It’s Christmas, but it won’t just be Christians who will be celebrating. All ethnic groups will have reason to enjoy the yearend holidays – and that is what makes Malaysia special.

A CHINESE media friend from Hangzhou texted me the other day to say that she will be leading a delegation to visit Kuala Lumpur on Dec 23.

I replied saying we would be delighted to welcome her team but unfortunately, I would not be around to greet them as I would be on Christmas leave.

Expressing her regrets, she then asked if a Muslim colleague, a high-ranking person whom she knows, would be around.

My reply surprised her.

I told her the Muslim colleague would also not be present as she would be clearing her off-days. Another Indian colleague would also be away, spending time with his family.

The Chinese national said she had a lot to learn about Malaysia. She had assumed that with a 70% Muslim population, it would be business as usual in this country when her team arrived at this time.

I explained to her that while we have the public holidays for the various races, Malaysians of all religions also join in the celebrations.

It is common for friends of different faiths to visit each other’s homes to extend greetings. If we don’t do that, we will look to travel during the stretch of extended holidays.

By now, I could sense that she was thoroughly confused – or felt that Malaysians are always not working!

I was sure by now that she would be checking soon on how many public holidays Malaysians have. I can sense an embarrassed question coming from her soon.

Really, we are a blessed country. While we whine and grumble about ethnicity, none of us will quarrel about celebrating the festivals of every ethnic group.

We are the South-East Asian nation with the most public holidays, if we account for the state holidays as well, with at least 18 holidays each year.

In China, known as the factory of the world for producing just about everything, there are only seven declared holidays.

The United States is one of the few countries with 10 days of public holidays, while Germany only has nine.

My Chinese friend was also further bewildered to find out that I am a practising Christian as I do not carry a Christian name.

“Having a Western name doesn’t mean anything. Just like in China, so many of you have Western names,” I reminded her.

She answered that it was because many foreigners could not pronounce their pinyin names correctly with all the Zs and Xs in their names.

United in celebration: Members of the public enjoying the festive mood and colourful Christmas decorations in the Kuala Lumpur city centre. — YAP CHEE HONG/The Star

Naturally, Christmas is not a public holiday in China although New Year’s Day is. It’s the same in Japan, where Christmas isn’t a holiday.

So I guess we should not be surprised if the Chinese and Japanese think Malaysians will work on Christmas Day.

By now, she explained that the trip had to proceed, despite our unfortunate absence, as they had a budget which had to be utilised by year’s end. Well, at least, there are similarities in government agencies everywhere.

“Don’t worry. We may not be around but there will be other senior people who must be around,” I told her, and could almost hear the sigh of relief.

Again, she asked, perhaps to be safe, if the person would be a Muslim.

I had to disappoint her again. This senior person, I told her, was a Christian. Again, she was shocked as she had just heard that Christians would be away celebrating this festive occasion.

“Well, he will just take a day off as he is single, and he is in no mood to answer questions from nosey family members about his marital status. He will gladly meet you at the office, along with other single Muslim colleagues.”

This one, she understood perfectly. Nosey family members are, after all, a universal problem.

Again, I could almost hear her big smile, and relief.

While we have specific public holidays for the various races, Malaysians of all religions usually join in the celebrations and extended holidays – and the flip side of that are traffic jams, of course! — Filepic/The Star

But a week later, I received another message via WeChat, the messaging and social media app that’s popular in China.

“Mr Wong, not sure if this is good news for you. We will have to postpone the visit to January 2025, before Chinese New Year, due to procedural reasons,” she said.

Of course, it was good news for me as I had been looking forward to exchanging some cooperation, and can now do so.

But my single Christian colleague wasn’t too excited. He had been looking for a real reason to escape from the annual family interrogation.

“Boss, this is no good. Please tell them they don’t understand what Indian families are like, even though we are Christians.

“I could be already married to a total stranger by the time your Chinese friends arrive in Malaysia. I can hear my family already plotting away like politicians,” he pleaded.

As I put down the phone, I received a fresh text. The dates of holidays and extended long weekends for 2025 have already gone viral and 2024 is not even over!

I won’t be telling my Chinese friend this. Imagine what she will think of us!

How I love Malaysia. There is no place like it.

To all my readers, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Resolutely defiant: Dr Siti Mastura has stubbornly clung on to her far-fetched claims even when the facts are strikingly clear. — Screecapture/RTM

PAS Member of Parliament for Kepala Batas Siti Mastura Muhammad holds a doctorate. The 35-year-old politician studied at the Al-Azhar University in Egypt before getting her PhD in Islamic Development Management from Universiti Sains Malaysia, with the best thesis award as well.

So, one would have expected her to be a well-trained academic with skills in carrying out research.

Sadly, accuracy isn’t her strong point. Worse, she has stubbornly clung on to her far-fetched claims even when the facts are strikingly clear.

She has now gained a notorious reputation and if there is any award for worst research, Siti Mastura will easily beat the other 221 MPs to win it.

Recently, the High Court ruled that remarks made by the religious academician linking prominent political figures Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang, his son Lim Guan Eng, and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok to the late Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng and Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew were defamatory and uttered with malice.

Judge Datuk Quay Chew Soon ruled that Siti Mastura’s statements were defamatory and that her defence – including fair comment, qualified privilege, and innocent dissemination – were not proven.

“I therefore award the following global damages: RM300,000 in favour of Lim Kit Siang, RM250,000 in favour of Lim Guan Eng, and RM200,000 in favour of Teresa Kok,” he said, adding that the plaintiffs would also be entitled to a 5% interest on the sum from the date of judgment until full payment is made.

The judge also issued an injunction restraining her from repeating or publishing similar defamatory remarks against the plaintiffs in the future.

Siti Mastura was also ordered to pay legal costs – RM25,000 each to the three plaintiffs, given that the three suits were heard together, thus saving costs.

Quay said he was satisfied that Siti Mastura’s remarks had exposed the plaintiffs to hatred and public opprobrium, and went beyond the realm of mere political criticism.

“Criticism of political opponents is legitimate only if it does not cross into the realm of defamation,” he stated.

“Despite holding a PhD with good research practices, she relied on a campaign book that was unverified, without a publication year, author, publisher, or ISBN number,” the judge said.

It isn’t clear if Siti Mastura will pay the damages, or if she would file an appeal now. None of the other PAS leaders have come out to speak on the matter, or if the party would help her raise the ordered amount.

The matter could have been easily settled if she had apologised to the aggrieved parties. Instead, she insisted on sticking to her outlandish claims.

It was not the only time she had done so.

In March, Siti Mastura was embroiled in another controversial claim that 1.2 million Chinese nationals have been in the country illegally since 2018 and had not left.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution rubbished the claims, saying the allegations were unfounded and could not be defended.

The administration, he said, was transparent about the issue and based its response on data. The facts are these: 46 million foreigners entered the country between Jan 1, 2021, and Dec 31, last year. Of this, 39 million had left, meaning six million are still here.

Saifuddin noted that those who remained were here on long-term passes valid for three to five years, adding that this did not include those on social visits, diplomatic and student passes, among others.

The Home Minister added that 2.6 million foreigners who overstayed had already come forward to register with the Immigration Department.

Guan Eng has also said that the Hansard shows that only 92 Chinese nationals were detained as undocumented migrants during an early 2023 crackdown, with 809 being denied entry into the country that year, “numbers which starkly contrast with the figures Mastura had mentioned”.

He said Perikatan Nasional leader Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin, who was home minister during the Pakatan Harapan administration, had admitted that the claim was inaccurate. Citing the Hansard from 2022, he quoted Hamzah as saying the home ministry would make a correction.

The Dewan Rakyat should not be a place where MPs can make unsubstantiated claims – or worse, spout outright lies – and get away with it by proclaiming their privileges.

Siti Mastura had to pay the price only because she made her allegations against the DAP leaders at an open political gathering.

We are coming to 2025 soon, and it wouldn’t be too much if voters expected a certain level of competency from their representatives.

Siti Mastura, for one, needs to go back to school as even secondary school students writing essays know the importance of checking facts.

If PAS picks her to defend her Kepala Batas seat, and she wins again in the next general election, it would indeed be bizarre and outlandish.

Eyesore: The Klang River continues to be filled with rubbish, mostly plastic waste, despite the efforts of the ‘trash trawler’, the boat pictured above that’s used to remove floating waste. — KK SHAM/The Star

IT is coming up to almost a year since it attained city status, but Klang has not been able to shed its image as a dirty town.

It was once called the dirtiest town in Malaysia and it doesn’t look like any clean-up has been carried out since it became a city in February.

Incidentally, it’s also the royal city of the state, and the Sultan of Selangor obviously has very good reason to be furious over the cleanliness standards there.

There are three other cities in Selangor, namely Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya, and Shah Alam, but none of them has a royal tag to it like Klang, which, sadly and unfortunately, has the worst reputation for poor upkeep.

Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah pointed out many areas remain dirty and poorly organised, with rivers filled with garbage.

He shared that he had received numerous complaints from both local and foreign tourists, including those arriving by cruise ships docking at Port Klang.

These visitors, he said, had expressed their displeasure over the rubbish strewn in Port Klang and the Royal City of Klang, describing it as disgusting.

“It’s meaningless for us to be proud of our rapid development if we cannot even tackle fundamental issues like hygiene,” His Royal Highness said when officiating the launch of Masjid Jamek Cina Muslim Klang on Thursday.

Sultan Sharafuddin said rivers filled with rubbish and poorly maintained drains have also led to frequent flooding in the city.

His Royal Highness said that he had repeatedly reprimanded and advised local authorities and the state government to take effective action and plan carefully to resolve the flooding issue in the Royal City of Klang and several other districts in Selangor. Yet, floods continue to occur every year.

“We should not use climate change or excessive rainfall, attributed to an ‘act of God’, as an excuse for the floods.

“I’m tired of raising this issue with the government and local authorities every year, only for it to be ignored. Why can’t we solve this problem?” he asked.

Indeed, Tuanku has brought up these issues in the past while the media has also regularly reported on the pathetic situation in Klang.

One would have expected the Klang City Council to focus on cleaning up after attaining city status but for most Klang residents and visitors, nothing has changed. It remains the same dirty place.

As His Royal Highness has said, one can imagine the impression tourists from cruise ships get upon landing at Port Klang and then heading to Kuala Lumpur. The entire stretch of road from the port remains poorly lit, and with unkempt landscaping. Unfortunately, this is what greets foreigners first when they arrive in Malaysia.

Many tourists who flock to Klang for its food also share the same negative perceptions about the city.

Tuanku also pointed out the state of the river in Klang, which is strewn with rubbish, adding that clogged drains have also resulted in floods in the city.

It has been more than 48 hours since His Royal Highness made his statement but there has been no response from the authorities. What a shame!

No one from the Selangor state government or Klang City Hall has taken responsibility or even made a commitment to clean up Klang.

It doesn’t look like any appointed contractors will be losing their jobs despite failing so badly in their duties. They should be blacklisted and should not hide behind shell companies. The tender process should also be made more transparent and accountable.

They had better be warned – the Sultan of Selangor will now keep a personal eye on this shoddy state of affairs.

In 2019, the Federation of Consumers Association reported that, “Taking a drive around town will reveal poor infrastructure along the roads, shoddy or incomplete work done by contractors, broken drains, unclean roads, and even uncut grass. With even the most basic services such as cleanliness and proper infrastructure upkeep not met, residents in Klang are getting fed up.’’

Five years on, we are now at the end of 2024, and it is as if time has stood still in Klang. It remains a dirty and badly run place.

Klang doesn’t deserve city status, really.

Charm offensive: With his persuasive personality as well as eloquence in English and even Arabic, Anwar (here at G20) can help enhance Malaysia’s image on the global stage. — Bernama

FORMER Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad must certainly be the most travelled Malaysian leader, having been head of government for 22 years. This does not even include his second round as premier.

As a journalist, I accompanied him on many of these overseas trips to far-flung nations, an opportunity I would not have had if not for my job.

I counted over 25 countries that I tagged along to, including Albania, Cuba, Colombia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Senegal, Uruguay and Jamaica, which are all not usually on the radar of the average Malaysian tourist. But Dr Mahathir probably visited more than 50 nations.

Almost all the trips involved back-to-back meetings, which began with a pre-council meeting with accompanying ministers and officials immediately after touchdown.

In 1996, we arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a year after the civil war with the Serbs ended, together with the heads of 14 private companies.

Most of us stayed in a hotel riddled with bullet holes. In some rooms, there were only plastic sheets instead of glass panes. Many businessmen, however, saw potential deals in the ruins – from supplying window panes to rebuilding roads and bridges.

None of this, of course, was spoken about openly, as it would have been distasteful, but the message was that Malaysia was prepared to assist Bosnia in rebuilding the nation. Malaysia also donated RM10mil, a small sum for a country which was near flattened.

While the trip was to earn goodwill and to show our commitment to help a less fortunate nation, the big challenge to our business side was to be involved in the reconstruction process in the long-term.

In Dr Mahathir’s many trips, there were good deals and bad ones. One such bad deal was when our national airlines had a direct flight to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, no thanks to Dr Mahathir’s good relationship with the then President Robert Mugabe.

It was a decision that put our national carrier at a huge loss. How many businessmen, from both sides, would travel between the two countries?

During Dr Mahathir’s years as PM from 1981 to 2003, he visited Japan over 100 times – mainly to promote his “Look East” policy. Japan was one of the biggest investors in Malaysia then.

Japan’s offer to guarantee billions of ringgit in what was known as “Samurai bonds’’ with a 10-year-tenure also came in handy for Malaysia to retire some of the previous costly loans committed by the previous leadership.

Love him or loathe him, Dr Mahathir has certainly left a tremendous impact in his two decades of travelling.

On a recent trip to Istanbul, I saw a photograph of Dr Mahathir at a shop at the Grand Bazaar. In Porto, Portugal, when a Bangladeshi found out that I was from Malaysia, he said: “Dr Mahathir.”

I replied: “No, our Prime Minister now is Anwar Ibrahim.”

None of Dr Mahathir successors could reach his stature as a statesman. Perhaps their tenure was too short, or they were not as controversial in their speeches to make the world notice them.

Fast forward to 2024 and there is Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. He was already a known international figure before he became PM with his vast international network from the West to the Islamic countries and our neighbours.

He is travelling quite a bit too. Prime Ministers need to go out and help to sell Malaysia, whether to attract investments or for diplomatic strategies. Sitting at home will not help Malaysia.

The protocol for any new PM is to visit the leaders of the other nine Asean members namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The only exception is Myanmar as the military government has been denounced for its continued acts against its civilians.

Like many journalists, I, too, was asked why there was a need for Anwar to travel to all these nations so soon after becoming PM. The fact is: It is required for him. He will be the new Asean leader from January.

It is important for Malaysia to show its commitment to strengthening alliances at regional level, too. More importantly, Anwar is continuing the policy of economic diplomacy. Our neighbours, especially Indonesia and Thailand, compete aggressively with Malaysia for investments.

The Indonesian media, for example, often asks openly and aggressively about what Indonesia lacks that Malaysia has, as investments pour in, especially to Penang, which has become a Silicon Valley for its micro-chips production.

A PM who sits at home will not help Malaysia. Naturally, he has to justify and show us the results of his visits, but diplomacy is not all about investments and money.

The reasons for his travels abroad also include strengthening bilateral ties, to reinforce political, economic and cultural relations, negotiating agreements such as trade deals, defence pacts and outstanding issues including even border disputes.

Our friendship with China, for example, has helped in tourism and investments. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, China offered its Sinovac vaccines to Malaysia, which was among the earliest recipients.

The PM also has the job of expanding our nation’s products, especially our palm oil, to other countries. Our national car, Proton, is now being assembled in Egypt, which will be a gateway to the vast African continent.

Last week, Anwar was in Seoul to get his South Korean counterpart, President Yoon Suk-yeol, to conclude a free trade zone agreement by next year, which would include additional areas such as services, investment and green energy.

It is important to shape what the world thinks of Malaysia. Recently, Anwar was given the honour of attending the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Brazil although Malaysia is not a member.

The G20 comprises 19 big countries including the United States, United Kingdom, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany as well as two regional bodies, the European Union and African Union.

Anwar, who will chair the Asean grouping next year, was invited to be in the company of these global players.

Whether we wish to admit it or not, a Premier who speaks impeccable English and is at ease with his peers will help to enhance Malaysia’s image through speeches, media engagements or meetings with the Malaysian diaspora.

Dr Mahathir made sharp and hard-hitting speeches, Datuk Seri Najib Razak spoke in crisp English while Anwar is the ultimate charmer, persuasive, eloquent and comfortable in English, and even Arabic.

There is nothing more embarrassing than a PM who is seen struggling at the United Nations rostrum.

But it is not just the speeches. There are side meetings and personal socialising that get things done, as these summits shape policies and find answers to global concerns. Not every PM has that social skill.

Let’s also be realistic. Malaysia, as a small country, sometimes needs to negotiate financial aid or development support.

As a predominantly Muslim country, Malaysia has also played its role in mediating conflicts in Thailand and the Philippines. Engagement in peace talks certainly boosts our image.

Anwar has rightly used his second year as Prime Minister to push Malaysia on the international stage in the run-up to the Asean chairmanship. It is not just our neighbours who will converge in Malaysia next year but also world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping.

We have to wait and see if inward-looking US President Donald Trump will also come. Asean wasn’t his interest.

Another point to be noted is that Anwar’s travels overseas also reflect Malaysia’s political stability.

It shows no one is plotting to take over his post while he is away for two weeks, another reason why Malaysia is a favoured country for investment.

However, a controversy has erupted over the cost of his travel. The standard rule, especially for chartered flights to countries with difficult connections, with accompanying businessmen is simple.

The Malaysian government foots the bill of the officials, the businessmen pay for their seats. So do journalists. That’s how the break-up of the bill is. For sure, these are not holiday trips.

Anwar made his intercontinental mission to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Peru and Brazil from Nov 9-19.

It could have been better explained by the officials but essentially, the government has ensured an equitable recovery of costs from the private sector, when they paid for their seats and other expenses, at no disadvantage to taxpayers. And that that was how it had been done previously also.

Finally, there is this fake viral social media message about a trip that Anwar is NOT making. Apparently, he has not been invited to Trump’s inauguration while Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Timor Leste have. Even Archbishop Julian Leow, a decent bloke, found himself dragged into the list of so-called invitees.

No, none of them have been invited. It was obviously fake, but there were many who believed it.