan USM benar-benar melakukan transformasi APEX dengan menyediakan laporan setiap dua minggu sekali untuk perbincangan, perhatian dan ketetapan oleh JKPU sebelum dilaporkan kepada Mesyuarat Lembaga Pengarah Universiti (LPU).



Sekretariat Kampus Sejahtera dan Pusat  Kepakaran Serantau kini diletakkan di bawah Pusat Kajian Kelestarian Global – bertanggungjawab terus kepada Pengarah Pusat Kajian Kelestarian Global manakala Sektetariat Warga Sejahtera kini diletakkan di bawah Pusat Sejahtera – bertanggungjawab terus di bawah Pengarah Pusat Sejahtera.

Pelantikan Dr. Rumaizi Shaari sebagai Pengarah Pusat Penyelidikan dan Perkhidmatan Haiwan  mulai 1 Januari 2011 hingga 31 Disember 2012 manakala Dr. Nor Aini Saidin dilantik sebagai Timbalan Pengarah, Pusat Penyelidikan dan Perkhidmatan Haiwan mulai 1 Februari 2011 hingga 31 Disember 2012.


(MOHAMAD ABDULLAH)
Pejabat Naib Canselor
Universiti Sains Malaysia
T: 04.653 2193/3105
F: 04.658 8444