Comments on: War on dengue – having new Health Minister if Liow ineffective as commander-in-chief

By: Global Voices Online » Malaysia: War on Dengue and Chikungunya

Global Voices Online » Malaysia: War on Dengue and Chikungunya — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:37:55 +0000

[...] Kit Siang hits the Health Minister’s “protracted silence on the dengue epidemic last year.” Environe blames ignorance on public cleanliness for the [...]

By: klaikw

klaikw — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:13:49 +0000

War on dengue , how? as our Health Minister dun even knoe that “mutant dengue” nowadays….. when u got fever, doctor said virus infection, blood test normal, no need admit hospital, no need dripping……….the dengue fever 2008/2009 have mutated, so as all the gomen in bolehland.

By: boh-liao

boh-liao — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:20:05 +0000

No need to have a doctor to be the Minister of Health.
Need someone who wants to serve people and to bring changes and improvements to the health system.
Look at the red dot down south. The Minister of Health is not a doctor. He is actually an ex-Malaysian, educated in Penang. He is considered to be the best Minister of Health serving Singapore.

By: ktteokt

ktteokt — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:12:07 +0000

Is LTL the Minister of Health or Minister of Hell?

By: cemerlang

cemerlang — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:17:26 +0000

Kongseemik, a doctor will understand far better. This is true. But not a power crazed doctor politician. As you know, health is not just physical health. It embodies the social aspect, the psychological aspect and all the aspects that make up a man. What is the point moving around having a fit body but a sick mind ? That person is equally dysfunctional. The MOH should be manned by medical personnel. But if the medical personnel does not know what it is doing, they will also drive the whole ministry into confusion, non excellent state. That is the problem and that is why it is now taken over by people who do not know in great details about medicine.

By: Kongseemik

Kongseemik — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:49:46 +0000

I strongly believe that the all important post of the Minister of Health should be held by a medical doctor. Look at the drastic changes for the better in the Ministry of Health under the then Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek!
I expect the doctor to understand the life cycle of the mosquito to a much greater extent than the dietician, the school teacher or the lawyer with regard to the causation of disease.

By: cemerlang

cemerlang — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:27:57 +0000

tweety, checking is one thing. Anyone can do checking. In fact, checking is just peanuts. It is up to your interpretation of what is right and what is wrong. If you see that the construction site is breeding aedes, issuing a summon is not enough. You have to make sure it is cleaned. Fogging is again peanuts. You have to drain the dirty water or put some salt in it or clear the area. Who is supposed to do all that if it is a government land ? The government is supposed to send in all the workers and clean the place up. But is it doing that ? No. All you see and again I repeat is a group of people fogging but the area remains dirty and this area is a government area, not a private area where you can summon.

By: drngsc

drngsc — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:47:46 +0000

Hi Kit,
All dengue deaths are preventable. It is an infectious disease. One death is one death too many. It is true that although politicians say that they wish to control dengue, they are half-hearted. I remember that when I was in medical school ( UM ) in 1972, we have already “vowed ” to control dengue fever. That is 36years and many MCA ministers ago. What is worse, in 1972, malaria was eradicated. Now we are beginning to see malaria again. That is very worrying. Looks like there is no political will to control mosquito borne infections.

By: Godfather

Godfather — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:40:07 +0000

cintanegara the UMNO clown said:

“At least Datuk Liow Tiong Lai got the position in the cabinet through hard work and accumulation of experience….Not because his father is ‘somebody’ in MCA..”

Obviously UMNO doesn’t realise that Liow’s father is Ling Liong Sik.

By: swee_ann_tweety

swee_ann_tweety — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:27:02 +0000

Carboncopy initially posted the following: -

“One of the main culprit of breeding ades mosquito are construction sites. Anybody check on them?”

Carboncopy, I would like to highlight to you that there are people checking construction sites. I have reliable sources. But the question is, why even there are checks, and yet there are still aedes mosquitoes? Get rid of this reason and we can get rid of the source from the construction site.

By: cemerlang

cemerlang — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:25:10 +0000

carboncopy, sometimes you need to look at both sides of the coin. What if an infrastructure is constructed by the government which never look into its’ details like it should not harbour any dengue larvae ? Therefore before the government wants to summon, probably it needs to summon itself first. Or MOH to summon the particular department which construct a health neglected piece of infrastructure.

By: katdog

katdog — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:28:45 +0000

What else is new. Ministry of Health is where loser MCA members are placed. They can’t really do squat there. No one listens to them and they don’t know what the hell they are doing anyway (given that he is not a trained medical professional)

Yes, just as negarawan says, lets not point fingers at LTL. He is useless nobody. No point wasting time and breathe blaming him.

By: boh-liao

boh-liao — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:11:22 +0000

MOH is where MCA ministers are buried.
LTL is busy fighting a personal life and death war. Mana ada time to worry about the war against dengue.
When NR becomes PM nanti, LTL may no longer be a minister.

By: carboncopy

carboncopy — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:30:09 +0000

negarawan Says:
Today at 13: 53.56 (3 hours ago)

Let’s not point fingers at anyone, including Tiong Lai. The dengue problem is largely due to the negative attitude and lack of civic consciousness of the public.

I agree with you that public negative attitude and lack of civic consciousness is the reason for dengue epidemic.

What is the point of having a government then?

Look at how govt intervention eliminated polio from Malaysia. Keeping malaria in check over in Peninsular Malaysia, etc.

Back in 1980s and 1990s, there’s aggressive media awareness campaign on destroying Ades breeding ground. Awareness via media itself is not enough.

We need a multi-prong approach.

We already have law which allows people to be fine or take action against if they are found to have larvae within their compound. Why not enforce it? We should demand the Minister of Health to revealed the statistics of such enforcement.

Lets face it, ppl will commit crime, ppl will break traffic rules, ppl will also ignore war on dengue. But its the responsibility of the govt of the day to bring those who break rules and put public at large at risk to face the law.

The govt must act!

By: raven77

raven77 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:58:26 +0000

Liow should immediately sack the DG and the Pengarah for Vector Control….these buggers are sleeping on the job or meddling on matters far down the priority ladder……people are dying Liow….get moving….your boys are not working….or are they golfing

By: cemerlang

cemerlang — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:43:46 +0000

The dengue disease cannot be totally eradicated forever. Nonetheless, the number of cases can be reduced. Who most suffer from the disease if it is not the people living in deplorable conditions or somehow the dreaded mosquito lost its’ way and flies into some rich fellow’s house and suck his blood for its’ nutrition ? Infrastructure problems again come back to the government. Money again. In U.S.A. the one and only Commander in chief is the President. Not the other ministers. There are too many problems for the politicians to know. If they have to know every tiny problem, they will get angry and freak out everyday which their staff cannot afford to bear. Fogging when there is the feel good syndrome is not enough. Fogging must be frequent even when there are no cases. Re-build all the drainage system and all the infrastructure. This is also only a part of it. It should be an all out war and a continuous war against the dengue disease.

By: cintanegara

cintanegara — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:59:08 +0000

Negarawan appears to be rational in relation to his comment….. It is DAP’s typical style trying to make ‘an issue out of no issue’….There are other critical issues involving Malaysia’s dignity, DAP can take up instead……..i.e land reclamation issue in Straits Johor which might cause huge impact to the country……At least, DAP’s affiliate PAS has clearly shown their protest against the issue….

By: ktteokt

ktteokt — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:42:17 +0000

Typical Malaysian minister – Multipurpose Ministers (Menteri Serbaguna) who knows nuts about what his ministry is supposed to do! Like I have said, we have

Ministers of Education who do not know how to read;
Ministers of Transport who do not know how to drive;
Ministers of Finance who do not know how to count;
Ministers of Defence who do not know how to handle ammunition;
Ministers of Trade who do not know how to do business;
Ministers of Labour who do not know what manpower is;
And Prime Ministers who do not know what the other ministers are doing!!!!!

This is the state of affairs in Malaysia currently and unless such practices are changed, Malaysia is headed for DOOM!!!!

By: chiakchua

chiakchua — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:20:50 +0000

Don’t expect LTL to be a good ‘make-things-happener’. He is, at best, some secretary of a political party; he does not have the ‘lieu’ to become a good ‘make things happen’ minister. He is worst than some UMNOputras pea brain minister because at least they use ‘arrogance’ to push thing through. Chua Sui Lek will be a better choice; not even Ong Takut!

By: yhsiew

yhsiew — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:09:20 +0000

If Datuk Liow Tiong Lai continues to ignore the dengue epidemic, I suggest PR make “dengue control/eradication” part of the party’s election manifesto in the next GE.

PR can explain in their manifesto, upon taking over Federal Government, how they are going to adopt a “no-nonsense approach” to reduce the number of dengue cases. The aged and housewives with children will probably give serious consideration to PR before casting their votes.