Chong: Uggah not capable of handling rabies situation
KUCHING: Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Chong Chieng Jen is calling for the resignation of State Disaster Management Committee chairman Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas in relation to the worsening rabies situation in Sarawak.
Chong, who is Stampin MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman, claimed that the committee was not serious in tackling the matter and had been downplaying the seriousness of the situation by saying that it was under control.
“If the committee led by Uggah is not serious, he ought to resign and let someone who is more capable and serious to chair the committee,” he said when met at the Nirvana Enlightenment Ceremony yesterday.
“All this while we’ve been told that the rabies situation is under control. But now, it’s obvious that it is out of control,” he pointed out.
He added that the committee was not effective, efficient or serious about handling the problem.
“In fact, many months ago, the rabies situation was out of control, yet the state government continued to maintain that it was under control, and lives were lost because of the nonchalant attitude and manner in handling this matter.”
He pointed out the statement by the Chief Minister that there was no funding and slow funding by the federal government was contradicted by Uggah, who said that there was steady flow of vaccine supply from the federal government.
“These two are contradicting themselves. If there’s a steady flow of vaccine, what is the problem? Why did the vaccination exercise, which started at the beginning of the epidemic, slow down until there’s no more news of free vaccination events held until recently, when it was restarted when somebody suddenly died?”
He added that the last few lives lost due to rabies should not have happened if not for the nonchalance in handling the matter, adding that initially five areas were declared rabies infected, but the number slowly grew.
“Yet they have the cheek to say that it’s under control,” he said.
Thus, he hoped that Uggah would resign and let someone else who is more serious in tackling the matter to take up the post.