Health for All..

I must, first of all, applaud Dr ONG HEAN TEIK, Dr HANIFFAH ABDUL GAFOOR & Dr S.P. PALANIAPPAN for taking up so much of their time to write this very informative column.. Health for All..(Sunday Star 24 April, Health at large). The views espoused by them are so important for the public to know and to consider and ruminate upon, that I am appealing to The Star to disseminate this column again in other forms so that it will reach other audiences, and those who do not normally read this paper. This is a matter regarding our health and the cost of healthcare, and is literally a matter of life and death. The President of the United States was elected on his campaign promise to reform the Health Care system of the country, so important is this issue to all.

I would just like to draw our attention to the more important points that have been raised by the good doctors, though I feel the whole feature should be used as a forum for public debate.

It has been suggested that rather than implementing a financing scheme for primary care to be again administered by, what is now a popular practice by the Govt., an ubiquitous private company, akin to a Master Insurance company, which will dictate, among other things, number of patients for each doctor, type of medicines to be prescribed, restrictions on other outpatient services and medication to be given, restriction on patients seeing other than the designated doctors and vice versa, prohibiting the patients' freedom to have a choice of their own home doctors, etc. The column has opined that all such mandatory measures will just add to the inefficiency and cost of Primary health care, and not otherwise.

The column has also suggested that it's the shortage of public hospitals and public health care that is the cause of our problems, and improving and adding public hospitals must be the first step towards improving health care to the public.

The column is very sober reading indeed, and I would like to end by quoting from it... "No other country in the world has started a financing scheme for outpatient clinics before dealing with the more expensive, and more important, problem of hospitalisation costs".... The poor must not end up the big loser, as we saw recently when the Private Healthcare Act was used to close down charity dialysis centres.It is our duty as responsible citizens to try to look after the sick, irrespective of income level. Since the Government derives its revenue from all tax payers, it must not seek to profit from its activities, but develop a system to protect the health of all, especially those unable to pay for their own needs.--"

In ending my appeal, I would like to give an example of my wife's medical insurance(Pacific Insurance) and how unilateral increases in the annual premium was forced upon her, to either cover the costs of unscrupulous medical increases made by others, or to force her to abandon her insurance cover just when she may need it the most. The annual premium increased from RM1800 in 2010 to RM5423 in 2011, and there were no prior claims made on the policy.

We need the Government to provide its citizens with adequate and dignified health care, and not to think of profiteering from it, either directly or indirectly.

That much is owed to us,

Provide adequate healthcare..

Tricubes shares soar 300% in a matter of days!!!

Reading the news that the Tricubes shares went through the roof (almost 300%), Tricubes shares soar on news of working with Microsoft, brought back some memories of the time I was working in Manila, when a similar event almost brought down the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), and also brought allegations of insider trading and even murder against the owners. It was headlines news for weeks. Let me try to recollect here.

Sometime in 1999. when Joseph Estrada was the President, one of his known cronies at the time, (let's call him DT) was awarded a licence to implement a lottery project called the 'Online Bingo'. No tenders were ever called, and a next to impossible deadline was given to to complete the project. Nobody knew exactly what was going on, but the company which was linked with the Bingo project rose from 1peso to an astounding 107pesos when the market almost collapsed.

The Bingo lottery made a show of starting for a while, but did not last for more than a year at the most. Naturally, many who held the now worthless Bingo shares pressed for investigations, and even the President (and some senators)admitted that he held some shares as obviously he could not offload them in time.

The investigation was ongoing, when the event took a tragic turn. A PR Consultant of the Bingo company, who supposedly wanted to 'talk' to the ex President Ramos was found murdered with his driver, and their vehicle burnt and thrown into a ravine. The owner of the Bingo company, DT fled the Philippines, and was last rumored to be somewhere in the Asia Pacific region.

Can we see some similarities in Bingo story and Tricubes? Of course we are not talking about murders and assassinations, but is there anything wrong with a company, when its share value can soar 300% in a matter of days? Will this trigger an investigation by the Sec Comm., or will this be classified as another 'close one eye' episode by our weary citizens.... We will have to wait and see...

Think about it

Powerless Government? (or corrupt)

I refer to your report, Powerful figures behind vices and cannot help but feel that there is a lackadaisical attitude among the police authorities and the local Government in trying to stamp out vice and corruption in the island State. I am saying this because, I remembered having commented several times in the past that the police and local authorities seem to "close one eye" on vice activities in the State, via my letter to your paper, 'why no action against outlet" published on November 17, 2009! In that letter, i expressed my amazement at the fact that an illegally operated entertainment outlet has been closed by Police 11 times but were still caught operating illegally. I will not be surprised if the police were to tell me that this entertainment outlet is "still in business" at the present moment.

To me, it is quite embarrassing for the police to have to report that their hands are always tied when allegedly 'powerful figures' are involved in the crimes. It goes to show us that corruption and a lack of personal integrity still hold the upper hand in the administration of the affairs of the State.

The public cannot help but be concerned....

'Powerful figures' above the law?

little effort made to re-forest??? [Forest plantation operators told to submit funding request]

Your business report on the Gov't's efforts to aid forest plantations, Forest plantation operators told to submit funding request] clearly showed that such measures have been put in the 'back-burner' and are considered low priority in the Gov't's overall efforts to transform the economy. From what I can glean from the report, it would seem that less than 15% of the available acreage of de-forested areas have been replanted, and officials have admitted that efforts have at best been desultory. More than this, it has also been reported that some of the earliest forest plantations in Bintulu "were supposed to supply raw materials to a proposed pulp and paper mill project but the project has yet to take off although it was planned more than 15 years ago".

If the Govts efforts to develop forest plantations are to "relieve the pressure of harvesting timber from natural forests", I think the efforts have failed miserably as the reality of the situation is that Virgin forests and reserves have been continually allotted by State Governments to big timber concerns for purely profit motives. Furthermore, overt and covert encroachment into forest areas protected by law are still frequently reported, as surveillance and monitoring by sometimes indifferent authorities have been found seriously wanting.

If we are serious in our efforts to support sustainability issues in our transformation programmes, and also to contribute towards the greening of the World, we have a lot to do in this area, and soon......

Much work remains to be done...

Tourism Ministry should be careful when endorsing eateries.

Referring to the news, Mine the tourism potential of Gopeng.. Min of Tourism it reminded me of a trip to Bercham Ipoh last Friday with some of my friends.It was a day outing and was also in response to a feature in the Star metro sometime in February, regarding a nice eating place there. After much searching, we found "Kedai Makanan Rasa Lain"** in time for early dinner. We found to our surprise, this establishment was awarded a certificate of commendation by the Minister of Tourism, but was quite disappointed that the Ministry chose to award certificates to places where the toilets don't come up to scratch. Though the food was reasonably good and inexpensive, we would not recommend that a prospective customer use the toilet facilities BEFORE his meal.

I feel that proper value must be attached to places that are recommended by the Ministry, and for the Ministry to accord praise to places that they have not thoroughly checked out will give our country a bad name, as tourists will literally "thumb their noses" at the credibility of our efforts..

Endorsed eatery not up to the mark

Just say no to shark’s fin soup

With reference to the news, 80% HongKies back weddings without shark fin soup, which also appeared in The Star today, it is a sign of hope that, Hong Kong, long a bastion of Chinese culture and culinary habits, is finally waking up to the fact that eating the celebratory shark fin soup is endangering the survival of the species.

It would be a great deed indeed, if we Malaysians can get our act together, and get all 100% of Malaysians to avoid taking sharkfin soup, whether it's for weddings, birthdays and anniversaries, or for winning the Jackpot.

Let's Just Do It

Just say no to shark’s fin soup

Businesses and Corporate Social Responsibility

In the business report that Malaysia's 2nd largest palm oil company is under scrutiny "following allegations about land disputes and illegal deforestation" it is a sign that the world is paying attention to industries that covertly destroy the world's remaining forests, and though I have no doubt that the company in question will clear its name, it is nevertheless an encouraging sign that our Govt has openly accepted such scrutiny.

The industry group has advised that it would consider further sanctions, including the suspension of licences for new certified sustainable transactions, if the company cannot satisfactorily respond by a certain deadline.

It would certainly do Malaysia a lot of good too, if the Timber industry will come under a similar scrutiny, and be issued licences for certified sustainable transactions, for their products to be internationally recognised as causing minimum harm to the environment. At the moment, I am not sure if anyone in the world is concerned if the timber exported from Malaysia has been extracted illegally from encroached forest reserves and native lands..Moreover, the re construction of Japan after the quake and tsunami, will be a prime motivator for more encroachment.

Socially Responsible Industries