Kudos to UMMC for professionalism

Kudos to UMMC for professionalism 30 DECEMBER 2015 @ 11:00 AM IN the course of these two weeks, I had to take my wife to the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) Trauma Centre, the first time on Dec 16, and the second on Dec 28, due to unexplained lethargy and extreme discomfort. Once in the evening, and the second time after midnight. The centre’s staff were efficient and went about their work diligently and with patience. The doctors in attendance were mainly young, and amazingly, all were very positive in their outlook. Both times, they subjected my wife to tests and sought details of the problem. It was with some relief that heart problems have been mainly ruled out, and even though more tests and follow-ups are necessary, I am very appreciative of the professional treatment my wife has received, at no cost. After reading reports about corrupt politicians, child molesters who are relatives, unfettered influx of illegal migrants and the horrifying rising cost of living, the quiet and dedicated way the doctors and medical staff went about their work, even in the dead of night, shows that some things are still fine in Malaysia

Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/12/119650/kudos-ummc-professionalism

Some things are still fine in Malaysia...?

Thanks for the great care at UMMC

 

IN the past two weeks, I had to take my wife to the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) trauma centre, the first on Dec 16 and the other on Dec 28, due to unexplained lethargy and extreme discomfort.

Once it was in was in the evening, and the second time it was after midnight.

The centre staff were efficient and went about their work diligently and with patience.

The doctors in attendance were mainly young, and amazingly, all were very positive in their outlook.

Both times they subjected my wife to tests and sought details of the problem. It was with some relief that heart problems were mainly ruled out, and even though more tests and follow ups are necessary, I am very appreciative of the professional treatment my wife received, at no cost.

After reading mostly bad and negative news about corrupt politicians, child molesters who are relatives, unfettered influx of illegal aliens, and the horrifying rising cost of living, the quiet and dedicated way the doctors and medical staff went about their work, even in the dead of night, shows that some things are still fine in Malaysia.

http://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2015/12/30/thanks-for-the-great-care-at-ummc/

Population increase due to foreign workers

Monday, 29 June 2015

Population increase due to foreign workers

 

I REFER to the letter “Increase in population will have negative effects” by Dr A. Soorian (The Star, June 25).

I must say that he is right in all respects regarding population explosion and climate change.

Governments, in his view, should be more circumspect in implementing policies that could cause more harm to the environment in the long term, and can have disastrous social consequences too.

But the much respected doctor has omitted to mention that, for Malaysia at least, the damage to the environment and the nation’s social fabric due to “population” increase is already taking place in front of our own eyes, in the form of foreign workers “imported” to support our low-wage economic policies.

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What is worse is that such a policy has invariably attracted much illegal migration at out porous borders, and human trafficking too, as the recent exposure of mass Rohingya graves at our northern borders has borne out.

If Malaysia is to play its part in combating climate change and economic degradation, it has to, to borrow another writer’s words, think out of the box, and have a stiff political spine too.

For example, is our hotly touted “high income” nation status to be continuously fuelled by cheap, even illegal labour?

 http://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2015/06/29/population-increase-due-to-foreign-workers/

foreigners-getting-out-of-hand

http://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2014/03/08/foreigners-getting-out-of-hand/

I REFER to the article “Assaulted orang asli group claims cops sided with attackers” (The Star, March 7).

One can’t help but wonder if Malaysia has reached the “tipping point” in its continued exploitation of cheap low-skilled foreign labour, many of which have been “imported” illegally.

Many times it had been reported that uncontrolled use of so many foreign workers, who have no loyalty to the nation, will cause harm to our social fabric, besides consuming much of our limited natural resources.

Two days ago, some foreigners killed a police officer and injured his partner in Klang, and the latest incident shows the impunity that the Myanmars have acted, though it would seem with tacit backing?

keep foreigners out of Retail Trade

http://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2015/12/15/keep-foreigners-out-of-retail-trade/

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Keep foreigners out of retail trade

 

I REFER to the SMS “Help needed” (The Star, Dec 14) appealing to the Government for help to stop the illegal racket of foreigners taking over the operations and the retailing of vegetables and other supplies in the wholesale market.

It does seem like a desperate appeal from the rakyat who are at wit’s end falling foul to the thuggish tactics of allegedly illegal immigrants who monopolise this niche of the business.

The resulting effect of this is the surge in prices of basic food items at the pasar tani and pasar pagi.

It is moot to mention that it’s also putting an unnecessary additional burden on us, who already have to bear the indiscriminate increases in prices by heartless traders because of the GST.

I have, through the years,

been writing to The Star about

the deleterious effects of the

unfettered influx of foreign

workers into Malaysia, as besides taking away much needed jobs and business opportunities from the rakyat, these lowly-paid workers will cause our environment to degrade as they use up a significant part of our natural resources and potable water.

I have also raised the issue that in other Asean countries and in nations across the Asia-Pacific region, almost NO other country will allow foreigners to take part in the retail sector of businesses like the distribution of vegetables, etc, grocery shops, tailors, laundry shops, and even food retail shops.

Why is Malaysia so lax in such a situation? Why do our local councils allow them a free hand in the retail sector of businesses?

If this condition, as expressed by the writer in his short appeal, is not properly addressed and soon, I am not sure if the rakyat can remain quiet.

Are our leaders deaf to our sufferings?

Too many underpaid foreign workers in Malaysia?

Reading this report Foreign workers strike outside the JCY HDD Technology Sdn Bhd building in Kulaijaya on Tuesday.Respect our laws, Police say gives me the creeps. We have about 5 million underpaid and overworked foreign workers here, many more uncounted because they are illegal. This is the tip of the iceberg, and we have not seen the worse.. Fueled by plenty of illicit liquor being freely sold at so many 'outlets', hot weekends reminiscent of Singapore's Little India will soon be an event of normalcy, that's my warning.

Which comes to my confusion regarding FDIs or foreign investments. During my early working days in the 70s, we were told that those huge semi conductor firms are given tax incentives to invest and manufacture in Malaysia, due to our tax incentives (pioneer status), good infrastructure, and educated and smart workforce, and an amicable administration. One big reason touted was the availability of tens of thousands of young local [read Malaysian] workers, who keep production costs very low.. Now these low costs are replaced by overworked and underpaid foreign workers who send 80% of what they earn home, thus depriving Malaysia of a significant local consumption churn due to domestic spending. These foreign workers do not add value to our living standards, and contribute more destruction to our environment due to habits brought in from their native countries. Not to mention using up some of our dwindling potable water resources.

What then do these FDIs like JCY HDD bring to our nation? Do they pay taxes, or do they have extended tax holidays like those who come before them, like Motorola? Do they retain their export earnings and spend them in Malaysia, or do they, as expected, repatriate them overseas, like their underpaid foreign workers do with their meagre wages.

If these foreign investments do not benefit our nation as much as before, and give much needed employment to our locals, and provide the necessary transfer of technology, are we then doing the right thing by encouraging them, and then find our countries deluged by so much foreign labour, with increasingly undesirable social consequences that we are seeing today, and more frequently in the near future.

Is this the correct way to achieve "high income status" whatever that means ?

Tam
P Jaya

Thugs allowed to set agenda in Malaysia

Hi Azmi,

Whenever I read your columns, which I crave for like some who crave for sheep placenta, I find myself always nodding slowly in agreement. This time, my head was nodding so vigorously, as if I just had consumed a bottle of those 'kuda' pills.

In my weekly kopi talk with old friends, the impression that we get is that, not only are the cowardly leaders thinking of their own votes, but it is those same vile leaders who are 'setting' up the thugs to mouth their 'innermost feelings'.

Worse, all of us think that it is "informal" 'Government policy', when an individual wants to behead protestors for non issues, and another wants to replace Malaysians with the 5 million legal/illegal aliens in our midst, the leaders pretend to be deaf.

I have always challenged my elected representatives on issues close to the heart, and I hope more will do the same, civilly but firmly.

At the present moment, we the down trodden can only suffer, albeit not in total silence, as we feel that our leaders are not matured enough to agree to dissenting views, preferring to use thugs to force their say.. In Chinese Cantonese, we call that behaviour, "Yeh Marn"; yes exactly the type of behaviour demonstrated by gangsters and thugs.

Tam YS

Quote from *Thugs allowed to set agenda*.......  " It is a place where cowardly leaders think only of their votes and not of making a stand against vile people and their vile deeds. There is so much going on which is going to affect our basic needs of hearth and security. While the wheels of capitalism turn, we the ordinary folk are going to find it harder and harder to just make ends meet. Yet we allow thugs to set the agenda. We allow non-issues to become national debating points. We allow the vicious to go on screaming malicious words with God on their lips and hatred in their hearts..."

" We can challenge our elected representatives into a corner. Force them to tell us where they stand. We can support the downtrodden. We can gather together in huge numbers to make a stand not for any political reason, but to show the bigots that they are not the only ones in this land and that their cruel philosophies are not welcome.