Amran Muhammad

The development of entrepreneurship in Malaysia: State-led initiatives

Summary The aim of this paper is to explore the entrepreneurship development in Malaysia and analyze the trends in the development of the field. It looks into the economic and industrial activities from independence up to year 2005, which are categorized into four phases according to Malaysias first major government policy, the “New Economic Policy (NEP)”. The first phase refers to the period before the introduction of the NEP; the second is the first half of the NEP period; the third is the second half of the NEP era; and the fourth is the period after the NEP era. From the third phase onwards, entrepreneurship activities were carried out rather aggressively, particularly with the initiation of the government‐supported and government‐protected national automotive industry. Many enterprises were established as suppliers of parts and components to the national manufacturer under government assistance programs. The following phase put emphasis on technology in most entrepreneurial endeavors. The four phases had different foci of industrialization, but they were similar in terms of initiative, which was to become state led. The initiation of Malaysias pioneer industrial project, the automotive industry, spurred the growth of firms and provided the gateway for the acquisition of relevant technological knowledge, technical skills, and entrepreneurial talent. Thus, this paper postulates that a new trend has emerged in the field of entrepreneurship in Malaysia as a result of the state‐led industrialization effort.

The Application of Sky Quality Meter at Twilight for Islamic Prayer Time

Abstract —The aim of this study is to detect elusive light that indicate the prayer time (Isha’). Therefore, we focused on optical sky brightness at dusk from May 2007 through April 2008 intermittently. The measurements of twilight sky brightness were covered at one (1) site covering; West coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The measurements were done by applying Sky Quality Meter (SQM) which covered between 400-700 nm in accordance of human eyes and SQM range. Results showed that there are clear indications of light changes when Sun at certain degree below horizon that visible by plateau form in twilight sky brightness dependences versus solar zenith angle. It is clarified that the yearly averages of solar depression by observation are best correlated within the range of 17.3o – 19.5o for Isha’. Index Terms —Twilight; prayer time; sky quality meter. I. I NTRODUCTION Early studies done by astronomers such as Ibn Muadh, al-Biruni, al-Qayini, Ibn Yunus etc.[1], [2]. Ibn al-Shatir adopted various value for each prayer times such as 17