Jacklyn Victor attended at QuestNet 10th Anniversary

QuestNet, a leading network marketing company facilitating almost four million entrepreneurs across the globe, celebrated its tenth anniversary in style recently.

QuestNet's tenth anniversary event, held at the Sunway Resort and Spa, Petaling Jaya was attended by 2,500 enthusiastic entrepreneurs from 160 countries who have reaped financial rewards through the company's innovative business opportunities and interactive e-commerce platform since its inception in 1998.

"In a short span of 10 years, http://www.quest.net[QuestNet has expanded its presence globally to create a family of successful entrepreneurs," said JR Mayer, Managing Director of QuestNet. "Their success is indeed our passion -- and we have fulfilled our role in creating a community of enterprising individuals who collectively have contributed to QuestNet's strong global presence. But we will not stop here. We have gone through a decade of success and we are committed to another promising decade."

QuestNet has earmarked 2008 as the year of service distinction and excellence in the network marketing industry. The company plans to continue motivating and inspiring those who believe in making a significant change in their lives.

QuestNet, in conjunction with its first decade anniversary, announced the launch of QShoppe, an online retail business concept that allows QuestNet entrepreneurs to tap into unexplored markets, build a wider customer base, and discover fresh business opportunities.

"QuestNet has planned a series of celebratory events in various locations worldwide from now till December 2008 as our tribute to those who have been with us all these years. We have chosen Malaysia as our first destination because the country is beautiful, the people are friendly and we want to contribute to Malaysian tourism. We will definitely come back to host future events in Malaysia", JR Mayer added.

Guests who attended the anniversary event enjoyed a night of fireworks and energetic live performances by Malaysian pop icons Ning Baizura, Reshmonu, and Jaclyn Victor.

Group raps Kedah’s restrictions on women artistes

Kuala Lumpur: The Joint-Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) has strongly condemned the Kedah government’s recent ruling to impose restrictions on women artistes.

The new ruling violated Article 8 of the Federal Constitution which prohibits gender discrimination and Malaysia’s commitment to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, it said. Under the new ruling, women can perform in front of an all-woman audience but restrictions apply for performances in open spaces, a Malay newspaper reported.

JAG said the new ruling contradicted the Pakatan Rakyat manifesto which promised a more democratic and inclusive society.

JAG added it violated women’s right to work and express themselves, denied the significant contributions of women in the arts and entertainment spheres, and attempted to silence women’s voices in the public space.

“The involvement of women in the entertainment profession is not alien to Malaysian culture,” it said.

“Singers such as Saloma, Sharifah Aini, Anita Sarawak, Sheila Majid, Siti Nurhaliza, Ella, Fish Leong, Suki, Ning Baizura, Jaclyn Victor and many others have long been accepted by Malaysian society and are part of our Malaysian cultural landscape.

“Some of them have also made us proud in the international arena.

“The Sultan of Selangor recently defended the performances of Ella and Mas Idayu, contradicting PAS’ extreme demand for the banning of the concert.”

JAG expressed hoped that political parties would share the wisdom of Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah who saw the arts as a beneficial platform to foster unity.

It also expressed its concern that the restrictions would also remove women artistes from traditional performances, cultural activities and theatre performances.

“It is not clear whether the ruling would extend to women on radio, television and films in the state.

“Are we embarking on a journey headed towards a point in time where women will not only be told what to wear but when to be seen and when to be heard?”

JAG - which comprises the Women’s Centre for Change, Penang; Women’s Aid Organisation; Sisters in Islam; Empower and the All Women’s Action Society - strongly urged the state government to retract the restrictions with immediate effect.

“No one – male or female, should be deprived of their right to a livelihood and participation in any sphere of Malaysian life.”

Prestigious reward

Success, for some, would be crossing continents, or owning a big organisation, or building a skyscraper. Others would consider bringing up children while juggling jobs as more of an achievement. Whatever the case may be, success stories are always worth telling. With this in mind, society magazine Prestige Malaysia, and CIMB Bank, through its priority banking service CIMB Club, collaborated to honour those who have excelled in their respective fields in their Prestige Malaysia Top 40 Under 40 project.

Recently, 40 individuals aged 40 and below gathered at the Grand Milennium Hotel, hoping to win the project’s The Most Promising Individual title. This is the first time the title has been introduced since the project started in 2005. All 40 candidates were profiled in a special booklet of the magazine’s issue this month. The individuals work in sectors such as communications, home and property, fashion, retail, food and beverage, technology and entertainment.

Voted by 400 guests at the event (the Who’s Who in the chosen industries), five candidates were shortlisted: YTL Group director of Investment Ruth Yeoh, Priority Communications executive director Elaine Chuah, chief executive officer of the Delicious chain of restaurants Benjamin Yong, award-winning artist and founder of Kartel Records Joe Flizzow and executive director of Crave Capital, Gerard Teoh.

Yeoh won the title, receiving a trophy from CR Media, a leather valet from Gold Sponsor CIMB Club, a ring worth RM10,000 from luxury watch brand Roger Dubuis, a shopping voucher worth RM3,000 from Melium Groups’ M Store, a hamper of beauty products from Laura Mercier, a limited edition coffee table book and VIP Service by Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd.

“I feel blessed and my first reaction upon winning was to thank God, my family and loved ones, as well as my friends. I believe confidence has nothing to do with how many awards one receives. It should be based on one’s capacity to keep working hard,” she said.

The 25-year-old is an environmentalist, leading her company’s environmental division. She also co-authored a book entitled Cut Carbon, Grow Profits: Business Strategies for Managing Climate Change and Sustainability with Dr Kenny Tang.  Also present at the event was Catcha Group chief executive officer Patrick Grove. “Yeoh was picked by her peers present. As achievers themselves, they were able to evaluate candidates on the attributes needed to win the award,” said Grove.

Other nominees for the award included Malaysia’s first astronaut, Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, actress and Sinclair Falak Sdn Bhd managing director Sazzy Falak, Naza Group vice-president Sheikh Mohd Faisal, entrepreneur and extreme sports lover Maznah Zolkifly, singer Jaclyn Victor and Melissa Indot.

Famous trio to help promote peace and harmony

Malaysia’s first Angkasawan, Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor and Malaysian Idols Jaclyn Victor and Daniel Lee have been appointed ambassadors for the upcoming Global Peace Festival 2008.

The three-day festival is to promote a vision of world peace and through service to others, inter-religious harmony and healthy families.

The pop stars will present the theme song of the festival entitled Where Peace Begins at the main celebration while Sheikh Muszaphar will share his experience in space through a talk entitled “Standing in the Eye of the World” at the Global Family Carnival of the festival.

Sheikh Muszaphar said the appointment is an honour to him as he has always been interested in making a change in the world.

“Ever since I came back from space, I found myself uninterested in small, petty things, so when the opportunity came for me to get involved in the Global Peace Festival, I was delighted,” he said at a press conference at The Gardens Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

For Jaclyn, what is important is the awareness that star presence, like herself, generate in such campaigns.

“We take little things for granted, like love and respect for each other.

“That’s why I think this is an important movement, to instill love and respect thus creating peace,” she said.

Festival chairman Tan Sri Zaleha Ismail said that the festival was “not a one-time event” but a continuous effort to promote peace and harmony in the world.

“The ambassadors are examples to society (with their achievements and merits). With them as the face of the festival and our hard work, this is our chance to help the society to become one Malaysian family or even one global family,” she said.

Later, a project of the festival - “Power of 10 Sen’’ - organised by Universal Peace Federation and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) was launched in conjunction with the International Day for The Eradication of Poverty on Oct 17.

The project aims to collect funds from school children and corporate bodies to be channelled to Unicef, International Friendship Foundation and Yayasan Amal Malaysia.

The event also saw the launch of the festival logo by the ambassadors.

Festival patron Tan Sri Dr Saleha Mohd Ali, festival director Dr Teh Su Thye, Department of National Unity and National Integration of the Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry director Datuk Azman Hassan and Unicef representative Youssouf Oomar were also present.

More than 20,000 people are expected to gather at the Bukit Jalil Stadium from Oct 17 to 19.

The festival is jointly organised by the Universal Peace Federation Malaysia, the United Nation Association of Malaysia and Pure Love & True Family Malaysia for World Peace in collaboration with the Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry.

Idol Daniel and Jacklyn thinks photography is good enough to sing about

Petaling Jaya: Malaysian Idol 2005 Daniel Lee loves to take pictures, a hobby he credits his photographer father.

His father owns a photo studio in his hometown Changlun near Alor Star in Kedah.

Daniel will never fail to snap away at any images that capture his attention. He usually takes along a camera wherever he goes.

“I love taking natural and colourful pictures. Landscape is my favourite subject. I was brought up in a rural area where the padi fields were my beautiful playground.

“I also like taking close-ups of objects and people,” said Daniel while viewing some of the pictures at The Star’s Changing Malaysia photo exhibition at 1-Utama shopping mall.

Daniel commended The Star for initiating the exhibition as it promotes love for the environment and nature.

“It also shows how we live in a peaceful multi-ethnic and culturally-rich country,” he added.

Jaclyn Victor, the 2004 Malaysian Idol, concurred with Daniel saying the photographs had captured the beauty in everyday situations.

“They turn out to be so wonderful when captured on lens,” she said, referring to the picture of KL Tower, majestic under a cloud with the backdrop of old buildings.

Jointly organised with Petronas in conjunction with the 51st National Day celebration, the exhibition will end today.

Jaclyn Victor on Songs of hope for Sichuan quake victims

Artistes from Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan come together to raise funds for Sichuan earthquake victims.

In response to the crisis unfolding in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake, the biggest to hit China in more than 30 years, a group of like-minded people have set up a charitable body called i-Trust to provide aid to the 15 million displaced and 5.47 million made homeless by the disaster.

Hong Kong actress Ewong Yung Hung started the ball rolling as founder of i-Trust when she made a call to her Malaysian partner Alan Chan, who became the chairman of i-Trust, working tirelessly behind the scenes. Miss Malaysia/Universe 2007 Deborah Henry came on board as i-Trust ambassador.

The celebrities who were at the press conference in Kuala Lumpur with Yung and Deborah included Datin Maylene Yong, who is active in charity work, veteran Hong Kong actor Tao Ping, singer Athena Beh, Project Superstar season one male and female champions John Wee and Desiree Tan and the newly-formed local pop duo MJH (Man Jiang Hong) of Frankie and Heng.

Beijing-born Yung also sang the theme song she had recorded for the Sichuan relief concert music video titled Tian Si De Wei Xiao (Smile of an Angel).

“It took three attempts before I could get the song properly recorded as I couldn’t help but break down each time the visuals of the child victims came on,” said Yung, 39, who has a 10-month-old daughter.

She expressed excitement at her own child’s development, in particular, standing up and walking for the very first time.

“My heart went out to the children who were affected by the Sichuan earthquake. They are like angels who have lost their smiles. I felt that I had to do something for them.

“Charity work makes me very happy. It has been a journey of self-discovery. When we help others, they help us back. People want to know why we are only now starting our charity efforts. But, I believe charity only has a beginning but no ending.

“We shall endeavour to gather our collective efforts to organise a charity event like this every year,” she said, adding that they would concentrate their efforts on providing relief to children and the elderly.

“Apart from child care centres, we’d like to make available daycare centres for seniors to help keep old folk safe,” said Yung.

The board of trustees of i-Trust hope to raise funds together with charity partners such as Tzu Chi Foundation via a gala dinner followed by a charity concert in October. Both promise to be star-studded events with the celebrity support of more than 20 artistes from Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

From Hong Kong are Andy Hui Chi On, Dicky Cheung Wai Kin, Lee Heung Kam, Tam Peng Mun and Tao Ping. From Taiwan are artistes Van Fan Yi Chen and JJ Jen-Show Jen.

Malaysian artistes include Ah Niu (Tan Kheng Siong), Ning Baizura, Jaclyn Victor, Juwita Suwito, Andrew Tan, John Wee, Christy Tan, Desiree Tan, Athena Beh and MJH.

Organised by i-Trust, both events are endorsed by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia with radio support from local Chinese radio station 988 FM, which is operated by The Star.

Jaclyn Victor in Talentime

Renowned film-maker Yasmin Ahmad is back in her directing shoes for her new feature film called Talentime. Currently shooting in Ipoh, the movie is about a inter-school talent competition among schoolchildren.

"But more importantly, the movie concentrates on human behaviour and emotions," said Yasmin in an interview. "The idea behind my movie is that as humans, we have to go through a lot of pain and some measure of suffering before we can reach greater heights. "But more accurately, the idea really comes from my own observations that some of the best moments in my life were those moments where you failed and how that shapes you as an individual.

"So here is a simple story about the struggles the kids go through for this competition and with it is a love story about a Malay-Eurasian girl called Melor played by Pamela Chong, falling for a deaf and dumb Indian guy played by newcomer Mahesh Jugal Kishore."

Other stars include Mohd Syafie Naswip, who made his debut performance in Mukhsin, Jaclyn Victor, Ida Nerina, Adibah Noor, Harith Iskandar and Azean Irdawaty.

Talentime will feature a lovely soundtrack O Re Piya, from Bollywood's acclaimed love story last year, Aaja Nachle.