KUCHING: The State Reform Party (STAR) has expressed shock at a Pakatan Harapan (PH) assemblyman’s suggestion that the Sarawak government meet Deputy Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye to tackle the rabies issue in the state.
“If Lee did not come to Sarawak at all, does this mean that the national effort to eradicate rabies would never happen?” asked its president Lina Soo.
On Monday, Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How suggested a meeting between the state government and Dr Lee in order to set up a national committee to control and eradicate rabies in Sarawak.
Health and disease issues come under the federal government’s jurisdiction and it is the responsibility of the federal Health Ministry to provide for the health and well-being of Malaysians and to contain any threats of disease outbreaks, she said.
The PH government has now been in charge for eight months, and Soo questioned why it had taken so long for a Sarawak PH assemblyman to acknowledge the rabies outbreak as a national concern only upon Dr Lee’s impending visit to Sarawak.
The rabies outbreak has claimed the lives of 16 lives so far.
