Anwar: Vote Harapan For Better Health Care, More Doctors

Anwar Ibrahim accuses the government of lying that Malaysians would have access to good schools and health care, besides lying about MySejahtera.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 – Anwar Ibrahim has urged Malaysians to vote for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the coming general election for improved access to health care, among other things. 

Health advocates have repeatedly said that Malaysia’s public health care system has been unsustainable for decades, while medical groups have urged the government of the day to resolve contract doctor issues, including increasing the number of permanent positions and medical specialists in the public health care sector.

However, the federal Budget 2023 tabled last Friday, before MPs could debate and pass the bill when Parliament was dissolved yesterday, did not increase the number of permanent positions in the Health Ministry’s medical programme, only allocating an additional RM600 million for contract staff emoluments.

“This government lied to you about eradicating poverty and lied to you that Malaysians would have access to good schools and health care,” PH leader and PKR president Anwar said in a statement that criticised Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s decision to call for the 15th general election during the monsoon season.

“You want better health care and more doctors? Vote!”

Anwar also criticised the previous administrations under Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Muhyiddin Yassin and Umno’s Ismail Sabri Yaakob over their management of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This government hid behind Covid-19 to avoid Parliament. This government caused an election to happen in Sabah which resulted in Covid-19 spreading quickly throughout Malaysia, causing over 35,000 Malaysians to die. 

“This government declared a state of emergency in order to suspend rather than to face Parliament. This government lied to the people about [the] MySejahtera app and lied about Digital Nasional Berhad,” Anwar said in a statement yesterday after the dissolution of Parliament.

Under the Muhyiddin federal administration, the Sabah state election was held on September 26, 2020, amid a rising Covid-19 epidemic in the state then. Then-Prime Minister Muhyiddin also suspended Parliament from January to July 2021 during a state of emergency held until August 1 last year due to the pandemic.

The MySejahtera mobile application – which both the PN and Ismail Sabri governments mandated for use by the general public to check in at public premises with the threat of fines – has been engulfed in scandal after Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) revealed that the Covid-19 app was developed for the Malaysian government without a contract. 

CodeBlue previously reported – citing court documents based on two separate lawsuits filed by shareholders of MySJ Sdn Bhd, whose appointment was approved by Cabinet in November 2021 for MySejahtera procurement via direct negotiations – was to pay app developer Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd (formerly known as KPISoft) RM338.6 million over five years to purchase MySejahtera’s intellectual property (IP) and in licensing fees to use the app’s software.

In PAC’s report on the development and procurement of MySejahtera that was tabled in Parliament earlier this month, the bipartisan committee found that the government’s initial appointment of Entomo, via a one-year corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, had bypassed public procurement protocols. 

The PAC also found that the MySejahtera app was still, in principle, owned by the app developers, since the government was seeking to take control of the application. Both the PN and Ismail Sabri governments, including Khairy Jamaluddin who was appointed health minister in August 2021, had repeatedly claimed that the government owned the MySejahtera app.

Further, the PAC concluded that the government’s ceiling price of RM196 million to pay for MySejahtera services over a two-year period from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2023, was “high” and contradicted CSR principles that formed the basis of the government’s initial agreement with the app developer, Entomo.

You may also like