Anwar using back ache to free himself: Dr M
Ng Boon HooiPublished: Apr 3, 2001 11:36 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today claimed his jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim tried to politicise his conditions including his "back ache" in the bid to topple the government and ultimately seek freedom for himself.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today claimed his jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim tried to politicise his conditions including his "back ache" in the bid to topple the government and ultimately seek freedom for himself.
He told reporters at the Parliament House lobby that Anwar has been given special medical treatment as no prisoner has been warded in hospital for more than four months with a foreign specialist being called in.
"When he was arrested, he claimed the government injected him with the Aids virus in the hope it would cause his followers to riot. Then it was arsenic poisoning and again his followers took to the streets.
"Now it is his back ache. He wants to 'propagandise' everything," said the prime minister.
He said to Anwar, the back ache is politics and not about health.
"The political agenda is to smear the government, to topple the government through foreign pressure and violence, and ultimately to release himself," he added.
'Absurd'
Mahathir said the foreign specialist, Dr Thomas Hoogland, from Germany, had complained that local anaesthetists were not good enough.
"I underwent a heart operation, which involved stopping the heart for some time in order for the doctor to operate on me and I trusted those very same anaesthetists," said Mahathir.
"To say that for a backbone operation they have no skills, it's absurd. Our surgeons can perform whatever operation," he said.
Anwar, who is serving a 15-year jail term for abuse of power and sodomy, has been warded at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital since Nov 25 with acute back pain due to a slipped disc.
Hoogland, who examined Anwar last month, said he needed endoscopic spinal surgery by end of April and this would have the "lowest risks and best prognosis" if performed at his clinic in Munich, Germany.
He said the operating table, X-ray equipment and image intensifier at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital were inadequate for the surgery and that the anaesthetists lacked the necessary experience for such an operation.
Mahathir has said previously that Anwar would not return to Malaysia if he was allowed to go overseas for the treatment. The government insists that specialists and equipment can be flown in for the surgery.
Visit mother
In a related development, Anwar was allowed by the prison authorities to visit his ailing mother in Universiti Hospital today, said Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair.
Sankara said that the permission was granted late in the evening, after Anwar's mother was reported to have had a heart attack this morning and her condition worsened.
"Universiti Hospital doctor Dr Wan Azman forwarded the medical report of the mother and with that, we forwarded the request to the prison authorities for Anwar to visit his mother.
"She has been asking for Anwar since yesterday, and I believe Anwar's family will also be present at the hospital," said Sankara.
At press time, Sankara said Anwar is probably already on his way to the Universiti Hospital.
Foreign reports slammed
Meanwhile, Mahathir also lambasted foreign magazines and news agencies for their negative reports on the country's economy.
"All their predictions about Malaysia have been wrong. Anybody who reads their predictions will only cheat themselves."
He added that these reports have been consistently wrong with Malaysia.
"They have predicted this country will be unstable, will never grow, and that the Malays will cheat the Chinese and rob them," he said.
He also said that every time there are some slight problems, they would say Malaysia would never be able to recover.
Mahathir said this when asked about a foreign report that rated the Indonesian economy higher than Malaysia's.
"We have shown time and again that they are wrong. If this particular, stupid agency can prove that they were correct in the past, I will give them 10 sen," he said.
Asked about the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry's call to review the ringgit peg, he said the government does not see any reason to change the present system because many investors including foreigners have expressed that they are comfortable with it.
He told reporters at the Parliament House lobby that Anwar has been given special medical treatment as no prisoner has been warded in hospital for more than four months with a foreign specialist being called in.
"When he was arrested, he claimed the government injected him with the Aids virus in the hope it would cause his followers to riot. Then it was arsenic poisoning and again his followers took to the streets.
"Now it is his back ache. He wants to 'propagandise' everything," said the prime minister.
He said to Anwar, the back ache is politics and not about health.
"The political agenda is to smear the government, to topple the government through foreign pressure and violence, and ultimately to release himself," he added.
'Absurd'
Mahathir said the foreign specialist, Dr Thomas Hoogland, from Germany, had complained that local anaesthetists were not good enough.
"I underwent a heart operation, which involved stopping the heart for some time in order for the doctor to operate on me and I trusted those very same anaesthetists," said Mahathir.
"To say that for a backbone operation they have no skills, it's absurd. Our surgeons can perform whatever operation," he said.
Anwar, who is serving a 15-year jail term for abuse of power and sodomy, has been warded at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital since Nov 25 with acute back pain due to a slipped disc.
Hoogland, who examined Anwar last month, said he needed endoscopic spinal surgery by end of April and this would have the "lowest risks and best prognosis" if performed at his clinic in Munich, Germany.
He said the operating table, X-ray equipment and image intensifier at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital were inadequate for the surgery and that the anaesthetists lacked the necessary experience for such an operation.
Mahathir has said previously that Anwar would not return to Malaysia if he was allowed to go overseas for the treatment. The government insists that specialists and equipment can be flown in for the surgery.
Visit mother
In a related development, Anwar was allowed by the prison authorities to visit his ailing mother in Universiti Hospital today, said Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair.
Sankara said that the permission was granted late in the evening, after Anwar's mother was reported to have had a heart attack this morning and her condition worsened.
"Universiti Hospital doctor Dr Wan Azman forwarded the medical report of the mother and with that, we forwarded the request to the prison authorities for Anwar to visit his mother.
"She has been asking for Anwar since yesterday, and I believe Anwar's family will also be present at the hospital," said Sankara.
At press time, Sankara said Anwar is probably already on his way to the Universiti Hospital.
Foreign reports slammed
Meanwhile, Mahathir also lambasted foreign magazines and news agencies for their negative reports on the country's economy.
"All their predictions about Malaysia have been wrong. Anybody who reads their predictions will only cheat themselves."
He added that these reports have been consistently wrong with Malaysia.
"They have predicted this country will be unstable, will never grow, and that the Malays will cheat the Chinese and rob them," he said.
He also said that every time there are some slight problems, they would say Malaysia would never be able to recover.
Mahathir said this when asked about a foreign report that rated the Indonesian economy higher than Malaysia's.
"We have shown time and again that they are wrong. If this particular, stupid agency can prove that they were correct in the past, I will give them 10 sen," he said.
Asked about the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry's call to review the ringgit peg, he said the government does not see any reason to change the present system because many investors including foreigners have expressed that they are comfortable with it.
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