Told to show proof, BN rep says reported ‘racist docs’ to Health Ministry
(The Malay Mail) – “Someone close to me told me this and I raised this not to create racial tension but to point out at the state assembly that I do not want the ‘Chinese tsunami’ effect from the general election to spill over to affect the doctor’s professionalism”
The Penang assemblyman, who accused three government hospital doctors of racism by neglecting patients, has submitted a formal complaint against them with the Health Ministry for alleged failure to dispense proper medical care to patients.
When Pinang Tunggal state representative Datuk Roslan Saidin first made the claim in the state assembly, he created an uproar that led Pakatan Rakyat (PR) backbenchers to demand that he furnish evidence over his accusations that the doctors had turned away patients due to race.
Now, Roslan claims to have information that the doctors — two from the Kepala Batas Hospital and one from the Seberang Jaya Hospital — had refused treatment to some Malay patients.
“Someone close to me told me this and I raised this not to create racial tension but to point out at the state assembly that I do not want the ‘Chinese tsunami’ effect from the general election to spill over to affect the doctor’s professionalism,” he told The Malay Mail Online in an interview.
He added that when he had raised the matter in the state assembly on July 3, the state health executive councillor Dr Afif Bahardin, who is Seberang Jaya state assemblyman, stated he had no control over doctors as they are under the Health Ministry and not the state government.
“Since he said he has no control over them, I immediately [did] what is my duty by reporting this direct to the ministry and I have done this,” he said.
The Barisan Nasional (BN) assemblyman later insisted that he was not singling out the Chinese as racists, but that he was only raising this incident as an example of possible spill-over effect from the so-called “Chinese tsunami” of the general election.
After recording its worst-ever electoral performance during the May 5 general election, BN had sought to blame the results on a so-called “Chinese tsunami”.
But analysts have pointed to the coalition’s loss of the popular vote to discredit such claims, pointing instead to an urban-rural divide in the voting trend rather than voters choosing along racial lines.
“I have a lot of Chinese businessmen friends so I am not playing the race card here; I am just worried over how this ‘phenomenon’ could cause spill-over effect even on doctors,” Roslan reiterated.
It is unclear, however, how Roslan concluded that the voting trend and the alleged cases of racism were related.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has since written to the Health Ministry demanding an investigation into Roslan’s accusations and for the doctors to be immediately fired if the allegations are true.
Lim had also demanded that the ministry clear the doctors’ names if there was no truth to the allegations and asked that the ministry reveal any complaints it had received on this issue.
Despite the allegations, the state government and state health department have not received any formal complaints of any such incidents.
