I hope to highlight a rather weird 'Malaysia Boleh' phenomenon where wives of ministers who are often seen with their husbands when they perform their official duties.

Some of them often follow their husbands on their overseas duties. I find this to be totally inappropriate as these women can be seen to be interfering in the official duties of their husbands. Besides, they are not officials in the Malaysian cabinet and have no function whatsoever other than being the wives of the ministers.

On top of that, one also needs to ask, who is paying for their first-class plane tickets, board and lodging? Worse, if they also bring along a special assistant.

What the authorities must do now is to discourage, or ban them, from taking advantage of the fact that their husbands are ministers. We can understand that the prime minister and his deputy may be allowed to bring their spouses, but this cannot be a habit, and can only happen when they are attending special functions.

As Malaysians, we have the right to stop this habit so that ministers cannot be charged for taking advantage of their position. This habit cannot be allowed even if the ministers say they pay for their wives expenses. The fact that their wives are around means that these ministers' attention will be distracted.

We only need to take a look at the ministers in the other countries, who are often alone. Even the British prime minister, Tony Blair, doesn't bring his wife wherever he has to go to perform his official duties.