Dr. Cheah’s Pages

Comment on OTK’s blog

Dato Seri,

I agree with you that it is time to move on. Any further disharmony will lead to an inevitable destruction of MCA. I feel there is a lot of pride at stake and I , myself was surprised that your former loyal supporter LTL decided to rebel on you at a time when you were at your weakest. It was needless to say that he intended to unseat you at that very moment. Everything went well until you pulled the rug from under his feet by forming a ‘coalition’ with Chua. LTL is now seen as power crazy and his disloyalty has not won him any friends. I myself will not want to see him at the helm of MCA.

What the general public is concerned about is your pact with Dato Seri Chua, who we all know is politically dead and extremely tainted. He may have the support from within MCA but as you know, many Chinese voters are not members of the MCA. How then can he contribute to your leadership? Does Chua have a potential successor to lead his avid supporters?

Unfortunately, your generals are deserting you as they perceive you as having jumped camp. The animosity that you yourself created with Chua prior, has perhaps resulted in unwanted skirmishes between your supporters and that of Chua’s. So with you now shaking hands with Chua underlines a defection and equates to betrayal of trust from your loyal supporters, who may now have too much of hatred for the Chua camp.

So I do hope that you see the bigger picture here. Indeed there are a lot of bruised egos within MCA, something that need addressing if you are to succeed in the Greater Unity plan. Colluding with Chua alone is no longer sufficient as you leave your former supporters with no room to maneuver. You will therefore need to clarify your stand clearly with them. Losing Wee Ka Siong and Chew Mei Fun is certainly not in your best interest.

Lastly, we appreciate your explanations and we are all praying for a greater MCA.

Filtered

Personal websites of politicians are mushrooming. Some may say that it serves to bring the general masses closer to their elected representatives. Even mainstream media monitors these sites for the latest information or insights from the politician concerned. Comments from web surfers can give an instant feedback with regards to the articles posted.

Or so you may think.

Following the MCA fiasco, I am convinced that Ong Tee Keat can no longer represent the MCA as president. The EGM resolution clearly states that the majority of delegates no longer have any confidence in his leadership. Forming a pact with a dead duck and tainted politician only underlines his desperation. His deduction that he now commands almost 100% of the support following this partnership is misguided.

I therefore wrote a polite comment on his blog but unfortunately, it has been filtered out. Those that were eventually posted were of course in favour of Ong Tee Keat. Such an action only reaffirms my belief that Ong is not a leader that allows differing views to surface. Therefore it is not surprising that the Central Committee members are not in favour of his leadership and have urged him to honour his word of stepping down.

Now we have two politically dead individuals leading the party. Whether Liow Tiong Lai is competent enough to lead the party, is immaterial at least to Ong. Both Chua Soi Lek and Ong Tee Keat should take a back seat and allow a fresh team to lead MCA.

This is the only dignified way so as to avoid treachery from brewing within MCA despite a friendly facade.

Appalled!

A personal friend who recently discovered a lump on his neck, discovered after an excision biopsy, that he has lymphoma. A second opinion was sought and to his disbelief, the review of his slides showed no evidence of cancer. He remains well. His bone marrow examination was clear and his CT scan only revealed slightly enlarged cervical lymph nodes. Further investigations were then ordered.

So he seeked a third opinion. To my dismay, this specialist mentioned that he could try a couple of cycles of chemotherapy! All this when the diagnosis was so uncertain!! It is not like the drugs are free from side effects both short and long term. What is the basis of that decision?

I am utterly disgusted!

Injustice?

Tian Chua, once again in the spotlight. Now he is being charged with biting a policeman. However, the judgement of the magistrate leaves much to be desired. Certainly Chua appears innocent in the Court of National Opinions. Unfortunately, the judiciary has once again entangled itself in a mesh of inconsistency and perhaps subjugating itself to political influences.

The background is that during a BERSIH rally calling for fair and just elections, Tian Chua was forcibly stopped on his way to Parliament. He was then dragged out of the car by several policemen and in that ensuing struggle, the policeman hit him in the face and allegedly, Tian Chua bit him back with the only retaliatory measure left open to him as his other limbs were being restrained by police personnel.

If the police has decided to resort to harsh tactics for arrest, then they should be well prepared for retaliation and injuries ensuing from scuffles are part of the process. Are you going to sue every individual that has left bruises on their bodies? Certainly Tian Chua was just a juicy political target. Police in this instance had no respect for a Member of Parliament. Take Najib for example, during the Altantuya murder trial, his name was mentioned several times, yet the police resisted from taking him in for questioning. Nobody is above the law? Yea right!!

The most ludicrous fact is that there was no hard evidence that Tian Chua bit him. There was no direct video evidence nor were there witnesses. However, the judge “believed” that it took place and thus passed judgement. Certainly in the Court of National Opinion, the judge is guilty of corroborating with the prosecuting team aka Government. How can he pass judgement based on loose facts? The manner of which the accused was arrested was physically brutal to say the least. Under those circumstances and the fact that there is no evidence of the act, Tian Chua should have been freed!!

Our judiciary in under scrutiny and once again, so long as the members of the bench is elected by the ruling Government, there can be no impartiality or independence. This is pure common sense and certainly BN leaders know it, but till today refuses to budge as relinquishing their stranglehold on the judiciary will likely lead to a torrent of lawsuits against them. They will also then not be able to ‘control’ the opposition as they so wish.

Similarly, the MACC can never be credible when it remains under the purview of the Prime Minister. They should similarly be independant and perhaps put under the authority of the Parliament.

These things are not new and such opinions have been voiced time and time again. Unfortunately, the Government has turned a deaf ear. The electorate knows why and that will perhaps lead to a defeat in the next General Elections.

MCA in Crisis

The leadership crisis in MCA is escalating. As Ong Tee Keat is beginning to falter, many of those who are close to the pinnacle are smelling blood and aiming for the jugular. As an honorable leader, his word should be his bond. He has mentioned that he will step down if he loses the vote of no-confidence and he has. Despite a promising leadership, he will forever be haunted by what he had said.

The root cause of the current fiasco is Chua Soi Lek. He has certainly overstayed his welcome. A leader tainted by a scandal should just quietly leave. His earlier dignified move to resign in the early days of the scandal has been polluted by his desire to return. Now he intends to wreck havoc in MCA by splitting the party.

As the President has agreed to a referendum which he eventually lost, he is now politically dead. Knowing well he does not have a majority support within MCA, any attempt to overstay will only drive the wedge deeper within MCA.

He has to resign and call for fresh elections. Passing the baton to Liow Tiong Lai may still cause dissatisfaction among the Soi Lek supporters. He is cornered and the only thing left is to throw in the towel.

Clinical years

A common question that final year students at UM will pose ” What time are you free to take us for classes? ” !

Apart from the ‘classes’, we will see very little of them. Although on paper, these students are attached to the ward, they will come and go as they please. No clear responsibilities are delegated as no one in the ward can tell if they will be around or not. Their attendance in the wards are not reliable.

Perhaps it is the fault of the co-curriculum itself. The design remains much to be desired. I feel the emphasis on the final professional examination is too strong. Therefore, important clinical work has little significance to these students. The artificial environment which these students incubate in has resulted in many succumbing to stresses during the early years of their careers. I feel the clinical postings should be made a pass or fail event, in which the mentor physician will grade these students based on their clinical performance, failing which they will not go through their relevant postings.

The students themselves ought to show more enthusiasm in learning. Often times you can see that many of them stray away when in a tutorial and hardly make a sound despite being prompted to do so. What goes on in that mind remains a mystery.

These students should be attached to a team of doctors where their responsibilities as a junior trainee doctor should be clearly outlined. In this way, the team of doctors will be well aware of them and can then mentor them appropriately and if needed, ‘classes’ can be arranged in between. The students can then learn about teamwork and will get a better idea of the working conditions that they will have to face in the near future.

Spoon feeding for the exams alone should never ever define the clinical years of medical school. Unfortunately, as of now, it has.