Letter To Albert Ng - Oct 2nd 1997

HEAD DJ,
TIME HIGHWAY RADIO.


I would like to express the view that during my one year of service at THR, I wish that you could have been more considerate and more sincere in your dealings towards me.

Take your mind back to the time when I first joined THR. Although we were hardly acquainted with each other, you found it fitting to send me an invitation to attend your wedding in Ipoh. Owing to the fact that I had to travel quite a distance, I was unable to attend but decided that it was only right and proper to make you a small donation as a kind gesture. However, for reasons best known to yourself, I have yet to receive an acknowledgement from you for the little contribution that I made. I wonder if my contribution was too small and that it did not warrant any acknowledgement from you. Could it also have been the cause for you to harbour ill-feelings towards me all this while?

Eversince your rise to power, it has come to my understanding that you are very unpopular with certain DJs. It has been said that you no longer sympathize with the DJs when they have problems but chose instead to side the management. You do not care what happens to others in the process, just as long as you succeed in achieving your ambitions. I strongly feel that I am qualified to make this statement against you as I have become one of your victims. It is my contention that you have impeeded my progress and somehow you had to make sure that I did not get more jobs in THR. Whenever I tried to have a discussion with you, you would always politely brush me off lightly by using your favourite catch phrase "I'll catch up with you later." Obviously, you jolly well know that each time I approached you, I would be asking you for more jobs, so you chose not to give me a chance to discuss things with you. At the same time, you tried to find fault with me on several occasions. For example, when THR shifted from RTM to Wisma Time, I was deliberately not informed. Fortunately, I took the initiative to listen in to THR at 6am and heard that the station was broadcasting from the new place. As I recall, two minutes prior to my programme was to come on the air, you had the audacity to ring me up to check if I had turned up for duty. I asked you why you did not inform me about the fact that THR had already shifted, you declared that you did inform me but to the best of my knowledge, you did no such thing. You then chose to conveniently put the blame on your poor receptionist and so as to escape all responsibilities, you had to tell a pack of lies. Do you know that by your irresponsible actions, you could have got the receptionist into a whole load of trouble? I therefore conclude that you are both insensitive and uncaring towards others.

There was also a time when my wife was hospitalized and you adopted a vary uncaring attitude. As I remember, you did not even enquire as to how she was doing, let alone wishing her a speedy recovery. So as not to let my programme lapse for 2 weeks, I took it upon myself to offer to record the show at home. Inspite of all the hard work involved, I did not even count the recording costs and asked only to be paid my normal wages which is a mere RM30. I put itt to you that it then dawned on you that here was a chance for you to take my programme off the air and you subsequently told me that it was not possible to play a pre-recorded show on the air as the station would then have to pay 2 DJs for just one programme. When queried as to why this was so, you stated that you could not take any chances for fear of the equipment breaking down. I ask you, why do you have so little faith in the station's so-called hi-tech equipment or are you trying to imply that the equipment that the station is utilizing is not good enough? To put yourself in a good light, you told me that you would have to consult Puan Karimah for the final decision, but I subsequently found out from her that you did not even raise the matter with her at any time. I wish to quote her on that particular occasion "QUOTE - Keep this between us, Albert is a very dis-organised person - UNQUOTE." What she meant by that is anyone's guess.

I recalled attending a meeting where both you and Gerard were attacked by Patrick Joseph (verbally, of course) and at that time I thought that it was improper of him to have hit out at both of you. I even recall sympathizing with you after the meeting was over. However, on hind-sight, I strongly feel that both of you deserved to be bombarded and I now realise my folly in having sympathized with both of you. Finally, it is my contention that you are jealous of the fact that I play a better mix of songs on my programme than you do on yours and as such, you have tried to keep my listenership to a bare minimum. You made sure that you did not give me any prizes to give away on my shows, whilst you had numerous prizes to give away on yours. Each time I tried to ask you for prizes, you would say "I'll look into it." One year has gone by and I bet that you are still looking into it.

I wonder if you recall an incident, when you called me up one day to inform me that you caught James Sze-To (ex-security guard) having access to my personal locker. I did subsequently inform you that I had given him full permission to do so purely on humanitarian grounds, as some disgruntled members of your staff were tearing up his files because of his strict enforcement of the many tight security, rules and regulations that you have in place. After all, he was only doing his job and as such it is sad to note that people would stoop so low to commit such a vile act. You will recall that I even apologized to you for not seeking prior permission from you for him to use my locker and you told me that it was perfectly alright for him to do so, as long as I was happy about it. About a week later, I was informed by James that he was given a reprimand and was told that he was never to use my locker again. Why all the hipocrisy, Albert? Why could you not have told me straight away that he was not allowed to use my locker under any circumstances, instead of acting like a good samaritan?

Recently there was a recruitment drive to get some new DJs to fill up the posts of some VALUABLE DJs that had just left the station. However, having served the station for almost a year, I was side-lined and was not even given a chance to get more air-time. As head of the DJs, I find your attitude most shocking and it really baffles me as to how you managed to secure this position in the company. My true opinion of you is that you are biased and full of prejudice against me. I have been employed by the station for just about a year now and I am no better then when I started off where jobs are concerned. Even people who have just recently joined the station have been given more than 10 hours of air-time in a week. How do you explain this, Albert? If you contend that I am not a good DJ, then why was I not dispensed with after the probation period? On the other hand, as you would have me believe that I have the makings of a good DJ, why was I not sent for any training to become a better DJ? I put it to you, Albert, that you were just waiting for me to be disgruntled and then resign of my own accord. Unfortunately for you, I persisted and as such all your plans to get me out of the establishment fell apart. You always try to give yourself the Mr Nice Guy image but in actual fact to my mind you are both calculating and mean.

I recall some months ago informing you that I had just shifted to a new place, as I had just bought a small flat of my own, to which you remarked that it was fortunate of me to be working for THR which only made it possible for me to buy up this flat. Of course, you and I both know that what you said was a whole load of crap. However, if that statement of yours was made in jest then I think that your joke was made in very bad taste.

Albert, I certainly hope that this letter will be an eye-opener for you and that you should not take handicap people lightly in future.

Alfred Ho