Special Messages

By Stephen Ng  How long will the politics of retaliation go on in the country?          It is one thing to uphold the law and allow the wrongdoer to be punished if he has stolen money from the people, but it is another thing to find every possible fault with a person or an organisation just out of retaliation.          This is especially disgusting with people who are elected to run the government. They should be accountable to the people; instead, they are wasting away both public funds and the time of those under them instead of making use of the time to run the country.          I am speaking of three cases that I am aware of, involving two Menteri Besar and at least one political party. RCI for Tommy Thomas?          Tommy Thomas was officially appointed as the country’s Attorney-General in 2018. Already running a thriving legal firm in the Bar, I doubt it was something that he was yearning for, but like most of us, he probably decided to take up the task in order to serve the nati

By Stephen Ng   Dear Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah binti Mohd Yunus   While Bank Negara Telelink is doing a good job in rectifying customer issues involving banks, insurance companies and some of the other financial companies operating e-wallets, I find it shocking how bad the customer service of these companies are.                  I am sure many readers will resonate with me, and I hope more people will take the trouble to write to the press so that such issues will cause some faces to turn red when they realise how their organisations fare with their customer service.                  Most service-oriented companies these days will only publish their customer service email address and the Toll free number which will allow only the customer service department to pick up the calls.                  Over several months during the Movement Control Order, I had a few problems related to my life and medical insurance policies. It took me numerous emails before Bank Negara stepped in

By Stephen Ng            The outburst of Dusun Tua assemblyperson Edry Faizal Eddy Yusof against a Selangor state exco within the ruling coalition could not have happened overnight.  Unless the voters, especially the Malays, are still solidly behind Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the coming state election, if this issue is not addressed immediately by Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, the coalition runs into the risk of losing Selangor to the “Green Wave.”           This will be to the chagrin of urban supporters who vow that Islamist party Pas should not be allowed to rule the nation, and losing Selangor would not go down well with Anwar’s unity government, which now has the support of Umno. Risk of Losing Selangor is Very Real PH will be ending its third term in Selangor soon, but unlike its counterpart in Penang, it has failed to deliver the quality of services that is expected of the local government under its control.  Although Anwar realised this, when he set up the Ministry of Local

    By Stephen Ng   Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud, state exco of Selangor in charge of healthcare, told me during the Covid-19 pandemic that Selangor was begging for the Covid vaccines.             Without her permission, I have to tell my side of the story so that the Sultan of Selangor understands that the Selangor State Exco whom I respect a lot, worked very hard during the pandemic to deserve at least a credit mention. She will pass on her state seat to her successor in the upcoming state election, but I hope more clones of Dr Siti can be produced.             If His Royal Highness Sultan  Sharafuddin Idris Shah would like a candidate whom he can honour, it is Dr Siti. Although we have not met in person, I could see that we have an altruistic politician who cares for the people.             Over the phone, we discussed how to solve the problem in Selangor so that people could be protected against Covid-19. I was, at that point in time, helping an NGO to get their approval to

            I find that the toxicity of our Malaysian politics is very unhealthy, and this is going to further destroy the country if people are not being helped; instead the polticking continues like before.          For many years now, I have been hoping that Barisan Nasional (BN) would rise as a good Opposition that is genuine and worth listening to.           Now, BN is in the unity government and we all all willing to help the country to forge ahead under the leadership of Anwar Ibrahim, but those aligned to Perikatan Nasional (PN) appear to be more interested in politicking than helping the people.  A Few Examples to Point Out          A case in point is when MCA president, Wee Ka Siong is now attacking Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Mohamad Sabu for importing eggs from India to temporarily address the shortage issue.           If Wee and his former cabinet colleagues had addressed the issue in the past, the situation would not have become so critical today.          

  The Myth of Autonomy in Malaysian Politics When the late Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim was Menteri Besar, PKR President, Anwar Ibrahim pressured him to step down.           Although I personally preferred Khalid over his successor, Azmin Ali, what Anwar did was right and not 'dictatorial' as some would try to put it. The only problem is he had no one in terms of seniority who was qualified enough to be the Menteri Besar other than Azmin.           (If I had the choice, I would put Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud as the Menteri Besar although she is from Amanah. After all, we have a good female Chief Justice, what is stopping us from having a female as Menteri Besar except that Dr Siti Mariah has decided to opt out of politics to spend time with her grandchildren. She may, for the sake of the state, agree to continue for another term just like what Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad agreed to contest, giving him sufficient time to find a replacement). Not a Dictator          The truth is Anwar was exercising

  Noor Hisham Abdullah (Credit: the Vibes)           It is timely that the Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah should come clean on the Covid-19 vaccine wastage, especially after six million vaccine doses were left unused, and some had to be destroyed after expiry.           The public is interested to know how much of this is translated in Ringgit and Sen. It appears to me that we are not only suffering from pilferage but also a lot of wastage in government spending which does not benefit the rakyat.           As the man helming the ministry of health, Dr Noor Hisham can no longer blame it on the ministers in the past, or the present Minister of Health, Dr Zaliha Mustafa, for his own failure being the director-general of the Health Ministry, a highly paid position.           His job is supposed to safeguard public health and protect all Malaysians against the spread of Covid-19. It makes me wonder if this is even an attempt to conceal the information or sheer negli

  By Stephen Ng            Malaysia has only two options to choose from: either kick out all the stateless people from the country OR to give them a new lease of life and allow them to contribute towards the economic development of the country.           Some of them have parents who may come from Thailand, Indonesia or the Philippines, but growing up in Malaysia all their lives, their parents’ motherland is just as alien to them as an earthling landing on Mars.            Sabahans often begrudge the infiltration of Filipinos into their territory, but can anyone tell me who exactly is to blame if our borders are so porous to both neighbouring countries.  We are to blame           Is it because of corruption? If yes, what has the Government done all these years to arrest the problem?            Didn’t we have the Royal Commission of Inquiry and most of us know about Project IC, but no one has been criminalized for it, why?           After the RCI, people are just lukewarm and keeping qu