Media statement by Tony Pua Kiam Wee in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 20^th July 2011:

The Health Minister must be honest to all Malaysians

When the Health Minister, Dato' Sri Liow Tiong Lai first announced the set up of the "high-powered" special committee headed by the Ministry's secretary-general last Thursday, I had expressed disappointment that the Minister has tried to evade responsibility.

Instead of a quick admission and apology to settle the issue, Liow has chosen to prolong the agony for himself and all Malaysians despite the mountain of irrefutable evidence which has already been made available to him.

Why was Liow so quick to publicly accept "positive" reports made by the police and certain individuals not present on the day despite the avalanche of allegations, but when faced with clear cut visual evidence, he is doing all he can to delay the inevitable admission of misdeeds by the police force?

However, we were still willing to provide our fullest cooperation with the Ministry and have offered 4 key eye-witnesses to the assault by the police force on Tung Shin with tear gas and water cannons, as well as the arrests of Bersih supporters within the hospital compounds. The witnesses were the members of parliament for Serdang and Bukit Bendera, Teo Nie Ching and Liew Chin Tong, the political secretary to DAP Secretary-General, Zairil Khir Johari as well as myself who were present on site at the time of the incident.

However, after waiting for a week, we have heard absolutely nothing from Liow or his Ministry, with the exception of continued verbal promises to investigate. There has been no subsequent announcement on the "high-powered" committee's composition, terms of reference as well as timeline.

The stonewalling by the Ministry of Health has coincided with the 2 investigation committees set up by the Police force themselves to investigate the same alleged incident as well as to question the 11 doctors present at Tung Shin who were willing to testify that the Police has indeed encroached into the hospital compounds.

It appears that Liow has been forced to rescind the set up of the investigation committee by the Ministry of Health under instructions from his political masters to cover up the incident, prevent an admission of guilt and to stop further embarrassment to the Barisan Nasional government for its clumsy, oppressive and incompetent handling of the Bersih rally where the sanctity of hospital grounds was desecrated.

If true, then Liow is once again abdicating from his responsibility as the Health Minister by not proactively protecting the hospital and its patients under his care. We have little confidence that in the police's impartiality to investigate their own transgressions especially when the police can choose to charge potential witnesses for various alleged offences should they come forward to testify, like a Sword of Damocles over the participants' heads.

I'm happy to be proven wrong in the above assumptions if the Minister is willing to immediately come forward to give details of the "high-powered" investigation committee that was promised to be "open and transparent" and leave no stone unturned. Otherwise, he has certainly become a lame-duck Minister who has lied and broken his promises one too many times, proving a disgrace to his position as both the Minister of Health and the Deputy President of MCA.

* Tony Pua Kiam Wee, DAP National Publicity Secretary & MP for Petaling Jaya Utara