By Dr. Kanul Gindol, Sabah Activist, cumCoordinator for Northern Zone (Kota Belud, Kota Marudu, and Kudat) for Parti Kerjasama Anak Negeri
KOTA KINABALU: I agree, share, and support fully the observations and views made by my colleagues Peter John Jaban and Francis Paul Siah of Sarawak on PM Anwar Ibrahim’s highly questionable act to bring in Gazan Palestinians to be treated in Malaysia.
While Anwar’s humanitarian act on the Palestinians is commendable and taken as politically correct by his henchmen in West Malaysia, many, especially from East Malaysia, see this as a little too much of an affront here as per what our people have faced in assessing good health services in the long 60 years we are in the Federation.
It is not that we should love these injured Palestinians less, but we should love our own East Malaysians more.
As PM, you may send our army’s Caribou or whatever transport planes over 16,000 km to fly the Palestinians in, but you must not forget some of us in Sabah were forced to use “kerbau” ambulances because of the undeveloped roads and health clinics here.
You may claim that some of the RM16 billion spent in Sabah last year was to upgrade our schools and clinics, but that just spoke volumes of how the Federal Government has neglected Sabah and Sarawak for all these years!
Now state leaders in Borneo must also seek ways to help upgrade the health services for our rural communities; many are struggling in remote areas with still unasphalted roads and in bad shape.
The Sabah government provided “flying doctor” service (doktor udara) through Yayasan Sabah for many years before.
There is no reason why Sabah now could not spend some of its RM7 billion annual revenue to provide health services for our rural folks.
