For someone like me who travel regularly to Australia for board meetings and with relatives there too, I find the excuses by Dr Ng Yen Yen for her Australian permanent residency pathetic and bankrupt of brain-sense. o­n top of that, being a father too, I find it even sadder that her children were used to bluff her way through.

First, o­ne do not need to have a PR to visit Australia. You can easily apply for a five-year business visa or a six months' visitor visa. I doubt she was there 24 hours, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year to tend to her children. Therefore, a visitor's visa would have suit her requirements unless there were other motives.

Secondly, in order to get a PR, she would have to apply for it at least 12 to 18 months beforehand. And to reach a decision to apply for the PR, she would have thought about it well in advance. All in all, my guess would be she made the decision to apply during the late 80s when Malaysia was still in recession. So, her children were just an excuse.

Thirdly, as she said loudly, she has to be there to look after her children as what a responsible mother would do. Why then, during that period, did she agree to be a director of an Australian company controlled by Soh Chee Wen, the so-called partner of Dr Ling Liong Sik and his son? How can a busy mother tending to the needs of her three children have time to be involved in business in Australia?

It is quite obvious this is yet another o­ne of those so-called 'partnership' involving Soh Chee Wen that has come back to haunt MCA and Ling. It's time politicians, especially from MCA, try not to pull wool over our eyes.