Uphill battle for fair deal

Press statement by Alfred Ho, October 13, 2007, at Kuala Lumpur.

Allow me first to introduce myself. I am a blind individual in my 50s and a singer, guitarist by profession. I have been in this profession for more than 20 years and my forte is singing old western favourites. I also sing in several Chinese dialects, Spanish and several languages. I mainly do the pub circuits and perform at company and wedding functions.

The reason why I am disenchanted with the government is because I have been discriminated against over the years. Apart from being a singer, my other interest is disc jockeying. Some years ago, I applied to RTM for such a post. Of course the powers that be at RTM were reluctant to offer me the post but after writing numerous letters, they finally gave me the job but with a hidden agenda. They only gave me the job for 6 months after which they relieved me of the post.

Subsequently, I wrote several letters to the then information minister, Khalil Yacob but my pleas for him to intervene in the matter fell on deaf ears as he decided to ignore my letters. I also approached people such as Lee Lam Thye, Lim Keng Yaik and even the very popular complaints officer of MCA, Michael Chong with the same results.

All gave me the cold shoulder, in spite of the fact that we are supposed to be governed by a caring government. I even went personally to the MCA complaints bureau to seek out the assistance of Michael Chong who refused to entertain my complaint and he even tried to drive me out of his office saying that he was the wrong person for me to approach and that I should bring my complaints to the blind association instead.

I tried to highlight this matter with the Star newspaper but as it is a MCA publication, I was told by the news editor that my news report was not newsworthy, even after I had given my account of the events to one of the reporters.

Disgusted by this, I wrote several letters to top MCA officials, including Ong Ka Ting, but to my dismay they chose to ignore my letters. My letters to these inconsiderate officials were published over Malaysiakini.

Subsequently, Michael Chong tried to defend himself over the letters but I think that he failed miserably.

I even wrote to no less than the prime minister himself for his assistance but until today I have yet to get a reply from him. To ensure that the PM got my letter, I attended his Hari Raya open house at the PWTC where I handed the letter to him personally. As such he cannot deny not having received my letter for assistance. I rang to speak to his political secretary, Vincent Lim but as expected, he was just as unhelpful.

As a result of these problems that I have encountered, I have decided to take a great interest in politics.

If given the opportunity I will campaign for the opposition as I strongly feel that the misdeeds of this very uncaring government should be exposed