TK Chua

I appreciate the need for all government institutions in the country to maintain impartiality and professionalism when carrying out their tasks.

Since the seizure of assets and the filing of lawsuits by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on some individuals said to have stolen money from 1MDB, numerous quarters have put up defences on behalf of these individuals and 1MDB.

It is about who we are as a anation - our institutions, sovereignty, reputation, dignity, and democracy.

In the light of the US Justice Department’s (DOJ) revelation and a suit filed to seize related assets, here are some of my random thoughts:

Seriously, how pathetic can we get?

I welcome the transport minister’s order to install speed limiters on all express buses. According to him, this ruling was made two years earlier but enforcement was not fully carried out.

I suggest we talk less of paradise and the afterlife when we can’t even handle our life here on earth.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is under a lot of pressure lately. However, his advice to Penang Institute, the think tank funded by the state government, not to tarnish but burnish the image of the state government, needs some comments.

Is this what this nation has come to - to sell ideas to the people; to campaign for support; and to win elections; all we need to talk about is chopping a chicken head and threatening divine punishment?

If we say political parties in Malaysia are weird, it is an understatement. They are like ice cream sellers - it does not matter whether the ice cream is good or bad, they just have to sell it.

Vivian Lee is going to prison for six months over a FB post featuring ‘bak kut teh’ with a halal sign during Ramadan. I do not know her personally. However, I am compelled to write something for her, not to seek excuses but to see how we as a society could show some compassion and forgiveness for her.

Former minister Zainuddin Maidin, when criticising Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim for filing a police report against Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has made some very insidious and outrageous comments against the DAP, a legally constituted political party in the country.

Let’s forget trying to negotiate the impossible. Let’s forget trying to contain unbridled ambition and bigotry. Let’s stop pretending we are magnanimous when we are intransigent to the core. Let’s forget also the mounting crises the nation is facing.

I wonder when Malaysians are going to learn. Or is this purely an obsession with greed that no amount of knowledge and learning could ever make a difference? I am referring to another 7,600 individuals who have fallen victims to yet another investment fraud.