Press Statement By Kelvin Yii:
Yesterday at Parliament, i chaired the Parliamentary Special Select Committee for Health Science & Innovation meeting with the Minister of Health YB Khairy Jamaluddin, DG Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham and MOH officers , including an external expert panel which includes:
(1) Prof Dato Dr Adeeba
(2) Dr Koh Kar Chai (President of MMA)
(3) Dr Thirunavukarasu Rajoo (Sec Gen MMA)
(4) Dr Steven Chow ( President Federation of Private Medical Practitioner’s Association)
(5) Dr Lim Kuan Joo. (One of the drafters of the initial Act 342)
In our discussion on Akta 342, we manage achieve some consensus and find some middle ground on certain provisions of the Act itself which includes adding necessary indemnity to doctors and General Practitioners(GPs) who reports suspected cases of infectious disease, to male sure they are better protected.
Certain queries and concerns raised when it comes to wording of the Act and certain provisions that seems to give unfettered powers were also clarified and explained by the Minister and the DG.
Our concerns has always been about making sure the Act itself is not abuse and the people on the ground do not fall victim to selective enforcement.
One of the bigger contentious issue is still quantum of fines especially for corporate bodies which we will further discuss and will be benchmarking it proportionately with best practices all around the world.
The quantum chosen by the government has to be justified and benchmark against practices of other countries as well as data to justify the higher fines and whether it will increase compliance.
The committee express reservations on high fines set by the government and discussed and explored other options to be considered to better ensure compliance while balancing the risk of it being abused.
Issues of selective, unregulated enforcement which may lead to risk of corruption were also brought up and ways to safeguard the public against that were also discussed.
All that will be main agenda on the next meeting.
The committee will continue to focus on the substance and policy direction of the bill and try to achieve a consensus to ensure we balance the need for an update in our infectious disease especially when it come improper enforcement and victimising especially the most vulnerable.
Such practices to review Government Bills by a bi-partisan Select Committee before tabling in Parliament is the way forward especially if we want to build a strong and mature democracy.
The Government should not just try to bulldoze any Bills especially when it comes to issues of Public Interest.
While the Bill may be important but the process must be correct as well.
After this Bill, we need be discussing another important but possibly contentious Bill which is a new law Regulating Vaping, E-Cigarettes.
Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen
MP Bandar Kuching
