Let me congratulate malaysiakini on the scoop on Malaysia's Health Ministry funding for the health sector. It's wonderful to also see malaysiakini have the gumption to pursue such a story with vigour when Malaysia's mainstream media doesn't have the guts to do the job.

And even more pleasing is malaysiakini proving the deputy health minister utterly and shamefully wrong when he slammed malaysiakini for its 'false report'.

You'd have to wonder which other ministries are also slashing and burning their funding policies. Because all this points to a budget deficit that is getting more and more pear shaped and chronic.

Has premier Abdullah Badawi silently given his cabinet the go ahead to prune services for the people who have just voted his regime back to power? It says something about the promises by this government to rule with good governance and transparency. But don't hold your breath.

Something else Malaysians ought to be seriously concerned about is the level of intelligence and competence of their ministers and their chief underlings who run the incompetent and corrupt Malaysian bureaucracy.

But then again this is the standard we've come to expect of the Barisan Nasional regime all hot air, lies and spin and not much else.

Wake up, prime minister.