I urge Chief Minister Abang Johari to clarify his statement that “there has not been fast enough decision of the federal government on rabies” and as reported in some media that “the Federal government have not given black and white regarding the payment of vaccines”.
I would like to question on what are the decisions by the Federal Government that are delaying and affecting the progress of the curbing of the outbreak and also if those delayed decisions are on the amount and quantity of vaccines in the State, whether it is human vaccines or for animals?
Abang Johari statement can be perceived as an admission that maybe the quantity of vaccines may not be enough and thus the State Government needs to step in to purchase it with their own resources. This is also contrary to all the reports released to public that vaccines for both human and animals are sufficient. Even when we constantly question the State Government on the matter, we were always informed that it is sufficient, and matters are in control.
From what I was informed when we did our follow up recently, the amount of vaccines is sufficient as the Federal Veterinary has approved the State’s request on the matter. We were also informed that on the Health side, it is also sufficient. Questions have to be asked, are we being mislead on the matter now based on the statement by the Chief Minister?
That is why, it is important to clarify the statements and identifying the issue that is being faced before trying to point fingers at the Federal Government in an attempt to deflect from their own inefficiency as the matter is technically under the jurisdiction of the State Government. It is sad, that such an important matter involving the lives of our people is being used by the State Government to play politics in an attempt to push blame to the Federal government.
When I brought up the Emergency Motion in parliament regarding this matter, the Minister reaffirmed the State’s responsibility on the matter as it is listed in Schedule 9 under the Concurrent List of the Federal Constitution. Thus, while the Federal can assist in the matter, the State has full power to determine the methodology, procedures and lead the efforts through the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee lead by Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas in an attempt to curb the spread of the disease.
Even the lack of facilities and improvement of the laboratory here in Sarawak is not a new problem, but a chronic issue due to years of neglect by both State and Federal BN Government in the past.
While I welcome the move by the State Government to mobilise more of their resources to help curb the outbreak, I would like to question the timing of it and the urgency shown towards the matter.
The cases were first detected last year and till now the outbreak has failed to be contained. On the 5th July 2018, Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas even gave assurance that the situation and outbreak was under control and confident that the ‘Standard operating procedures (SOP) that is being used will curb the spread of the disease.
At that time, there were only five villages that were declared as rabies-infected areas and only contained in Serian, but since then, the outbreak has spread to many different places and currently it stands at 36 rabies affected areas across the state comprising of Kuching division, Samarahan, Serian, Sri Aman, and Sarikei.
It is just sad to constantly receive news of lives being lost due to the outbreak, with the latest coming last Wednesday, where a five-year-old boy, believed to be Sarawak’s 13th rabies victim, passed away while undergoing treatment at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH). That is 13 people too many from a disease that could have been prevented if the necessary steps were taken.
Thus, we all play our part including the Federal and State Government to work together in curbing this outbreak. I regret that this matter was somewhat used by the State Government to point fingers rather than taking the necessary responsibilities on help curb the outbreak. I also want to encourage the public to play our part in helping curb this including vaccinating our pets and keeping them indoors especially in outbreak areas.