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Fifth email and sixth question to Khir Toyo: why he is not personally spearheading a campaign to clean up aedes mosquitoes-infested areas in Selangor to make them dengue-free and save lives which must be a higher priority than his recent sensational raids of vice dens


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

(Petaling Jaya,  Saturday): I have today sent a fifth email and a sixth question to the Selangor Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Dr. Mohamad Khir Toyo, asking why he is not spearheading a campaign to clean up aedes mosquitoes-infested areas in Selangor to make them dengue-free and save lives and stop unnecessary and avoidable deaths which must be a higher priority than his recent sensational raids of vice dens.

Yesterday's press were splashed with sensational reports of "Selangor MB leads VIP team in conducting raid on two vice dens" (New Straits Times). Accompanied by State Local Government, Squatters and Environment Committee Chairman Datuk Mohd Mokhtar Ahmad Dahalan, State deputy police chief Datuk Mohd Fauzi Saari, Selangor Youth Council chairman Datuk Abdul Rahman Palil, State financial officer Datuk Mohamad Adzib Mohd Isa, Petaling Jaya Municipal Council president Datuk Emran Kadir, Klang Municipal Council president Mohd Sharif Yusof, Kapar UMNO Youth chief Mohd Faisal Abdullah and policemen, Khir Toyo raided two vice dens in Klang.

Khir Toyo's sensational raids have raised many questions not only from the people of Selangor but in the country, including:

  • Why is he not spearheading a campaign to clean up the aedes-mosquitoes infested areas in Selangor state to make them dengue-free and save lives, as Selangor is facing a prolonged and most serious dengue epidemic recording the most number of dengue cases and deaths in the state's history;

  • Hasn't the top Selangor State officials like the State financial officer more important things to do than to indulge in the cheap thrills of such raids on vice dens?

  • What was the role of the Selangor state deputy police chief in the VIP raid team - was it simply to ensure that the Selangor MB and the other VIPs get "VIP police protection" for their early morning "adventures" in the vice dens and if so, was this a proper allocation of scarce police resources?

  • What was the Petaling Jaya Municipal Council president doing in the VIP team when the two vice dens raided were not inside the jurisdiction of the MPPJ?

  • What was the role of the Klang Municipal Council president? Does Khir Toyo want all Municipal presidents in the Selangor state to re-order their priorities where their top job specification is to lead nightly raids on vice dens in their respective jurisdictions, relegating all other urgent Municipal matters including life-and-death issues in the current dengue epidemic to the bottom of the queue?

In my email to Khir Toyo, I also referred to the refusal of the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council to co-operate with a DAP anti-dengue gotong-royong tomorrow at Taman Nirwana, Ampang which had claimed at least five lives - and which could only be a partial list of dengue fatalities in the area - and the complaint on the matter which the Vice Chairman of the Selangor DAP Public Complaints Bureau, Ong Ing Siong, had faxed to him yesterday.

I had asked Khir Toyo to direct the MPAJ to give full co-operation to the DAP anti-dengue gotong-royong at Taman Nirwana tomorrow, as saving of lives and the provision of the most elementary public health care must be the topmost priority of the Selangor State Government and the MPAJ without trying to politicize the issue.
 

(22/2/2003)


* Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman