Combating Corruption and Managing Integrity in Malaysia: A Critical Overview of Recent Strategies and Initiatives

The Government of Malaysia has made continuous efforts and put in place an elaborate set of strategies and institutions aimed at combating corruption and promoting integrity in the society. The nation’s anti-corruption drive has lately received a major boost. The Badawi government that came to power in 2003 following 22 years of the Mahathir era declared containing corruption as its main priority which was followed by a series of concrete measures. However, the governmental attempts and strategies in Malaysia appear to have met with little success, as evidenced by the current data that suggests entrenched corruption in the society. Evidence shows that despite governmental campaigns and initiatives, corruption has remained acute, widespread and, in fact, worsened in recent years. This paper presents a critical overview of the anti-corruption strategies being followed in Malaysia and explores the problems and limitations of the current approach to fighting corruption and managing integrity in the society.     

Software reliability assessment using accelerated testing methods

The use of operational profiles and usage-based testing has received considerable attention recently in the software engineering literature. Testing under the actual operational profile can, however, be expensive, time consuming or even infeasible in situations where the performance of a system is dominated by infrequent but highly critical events. We consider a real application that deals with telecommunications network restoration after network failure caused by cuts in fibre optic cables. We use this application to demonstrate the usefulness of traditional accelerated testing methods to test and estimate software reliability. These methods, which have been extensively used in hardware reliability, have an important role to play in software reliability assessment as well.     

Between Darius and Khomeini: exploring Iran's national identity problematique

Iran, since the advent of its nation-state building process, has struggled to define its national identity in a relevant and resonant way. This article, while acknowledging the multi-dimensional nature of Iran's national identity, focuses on its two most profound components: Nationalism and Islamism. It explores how the tensions between these two are at the heart of not only the problem of Iranian identity but also of Persian identity. Examining how these two bases of identity also rely on similarity as well as difference the article argues, through the use of the tool of a problematique, that a coherent Iranian national identity, inclusive of all including ethnic minorities, is not possible until the tensions between Nationalism and Islamism at the heart of Persian identity are resolved.     

The Impact of in-Service Training and Motivation on Job Performance of Technical & Vocational Education Teachers: Role of Person-Job Fit

In-service education and training (INSET), motivation and person-job fit of workers are considered vital for the performance of employees. The focused purpose of the study is to examine the associations between in-service training and motivation impact on job performance of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) teachers, while examining the moderating role of person-job fit. Using convenience sampling technique, data is collected from TVET teachers in South Asia. The finding of this study revealed a significant impact for in-service training and motivation on job performance. This research study is useful for the HR managers and practitioners to utilize their employee’s true potential to get the desired results.

     

Maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of a multiple step-stress model from the Birnbaum-Saunders distribution under time-constraint: A comparative study

The cumulative exposure model (CEM) is a commonly used statistical model utilized to analyze data from a step-stress accelerated life testing which is a special class of accelerated life testing (ALT). In practice, researchers conduct ALT to: (1) determine the effects of extreme levels of stress factors (e.g., temperature) on the life distribution, and (2) to gain information on the parameters of the life distribution more rapidly than under normal operating (or environmental) conditions. In literature, researchers assume that the CEM is from well-known distributions, such as the Weibull family. This study, on the other hand, considers a p-step-stress model with q stress factors from the two-parameter Birnbaum-Saunders distribution when there is a time constraint on the duration of the experiment. In this comparison paper, we consider different frameworks to numerically compute the point estimation for the unknown parameters of the CEM using the maximum likelihood theory. Each framework implements at least one optimization method; therefore, numerical examples and extensive Monte Carlo simulations are considered to compare and numerically examine the performance of the considered estimation frameworks.     

Test for the equality of interclass correlation cofefficients under unequal family sizes for several populations

Large sample ANOVA test and likelihood ratio test have been Proposed to test for the equaiity of sevcrai iniraciass correlation coefiicients unier unequai family sizes based on several independent multinormal samples, it has been found on the basis of simulation study that the likelihood ratio test consistenily and reliably produced results superior to those of the large sample ANOVA test in terms of power for various combinations of intraclass correlatxon coefficient values.     

The National Laws of Myanmar: Making of Statelessness for the Rohingya

This article examines the legal status of the Rohingya in Myanmar by analysing relevant constitutional provisions (of 1947, 1974 and 2008) and other major citizenship legislations including the Citizenship Law, 1982. A doctrinal analysis demonstrates that: (i) the earlier Constitutions and laws provided citizenship for the Rohingya (where they were identified as an ethnic minority); and (ii) their status has been changed gradually under the later constitutions and legislations until recently, when they are regarded as neither minority nor citizen and rendered stateless by the law. The role of legislation in disempowering the Rohingya is thus made explicit.     

Automatic transmission: ethnicity,racialization and the car

This article is based on ethnographic research carried out in Bradford, an ethnically diverse city situated in the north of England. The sample of over 60 participants mostly comprises males of British Pakistani Muslim heritage but varies in terms other markers of identity such as social class, profession and residential/working locale. The article analyses the cultural value and meaning of cars within a multicultural context and how a consumer object can feed into the processes which refine and embed racialized identities. Small case studies reveal the concrete and discursive ways through which ideas around identity and ethnicity are transmitted and how, in particular, racialization continues to feature as a live, active and recognizable process in everyday experience.     

New Estimates and Projections of Population Growth in Pakistan

Pakistan's population growth rate rose steadily from about 2.6 percent per annum in the early 1960s to a high of about 3.5 percent during the late 1980s. Since then it has declined to an estimated 2.1 percent for 2003. Growth rates calculated from the population censuses, which show a very different picture, are distorted by differential accuracy of enumeration. During the period of rising growth rates, fertility was constant at just under 7 children per woman while life expectancy at birth rose by nearly 20 years. Fertility decline began in the late 1980s, bringing the population growth rate down with it. Remarkably, there appears to have been little change in life expectancy over the past 15 years.