KOTA KINABALU, March 4, 2009: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) reiterates its call to the State government to pursue the additional RM1 billion development allocation which was promised by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in last May.

Reiterating this was its Information Chief Chong Pit Fah, while responding to the statement by Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latif Ahmad on Monday that the government could not do much to resolve the ongoing debacle besieging the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) as there is no provision for the construction of a new general hospital under the 9th Malaysia Plan, which is expiring next year.

Chong argued that with the ongoing debacle besieging QEH rendering the city without a general hospital now, it is even more pressing and urgent now that the State government should pursue the RM1 billion additional allocations.

Since the QEH, which is the main referral hospital in the state, was declared unsafe last December and its patients evacuated and transferred to the various district hospitals, as well as the privately-owned Sabah Medical Centre (SMC), the medical and healthcare in the state was literally in a mess and has come under fire by many quarters, the opposition especially.

"With the said RM1 billion allocations, the state government can then decide on the best option to resolve the QEH issue, whether to build a new general hospital or to buy an existing private hospital," he pointed out in a statement issued here yesterday.

He thus urged both the Federal and state governments to stop the rhetoric and to immediately come out with an effective solution to the issue, citing that presently many patients were suffering or, might even face untimely demise due to the lack of medical and healthcare facilities following the closure of the QEH.

"It is appalling that although the authorities concerned, both state and federal, knew about the problems in QEH as far back as two years ago and that evacuation was imminent, they did nothing as if the health and lives of the people in Sabah can wait for the convenience of the politicians and planners," he lambasted, adding that no more excuses can be tolerated.

He especially took to task the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Hj Aman over his recent statement urging the people to be patience while waiting for the QEH issue to be resolved, describing it as callous, absurd and unbecoming.

"How can the people be patience if they are sick and needed to be treated urgently? The Chief Minister might as well tell the people not to fall sick until a new hospital is built," he quipped.

He also finds Musa's assigning of one of his Assistant Ministers to liaise with the Health Minister, Datuk Liow Tiong Loi in addressing the issue peculiar, when there present three senior Sabah ministers in the Federal cabinet namely Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, the Minister in the Prime Minister Department, Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation and Datuk Shafie Apdal, the Minister of National Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage.

He thus wondered whether Musa has problem working with the trio that he had no choice but to enlist the Assistant Minister concerned to carry out the said task.

Chong who is also SAPP Kepayan CLC Chairman earlier also argued that citing a lack of funds is unacceptable and it clearly showed that the Federal government considered Sabah at best a 'fringe state'.

"It is obvious that we are an incidental problem to them. We are never in their serious agenda. That is why you see the Federal government unhesitatingly deferred the introduction of new toll rates and chose to pay the concessionaire multi-million ringgit in damages yet they tell Sabahans that they have no money to save lives in Sabah ," he charged.

He also described Dr Abdul Latif's "no provision under the 9th Malaysia Plan" claim as a lame excuse and an insult to the intelligence of Sabahans.

"Were the Sabah Development Corridor, the RM1 billion additional allocations and the multi-million ringgit compensation to the toll concessionaires originally listed in the 9th Malaysia Plan?" he questioned.

Chong also reiterated that in the interest of the people of Sabah, SAPP will consider rallying mass protests as well as launching a signature campaign, to compel the government to resolve the issue effectively without any further delay.