government had not effectively addressed the root cause of corruption and its agencies suffer from redundancy and lack of focus.

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) said that corruption in Malaysia is not as bad as what the public perceives.

KUALA LUMPUR: Discuss corruption issues in Malaysia with a pinch of salt. Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) said this in its interim research report on Anti-Corruption Initiatives in Malaysia which was launched today at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Academy.

Present at the launch was former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The report, titled Combating Corruption: Understanding Anti-Corruption Initiatives in Malaysia, said it was important for the public not to be influenced by perception alone when discussing corruption in Malaysia.

“Although the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) implies that corruption level in the country is bad, our data suggests the situation is not as bleak as the CPI score.

“Therefore, we need to be cautious and not throw blanket accusations denying the many good efforts initiated by the government to combat corruption,” the report said.

However, the report indicated several weaknesses in government’s effort to battle corruption such as lack of a cohesive approach by government agencies, private sector and the civil society to curb graft.

The report added the government had not effectively addressed the root cause of corruption and its agencies suffer from redundancy and lack of focus.

“And that’s why the public does not believe that the government is serious in tackling corruption despite its attempts to do so,” the report said.

Offering solution, the interim report urged the government to set up an inter-agency working committee at the federal level to help agencies to coordinate initiatives and strategies to tackle graft.

“Agencies monitoring the government’s National Key Results Area (NKRA) should improve its coordination capacity, especially when it comes to corruption, and not focus on Government Transformation Programmes (GTP) alone.

The report also said that the government should not ignore anti-corruption framework like the National Integrity Plan as it provides comprehensive long term framework in strengthening integrity and battling corruption.

“We also find that the Nazir Shah Alam report on corruption, done is 1958, is worth revisiting.

“Plus, the MACC should optimise it resources to improve detection and investigation capacity and allow the Integrity Institute of Malaysia (IIM) to focus on public education initiatives,”the report said.

The report is funded by MACC’s NKRA Anti Corruption Unit, plus several local and foreign funders.

Source: FMT

Sex won’t bring on labour

November 22, 2012

Study shows that sex won't induce labour.

FEATURE

NEW YORK: Despite a widespread belief that sex during the later stages of pregnancy can jumpstart labour, a new study from Malaysia found no differences in the timing of delivery between women who had sex near term and those who abstained.

“We are a little disappointed that we did not find an association,” said Dr. Tan Peng Chiong, an obstetrics and gynecology professor at the University of Malaya, and one of the authors of the study. “It would have been nice for couples to have something safe, effective and perhaps even fun that they could use themselves to help go into labour a little earlier if (they) wanted.”

Tan said that many women believe intercourse can induce labour, and scientists have proposed plausible biological explanations for why it might help.

For one, semen contains a hormonelike substance called prostaglandin, which is used in synthetic form to induce labour.

Breast stimulation is also thought to hasten labour and orgasm can trigger uterine contractions.

Tan said the belief also probably came from “the deep seated folk perception that intercourse in pregnancy may be unsafe and may cause pregnancy expulsion or miscarriage despite fairly replete evidence to the contrary.”

But few studies have ever investigated whether sex really can initiate labour, and the small amount of existing evidence was inconclusive, Tan and his colleagues write in the obstetrics and gynecology journal BJOG.

So they set out to see whether advising women to have sex during the final weeks of pregnancy could help them avoid an induction.

“Labour induction for prolonged pregnancy is common and many women are also tempted for a variety of personal reasons to trigger labor off in the very latter stages of pregnancy,” he said.

The researchers invited more than 1,100 women to participate, all of whom were 35 to 38 weeks pregnant (the typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks) and none of whom had had sex in the previous six weeks.

Roughly half of the women were advised by a physician to have sex frequently as a means of safely expediting labor.

The other half were told that sex was safe during pregnancy, but that its effects on labour were unknown.

The researchers then tracked the women to determine how long their pregnancies lasted and whether they required any medical intervention to start labour.

They found that about 85 percent of the women who were encouraged to have sex did follow the doctor’s advice, while 80 percent of women in the other group also had sex.

Women in the group advised to have sex also had it more frequently for the remaining duration of their pregnancies – three times versus two.

But the rates of induced labor were similar in both groups: 22 percent of those advised to have sex and 20.8 percent of the other group had inductions, a difference so small it is likely to have been driven by chance.

Pregnancy also lasted an average of 39 weeks for both groups.

Dr. Jonathan Schaffir, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine who has studied obstetrical folklore, said the findings offer good support for the idea that sex won’t induce labour.

Earlier research had relied primarily on surveys of women about their sexual experiences during pregnancy, but this study was “the first attempt to really randomize the experience, for some to have sex and some to not, which is a very hard thing to do,” he said.

Schaffir wouldn’t advise his patients to have sex for the express purpose of going into labor, he added, but the study did indicate that there aren’t any hazards to it.

“Even though this study did not show any increase in the rate of labor or a decrease in the rate of induction, it helped to cement the idea that having sex is probably safe if you want it,” he told Reuters Health.

Tan said the results show that pregnancy evolved to be resistant to disruption.

“Human pregnancy has to be robust to a little adventure like intercourse and unfortunately for our purpose, it seems pretty robust to the very end,” he said.—Reuters

before applying for perimeter survey.

KANOWIT: Community leaders have been urged to cooperate with the Land and Survey Department to ensure consensus is achieved among every member in their community before applying for perimeter survey.

The department’s Sibu chief Peggy Ronin Edin said the consensus included land boundaries and ownership claim.

“This is other than giving your full support to the department when we carry out the survey work,” she told about 50 community leaders present at ‘Native Customary Right (NCR) Land New Initiative’ dialogue session at Kanowit MP service centre here on Saturday.

The session was also held to explain the standard traverse geodimeter (STG) control for perimeter survey purpose in Sungai Poi here.

Kanowit MP Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang, acting Kanowit District officer Ibrahim Kipli, Kanowit police chief DSP Ismail Mahmud and Kanowit Information Department head Wan Mohd Zuki Wan Ismail were among those present. Peggy later explained on the use of STG control, legal documents for land ownership claim, overlapping claims and trespassing of land border.

Meanwhile not begin given prior notices before perimeter survey works started is one of the issues raised by community leaders at the session.

Some even claimed the department had failed to give them detailed explanations on the matter.

A few community leaders also disclosed that their followers did not want their land to be developed through a joint venture scheme like with Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA).

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/11/05/community-leaders-told-to-cooperate-with-dept/#ixzz2BbGGQLlQ