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.

KE LAMAN UTAMA