Health Ministry website is a classic case of expensive and elaborate
government "cobwebsite" which conceals rather than reveals information to
the people about public health - making nonsense of both objective and
expenses of e-government
Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
(Petaling Jaya,
Monday): The Health Ministry website,
http://www.moh.gov.my, is a classic case of an expensive and elaborate
government "cobwebsite" which conceals rather than reveals information to
the people about public health - making nonsense of both the objective and
the vast sums of taxpayers' money spent on e-government.
Although the Health Minister, Datuk Chua Jui Meng and other public officials
have admitted that there is a rise in the number of cases of dengue fever
compared to the past few years, with signs that the dengue outbreak for 2002
is so serious that it might either match or exceed the number of cases and
deaths in the country's worst dengue outbreak in 1998 with 27,378 cases and
58 fatalities, the public have continued to be kept in the dark about the
actual number of cases and deaths on a state-by-state and month-by-month
basis this year.
The Ministry of Health website should be where the public could get some
information and advice about the dengue outbreak but any visitor to the
Health Ministry "cobwebsite" will draw a complete blank as if the country is
not facing a major dengue outbreak with fatalities rising to the 1998 level.
The visitor to the Health Ministry "cobwebsite" would also waste a lot of
time trying to navigate its various links which are either dead links or
contain "dead" information of no current value.
The public health departments of the four states with the most serious
dengue outbreak, i.e. Selangor, Federal Territory, Perak and Johore, though
listed on the Health Ministry "cobwebsite", are not on-line and are
therefore of no help or use whatsoever.
The Health Ministry provides no information of its own on the dengue
outbreak on its own home-page, and the only information available is the
link to the bulletin of the World Health Organization (Western Pacific
Region) - last revised on 12 September 2002 - which reported the increase in
the number of dengue cases "in nearly all the region's endemic countries,
although not to the high levels of 1998". It noted however that "In 2002,
high incidence has been reported in Selangor, Malaysia". As for the data for
the crucial months of September, October and November, none is available.
Since the DAP sounded the alarm last week at the severe dengue outbreak with
the high incidence of cases and deaths this year and made the call for a
nation-wide alert, we have received reports that there has been a continued
rise in the reported number of dengue cases particularly with children in a
very serious state on admission to hospitals - which is symptomatic of a
lack of public awareness of the dengue outbreak not only among parents and
the public but even among the general practitioners.
With the fatalities from the dengue outbreak nearing if not already
exceeding the half century figure, I call on the health authorities to
launch a high-impact media campaign to create nation-wide alert and
awareness of the virulent dengue outbreak to stop the loss of any more loss
of human lives, especially children who have suffered the most fatalities as
compared to previous years.
Chua Jui Meng should explain whether the Health Ministry's "information"
policy not to inform rather than to be frank with a regular update of the
state-by-state and month-by-month figures of the dengue cases and deaths is
for fear of frightening off tourists from Malaysia - and if so, the Health
Ministry should realize before it is too late that this is not only a most
irresponsible policy, but self-defeating one, resulting in the creation of a
serious public credibility gap, both national and international, which is
not conducive to maintaining public and international confidence in the
government.
The time has come for Chua to host a Tell-All media conference about the
serious dengue outbreak in the country this year.
(23/12/2002)
*
Lim Kit Siang, DAP National
Chairman
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http://dapmalaysia.org