Ask Price Before Order

The Pahang branch of the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry has confirmed that the RM100 charge for two plates of rice and dishes was a fair price and not an offence.

The RM100 charge for the two-person meal shocked netizens after a customer shared details of her experience on social media last week.

Its director Sharuddin Jali said investigations on the store found that the charge was reasonable as the price of prawns was determined according to grades displayed in the restaurant.

"Checks revealed that the photograph which went viral showed two pieces of prawns when the total number taken was four pieces including other vegetable and squid dishes.

Sharuddin added that no action could be taken against the outlet owner as he did not commit any offence.

He urged the public to check on the price list or enquire on the price before helping themselves to the food, to avoid any problem.

Last week, a woman uploaded on her Twitter account of having to pay RM100 for a meal which she had with her husband at a shop at Jalan Leban Chondong Kuala Rompin.

The woman uploaded a photograph of the receipt and the meal which included two pieces of prawns with the comments "Is the price of the food at this shop really like this? Or did my husband eat a mermaid?", which received various reactions from netizens.

Insurance & Takaful Products Not Attractive

Insurance and takaful products are still not attractive to large segments of the population of Malaysia as many of them are too complex and unaffordable, said Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor, Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim.

He said  the industry should concentrate on the underserved segment to allow them to be protected by at least one coverage.

“At the moment our penetration rate is about 56 per cent. In the developed economies it is more than 100 per cent. The government has targeted 75 per cent penetration by 2020 but eventually we want to go for more than 100 per cent,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the 7th Malaysian Insurance Summit here yesterday.

Earlier, in his keynote address, Muhammad said, from the perspective of the population that remained underserved, the existing business models were essentially broken.

While life insurance premiums and family takaful contributions had grown by 48 per cent since 2010, the penetration rate has only increased by five percentage points indicating that the industry was increasingly concentrated on a narrow insurance segment, he said.

“If we eliminate double-counting, only 35 per cent of adults have some forms of coverage,” he said.

Furthermore, he said, even for the population that was being served, making a purchase or a claim was a process fraught with anxiety and headache. The BNM Governor said to address the gap issue, products and delivery channels needed to be diversified to better suit the whole population, adding that this must entailed a renewed focus on protection needs, especially for first-time buyers.

On this, Muhammad said, the central bank was partnering with the industry to roll out Perlindungan Tenang, a national branding and communication platform next month in Kuching.

“Perlindungan Tenang is intended to reach eight million working-age Malaysians and over 700,000 micro enterprises that currently need insurance and takaful protection against key risks,” he said.

The products, which would carry the Perlindungan Tenang logo, needed to meet the three criteria of being Affordable, Accessible and Easy to understand.

“The products are aimed to address ‘pain points’ that commonly held consumers back from purchasing insurance and takaful products. To-date, four insurers and two takaful operators had developed products that would be introduced under this initiative and BNM expected more would come on board,” he said.

On other developments, the governor urged the industry to embrace digitalisation to revolutionise the customer experience whereby the insurance and takaful sectors needed to catch up. He said to-date online insurance distribution still accounted for under 0.1 per cent of business volume, which was a poor achievement as  consumers already enjoyed the benefits of digitalisation in many other daily activities.

Employment Insurance Scheme Is Not Sustainable

The Employment Insurance System (EIS), which provides a safety net for retrenched employees, may not be sustainable if the contribution rate remains at 0.4%, says the Social Security Organisation.

This, it says, is based on projections done by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

In an interview with FMT, Socso EIS chief Mohd Sahar Darusman said this in dismissing claims by some employer groups that it was collecting more in EIS contributions than it would need to pay out in retrenchment benefits.

“The combined 0.4% contribution rate is the lowest contribution rate in the world compared with similar programmes implemented around the world. These average around 2-3%.”

Sahar said that in Thailand, the combined contribution rate is 1.25%, Vietnam 3%, Saudi Arabia 2% and South Korea 2.15%.

He also pointed out that in Malaysia, contributions were based on a 50:50 basis, meaning both employers and employees shared the costs equally. In other countries, the employers’ contribution rate is much higher than the employees’ contribution rate. In some countries, like the United States of America, the entire contribution is paid by the employers.

In Malaysia, the EIS will involve 430,000 employers and 6.6 million employees. Employers and employees will each contribute 0.2% of an employee’s salary per month. The money will go towards the EIS accumulated fund.

“The benefits of the scheme are plenty. It’s not just the retrenchment payouts for retrenched workers, but the process of job matching, the funding for training and other allowances.”

Sahar explained that based on Socso’s projections, at the current combined 0.4% contribution rate, the EIS’ accumulated fund may be enough for less than five years, if the total number of beneficiaries reaches 100,000 and over, as projected by the ILO.

“Assuming there is a very low rate of retrenchment and accumulation of the funds over time, Socso will provide additional benefits, including maternity benefits, mobility assistance, and wage subsidies or job retention subsidies that will benefit employees and employers even more.

“In fact, this was the reason why Socso wanted to introduce the 0.5% contribution rate from the very beginning but employer groups weren’t agreeable to this.”

Sahar said it was a pity that some employer groups do not understand the importance of creating a sustainable fund that will only benefit employers and employees in the long term.

“No one knows when a retrenchment may happen. Look at the Perwaja Steel, MegaSteel, Kinsteel, Malaysia Airlines, and retrenchments in the oil and gas industry as well as the banking industry. Were they all prepared for this? What were the contingencies available for them? Some of the retrenched employees weren’t even paid.”

According to Labour Department figures, 37,699 people were retrenched last year.

Sahar said this didn’t represent the actual retrenchment figures as companies with five employees or less aren’t required by law to report retrenchments to the department.

“So we don’t have the real picture and we could be looking at a higher number of potential claimants as opposed to the ones currently reported.”

In fact, Sahar said, out of the 662,000 enterprises in Malaysia, 74% were microenterprises with five employees or less.

Sahar said employers shouldn’t see the EIS as a burden, pointing out that the scheme is meant to protect both employees and employers, especially in the event of an economic crisis and employers aren’t able to pay termination benefits to their workers.

As for employees, Sahar said the EIS will at least put food on the table for the workers until they can get another job.

75% Penetration Rate By 2020

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has targetted the national insurance penetration rate to breach 75 per cent in 2020 from the current 56 per cent.

Governor Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim said it is even possible to exceed 100 per cent.

He was speaking after launching the Malaysian Insurance Summit 2017.

The insurance and takaful industry has grown at a healthy annual rate of 10.47 per cent in the 20 years prior to 2016, and the sector now accounts for 6 per cent of the Malaysian financial system assets. 

Insurance penetration - the ratio of life insurance policies and family takaful contracts to total population increased from 25.3 per cent in 1996 to 56 per cent in 2016. 

Muhammad, in his speech, was however concerned that despite liberalisation efforts,  insurance and takaful were not attractive enough to appeal to large segments of our population who are still devoid of any form of protection.

"From the perspective of the population that remain underserved, the existing business models are essentially broken."

Underinvestment in domestic talent and capacity is another key concern.

From another angle, the industry has yet to realise its potential, in part due to a lack of long-term commitment from domestic shareholders.  

He also talked about a renewed focus on protection needs especially for first-time buyers. 

BNM is partnering with the industry to roll out Perlindungan Tenang, a national branding and communication platform next month in Kuching. 

Perlindungan Tenang is intended to reach 8 million working-age Malaysians and over 700,000 micro enterprises that currently need insurance and takaful protection.

"The insurance and takaful sector needs to catch up, " he said, urging the industry to embrace digitalisation.

Today, online insurance distribution still accounts for less than 0.1 per cent of business volume. 

"A very poor achievement. With consumers already enjoying benefits of digitalisation in many other daily activities, consumers should expect better level of personalisation, responsiveness and reliability from their insurance and takaful experience. "

This includes shorter time-to-compensate for insurance claims.

Malaysia Insurance Fraud

About 10% of the RM4.8bil in motor insurance claims in 2016 were fraudulent, according to ISM Insurance Services Malaysia Bhd chairman Kong Shu Yin.

"The 10% is based on international benchmarks, so we are talking about a potential RM480mil worth of fraudulent claims  from the motor segment last year," he said.

He was speaking to reporters at a press conference at the Malaysian Insurance Summit 2017 on Monday. 

Kong added that ISM is working on a Fraud Intelligence System (FIS) to detect and combat insurance fraud in the country.

"FIS uses big data analysis and we will pool together industry data to detect fraud in claims," he explained.

The FIS is expected to be made mandatory by August next year and the insurance industry has invested more than RM10mil in the system.

Kong said the FIS is expected to reduce fraud in motor insurance claims to 2% to 3% from 10% presently.

Malaysian Insurance Industry Model - Broken!!!

The insurance industry’s current business models are “broken” and need to be fixed so that more Malaysians can afford coverage, says Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim.

He pointed out that most insurance products in the market are too expensive for the general public with the industry focusing on a narrow segment of the population.

“From the perspective of the population that remain under-served, the existing business models are essentially broken,” said during his keynote address at the Malaysian Insurance Summit 2017 yesterday.

He also said the industry needed strong domestic players.

“The industry needs domestic shareholders that have a long-term outlook and can support the deepening of our market,” Muhammad said.

He chided recent opportunistic shareholding transactions that have destabilised market players.

“A number of domestic shareholders who after being given a licence and the opportunity to participate in the insurance sector sold off their shareholding and made quick profits,” he said without mentioning any names.

“These types of shareholders are a cause of instability to the insurers’ operations and not the kind of shareholders that would be viewed favourably for future participation in the financial industry,” Muhammad said.

The governor also said the industry should promote greater transparency and prudence in its business.

On premiums collections, Muhammad said the current practice where agents collected premiums from customers in cash and made payment to insurance and takaful companies using the agencies’ own cheque or credit card should cease. He added that the industry facilitated customers to make direct payments to the insurance and takaful companies.

Another issue raised by Muhammad was underinvestment in domestic talent in the insurance industry. He said that between 2014 and 2016, about RM1.3bil of payments made by insurers in Malaysia to foreign affiliates.

“Among a large number of foreign insurers, significant reliance on group level support has limited the investments in core functions needed to develop strong domestic capabilities,” he said.

To address the issue of unaffordable insurance products, Muhammad said the central bank is partnering with the industry to roll out Perlindungan Tenang, a national branding and communication platform next month in Kuching.

“Perlindungan Tenang is intended to reach 8 million working-age Malaysians and over 700,000 micro-enterprises that currently need insurance and takaful protection against key risks. To date, four insurers and two takaful operators have developed products that will be introduced under this initiative and we should expect much more will come on board,” Muhammad said.

Products that meet the criteria of being affordable, accessible and easy to understand will carry the Perlindungan Tenang logo and will benefit from regulatory flexibilities and co-branding and promotional initiatives.

By 2020, Muhammad hoped that about 75% of the population would have some sort of insurance coverage, from 56% of insurance penetration at present.

Another Datuk Sampah Seri Longkang

A "Datuk Seri" who allegedly assaulted a couple at a bar in Bandar Baru Klang for being too noisy will be remanded on Wednesday. The 42-year-old man turned himself in at the North Klang district police headquarters here, said  North Klang OCPD Asst Comm Mazelan Paijan.

He added that the suspect is now under police custody. "We are questioning him to find out who else was involved during the incident,” he said when contacted here on Tuesday.

Thoo claimed that he was having a drink and playing card games with Chong and two other friends at the bar at about 9pm when several men came and complained that they were noisy and they didn’t like it.

Despite apologies, the group allegedly kept harassing the couple and the fight started with the man throwing a glass at them when they wanted to leave.

“We will file the remand order tomorrow for the suspect to assist in the investigation. More arrests will also be made soon,” said ACP Mazelan.

He added that the case is being probed under Section 324 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means. 

Ace Your Job Interview

Below are some common mistakes candidates often overlooked during job interview. If you want to ace that interview, you might want to avoid making these mistakes. Prevention is always better than cure, right?

1. Arriving late - Always be prepared! Check out the route to the venue the night before and wake up earlier to avoid jam and unexpected traffic delay. Punctuality matters and most recruiters reject candidates who arrive late. Being on time not only can give you some time to breath and get ready for the interview, it’s also shows your respect for the recruiters time. It best to arrive 15 minutes early and if there were some emergency, please call the interviewer and let them know as soon as you can.

2. Unclear details in CV/ Resume - I’ve visited some of the Universities and Colleges for couple of years now. One of the activities is the resume check. Sadly, most of our fresh-grads doesn't really proof read and they don’t take ownership of their own resume. It is really bad. Don’t assume that the interviewers won't ask you in detail about your resume. It’s best if you write your own resume, and never ever pay the other party to do it. You have to be comfortable and stay truthful to talk about all those things you’ve input in your resume, even if it's imperfect

3. Lying - No matter how bad you need the job, never do this. Most of the recruiter can easily detect if you are lying, so please don’t. It won’t work. ‘If you tell the truth, you never have to remember anything’- Mark Twain. If you’ve been offered the job, and your lies get caught, the impact can be long-lasting.

4. Unprepared - Again, get to know your resume because I'm certain that the recruiters will definitely probe more. Understand the qualification and job scope of the job you’ve applied for, so that it is easier to demonstrate that you have what they needed. Do some research about the company you’re applying and you need to know some of the facts about the organisation to impress them and to show that you’re qualified to be hired for their organisation. Remember to bring all the document’s needed. All these will definitely increase your confidence during interview.

5. Badmouthing ex-employers - The answer to the question ‘why do you want to leave your current company?’ is not meant for you to speak negatively about your previous company. This is one of the tricky interview question during interview,please avoid negativity when answering it. Complain about your current/ previous employers during your job interview is a BIG NO NO, no matter how tempting it is. It can be completely harmless, but it can be as disastrous. A person with your calibres would definitely find a positive reproach which gave you much better credits for you to land the job with a snap!

Bully, Cheat & Humiliation

After complaints by several artistes that they had yet to be paid for their performances at the closing ceremony of the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, more performers have voiced out their dissatisfaction over the way they were treated.

One of the dancers who performed at the official opening ceremony of the SEA games, Nur Aien Md Sahar, said not only had payment been delayed but they were also treated poorly by the company hired by the organisers to take charge of the performances.

“They promised to give us a higher payment but to date, there has been no word from them. The person in charge has even left the WhatsApp group. It is because we keep asking for our money. We were also called harsh names, such as ‘pigs’, when we were training for the performances.

“Apart from that, we had to fork out our own money for transport, food, and uniforms but we did not mind as they had promised to pay us more. But they did not,” said the 17-year-old student, who danced part-time.

Aien claimed the company owed them about RM500, adding that it could be more for those who also performed at the closing ceremony. She said there were many other performers, including students, silat exponents, traditional dancers and the Orang Asli performers, who also had not received their payments.

Another performer, who declined to be identified for fear of being victimised, said he was no longer in touch with the company but was hopeful that he would still be paid for the performances during the opening and closing ceremonies. He said when he had earlier asked for his payment, the company had labelled him as being obsessed with money.

“We (the dancers) were treated badly whenever the payment issue was brought up. They owe us around RM1,000 per dancer but they remained silent. During the rehearsals, some of us were asked to get our own uniforms,” he said.

When contacted by FMT, the company declined to comment for now. The issue of delayed payment first came to light when singer-actress Adibah Noor posted about it on Twitter.

She had expressed sadness that “friends performing at the SEA Games closing ceremony had yet to receive payment”.

She expressed hope that the payment would be expedited, adding that it was not just the celebrities who had not received any payment but also other performers, including dancers and children.

Singer Zainal Abidin, who performed at the closing ceremony, was one of those who was still waiting to be paid. He was told that Putrajaya had appointed a company to handle the payments for the performers who took part in the closing ceremony.

The Malaysian Organising Committee (Masoc) for the SEA Games, when contacted by FMT today, said it was not responsible for the performances.

“We did not manage any performances. Payments were made to the agency that was engaged and they handled the performances and also the artistes,” an officer said.

Meanwhile, Masoc CEO Zolkples Embong - said that all performers could expect to be paid by end of November. He said the committee had made 70% of the payments to the companies which were contracted to organise the opening and closing ceremony of the KL SEA Games.

“Masoc is now working with the finance ministry to expedite the payment process,” he was quoted as saying.