The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. It is currently made up of 193 Member States. The mission and work of the United Nations are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter. Each of the 193 Member States of the United Nations is a member of the General Assembly. States are admitted to membership in the UN by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. The main organs of the UN are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat. All were established in 1945 when the UN was founded. 

        Today we would like to discuss about the role of the United Nations. Basically, there are four main roles of the United Nation including maintain international peace and security, promote sustainable development, protect human rights, uphold international law and deliver humanitarian aid.

Maintain International Peace and Security

        The primary purpose of the establishment of United Nation is to maintain international peace and security. Following the destruction and implication of the Second World War, United Nation developed this ambitious aim to promote global peace and security throughout the world. It has the objectives to achieve friendly relations, international cooperation, and harmonization of nation’s action. For example, United Nation covered development, human rights, and protection from environmental hazards as significant preconditions for security and lasting peace. There are several activities conducted by United Nation to maintain international peace and security. 

        Firstly, United Nation plays its role as the preventive diplomacy and mediation. The United Nation acts as an important role to prevent conflicts by using diplomacy, good offices and mediation. The special envoys and political missions in the field are the tools applied by United Nation to promote peace. 

        Secondly, being one of the most effective tools available to the United Nation, peacekeeping assist host countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace. Today’s multidimensional peacekeeping operations are called upon not only to maintain peace and security, but also to facilitate political processes, protect civilians, assist in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants. Besides, it also support constitutional processes and the organization of elections, protect and promote human rights and assist in restoring the rule of law. 

        Thirdly, United Nation promotes peacebuilding where the aim of peacebuilding is to reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict management, and to lay the foundation for sustainable peace and development. 

        Fourthly, United Nation also functions to coordinate the global fight against terrorism. In September 2006, the United Nation Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy was adopted. This shows that the member states agreed to a common strategic and operational framework against terrorism.

        Last but not least, United Nation also possess the ability to withdraw military forces and weapons where it is known as disarmament or demilitarization. The purpose of disarmament is to allow United Nation to eliminate the use of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

-by Robben-

References

"Peace And Security. United Nations Peacekeeping". Un.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 May 2016.

"What We Do | United Nations". Un.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 May 2016.

Protect Human Rights

        

        Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

        The roles and functions of the UN human rights machinery mainly are aimed at developing and promoting rights and to ensure fundamental rights and freedoms for all human beings. The Human Rights Council serves as a forum for states to discuss and negotiate soft law, typically decisions and resolutions, which create or develop human rights norms.

       The Council holds panel discussions, sets up intergovernmental working groups, and provides other mechanisms for the creation of soft law. The creation of a body of international human rights law is one of the UN great achievements. The UN has helped negotiate more than 70 human rights treaties and declaration. Hence, these treaties have created a “culture human rights” to provide a powerful tool to protect and promote all rights. The United Nations is currently considering proposals to reform the treaty bodies and make reporting obligations easier for States, by establishing a single, unified Treaty Body to monitor implementation of all the principal human rights treaties.

           On the other hand, human rights committees that monitor states’ compliance with treaty obligations also play strong roles in developing human rights through general comments, and promoting human rights through concluding observations on individual countries’ human rights records. The human rights organizations also undertake activities that are useful to protect human rights. These activities aimed to protecting individuals from grave violations, whether through resolutions or discussions or special sessions that raises awareness of abuses within crisis situation. Furthermore, organization’s take preventive action to avoid conflict. Fact-finding and information-sharing are keys for protecting human rights.

        Over the past year, human rights officers in the field have provided Member States with technical assistance and capacity-building to promote the implementation of the rule of law on the ground. They have also delivered critical information to alert Member States and United Nations bodies to situations of potential concern. The United Nations human rights mechanisms continue to draw attention to a wide range of human rights issues, both thematic and country-specific, bringing new issues to the fore and providing early warning functions.

 -by Ke Sin -

References

Anton, D. (n.d.). The United Nations Human Rights System and the Protection of the Environment.SSRN Electronic Journal.
HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION: OUGHT THE UNITED NATIONS TO HAVE AN INCREASING OR DIMINISHING ROLE?. (2014). CICERO FOUNDATION GREAT DEBATE PAPER, [online] 14(No. 14/06), p.4. Available at: http://www.cicerofoundation.org/lectures/Rosa_Freedman_Human_Rights_Protection.pdf [Accessed 6 May 2016].

Ohchr.org. (2016). What are Human Rights. [online] Available at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/WhatareHumanRights.aspx [Accessed 6 May 2016].

Un.org. (2016). Human Rights | United Nations. [online] Available at: http://www.un.org/en/sections/priorities/human-rights/ [Accessed 6 May 2016].

    

Uphold International Law

        One of the most critical role of the United Nations is the responsibility of upholding International Law. An objective in its Preamble by the United Nations Charter is known as to set up conditions under which equity and respect for the commitments emerging from treaties and different wellsprings of international law can be maintained. The work of development and obligation to respect for International law has been a major part of the work of the Organization. This work is to approve peacekeeping missions, impose sanctions, or authorize the power of force when there is a threat to international peace and security. These powers are given to it by the United Nations Charter, which is viewed as a global bargain. As such, it is an instrument of international law, and bound by United Nations Member States. The UN Charter classifies the significant principle of international relations, from sovereign fairness of States to the prohibition of the utilization of force in international relations.

        The principal judicial organ of the United Nations is known as the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This primary body of the UN settles legitimate debate submitted to it by States as per International Law. From (ICJ), advisory opinions on lawful inquiries are given from its authorized United Nations organs and specific agencies to ensure the fairness of judgement. In addition, a wide range of International courts and tribunals are established to act as a classified entities in different degrees of relation to the United Nations. In United Nations, all members have their obligations to follow and respect the International Law to take the responsibilities of States in their conduct with each other, and their treatment of individuals with State boundaries. 

        Its role encompasses an extensive variety of issues of global concern, such as human rights, disarmament, international crime, refugees, migration, issues of nationality, and the treatment of prisoners, the use of force, and the conduct of war. It also manages the worldwide commons, for example, the environment and sustainable development, international waters, outer space, worldwide communication and world trade. This is to ensure global security and a shared understanding of protecting international peace and justice. 

-by Yee Earn-

References

Un.org. (2016). Overview | United Nations. [online] Available at: http://www.un.org/en/sections/about-un/overview/index.html [Accessed 6 May 2016].

Un.org. (2016). Uphold International Law | United Nations. [online] Available at: http://www.un.org/en/sections/what-we-do/uphold-international-law/index.html [Accessed 6 May 2016].

Deliver Humanitarian Relief

        One of the roles of United Nations is to deliver humanitarian aid. United Nations started it first help after the Second World War by rebuilding the continent of Europe. However, lately the natural and man-made disasters are beyond the relief capacity of national authorities alone. So, the organization is now relied upon the international community to coordinate humanitarian relief operations.

        There are four UN entities but they are having the same role which is to deliver relief. The examples of UN entities are United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WPF). Each of the entity has their own role in deliver relief capacity.

        The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) responsible in protect refugees and help them to solve their problems worldwide. For example, 750,000 Palestine refugees that had lost their home due to the Arab and Israeli conflict were help by United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which entity created by General Assembly.

        Apart from that, The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) helps many children as much as possible with best and low-cost solutions to reduce threats to their survival. This UN entity also encourages government and warring parties to give out their hands to protect children.

        The role World Food Programme (WFP) is to provide food and funds for transport in order to support the relief operation that managed by UNHCR. Millions of victims of disasters received the help from this UN entity. Farmers will also receive help from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) when their farms were destroying by disaster.

        Last but not least, the role of World Health Organization (WHO) is to provide leadership on global health matters, setting standards, providing technical support to countries, monitoring health trends and many more.

-by Li Houng-

References

UN. (n.d.). Deliver Humanitarian Aid | United Nations. [online] Available at: http://www.un.org/en/sections/what-we-do/deliver-humanitarian-aid/index.html [Accessed 5 May 2016].

Promote Sustainable Development

     Two decades ago, there are almost 40% of people in the developing world are living in an extreme poverty condition. Due to this reason, the UN developed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and provided big help in decreasing the population of extreme poverty in 50%. During 2000, a number of world leaders promise their nation to attain 8 goals in the MDGs by 2015. Among these 8 goals, it including to halve extreme poverty, to crease the HIV and AIDS from spreading and provide universal primary education. The MDGs successfulness and the disclosure of the need to get rid of poverty prompted the UN to implement a forceful agenda which is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

       The world nowadays in facing the big problem in climate change where the sea-level raising, the glaciers are melting and the weather is changing in an unexpected way. The changes in climate bring challenges in the growth of world’s development. In order to come across with this problem sustainability play an important effect. During 2015, UN established an agreement regarding the universal global climate. They supported efforts to assess the climate science, facilitate negotiations under the UN Framework Convention for a climate agreement. Furthermore, they also are assisting different countries in reducing pollutions and increase the ability to adapt to climate. A financing for development framework was also been developed for the UN to make sure both the sustainable development agenda and climate action are properly resourced. Besides solving poverty problem and climate changes in the world, the UN also work hard on problem regarding gender discrimination. They establish the UN Women which role is to eliminate discrimination against women and girls. From here women get empowerment and equality to be a partner and beneficiary in development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

-by Lin Wei-

References 

Un.org. (2016). Promote Sustainable Development | United Nations. [online] Available at: http://www.un.org/en/sections/what-we-do/promote-sustainable-development/ [Accessed 6 May 2016].

The current tax system is unfair to the middle class and lower income groups. Do you agree?

We Agree...

"First of all, I would like to agree that the current tax system is unfair to the middle class and lower income group, I would like to discuss about Good and Services tax (GST). Daiso Japan before GST is Rm5 shop, what mean Rm5 shop? Because each item they only selling in Rm5 only, that’s why not only during weekend or public holiday, even weekday also crowded in that shop, most of them is from middle class or lower income groups. Can see that Daiso is making another trend to target Malaysia market.
But after Good and Services tax (GST) , We can see that Daiso price From RM5 increase to RM5.30,that’s mean increase the price , that related to customer, customer have to pay extra RM0.30/6% to purchase each item in Daiso. There is influences customer purchase power and increase consumer spending. The customer is more harm than benefit."

F&B line

"The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has now replaced the previous Sales and Services Tax (SST). SST was at 10% for sales tax and 6% for service tax respectively. With GST in place, that means companies should not be collecting service tax anymore.
In other words, the calculation of your restaurant bill is now:
110% (food, drinks and service charge) x 6% (GST)."

What exactly is the service charge? Firstly, it is important to know that service tax and service charge are not the same thing.

"The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has now replaced the previous Sales and Services Tax (SST). SST was at 10% for sales tax and 6% for service tax respectively. With GST in place, that means companies should not be collecting service tax anymore."

By Robben

References:

"About DAISO │ DAISO JAPAN". Daisoglobal.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 3 May 2016.
Ramachandran, Sonia. "What? Six Per Cent GST On Food Price And Service Charge Too!".Theantdaily.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 3 May 2016.
"What Is Service Charge? Do I Have To Pay It?". S AYS.com . N.p., 2016. Web. 3 May 2016.

"I agree that the tax system in Malaysia is unfair to middle and lower income groups. Let’s look at the latest tax that implied by Government in Malaysia, GST (Goods and Services Tax). GST is a broad-based tax that will affect most of the Malaysian who are not a taxpayer. Government in Malaysia claims that the implementation of this tax will not burden their people as they did not increase the income tax rate but decrease the rate due to the implication of GST. This action is to alleviate the increasing in cost due to the GST. However, an individual do not need to pay income tax if his or her salary is below RM2, 500. So, the reduction of income tax rate is totally having no affection toward lower income groups. In reality, GST is increasing the burden of them as they are considered as low income groups and are not taxpayers previously. Obviously, their burden is increasing as they need to spend more money on what they purchase due to the implication of GST. Besides, they are now becoming taxpayers by paying the GST. Apart from that, GST also increase the burden of people who are in the middle class. People who are in the middle class need to pay not only GST, they also need to pay for their income tax due to their income are already exist the amount of RM2, 500. According to the Effective Year of Assessment 2016, from 1th January 2015 onwards, the tax rates for individual residents of Malaysia reduced by 1% to 3% in order to alleviate the increasing of goods and service cost. However, it is not a zero sum game. The burden of middle income groups will increase as they need to pay both income tax and GST."

By Li Houng

References: 

Focus, E. (n.d.). Malaysia - Income Tax | ExpatFocus.com. [online] Expatfocus. Available at: http://www.expatfocus.com/expatriate-malaysia-taxation [Accessed 3 May 2016].

Gst.com.my. (n.d.). GST Timeline in Malaysia, GST submission date and Consumption Tax Chronology in Malaysia.. [online] Available at: http://www.gst.com.my/gst-malaysia.html [Accessed 3 May 2016].

Liew, H. (2015). Malaysia Income Tax Guide 2015. [online] SaveMoney. Available at: https://savemoney.my/personal-finance/malaysia-income-tax-guide-2015/ [Accessed 3 May 2016].

We Disagree...

"In Malaysia, the current tax system which known as Goods and Services Tax (GST Malaysia) is formally implemented since 1 April 2015 and GST rate is fixed at 6 (%) per cent. On the other hand, sales tax and service tax will be replaced. Actually, the purpose of applying GST is to make a more comprehensive, effective and transparent tax system.When GST is introduced the price of a product will become reduced.

When it comes to the statement of current tax system is unfair to the middle-class and lower-income groups in Malaysia. It is not true that those earning below RM4,000 per month who are not liable to pay income tax because of the implementation of tax under GST. This perception is not correct as the scope of charge for both types of tax is exactly different.

The scope of charge for income tax is based on the amount of monthly income received by an individual whilst the imposition of GST is based on the consumption of goods and services.

In fact, those not liable to income tax still pay sales tax and service tax on goods and services that they consume."

"The problem is, most consumers are not aware that the tax element has been embedded in the price of goods and services sold by the retailers. It means that the final price of consumed goods is actually tax inclusive where consumer will not be charged for a higher rate of sales and service tax under imposition of GST.

As a matter of fact, the imposition of GST will not make any difference to the tax burden of those earning below RM3,000 monthly due to they would only have to pay tax on the consumption of those goods and services. As a result, I disagree the argument of current tax system is unfair to middle and lower incomers due to the reasons mentioned above."

By Yee Earn

References:

Goods & Services Tax - GST Malaysia | NBC Group. (2014). How GST affects you in Malaysia? | NBC Group. [online] Available at: http://www.nbc.com.my/gst/faqs-malaysia-goods-and-services-tax-gst/ [Accessed 3 May 2016].

Kumar, D. (2016). What are the good sides and the bad sides of GST (goods and services tax)? - Quora. [online] Quora.com. Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-good-sides-and-the-bad-sides-of-GST-goods-and-services-tax [Accessed 3 May 2016].

"According to a professor of USM in economic, the middle class in Malaysia is in the income range of Rm4000 to RM20000 per month while low income groups are people with income that less than that. Individual whose monthly salary is less than RM5000 are not chargeable to Malaysia income tax. This mean that the middle class and lower income groups typically entitle with tax breaks with their tax-free income, which is below RM5000. However, those residents with salary that are above RM5000 will need to pay for the income tax. The rate of the chargeable personal income tax also had been reduced. This allowed the people to get back more pocket money from the government. Nevertheless, the government give financial support to people in these two categories. They launch the 1 Malaysia People’s Assistance Scheme (BR1M) and the 1 Malaysia People’s Housing Scheme (PR1MA) to help those who are unable to afford in buying a house, especially the low income groups. Also, government implemented “The Youth Housing Scheme” which benefit of young couples with a wages of less than RM10000 per month. If they are going to purchase their first properties, they will entitle discount on stamp duty and loan instruments. Moreover, the government will give financial support of RM200 each month for the first two year on their loan repayments. Due to the reasons above, I disagree that the current tax system in Malaysia is unfair to the middle class and lower income groups as they gain more benefits than disadvantages from the tax system. "

By Lin Wei

References:

2015/2016 Malaysian Tax and Business Booklet. (2015). 1st ed. [ebook] p.3. Available at: http://www.pwc.com/my/en/assets/publications/2016-malaysian-tax-business-booklet.pdf [Accessed 3 May 2016].

Mohamed, R. (n.d.). How will you classify salaries in Malaysia as middle class, upper middle class, and higher class with respect to financial stability? - Quora. [online] Quora.com. Available at: https://www.quora.com/How-will-you-classify-salaries-in-Malaysia-as-middle-class-upper-middle-class-and-higher-class-with-respect-to-financial-stability [Accessed 3 May 2016].

S. GREWAL, I. (2014). Malaysia’s middle class challenge - Making Progress | The Star Online. [online] Thestar.com.my. Available at: http://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/online-exclusive/making-progress/2014/10/14/malaysias-middle-class/ [Accessed 3 May 2016].


"There are 2 other indirect taxes already present in the Malaysian tax system. One of them is the Sales Tax, and the other is the Service. Combined, they are usually referred to as the SST. The Goods and Services Tax in Malaysia (GST) was initially mooted by the federal government in 2011 to replace the existing Sales and Service Taxes, but was met with much resistance from the public at large, partially due to the implication of a price hike in essential goods and services, but also partially due to the lack of clarity around the current consumption tax systems in Malaysia. In this situation, I agree that GST is unfair to the middle and lower income group. Businesses are expected to continue facing challenges carried over from last year as ongoing subsidy rationalisation and higher raw material prices translate to higher costs in business.
Additionally, the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) is affect the small and medium business and which could unfair to the lower spending. There are some impacts to the lower and middle income business as they are required to have GST-compliant accounting systems. The upgrade will lead to some change of internal processes and procedures.
Also, businesses may need to purchase new ICT hardware and recruit additional employees to handle the GST compliance work. However, businesses with annual revenue not exceeding RM500, 000 are not required by law to register for GST but they still need to pay to the suppliers that are registered with GST. They are not able to claim the input cost on their purchase of raw materials. This may be disadvantage for the small and medium business compare to the company have registered. These issues will cause the old people who do not know to use for the technology and they have to shut down their business due to this reason. "

By Ke Sin

References: 

Ho, Fiona (2015): „To GST Or Not To GST? – What Small-Time Business Owners Need To Know | iMoney“. iMoney Malaysia. Abgerufen am 03. 05. 2016 von https://www.imoney.my/articles/to-gst-or-not-to-gst-what-small-time-business-owners-need-to-know.
Liew, Hann (2016): „GST in Malaysia - How the Goods and Services Tax affects You“. SaveMoney.my. Abgerufen am 03. 05. 2016 von https://savemoney.my/personal-finance/gst-in-malaysia-how-the-goods-and-services-tax-affects-you/.
(2015): „Businesses continue with their preparations for implementation of GST in April - Community | The Star Online“. Thestar.com.my. Abgerufen am 03. 05. 2016 von http://www.thestar.com.my/news/community/2015/01/01/the-race-to-get-ready-businesses-continue-with-their-preparations-for-implementation-of-gst-in-april/.
 (2014): „How To Start GST? Get Your Company Ready with GST“. Goods & Services Tax - GST Malaysia | NBC Group. Abgerufen am 03. 05. 2016 von http://www.nbc.com.my/gst/how-to-start-gst-get-your-company-ready-with-gst/.

 (2013): „Nine things you must know about the GST“. KINIBIZ. Abgerufen am 03. 05. 2016 von http://www.kinibiz.com/story/issues/52351/nine-things-to-know-about-the-gst.html.