GEORGE TOWN, July 31 — Barisan Nasional (BN) state assemblyman Datuk Roslan Saidin must publicly apologise to all doctors and withdraw his allegation that three doctors were racists as the Health Ministry has repudiated his claims, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today.
Yesterday, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S.Subramaniam said there were no elements of racism in the initial investigations into the three ethnic Chinese doctors who had allegedly refused to treat Malay patients.
The ministry had set up a special committee to investigate Roslan’s allegations and so far found that only poor communication skills and lack of clinical competency were to blame for the alleged incidents and not racism.
“Since the minister has said that there were no elements of racism, Roslan must publicly withdraw his allegations and apologise to all doctors for his sensational lies at the state assembly,” Lim said.
On July 3, Roslan had told the state assembly that three ethnic Chinese doctors, two from the Kepala Batas Hospital and one from the Seberang Jaya Hospital, had refused to treat Malay patients.
The Pinang Tunggal state assemblyman had linked his claim to DAP’s successful campaign in causing a drop in support for BN from the Chinese community in the May 5 polls.
“I had urged Subramaniam to punish the doctors if the allegation of racism is true by sacking and disqualifying them as doctors,” Lim said.
Now that Subramaniam had said that there was no racism but other factors, the DAP secretary-general hopes Roslan realise that he had committed a grievous error by telling lies at the state assembly.
“He must repent for his lies that has tarnished the good image of the doctors and affected the harmony in our multi-racial community,” he said.
