Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng will be suing Deputy Health Minister Dr Hilmi Yahaya if the latter does not apologise or retract his remark over alleged racist doctors in the state.
State executive councillor for health Dr Afif Bahardin said that lawyer Karpal Singh has sent Hilmi a notice of seven days to withdraw his remark that Lim has promised to submit a report on the ‘racist’ doctors issue on July 25.
Karpal, who is also DAP national chairperson and Bukit Gelugor MP, sent the letter on Friday.
“We have decided to do it after Hilmi was given a few chances to withdraw his statement, but he did not do so,” said Afif.
“This is a lesson to everyone to be responsible for the statements issued,” he added at a press conference.
Allegations of three ‘racist’ doctors in two hospitals in Penang first surfaced when Pinang Tunggal assemblyperson Roslan Saidin raised the matter in the state legislative assembly in May.
Roslan (right) later accompanied several patients who shared their experienced with the doctors.A probe was later carried out and Health Minister S Subramaniam said there were no racist elements, but issues of incompetency and miscommunication in the cases.
Afif said Hilmi’s statement was malicious and was meant to undermine Lim’s credibility as chief minister and also the reputation of the state government.
He denied that Lim had ever promised to prepare a report about the issue, adding that Hilmi’s allegations were “baseless, inaccurate and a serious slander” towards the CM.
On action against Roslan, Afif said the state or Lim cannot take action against him as he had raised the issue in the assembly.
“However, we are looking into measures according to the Dewan Negeri’s guidelines to censure him,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.