KUCHING: Sarawak Reform Party (STAR) president Lina Soo urged Deputy Chief Minister and Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, who has been tasked to take charge of the rabies outbreak, to take prompt action to contain the disease by rounding up stray dogs. Soo said she felt very upset when she read about another loss of life to rabies.
“We are very upset with certain politicians who appeared to take a lackadaisical attitude in the matter.
Why are the rabies affected areas increasing? “It has been more than a year and we have lost 13 lives – 13 lives too many. So we want the minister in-charge to round up stray dogs,” she said at a press conference at Telang Usan Hotel here yesterday.
“Why is the outbreak spreading? Why are there more dogs and cats with rabies? What is wrong? We are not doing the right things,” she said. “I also read a report where they tell us what to do with a dog bite.
Do you want to be bitten by a dog and then someone tell you how to treat the bite? That is not preventive. They are not containing the root of the problem. How many more lives have to be lost?” On the CityOne Megamall’s explosion that killed three persons and injured 41 others, after which the MPP chairman reportedly commented, “Oh accidents happened,” Lina said: “That is not the way to do it. You don’t just say that.” She believed that people wanted to know what the Sarawak government was going to do about it.
