A DAP head-honco today heaped praises o­n Selangor Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo for being "one of the rare breed" of Barisan Nasional leaders who are Information Technology friendly.

The compliment came from none other than DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang who said that Mohd Khir should be an example for the majority of cabinet ministers and state governments to emulate if Malaysia was serious about wanting to become an IT power.

Lim said the menteri besar had responded to him via e-mail regarding his questions o­n the "worst" dengue epidemic in Selangor.

However, he also rapped the minister for not giving him (Lim) satisfactory answers to his queries o­n the dengue situation.

According to Lim, Mohd Khir said he would reply to the questions the former had raised in his two e-mails after receiving full information o­n the subject.

"[This is] quite shocking as it gave the impression that although he is the Selangor chief minister, he is not o­n top of his job.

"[He is] not aware of the gravity of the worst dengue epidemic in the state causing a shocking toll of totally unnecessary and avoidable deaths which affect all races - Malay, Chinese and Indian," he added.

Critical stage

In his e-mail, Lim had asked Mohd Khir to explain why Selangor has "140 percent higher incidence of dengue cases and more than 1,000 per cent dengue deaths" than Singapore although both have almost the same population of slightly over 4.1 million people.

He asked why Singapore could successfully bring the dengue epidemic under control with its anti-dengue campaign while in Selangor, the dengue epidemic has entered an even more critical stage than last year.

Lim also wanted to know why Mohd Khir was "aiding and abetting the mishandling of the worst dengue epidemic" by MCA Team A and B ministers and leaders because of their own power struggle, when saving lives and stopping unnecessary and avoidable dengue deaths should be the top priority of Umno leaders.

He cited the most recent case of Selayang General Hospital refusing to admit a confirmed dengue case. Mohamad Rizuan bin Abdul Aziz, 23, went to the hospital o­n Tuesday (Feb 18) with a running fever and was confirmed to have dengue

Lim said no responsible mentri besar should or need to ask for more time for more information to respond to questions about the worst dengue epidemic in the state.

Lim said the situation had been unchecked for the past eight months, causing hospitals in the state, public and private, to overflow with dengue cases as well as the most number of dengue deaths in the state's history.

"A responsible and conscientious chief minister should in fact have all the relevant information o­n the worst dengue epidemic in the state o­n his finger-tips, as the dengue epidemic should have been the top priority agenda in every weekly State Exco meeting for the past six months at least," said Lim.