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Sixth email and seventh question to Khir Toyo on the worst dengue epidemic in Selangor state - why lives of Malaysians in Selangor had been sacrificed in the name of the 13th NAM Summit


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

(Petaling Jaya,  Sunday): In my sixth email and seventh question to the Selangor Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Dr. Mohamad Khir Toyo on the worst dengue epidemic in Selangor state, I asked him why the lives of Malaysians in the state had been sacrificed in the name of the 13th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

In my email today, I referred to the Malaysiakini report yesterday on a fuming Suhakam Human Rights Commissioner, Prof Dr. Mohd Hamdan Adnan lambasting the Health Ministry for ignoring the importance of saving lives after it postponed a meeting with Suhakam on the dengue epidemic fixed for Thursday.

Hamdan said no official reason was given by the Health Ministry for calling off the meeting at the last minute just a day earlier on Wednesday, although it was obvious that the postponement was because Malaysia is hosting the NAM summit.

As Hamdan said: "Aedes mosquitoes do not know how to differentiate whether you are a NAM delegate or not. People are dying, talks about many people being warded are still going on. We just want to find out the exact statistics from them during the meeting and get the actual picture on this outbreak. This is a matter of respecting the right to live."

In my email to Khir Toyo, I also recounted my chance encounter with the Health Minister, Datuk Chua Jui Meng yesterday although I had tried but failed to seek a meeting with the Minister on the worst dengue epidemic in the nation's history since mid-December more than two months ago.

I was at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) outside B 3 Departure Lounge waiting for the departure of my flight to Sibu (MH 2714) at about 4.15 p.m. when a person came up to me and patted me at the back and greeted me. I looked and found it was none other than Chua, who had been avoiding me for two months. He had disembarked from another flight and had to pass me to walk on to leave the departure concourse.

I reciprocated the greeting and immediately asked him in Hokkien: "Why continue to stifle?" He pretended ignorance at what I was talking about, and when I said he should know that I was referring to the dengue epidemic, he responded by saying that "a lot of work is being done on the ground". I retorted that all this was of no good, as people continue to die, and that the radio and television are not being used to get the urgent message of the dengue epidemic out to the public. Chua quickly walked away.

In my email, I asked Khir Toyo why he agreed to be part of the Health Ministry's irresponsible policy to subordinate and sacrifice the lives of Malaysians in Selangor in the worst dengue epidemic in the name of NAM.

As a responsible Selangor Mentri Besar, Khir Toyo should have dissociated himself from Chua's irresponsible handling of the dengue epidemic, and insisted that the Selangor State Government's first duty is to save lives to stop the long list of unnecessary and avoidable deaths, NAM or no NAM.

Chua yesterday said that for the NAM summit, 256 medical personnel have been mobilized, with 19 teams being based at the 11 hotels where the delegates are staying, the Putra World Trade Centre and KL International Airport. There are also two mobile units, several ambulances and two helicopters on standby. Even a bio-chemical unit has been set up.

Chua said: "We will leave nothing to chance and are prepared for any eventuality.", adding that medical staff will also keep an eye on hygiene at the hotels where the delegates are staying and at meeting places.

Nobody begrudges the extraordinary attention being devoted to protect the health and medical well-being of the NAM delegates, but Malaysians must have hoped that if the Health Minister could have devoted one per cent of the "We will leave nothing to chance and are prepared for any eventuality" attitude in the handling of the worst dengue epidemic in the nation's history, Selangor and Malaysia would not have recorded the most number of dengue cases and the longest list of dengue deaths so far.

In my email to Khir Toyo, I urged the Selangor Mentri Besar not to follow in the footsteps of the Health Minister in giving better treatment to foreigners as compared to Malaysian citizens. If Malaysians cannot be treated better than foreigners, they should not be treated worse!

(23/2/2003)


* Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman