Letter to Ong Ka Ting

Dear Yang Berhormat,

Inspite of the numerous reminders which you have made as President of MCA in the
press for MCA officials to be courteous and to be sensitive to the needs of the
rakyat, I regret to inform you that all your directives have fallen on deaf
ears. In my opinion, it is therefore most unfortunate that certain MCA officials
have chosen to betray the trust of the people who have elected them into office
by not keeping to the promises which they have made to serve the people while
campaining during the elections.

As a blind individual, allow me to relate some unpleasant incidents which I have
experienced with some of your MCA officials. During the early part of August, I
made a visit to the Malaysian Chinese Association headquarters at Wisma MCA with
the intention of meeting up with the MCA Complaints Bureau chief : Michael
Chong, as I heard so much about his heroic and wonderful deeds in the press most
recently. I've also been given to understand that he will be potrayed as a hero
in a forthcoming TV series which is supposed to be screened very soon. However,
in this letter, I wish to expose Michael Chong for what he is. Just to set the
record straight, when both me and my wife arrived at Wisma MCA, we were made to
wait for more than 1/2 an hour before we could have an opportunity to meet up
with Mr. Chong. From the very start, his mannerisms were despicable to say the
least, as my wife who is partially-sighted can vouch for. He came across as a
very unfriendly, uncaring and insensitive person. To cut a long story short, I
proceeded to tell Mr. Chong about my problems but he chose to ignore me
altogether. Some of the unkind things which he said was that he was unable to
assist me as he did not know what job was suited to me as a blind person. When I
told him that I'm a singer by profession and that I'm finding difficulty in
securing jobs in this field and that I was discriminated against during my short
stinit at RTM and subsequently relieved of my job by the Head of Radio 4 namely
Rohani Harithuddin, Mr. Chong chose to disregard all my pleas for assistance and
to add insult to injury, as I was still trying to highlight my problems to him,
he proceeded to make a private conversation over the telephone, after which he
just walked out of his office. What else could we have done but to walk out
after him. It is my contention that it is unbecoming of the MCA Bureau chief to
act in such a high-handed manner. In short, I felt that I had wasted time in
trying to get assistance from Mr. Chong and I feel that I have been greatly let
down and disappointed by him.

On June 24th 2004, I attended an exhibition at The Mines which was supposed to
educate the public on the capabilities of the disabled community. This function
was graced by Human Resource Minister Datuk Fong Chan Onn. I wish here to inform
you that I met up with YB as he went round visiting all the stalls. When he
arrived at my stall, I was about to tell him my problems, to which he quickly
refered me to his Press Secretary Paul Cheng. Mr. Cheng then gave me his calling
card and asked me to call him to make an appointment which I subsequently did.
However since then, I have called him up on several occasions but as he is so
elusive, I have had no choice but to leave several messages on his answering
machine but sad to say, I have not heard from him right up to this time which is
about 2 months ago.

Some months ago, I went to visit Mr. Soon Boon Teck, the assistant to the Deputy
Minister of Information Datuk Donald Lim. My intention of doing this was to
request for his kind intervention to investigate about my employment status with
RTM. However once again, I regret to inform you that he was just as insolent as
Michael Chong was in his dealings towards me and at one stage he almost drove me
out of his office. During my first meeting with Mr. Soon, he told me that it was
not within his jurisdiction to investigate the matter which I had brought to his
attention but later he agreed to write to the Head of Radio 4 to sort out the
matter. Subsequently, Mr. Soon asked me to meet him for a second time at his
office, to which I thought that he would have the Head of Radio 4 that is Puan
Rohani present, so that he could hear both sides of the story and then make his
own judgement. Unfortunately, to my shock and dismay, on meeting up with Mr.
Soon, he proceeded to tell me that he had received a reply from Puan Rohani and
that he was satisfied with the explanation given by her in relieving me of my
job. It is therefore my contention that Mr. Soon has been very biased in his
judgement and his investigation slip shot to say the least.

Finally Yang Berhormat, as President of MCA, it is my hope that you will make a
thorough investigation of the complaints which I have made in this letter and
that the MCA officials should not forget their promises to serve the rakyat and
remember that the disabled community have also helped to put them in power by
casting a vote for them. I hope that they and their representatives realize that
they are accountable to the people and therefore should help the rakyat to solve
their problems to the best of their ability. For your information, I have also
tried to make an appointment to meet up with YB through your assistants Miss
Yong and Mr. Tan Kian Hock but without success. It is my hope that you would be
so kind as to grant me the opportunity of meeting up with you, so that I can
discuss certain matters with you and to make your acquaintence. Your kind
attention to this letter would be most appreciated and may the MCA grow from
strength to strength. Looking forward to your early reply and thanking you in
anticipation.

Yours sincerely,

Alfred Ho,



NOTE : NO RESPONSE FROM ONG KA TING AT ALL