Top 5 At 5: Lack Of Support For Abandoned Medical Patients

5. Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin has expressed concern over declining marriage rates observed in the Malaysian Chinese community from 2016 to 2022. Sim’s remarks sparked a conversation on whether it is possible to get married in the current economic climate. We get into whether more people could and should be putting a ring on it.

4. The Penang reclamation project is slated to go on, after the state high court dismissed the judicial review brought by NGOs and fisherfolk, who are claiming that the project will cause irreversible environmental damage and affect the livelihoods of the local fishing community. For this, we reached out to one of the NGOs in the case, Andrew Han who is vice president of the Jaringan Ekologi dan Iklim. We also hear from Zairil Khir Johari, the Penang state executive councillor.

3. Student enrollment at international schools is rising more than ever. As of May this year, more than 80,000 students are enrolled in international schools, with more than 60 percent being Malaysian citizens. We speak to Choo Li-Hsian, a parent who sends her children to international school, on why she chooses to do so.

2. The High Court has ruled that political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda’s decision to not testify leaves the courts no choice but to invoke “adverse inference”, suggesting Abdul Razak’s complicity to the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuyaa Shaariibuu. We reached out to Kee Shu Min, a former deputy public prosecutor and lawyer for her thoughts on the case’s outcome.

1. Our top story: Patient abandonment in government hospitals is on the rise, with these abandoned patients occupying hospital beds that are in high demand. This is due to the increasingly long list of patients in need of medical care. To understand why this is happening, we speak to Professor Dr Tan Maw Pin, consultant geriatrician.

Image credit: Fit Ztudio, Shutterstock