Lay Your Hands on Community Service

By Nor Hidayati Mokhtar

When our First Lady, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor urged Higher Education Institutions to make it compulsory for all students to have at least joined community service, it made me wonder that there is nothing new about it.

To get involved in community service does not mean you must go to the extra mile like helping orphans to clean up the homes, cheering up old folks, surviving the nature, or summing ups money for donation. Well, it is great if it happens but actually it is so easy to do community service. Even a simple act of giving your seats to the one more deserved in KTM is an example.

Thus, it starts from us, the hearty hearts. It's never too hard to do it and yet, it's never too late to go for it. Community service is seen like a boring thing to do, but for us students, there are so many advantages we can obtain and later apply it on our daily lives.

When we have the hearty hearts, we will sense the need of helping our surroundings, not even having them to request. And good deeds will always be worthy. When we have the hearty hearts, we would always respect the elders because we will put ourselves in their shoes. And when we have the hearty hearts, we would always cherish ourselves to be luckier than so many people out there.

And to have those hearts, we can start with a community service. Apart from only acquiring teamwork skills, building up the self-confidence and learn to respect others, community service can also stimulate our emotional intelligence for the better us.

So we have flooded activities in this varsity and outside, we could always join the NGO. the Soliditary Mahasiswa Malaysia, Majlis Belia Malaysia, Rakan Muda, GPMS blah2..... Be alert and always feel free to join. Throw away the nasty feelings about the agenda of it. Be it a propaganda, wasting time or becoming 'poyo' to join, peel the goodness out of the activities. And I guarantee, the satisfaction you would get is priceless. =

Let's get ourselves involved soon in community service. This could be the best last solution to have a more tolerate, respecting each other, have the sensitivity upon others' needs and to instill more love in the community!

P.S : When was the last time you saw a young person (guy or girl) gave a seat in the public transportation for the elder ones? Me? Ah.... Cannot remember.

Being in NST for the first time, getting the byline!

This is my first article that was published in NST. Proud? Nah.. Feeling a lil heavy for the responsible that I shall carry (in order to gain more knowledge). huhu

However, this is credit to Mr Michael Lai who made this all happen. And thanks to all my dear friends from Journalism on Campus team, the Geng Budak Jahat. Geng Budak Jahat? That's what I shall story later.

For now, have a time to read this issue. It is very important upon our own safety and our future lies in it.

Nation needs DNA banks, says lead CSI

2010/12/08
By Nor Hidayati Mokhtar

SHAH ALAM: Malaysia needs to build DNA banks or repositories to assist in solving crimes and prosecuting cases, according to a senior forensic police officer.

Head of the Police Forensic Lab’s Crime Scene Unit (CSU) Supt Amidon Anan said the ability to collect DNA at crime scenes often proved futile as the forensic lab had only a limited bank of samples.

“Having the DNA is useful if we have suspects we can match the samples against. But we are unable to use the samples to help us find potential perpetrators as we don’t have DNA banks like what you see on the television series CSI,” said Amidon.

He was speaking to students from UiTM’s Faculty of Communication and Media Studies on the topic, ‘Crime as the elective subject’ at the campus here on Oct 5.

The need to create and develop DNA banks was critical, said Amidon, given the high public expectations on the police to safeguard society and reduce crime.

He said: “DNA banks can help the CSU in many pending cases, such as Nurin Jazlin. It was sad that while we were able to collect a DNA sample from the body of the child, we had little means or resources to match it with the likely murderer,” he said.

Nurin Jazlin was a high-profile case of a missing child whose body was subsequently dumped in a gym bag in Petaling Jaya more than three years ago.

Amidon expressed his frustration that the CSU’s repeated requests for the establishment of DNA banks seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.

While the cost of implementing such a project would be substantial, he said it would only escalate over time and “if not now, then when?”

It is not about being a hero in solving these cases. It is about finding justice for the victim’s family.”

“Having this ability to solve and prosecute cases would significantly reduce the ability of criminals to get away with their crimes,” added Amidon.

(Ed: This article first appeared in Varsity Voice, a monthly publication jointly produced by the New Straits Times and Universiti Teknoogi MARA (UiTM) under the newspaper's Journalism on Campus project.)

Read more: Nation needs DNA banks, says lead CSI http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/NationneedsDNAbanks_saysleadCSI/201012152355411292428541.87/Article/index_html#ixzz199cK379Y

Source : News Straits Times, Dec 8, 2010