TR EMERITUS

Translated from Sin Ming Daily According to the farewell letter of Dr Allan Ooi, he revealed he was traumatized by a failed relationship. "The failure of that relationship destroyed me in many ways." He wrote in the letter that the failed relationship had a detrimental impact on him which caused him to hurt others later. He said he was sorry to those he had hurt. The deceased wrote in the letter that he was very miserable at work which lacked joy and satisfaction. He felt he was restrained by his scholarship bond and was disappointed with his work. MINDEF had refused to comment on the matter. The young army doctor's body was cremated yesterday and his farewell letter was publicized on the internet. According to the letter, he had only loved one girl in his life, but his girl had hurt him badly. Dr Allan Ooi (27 years old) who was serving as a medical officer in the Singapore Armed Forces went absent without official leave from the armed forces last October. He was found dead under a bridge in Melbourne on March 3. The deceased body was cremated yesterday morning. Unexpectedly, the internet was rife with rumors of an alleged letter he wrote before his death which was emailed to his close friends. The deceased mentioned in his letter that he had only loved one girl in his life and he still loved her. "Though I had a number of flings, I still loved one woman". He did not mention her name. Read another version from Asiaone here  Read More →

By Elizabeth Looi, Malaysia Correspondent Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi could delay the handover of power to his deputy by several days - to say a proper farewell to his ministers, a local media outlet has reported. Influential online newspaper Malaysia Insider said the Prime Minister planned to defer the handover from March 31 to April 3. It said he wanted to do this so he could chair a Cabinet meeting on April 1 and personally bid farewell to the ministers. Some of them have been his colleagues since former premier Mahathir Mohamad's administration. April 3 is the first date that any media report has given for the handover of the premiership. Neither the PM nor Deputy PM Najib Razak confirmed the report. Datuk Seri Abdullah told reporters he would officially announce the handover date later. 'Of course we have a date. I have discussed with Najib,' he said. Datuk Seri Najib did not want to comment either. Wait for the official announcement, he told reporters at an event. Yesterday also saw the embattled PM push through the last of the reforms that he had repeatedly promised to implement before stepping down. A Bill to monitor enforcement agencies was tabled in Parliament. If passed, a commission will be set up to act as a watchdog for 21 government agencies, including the police, immigration, customs and the national anti-drug agency. Critics said the commission has no enforcement powers. The latest reform comes after earlier moves aimed at addressing the problem of the lack of independence in the judiciary, and at bolstering the anti-corruption agency. Mr Abdullah had promised to fight graft during his administration, but his reforms have come under heavy criticism. The anti-corruption agency was replaced by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). The MACC was supposed to be given more power but was subsequently seen as a Barisan Nasional political tool against the opposition. The commission also drew flak when it investigated the chief minister of opposition-held state Selangor, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, after he was accused of misusing state funds. Many critics felt that the MACC should concentrate on larger corruption issues such as money politics in Umno. The commission had, in fact, earlier investigated several Umno grassroots leaders, including a party supreme council member, though that upset some Umno Youth members. They felt that some of the party members were victimised as political scapegoats. Mr Abdullah has urged the commission to speed up its investigations as the party polls draw closer. The MACC recently picked up a senior minister's political secretary for alleged graft involving more than RM70,000 (S$29,000). Source: Straits Times  Read More →

By Eugene Yeo (LATEST: Sin Ming was forced to publish Dr Allan Ooi's letter in Chinese today. Read how it tries desperately to add a different spin to it to make it appear as if Dr Allan committed suicide due to relationship problems here) Attached below is an extract of Dr Allan Ooi's email sent to his family and friends before his death. It was sent to us by his friend: To: Wayang Party Editors His suicide letter attached. Blackout from media on this. An inquiry into his supervisors and the whole scholarship process in the SAF should be demanded, someone lost a precious son/friend/brother. We have elected to reproduce only relevant parts of Dr Allan Ooi's email. In the last few days, the mainstream media, especially the Chinese dailies have been speculating about the cause of his death. The Straits Times suggested it was due to over-indulgence in online war games. Lianhe Wanbao claimed that he committed suicide because he lost heavily in gambling. Shin Ming wrote that it may due to some relationship issues. None of these were true. Like the smear campaign directed against David Widjaja, the mainstream media had been concocting all kinds of unsubstantiated tales to distract attention from the authorities which have yet to provide us with a satisfactory explanation. The SPH journalists are aware of the content of Dr Allan Ooi's email. Why didn't they report the real reason behind his suicide and instead throw all kinds of smoke-bombs to mislead Singaporeans? In his email below, Dr Allan Ooi stated explicitly that the main reason why he decided to end his life is due to work-related issues:  (NOTE: The letter was dated 4 March because Allan timed it (via a website providing the service) to be sent out 24 hours after his death, presumably so that no one tried to stop him. We have checked the content of the email with Allan’s friends before publishing. The content was an exact replica as the letter read out by his brother during his wake. It is authentic. ) SAF needs to answer the following questions arising from Dr Allan Ooi's email: 1. What does Dr Allan Ooi mean by his statement "How can a bond be unbreakable?" Did he inform SAF of his intention to break his bond and was told that he was not allowed to do so? 2. In the next sentence, Dr Allan Ooi wrote "How can it be extended at will by an administration simply by passing a paper?" SAF needs to explain why Dr Allan Ooi's bond was extended. Did they consult Dr Allan Ooi and seek his acquiesence before the decision was made? 3. Dr Allan Ooi was very angry at the unfortunate turn of events - the extending of his bond and not allowing to break it, which drove him into utter despair and hopelessness culminating in his eventual decision to end his own life to get away from it all. What was the nature of his work at SAF? Who was his immediate superior or supervisor? Did he detect the problems his subordinate was having at work? Is there any system in place to attend to scholars who have encountered problems in the course of their work? 4. Dr Allan Ooi made the fateful decision to end his life 5 months after leaving Singapore. SAF claimed it was unable to contact him, but surely the authorities must have emailed him and what were the contents of the email? Dr Allan Ooi left Singapore initially to escape from the pressure-cooker environment he was in. Were there any other factors which cause him to come to this decision in the end? How can a promising young doctor who went through 6 rigorous years of medical studies and housemanship be so traumatized by his work that he had to AWOL and leave his family and friends to be alone by himself in a foreign land?  We have not heard a single official statement from SAF. Dr Allan Ooi was a SAF scholar. He worked in SAF as a medical officer upon obtaining his medical degree and most importantly he was driven to suicide due to anguish, despair and stress arising from his work. How can SAF exonerate itself from its pastoral responsibility as if it has nothing to do with him? As one of our readers, Agape Xue wrote on our blog: "There seems to be a recent trend that many young scholars are taking their lives for granted, and commit suicides at the instance of meeting obstacles in their studies or career pursuit. This is a very worrying phenomenon seemingly having its undesirable influence on today’s bright youngsters. This trend must be checked. Young people need to treasure their lives more,, need to know that they not only have a responsibility to themselves, they also need to know that they have a responsibility ensure that their parents live no guilt in raising them. What pain is there more destructive to all parents to have to see to the funeral of their children." There is nobody to blame for Dr Allan Ooi's untimely death and now is certainly not the time for pointing fingers. We need to know what exactly happen so that we will not see a repeat of such tragedies again. To recall the cryptic last words of Dr Allan Ooi: "To the people within this system, please change it to better benefit yourselves and future generations, instead of creating a self-perpetuating cycle of at best, painful obligation, and at worst, utter despair." (This article has been viewed 28,335 times as of 17 March 2009, 6.00pm)  Read More →