KUALA LUMPUR, August 9 — Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa has reposted an election campaign video favouring the Pakatan Harapan (PH)-Barisan Nasional (BN) unity government that features a government nurse.
The video originally posted by X account @asratmalaysia last Monday on the social media platform – which was reposted by Dr Zaliha without any comments – was accompanied with the #MalaysiaMadani hashtag, referring to the Madani concept by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government.
“THIS IS THE EFFECT OF ONE VOTE.
“From your vote, this government was born; thus, benefits reached those who needed it the most. Be grateful, which of God’s favours do you want to deny?” read the post by X account @asratmalaysia.
The video uploaded on X features a border sporting the Jalur Gemilang and superimposed pictures of both Anwar and Dr Zaliha, along with the words in BM, “When governed by the right leaders, 70 dilapidated clinics were fixed in seven months”.
In the video, the 33-year-old nurse called Mimi, clad in her white uniform, said she serves at the Bukit Goh dental clinic in Pahang, as she detailed the problems that plagued the public health clinic under the Ministry of Health (MOH).
“At the time of the launch of the clinic, there were many deficiencies in terms of facilities. It was hot. There was no air-conditioning at all, plus there’s the state of the toilet. There was not even a surau.
“Many patients come in and we, a workforce of seven staff only, do not have the capacity to arrange them. There’s a small waiting area and conditions in the clinic are uncomfortable; it’s hot and the roof leaks when it rains.
“We actually have two [dental] chairs, but our chairs are always spoiled. There is only one which works,” Mimi was quoted saying.
The video then goes on to add that the Bukit Goh dental clinic received funds from the federal government that allowed them to add improvements to the public health care facility.
Video captions inform viewers about improvements made to dilapidated (daif) clinics via the federal government’s Bitara Madani initiative that seeks to improve the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of public service delivery.
According to the video, as many as 70 dilapidated health clinics under the MOH throughout the country have completed upgrades via the Bitara Madani initiative, while 366 other dilapidated clinics are at the implementation stage for upgrades. The cost of upgrading a dilapidated clinic is around RM50,000 to RM800,000.
The statements in the video appear to be based on remarks by Deputy Health Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni reported last July 27 on the status of upgrades of dilapidated public health clinics under the Bitara Madani initiative.
According to a 2013 FAQ by the Public Service Department (JPA) on politics and civil servants, the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993 prohibits an officer in the top management, managerial, and professional groups from taking part in politics.
Among other things, civil servants are specifically prohibited from making any statement that would adopt a partisan view that is an issue between political parties, publishing or circulating political party articles, or canvassing for political parties.
In the video posted by Twitter account @asratmalaysia, the government nurse working in Pahang did not explicitly endorse PH-BN in the ongoing six state election campaigns in Selangor, Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu.
“God willing, now that conditions [in the clinic] are comfortable, I hope that the government will continue efforts to upgrade health care facilities like this so that we can continue to serve the people, especially the community in the interior,” the nurse said.
The video then cuts to a scene of Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Muhyiddin Yassin saying in an interview with Free Malaysia Today last June: “It has been exactly seven months; no indication or proof of their ability to run the country.”
It is unclear if the government nurse’s remarks in the video were obtained specifically for the state election campaigns, or if the video was actually created for internal purposes to document progress or activities within the MOH, but had been used instead for the ongoing election campaign.
The video was also posted on asratmalaysia’s TikTok page, along with hashtags like #MalaysiaMadani, #anwar, and #pmx.
Asrat Malaysia’s (Aspirasi Rakyat Malaysia) website simply describes Asrat as a “digital media platform” set up in November 2021.
Polling day for the six state elections (PRN) are scheduled this Saturday.
