Letter to Michael Chong

I wish to respond to your letter which was posted on the malaysiakini websight
where you made several allegations against me with regards to my conduct and
which has defamed me as a blind individual. However, first of all, allow me to
thank you most kindly for having been a fan of mine since your childhood days. I
am certainly touched and honoured to hear this. I have also no doubt whatsoever
that you must have attended many of my performances together with Mr. David
Chew; hence your knowledge of the kind of music that I specialize in. Since you
are such a big fan of mine, I wonder if you remember how many albums I have
released so far, and what are some of the songs which I have recorded without
having to crack your head over this. Mr. Chong, as a huge fan of mine, it is
rather unfortunate that you have decided to keep it to yourself and have chosen
only now to divulge your long kept secret at this point and time. Since you
claim to be an ardent fan of mine, how is it that you failed to recognize me
when I came to your office for assistance & even treated both me & my wife as
non-entities. At the same time, it baffles me as to why I have not performed at
any MCA functions, inspite of the fact that you know about my capabilities.
Understandably, your hands may be tied in this respect when it comes to the
hiring of artists for your many functions as it is your superiors who call the
shots. Anyway, not all is lost as the MCA being part of the ruling party has
another 4 years to rule the country and now that you have announced to the whole
wide world about my talents via malaysiakini, my prospects might just be a
little bit brighter. Once again, my grateful thanks for your very kind
consideration with regards to my plight. Before I proceed any further, I hope
that you won't find the rest of this letter too offensive, as I feel strongly
that I should speak my mind in answering your allegations even at the risk of
losing a devoted fan such as your goodself.

Mr. Chong, it is most unfortunate that to save your own reputation and that of
the MCA, you have chosen to give a false account of what took place between me
and yourself at your office on the 11th of August. You stated in your letter
that the MCA complaints bureau does not practice queue jumping, and as good
citizens, each and every client has to wait his or her turn to have their
problems looked into by your kind self. Mr. Chong, are you seriously trying to
tell me and the public at large that a ruling made by the government where
disabled and elderly citizens be given priority when being served at public
counters such as the immigration department and government hospitals is unfair
and therefore should not have been implemented in the first place? How is it
that the MCA being part of the barisan national have such different views from
that of the government? Did our people-friendly government forget to consult one
of it's partners namely the MCA before formulating this policy? On behalf of the
disabled community, I wish to thank the government for having formulated such a
wonderful policy, as it goes a long way in helping both the disabled and senior
citizens, so that they do not have to wait for long hours to complete their
transactions or to have their medical ailments attended to. Subsequently, in
your letter, you accused me of attacking your top officials which you found most
objectionable and unacceptable. Do these officials not realize that it is the
rakyat who has been instrumental in giving them such powerful positions in
government but having got what they wanted, they have forgotten about their
promises to serve the people with dignity and therefore feel that they can ride
roughshot over their subjects? Haven't they heard of the saying that powerful
positions come together with heavy resposibilities? Should these top MCA
officials choose to stay in their ivory towers and continue to ignore the needs
of the less fortunate, I fear that the MCA may be voted out of office during
the next general elections. It is my hope that these officials come to their
senses and show more compassion towards the less fortunate and the lower strata
of society. It is most regretful that even having written to Messrs Ong Ka Ting
and Chan Kong Choy, the former being president and the latter being vice
president and disciplinary chairman of MCA respectively I have yet to receive
replies from the two above mentioned people. It therefore sets me wondering if
it is the policy of MCA officials to disregard letters sent in to them by
members of the public requesting for assistance in solving their problems. If
this is the case, I certainly think that this is a sad state of affairs & that
it's time they change their attitude. I seriously wonder as to how many MCA
officials have good track records when it comes to serving the public.

To continue, I wish to take you to task with regards to several allegations
which you have made against me pertaining to my employment status with RTM.
First of all, you accused me of not being able to get along well with my
ex-colleagues. For your information, during my short stint with radio 4, I have
had no opportunities of meeting up with my ex-colleagues whatsoever, as due to
the discrimination practiced by the controller of Radio 4 that is Puan Rohani,
all my programmes had to be pre-recorded, whilst all the other DJs did their
programmes "live" in the studio. I put it to you, how then could I not get along
with my ex-colleagues when I did not even have the opportunity to meet up with
them, let alone socializing with them.

Next, I think that it is most irresponsible of you in your capacity as MCA
complaints bureau chief in fanning the flames of hatred, by bringing up racial
issues in saying that I accused the staff at RTM of being racialistic. I
remember only complaining to you with regards to the discriminatory attitude
that Puan Rohani of Radio 4 adopted towards me as a blind person & at no time
did I complain about her racial feelings at all. I wish here to catergorically
deny your allegations in the strongest possible terms and I personally think
that both you and your informants are bankrupt of ideas when trying to run me
down as a blind individual. In my opinion, all this mud-slinging is most
uncalled for, and as a top official in the MCA complaints bureau, you have
brought shame and disrepute upon the MCA party. Mr. Chong, in your letter, you
stated that you treated me and my wife with the greatest respect, although you
claimed that I had attacked several of your top officials verbally which you
thought was unbecoming of me. However, I remember clearly only relating the bad
experiences which I had encountered with these officials and not attacking them
as you claimed in your letter. From my obsevations, the MCA complaints bureau
only chooses to handle high profile cases, so that it can get good write-ups in
the press to impress the public and at the same time help the party to gain
political mileage.

Finally, Mr. Chong, if my rebuttals to your allegations has provoked you and
your top officials, may I suggest that you allow me to have a public debate with
you on a one to one basis at a place and time of your choice, so that the public
can judge for themselves as to who is telling the truth. It is my sincere hope
that you will react positively to my suggestion, for should I be judged to be
the guilty party, then you would certainly get a boost from your tv series and
be vindicated. Looking forward to your early reply and thanking you in
anticipation.

Yours faithfully,
Alfred Ho.

NOTE : NO RESPONSE FROM MICHAEL CHONG