Undang-undang syariah lindungi hak kanak-kanak dan wanita
Oleh Dewi Murni Mohamed
UNDANG-undang sivil berkaitan kanak-kanak dan wanita dicadangkan supaya menjadi undang-undang Syariah sebagai landasan asas yang kukuh kerana perlindungan serta hak golongan itu sudah dijamin Islam sejak 14 kurun lalu.
Sehubungan itu, Pensyarah Bahasa Arab dan Tamadun Islam, Fakulti Pengajian Islam Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Puan Sri Sohair Abdel Majid Moneim Sery mahu pihak bertanggungjawab memberi perhatian kepada perlindungan dan hak penjagaan anak sejak awal iaitu seawal pemilihan calon pasangan kerana mereka bakal menjadi ibu dan bapa.
Katanya, bagi mendapatkan zuriat yang baik dan berakhlak mulia, pemilihan pasangan amat penting kerana perkahwinan bukan hanya untuk memuaskan nafsu tetapi jauh lebih mulia daripada itu.
Sambil memetik sabda Rasulullah SAW yang bermaksud, pilihlah wanita yang beragama, nescaya engkau akan beruntung. Selain itu, beliau turut mengingatkan perlunya ibu hamil menjaga tingkah laku kerana ia memberi kesan langsung kepada janinnya.
Menurutnya, setiap kelahiran anak wajar disambut dengan penuh kegembiraan sama ada bayi itu lelaki atau perempuan.
"Bagi yang mampu, sebaiknya mengadakan sunat aqiqah pada hari ketujuh kelahiran dan memberi nama pada bayi itu. Penyembelihan aqiqah ialah dua ekor kambing bagi anak lelaki dan seekor bagi perempuan.
"Dan, rambut bayi dicukur kemudian ditimbang dan bersedekah perak mengikut berat rambut anak lelaki dan emas mengikut berat rambut anak perempuan," katanya.
Beliau berkata demikian ketika membentangkan kertas kerja bertajuk Perlindungan dan Hak Anak-Anak Dari Perspektif Agama, Undang-undang Sivil dan Syariah pada Kursus Pembentukan Akhlak Anak-Anak, di Kuala Lumpur, baru-baru ini.
Kursus sehari anjuran Lembaga Kemajuan Perempuan Islam Malaysia (LKPIM) diadakan dengan kerjasama Jabatan Hal Ehwal Wanita (Hawa).
Sehubungan itu, Sohair meminta supaya satu garis panduan diadakan bagi memastikan pasangan dibekalkan dengan pengetahuan Syariah sebelum bergelar ibu bapa.
"Usaha itu perlu dilaksanakan mulai sekarang bagi memastikan ibu bapa mempunyai pengetahuan dan maklumat lengkap mengenai Syariah sebelum mempunyai anak.
"Selain melahirkan ibu bapa bermaklumat, langkah itu dapat membantu menangani gejala sosial yang dikenal pasti berpunca daripada keluarga berantakan akibat ceteknya pengetahuan agama ibu bapanya," katanya.
MALAYSIA HAS BEEN RECOGNIZE AS CENTER OF EXCELLENCE FOR RESEARCH IN FISHING
By Cik Rashidah Abd Ghani
KUALA LUMPUR: Alleviating hunger and poverty on this planet and ensuring
adequate food supplies in the new mellenium. These are truely awesome tasks.
Fish is a natural food source that has reached the limits of exploitation.
The annual fish harvest is estimated at over 110 million tonnes, consumed main
by the rich nations. Natural fish stocks are diminishing and are more subject
to
human influences.
The answer is not in finding ways to catch more fish, but in looking to
preserve and expand the existing stock, or soon there may not be enough fish to
catch. Fish catches from natural levelled off and are even declining in many
parts of the world.
Based on this belief International Center for Living Aquatic Resources
Management (ICLARM) was set up to ensure an increasing supply of fish for the
growing world population.
Direct-General of Fisheries Datuk Mohd Mazlan Jusoh said, ICLARM focus in
tropical developing countries in both inland aquatic (mainly ponds and rice
floodwaters) and marine (coastal and coral reef) system that make up a fifth of
the total animal protein consumed.
ICLARM is one of the 16 scientific research centres of the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and is the only one
concerned with aquatic resources. The others are concerned with crop,
livestock,
forest and water resources.
It has became a member of the CGIAR in May 1992 as an autonomous,
nongovernment, nonprofit organisation, international scientific and technical
centre which has been organized to conduct, stimulate and accelerate research
on
all aspects of fisheries, aquaculture and the management of living aquatic
resources.
The CGIAR was founded in 1971 with 60 members mostly from developing
countries and is co-sponsored by the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme
and
the United Nations Environment Programme.
ICLARM, a highly noted fish research facility, was conceived by Rockefeller
Foundation in 1973 and was incorporated in Manila in March 1977.
As an operational organization with programmes funded by grants from
private
foundations and governments, ICLARM work programme is aimed to resolve
critical,
technical and socioeconomic constraints, to increase production, saving aquatic
biodiversity, protects the environment, improve resource management and
equitable distribution of benefits in economically developing countries.
ICLARM also holds regular conferences and seminars attended by world
renowned scientist and these will enable local scientists to network with their
foreign counterparts.
The centre is governed by an international Board of Trustees and policies
are implemented by the Director General. It has approximately 220
international,
regional and national staff from 12 countries.
Existing experimental facilities are those of the Coastal Aquaculture
Centre
in Solomon Islands and the Research Center for Africa and West Asia at Abbassa
in the Nile River Delta, Egypt.
There are project offices in Bangladesh, Malawi and Los Banos, Philippines.
Research is also being carried out in a number of developing countries in Asia,
Africa and the Carribean.
Datuk Mazlan said, with the headquarters of ICLARM now resited in Batu
Maung, Penang, Malaysia would be able to directly benefit from it which has the
expertise, skills, and a strong research database. The headquarters of the
centre was formerly in Manila, Philippines.
The centre will provide us with opportunities to carry out joint research
with them and help us develop our fisheries sector, expecially in aquaculture,
processing and product development, he said.
The World Bank through the CGIAR has already committed US$2.5 million to
the
renovation of the previous site of the Fisheries Training Institute to the
setting up of the new headquaters in Penang which situated next to the
Malaysian
Fisheries Research Institute at Batu Maung.
In the meantime, ICLARM will occupy temporary offices at the Equatorial
Hotel, Penang and has started the operation on last Feb 15. It will employ
staff
between 100 and 150 locals.
ICLARM's international scientists declared that the move would enhance
their
ability to function as a nerve center for worldwide fisheries research, which
it
carried out with its many scientific partners around the globe.
The excellent facilities in Penang will more appropriately locate ICLARM in
an aquatic research environment an will provide better links with collaborators
in Asia and worldwide.
Mazlan said, "ICLARM is not here to serve us. It is our task to explore and
exploit its presence in our country. We should make full use of its facilities,
expertise, skills, research findings, networking and database."
The world's natural resources are part of an ecosystem that cannot be
isolated into segments. So partnerships between different sectors and different
countries, with a common understanding and a common goal, are required.
Besides aquaculture, Malaysia is also interested in learning from ICLARM's
other projects which include the development of profitable farming methods for
rearing high priced species such as giant clams and pearl oysters for export
purposes.
The country is also keen to learn from ICLARM's research on fish
biodiversity and genetic resources.
For instance, Mazlan said a special strain of the Nile tilapia has been
developed via genetic selection. It is said to have a 30-40 percent faster
growth rate.
"Our private entrepreneurs can make use of these findings to grow Nile
tilapia. They can export the fish in the procedded form," he said.
The fishers, the researchers and the policy makers worldwide must work
together with a clear focus on the goal of harnessing the world's fish
resources
to feed a world population growing at a rate of 100 million more people every
year, he said.
KILANG CETAK ALBUM BERLEBIHAN
Oleh Zubir Mohd Yunus
PERSATUAN Industri Rakaman (RIM) merumuskan industri muzik Malaysia hanya memerlukan empat kilang percetakan album bagi menampung perkhidmatan dan permintaan daripada 40 syarikat rakaman.
Sebaliknya, kajian persatuan itu mendapati ketika ini ada 17 kilang seumpama negara ini. Pengurus Besar RIM, Sandy Monteiro, berkata jumlah itu terlalu banyak untuk menampung permintaan sedia ada kerana semua syarikat hanya menerbitkan kira-kira 35 album sebulan.
"Kami hairan apabila mendapati ada terlalu banyak kilang percetakan untuk menampung keperluan yang sedikit."
"Habis, selebihnya tu buat apa? Inilah persoalan yang masih menjadi teka-teki," katanya.
Mengenai jualan album tempatan dan antarabangsa, sepanjang enam bulan pertama tahun lalu, Sandy berkata sektor berkenaan memperolehi RM77.8 juta. Jumlah ini merosot kira-kira 37 peratus berbanding jangka masa yang sama tahun sebelumnya.
Dia berkata keadaan ini berlaku disebabkan kegawatan ekonomi dan masalah rakam rompak yang masih belum dapat dikawal sepenuhnya.
"Dalam keadaan sekarang, pembeli bijak berbelanja. Daya beli berkurangan. Namun, masih ada album yang laris, terutama yang bermutu dari segala aspek termasuk susunan muzik, vokal, konsep serta pemilihan lagu."
"Ada kalanya tak boleh jual, lebih teruk lagi dengan wujudnya persaingan album cetak rompak yang kualitinya menyamai album tulen, dijual pula pada harga terlalu murah."
"Kedua-dua masalah ini berkait rapat dalam menentukan turun naik pasaran album kita. Ekonomi merosot, lepas tu ada masalah rakam rompak, jadi sudah tentulah jualan album tulen terjejas," katanya.
Sandy berkata tidak semua album yang dihasilkan mendapat sambutan dan jika ada keuntungan, ia akan diagihkan untuk menampung kerugian album yang tidak laku.
Dia berkata, bagi setiap album tulen memerlukan kos penerbitan yang tinggi, selain promosi dan iklan yang mahal.
Bagi pihak RIM, katanya, mereka meminta semua pihak terus memberikan kerjasama dengan Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri Dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna dan Kementerian Perdagangan Antarabangsa Dan Industri.
Selain itu, katanya, mereka turut merangka suatu kerjasama yang lebih rapat dengan Badan Pencegah Rasuah (BPR) dan Badan Banteras Cetak Rompak (BBCR) untuk menangani masalah rakam rompak.